Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

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BlackDog
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Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by BlackDog » Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:26 pm

Gents,

On October 20th, Cliffs will return to ACG operations.... :salute:

BLITZ at your Six – The new ACG Il2 Sturmovik Cliffs of Dover – BLITZ edition experience

Situation
A decision was made by ACG to switch main campaign efforts on the Eastern Front and this campaign is now running.

This left a vacuum for those who either recently joined the Cliffs of Dover sim community, or are long time pilots who simply love flying in the Battle of Britain combat theater and period.

BLITZ at your SIX was the concept created to fill the void - Saturday's - 6pm - ACG Public Server (pass worded) - Six week 'campaign style' missions that will follow a story and plot. This will be a 'human' dynamic mission, requiring low overhead from a staffing perspective and hopefully a lot of fun, but more importantly, a very different feel to the campaign missions of the past.

Missions will expect to last up to two hours and may require a re-arm and refuel for a second sortie.

So what can you expect?

We will run a six week ToD (Tour of Duty) mission/story (I am conscious this should not be called 'campaign' or 'mini camapign' to avoid confusion with the main event of ACG) and yes you guessed it, there will be six faction elements in total:

Three Squadrons for the RAF and Three Staffels for the Luftwaffe (more can be added if proven popular).

You will be encouraged to change up your variety in Cliff's. Too many people have flown the same aircraft for years and then wonder why they are bored. With this new ToD period, you will request to join a particular squadron/staffel. The information about the new ToD and the six week mission scenario will be published shortly, to allow you to choose the unit you wish to join and then sign up for that unit.

C.O.’s will be selected 1 week before the first mission starts (October 13th).

By doing this, you get to fly with different ACG members/pilots for a fixed period and this will hopefully build new friendships and keep the action varied.

I believe it is important to have a six week commitment period and in that sense we will fly the ToD in the same style as the campaign, however certain missions may have two sorties depending on the day’s mission. Other than re-joins for personal technical issues at mission start people will be asked and monitored from multiple re-flights. (anyone found abusing this trust will be kicked from the server and their wings turned in for that campaign period).

We will also have slots within each unit on each side, for what we will call 'Arrive and Fly' members of ACG (or newcomers to ACG) that just fancy a quick taste of Cliffs once more or that simply cannot commit to a full six week ToD.

I also believe that a pilot will simply be required to be a registered member of the ACG forum in order to fly in these events (Or new status TBA). All information relating to this new ToD will be posted in the Cliffs of Dover Forum channel with Blitz at your Six and an Update number.

These nights will not be open to the general public, but I do hope we can encourage other group squadrons/staffels from other servers to come and join us for a ToD or simply sample the 'Arrive and Fly' unit, to get a taste of what ACG is all about.

Once the six week ToD is complete, there will be a two/three week break (Blitz at your Six becomes an open flight night then) until the next ToD set of missions.

So what will a ToD entail?

You will be given a six week overall mission brief for what will be an 'air battle' focused set of missions. However unlike our main campaign, this will be a historically accurate set of missions in terms of kit used but NOT exact specific historical mission re-enactment. We will look at missions which occurred at that time in the campaign and model missions similar to those.

You will also have the chance to win the ToD and you will discover if your side has effectively won that evenings mission in the briefing for the next weeks mission. This will also shape the following weeks missions.

I.e. - If the Luftwaffe has six objectives over six weeks. If they have all their aircraft shot down or cause minimal damage to their chosen target area, then they will have failed their objective for that night, so the RAF take the win for the night. The Luftwaffe will have to finish the job before they can move on in their target list. If they have targets that they have failed to engage by the end of the ToD, then they have failed in their overall mission.

Equally if the RAF lose most of their fighters and the target is destroyed on a given night... the Luftwaffe will win that engagement and march forward to their next objective the following week. The RAF are tasked with stopping that advance... simple.

You will not get a character for these missions, just your flight name and you will not win any medals..... :P

I am currently creating a new base map from which we can run these events with the very kind help of Donkey and his excellent Luftflotte software. This new map will kick in from ToD 2 and we will use the existing Public Base Map for the first six week ToD.

There will be six mission managers and each week they will take the role of ‘Battle God’ (BG) and co-ordinate the mission for both sides (Full training will be given for this). This allows the mission team to fly five weeks out of six (hopefully....)

Each six week ToD will have a series of objectives for that given night. This will include bomber and fighter operations, with AI involvement as well. The missions will include elements for CAP, Escort duty, JABO, Bombing Raids, Recce and Surface hunts for targets of opportunity.

