Pilots, man your planes! TOD registration is open. If you wish to register, send an e-mail to me at rjern@primenet.com. Include your name, callsign, Squadron (if you wish to always fly with squadmates), time zone you live in, and the e-mail address you want me to use in contacting you. The first mission is tentatively scheduled for 17 August at 2200 hr. (EST). We will also be running at least one mission per week on the weekends, at a Euro-friendly time. Missions will last no more than 90 minutes unless noted otherwise. Please review carefully the TOD rules below, and print them or otherwise save them for future reference. We will run most of these in the SEA.
TOD Write-up:
To give you all something to aspire to, Wabbit (not to be confused with AKWabbit) of the Buccaneers is the reigning TOD champ with 7 kills and seven missions completed. He holds the rank of "Major" and is one of only two pilots (Bourbon is the other) that completed his tour of duty successfully.
Concept write-up:
Welcome to Tour of Duty, the closest thing you'll find to what it was like to be part of a real World War II fighter unit. The idea behind TOD is that you only have one life to carry you through the entire series of twelve missions. If you die, you'll be out of the "war" for the remainder of the series. Fortunately, not every fighter pilot in WWII had to fly every mission…American and British fighter pilots just had to complete a predetermined number of missions (80, I believe, for USAAF Eighth Air Force fighter pilots), and they were rotated out of combat. The Japanese and German pilots flew combat from beginning to bitter end; we'll be using the American and British model for this effort. In order to receive a TOD ribbon, you must accumulate five TOD mission points without dying. Missions will range in difficulty from relative milk runs, to extremely dangerous. A particularly easy mission might only be worth a fraction of a mission point. A very difficult mission might garner you as many as two points. All future info for TOD will be posted on the TOD homepage, as soon as it is established. The following are Rules of Engagement (ROE) that will govern your participation in TOD.
ROE-
MISSIONS: There will be six basic types of missions your unit may be assigned to fly.
1) Defensive Counter-Air (DCA) - This is a patrol on our side of the FEBA (Forward edge of the Battle Area). You'll be given a set of waypoints (WP) to follow that will lead you on a tour of our forward bases. You may be ordered to deviate to intercept an enemy formation. If so, the flight commanders may request the CM drop one or more subsequent WP's from the sweep due to lack of fuel or Winchester condition. This should be considered a milk run, as bailing or ditching will not result in capture by the enemy.
2) Offensive Counter-Air (OCA) - Sweep a section of enemy territory, as laid out by the WP's. Simulates a fighter sweep ahead of a bomber formation, though no bombers will be involved. Time constraints will exist for reaching each waypoint in order for the mission to be rated a success. Much more hazardous mission, as bailing or ditching over enemy territory may result in your capture, which counts as a death (your only death!).
3) Escort - A bomber formation will be formed, and your job will be to see it to its target and back. In order anyone to get credit for this mission, at least one buff must make it to the target. Bonus mission credit will be given to surviving escort pilots for any buffs that RTB (not a whole point for each, but some fraction of a point).
4) Intercept - An enemy bomber formation will be set up on the opposing country's side to attempt to penetrate friendly airspace. The CM, acting as a GCI, will direct you to make the intercept. Again, not as dangerous as escort, as bailing or ditching will likely be over friendly territory. However, these buffs may or may not be escorted. In either case, these will be large bomber formations, manned by veteran pilots who now how to keep a tight "pulk." Attacking them will be hazardous enough.
5) JABO - Probably THE single most dangerous mission, there will only be one of these, most likely. In order to get mission credit, a pilot must make it to the target and release their ordnance inside the target perimeter. Extra mission credit will be possible, based on percentage of assigned targets destroyed.
6) SECRET MISSION - No details will be given at this time, but rest assured it will be VERY entertaining).
MISSION TIME:
Strive to be in the arena and ready to fly 15 minutes prior to mission time. We'll use the Mission Planner, with the CM directing incoming pilots to select the appropriate flight. Once the mission time arrives and pilots are deposited on the runway, anyone not on the runway within 5 minutes will be marked as "down-checked," and cannot get credit for that mission - five minutes will be the start window. Tune radio #1 to channel 125 as soon as you get in, and check in with the CM. The mission will last anywhere from one hour to 90 minutes. We will rotate through as many different aircraft as possible over the course of 12 missions. The CM will designate flight leaders prior to launch, and will give any additional instructions to them; they will then pass that info along to their flights.
