And it was FUN!!
Stoo talked me through it last night and I can host again... after having done it a couple of times ages ago and forgotten how...
Tried a 4v4 last night, but somehow ballsed it up and ended up with 8 VVS versus 4 OKL.
The OKL guys were very patient and wanted to play anyway, so we let AI take the Yak 1s and we took the I-16s...
When the mission started the OKL had problems with a disco right before take off, so we re-started and all was well. Apart from the fact we were in the middle of an air-raid!
So we all get off the ground without a hitch, then Stoo suggests that rather than go for the target, lets take on the bomber first.
I swing around to see Stoo giving a Stuka the good news, then ulp! He gets snipered by the AI rear gunner and careens in, guns blazing.
The stuka carries on diving, so I open the throttle up, wait until he’s passed under my nose then wing over into a dive, coming in from his 8 o’clock and stitch all down his side. I then pull up and wing over to port to do the same again, but I’m a bit slower than first time and misjudge my speed. I overshoot behind him, having only managed a couple of hits on his tail.
I circle around behind him again, then dive down, deciding to get nice and close behind and underneath him then blow his engine out from there.
I zoom in on my sights, take careful aim at his cowling and very nearly fill Knoxeh’s arse with lead as he zooms in, guns glowing and makes the Stuka considerably heavier with all the extra metal he’s pouring into it.
I climb away to the left, look over my right shoulder just in time to see an accurate burst from Knox take the Stukas wing off.
We now set course for the target, just as Stoo announces that 109’s are coming in from behind us… Once again we turn around and head back to the airfield, this time to take on 109s.
I get one trying to B+Z me, so I turn hard at the right moment, to be greeted with my sights full of a fleeing tail and let fly. I score hits but no other effects.
Ramses, the other guy in our troop of 4 I-16s, is getting chewed through by a 109 on his six, directly below me. Just as I’m about to wing over down onto the 109 on his tail, the AI Yaks get one of the higher 109s… it explodes right above me… fantastic!
I turn over hard left and drop right into the slipstream of the bogey on Ramses bum, and, being very careful to not miss him and hit Ramses, I manage to get in a good 2 second burst, disabling one of his controls… he immediately bugs out.
I turn away from Ramses into another 109 about to make an attack on me. He fires off a few half-hearted shots, but he’s pulled up too soon. I have enough energy from my dive to pull right through the vertical and Immelman onto him. He’s too far away, so I tail him… then he rudder kicks it around and starts heading straight for me.
I open up on him early, hoping that my fire would put him off… his cannon could make a real mess of me… It works and I see hits along his underside as he swoops over the top, having not fired on me at all.
I carry on in a spiral climb, keeping a close eye on the 109 and he’s clawing for height. Again, he pulls a stalled rudder turn and comes screaming back.
Now, I’m supposed to be on a ground attack mission, so I’m carrying a droptank and 6 rockets. I remember about the tank at this point and let it go… then decide to see what this guy reckons to my rockets.
What the 109 doesn’t seem to know is that I’ve got a bloody great engine between me and him, so unless he gets lucky, or gets an angle down into the cockpit, a PK is unlikely.
I don’t want to let him get too far above me, and I reckon I could be lucky, so I loose off a couple of rockets… he dips his nose, pointing straight at me. Again I open up early, but almost straight away my two outboard guns fall silent. I keep hauling back on the stick, determined not to let him get his sights over the top half of my plane.
He leaves it too late and realises he can’t get over me, so he tries to nose over… my last two guns rake all along his fuselage before there’s a mighty crash.
My engine is inoperable, my prop bent out of shape… the 109 carries on down, the pilot dead.
My plane starts to smoke badly, I can glide ok, but it’s not looking good, the smoke gets thicker so I bail. I land very neatly halfway between the smoking wrecks of the 109 and my own I-16…
Knox, the only human VVS pilot still in the air now, then trundles off and takes out a load of ground targets, before returning to base.
All in all a damn fine mission… and a bloody good laugh too!