Working on a new campaign

[Discus]

Understood. Thanks.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I finished and flight tested missions 22, 23 and 24 at Kwajalein. Those Usio ships, even with the Target dp used are serious "FLAK wagons!" I found little additional fleet information on the other Marshall Island invasion support efforts, so I'm debating whether or not to do 2 missions each for the invasions of Kwajalein and Roi before moving on to the attack on Truk - "Operation Hailstone." Comments or suggestions?

PS: I'm almost finished with the Roi invasion first mission... I have a total of 100 moving objects - 63 aircraft and 37 ships, to include 15 landing craft, moving in on the beaches. I'.m going to do 2 or 3 for Roi and then go on to Hailstone.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Update - Progress Report

Well, I finished the Truk fighter sweep last night and now I'm working on the Truk torpedo strike, divebomber strike, the night bombing raid and night intercept. I have to find more info on the type of divebombers aboard the Essex at that time - SBD-5 or SB2C - and whether she had night fighters. The presence of night fighters and radar equipped TBFs will dictate whether or not I do the intercept and night bombing raid missions for this campaign.

So far I've completed 27 missions. According to my chart, the player will randomly fly them in 16 campaign missions. Since I have that many done already, I'm gonna start work on the .cmg file with what I have, whenever I get tired of looking at the MB screen.

Note: OB shows no night fighters and she had SBDs on board.

Pics = Roi Invasion:

 

[mariereid]

You are doing great work my friend. I am sure we will feel like we have gone back in time! :salute::ernae:

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

You are doing great work my friend. I am sure we will feel like we have gone back in time! :salute::ernae:

Thanks Rick... I am trying to keep as close to the historical records as I can with dates, names and locations. Outcomes are the result of player action and chance

I finished the second day raid on Truk - mission 30 - this AM and will do the same mission for a TBF. The player will randomly fly one of these two missions. I chose not to do additional second day strikes and move on to Saipan and the Marianas instead. This campaign is going to be long enough as it is.

Back to the Truk missions: I have the player attacking targets on one island - Moen - while other formations attack other islands. This does nothing but add "eye candy" to the missions, but the frames seem okay on my laptop. With all the ships in the anchorages, I used only a few of Usio's craft so as not to significantly impact playability.

PS: Just finished mission 31. Now to do my research for 32 and beyond...

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I finished the first Marianas mission - an itercept mission - and am working on the strikes on Saipan. I'll do 3 for Saipan and 3 for Guam. I'll be adding random enemy aircraft to break the monotony of pure strike missions.

For the Aslito/Saipan strike I'm trying staggered, different flight paths to lessen collision opportunities and to break the monotony for me It is recom,ended that the player do not use MR's Marianas as it's too early in the war for those bases and I'm building on stock mesh/scenery there.

 

[mariereid]

Have ya run into a snag, my friend? Are ya busy with scenery, or are ya researching?:salute::ernae:

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I had a minor snag... The Marianas CAP mission got corrupted somehow and I had to redo it. Other than that, everything is going fine. :salute: I finished the 3 Saipan strike missions and I'm about to start on the 2nd of 3 Tinian strikes tonight, then on to Guam. This is all in late FEB 44, a few months before the invaion and "Great Turkey Shoot" in June.

I'm on the road right now and without a joystick. I'll be home Friday and can resume flight testing them then.

 

[bearcat241]

...All the info I've found about this plane is that it entered service in mid 44, and we're talking about Nov43 here. Maybe is the pilot report written years later and he's confusing it with another plane (a B6N Tenzan is very similar in shape)?

There's only a six to seven month span - give or take a couple of weeks - from 11/43 to 6/44. Regarding the finer points, historians don't always tell the most accurate stories. They use a different set of filters in compiling the "facts". Its often best to lean some weight on the word of the men and women on the front. Just because a plane is reported as entering service on a certain date for historical record doesn't make it 100% accurate, even if collaborated from multiple sources. These reports are often based on mass deployments in numbers, whereas a plane may actually have seen operations in very limited numbers before full mass production began delivery to the front.

