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Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:54 pm
by $iljanus
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One kill, two driven off, ace has some damage but not enough to drive it away.

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The ace comes around looking to score a kill. As Blackhawk lies bloody in his seat Raydude, Isgrimnur, and Zenn 7 let loose on the ace and the Fw-190 is shredded by the stream of bullets. Amazingly as the fighter breaks apart the ace is able to bail out and floats toward the French countryside.

So with the bombardier suffering a serious wound he can't bomb the target and our attack run will automatically be considered off target. Another team member can handle the run but there will be some penalties. If the bombardier is seriously wounded or KIA we have the option of aborting the mission and still claim credit for having completed the mission as part of our 25 mission quota. However, if we abort we will be out of formation and alone with all sorts of penalties as fighters attack us on the way home. Also I'm not sure if our escort would be meeting us because we would be returning earlier than the main body (need to look that up). So since we can still drop bombs and there's safety in numbers I say continue the mission. Also, my apologies Blackhawk. When I initially rolled the hit then rolled on the damage table I got a nose equipment result which could either be the navigators equipment rendered inoperable or the bomb controls. I decided to use the Lady Luck option and reroll the damage result because I was shooting for superficial damage. Upon further reading I realized that a bomb control result would have just resulted in a -3 modifier to determine if we were on or off target. Sorry about the leg, dude. Have some morphine... :(

On to zone 7!

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So as we fly into zone 7 I moved the crew around. Blackhawk after getting a syrette to calm him down is moved into the radio room while TheMix occupies the navigator spot and Isgrimnur acts as the bombardier. Unfortunately, fighters also are in zone 7 so because TheMix had to travel across different compartments he doesn't get to fire. Isgrimnur could fire the nose gun since he stayed in the same compartment but I forgot that so I'll just say he needed to adjust to his new seat which was wet with Blackhawk's blood

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Another ace makes a run at the nose of the Agnes. Isgrimnur freezes at his gun but Raydude fires and scores a hit. The ace fires back but takes enough damage for him to fly off for safer skies. An Me-110 attacks from the rear which was a bad idea as Henzau and LordMortis have a bead on him and blow him out of the sky. The Hellfire Agnes continues towards her target.

Entering zone 8

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France has no shortage of aces it seems as another of the Reich's finest flies head on towards the Agnes. Raydude and Isgrimnur fire causing some superficial damage but also scoring a solid hit on the left wing damaging one of his guns. The Me-109 fires but misses, darting away at the last moment and leaving the bomber be. An Me-110 starts its attack toward the tail. Hentzau and LordMortis concentrate their fire on the fighter and it erupts in a fireball. No other waves attack the formation and the bombers begin their approach over La Pallice...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 7:03 pm
by TheMix
[Scrambling to figure out where we are...] What? We are nowhere near Switzerland....[Peers around and spots the other planes from the attack group.

Uh... st..st..stay on this c..c..co..course, Captain.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 7:12 pm
by dbt1949
Dbt1949 cries out as shrapnel tears into his triceps
Tis only a flesh wound. I shall endeavor to persevere.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 7:23 pm
by Blackhawk
$iljanus wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 5:54 pm Blackhawk after getting a syrette to calm him down is moved into the radio room
Keen. Let's see if this box can tune in some Louis Jordan! And pass me another syrette...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 7:47 pm
by $iljanus
As the Agnes approaches the sub pens of La Pallice little puffs of smoke start to appear around the formation. Fighters leave the bombers alone, letting the flak guns have their chance. The Agnes is bracketed by flak but nothing comes close to hitting the bomber. As bombs drop from the lead formation the target is obscured by smoke. Isgrimnur makes his best guess, going off the lead bomber's signal and releases the bombs. Photo reconnaissance analysis after the raid estimates that 5% of the Hellcat Agnes' bombs hit the target. The standard for "Hitting the target" according to the USAAF means landing within 1000 feet of the aiming point.

Smoove_B compensates for the change in weight as the bombs fall away and the Hellcat Agnes turns back towards England. Even though the skies are clear as they leave the target and contrails fill the sky, no flak is fired and no fighters appear. The crew takes advantage of the lull to shift ammunition around to the gunners that have fired the most.

Enter zone 8 return leg

The formation flies into thick cloud cover which will hopefully hide them from enemy fighters. Well about that...

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At least there aren't any aces and a few are green pilots. Good luck!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:17 pm
by Zenn7
EGADS!!! We've finally made it to the bombing zone.

Pigeonhawk took a serious hit. I'd say it serves him right for napping at such a serious time, but it's sounds like nasty hit, the poor devil's in a load pain.

