A small group of us North American guys - McBiggles, Noter, IceFrog and I - have been discussing for some time an interest in trying a situation involving Full Real game settings, more navigation work, messing around with engine management for longer flights, and undertaking more effective flight/wingman tactics (both in dogfights and ground attack missions).
Well with me starting my summer vacation this upcoming week, and with my workload reduced in preparing Friday's Historic Encounters sessions, I took some time and discovered this rather unique and interesting online campaign called "A Horseride Across Sicily."
Apparently this is the fifth campaign that the creator has made to date. His desire is to allow participants the opportunity to fly from 1941 until the end of the war in a variety of scenarios.
What interested me the most perhaps is that there are no in-game briefings. Instead, you must print out the briefing that comes with a map and sometimes recon photos. This will make the briefing stage more interesting. On top of that, while the P-38 probably wouldn't be our first pick, in the interest of learning plane ID skills, engine management, and conducting a variety of combat roles, we believe it will be perfect.
Now here's the issue and real reason for this post. This campaign has been designed for only 4 human participants. And while that's perfect for us, we also realize that folks (especially in North America) will no doubt see us on TeamSpeak and want to join. Normally we would love to invite them but cannot under the circumstances.
However, our other reason for mentioning all this to the Squad (especially any interested North American mates) is twofold.
- If this sort of thing sounds interesting we could certainly at a later date consider having a larger group. In time this might influence the settings of Historic Encounters, but that's not a goal I have for H.E. at this time. However, my desire in this pursuit is the reason why I have tighten the icons on Fridays.
- More immediately, our group realizes that we all won't be able to make each weekly session, especially over the summer months. It is anticipated that some times Noter and IceFrog in particular may not be able to join. Therefore, in the interest of trying to have all available seats filled, we want to take this opportunity to offer interested folks the chance to join us when a regular pilot is MIA.
To help you decide whether you want to express an interest please carefully consider the following:
- Full Real game settings except Externals for non-active pilots. This means for clarification no icons and the speedbar will only show heading (which will likely also eventually be removed).
- A mix of flight distances including longer ones requiring more engine management.
- Dedicated wingman with a Flight Leader employing specific tactics.
- Formation flying.
- Navigation.
- Taxiing.
- Gauges (including the possibility of disabling certain in-game helps).
- Learning the P-38 and its capabilities in a variety of roles - dogfighting to ground attack.
Furthermore, in an attempt to keep these sessions workable for folks with busy schedules, our goal is to plan for Wednesdays @10:00 p.m. Atlantic and finish at or before midnight (2 hours). If there is an interest to continue the session McBiggles is prepared to host for the remainder of the night. We will fly provided at least two regulars are available. Our hope is by keeping the group small and the sessions short that participants will be able to join on a more regular basis. There are 33 missions in this campaign. It is unclear at this moment whether we will fly all these missions. However, we will fly until our stated goals have been reached (or we give up
trying
).OK as an interested alternate you realize that only when notified of a cancellation will you be able to participate. You will need to download/print at least the mission briefings and custom skins (Noter will also be providing the regulars with their own skins shortly). You can get the campaign here. Furthermore, when joining you will be asked to fly with the plane skin of the pilot you are replacing (so you will need to download the 4-plane skill pack when ready - I'll post a link). Given how short these sessions will be it is our desire to start very quickly and we will not wait for someone to setup.
Alternatively, maybe you are interested in this sort of flying but not as a backup pilot. Understandable. Besides others starting a similar session, if there is sufficient interest from others a future campaign that offers more seats will be considered.
Well that's it folks! We plan on starting next week on Wednesday, July 5th.
Best regards,
TacticalS!, McBiggles, Noter & IceFrog
