GMT-West DIF Event
Debriefing Report
We had 35 participants through out the weekend, an increase of +6 from last
September.
Participation was very good as there were times where two tables of 6 were in
use. Surprisingly, players had more interest in playing in the Pacific and
the East Front campaigns than the western front ones that was more popular in
previous weekends.
A total of 73 missions were flown (totals includes the 18 missions flown in the
doubles competition with the two special bomber missions counting as 2 missions
each).
Missions by Campaign Theaters:
The top winners of the continuous "Who Wants To Be A Fighter Ace?" competition were:
Top honors was shared between Martin Scott's Japanese pilot, Shintaro Mendo and Nick Markevich's Takeo Sashimi, each with 8 apiece. Martin won a bottle of Saki that was donated by Chris Janiec, while Nick opted for the book "Samurai", a book about Saburo Sakai, one of Japan's top aces in WW2. Martin's Mendo character is currently the highest surviving ace with 23 kills.
Other Honors: Top Luftwaffe pilot, East Front '43 was first time player Randy Martin's pilot Friedrick Switzer with 7 kills. Randy won the book, "Luftwaffe Fighter Aces" by Mick Spick. Randy just barely beat out Troy Nichols' pilot Gunther v. Graf who had 6 kills.
Top Luftwaffe Pilot '41 - My own Georg Lukas with 4.
Top Luftwaffe Pilot, West Front '43 - Gene Billingsley's Gunther Rall with 3 P-47s, all in the last mission of the weekend! Gene won "JG-26 - Photographic History of the Luftwaffe's Top Guns" by Donald Caldwell for his collection. Newcomer Leonard Carpenter's Klaus Schulz also downed 3 P-51Bs in one battle in the late '43 campaign period.
Top RAF Pilot '41 - Chris Janice's Basil Vice with 3 kills. Chris won the book "Aces - True Stories of Victory and Valor in the Skies of WW2" by William Yenne about top aces from all the countries in WW2.
Top USAAF Pilot '42 - There was a 2-way tie with 3 kills apiece between Pat Brownlow's pilot, K. Brackett, and Jordan Nichols' pilot, Dave Arrow.
Top USAAF Pilot '43 - There was a 3-way tie with 3 kills apiece between Chris Richardson's pilot, G. Dark and Rick Young's pilot team of Bill Freehan and Norm Cash.
Top Soviet Pilot '43 - Another 2-way tie with 3-kills apiece between Derek Nichols' Ivan Khaustov and my own Mikhail Lameyev. Unfortunately for the Soviet side next Autumn, both pilots were lost when they were shot down over German lines and taken prisoner.
There were 12 pilots who achieved "ACE" status this weekend (kills listed are the pilot's current score from all the weekends combined):
On the Eastern Front:
R. Martin (Switzer - 7 kills)
James Jones (Wim Wenders - 5 kills)
N. Markevich (Helmut Schmidt - 5 kills)
T. Nichols (von Graf - 6 kills
On the Soviet side: Doug Sun (Gennady Tartakovsky - 5 kills)
On the European Western Front:
Gene Billingsley (Rall - 7 kills)
In the Pacific:
N. Markevich (Takeo Sashimi - 10 Kills)
M. Scott (Masumune Shiro - 5 kills)
D. Nichols (Yukio Endo - 5 kills)
J. Nichols (Ti Kini - 5 kills)
T. Nichols (B. Konichiwa - 5 kills)
Cameron Nichols (G. Growlmann - 5 kills)
As usual,
aces from the previous events were awarded a special souvenir created just for
them. Thanks to the artistic talents of Martin Scott, each previous pilot with
an ace ability was presented with his own personalized ace card with the current
ace's ability and the player's
own name. And all new "Aces" each received a special "I Made Ace Pilot At GMT's
Games Weekend" t-shirt.
SPECIAL BOMBER MISSIONS:
Both
special bomber missions drew the maximum of 9 players. On Thursday evening, the
5-man Japanese team scored a 75-to-62 draw against the 4-man American team
escorting 12 B-25s. Both teams each managed to cancel out one of their secret
options (Loose formation vs. Tight formation). For their other option, the
Japanese took "mechanical difficulties" which aborted 2 of the bombers, while
the American took "Deceptive Course" which decreased the game length by a turn.
Flak took out 3 bombers while the bombers damaged the supply depot and cratered
the airfield. Fighters took out 2 more B-25s but defensive fire took out 2 Zeke
wingmen. A total of 7 Zekes were lost against 5 B-25s with 1 P-39D and 1 P-40E
escort.
On Friday evening, the 5-man German team scored an impressive 258-to-85 victory
over the 4-man Soviet team that was escorting 16 IL-2s and 8 Pe-2s light
bombers. The German pilots were under special game orders from Luftwaffe HQ to
ignore the fighter escort at all costs and concentrate on the bombers, even to
follow them into the target flak zones. During turns 1-4, 6 Luftwaffe fighters
fell to the escorts with only 1 PE-2 downed. But the Germans pressed on, under
the direction of Squadron Leader Chris Janiec to just cause enough damage to the
IL-2s to make them jettison their bomb loads instead of going for the kill. The
20mm flak fire was very effective, accounting for 13 of the attackers, while
target flak was kind to the German fighters with very little damage taken. The
flak and fighter's tactics ultimately proved successful as only 1 airfield was
destroyed while the other airfield and the supply depot were slightly damaged. By
end of turn 10, all 24 bombers were shot down at a cost of 9 German fighters.
TEAM DOUBLES TOURNAMENT:
On
Saturday, there were 10 seeded teams entered in the partner team doubles
competition. Last fall's runner up team of Ken Tee and Jordan Nichols, the #3
team overall, prevailed in 3 games (2 wins and 1 tie) over the #4 team of Martin
Scott and me. Both of the winning team members received signed "ZERO!"
poster artwork donated and signed by Rodger MacGowan.
The previous champions and #1 team of Gene and daughter Samantha were eliminated
in the semi-finals by the #4 team, that went to the last turn of the 3rd game,
with the game tied 5-5. While I kept Gene's element engaged, Martin Scott
managed to damage Samantha's leader, for a close 7-to-5 win.
Well, according to the pattern, the runner up team from the last 3 team
tournaments came back to take the championship at the very next GMT event! It
should be Martin's & my turn next!
NEXT WEEKEND IN SEPT/OCT 2002:
I am
planning to continue the "aerial mayhem", as described by Leo Paulo, again at
the next weekend (tentatively scheduled for late September or early October) to
allow surviving pilots to continue their careers.
For any DiF players, if you like playing DiF all day like I do,
consider making the trip to Hanford. Hey, if guys from Illinois, the UK
and Germany can make it, surely you guys on the east coast can too!
I hope everyone enjoyed it and had fun playing. I hope to see everyone again as
well as some new players in the fall.
The GMT Games-West Weekend DIF Events Coordinator