Originally posted by 33Vortex
Ok, I'll start with the bad stuff, makes it a little easier at the end. I found a few errors in tonight's frame.
Errors are inevetable. We don't have every aircraft, every airfield, every bit of hardware and manpower available to the beligerant forces of WWII. We do what we can with what we have and make things as 'reasonable' as possible. On the bright side, if you get shot down and fall to the earth in flames your parents don't get a telegram from the War Department and the blue star hanging in your mother's window doesn't turn gold.
Originally posted by 33Vortex
#1. The B26 bomber was mainly used as a tactical bomber, not as a strategic industry bomber. I am not 100% on this but I do not believe the B26 was used in the numbers we saw in this event, as early as 1943. The main bomber of the USAAF in 1943 was without a doubt the B17.
The B26 was the main bomber of the 9th Air Force, and it got used for almost EVERYTING with the single exception of mass carpet bombing raids. The primary tactics used were to come in fast and hard at low and medium altitudes and blast whatever target was on the 9th's list that day. This *included* industrial targets, but was mostly limited to small installations, airfields (hint), rail junctions, and the like.
Now, the B17s and B24s were the pervue of the 8th Air Force, and they did the bulk of the urban renewal.
Originally posted by 33Vortex
The effect this has on the frame and event is that because of the 26's faster speed they become incredibly difficult to intercept and also lead when shooting.
- Only the B17 strategic bomber should have been available, the B26 tactical bomber not at all.
I thought about this, but there were two problems:
1. The 9th Air Force didn't OWN any B17s
2. One pilot, three airplanes. With a box of B17s the defensive firepower and 'throw weight', or amount of iron the bomber can drop, is more than doubled. If you think the B26s were too much B17s would have been three times as bad.
Ok, really I was going to use B24s since I have a soft spot for those (that's what my father flew in during the war). Unfortunatly a heavy bomber is too much for an airfield.
Allied: 4 Engine Heavy Bomber
Axis: 2 Engine light/medium Bomber
Didn't sound too equitable to me...
Originally posted by 33Vortex
This error, though it may seem minor, pretty much ensured allied victory. One would think that the sheer number of planes (BUFFs) the LW had to shoot down would be enough, and add to that the fighter cover. It sure was enough irl, why sugar it with better planes?
I'm going to respectfully disagree with you here. Speaking strictly for myself (and I haven't even been IN an aircraft in the AH main arena in forever) I find the B26 is much easier to kill in my trusty 190A-5 than a B17. The B26 has fewer guns, a significantly larger blind spot, and is enough smaller the 20mm cannons can chop vital bits off pretty quick. The 26s also tend to operate much lower. Consider what your post would have said had the SAME number of B17s flown by at 25,000 feet and you had to climb up to greet them...
Originally posted by 33Vortex
This was clearly set up to be a allied victory and that's too bad, it takes away a good portion of the fun of it. The B17 would have been a fair fight for the LW fighters in this event to take on, the fighter cover does not make it any easier.
Actually it was set up with a German advantage on the map. There is a huge Allied bias in pilots who participate (just look at the initial side requests...) so I set the map up to favor the Luftwaffe. A crack 190A-5 squad or two and the Allied forces would have been a light morning snack over the continent. Unfortunatly there just aren't that many people who take the time to learn German iron anymore. What I CAN'T do is skew the event to make up for pilot bias; I have to assume the sides will have (roughly) even numbers and skill levels.
Originally posted by 33Vortex
Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is how I see it. It is sad to see such a good event spoiled by historical inaccuracy and favoritism for the allied side. Like if the LWs task wasn't hard enough!
No kidding. In the four or so years I've been hovering around AH we've gone from having a very strong (if oft-maligned
) Luftwaffe presence to nearly none at all. It's frustrating to design frames knowing the Germans (or Japanese, or Italians) won't have the strength they should because the poeple flying don't have the comfort levels in the aircraft they'd have in a P47 or P51. I don't have an answer for that one; the only option would be: historical inaccuracy. I could have brought in the 190 D-9 and the Luftwaffe wouldn't have needed much skill. The hue and cry would have been endless, though...
This was as accurate as I could get. The map was limited, but that's the map we have. The plane set is right, if not complete. The 9th air force was invited, not the 8th. They were dying over Berlin.
Originally posted by 33Vortex
#3) For the love of god don't favor either side, just stick to historical facts, please! It makes it so much more enjoyable. It's not supposed to be easy, for either side. It can, and likely will be, favored to one side anyway even if kept strictly historical.
#4) Read #3 ten times.
#5) Take #3, write it down on a note, keep it under your pillow at night. Read it before going to sleep, and when waking up. Read it to your kids before you tuck them in (if you have any, otherwise the cat will do) until they also know it by heart.
Not much of an event then. Lessee...Air war over Europe. Americans fly mission with 800 bombers and 600 fighters. Germans respond with one quick pass by 10 Me 109G6s, then run like [heck] from the 125 P-51Ds that dive to intercept...
Seriously, the air war was *NEVER* even. For any given engagement one side or the other had an overwelming advantage. My dad tells me stories of unending boredom followed by what turns out to be seconds or maybe minutes of unending terror followed by hours of more boredom.
We can't DO that in FSO. We need to make sure everyone has something to fight, something to do, and the time between take off, doing it, and landing is as short as possible.
HTH. HAND.
...formatting fixes...I missed a few brackets
