WAR MACHINE - New ATAG/401 Campaign

[ATAG_Freya]

The focus and determination when planning an operation.
The spirit of comrades working together towards a goal.
The thrill of the job well done and the mission accomplished.
The valiant fight in a losing battle but ultimately winning the war....

ATAG and No.401 Sqn Present:

The War Machine campaign is designed to take place over many evenings of play, offering an organized event experience that evolves and changes around the actions and strategies of the players involved.

The teams will be organized into three 'Commands' each. Bomber Command, Escort Command, and Intercept Command. Players will sign up to participate as a pilot of one of these three branches with the understanding that they may transfer between the commands after the start of the campaign.

Bomber Command will be responsible for conducting attacks on enemy infrastructure. The destruction of fuel production, fuel storage, aircraft production, and rail networks is its primary responsibility. To that end, a Bomber Commander will be elected by the pilots of Bomber Command to select objectives, plan operations, and keep a general record of the progress of the campaign.

Escort Command will be tasked with providing Bomber Command with suitable and effective escort to and from their targets. Bombers are the most costly aircraft to produce for both teams and the team that conserves the most bombers while still managing to effect damage on the enemy will find itself gaining ground. An Escort Commander, elected by the pilots of Escort Command, will work in concert with the Bomber Commander to give each attack a suitable escort presence.

Intercept Command is in charge of the defense of the team's industry and as such is required to be ever vigilant for incoming raids. The pilots of this command must become intimately involved in the tracking of enemy contacts on radar, identifying incoming attacks, and scrambling to intercept and deflect the marauders. An Intercept Commander will be elected by the pilots of Intercept Command to help manage distribution of pilots to airfields and making sure that if a raid comes in there are aircraft and pilots to engage it.

In addition to these duties, the Commanders of the different divisions must work together to manage war materials to ensure the ability of their team to continue fighting. The blood of each team, aircraft and the fuel needed to fly them, is produced regularly and distributed to airfields and sectors. Ports have been damaged in sector 1? Transfer needed fuel from sector 2 to keep those airfields in operation. Bomber losses heavy in sector 3? Direct your factories to produce and deliver more bombers there.

The ultimate objective of the campaign is to destroy the enemy's industrial heart. For the Blue team, destroy the factories, ports, fuel storage, and rail stations in London. For the Red team, destroy the same in Arras. These targets lie deep in enemy territory, however, and reaching them without weakening the enemy's front line will be difficult.

Work together, coordinate, plan your strategies and execute them well and your team will find victory over the WAR MACHINE.

RULES

Due to the open ended nature of the campaign and the objectives therein, there is only one rule for this campaign and it revolves around the actions of bomber pilots. Bombers are restricted from departing for a combat mission unless there are 3+ bombers in the group with the same objective and the same course to target.

There is one exception to this rule and that is for ferrying aircraft from one base to another. As aircraft are limited and tracked, it may at times be necessary to fly a bomber from one airfield to another friendly airfield in order to bring the number of bombers at that airfield up to the number required to depart for a combat mission.

TIMES

Missions will be flown on Saturday North American Evenings @ 8:00pm - 12:00am eastern time. (GMT -5), beginning Feb. 27th

This link will give your local time of the event:

http://www.thetimezoneconverter.com/?t=8:00pm&tz=GMT-4&


WHERE

ATAG server 2 (named "ATAG's Bomber campaign" on the server list). We will use the ATAG server 2 section of Teamspeak, which will be named "War Machine" on the weekends.

TEAMS

Players who wish to participate in the missions involved in this Campaign must sign up in this thread and request placement in one of the Commands. Once each Command is full (or if not full once the campaign is near to beginning) elections for Commanders of each section will be held (the position is not permanent and may be transferred to another at will if the pilots of that command are willing).

NOTE: Switching teams from Red to Blue during the campaign will not be allowed and players who are seen to willfully join the game on the wrong side will be warned and then banned. Loose lips sink ships, et cetera.

