BN 4-11-2012 - Fulda Gap

[MackStones]

Friday,  May 11, 2012  - 22:00hrs Central US. (10:00pm Eastern US; 3:00am GMT)  
Server: ** Spits v. 109s Mods** ( 69.90.34.220:21010)
Teamspeak Server IP= 69.90.34.220 Password = falcon9

**You need the Ultr@Pack 3.0, RC 3 MODS installed**

*THIS IS BOMBER NIGHT*

This week's Bomber Night mission is called "Fulda Gap".   It is set on the Slovakia (summer) map.   The Fulda Gap was considered one of the most strategic areas in Western Europe during the Cold War, being seen as the likely invasion route for any Soviet attack on West Germany.

This is a fictional mission, based upon a Soviet invasion of West Germany in the late 1950s.  The threshold for the use of nuclear weapons has not yet been reached, and NATO forces are seeking to defeat the offensive with conventional arms, principally tactical air power.  Multiple columns of Soviet armor and vehicles are pouring through the Fulda Gap, to then break out into West Germany.  The Gap is a narrow valley between mountains.  There is little room for either friend or foe.  The cloud cover is low, so there may be some opportunity for bombers to hide.  There are lots and lots of enemy tanks and vehicles traveling along the valley road.

Douglas A-1J Skyraiders are available at a front-line unimproved airbase.  Fortunately, there is a mountain of available ordinance, and (as many of you know), each Skyraider can carry a small hill worth of bombs and rockets.  

The escorts are the USAF F-86L-25 (with MGs) and the RAF Sabre Mk. C-32 (with cannon plus optional heat-seeking missile loadout).  The defenders are the MiG-15bis Late (with standard 23mm and 37mm cannon) and the MiG-17/AS (with optional heat-seeking missile loadout).   The missile-carrying variants on each side do not seem to be as good at dogfighting as the other variants, but they do have missiles.  There are some AI aircraft for each side (jet fighters at altitude); the AI do not have missiles.  The missiles for each side are heat-seeking missiles.  They are NOT 100% accurate by any means.  Hard turns, especially when combined with a change in the vertical, can often break the missile lock.  Moreover, the missiles seem to have an inherent error factor (which is realistic for the time period).  The missiles fire using your "rockets" button/key.  You have only 2 missiles.  To use the heat-seeking missiles, you will hear a "growl" when they are active; when the growl grows in intensity you are getting closer to a target; when the growl turns to a high-pitched tone, you are in firing position and may fire.  Accuracy is much better when you are closer.  Don't get too close or the missile may not arm.  The missile should be fired outside guns range.  I seem to think that 600m-1000m works well.  

I (along with others) got another taste of jet-fighting on last week's Sabertooth Bomber Night mission on Zekes.  I decided to do one more week of jets (plus the popular Skyraider) before going back to normal WWII programming.

Please fly and enjoy, and let me know any comments you might have.  

[CptLoonee]

YESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's not Pakistan v India as we talked about last week, but it's even better!

[CptLoonee]

Mack, I played IL21956 extensively and have had fun with all the jets. Have you thought about adding the Naval planes...in particular, the FJ Fury? LOVE that plane. They are somewhat better than the Sabres but not so much that they tip the balance vs the MiG 17s.

Also, the radar-guided missile MiGs, though they carry 4 missiles, are not overpowered as they ONLY carry missiles (no guns) and their missiles are far less accurate than the heat seeking missiles of either side (though they do have a much larger radius of damage).

Both types of missiles are very difficult to use effectively (in fact, I find guns to still be the most reliable weapon in the air even with these planes).

[Deuce]

I really hope more people join this Time  round last weeks mission was an absolute blast even with litte amount of players . Looking forward too this one

[MackStones]

Loonee, I've created some other missile-jet missions with the Fury and the radar-guided missiles.  I wanted to do a different match-up here, to see how it works.   Next time I do a jet mission, I may go back to the other way. 

[CptLoonee]

Loonee, I've created some other missile-jet missions with the Fury and the radar-guided missiles.  I wanted to do a different match-up here, to see how it works.   Next time I do a jet mission, I may go back to the other way. 

No prob. I just wanted to make sure they weren't being overlooked.

I should have remembered who I am talking to

[turtle]

Awesome!!!!! Thanks Mack!!!! Looking forward to some more Saber Action.

[IIJG27Rich]

If they're going to do this Jet thing get some Mig 21s and F4s in this sim and a Vietnam map.

[MackStones]

I'm sorry but there seemed to be problems with lots of people joining.  It's an Oleg map, and there wasn't much stuff.  My guess is that some people didn't have one of the jet planes in their download.  Maybe one of them came with the later UP3 updates, or maybe there were some corrupted downloads.  I'm sorry.  It worked well in testing.

[CptLoonee]

I am sick that I didn't make this one. My allergies were going crazy and I took a benadryl and crashed   I was looking forward to it all week! I hope we can do one again soon!