S3 Series

It is mid January 1945.

Gen MacArthur has waded ashore the beach of Lingayne Gulf, Luzon thereby fulfilling his promise to return.
The allies have established positions at the beachheads. The allied Naval force is anchored offshore while transports continue to offload 175,000 troops, equipment, and supplies. Allied forces advance inland on Japanese held positions.

The 262,000 Japanese forces commanded by General Tomoyuki Yamashita put forth only light resistance to the landings, instead opting to engulf and overwhelm the allies as they push inland.

Allied task is to support the advancing ground troops by destroying/suppressing Japanese fixed ack/otto positions which could stop the allied advancing columns.
Defend Naval vessels from player and kamikaze attack..

Axis task is to sink static and AI allied shipping and deny allied advance by destroying advancing GV’s (trucks and light APC’s)
Defend ack/otto at held positions from air attack.

<S> guys.

We do appreciate the work going into putting these events together, please don’t get me wrong with what I am posting here, but this is a concern among my squad this frame.
One quit entirely, and 3 or so decided after frame 2 not to participate this series.

Axis this series is taking quite a pounding air to air, and most of my squad is fairly discouraged.

My question is about lethality of the .50 cals vs perhaps the toughness setting of the Japanese ac. And visa versa.

When probably less than a dozen guys rack up 109 kills in a single frame there is something amiss. (Some get 9 or so kills in one sortie)

Did the Axis AI (Zekes, Kates, Vals) get a low buff tuff setting in order for game play since there are so many of them vs real pilots, and if so, did that toughness (or lack there of) get transferred to the aircraft of the real pilots flying Axis? Since it would most likely be a global setting.

We kept getting taken out in our Zekes with minimal pings. I only heard 1 for my last death in Frame 4. That was the story among most of my squad.
Our 20mm seem to have little or no effect. (We have been shooting at D2 to D1)

Also, in frame 3 we lost 3 of us trying to attack a single TBF by its Otto. We riddled it with 20s and he still didn’t die.
Our Kate / Val drivers get taken out usually with one quick pass by F6Fs

I assume there is no Otto on the Kami Kates and Vals since IRL there would only be the one pilot.

Thanks,

Swanee

Swanee,
Appreciate concerns. To answer your questions:
Kamis can be relatively easy to kill. They don't maneuver unless actively attacking. Hence a high number of kills against AI. Not Allies have been using very strict fire discipline when attacking Kamis to same ammo. When Kamis start to dive they can be extremely difficult to catch.
Buff tough is the same for players and AI (I am not aware of a way to set them separately). Buff tough was set at 1.2 for the last frame, i.e. more resilient than default. This did not affect the A6M kamis.
There is otto on the Kami buffs. Allies suffered a few losses to it, especially when chasing G4Ms (both AI and player). The F6F engine readily develops oil leaks when hit, making defensive fire a serious concern.

Based on my own (poor) gunnery, I have found the Axis aircraft challenging to bring down with no easy kills. I cannot speak to the effectiveness of the HO cannon or the armour in the USN aircraft (although likely significantly tougher than in axis planes). Those would be questions for robert.

Must post instructions for frame 5. Good hunting!