S3 Series

There' s no room to be sneaky.. we get about 90 minutes of flight time per sortie and the round trip takes roughly 75 minutes if perfect. More like 80 minutes..

There are several fields that can be taken out by 4 bombers w/ 3x500s. Might be worth while thinking about.

Not to mention, if the initial Hellcat hammer works the second trip could be heavy to mop up base remnants and shipping. Can't really afford to split up the fighter cover initially, or I would suggest again F6Fs could level bomb with the buffs. 77 would be up to the task (that be 8-16 bombs). Odds favor a fighter duke out initially so that strike missions have as little opposition as possible.

I am open to anything. Still we have to do it as a group or be wiped out.

Hellcats going straight in will catch the majority of the Zeroes low. Radar/Jabo gives them about 8.5 minutes advance warning.


We should go full force straight there and kill the zeroes we find before the bombers ever think about launching.

Climb the Hellcats to the altitude for best speed and show up on radar at that altitude straight to 20 in squadron groups. We will all converge on the enemy at 20.

Second sortie the Hellcats can escort the bombers in.

It sucks to show up and sit in the tower for an hour...
But it is not unprecedented. I know that Axis forces have had to wait in tower for the bombers to be located.

if need be the Stalkers can come in with Hellcats and hit an outlying target to help draw out the fighters.
As for the bombers, perhaps it could be considered a "vacation" not coming in until an hour into the frame, reward for previously having to be in a half hour early. ???

Hawk Sir,
Not to take anything away from the Buff guys, lord knows I am usually one, but the TBD did poorly on the boats and required too many resources to protect them. 14 pilots took down 10 ships. Face it, the TBD sucks doggy do-do. The F6F's can clean up on static ships, they are super easy targets to strafe down. I am looking for a role for the buffs that the fighters can't do.

Noflyz,
I know you want to hit higher value targets but I would prefer that you hit 25 1st sortie so you can be covered. Going inside the ring requires the fighters cover for an additional 20 min. Second sortie, hopefully we can go anywhere.

I am going to be AFK until Sunday so lets think about it and let me know.

Musky,, can the TBD's level bomb whatever good ground targets you can find under our best F6F umbrella, while
strike F6F's like the Stalkers simultaneously rip up the shipping elsewhere in the atoll? There are boat targets scattered
everywhere. For instance if we level bombed and drew the fight south, once that started could F6F strike rip up north shipping
at the same time and scoot before the bad guys got there? You can outrun zekes, anytime, anywhere. Just don't start turning...

Aye aye!

Problem with taking out fields is the rules we have nowadays. We can't get all the points for a field without taking out all the "counters".

Hiting boats and such for points works for the buffs now. If all we can do is to get points for field closure, then we ain't gonna make it this time around ( or many other scenarios).

To close a field requires all buffers to have tgt maps and designated tgts to hit and practice before showing up Sundy night. We have to destroy every stinking tgt that counts on the "show file" annotation for closure. It's too many - like 100%. Sheesh.

So looks to this old man like best bet is to get points hitting boats. If we get points for base tgts without "closing" the base, then great!!! Rules are not clear about this.

lastly, I see no reason to hold the buffs. The lites are faster and can also hit tgts besides the Zeroes. With good close escort we can hit anything that gets points and fly a second mission. We ain't fooling anyone. They know we are coming and know where we are gonna hit. Kinda like a Pearl Harbor S3. Duhhhh?

+++++++++

A better scenario would be no known tgts for the IJN/LW/VV/RAF/AAF/RCAF.

Set the map and dates and order of battle and let the dogs of war loose.

++++++++

Gums sends...

You are in luck. The next S3 IS Pearl Harbor.

The UMM strive to obey orders. That includes our UMM CARD CARRYING brothers (ahem.. Mr. Gums) who fly under different colors ;-P

The Frame CO is requesting hitting bases specifically F25 on the first sortie. So let's be a little data driven here for a minute and look at it.

Inventory for Field: Flak 25
-------------------------------------
Mandatory Targets
=============
2 AD Various fortified ammunition storage bunkers at airfields and tactical positions. 1250 - each is going to require 2x500lbs. Lets put 3 for good measure. 2 bombers
1 RD Square radar mast or circular listening dish - determines radar ingame. 2000 - 3x500lbs - lets put 6 for good measure - 2 bombers
2 ET Various large buildings that house troops at airfields, bases and ports. 2000 - each is going to require 3x500, again double up and 4 bombers

Total of 8 bombers (really being liberal w/ the bombs here.. can be done with as little as 3 bombers). I hit the EM w/ 2x500s with wingman set real close and it went down. Same both ammos will go down if you drop 3x500 along with the AI set about 80 yards or so.. and similar 3x500 between the buildings takes em down.

Optional Targets
===========
1 G2 Small flak position in dirt ring OR medium sandbag ring with MG and man. 200
2 G1 Twin MG position with man. 200
2 G0 Large flak gun in sandbag ring. 500


So as far as we can get 3-5 bombers to F25 it will go down. There are easier flak positions to close that can be closed by as little as 2 bombers and AIs. So if we have free reign of the skies after the F6Fs massacre all the Zeros, we could go on a nice milk run closing a bunch of these small targets.. Heck if we can get 20 bombers including AI over the targets we could close 12,13 & 20 leaving them no fields to fly out of for frame 4! (Ok don't get carried away noflyz...)

Here again fields in order of damage needed to close em.

Field - TOT - Bombers Needed
11 - 8500 - 3 - 4
15 - 8500 - 3 - 4
16 - 8500 - 3 - 4
29 - 9000 - 3 - 4
06 - 9500 - 3 - 5
19 - 10000 - 3 - 5
25 - 10100 - 3 - 5
09 - 12500 - 4 - 6
26 - 13400 - 4 - 6
28 - 13900 - 4 - 7
13 - 15600 - 5 - 7
08 - 16500 - 5 - 8
31 - 17200 - 5 - 8
30 - 19100 - 5 - 9
12 - 19450 - 6 - 9
24 - 21100 - 6 - 10
03 - 21600 - 6 - 10
27 - 24400 - 7 - 11
20 - 27900 - 8 - 13
21 - 27900 - 8 - 13
10 - 32900 - 9 - 15
14 - 33850 - 9 - 15
05 - 35100 - 10 - 16
04 - 39350 - 11 - 18
17 - 42400 - 12 - 19
07 - 59350 - 16 - 26
18 - 62700 - 17 - 28
22 - 130650 - 35 - 57