S3 Series

http://www.squadselectseries.com - new map and summary

Frame 2 saw the Allies hit with a massive strike by Beaufighters and P38s on the southernmost field of New Britain. F46 was worked over at low-level and closed after repeated passes. P38s held off the Japanese interception from the vulnerable Beaus and several of the newest Japanese fighters were downed with no loss to the P38s. Successful on this sortie the RNAAF strike aircraft retreated to bases south of New Britain. Their luck would not hold.

The second Allied sortie was a combined B24 and Beau strike into the heart of the Japanese defences. Rabual was the target and the P38s were out front and sweeping any Japanese response on the left flank of their force. Large engagements were fought between the two fighter forces off the southern ports along the way to Rabual. Over F39 a particularly intense battle was fought down to the deck. P38s again were the masters shooting down 22 Japanese while only losing 1. P40s and B24s accounted for the remaining 5 kills.

The bomber and strike force continued on and hit the city of Rabual hard but only a few anchored ships were sunk and little of the freighter force fleeing the harbor. Low Beaufighters were all over the water but the P40 escort stayed high with the returning B24s. That was when disaster happened and a large Japanese fighter group bounced the Beaus shooting down 21 of the Aussie planes in a running fight. Four more were shotdown by ship or town AAA and several twin-engine aircraft left the area trailing smoke for the long flight home.

Because of this heavy loss of strike aircraft primarily due to the Japanese 1st line fighter force the Japanese won their first frame.

Allied forces did manage to get a hidden airfield(F50) up and running deep in the valley west of Lae.
Map and summary updated.

Notes
1. Player lead AI formations worked well in Frame 2. Bombers had at least 100ft distance and looked good in diamond and line abreast formations. Beaufighter AI flew well and did not do many of the silly things actual AI routines do close to the ground. AI Beaufighters did seem to come apart very easily so there may be issues with the AIs in this respect. More testing needs to be done.

2. AI aircraft may not be scoring in the log so will need to find a work around for this if its true.

3. Ki44 has been reported with a boost issue. Need to confirm.

Ki-44 problem reported to the FM team and will be fixed.

Thanks billpe for finding it.

The issue is not with performance it is with HUD reporting of time remaining at Current Power setting.

Don't think it will be fixed by S3 time, but essentially multiply the time when boosted by 10 to get an idea of time remaining. And don't fly boosted all the time since it REALLY increases fuel flow.

Unboost...and check time remaining. Great catch, simple fat finger in the FM, and will be fixed.

Ty Robert for bringing this over to the FM thread.

Ki44 issue has been found and fixed but it wont be in S3 this week. Its just too late in the week for SPINDZ to do an update.

Everyone should fly the S3 planes as early and often as possible and post bug reports.

A few days earlier reporting and this would be in already.