DBT screamed a frightful scream, followed by a scream of joy... something about still being able to have children (I would have guessed he was too old for such things... why, he's gotta be near 40!).

I got a nasty gash myself, but I suspect it's nothing serious, just the nasty looking sort of thing that makes you look rugged and tough, drawing the ladies all the more. I think the others are jealous, as I already enjoy so much success with the ladies.

We shot a few of those Krauts down though, and clipped a few more that I'm sure our fellows in the other bombers managed to finish off for the most part (cheerio fella's, glad we could get the job started for you!).

Hope we can do some serious damage with these bombs. Something that will result in a triffle less opposition for our future runs. Hope we are at least remotely near the target with Pigeonhawk out of commission...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:19 pm
by Zenn7
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:17 pm EGADS!!! We've finally made it to the bombing zone.

Pigeoneye (you'd think with a real name of Blackhawk, he wouldn't need a fancy callsign name...) took a serious hit. I'd say it serves him right for napping at such a serious time, but it's sounds like nasty hit, the poor devil's in a load pain.

DBT screamed a frightful scream, followed by a scream of joy... something about still being able to have children (I would have guessed he was too old for such things... why, he's gotta be near 40!).

I got a nasty gash myself, but I suspect it's nothing serious, just the nasty looking sort of thing that makes you look rugged and tough, drawing the ladies all the more. I think the others are jealous, as I already enjoy so much success with the ladies.

We shot a few of those Krauts down though, and clipped a few more that I'm sure our fellows in the other bombers managed to finish off for the most part (cheerio fella's, glad we could get the job started for you!).

Hope we can do some serious damage with these bombs. Something that will result in a triffle less opposition for our future runs. Hope we are at least remotely near the target with Pigeoneye out of commission...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:15 pm
by Blackhawk
Zenn7 wrote: Wed Oct 02, 2019 8:17 pm EGADS!!! We've finally made it to the bombing zone.

Pigeonhawk took a serious hit. I'd say it serves him right for napping at such a serious time, but it's sounds like nasty hit, the poor devil's in a load pain.
Actually, I'm feeling pretty great right now...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:35 pm
by Smoove_B
Never thought weight-compensation adjustment would be a marketable skill, but here we are.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 9:45 pm
by dbt1949
Which is where? I can't see the Cliffs of Dover yet.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 10:29 pm
by Smoove_B
La Pallice is to our south, we're headed north-ish back to England. I think. Would need someone with a map to confirm. I'm just trying to keep the rising sun on our right.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:45 pm
by TheMix
Uh... um... um... due north, C..C..Captain. Th..that will get us to L..L..London.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 9:10 am
by raydude
<takes aim at bandit>Oh no you don't! You'll nae be harming my plane today Jerry!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 9:28 am
by LordMortis
Go team Henzau!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:22 am
by hentzau
LordMortis wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 9:28 am Go team Henzau!
Hent. HENTzau. How many times do I have to tell you guys?!?!

(And you get most of the credit, LM. You chased him into my field of fire.)

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:39 am
by dbt1949
I see Tipperary! Still a long ways to go tho.
I think you're off course a little Cap'in.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:56 am
by Isgrimnur
We were trained that, as long as it was the right island, we were fine.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:58 am
by Smoove_B
dbt1949 wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 10:39 am I think you're off course a little Cap'in.
Rudder control was hit, remember? We drift a bit...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:00 am
by Isgrimnur
We all drift up here...

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:49 am
by LordMortis
Go Team Hent!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:26 pm
by $iljanus
Well it's a pretty bad day...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
For Kraut pilots! :horse:

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I''ll leave the color commentary to the crew of the Hellcat Agnes for this zone and just describe in game terms how they kicked ass. As you can see the Me-109s at 10:30 high and 12:00 high were destroyed outright. The fighter at 12:00 level got a "FCA" result which means that the target was hit but "fighter continues attack" with a -1 to hit penalty (per FCA result), allowing the fighter to continue past his first run if he lands a hit on the bomber. If you accumulate 3 FCA results the fighter is destroyed. You have the option of rolling on a more detailed damage table which can have some benefits beyond providing more detailed damage info and in this case the left wing gun was damaged and if the fighter scored a hit there's a penalty on their roll for damage vs the bomber. The fighter ended up missing and if a fighter misses he's taken off the board The 12:00 high fighter was destroyed while the fighters at 1:30 high and 6:00 low incurred a FBOA, "fighter breaks off attack", result meaning that the fighter will still attack but only once because the damage was enough that he'll want to go after easier targets or just hightail it home regardless of whether he scored a hit or not. In this case they missed. Also with each fighter attack there's the possibility of collision unless the fighter was destroyed but luckily for the Agnes the planes didn't collide.

