• [MoM] "Aluminum Overcast" AAR •

[zoozoo]

zoozoo, can you send me those screencaps in their original form,
without the effects you added to them?

Man, you take the best screenies!

Sure delta, sent in high res attached files to your E-mail.

[scot12b]

[96Delta]

Thank you zoozoo!  

[stodd]

Can someone post pics of the battles? Im sure more then just zoozoo has some.
Nice pics zoo!

[ALLEN86]

missed the event completly    wish i'd a been there!

can someone put up some film?

[Steve]

The mission was a success because 200 people had a great time and that's what this game is about.  Many good points have already been posted so I'll make just two.  The point about the fighters needing to be ahead of the buffs is very important, IMHO.

Also for reasons I don't understand, I was able to make 4 passes at the buff formation while p47's flew just 2.0 above.  It wasn't until setup of my 5th pass that 2 jugs finally came after me. I got a 6th kill of a b17 with them on my tempy's 6, then my flight was cut short as a jug took one of my elevators and knocked out my oil. A hasty landing on a nearby cv and that was it for me.

Fun stuff.


There were definitely spies and I think this is sadly unavoidable. Our squad was told where you were upping, what you were flying, and where you were going. Much of my squad was up and heading for you before you took off.  

With the buffs low at 15k to 18k interceptors were in a good performance envelope so they could make several passes in quick succession. If the buffs took off from father back from the lines, interceptors would be unable to get to them before the buffs could get higher. Up in the thin air at 30k, the interceptors would be much less able to make effective attack runs.

Just my 2 cents.  Thank you for a fun time.  

Steve

[Grape]

I like JUGS. I had a great time flying with Whiskey18 and Djspeed. We got all the way to the first target. I put rounds in a 262 and a 110. Whiskey18 finished off the 110 and we lost contact so Djspeed and I decided to RTB...It was too late. Cons everywhere. A 190A8 got in my way so I HOed him and he put a hole in my oil as I put some rounds into his rig. I dove away only to be chased by a SPIT all the way to the deck. I turned and HOed the SPIT in an attempt to discourage him from pressing the attack. On the third pass he clipped my wing off . I can't wait until the next MoM.   Delta96

[pluck]

grats guys, sounded like you had some good participation from alot of the arena.  Sorry I missed it, sounds like fun.

[Grayeagle]

Anyhow,  I've been reading up WWII bombers escorts etc and from what I understand  the escorts were divided into groups of four each with a flight lead and assigned wingmen.  They then would criss cross x patterns above bombers always having a flight within a 1k of the bombers.  At least thats what Cpt Robert Goebel wrote in his book.

They also would rendezvous with the bombers at a certain alt and waypoint.

I have an idea for the game to make it easier to assign wingman and flight leads etc...  I'd pull up text buffer and assign in alphabetical order.  All the names are there and can be constantly reviewed.

Anyway my two cents.

Aye ..this was the common 'doctrine' before Doolittle stepped in.
Then .. things changed.
He got it right.

-GE aka Frank

[bj229r]

RE: everyone seeing the dar bar of missions starting--Ive seen Bop's do this quite effectively: They get 6 guys to take off (I think 6 makes a full dar bar...mebbe 7-8) ...orbit a base, and ALL of us think THAT is the base from where Falc's gang is gonna horde...everyone flies that way, then dar bar fades, whilst the REAL mission fires up on the far side of the map. Then, all the would-be interceptors have to decide whther to be dweebish or not and bail, find somethin else to do, or turn around and fly 6 sectors. All 3 scenarios buy time for buffs to grab

[stephen]

Barely made it to 20k before the 190's started coming in on our p47 formations, and had to fight, run, and drop tanks early just to survive getting to 30,000...
After all that trouble, and because at that alt the 47 climbs so slowly, I only had 2 or 3 fleeting oppurtunitys to even think about engaging the Ta-152's.

Mabey if the 47's could get off the ground further away from the action we could have a nice defence going, because as it was the fight turn'd into a rout.
Darn Ta's... wonder if I could escort in one?.....

[yanksfan]

Sounds like  I missed alot of fun, i'll look for you guys more closely next time. "S" to all of you on all sides, the MA's need more of this sort of thing.

Maybe HTC could take a closer look at giveing you something more substantial to Bomb.

sorry I missed it, i'll try and make the next one.

[macerxgp]

I wish I could have been here for it. I would have fought hard with the other die-hard nits out there. One of the other things I found interesting, is that this is the first documented case I've known about where the Ta-152 being used both effectively and being referred to as a useful ride!

One thing that would impress me in future raids would be more of a spread our raid type of thing. My favorite scenario follows;

Early on, small bands of fast rides and others (ponies, La-7s, jugs, ect) up near the front and fly tightly coordinated fighter sweeps over the target area, optimally spread out across 4 sectors. Once a good number of fighters have been towered, small flights of 234's fly in (preferably 3 formations to a strike package) and hit strategic targets, mostly dar and FH. While the 234's are mopping up the dar, another 234 strike wing (also small, but around 5 actual drivers with boots) porks NME HQ. While the HQ strike is en route, the main buff and escort drivers (all the guys who didn't have the perks to up a 234) start upping at widely separated areas. The buffs and escorts gather at a number of waypoints, resulting in a large number of medium size high alt boxes, kind of like this last MoM, but only around 15 buff drivers per bomber stream. The large dispersion of buffs and the huge number of max'd darbars will completely throw off the interceptor drivers, that is if the HQ survived and they have darbar at all anymore. That's when the buffs will shine.

Following the bomber strikes, any buff pilot with remaining ord will split up and head to the nearest NME site and drop it, and rtb. As they do this, most of the gunners and everyone who has gotten shot down up till now will up a goon and head to the attacked areas. Any escorts with fuel remaining will cover the goons to their points.

[FiLtH]

 <S> Delta wtg..wish I could have been there.

[96Delta]

<S> Delta wtg..wish I could have been there.

I'm sure we will have another crack at it Filth.
We had a very good turnout.  If people keep
participating and we can continue to mount
a decent bomber force I will continue to craft
and organize missions.

Anyway, we made alot of mistakes this time out
and learned from each one.

And, we learned alot about our opposition
and will put that to good use as well.

I'm up to 3 pages of notes describing things
we will be doing differently next time out. 

I knew the first one was going to be rough,
but even when you consider how bad things
seemed for the bombers, they DID make it to
the target..despite being attacked by both
BISHOP and KNIGHT players who had alt on
us and were not as heavily laden as our escorts
were!  They had all the advantages and yet we
still managed to hit the target.

I'd say that ranks as some sort of success! 

This also tells me that the next time, when we have tipped
the scales in our favor, things will be very different. 

I'm looking at November 18th for the next show.
Not sure what time though.  I think I want to
move the time up by at least 30 mins to an
hour to accomodate international players but
I'm still thinking on that one.

Again, it will be a historically themed USAAF
bomber mission using the hearty B-17G.
My draft plan is based on a bomber force of 80 B-17's.
I hope I find them.