GMT-West April 2010 DIF Event Debriefing Report  

Here is the DIF recap and results:

A total of 27 participants (with 4 rookie players) at various times took part in 35 aerial matches from Thursday-to-Sunday; 8 missions were played on Thursday, 12 on Friday, 11 on Saturday, and 4 on Sunday.  During the 4-days, the Allied Air Forces defeated the Axis Air Forces, 21-to-14, with a combined score of 965-to-945.  The Allied Air Forces shot down 72 fighters and 12 medium bombers (84 aircraft).  The Axis Air Forces shot down 59 fighters, 8 light bombers, 9 medium bombers and 11 heavy bombers (87 aircraft).  Total loses for all belligerents were 131 fighters, 8 light bombers, 9 medium bombers, and 11 heavy bombers shot down. The lost rate per mission for fighters was 32% and the lost rate for bombers was 28%.

Missions by Campaigns Theaters:

• North Africa Front Winter '41 - 11 missions with the Germans & their Italian allies defeating the RAF, 7-4 with the Axis winning, 248-to-161.
• East Front '43 - 12 missions with the VVS over the Luftwaffe, 3-9, with the VVS out scoring the Luftwaffe, 293-to-234.
• West Front '43 - 12 missions with the US 8th AF and the RAF defeating the Luftwaffe, 8-4, with the US 8th AF and the RAF outscoring the Luftwaffe 509-to-463

HIGHS, LOWS & MEDIUM ITEMS:

• Chris Scott had the top scoring pilot of the weekend. His Luftwaffe pilot, Achman Zed, in the Eastern Front campaign with 8-kills.  Chris received as a prize the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces book #76, More Bf-109 Luftwaffe Aces of the Russian Front.  Chris also flew in the most missions and had the most kills during the weekend with 25.
• Nick Markevich had the top US 8th AF pilot, P-38 pilot Ray Alexander with 6 German fighters.
• There were 3 new aces with 5-kills or more that were created by Chris Scott, Nick Markevich & Chris LeFevre's Eastern Front German ace, Andrew Randel.  Two aces from previous events were lost: Mark Yoshikawa's 13-kill ace Wilhelm Klink and Chris LeFevre's 5-kill eastern front German ace, Franz Ostholt.
• Dave Lanphear had the top Soviet pilot, LA-5FN pilot Boris Badenoff with 3 German He-111 bombers.  Dave received as a prize the Osprey Aircraft of the Aces book #56, LaGG and Lavochkin Aces of WW2.
• Mary Billingsley, not normally a war-gamer, played in her first DIF campaign mission.  She flew as a Luftwaffe pilot in the Defending the Reich Campaign using an Fw-190A.   Although not scoring a kill, she manage to make two attacks against the bomber formations and both her planes returned to base without being shot down.
• Leo Paolo finally made his DIF debut playing in 3 games as Luftwaffe pilots Defending the Reich.  One of his pilots managed to shoot down a B-17G while losing 3 planes.
• A good weekend: Nick Markevich in 17 missions had 16 kills while only being shot down 3 times.  Also having a good weekend was Rob Schroeder: in 10 missions he shot down 9 aircraft and was shot down only twice. 
• US 8th AF defensive fire was accurate as they shot down 4 Bf-109G6/R6s.
• In the Defending the Reich campaign, the Bf-110G2 lost of 8 Bf-110G2s for only one B-24 victory.  It drew only 3 cards during an attack and drew the "Exploding Fuel Tank" card.  The Americans had 6 defensive draws but was unable to any cards with the 'Spoiled Attack' symbol (16 out of 80 cards or 20%).
• My promise to NOT shoot down any of Luke Billingsley's planes was fulfilled as none of his 5 losses were caused by me.  No promises for October.
• Dave Lanphear and Charles Ryder in their pre-weekend predictions said they would help out to create new aces.  Well, Charles Ryder was failure in helping out.  In 11 missions, he was shot down 6 times and none of them helped to create any new aces.  Dave was only slightly more successful.  In 16 missions, he was shot down 11 times and only 1 of his loses was to Chris LeFevre's new 5-kill ace.  Well, maybe next time guys.

SPECIAL BOMBER MISSIONS:

No special bomber mission was run this weekend.

COMING AT THE NEXT GMT-WEST GAMES WEEKEND, THIS OCTOBER 7-10:
The 1941 North African campaign will take breather.  The planned campaigns for the October weekend will be the 1941 Western European, the 1943 East Front, the 1943 West Front campaigns.  The eight 2-player team tournament will return with Mike Lam and Martin Scott to return as the defending champions.

I hope all who participated had fun and a good time and I plan to continue the aerial mayhem at the next GMT-West Games Weekend, scheduled from October 7-to-10, 2010 in Hanford.

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