DEATH: Pretty simple: if the system says you're dead, your dead. We'll be watching via the CM's guncam recording, so we will know if you're shot down. We won't immediately be able to tell if this resulted in your death. This is on the honor system, so report to the CM if you're killed, you ditch, or you bail out (see the DITCHING AND BAILING section below). If we suspect or have evidence that someone wasn't completely truthful regarding their death, we can go to HiTech Creations and ask for conformation via their system logs; we just would rather not have to bother them with this. Discos will not count as a death, but an abort due to "engine problems." However, if you "abort" you must contact the CM upon re-logging and ask if it's too late to re-plane. If the mission is very far along, you may not want to risk trying to catch the rest of the formation (alone, you're terribly vulnerable), so consider this before asking permission to re-plane. Those killed are still eligible and encouraged to participate as "extras" or OPFOR pilots, but can not progress in rank or get credit for any further missions.
DITCHING AND BAILING: If you bail out or ditch, your chances of capture are based on the location where you land. If you return to terra firma closer to a friendly base or installation than to an enemy one, you will be considered to have been safely recovered. If the opposite is true, the CM will make the determination on whether or not you successfully evaded capture and were returned to friendly lines by members of the underground. The closer you are to a friendly base or installation, the better your chances of a safe return. So stay with your aircraft for as long as it is reasonably safe to do so, and point it towards home.
RANK: Everyone starts out as a 2nd Lieutenant. Promotions will be based on number of missions flown and your performance in combat. Complete three missions and you'll be promoted to 1st Lieutenant; five missions and you'll make Captain; seven and you get to pin on Major; nine missions and you make Lt. Colonel. Complete all twelve, and you go home a full-bird Colonel!
KILL CREDIT: To receive credit for an Air-to-Air kill, you must have guncam film, a screenshot (NO .bmp files; please convert to jpeg before sending them to the CM), or an eyewitness that saw the enemy plane crash or blow up. Simply seeing a kill message in the buffer isn't good enough. Getting an assist counts as a partial kill (percentage dependent on how many other TOD participant are claiming an assist on that particular kill). In order to claim an enemy plane as a kill, it must loose a wing or tail, blow up in the air or upon impact with the ground, or otherwise be on fire when last observed.
NOTE: Please don't send the CM a guncam film that is over 200 kB; it overloads the e-mail account. So remember to turn the darn thing off when not engaged.
RECEIVING CREDIT FOR A MISSION: As was the case in WWII, simply taking off from your home base won't get you credit for a completed mission (five mission points required for award of a TOD ribbon). Each mission will have minimum objectives that must be met for anyone to get credit for completion. It may also have individual requirements for a pilot to receive credit. EXAMPLE: For anyone flying in an OCA mission to be eligible to receive credit for that mission, a simple majority of the aircraft starting the mission must reach a certain grid square inside enemy territory. Unless this group objective is met, no pilots will receive credit, even if they individually manage to reach the above mentioned grid square. It will be up to the pilot(s) leading the flight(s) to determine if it's time to give up on reaching the objective and turn-tail for home. Discretion may be the better part of valor, in other words. Think carefully about this aspect of the TOD. It has a lot of implications not explicitly detailed above.
NOTE: Cowardice in the face of the enemy - Flight leaders will be assigned to lead flights. If they fail to show proper aggressiveness, the CM may decide to withhold all or part of the mission points. So if Ground Control directs you to a certain heading, and the FL refuses to do so without just cause (low fuel, for example), everyone in the flight may loose some or all of their credit for that mission. Failing to engage an enemy that you have an advantage over, such as altitude or numbers, is another example. This will not be done without overwhelming evidence. We don't expect people to stay in a fight where the prospect of being killed is high. So if the FL orders an egress of the fight because of a new threat, that will not be considered cowardice.
DECORATIONS: As specified above, five missions earn you a TOD ribbon. There will also be other decorations awarded for feats of aerial skill and bravery: 1) Five kills gets you an Airman's Medal; 2) Five kills in a single mission, or completion of 10 missions gets you a Distinguished Flying Cross; 3) One (count em, one) Medal of Honor may be rewarded over the course of the entire TOD...maybe posthumously, by the way.
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Sabre, a.k.a. Rojo
(S-2, The Buccaneers)
