Originally posted by Major Biggles
i've been playing for a while doobs, i think i could handle it.
what i'd really like to know is the whole plan thing. do CO's need to stick to a plan, or are they actually the CO for their side, trying any number of things to win for their side?
if the latter, im in, checked plans for september and so far im free every saturday at 8 
like i said, it's the first time i've done anything as big as this, so if anyone else wants to do it they can take it. if brooke is struggling to find people however, i'd be happy to help out.
brooke, any chance of you shedding some light on this in a little more detail?
Poo -- uh, I mean, Biggles.
CO's can run it however they see fit within the framework of the rules.
The most-important qualities of a CO, in my opinion, are to be good at strategy or to recruit a staff that is good at strategy (as the CO or his staff are responsible for formulating your side's whole strategy), to appoint good group leaders (who can organize their pilots well and lead them well in combat to carry out the CO's in-combat orders as well as keep the CO informed of new developments), and to communicate well with your team (so that people are clear on what the goals and initial plan are and aren't wandering around, disorganized and ineffective, not knowing what they should do).
How you do these things is up to you.
There is one procedural thing that I very much hope that all CO's do, because I think it enhances the scenario experience for the players, making it a lot more immersive. That is: compose orders that are e-mailed out to your pilots at least a day or two prior to each frame.
These orders lay out at least:
-- who is in what group
-- who is the group leader of each group
-- radio channels for each group
-- initial takeoff field for each group
-- what aircraft each group initially takes off in
-- a brief description of what each group is to do initially after takeoff (such as, for bombers (if any), what their targets and perhaps flightpaths are; for escorting fighters (if any), who they are initially escorting and to where; for scouting fighters (if any), where they are to scout; for fighter-sweeps (if any), where they are to go initially -- things like that)
Some CO's make these orders very detailed. Some CO's make them much less detailed.
Again, what you do is up to you as CO -- you're the guy.
Orders are not meant to lay out every possibility and to be followed by rote no matter what. Upon contact with the enemy, parts of the orders get changed as you (the CO) give new orders to your groups and as your GL's react to what the enemy is doing. For example, orders might say that Fight A is to do close escort on some bomber group. Then, enemies are sighted by a scout coming in from some direction and maybe some screening fighters were already stripped away. You, the CO, might decide to give Flight A new orders: "Flight A, leave close escort and go intercept enemy fighters reported in 10,3,1" (or whatever). Then your flight leader for Flight A will take his guys and go do it, reporting back to you what they find or what happens. Maybe the CO decides also to have his bombers divert farther west because of this. Maybe he repositions other fighter groups or changes their orders based on what happens with Flight A. And so on.
The orders give people a sense of what they *initially* are to try accomplishing, and orders set up a more immersive atmosphere where pilots know the general goals and the initial strategy. They aren't at all meant to constrain the CO.
Here is an example of medium-detail orders:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/misc/aces_high/orders_frame2.txtHere is how that frame actually went:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/stalins_fourth/frame2_aar.htmlHere is an example of high-detail orders:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/rangoon42/Mission4Orders.htmHere is how that frame actually went:
http://www.electraforge.com/brooke/flightsims/scenarios/rangoon42/frame4_aar.html