I've heard people say that the FW190 wasn't "operational" during the BOB period, but you may read sparodic accounts of Spit V's tangling disastrously with the early Butcherdird over northern France during the close of this campaign and the months following. Same with Zero's over China and SE Asia during the AVG heyday -- the Zero wasn't yet "operational" either during this time, but a few AVG guys claimed to have engaged them on a very limited basis.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

I dood it!

Finished Tinian and set up Guam with all sorts of juicy targets. I'll work on the Guam missions themselves some tomorrow morning and evening. According to my sources, all these attacks took place on Feb 23rd, so I'm going to have to recover the Tinian planes, swing around and get into range to hit Guam before sunset...

My 12 year old daughter is getting an academic award here in Frederick MD for a poem she wrote and we are going to the ceremony at 6PM and dinner. I leave to go home Friday AM and will flight test the missions I finished after I get there and rest a bit. Busy day ahead...

Ooops! I just looked at my research notes and found that I forgot a fighter sweep over Guam on the 22nd. I quickly set up a shell for that and will build it first starting tomorrow.

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Home now... I flight tested the Guam fighter sweep mission twice. I have 6 groups of 3-4 Japanese aircraft taking off from the airbase, and despite a 20-30 second interval between them, they kept having collisions. So I scrapped that idea and changed the mission so all but 2 have an in-the-air spawn.

I'll flight test the remaining 6 missions this evening after dinner.

 

[mariereid]

Sounds like you are just about done! Jeez man, What are ya gonna do, 6 big campaigns a year!? :salute::ernae:

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Sounds like you are just about done! Jeez man, What are ya gonna do, 6 big campaigns a year!? :salute::ernae:

DONE!!!??? Ha, ha... I stil have the Marianas invasion, Palau, the Philippines, Okinawa, Formosa and the raids on Japan to do. I'm only at the end of FEB 1944.

 

[mariereid]

Sorry bud, I wasn't trying to rush ya, hee, hee.:salute::ernae:

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

DONE!!!??? Ha, ha... I stil have the Marianas invasion, Palau, the Philippines, Okinawa, Formosa and the raids on Japan to do. I'm only at the end of FEB 1944.

...But I did finish the first Marianas raids and flight tested them. Now the Essex is headed for San Fran for her only WWII overhaul. She'll be back in action in June 44 again in the Marianas invasion I will skip the training raids on Marcus and Wake) and the "Marianas Turkey Shoot." :salute:

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Need a recommendation:

Nakajima B6N1: Starting with the Marianas invasion I need one of these. The first one I found in the archives is Thicko's bird. It looks pretty good, and he has a good rep, so I'm just asking for any other recommendations for the "Jill".

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Sorry bud, I wasn't trying to rush ya, hee, hee.:salute::ernae:

Not trying to rush myself either. I get bored easy, being here by myself and just get the urge to open up MB.

I finished building the Marianas convoy strike mission - June 12, 1944, just before the Saipan invasion. I used a few Usio ships, some VN craft and the new ship from Collin's site - 20 ships in all. I built (as I often do) 3 missions - F6F, TBF and SB2C. I flight tested the F6F mission but got my wing shot off as soon as I released my bombs. I'll flight test that one again and the other two tomorrow.

Historically the Essex didn't participate in the air battles and fleet strike mission of the Battle of the Philippine Sea (Great Marianas Turkey Shoot). I'm debating using her anyway. What do you guys think? The campaign has plenty of island raids already and I'd like to break it up a bit.

 

[mariereid]

Hmm... your campaigns are usually a great history lesson. I know you do a lot of research and have a great deal of knowledge about military history. I will live with whatever you decide to do.:salute::salute::salute:






psst......keep it real! :ernae:

 

[bearcat241]

....Historically the Essex didn't participate in the air battles and fleet strike mission of the Battle of the Philippine Sea (Great Marianas Turkey Shoot). I'm debating using her anyway. What do you guys think? The campaign has plenty of island raids already and I'd like to break it up a bit.

Sounds good to me, but since we have all of the participant fleet carriers available in CFS2, do you really want the extra work?

 

[Shadow Wolf 07]

Sounds good to me, but since we have all of the participant fleet carriers available in CFS2, do you really want the extra work?

Thanks. Good point. I don't mind the work... it helps keep me sane. Talon has already covered that engagement. More opinions?

Update: 23 missions out of 44 possible various mission options done.