RAF BOMBER Command will employ the Blenheim Mk IV
RAF ESCORT and INTERCEPT Command will employ the Hurricane Mk I, Spitfire Mk Ia and IIa

LUFTWAFFE BOMBER Command will employ the BF 110, He-111H-2, Bf109E-3b and Ju88A-1
LUFTWAFFE ESCORT and INTERCEPT Command will employ the Bf109E-3b and Bf109E-4

NOTE: There are no 'assigned' aircraft for the campaign. Production of aircraft is entirely up to each team. Later variant aircraft are more costly to produce, however. As your factories are bombed, it may become too costly to continue to produce the better variants and stop gap production of less expensive types may be required while your industrial capacity is repaired over time. They heavy bombers are the most expensive aircraft to produce.


RAF BOMBER COMMAND
1.
2. No.450 Caveman
3. No.450 Squiz
4. No.450 Devil
5. No.450 Kookaburra
6. ATAG_Knuckles
7. ATAG_Septic
8. Logan (20thBG Blackwolf)
9. 20thBG_Werewolf
10. 20thBG_Zights
11. 20thBG_Yorktown
12.|450|boom
+


RAF ESCORT COMMAND
1. No.401 Alpine
2. No.401 Speed
3. No.401 Hawk
4. No.401 Stic
5. No.401 Wolverine
6. Target
7.
8+

RAF INTERCEPT COMMAND
1. ATAG_Deacon
2. ATAG_Snapper
3. Kendy
4. Rush
5. ATAG_Flare
6. 71st_AH_SmokeJumper
7. Walsh
8+

__________________________________________________ _______
RESERVES (see post 2, notice 3)

RAF

ATAG_Monkeynut
Gromit
20thBG_Banshee
20thBG_Mudcat
Mr pickles

LW

Stab I./JG 51 - Bär
Stab I./JG 51 - Gallowitsch
Stab I./JG 51 - Mölders
Stab I./JG 51 - Schultz
71st_AH_Eagle
integralanomaly (Dirty Rotten Flieger)
Diamondaxe
ATAG_InvaderZim
__________________________________________________ _______
LUFTWAFFE BOMBER COMMAND
1. Lord Wukits
2. ATAG_Freya
3. ATAG_Soldat
4. TGIF_MAS
5. Hening
6. ATAG_Ribbs
7. RAF_Murmansk
8. Timber
9.
10.
11.
12.


LUFTWAFFE ESCORT COMMAND
1. ATAG_Dice
2. ATAG_Heavy
3. III./JG27_Kimbak-2
4. ATAG_Drock
5. ATAG_Torian
6. Kushviper
7. ATAG_Invictus
8. Kmac31
9. ATAG_Berserker
10. Gh0st
+

LUFTWAFFE INTERCEPT COMMAND
1. 9./JG52 Groove
2. DD_Perfesser
3. DD_Gothkrieger
4. DD_Squawk
5. 9./JG52 Reinhart
6. Ruff
7. AKA_Hangten
8+

Space is limited but if the server appears to be handling the player count and the map without strain, the available spaces will potentially be increased.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____________________________
SPECIAL 'BEFORE YOU ASK' SECTION

Q: "What is the reason for the aircraft available? Why did you make those choices?"
A: The short answer is 'because I've spent a lot of time designing these sorts of campaigns and balancing the aircraft sets to make the game enjoyable for everyone and this is my best guess at what will work here'.
The longer answer is that the Blue team has some significant advantages in terms of bomb loads with the Ju88 and He111, has the cannon rounds of the 109s, and has greater production capacity. The industrial capacity of the teams is NOT symmetrical. The Blue team has significantly more resources for aircraft production than the RAF team at the outset of the campaign. To offset this a little bit for the RAF, I've offered them their top tier fighter (but it is costly to produce), and restricted the secondary bomber type for the Blue team to the Stuka. So for any Blue player thinking that they're going to be facing waves of Spitfire IIa fighters, while it is possible that the Red team may decide to prioritize producing Spitfire IIa fighters, that would at the expense of the overall mission objective and very likely be a suicidal strategy for the Red team to take.

Q: "How many missions do I need to commit for?"
A: Look at this more as an on-going weekly battle, than a short term campaign. It could go on for months! It may even have a slightly different roster week in and week out, but we need players who are serious about having fun by taking on this challenge as a long-term endeavor. Players can fly every Saturday, but we all have lives to live and we know that it's humanly impossible to be there always. If you can commit to be involved, then please be involved as much as you can be. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Your team will appreciate your attendance, and maybe even forgive you when you miss one here and there...

