| S3#98 – Spitfires Over Malta; Malta - Summer 1942 Game Settings
Basic Rules Initial Format - changes after in bold italics. 1. Arena Entry - When you go online you will see two logins to the S3 arena. The regular one is for the classic interface and the other is for the CA wingman jumping interface. Each pilot should choose the proper login for their a\c type and skill level. Both have advantages and disadvantages for bomber\strike pilots.
3. Operational Restrictions - each side may only conduct operations in the area outlined in the game map. Tunisia cannot be attacked during the series. 4. Ord\Aircraft Restrictions - there are no ord or drop tank restrictions. All aircraft may fly any loadouts available. 5. Aircraft Minimum Fuel - all aircraft must take at least 50% internal fuel with or without drop tanks. 6. Squad Aircraft - each pilot may fly any aircraft listed for their squad on the A/C table. Only 1 a\c type per frame, no switching a/c types during play. With hardly any bomber\strike pilots remaining in the S3s all squads should decide how best to use the a/c listed for their side and missions. 7. Closed Fields At-Start - all beachheads in Sicily and F212 are destroyed and closed for the series. They were not available in this time frame. 8. Squad Basing - each squad must base at a designated airfield during a frame using the following step allowances. They may rebase to an open airfield later in the night. The Allies must divide their aircraft steps equally between the three airfields on Malta. If fields close they may overstack on the remaining fields, again divided as equally as possible. The Seaplane base at F229 is only open to Swordfish and is not counted. F212 on Gozo is closed and not in play in this series.
9. Seaplane Bases - only Swordfish for the Allies and Ju87s/He111s for the Axis may use seaplane bases to take off and land on water. The ships at each seaplane base indicate the landing area. Landing outside the bounding ships will result in a crash. 10. AI drones - every player that uses an eligible bomber in a frame may take up to 3 wingman with their lead aircraft. To do so they must use the bomber\GV login so they can jump between their drones making them more effective and immerse. All bombers both player flown and AI will have the same damage strength and count the same as regards to points. It is best to keep your AI with you and not have them attack targets as they are prone to get lost and then are easy targets for enemy aircraft. Proper formations need to be flown while using these AI drones. For take-off it is recommended to put your AI in trail as close as possible so they dont wander. After you are airborne the minimum distance between AI is 100 ft. Players need to be aware of their AI when running formations and try and not stack them against each other. Using slightly different altitudes helps in this overlapping. Any formation deemed to be too clustered will be asked to shake out their separation a bit. With lag and such it is difficult but please try and make your formation look as realistic as possible. All bombers and strike aircraft may take drones. Bomber pilots that wish to use the old system simply have to login using the fighter login and select the number of wingmen they want, 0 to 3. Using this system when you die you are finished for the night and cannot jump to your AI wingmen. AI drones do not appear in the log so kills by them or structures destroyed by them cannot be counted by the S6. 11. Shipping Targets - moving AI ship routines are important targets for both sides with their possible routes indicated on the game map. You will need to recce these routes if you expect to find shipping. A few ships, possibly a convoy or nothing at all may reside along these routes. A range of DDs, FRs and boats will be in these routines. FRs are notorious for lag collisions so use stand off weapons on these. Boats are the difficult to hit with ord so usually need to be strafed down. DDs and FRs cannot be strafed down. 12. RAF Scramble - at T+0 the RAF may launch no more than 2 steps of fighters to patrol the airspace around Malta. Wellingtons or Swordfish going out on interdiction missions may launch at anytime. Any escorting fighters for strike a\c must be counted against the 2 steps if they are to leave before scramble orders are recieved. RAF Command will order airfields to scramble depending on the number of contacts reported on radar or by visual sighting from patrols. As more e/a are detected more scramble orders will be announced. The CM will indicate to the Frame CO when 1 airfield may scramble and he\she can then choose which one. Once all airfields have been scrambled then play may continue as normal for the rest of the night. 13. Field Damage - all field damage will remain down for the rest of the series. AI drones do not log their damage to structures so it is up to the CM to review damage at each target to make sure carry over damage is counted from AI bombers. Some will be missed due to the difficulty of some structures not having a damage state when destroyed. 14. Malta AAA - the flak on Malta was justifable famous with several gun control radars and numerous low-level bofors guns. Do not linger over any of the Maltese islands unless you want to be singled out and fired upon by numerous weapons. 15. Bomber Hardness - bufftuff will again be increased back to 1.5 from 1.0. Bombers continue to be relatively easy to down especially the AI variety. Not sure if the increase hardness will transfer to the CA switching wingman login but it should help the bombers choosing to fly the classic login with one life in one a/c. 16. Engine Overheat - a random chance of engine malfunction will occur if you run your engine beyond the specified 145 degrees. Use the various WEPs wisely. 17. Safe Ditch - if you run off the field and ditch within 10 miles(52800ft) of the tower the ditch is NOT awarded a kill. It is assumed that aircraft and pilot can be salvaged. 18. 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. 19. 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 to conduct a hair-raising mission behind enemy lines. If they survive they can teleport and replane in their regular ride. Examples of penalty plane errors include flying different a/c during a frame, teleporting fields when not allowed by special rules, gunning from ships or flak positions. 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.
20. Victory Points - points are awarded for e/a losses, enemy pilot KIAs and POWs as well as destruction of surface targets. Relative points for objects is available in the summary for this event. The most points go toward closing airfields\sinking ships for the axis and sinking ships\shooting down strike aircraft for the Allies. 21. Victory Conditions - The side with the most VPs at the end of the series wins. BDA, ships sunk, closing fields, planes shot down and pilot losses all score points. 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 or email Jabo. [ Aircraft - Series Map - Player Rules ] |