S3#124 - Fight Above Etna Reloaded (FAER) - Sicily July 1943

Game Settings

• Luftwaffe Players(gold) - 15 est
• Allied Players(green) - 25 est
• Icons – d24 friendly, d12 range, d6 enemy plane
• Clouds - clear skies
• Radar – 30 mile radius, grey dots, in-flight arrow. Minimum alt is 250 ft.
• Flak - AAA limited to 30,000ft in height.
• Allied Airfields(green) - Southern Sicily and Malta
• Luftwaffe Airfields(gold) – Sicily, Calabria
• Fuel Multipler - set at 1.0 for all planes.
• Rebuild Time - 300 mins
• Game Length – 180 mins
• Lives – 3 lives per frame, 1 per aircraft type assigned.

Basic Rules

Initial Format - changes after in bold italics.

1. Frame Timeline - Pilots should report in at least 10 mins before T+0 to get organized and receive any last minute order changes.

• T+0 - Pre-Dawn (04:00), flight enabled for all aircraft.
• T+160 - Last surface attacks completed all a/c must disengage ASAP. Bombs/Rockets/strafing must hit before T+160 to be counted.
• T+180 - Dark(12:00), all squads must be in tower.  Any aircraft not showing in the log as landed will be considered lost and the pilot KIA.

2. Pilot Lives - Pilots have three lives to live during a frame. Only those aircraft indicated for each squad on the A/C table qualify for the three lives. Ask the CM to reset you when you lose one of your lives non-operationally (i.e. controller malfunction, cat on your keyboard). Players may switch aircraft types during a frame, but once they lose a life (aka bail, ditch or die) in an aircraft type they cannot use it again in that frame. This is on pilot's honour, but can be detected in the log post frame.

3. Operational Restrictions – Combat operations, i.e. any air-to-air or air-to-ground attacks may only occur in the “Combat Zone” that is outlined in red in the game map. Axis flights may only exit or enter the Combat Zone along its north edge. Similarly, Allied flights may only enter from its southern edge.  Any flight that exits the Combat Zone must RTB immediately to a field outside the zone.  All fields “blacked out” on the planning map are out of play and will be set to neutral (Grey).

4. Ord\Aircraft Restrictions - All bombers, the A-36 Apache and the FW190A-4 (subbing for the FW190G-3) must carry ord and conduct missions accordingly.  A-36 and FW190A-4 are to return to base as expeditiously as possible after jettisoning or dropping their ordnance and completing strafing attacks.

5. Aircraft Minimum Fuel - All aircraft must take at least 100% internal fuel with or without drop tanks.  This will be forced in the arena settings.

6. Plane Set - Each pilot may fly aircraft listed for their side as indicated below.  In a single frame, once you lose a life in one aircraft type you must switch to another. At no time may a player exceed three lives or a\c types.  In a given frame all Allied pilots will fly aircraft representing USAAF or Commonwealth Air Forces (CAF) units.  All Axis pilots will fly aircraft representing LW or Regia Aeronautica units.

Each air force gets three aircraft from the fol set. (no duplicates, i.e. one ride per aircraft)

CAF: Spit Mk IXe (sub for MkIXc and MkVIII), Spit MkVc, P-40N-1 (KittyHawk III sub), B-25C with 3 AI wingmen (sub for Baltimore/Boston)

USAAF: P-38G, A-36, P-40N-1 (sub for P-40F/L), B-25C with 3 AI wingmen

RA: C.205, C.202VII, Bf110C-2, Ju88A-4 with 3 AI wingmen

LW: Bf109G-6, Fw190A-4 (sub for Fw-190G3, must be flown as a Jabo), Ju87D with 3 AI Wingman, He111H-16 with 3 AI wingmen

· Frame 1 - USAAF versus Regia Aeronautica

· Frame 2 - CAF versus LW

· Frame 3 - USAAF versus LW

· Frame 4 - CAF versus RA

· Frame 5 - Sides to be determined based on results of previous frames

7. Aircraft Basing – Twin Engine bombers are only available at Malta (F121), and Calabria (F28 in 10,8 grid).  Buffs landing at other fields will be considered lost for the frame, but will not score any points for the enemy.  With the exceptions of F121, and F28, no more than 10 players (or a single large squad with more than 10) may start the frame at one airfield.  After initial roll players may base from anywhere. Pilots that lose a life are allowed to choose another field other than the one they initially started at without it being considered teleporting.