On to zone 7!

Which turns out to be an easy write up because no fighters show up!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:42 pm
by dbt1949
Is it okay to come out from behind the seat now?

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:17 pm
by LordMortis
dbt1949 wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:42 pm Is it okay to come out from behind the seat now?
What's going on? I can't see a thing up there.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:46 pm
by Smoove_B
dbt1949 wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 2:42 pm Is it okay to come out from behind the seat now?
You told me you were back there trying to fix the rudder controls!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 4:09 pm
by dbt1949
Ummm...........all fixed!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 4:19 pm
by Blackhawk
It's hard to keep 'er up... rubber took damage...

I like morphine.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 8:13 pm
by Zenn7
Dear Diary,

We dropped our bombs... hope we hit something good!

The flak fire is pretty, though you know its death if they get close, kinda diminishes the pretty effect...

Pigeonhawk sounds... better? delirious? At least he's not screaming any more.

We've taken some rudder damage, seem to be veering a tad off course, but I'm sure Smoove_B's gonna get us home. If this new round of Krauts don't shoot us down!!!

<drops diary, grabs gun>

<Rata-ta-ta-tat>

<Picks up diary and resumes>

We got the krauts good that time, took out a couple of their planes and drove the others away with more than a scratch!

I heard Smoove_B joking about DBT hiding behind his seat. At least... I hope that was a joke? Can never tell with Smoove_B.

We got some real good gunners onboard. I mean, I did my fair share, but a couple of these guys are gonna be ace gunners in no time! Especially Henzua Hentzua, hear he did great!
<THAT'S HENT-ZUA>
<Stop reading over my shoulder!>

Hope the Krauts are about done with us for this flight. We're heading home now, not like we can do more damage to them. They should let us go. Doesn't like they will though, so back to work for me.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:19 pm
by hentzau
Zau! HentZAU!!!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 12:23 am
by Zenn7
Zenn7 wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 8:13 pm Dear Diary,

We dropped our bombs... hope we hit something good!

The flak fire is pretty, though you know its death if they get close, kinda diminishes the pretty effect...

Pigeonhawk sounds... better? delirious? At least he's not screaming any more.

We've taken some rudder damage, seem to be veering a tad off course, but I'm sure Smoove_B's gonna get us home. If this new round of Krauts don't shoot us down!!!

<drops diary, grabs gun>

<Rata-ta-ta-tat>

<Picks up diary and resumes>

We got the krauts good that time, took out a couple of their planes and drove the others away with more than a scratch!

I heard Smoove_B joking about DBT hiding behind his seat. At least... I hope that was a joke? Can never tell with Smoove_B.

We got some real good gunners onboard. I mean, I did my fair share, but a couple of these guys are gonna be ace gunners in no time! Especially Henzua Hentzua Hentzau, hear he did great!
<THAT'S HENT-ZAU>
<Stop reading over my shoulder!>
<H-E-N-T-Z-A-U, learn to spell if you're going to bother writing things>
<Get an easier to spell call sign. And STOP READING OVER MY SHOULDER!>

Hope the Krauts are about done with us for this flight. We're heading home now, not like we can do more damage to them. They should let us go. Doesn't like they will though, so back to work for me.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:05 am
by Blackhawk
hentzau wrote: Thu Oct 03, 2019 11:19 pm Zau! HentZAU!!!
Gesundheit

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:17 pm
by $iljanus
The formation races for home over the cloud covered French countryside. For a few hours the flight is uneventful and as the French coast draws closer their little friends make a welcome appearance. The planes finally are over the Channel but the Germans are not done with them yet as waves of fighters harass the bombers over the water.

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The little friends drive off two fighters in the first wave.

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But a second wave of fighters pounces on the bomber. One fighter is chased off by a Spitfire but the second continues towards the Agnes. Raydude, Zenn7 and TheMix fire at the Me-109, scoring hits on the fighter's left wing. The flaps are shredded and panels start to flake off. As the Me-109 begins to spiral towards the ground the pilot is able to open the canopy and bail out.

There's another pause in the action and even with the light cloud cover the crew can see the white cliffs of Dover in the distance. They can also see waves of fighters bearing down on them for one last chance to bring down the bombers. The first two waves seem to ignore the Hellcat Agnes as tracers from the other bombers fill the sky but four fighters find their way toward the bomber and make their attack run.

