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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 7, 2011 15:46:17 GMT
I mentioned in General that I had found an old Avalon hill board game called " B-17 Queen of the Skies" which allows play of the missions of a single B-17 during the American air offensive of World War II. The game plays largely on rails with a combination of die rolls and various charts determining what happens, where and when, with your only continued influence being where to position your defensive fire and whether you should abort missions, drop out of formation, etc... Of course, the natural next step was to add you all as crew and given the natural survival rate of B-17 crew in 1943, (pre long-range fighter support), was about 14%, it suggests that somewhere just shy of one and a half of you will make it through the 25 mission tour of duty. You roles within the plane are : POS FIRST LAST Rank Place of Birth Pilot Maximo Meej 1LT Spaia CoPilot Pops Young 2LT N.A. (North Atlantic) Bombardier James Boon 2LT Oxford Navigator Larry Freeman 2LT The North Engineer Mike Coffers SSG 1920s Radio Op Danny Hornet SGT Watford Ball Gunner HAL Sonic SGT Jupiter Port Waist eltharion DOA SGT The Colonies Stbd Waist David Challinor SGT The North Tail Gunner Stevie Narkle SGT Shandyland I figured Hornet doing his commentary on the radio, having someone who can't see navigate and having someone no one truly understands leading the way would give you your highest chance for victory. Sonic gets to be the ball gunner because he's used to being upside down. Your first plane is called The Pantfish, natch, and this can be your nose art.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 7, 2011 15:47:46 GMT
Occasionally the USAAF Eighth Air Force liked to start its new crews off with an easier "milk run" just to break them in gently.
This is not one of those times.
The PANTFISH's first mission will be to attack the UBoat pens at Kiel in Northern Germany.
Good luck!
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 7, 2011 15:58:04 GMT
In the game you are presented with a map that is covered in targets and then zones made of concentric circles that radiate out from your home base. Click for largerYou cannot be attacked in zone 1. Zones 2-5 may provide fighter cover. In 1943 this is usually in the form of Spitfires or P47 Thunderbolts. In each turn you move one zone toward your target, you spend two turns in the target zone and then you move one zone a turn back towards your home base. Kiel, our target for mission one is in zone 8. This means 17 turns, (8 out, 8 back and one over target). In two of these you are safe from attach. In 8, (2-5 out and back), you may have fighter cover. In 7 (6-8 out and back, plus one over target), your defence comes only from your own guns and your squadron and formation mates. Fortunately, most of the run there and back will be over water, which gives an increased chance for rescue or escape if you are shot down. Though I'm sure you'll be just fine...
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 7, 2011 18:34:29 GMT
MISSION 1 Date : October 1943 Target : Kiel UBoat pens Position in Squadron : Middle Squadron position in formation : Middle
You got the favoured position of "middle-middle" which means that provided you don't drop out of formation enemy fighters are going to have to fly past a lot of guns to get to you. This is an auspicious start.
Meejer gets the PANTFISH off the ground and into formation without trouble and heads East for the Channel off the coast of Norfolk, sadly failing to bomb Norwich along the way.
The Germans seem to have decided to sleep in today as the run over the sea is without incident, except for the extreme cold jamming the nose guns and top turret traverse mechanism.
Manning the top turret, Engineer Mike Coffers swears about how things aren't made as good as they used to be.
Having two of the major defensive points out of order like this turns out to be a very bad thing indeed as the PANTFISH crosses the coastline into Germany and finally the Luftwaffe decides to show up in the form of a schwarm of Me109s, two of which make their way into the centre of the formation for a run at our brave boys.
Moo throws down his maps and somehow squeezes into the nose of the plane with Boony and has instant success, as he hits the 109 that's diving down on the nose, but with the nose guns down the other 109 is left unmolested and he rakes the port wing with bullets, setting the inside engine, #2, on fire and requiring it to be shut down.
His bullets continue down the port fuselage behind the wing and wound our port waist gunner, elth, making him the first medal winner on the PANTFISH, as he'll get a Purple Heart for that. So well done, elth.
Perhaps being called "DOA" on a B17 is not the best idea.
Emboldened, the Me109 pulls up into a loop and dives back down on the PANTFISH, only to meet annoyed Mr Narkle in the tail guns who sprays the Germans with bullets and the fighter zooms along the port side again, straight into Moo's "sights", who promptly shoots him down.
Moo claims the kill, Narkle the moral victory.
Now the PANTFISH finds herself over the target and Boony finally gets the nose gun unjammed, which is bad news as he's the bombardier, so he wobbles back to the sight too late and completely misses the target.
As the PANTFISH makes her turn for home Coffers clears the top turret mechanism jam and all guns are now functioning.
Which, in a move I like to call foreshadowing, is going to be important.