8. AI Wingmen – Bomber pilots may take up to 3 AI wingman with their lead aircraft.  Bomber pilots may also use the BOMBER LOGIN for the arena, but all AI Wingman MUST be the same aircraft type as the player aircraft.  All AI Wingmen MUST remain in relatively close formation and may not be sent off on independent ops.  Players electing to use the bomber login are strongly encourage to practice prior to the frame.

10. Bomber Hardness - BuffTuff will be set at 1.2 with standard otto for this event.

11. Airstarts - during the series a 20,000ft airstart will be enabled at F28 for the Axis and F212 for the Allies. At beginning of play these are the only airfields that may start over-stacked with more than 10 players.

12.  Supply Lines.  Fields are considered “in supply” or “linked” if at the end of a frame they can trace an uninterrupted path from a supply source along the road/rail network depicted on the game map and in-flight map.  All of the path MUST lie within the Combat Zone.  Note the road/rail network is not actually depicted in the terrain.  Supply lines are interrupted by a closed field, destroyed bridge span or enemy held field. Supply sources for the Allies are beachheads in the Combat Zone (F165, F168, 185, 187) and any captured and open Ports or Docks (F191 at series start).  Axis supply sources at series start are the Port at Catania (F140) and the Rail Yard at Dittaino (F117).

13. Closed Fields - at the end of the frame any closed fields that cannot link to an open friendly supply source will remain closed for the rest of the series or until finally linked to an open friendly supply source. Only the location status at the end of the frame is considered and not results during play. This may cause several road\rail nets to be stalemated and other routes will need to be attacked. To facilitate closure the object types (OT) in the list below do not need to be destroyed.  OT assigned to an object can be viewed using the .grndlabels dot command. Note not all OTs are represented at all fields.  Pre-frame target recce will be essential to success:

· OTs Not Required for Closure

AAA

BoatEntry (large concrete structures)

Unit (typically utility poles or barbwire)

Tree

Lighttower (Lighthouse)

LivMod (city housing blocks, apt buildings)

House

Hut

Barracks

Warehs (Warehouse)

Warehouse2

14. Captured Fields - At the end of the frame any enemy fields closed during play that are linked via road\rail net to a friendly Supply Source will be friendly at the beginning of the next frame. A road link to a closed friendly field does not count nor does a road link that has an open enemy location(s) anywhere along its supply line. A road\rail link through more than one closed enemy field is allowed. Some fields are close together and the CM will rule if it is not clear which one is captured or not.

15. Safe Ditch - If you run off the field and ditch within 3 miles (15,840ft) of the tower the ditch is NOT awarded a kill. It is assumed that aircraft and pilot can be salvaged.

16. Ditch Forced Exit - You have ~5 seconds to exit a ditched aircraft. This stops trying to outlast a kill message, drawing ack fire or passing along intel at a nearby field.

17. Penalty Planes - Players that commit errors in basic rules and do not attempt to correct the error during play will have a penalty plane assigned to them for the next frame they fly. They must fly 3 lives in that aircraft type.  Examples of penalty plane errors include teleporting fields when not allowed by special rules, gunning from ships or flak positions, violating Combat Zone rules. If a player immediately addresses the error they will not be assigned a penalty plane, but always inform the CM so the log entry will be ignored. It is up to each squad to make sure the penalty planes are flown.  Players not flying assigned penalty planes when so ordered risk ejection from the arena.

• Axis Penalty Planes - C.200 Saetta (for LW or R.A.)
• Allied Penalty Plane – P-36C Hawk (CAF or USAAF)

18. Victory Points - Points are awarded to each side in three categories; A/C losses incurred, pilots losses (KIA/POW), BDA, Closed fields and Captured fields. Points awarded are listed in the Scoring summary for this event.

19. Victory Conditions - The side with the most VPs at the end of the series wins.

20. S3 Clarifications - the S3 staff reserves the right to make a ruling on questions or game situations not answered completely or missed by the rules. For further clarification please post on the S3 forum.