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The ace is doing a vertical dive at the Agnes. I check the relevant chart to see how that affects things and there's a nasty -3 DRM on the to hit roll for the bomber so I decide to just concentrate on the other fighters and hope for the best...

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The Agnes pulls through with Hentzau shooting down a Me-109, the fighter's right wing sheared off and the pilot and plane corkscrewing into the Channel. The Me-109 that Isgrimnur fires at takes some severe damage. The pilot presses the attack but the damage throws off his aim. He misses the bomber and narrowly misses hitting the cockpit as the fighter limps back to France. The remaining fighters press on but miss their quarry and they decide to fly home as well and fight another day.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:25 pm
by LordMortis
HuzZAU! :orcs-cheers: :violence-minigun:

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:29 pm
by hentzau
Huh. Guess I didn't need that lucky rabbit's foot.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 1:47 pm
by $iljanus
Clear skies over England greet the crew of the Hellcat Agnes as the formation begins the process of landing. Fewer bombers return but the Hellcat Agnes is one of them. She makes her decent towards the airfield, Smoove_B and dbt1949 working together to keep the plane steady due to the rudder control damage. Fire engines and ambulances wait on the side of the runway as the Agnes touches down for a safe landing!

Blackhawk is gently carried off the plane onto a waiting ambulance. He has suffered a "million dollar" wound and is rotated back to the states where he recovers.

I'll do a final write-up with some impressions of the game and after calculating the distribution of kills. Meanwhile I hope everyone enjoyed their flight!

Post-mortem on La Pallice:

Like many of the U-Boat pens built by the Nazis they were really built to last and bombing raids didn't really do much damage. Any damage done was usually fixed pretty quickly and the pens were back in operation with not much delay. According to Wikipedia, from Sept 44-May 45, the allies laid siege to La Rochelle, where La Pallice is located. Allied air superiority, causing enough damage to the harbor facilities, along with a siege of the city was enough to prevent U-Boats based there from launching attacks on Allied shipping. After the war, Das Boot and of all movies, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom had some scenes filmed there.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:04 pm
by dbt1949
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I told Smoove we were headed the wrong way!

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 2:16 pm
by dbt1949
I must say there were a lot more fighter intercepts and fighter kills for our lone B-17 than I was expecting.
The rest seemed pretty realistic.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 4:02 pm
by $iljanus
dbt1949 wrote:I must say there were a lot more fighter intercepts and fighter kills for our lone B-17 than I was expecting.
The rest seemed pretty realistic.
Target for Today's forum on BGG has some discussion on the incidence of fighters I believe and they also may have some files that switch it up a bit. I think for game purposes what's in the base game is fine.

I'm pretty impressed by the level of detail the game has from weather to wounds, bomber damage, variables that can affect fighter cover, bombing conditions, etc. A lot of moving parts which can influence each other. Seems daunting with all the charts but I found it easy to settle into a rhythm with the game and was going to the appropriate chart with ease.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Sun Oct 06, 2019 9:17 am
by LawBeefaroni
This just came through my Google news feed. It's watching me!

“I can’t imagine what he and his crew went through,” said Alexander of his grandfather. “You are basically in a flying unpressurized beer can with a couple engines strapped onto it, a few guns and about 8,000 pounds of bombs. There’s no GPS, no inertial navigation system, it’s charts and a protractor getting you across the English Channel through clouds of German flak. It’s noisy and freezing 20 degrees below zero. Oh, and there’s like a 0.06 percent chance of survival over the course of 25 missions.”

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Sat Oct 12, 2019 10:21 pm
by Zenn7
The realism rules in this game are a little overboard. The time for repair and crew healing/replacement has to be waited out in real days! Wonder how long til we're repaired and fully readied crew. ;)

Thank you for doing this $iljanus, just curious if you were planning to continue or not.

Re: The Flight of the Hellcat Agnes (Target for Today)

Posted: Sun Oct 13, 2019 5:19 am
by $iljanus
I really enjoyed doing this and I need to do the calculations for awarding kills. Unfortunately some non-gaming stuff has cropped up so that's been delayed. Also my copy of V-Commandos came in and I want to try it out.

However, I‘d like to get it back on my table and try a 25 mission run, counting this mission as one of the 25. I'll probably play the campaign that takes place at the height of the air war which will have more variety of targets and we get to fly into Germany. On the other hand that was the deadliest time for Allied bomber crews because Germany refined their fighter tactics and with the deeper penetration into Axis territory we have longer periods without fighter cover. So the chances of survival will be be, umm, interesting...

Long story short, I do hope to start this again!