The weather and conditions will be varied and challenging and you can expect to fly some night missions once Team Fusion have completed their 'night pack' currently in the works, with full active runway lights and searchlights.
As new content becomes available on the run up to TF5, those new elements will be incorporated into the ToD for that six week period.

Many new airfields are being activated and the full use of the Cliff's map will be used. New targets of interest have been created and you will certainly get some variety in each ToD period. As pilots you can expect to fly parts of the Cliff's map which will be quite alien to many of you and it is my hope that we can run three/four ToD's per year.

We will try our best to deliver a story that is shaped and created by your efforts and whilst the six week ToD will be written in principle, the numbers or focus for a specific mission night, will reflect the actions of the previous week in some way shape or form.

Each mission is expected to run for up to two hours depending on mission focus and a pilots time in that mission will be based on the choices they make, just as it is in campaign today.

The time period will focus from the end of the Battle of Britain and so the initial ToD is starting in October just as the BLITZ starts. Missions will be similar to those flown in that given period in spirit, but may not be strictly accurate.

Campaigns slated already:

ToD 1 – Operation Firestarter

The end of the Battle of Britain brought a new terror to residents of the UK as the ‘BLITZ’ began. The first six week tour will follow very similar format to the last ACG main campaign, in order to get everyone back in the saddle and the mission makers up to speed running the missions. Expect dusk missions, LARGE AI bomber formations and key target designation.

ToD 2 – Operation Needle

As the Blitz becomes more of a night focused mission, the fighters of the Luftwaffe are tasked with JABO missions, hunting key targets to hamper the British War effort. These will be small raids with fighter escort across the South of England. The RAF will begin operations with the new Beufighter and low level fights will become commonplace.

ToD 3 – Operation Neptune

As the time switches into the 1941 period, the British begin probing the German defences in France. The focus will be on RAF bomber raids with fighter escorts, along with low level Blenheim strikes of key German shipping lanes and key targets. Included in these missions will be photo reconnaissance flights and Hurricane Fighter bomber raids.

Each mission ‘BG’ will have a brief from the overall campaign controller (BlackDog) and they will then have flexibility as to how they structure that mission to meet the objective, with free control over direction of flight, focus, etc.

Each ToD will have a mission team of six volunteer officers to lead and organise the missions and people will be encouraged to give this a go for later ToD’s if they like. I believe it is important to encourage people to step up and give certain leadership roles a go in a slightly more relaxed environment than the main campaign, but one that possibly provides feeder stock for some great leaders in future campaigns.

This Saturday, October 13th, we will run a practice event at 6pm BST I expect to have the main ToD briefing up by this Friday.

Briefing ends.
:salute:
BD
We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go always a little further; it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow across that angry or that glimmering sea

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Matt
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Re: Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by Matt » Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:51 pm

Good work blackdog, see you on saturday..
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Baron le Scrope
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Re: Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by Baron le Scrope » Thu Oct 11, 2018 12:48 pm

All being well with the wife, i'll be there. B.
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Antec 900 case,/ Sabertooth P67 MoBo,/ Intel corei7 2600cpu-/- MSI GTX 970 4G Graphics, --WD-1Tb Velociraptor HDD--16g Corsair 2133Mhz Ram/-- Corsair TX 850w PSU /--Samsung40"led TV, TrackiR5, CH J/sick. Warthog Throttle. Corsair Vengeance 2100 H/set/mike. W10 Pro 64, /---Two slightly depressed teabags.

Think nothing of it sir, it was the least I could do, a quantity I specialize in.

Genisis
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Re: Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by Genisis » Thu Oct 11, 2018 7:14 pm

Many thanks Blackdog for your update, and thanks again for the effort you and others have made to reinvigorate
Cliffs of Dover. Roll on 13th October. Gen
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Donkey
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Re: Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by Donkey » Thu Oct 11, 2018 10:33 pm

Not long to go now chaps, Blackdog has passed his "how to run the back-end software" course with flying colours. As such, and in anticipation of Saturday, the keys to Donkey's back-end have now been handed over. Hang on a moment, that doesn't sound quite right! :shock:
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BlackDog
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Re: Blitz at your Six - UPDATE 2

Post by BlackDog » Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:47 am

Thanks again Donkey... yep I have tweaked the base MAP and it will be good to give a trial run on Saturday!

ToD1 Briefing should be up hopefully tomorrow!

:salute:
BD
We are the Pilgrims, master; we shall go always a little further; it may be beyond that last blue mountain barred with snow across that angry or that glimmering sea

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