As the German fighters make for home to refuel the early run home is uneventful, until the bomber formation is north of Holland, when two 109s appear from nowhere. Sonic manages to hit one, but the other lands hits on the starboard wing and then doubles the amount of medals we've been awarded, as DC takes a ricochet in the hoop, leaving elth and DC to argue with each other about who's the bravest to still be fighting.
Then a 110 appears from below, shooting up the radioroom, miraculously missing Hornet who has tuned his radio to lucky music™.
Which is handy because the 110 banks over off our starboard wing, completely untouched because our starboard waist gunner is hopping about trying to hold his arse in place and then zooms in, shooting us up with another three hits.
With one engine already out, we're falling out of formation making it even more likely we'll be picked on, which is bad because we have two gunners complaining about being hit by bullets or something. Then we have a heating failure in the cockpit meaning we have to dive to warmer air to avoid half our crew getting frostbite. With the temperature in the cockpit at minus a million, Pops puts on a sweater and claims "it's fine."
Flying in thicker air down at 10,000 feet with only three engines, the PANTFISH falls off the back of the bomber formation now and that finally leads to bad news with the coast of England in sight as four fighters show up and have only one bomber to shoot at.
Two FW190s, an Me109 and a 110 come in from four directions at once. Coffers is angry and leans on the fire button on the top turret, then shakes his fist at one of the 190s, chasing it off the attack, its teammate missing the bomber all together. The 109 hits the plane twice between the wing and the tail without causing major damage before we get trouble again from a 110 from below, the big twin engine fighter landing three hits to the (thankfully) now empty bomb bay and the fourth raking the nose, hitting and seriously wounding Boony, for our third medal.
The 110 turns and comes in again from the nose, ignoring wayward fire from Moo in the cheek guns and shooting up the glass canopy, covering Pops in shrapnel and broken glass for our fourth medal!
Then finally, the lazy fookers in the RAF show up in a pair of Hurricanes and chase off the 110, leaving Meej to make an unmolested run on the airfield and an almost perfect landing.
The final tally for the mission is no bomb hits on target, one Me109G shot down, one Me109G damaged and two Me110 damaged. Four wounded crew members, elth, DC and Pops with light wounds and Boony with major wounds and the PANTFISH filled with something like 110 new holes.
A successful mission!
After completion the medical staff announce all four wounded crewmen will be fit for future missions and the USAAF Eighth Air Force decide to bestow the Air Medal on Pilot Meej for calmly flying all the way to Germany and back with three engines, wounded crew whining over the radio, jammed guns, no heat and a fantastic beard.
Only 24 more missions to go!
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Post by Moo on Sept 7, 2011 22:08:00 GMT
IO have NFI what the fook is going on here.
KUTGW!
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Post by Moo on Sept 7, 2011 22:08:42 GMT
And for info, DC lives in The Midlands.
You're welcome.
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Post by elth on Sept 8, 2011 13:52:36 GMT
Perhaps being called "DOA" on a B17 is not the best idea.
Does it tell you if our mission lost any planes? I'd feel a bit silly if we limped home broken to bits and everyone else cruised over and back with nary a scratch.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 8, 2011 14:08:36 GMT
There's an expansion that was printed in a magazine in the 80s that lets you extrapolate the condition of the raid from the sort of resistance you face, modified by your position in the raid.
If you're middle-middle and you see 20 fighters, then that means the people on the edge will be getting chewed to bits - if you get the tail end Charlie in your squadron and your squadron gets tail in the formation then you're going to be having a busy day, while someone in the middle might be filing their nails the whole time.
So the short answer is "not really" because even the expansion works off of how many fighters you face - so if you're heavily attacked, it's considered the rest of the formation is too.
Things are definitely made worse by having to drop out of formation though and not only did the Pantfish fall off the back of the formation due to running on three engines, but then having to dip to under 10,000 feet due to the heating loss is especially bad news, because you take Flak every turn too because light Flak is able to reach out to 10,000 feet.
If it's one of the solitary gunners, like the tail or ball who lose heat then there's a genuine decision to be made about whether the risk of one person getting frostbite is enough to make falling out of formation to 10,000 feet worthwhile. But when the cockpit loses heat then you've got the Pilot, Co-Pilot, Bombardier, Navigator and possibly the Engineer all risking frostbite every turn.
The good news is that I rolled up the next mission and it's sending you to the mysterious machine yards at Peenemunde, (future home of the V2), which is in zone 11. So I don't think anyone will need to worry about frostbite.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 9, 2011 18:28:13 GMT
MISSION 2 Date : October 1943 Target : Peenemunde Engineering Research Facility Position in Squadron : High Squadron position in formation : Middle
Mission two means that your pilots just about know how to fly, your gunners just about know which end of the gun to point at the bad guys and boony just about knows not to stand on the bomb bay doors when he presses his big red button.