Q: "How will teams communicate during the week and plan ops?"
A: Players who sign in will be given the necessary forum permissions to view a hidden Forum section for this purpose (Shortly before the campaign begins..)

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________________ ____________________________

*I would like to add a special thanks to No.401 Wolverine, for designing and building this unique and immersive campaign. Also to ATAG_Snapper, ATAG_Colander, and ATAG_Pantast for forum and server support.*

[ATAG_Freya]

Notice 1:
We certainly realize that the time of mission running is not entirely suitable for our UK/Eastern Europe/Russian/etc friends. It is very possible that an alternate instance of this map could run on server 2 through the week, along with the old ATAG training/racing mission for those who are interested, in order to allow everyone to enjoy the campaign mission at their leisure. Stay tuned for more info as the days pass...


Notice 2:
IF you feel you can not commit on a somewhat regular basis, there is no pressure to sign up.
ALL ARE WELCOME HERE! When you see us on TS on North American Saturday evenings, feel free to drop in and help out - Space permitting!
And remember - once you pick a side, you are commited to that side, no matter how often you fly, whether you are on the official sign up or not.

NOTICE 3:

Have added reserves lists for players who want to join and could only commit once in a while. This is to insure that they have access to their respective teams planning room so they can keep up to date with important campaign info.

Campaign info

Aircraft Production and Delivery

I can hear all the yawns and 'huh?'s out there. However, this is an important lesson, so listen up! The campaign is going to be won and lost by a team's ability to manage resource distribution. This includes fuel, but we'll get to that in another post.

As we fly, we crash. Crashing your aircraft can have one of several effects. Let's go through them!

Crash and Burn: If you crash in a way that blows up the aircraft, it's toast. The aircraft is lost.

Crash and Safe in Friendly Territory (not at an operational airfield): If you manage to crash land and keep the aircraft from blowing up, then the aircraft will be returned to your airfield of origin as 'unserviceable'. What this means is that the aircraft is saved and being worked on in the shops. At the end of the 4 hour mission, the aircraft is repaired and returned to active combat ready status! Well done! (NOTE: There is a bug with the Hurricane that requires you to 'unlock' the gear before attempting a wheels up crash landing otherwise CloD does not correctly record the crash landing)

Crash and Safe in Friendly Territory (at an operational airfield): If you manage to crash land and keep your aircraft from blowing up, the aircraft will be worked on right away and returned to combat ready status, ready to be flown from the airfield again. This is the benefit of returning to your airfield of origin or to any operational airfield.

What does an 'operational airfield' mean? An operational airfield is one of the 10 airfields that you have (11 if you are on Blue team) to use during the campaign. They are:
RED TEAM
Hornchurch
Eastchurch
Manston
Hawkinge
Biggin Hill
West Malling (Maidstone)
Lympne
Kenley
Redhill
Wilmington

BLUE TEAM
Berk
Tramecourt
Ligescourt
Barly
Boulogne Alprech
Marquise West
Coquelles
Oye-Plage
St-Omer Wizernes
Merville Calonnes
Arras

Safe landings at one of the your team's above airfields will, of course, return the aircraft to combat ready status at that airfield.

NOTE! If you land safely at a friendly airfield that is NOT in the list above, the aircraft will be treated as having had an emergency landing and will be declared unserviceable until the erks can look it over and return it to combat status at the end of the mission. In this way, the aircraft won't be lost, but it will be out of action for a time.

So what does this have to do with production, you may ask. Well, as you can see above, there are plenty of ways to lose your aircraft! Aircraft are not infinite! If you have 6 Spitfires at Hawkinge and 6 players take off and are all lost over the channel, there are no more Spitfires at Hawkinge! This is a huge advantage for the enemy if they are attacking targets in that area. It increases the time you need from detection to interception and makes all targets in that area more vulnerable.

So we replace those aircraft with production.

Under the TAB-4 menu, there is an option (5th in the list) for "Aircraft Production and Delivery". Accessing this option presents you with two more options "Production" and "Delivery".

Production is WHAT is being produced by your industrial sectors.
Delivery is WHERE production aircraft will be delivered when they are produced.

