WWGeezer

Sounds good, look forward to seeing you...posted info for Tuesday on your site as well

I set up an SDS file for Tuesday. This mission....Icons off....might as well experiment on a mission we already know. Crave the plane set is robust ( FW190, Bf109, Bf110 and He-111's) ...you want to decide what the target is and make assignments by flight? JG1 couldn't make it last night, but should be back this time.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060022816 Been doing some research on this battle that was near Bellicourt. The canal was right on the Hindenburg Line, but went underground at Bellicourt, so it was a target for a tank crossing of the canal. The Germans were using the tunnel as a defense. There is a very famous picture of the Bridge at Riqueval Bridge I added below. Ran into this video footage on the IWM site. Basically a five minute home movie of the whole area. It is pretty stark and stunning. Even noticed the wind rustling the bushes on the hill side. Cool stuff

If you feel like giving airbattles a rest for a week, we could refly this one. Has been a long time, and we were flying pretty casually back then. Would be interesting to fly it more as a squad and see if we can get thru a few objectives. Let me know and I will resurrect the SDS. Perhaps Craven can make up some assignments.

Yeah, I have it as a project to add AI to those, but won’t be done that quick. Maybe two weeks out. We could chase another part of the Airfield Battles map that has AI or we could go back to one of the vanderstock missions

Wow, you guys have been busy. Thought I was up to date and realized Tuesday I was not Will block out some time this weekend

Ahhh....so that explains the angry captain, upset about the bombers.

Geezer will be a no show for Thursday Feb 1st. Friends arriving Friday and I need to get the house in order.

Hopefully Icy will publish his notes , but Gold flight had four sorties. The patrol sortie we saw no enemies, but spotted one ground target. We replaned with Stukas and went hunting for the factory and ships Craven spotted. Griph had us come in from the north and follow the river down. No joy and the ships, but I just caught a glimpse of the factory right underneath me. Blue flight was providing cover and boy we needed it, several EA zooming in. Griph directed us on several coordinated drops in two man groups. Second target was a convoy and that was destroyed as well. On our return we ran into the ships but had no bombs and some viscous AI took out Icy. Replaned and headed back looking for the ships, but they were long gone. Followed the river north west and found the two ships repairing the bridge. Successfully destroyed that target and headed home We flew as a group, coordinated attacks good coordination with the other flights Really a great flying night Thanks duck!

I think Duck is revealing his magic gradually

yeah I caught that one....but more importantly I reversed the route for Blue Flight so they overlapped both Gold and Red....realized it was a much better route ( and gave me a chance to correct the spelling!).

that map is sexy....just sayin

Here are the Orders for the three flights. First Sortie NO BOMBS....we are doing a patrol, engaging enemy, gathering intel. Second Sortie Gold group switches to bombers and assignments change. Please Read!!!

I love their wiggly front lines

Icy...not to worry more details to follow...but plane types are set...very likely we will be flying Bf109's for the first sortie with no bombs to patrol our sector and engage enemies. Second sortie we will fly JU87's because that is the only bomber available. In the first sortie we will do recon to try and find the targets, we will ask the other flights to help us out by giving us the coordinates when they see a target for us. we won't know ahead of time what they are. whoooohaaaaaa ( sorry bad boris karloff imitation) Duck, no worries will enlarge them. Yeah and don't tell me anything. I will make a group. Regarding the open server, good to know. Wanted to make sure I knew the password for the JG1 guys

Duck....your patrol zones by flights are just sketches you put on the map right, they will not be in the game graphically. In working on my strategy am reshaping them to be on grids on a map I will publish ahead of go time. I think it will be easier to navigate and make assignments. Let me know if any concerns [attachment=0]Pic11.jpg[/attachment]

Craven....I am going to take a first stab at a strategy for the patrol zones and PM you Duck can you clarify what the plane sets are at the three bases? My recollection was the plane sets were bigger than what is in your brief [attachment=0]Pic0.jpg[/attachment]

PS Do you remember who the devil dogs mission builder was? I may want to send him a PM to ask a few questions

because I am stubborn....yes one ship at each oil terminal, although at one site almost set on land. [attachment=2]Pic1.jpg[/attachment] ...but more importantly, the current version of Airfield Battles has a bunch of AI added by the Devil Dogs right? So is one of the tweaks you need is for AI flights to be added to this mission? Likely I can steal the groups from the other mission and place them. I love the map, really want us to use it, feels a bit like the Western Front on ROF. I will see if I can get it ready for a week out form Tuesday Here is a peak at what they did....an identical group repeated multiple times, sometimes right on top of each other [attachment=1]pic2.jpg[/attachment] [attachment=0]pic3.jpg[/attachment]

hmmm...time to open the mission builder and find out.

I guess I tend to support the "can't we all get along model", but if I was honest, being forced to fly in a more disciplined formation just makes me darn nervous initially. I have to be given the chance to fail a few times (hmmm...goober, goober etc) and then succeed and the heart rate drops down a bit and you start seeing the logic of the lesson. training night should be a night where you are open to trying something that you are not comfortable with to see if it can improve. Even though it was rough around the edges I got some really key things out of Thursday night. We have to talk more and say clearly what we are doing. The great example was when Icy described on the Tank target how he had to adjust and bomb AAA instead of tanks. I completely missed that and was just making my own little runs, trying to make sure I dropped all my bombs. I think the other one I recollect was on the Griphos flying night when we were rolling in on a target we had never seen before and I could not tell from what people were saying what I was suppose to drop on. Eveyone was doing their thing and I dutifully followed Griph on his run and ended up with a full load of bombs because I got confused. Is the right thing to do than to pull out of formation and drop the bombs to make sure I didn't waste the trip? Likely not, but every part of me wanted to do that. Sooooo, just making the pitch that what Dub is trying to do is get us out of our comfort zone a bit so we communicate better and make very clear what we are trying to do ( at least that is my opinion). Absolutely there are things to learn from Icy and Fry because they have cadence built in from years of flying together. There are things to learn from Dub because he has a formula that works, but requires everyone to buy in. okay too many words, going to keep saying that this is the best group of people I have flow with in a while, so keep the faith, stay respectful and be honest when you are uncomfortable ( but be willing to try new things too).

cool, pull one goober sticker off the side of my plane. Room for more next week!

Come on now.....second map, Oil Terminal on the edge of a large lake with a ship icon. One at Tsatsa and one at Vasiliev

bumped the past.....(the show must go on with or without endorsement!).

Good New / Bad News.....had to turn down their endorsement. Required signing a licensing agreement to display their logo that included an indemnification clause that required me to pay the federal government's legal fees if I defamed them with my little art project....okay, well then, never mind!