So it's quite bad news that the big wigs decide that what you really need to do is to go all the way to Peenemunde in zone 11 and fly top position in the squadron, meaning any fighters with an altitude advantage over your 25,000 feet, (so almost all of them), will see you first, though your squadron is in the middle of the formation. Seeing "High-High" on a mission chart is essentially time to send your parents a note that you'll be late home.
The first part of the route to target is fairly mundane. A solitary 109 wings through the formation in zone 3, just off the English coast, but he doesn't even take a shot at the PANTFISH. Then in zone 6, off the Dutch coast about to cross into Germany, things go utterly bonkers.
I've played somewhere north of 150 campaigns of B17 and the highest number of fighters ever encountered on a single mission is 45. The average is probably somewhere between 11 and 15.
The PANTFISH is about to take on 36.
Over the next six zones the PANTFISH will have to fight through 15 fighters and for a while she'll get lucky, with a few hits to the rudder and the wing root without significant damage, while Moo scored his second career kill, shooting down a Me110.
Then in zone 11, over target, four FW190s appear at once and just chew up the plane, wounding Coffers and Moo, killing engine number two, for the second straight mission and destroying the intercom, which means the crew can't talk to each other.
The previously wounded elth and DC both then managed to damage fighters, before one gets a free shot on the plane from our "3" and DC keels over as the first victim on the Pantfish who won't be getting up again. He'll earn a second Purple Heart though, or rather Oak Leaves to go on his first Purple Heart, so that's nice.
DC : KIA
When the fighters break away suddenly it means it's time for the Flak to switch on and the PANTFISH takes a massive hit in the fuel tank, fuel gushing away at a rate that makes it almost certain that she won't be able to get back to England.
Boony "presses the pickle" ... and drops the bombs and as Meej banks the leaky PANTFISH away he watches maybe a third of the bombs strike the target.
He's no time to admire his work however, as Meej puts the bomber into a dive to gain extra range before the fuel runs out, so he's onto the guns, watching in amazement as Sonic, hanging upside from a slowly-crashing airplane shoots down an Me110 on one turn and then a Me109G on the next, while Coffers, Narkle and elth all score damaging hits on the swarm of enemy airplanes around.
Eventually elth fires so much that his port gun jams and, unable to clear it, he crosses the aircraft to take up DC's starboard gun, from where he scores our only hits on an FW190.
Then another 190 arrows in from 12 High and shatters the glass cockpit with machinegun fire. Meej slumps over the flightstick, unmoving, forcing Pops to take over and Moo is also left prone in a pool of blood. The 190s rounds track down the aircraft and explode through the radio room, somehow completely missing Hornet again. Clearly he's actually hiding under his bed back in England and has put a mannequin of himself in the radio op's seat.
Meej : KIA Moo : KIA
As the PANTFISH moves into the next zone it runs into eight more fighters and her shallow dive puts her into range of the various light Flak that is scattered all over Europe. By now all of her guns are running light on ammunition and there's frantic scurrying around the wounded aircraft trying to redistribute the ammo in time for the fighter wave, which lands 15 separate hits on the Pantfish, destroying Coffer's top turret, the starboard wing flap, the starboard aileron and the starboard elevator.
In zone nine there are, mercifully, no fighters around and all of the Flak sent toward the PANTFISH misses. The crew move ammo about again, but Narkle is down to four bursts of ammo, elth has eight, as he can easily refill the starboard waist from his jammed port waist and Boony in the nose has six, having taken everything Coffers could salvage from his turret. Underneath, Sonic only has one burst left and can't be re-armed while we're in the air.
In zone eight a single Me110 shows up and is damaged heavily by Narkle, but the Shandylander tail gunner decides to settle for driving off the fighter, rather than shooting it down as he knows he'll need the ammo.
Then the Pantfish finally crosses the coastline and gets over water, but any ideas of a water landing are nixed when the next German fighter, another FW190, hits and repeatedly holes the rubber raft. Not a lucky flight, this one.
Six more hits land on various points on the aircraft, one setting the wing on fire and Pops announces that everyone should just bail out now at 2,000 feet. The crew load the bodies of Meej, Moo and DC into chutes and push them out the bomb bay, then jump after, landing individually in the sea.
This is where the first bit of luck arrives, as an RN destroyer is in range and sees the bomber smoking down into the water and picks up the surviving crew unharmed, except for Coffers who is on the verge of drowning. Although he probably won't get a Purple Heart for that.
Moo and Meej get Purple Hearts, posthumous, while DC gets an Oak Leaf (posthumous), to his original Purple Heart.
Sonic is award an Air Medal for shooting down two enemy aircraft and damaging two others, while Pops is given the Distinguished Service Cross - America's second highest commendation - for his actions in ensuring the survival of his aircraft long enough to allow for the safe evacuation of his crew.
