ConsimWorld Expo 2002 Down In Flames Debriefing Report

First, a big thanks to the 37 players who participated in the inaugural ComsinWorld Expo 2.0 DIF Aces' Campaigns by flying in at least one mission.

The idea was to have some open DIF games available to any free participants not currently involved with any monster games or for monster-gamers to take a break to play something quick and light between their turns.

I wasn't expecting to be running DIF all the time as I thought most participants will be involved with their own huge games. I was expecting to run 1 mission every 1 or 2 hours. Well, I was proved wrong! Once DIF got going, free time at my table was minimal. Everyone's enthusiastic participation prevented me from becoming too bored.

DAILY MISSION TOTALS:

After setting up the tally sheets, 78 missions flown covering the 4 campaigns; the 1941 Western Front, the 1942 Pacific, and a 1943 Western & Eastern fronts campaigns.

• Wednesday - 4

• Thursday - 25
• Friday - 23
• Saturday - 19
• Sunday - 7

CAMPAIGN THEATERS MISSION TOTALS AND W-L RECORDS

The 78 missions covered 4 separate campaigns:

• 1941 Western Front - 14 missions, won by the RAF 7-to-4 with 3 ties

• 1942 Pacific - 12 missions, won by the IJN 8-to-4
• 1943 Western Europe  - 21 missions, won by the Luftwaffe 13-to-8
• 1943 Eastern front - 31 missions, won by the Luftwaffe 21-to-10 with 1 tie

ACE OF ACES 2003:

Robert Robertson from Liberty Lake, WA, was the Ace Of Aces with 7 kills in 10 missions flown by his 8th AF P-47 pilot, appropriately named Rob Robertson. Rob won the Grand Prize of free admission at the 2003 ConsimWorld Expo. A big thanks to John Kranz for this unexpected prize in making the event a very competitive one.

TOP ACES:

• Tom Meier from Falls Church, VA and Greg Smith from Phoenix AZ, each shared top honors on the Eastern Front with their Luftwaffe pilots. Meier's Pieter Niedermeyer had 5 kills in 7 missions and Smith's Leader/Wingman combo of Sturmer Schmidt and Gunther Schreck both had 5 kills each in 8 missions. Tom was awarded the paperback "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces" by Mick Spick. Greg left the convention early before the winner was determined and did not received the same book. Since Greg lives in Phoenix, he should be back at next year's con to collect his book.
• Rob Schroeder from Manteca, CA, was the top Luftwaffe pilot in the 1941 Western Front campaign with 4 kills in 2 missions by his pilot, Johann Hindermann. Rob won a paperback book, "JG-26, Top Guns of the Luftwaffe" by Donald L. Caldwell.

Players who achieved 5 kills or more by one pilot:

All players with 5 or more kills also received an "I Became An Ace" t-Shirt that has on its front side the Ace card drawing from the Rise Of The Luftwaffe card deck.

• Rick Young (Europe Engulfed) also received a t-shirt for having his American 8th AF pilot, Norm Cash, become an ace. But Cash didn't survive his 8th & last mission when his fuel tank exploded.
• Chris Janiec from Pennsylvania was the top Soviet player with 4 kills in 6 missions by his pilot, Konstantine Chapegef.
• John Loy from Newark, OH was the top Japanese player with 3 kills by his pilot Saburo Sakai. Unfortunately, his pilot was killed by an exploding fuel tank on his fifth mission. John received the paperback, "Aces - True Stories of Victory and Valor in the Skies of WW2" by William Yenne about top aces from all the countries in WW2.
• Shannon Cooke from Ceder Bluff, VA was the top American Pacific player with 2 kills by his pilot John Mosby on 2 missions. Shannon received the paperback, "Aces Against Japan" by Eric Hammel.
• Top RAF honors went to my own pilot, S. Baldrick, who had 4 kills achieved in 4 missions in the 1941 campaign.
• The top1943 Luftwaffe pilot on the Western front was my own pilot, Maximilian Schell, with 5 kills flying in 3 missions.

Honorable mention goes out to Minka Koopman of Scottdale, AZ, and Alan Gieske of Phoenix (?), AZ, two 10-year old players. Minka played in 7 combined Japanese and American missions, shooting down a total of 8 planes. Alan played in 14 combined US and German missions, shooting down a total of 9 planes.

PLANS FOR NEXT YEAR - 2003:

John Kranz has given his full support to have this type of event again in 2003. And based on the participation level this year, it is very likely that I will do this next year, provided I can get vacation days off from work.

Tentatively planned next year is a special bomber mission (10 or more bombers), either on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. This will be a large bomber mission with lots of bomber targets to be shot down with some fog of war surprises for both sides played by two 5-player teams.

For any DiF players, if you like playing DiF all day like I do, consider making the trip to Tempe next year.

I hope everyone enjoyed it and had fun learning how to play and playing DIF. I hope to see everyone again as well as some new players in 2003.

Mike Lam, The ConsimWorld Expo DIF Flight Coordinator

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