Each of your production sectors can focus on a different type of aircraft. London can make Blenheims while Kenley sector can make Hurricanes, for example. It is very important to be aware of the production capacity of each of your sectors in order to most efficiently use their production (viewable via the Sector Report from the TAB-4 menu). Because bombers and top tier fighters require more production capacity than their lower value alternatives, producing bombers in sectors that have low production capacity is going to yield fewer (if any!) aircraft than if they were being made in a sector with higher capacity.

Delivery is important and can also have an impact on your production for a few reasons. Each sector can deliver to airfields that are within it. Biggin Hill sector can deliver to Biggin Hill, West Malling, or Lympne. Kenley sector can deliver to Kenley, Redhill, or Wilmington. But the capital sector (London or Arras) can only deliver to Sector Headquarters. IE, London can only deliver to Hornchurch, Biggin Hill, or Kenley (or Tramecourt, Marquise West, or Merville if Blue). In this way, if you are producing Spitfires at London, but need them delivered to Manston, you would produce them in London with delivery to Hornchurch. Once delivered, you would need to fly them from Hornchurch to Manston. However, if you produced those Spitfires from Hornchurch Sector, you could deliver them straight to Manston without delay.

Production from each sector takes place half an hour after mission start and then every hour after that, so there are a total of 4 production phases every weekend mission.

Avoid running out of aircraft where you need them! Keep the bean counters on your side! Every aircraft is valuable and the fewer you lose, the fewer you have to account for when producing and delivering new ones.

S!

Let's talk fuel:

We've already looked at how aircraft and aircraft production will figure into strategy, but now we will look at how fuel distribution will layer on top of all that like a nice fresh dusting of snow. Deadly, inflammable snow.

Each sector has ports that produce fuel. They produce fuel based on the number of port capacity points they have available at the time of sector production (every hour after the first half hour of play). This fuel is deposited into the fuel silos that populate that sector and is then used for each flight that is made from airfields in that sector.

We've mentioned two things here that are important. Fuel ports and fuel silos.

The ports (represented by PORT CRANES) are where production occurs. The enemy can reduce the amount of fuel being produced by taking out the port cranes. This does not, however, reduce the current amount of fuel already deposited into the fuel silos.

The silos which contain the fuel represent two things: the fuel being stored AND the total amount of fuel that can be stored. If the enemy attacks these fuel silos they will first begin to destroy the fuel capacity (how much total fuel a sector can store). When the capacity is reduced to the point that there is no more empty capacity above the amount of fuel being stored, subsequent attacks will not only reduce capacity, but also destroy fuel stores.

IMPORTANT! Each flight from a sector requires fuel. The sector reports (accessed via the TAB-4 menu) will indicate how much fuel (and how much fuel capacity) is available to each sector. If you run out of fuel in a sector all airfields in that sector are shut down for operation until more fuel is produced or transferred!

Transferred? What is this about transfers? Let's talk fuel transfers.

Each sector has a rail component that is representative of the total number of train stations in each sector. Some sectors have a lot of train stations, some sectors only have a few. By accessing the Fuel Transfers menu from the TAB-4 system, you can assign transfers of fuel from one sector to another via the rail system.

It is critical to note that the transfer of fuel will be restricted by the LOWER of the two rail system values between the two sectors involved in the transfer. For example, the Blue team is attempting to transfer fuel from the Calais sector which currently has 100,000 gallons of fuel to the Le Touquet sector which currently has 0 fuel and a fuel capacity of 20,000. The Calais sector currently has a rail system with 30 points and the Le Touquet system currently has a rail system of 5 points. This means that, unless something changes via enemy action, the Calais sector could potentially transfer 3,000 gallons of fuel (30 rail points times 100 gallons). Unfortunately for Le Touquet, their low rail system points means that they can only receive 500 gallons each transfer cycle (until something changes via repairs or more damage).

I'm sure you've realized by now that the capital sector for the Red team, London, does not have any active airfields but it has plenty of ports! You're very clever. I knew that when I met you. This is, of course, correct. London produces and can store quite a lot of fuel while having no airfields or aircraft to use it up. This fuel can be transferred to the three other sectors as needed. Arras also produces and stores fuel, but very very slowly. Production for Arras, as it has no ports, is quite low. Like London, fuel stored in the Arras sector can be transferred out as needed. This is one good example of how the two teams are not symmetrical in their setup. The Red team has different strengths than the Blue team based entirely on the geography of the map. It will be important to learn these differences as you pursue your strategies.