The mission score the first time around was 288, this time it was 462 - this on a mission where you didn't get any points for a safe landing back in England and lost 180 points for the various KIA/Wounded crew. With either a landing, or less dead crew the Congressional Medal of Honour was a possibility.
KIA 1LT - Maximo Meej. Air Medal, Purple Heart. 2LT - Larry Freeman. Purple Heart. SG - David Challinor. Purple Heart with Oak Leaves
PROMOTIONS 1LT Pops Young (promoted from 2LT)
NOTES Pops Young will Pilot this crew in future missions. A new co-pilot will be assigned.
AIRPLANE A new B17F will be made available for the next mission.
23 missions to go...
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Post by elth on Sept 10, 2011 4:55:05 GMT
*sniff*
They flew, bravely, and died bravely, keeping me alive. The highest purpose imaginable.
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Post by Sonic on Sept 10, 2011 8:49:26 GMT
I tried my darndest to help keep you alive *sniff*
What does it take to become an ace?
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 10, 2011 13:36:46 GMT
Five kills. At which point it becomes easier to hit fighters, making it more likely you'll get more kills.
However, under "Bismarck House Rules", as soon as one person on the bomber becomes an ace I "unlock" the variable German Fighter pilot skill, which means you have the possibility to face German aces too. Although you can also get German rookies.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 12, 2011 17:26:06 GMT
The new crew. POS FIRST LAST Rank Missions Kills Medals Pilot Pops Young 1LT 2 0 DSC, Purple Heart CoPilot James J Dexter 2LT 0 Bombardier James Boon 2LT 2 0 Purple Heart Navigator Gareth "E" Scott 2LT 0 Engineer Mike Coffers SSG 2 0 Purple Heart Radio Op Danny Hornet SGT 2 0 Ball Gunner HAL Sonic SGT 2 2 Air Medal Port Waist eltharion DOA SGT 2 0 Purple Heart Stbd Waist Dee Jay SGT 0 Tail Gunner Stevie Narkle SGT 2 0
Previous Crew Members KIA Maximo Meej 1LT 2 0 Air Medal KIA Larry Freeman 2LT 2 1 Purple Heart KIA David Challinor SGT 2 0 Purple Heart with Oak Leaves
The co-pilot was the first effort by the random-namertron³°°°™, while Fruits seemed like a natural navigator on account of the fact that he never blinks. Deej is the new bullet soak to save elth's life. The good news is that mission three is an attack on Orleans. Most of the time you'll be flying over France, which isn't so good, but it is at least "only" zone five.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 12, 2011 17:41:37 GMT
Deej is the new bullet soak to save elth's life. Me110 at 6 Level registers 3 hits. Tail: Rudder - Hit No effect hit Waist: Crew - Dee Jay: KIA
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Post by elth on Sept 13, 2011 10:05:42 GMT
Thanks deej!
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Post by Moo on Sept 13, 2011 19:28:04 GMT
Bloody pseudo-French.
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Post by hornet on Sept 15, 2011 11:06:47 GMT
I imagine I spent the entirety of the second mission on the blower chatting up Bomber Command and giving it the full A Matter Of Life And Death. Surviving must have been really embarassing.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 15, 2011 13:45:54 GMT
Indeed. You failed to suffer any wounds whatsoever despite your radio room being hit about seven times - something that led me to conclude that you weren't in it.
I can only presume that you placed a small tape recorder on the seat, put a brick on "transmit" and played recorded horse racing commentary all the way to target.
Then when everyone got back to base you just rolled around in a puddle so that you'd look like you'd been in the drink with the rest of the crew.
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Post by coffers on Sept 18, 2011 19:21:47 GMT
Hmmm a purpple heart for nearly drowning? Cough, Cough, splutter......
Who performed the stomach pump on me? It didn't work, I'm still a fat fook.
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Post by coffers on Sept 20, 2011 15:07:59 GMT
The new crew. POS FIRST LAST Rank Missions Kills Medals Engineer Mike Coffers SSG 2 0 Purple Heart
There's something wrong here, 0 medals but I have a Purple Heart? Is it that colour because I half droiwned?
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Sept 20, 2011 15:12:23 GMT
You didn't get the medal for almost drowning, Coffs. Also, I'm not sending you a real medal. So I wouldn't worry so much. Don't make me make you stand next to elth on a mission. We know what happens then.
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Post by coffers on Sept 20, 2011 15:30:44 GMT
Ah I missed the wounding bit.
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deej
Zebra Spider
Posts: 67
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Post by deej on Nov 1, 2011 19:49:00 GMT
Next time I want a position inside the plane...
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Post by coffers on Nov 2, 2011 9:35:20 GMT
I'm still alive or still in hospital......................
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Post by Moo on Nov 2, 2011 10:21:32 GMT
It's just a flesh wound.
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