Some of the comments by players during the event:
Knfe: “Most fun I’ve had dying in some time.”
GronK: “My God! It’s raining airplanes!”
Buhdman (dangling from chute): “Damn! Anyone know where I left my Focke-Wulf?”
Unknown Gunner: “Here they come, here they come!…Oooohhhh SH….<static>”
As you can see, TOD Mission #6 last night was enjoyed by all. My thanks for all the Rooks and Knights who respected our call to stay clear of this action, enabling the TOD pilots to experience the thrills and terrors we had hoped for. My special thanks for Cobra and the rest of the OPFOR volunteers who manned the buffs and their escorts, without whom this mission would not have been possible.
GronK caught most of the last climactic battle on film, and we’ll see about posting it on the Buccaneer’s webpage. It’s awesome! I don’t have a complete picture yet (AAR’s still coming in), but it looks like none of the B-17’s made it to target. The cost was high, however. Jarbo, Knfe, and Camel (all Buccaneers), were listed as KIA – Jarbo took one right between the eyes, the proverbial “golden BB.” Two other Luftwaffe pilots bailed successfully over friendly territory (that’s why the TOD boys didn’t cross into Knightland, but orbited over F5 per GCI instructions), and the rest RTB’d safely.
This scenario wasn't without problems. Quite a few Knights organized their own flights without checking in with me, then went hunting for the buffs on their own. As a result, they struck the bombers well inside Knight territory, before they had time to climb to their max allowed ceiling of 25K. Several lone-wolfs also attacked the buff formation while it was still over Knight territory, shooting down several buffs and pulling a lot of the escorts away. This was very disruptive to scenario balance, and I ask that in the future people try to be considerate of the rules of engagement (ROE). Nonetheless, some still managed to make it into Rookland, where the TOD boys completed their annihilation. The point was to allow the buffs a "safe-zone" to reach altitude and get formed up tight, THEN proceed into indian country. Unfortunately, it didn't happen quite as hoped.
The primary purpose of this mission was to set up a classical Luftwaffe intercept over Germany for the TOD-registered pilots. We weren't asking non-TOD pilots to stay away, just to cooperate. Unfortunately, it didn't happen as planned. This is my fault: tho I made a number of posts on the BBS here to explain how this was supposed to go down, I fear there was still too much confusion as to the plan and purpose of this effort. I didn't realize until it was too late that we had so many other players out hunting for the buffs that weren't aware of the rules of engagement. To those who honestly didn't know there WERE ROE's, no hard feelings. I'm glad you enjoyed the event. I'll try to do a better job next time of communicating them ahead of time. To those who KNEW this was an attempt to create a balanced engagement but chose to ignore that fact for their own personal gratification...well, major loss of cool points, dudes.
If I can climb up on my soapbox for a moment, this mission more than anything else illustrates the pressing need for a special events arena, now that AH is pay-for-play. I’m also quite disturbed by the notion that we’ll have to pay extra to participate in special events in AH, according to HtC. Special events are what I live for (virtually speaking
). I’m barely able to justify $30/month as it is; if special events are going to be extra, I may be forced to seek other avenues than AcesHigh to satisfy my addiction.
Well, that’s enough whining for today. Thanks again for all who participated last night. It was incredibly exciting to watch, even if I wasn’t actually flying (tried this time, but kept getting disco’d). Stay tuned for TOD mission #7, this Saturday at 5:00 PM EST.
Sabre (a.k.a. Rojo)
TOD Minister of War