NOTE! Fuel can be transferred TO London and Arras as well! Front line sectors may see their fuel networks attacked regularly. It may be advisable in times of plenty for fuel to be moved away from the front line to the capital sectors in order to build up a reserve that can be transferred in times of need.

So we begin to see the ways in which a team might attack their opponent. Destroy their rail networks and isolate a sector with low fuel production? Take out the major ports and starve the entire enemy force? Or do you take out major industrial areas and hope to hinder the production of aircraft to the point where the enemy can no longer afford to send bombers? Or destroy the enemy's fuel storage facilities so that even if they can produce fuel they have no where to store it? Which targets are easier? Which are well defended?

One thing is clear, however. You will need to commit to your strategy with a long term resolve. None of these systems can be destroyed in a day or even several missions. You'll have to stick to your guns and have faith in your strategy. Look for the subtle signs that it is having an effect. You can stack the dice as best you can, but at the end of the day you still have to throw them!

S!





Please note that the values described here are meant more as an abstract of the systems involved (clearly more than 500 gallons would fit on a single train). These systems have been designed to create the sentiment of the system as opposed to the reality. We do not have nearly as many aircraft or vehicles in the simulation to worry about as reality would dictate, so the system is scaled to the point where it has impact. Realistically, we would be dealing with fuel on the scale of hundreds of thousands of gallons, but we'd also be worried about fueling thousands of aircraft daily (which, we're clearly not).

[DRock]

Very cool! This is going to be fun.

I'm in for Blue Bomber.


Thanks for all the hard work on this project, Wolverine.

[ATAG_Deacon]

I would like to sign up for RAF Escort or Intercept, whichever has the greatest need.

What date will this begin?

[No.401_Wolverine]

Date for start has been set for the 27th of February to allow time for the teams to get signed up, organized with Command leads, and prepared for the campaign in general!

Sign me up!

I'll join Bomber Command to start I think with possible transfer.

Also, these guys should be signing up soon:

Alpine
StiC
Hawk
Squiz
Speed
Devil
Kookaburra

Not sure what commands they want. I'll get the word out for them to reply asap.

[9./JG52 gr00ve]

looks like fun, 109 intercept please

[Diamondaxe]

I'll take a bf 110 preferably a c7!!!!!!!! WOOT

Ok so i finished reading the mission. Sorry i read it at work on my phone and got a little overexcited when i saw this mission occurs when im off. So no 110's...ok i agree that they are a little unbalancing...blenheims quake in fear at the mere mention of the name....spitfire sputter and huricanes hurrry away...109's breathe a sigh of relief and stucka's think of us a big brother... I guess i can wait till mext round of missions....sniff...

[ATAG_Freya]

I'll take a bf 110 preferably a c7!!!!!!!! WOOT

You may want to read the 1st post more carefully...

[ATAG_Snapper]

Please put me down for Fighter Intercept or Escort -- whichever is needed most.

[ATAG_Freya]

Please put me down for Fighter Intercept or Escort -- whichever is needed most.

Will put you with Deacon - Keep a closer eye on him this time.. lol

[ATAG_Freya]

Quick note:

We certainly realize that the time of mission running is not entirely suitable for our UK/Eastern Europe/Russian/etc friends. It is very possible that an alternate instance of this map could run on server 2 through the week, along with the old ATAG training/racing mission for those who are interested, in order to allow everyone to enjoy the campaign mission at their leisure. Stay tuned for more info as the days pass...

[ATAG_yotheguy]

This is going to be so much fun, and I like how anyone can join.

LUFTWAFFE ESCORT COMMAND for me please.

[No.401_Wolverine]

I think StiC will probably want to go Escort with the other guys. Need to confirm though.

A good thing for us to do once the teams are set is get a few of the guys together from each command for a little teamspeak summit about how all this is going to go. As Freya says, this campaign isn't a sprint - it's a marathon. Instead of constant air action, the gameplay is going to be a lot more like actual operations: period of tense waiting or long distance flights interspersed with brief periods of all out manic excitement.

It's a formula that works. In the past, we've found that this sort of gameplay really gets the blood pumping and puts the pressure on not to make mistakes. The intercept command is going to need to keep an eye on radar, watching and waiting for enemies to start crossing the coast. The enemy is going to try and fool you! If you scramble to intercept something that turns out to be a fighter sweep, you're going to be hard pressed when the actual bombers start coming in on the other side of the map! When you finally get a contact report off of the radar that pinpoints an enemy raid, you get the excitement - you've got a job to do. You get into the air with your intercept group and track it, getting ever closer as you move to cut the raid off. Radar tells you you should be on top of it and then someone spots them. Then the palms really get sweaty.

Topping it off is the fact that if you don't stop that raid, you've got real consequences that aren't just going to be felt in the next few hours. Those results may be felt for the next few weeks.

[ATAG_Septic]

Thank-you Wolverine, Freya et al!

I don't know whether I'd be able to attend regularly enough because of the time for us GMT chaps but would like to be on a reserve list if such were possible?

I'm better in bombers (as the auto-pilot gives my faulty arm a break) but can fly fighters. Also happy to do some transport flights as required.

Red preferred if poss.

Septic.

Spiffing show chaps!

[Squiz]

Confirming RAF Bomber Command please.

|450|Caveman expects that his internet will be fixed in the next week so please include him in RAF Bomber Command.

|450|Squiz

[ATAG_Dave]

First off - to all involved in creating this.

Im in the UK and cant commit to the original stated time - If something does get sorted for a GMT evening friendy time then I would sign up for a Red fighter position (any role as required).

GL to all

S!

[ATAG_Ribbs]

Put me down as a 109 escort! The dark side...hmmm

Cheers!

[ATAG_Soldat]

Hi Guys Soldat here Bomber Command JU-88 Please
Thanks

[ATAG_Flare]

Timing isn't ideal, right at dinner pacific time . . .

Would there be a problem if I joined in two hours in to the missions? If there isn't, sign me up for red, bomber or intercept! This looks AWESOME, you guys are doing a great job.

EDIT: If a europe friendly time was available then I'd most likely be able to make it - lunchtime/afternoon for me is better than 5pm.

[ATAG_Freya]

Timing isn't ideal, right at dinner pacific time . . .

Would there be a problem if I joined in two hours in to the missions? If there isn't, sign me up for red, bomber or intercept! This looks AWESOME, you guys are doing a great job.

EDIT: If a europe friendly time was available then I'd most likely be able to make it - lunchtime/afternoon for me is better than 5pm.

No problem - Notice # 2 in post # 2 might apply in this case

[No.401_Speed (YO-R)]

post deleted

[Dice]

Luftwaffe Escort Command confirmed .

[invictus84]

I'd like to fly either Luftwaffe Escort Command or Intercept Command.

My only cavet is that I cannot usually join until between 9 and 9:30PM ET. House rules here in the Invictus household, and....


House Rules Shalt Not Be Broken Lest One Wishes To Risk The Wrath Of The Missus!!








She frightens me. She really really does.

[kookaburra]

Put me down for a Blennie thanks. |450|Kookaburra YO-K

[tgif]

I would to like to go for the blue Bomber command if possible Thanks TGIF MAS

[ZoRPA]

Oh wow! This sounds like a lot of fun. I am however without internet connectivity and won't be able to join in. Pity.
I will keep my eye on this thread for the screenshots/videos of the aftermath.
Have a blast!

[Berserker]

LUFTWAFFE ESCORT COMMAND
1. ATAG_Dice
2. ATAG_Heavy ? - awaiting command posting
3. ATAG_Berserker ? - awaiting command posting
4. ATAG_YoTheGuy
5. ATAG_Torian ? - awaiting command posting
6. ATAG_Ribbs
7. ATAG_Invictus
8.

I accept the posting Sir

[71st_AH_Eagle]

Blue bomber command for me please. I want to get back into the loop of using the 88's and the 111's again.

[ATAG_Knuckles]

RAF Bomber command for me

[Kendy for the State]

I'd like to fly red intercept if there's a Hurricane sqaudron.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk