The Bomber Night Appetizer for March 25, 2011 is "Henderson".It will run on Zekes v. Wildcats about 70 minutes before Bomber Night (i.e.- about 10:00 p.m., Eastern time).
"Henderson" was basically created with a "You WANT realism ... I've give you realism" idea in mind. It was lots of fun to test.
"Henderson" is based on Guadacanal in autumn 1942, and recreates in one mission multiple aspects of the Guadacanal campaign. When the mission starts, Henderson Field and Fighter Base #1 are under attack by waves of Japanese infantry coming out. As you spawn in, infantry is advancing from the jungle onto the airfields. The infantry will take pot-shots at you with small arms; I in fact got PK'd once by small arms during testing while just parked. Normally, if you get your butt in gear (and avoid the crossfire), you can get off the ground and then help attack the assaulting Japanese troops. I also have some Japanese light tanks attacking the airbases, with one group able to do a base-capture with Fighter Base #1 if not stopped (I have Allied tanks come to regain control later, so watch your targets), and others stopping short of the field but close enough to attack aircraft on the ground. It is very intense. At the same time, there is artillery fire raining down upon Henderson from a hillside near Mount Austen. You can see puffs of smoke at times on the ridgeline, but there is no other marker. Flights of AI Betty bombers also attack Henderson from high-altitude at different times. There is also a small fleet of one IJN battleship and 3 destroyers headed to Henderson; they will do close-in bombardment of the two airfields, if not stopped.
The Red airfields are not protected, and don't have heavy AAA (just like real-life at the time).
Red has the Wildcat (like real-life, no drop tanks) and SBD (like real-life, nothing more than 2x500lb loadout). Blue has a Zeke, Betty, Val, and Kate (each with 1,000-2,000m airstarts northwest of Savo Island), and Rufes from Tulagi.
Red needs to defend the airfield from the assault, to kill the Japanese tanks, to kill the ridgeline artillery, to kill the naval fleet.
Blue's objectives are the static aircraft and other objects at the Red airbases, and to just basically prevent operations at Henderson. There aren't necessarily that many high-value targets ... just like real-life.
"Dead" infantry acts as a destroyed vehicle, and will destroy plane parts if run into. Therefore, if infantry is killed on a taxiway, use of that taxiway can be closed.
SPECIAL NOTE: We ran Henderson several months ago, and it was well-received. I made some improvements to the earlier mission: deleted the Cape Esperance target for Red, added another ship to the IJN fleet for Red to destroy, added more artillery bombarding Henderson, added more tanks and infantry attacking Henderson, added more AI bombers attacking Henderson, and brought the IJN fleet closer to Henderson. I also moved the Blue airspawns to near Savo Island and created a Blue landing base in the Floridas (in each case, grids closer to Henderson).
Here are some screenshots:
