S3 #70 - The Rain Begins; ETO 1942-43

Game Settings

  • USAAF Players(green) - 114 est
  • LW Players(gold) - 61 est
  • Icons – d24 friendly, d8 range, d8 enemy plane
  • Winds – none
  • Clouds - random, greater chance of heavy clouds in Winter & Fall
  • Radar 60 mile radius, grey dots, inflight arrow. Minimum alt is 1000 ft.
  • Flak - all Flak is limited to 40,000ft in height.
  • USAAF Airfields(green) - England
  • LW Airfields(gold) - Europe
  • Fuel Multipler - set at 1.0 for all planes.
  • Rebuild Time - 300 mins
  • Game Length – 180 mins
  • Lives – 1 life per frame
  • Game Scale - 1 squad = 1 historical unit and 1 frame = 1 season of operations.

Basic Rules

Initial Format - subject to change before the first frame.

Start Times - each frame uses the following schedule;

  • T-30 - Dawn - flight enabled for USAAF bombers
  • T+0 - Dawn - flight enabled for all allied a/c and specific German Air Zones.
  • T+30 - Full light
  • T+160 - Dusk, last surface attacks completed all a/c must disengage ASAP.
  • T+180 - Near dark, all squads must be in tower or on final.

Operational Restrictions - each side may only conduct operations in the area outlined in the game map.

Two Series Campaign - TRB represents 1942-44 and is just the first in a Bombers into Germany campaign and is followed by EOTS which represents the 1944-45 era. Target Damage, A/C steps and specops missions carry over into the next series so strategic planning must be used. In EOTS as the war draws to a close some targets in France and The Low Countries will be removed from play so this must be considered as well. Most fighter squads will switch sides between series but the bomber groups and strike will fly Allied for both. These squads should take the lead in planning as they will see it carried through for 10 frames.

Airfield Basing - before the series begins squads are assigned to airfields with no more than 2 steps per field. Some larger squads will have to split up initially. After play begins squads may land and rebase at any friendly airfield ignoring any step limits.

Luftwaffe Basing Restrictions - German squads are assigned to the two Air Zones designated as targets by the Allies for that frame. German Air Zones are indicated by black lines. See map. A minimum of 5 steps must begin play in each zone. Each German Air Zone has a start time ranging from T+0 to T+45. Squads based in a particular zone must waiting until the specific start time before launching.

Allied Basing Restrictions - allied squads are assigned to the two Air Zones in England as indicated by the green line. See map. A minimum of 10 steps must begin play in each zone. Each allied air zone must be assigned a separate German air zone to attack by the Frame CO. Bombers and strike a/c from each allied zone must only attack ground targets.

Allied Spacing Restrictions - allied strike(specops) or bomber squads from each air zone must stay at least one grid(40 miles) away from each other once they are feet wet from England. BGs from each air zone may fly a combined mission profile but they must have two distinct groups separated by at least 40 miles. Fighter squads from each zone do not have to obey this restriction unless they are conducting a strike mission(specops).

Aircraft Steps - each side begins with a list of a/c steps. These steps are assigned to squads by the Frame CO for frame 1 based on each squads listed step value on the a/c table. This step value is not based upon actual turnout for the frame. For every 6(fractions rounded up if the total is 4-6, down if the total is 1-3) a/c type claimed as shot down the step total is reduced by 1. Each side in Frame 2-5 will have a variable amount of steps added as reinforcements to make up for losses.

USAAF Bomber T-30 Start - Allied bombers may launch at T-30 to gain alt for the frame, they cannot go feet wet until T+0. No other a/c may launch early. This includes all heavies and the Dh98IVB.

Luftwaffe Air Zone Delay Starts - each German air zone has a different start time for the squads assigned to it. The closest zones are T+0 while the farthest is T+45.

Bomber Hardness/Otto - bombers have their usual toughness settings for the ETO and will be tough to bring down. Go up their 6 and you will be shot down, otto will track and kill straight line attacks, constant plinking and wearing away at the bombers to get them to drop from formations is the only way safe way to score a kill.

Target List - a tally of all Allied and German targets is location on the target list. The Allied Frame CO must decide what two German Air Zones to attack and announce his intent to the enemy. Targets must be in these two air zones and targets assigned from the list provided. Specops can be requested and details will be forthcoming from the CMs.

Target Hardness - factory complexes are very difficult to damage heavily. Bombers must salvo large bombs onto the major factory buildings to destroy them. City targets are easier and are subject to TOT. All ETO targets are tougher and all bombs have smaller blast radius so large bombs do more damage than small bombs. Each industry target has multiple building types with some more important than others to the capacity of the specific industrial complex. Total damage to an industry target is based upon the buildings destroyed there and their industrial value. A few high capacity or crucial buildings such as generators can be worth more than many secondary building types like pipes and smokestacks. For a comparison of values check out the targets and ord list. The industrial value is the relative importance of each object at an industry target. For example a a Fact Ball1 building is worth 6 and a refinary pipe is worth 1.5. For example Target 53 has 21 buildings worth 75 industrial points, five warehouse2 worth 5 pts each, four refinary building worth 6 pts each, two power2 worth 4 pts, six refinary tanks worth 2pts and four refinary sep worth 1.5 pts.

Target Damage - to have a target ruled destroyed and score points 90% of the building value must be reached. The building value of a target is based upon the target and ord list. Based upon the object hardness value each building is assigned a value and 90% of the total value must be destroyed before the target is ruled damage. All damage to targets is tracked over time and repairs to damaged targets occur at a rate of 10% per frame continuing into the next series. Once ruled destroyed a target is removed from play for this and the second series in this campaign. TOT targets are ruled destroyed when that city is closed by TOT. There is no carry over damage to these targets as they represent the substantial transport network in the area. Spec ops missions are unique and only after all conditions outlined in the secret orders are met will they be ruled destroyed. They to have no carry over damage and can only be attempted once in either series of the campaign.

Special Ops - each side may conduct spec ops missions for points. The Frame CO must ask for a special ops mission as defined by a Letter code. Secret instructions are then sent or posted detailing these highly specialized missions. Once asked for the spec ops cannot be refused and must be attempted. Each special ops mission may only be attempted once regardless of result in both series of the campaign. Special ops may use non-standard a/c and have AI targets that can move out of specific zones, etc. Spec ops planes and losses are not counted toward each sides totals. All those squads from T2T2 that were assigned a number of penalty planes may use special ops missions to satisfy this penalty. For each plane flown on a special ops one plane is removed from their penalty total.

Flak Concentrations - AI flak will be present in the various red concentrations on the map. Either 40mm or 88mm flak will be located here and the white number represents those flak division located there. CMs will load and unload these depending on the situation and server load.

Random AI - ships, transport planes, static planes at airfields or mobile AA may be encountered at anytime outside regular specops and play to represent the randomness of combat and encounters. So dont relax even if you think you are in a safe area.

CM Radar - there is good radar coverage on this map at 60 mile radius. Radar alt is 1000ft and NOE is possible. CMs will not report bombers or NOE raiders off the coast of either England or Europe. A/C within visual of the coast can have their altitude, heading and type reported. This will continue over the mainland and it will be sporatic if the a/c are in smaller groups. Large BGs will almost always be accurately reported once over enemy territory. Small groups(6 or less) of NOE raiders will not be reported once past the coast until they destroy something that appears in the buffer and only then generic locations of the destroyed targets will be given. The only exception to this is if heavy bombers go NOE or large groups fly together over enemy territory. Coastal locations were heavily patrolled and fortified so all A/C crossing the coastline stand a good chance of being reported NOE or not.

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 their squad. Examples include flying different a/c during a frame, teleporting fields when not allowed by special rules, gunning from ships or flak positions.

  • Allied Penalty Planes - Hurricane IIC or B25C.
  • LW Penalty Plane - Bf110G2

Penalty planes assigned from T2T last year can be removed by flying either one of the above types or any a/c outlined in a specops mission. Squad Penalty Plane Tallies are kept in the PPlist.

Victory Points - are based upon target damage, TOT attacks, specops missions and bombers shot down and damaged during play. Except for bombers all targets have different values and are detailed in the target list. Only heavy bombers(B17/B24) count for 1 pt and all damaged bombers count for 0.25 pts

Victory Conditions - Victory conditions are cumulative and a winner is declared only after all the frames have been run for both series of the campaign. The total points for both sides are compared after all 10 frames;

  • 0-10 point difference is a draw
  • 11-20 point difference is a minor victory for the side with the greatest number.
  • 21+ is a major victory for the side with the greatest number.

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.

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