S3 Series

Turnout could have been stronger, but we get what we get. A big welcome to chrger and chzwhz who were new to the S3. Hope to see you again.
Green team (Allied Frame 1 and 2) - 9 pilots
352nd - juice=, =wilz=, redsgt, noflyz, vokker, crhtwo
23rd - n/a - grumpy is having mic issues
No Squad - chrger, chzwhz, okdoc-
32 individual sorties: 36 in F4F-4 and 5 in TBF-1

Gold Team (Axis Frame 1 and 2) - 6 pilots
4thFG - coolon, jedijc, -navy-, bombr-
RCAF - muzz--, yukone
26 individual sorties: 18 in Bf109F-4, 6 in Fw190A-2 (one pilot only), 2 in Ju88A-4

A few challenges at frame start. Late log ins by noflyz and chrtwo led me to assign chrger and chzwhz to green team. I had wanted okdoc- to fly for gold, but he only had TS comms, so I assigned him to green. This led to a significant player imbalance with our small numbers.
This was somewhat offset by two errors on my part:
1) a typo in the dronewing file that prevented green from having TBF-1 wingmen, seriously degrading greens strike potential. I was not aware of this until after the frame; and
2) a design error in the CV Gp mbl files (90 deg turn with waypoints too close together) that caused the ships to endlessly circle in the NE corner of the CV Gp box. This made flight ops off the CV challenging after ~ T+20.

Frame saw minimal offensive effort on the part of Allied strike aircraft, but lots of fighter vs fighter combat. Numbers, firepower, maneuverability and durability of the F4F-4 gave the relatively lightly armed Bf109F-4s a challenge. As expected, the firepower of the FW109A-2 was a killer, but targets were difficult to line up.
Ack was thick, but seemingly ineffective. Several LW pilots reported hits from their own ack gunners.

Results

Team Green - Allied
Kills - 7
F4F-4s shot down: 2 Ju88A-4 maritime reconnaissance aircraft, 4 Bf109F-4, and 1 Fw190A-2
Targets Destroyed
7 ground targets (4 OT_ReadyRoom and 3 OT_House)
Losses - 8
F4F-4: 2 to enemy fighters, 1 to friendly fire (PK of juice= by chrger), 3 to flight mishaps. Reminder to the new guys, KILLSHOOTER is OFF!
TBF-1: 1 to enemy fighters, 1 to its own ordnance (okdoc-)
Victory Points Scored
7 points for destroying 7 ground targets at Port 168 (Bodo)

Team Gold - Axis
Kills - 3
Fw190A-2 (jedijc) shot down: 2 F4F-4, 1 TBF-1
Bf109F-4: no kills
Losses
Fw190A-2: 1 to enemy fighters
Bf109F-4: 4 to enemy fighters, 1 to a flight mishap
Ju88A-4: 2 to enemy fighters (NB - Ju88 was flown twice due to comms error with CM)
Victory Points Scored
5 Pts for Maritime recce aircraft locating and successfully reporting the position of USS Ranger before being shot down.

FRAME TWO SET-UP
Identical to frame 1 except Green team trades their TBF-1s for SBD-5s (with 2 wingmen this time!)
See: RITA Rules
Green team CO to advise CM desired position/course for CV Gp NLT 2300hrs EDT, Friday 4 Nov.

Side assignments for non-affiliated pilots are subject to change, depending on player turnout.

S3 Arena open for practice until 1600hrs EST, Sunday 6 Nov.
Remember Daylight Savings Time ends Saturday night.