“Leyte, 1944” Target For Today, Rules Writeup

version 10

All players, please read at least “Date and Time” and “Main Rules” sections.

Date and Time

Please register for the event here:
https://ahevents.net/index.php/events/target-for-today/current-or-next
if you are playing in this event.  You may participate in the battle at any point or points of your choosing during the 12 hours it runs.

It runs on January 26, 2019 from noon Eastern to  midnight Eastern in Special Events 2 arena.  Takeoffs with fresh planes are allowed each hour mark (so, noon, 1 pm, 2 pm, etc.).  If you miss a takeoff window, your next opportunity to take off is the next takeoff window.  Lives are not limited, and you may get a fresh plane on any of the takeoff windows.

Setup

It is November 1944 in the Philippine Islands.  After a major sea battle at Leyte Gulf, the US has landed troops on Leyte and established its first beachhead.  It has also moved bomber groups and fighter groups to Tacloban, Leyte.  Jungle fighting rages as the allied forces push inland and attack Japanese positions on other Philippine islands.  Both sides in the conflict are working frantically to increase their forces in the area, bringing in supplies and troops via ship; bringing in additional aircraft to attack enemy shipping, enemy air bases, enemy troop positions; and fighting to destroy the enemy’s aircraft.

Please join us for this late-war battle for control of the Philippines.  It will be P-38J/L’s, P-47D-11’s, F6F-5’s, B-24J’s, and B-25H’s vs. Ki-84’s, N1K2-J’s, Ki-61’s, Ki-67’s, and Ki-45’s (using Bf 110C-4b), involving air combat, bombing, attack, and antishipping.

Main Rules

• Fields open only at the hour marks and closed in between:

• If you miss the hour mark (i.e., noon, 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, etc.) for a takeoff, you will have to wait for the next hour mark to get a fresh takeoff.

• General:

• Everyone including CO's, please follow instructions from game-day CM's, or you can be ejected from the arena.
• Please follow instructions from your CO’s, or you can get reassigned or ejected from the arena.
• Bombers (unless otherwise noted) must take off whenever possible with formations and not intentionally lose drones.

• Lives:

• Unlimited lives.
• Aircraft should land before end of the whole event.  (Strong downwind will happen at the end.)

• Bombers and attackers

• Bomber/attacker max alt is 18k.

• Fighters:

• There is a downwind at 24k.  (You can fly into the downwind if you wish, but staying in it will sap your speed.)

• Movement restrictions:

• Do not change the paths of your task groups.
• Do not land on carriers unless you are an F6F.
• F6F’s take off only from carrier in 13.4 and not others.

Map

Rectangles are usable air bases and valid targets.  Ovals are valid targets.  Shaded areas contain shipping.

Victory Conditions

The 12 hours event will be divided into 4 three-hour Phases.

If your side fails to do this within a Phase, it will get no points at all for that Phase:

• Bomber groups (B-24 and Ki-67) must Attempt at least two bombing Missions (at least two of which must be Missions to land targets).
• Attack groups (B-25 and Bf 110) must Attempt at least two attack Missions (at least one of which must be a Mission to a land target and at least one of which must be a Mission to a sea target).
• “Attempt” means to bomb or strafe a Valid Target or die trying (or be on the way to do so if the Phase ends before you get there).
• One “Mission” is launch, travel toward one or more Valid Targets, and land back at a base if still alive.
• “Valid Targets” are listed below.

The winner of a Phase is the side with the most points in that Phase.  The winner of the TFT is the side that wins the most Phases.

Points:

• Kills:

• +1 point per kill (as judged by a side’s “kills” stat at end of the log).

• Bombers:

• For a Successful Drop, +3 points if it doesn’t sink a ship, +5 points if it does.

• Attackers:

• For a Successful Drop, +1.5 points if it doesn’t sink a ship, +3.5 points if it does.
• +0.5 points per Successful Strafe.

“Successful Drop” for bombers is achieved during a Mission to a Valid Target once a bomber pilot destroys at least one hangar, or destroys any objects on a ship, or sinks a ship.

“Successful Drop” for attackers is achieved during a Mission to a Valid Target once an attack pilot destroys at least one bunker, or destroys any objects on a ship, or sinks a ship.

“Successful Strafe” is achieved once an attack pilot destroys at least one land-based ground gun at a Valid Target during a Mission.

Note:   Once you get enough for a Successful Drop in a Mission, you don’t get more points for killing more hangars or bunkers in that Mission.  Once you get enough for a Successful Strafe in a Mission, you don’t get more points for killing more land guns in that Mission.

Valid Targets

Valid Targets include, for any boxed or ovalled base shown on the map, all the hangars (bomber, fighter, vehicle) and bunkers (ammo, barracks, fuel, radar) and guns thereon, and any guns at the associated town.

Valid Targets include any ships in the shaded ship areas shown on the map and the objects and guns thereon.

About ships:  Side CM’s will put fresh task groups in each one of the shipping sectors during each Phase so that sides do not run out of shipping targets.  (Preferably, that will be at the start of each Phase, but since it takes a while to do it, it might happen other than at the start.)  If the US carrier in Leyte Gulf (sector 13.4) is sunk, the side CM will replace it with a fresh one for F6F’s to take off from.

Allied Order of Battle

B-24J is restricted to 12x250 lb bomb loadout.  F6F’s available only from carrier in 13.4 (Leyte Gulf).  P-38 pilots can fly J’s or L’s at their own discretion.  No bombs or rockets on fighters.

Axis Order of Battle

No bombs or rockets on fighters, other than Ki-45/Bf 110C.

Moving Around Pilots

CO's may split groups up into separate flights and send them on separate missions as they see fit.

CO's may assign walkons as they see fit up to the limit of slots available.  If there are more walkons than spots available, the allies can put extras into P-38’s, P-47’s, and/or B-25’s; and the axis can put them into Ki-61’s and/or Bf 110’s.

CO's may move registered pilots to different aircraft if the registered pilots are willing.  But if a registered pilot wants to keep the plane he is registered for, he must be allowed to stay in that plane.

Items of Note

“Settings” section shows items set differently from defaults.

We try our best at TFT balance, but we are not perfect, and no TFT is perfect.

Settings

• Terrain:  Luzon
• Wind:  45 mph downwind at 24k.
• Clouds:  scattered cumulus.
• Radar and Sector Counters. No sector counters below 1000 ft.  Sector counters only, no “dot” radar.  Sector counters for enemy only, not friendlies.
• Ack and guns: Turned down from Main Arena default.  Ships will not have 5”, 8”, or quad 40 mm.

• ArenaFlags = 275502
• BomberWarningRange = 42,240
• CommunicationFlags = 3
• ChangeCountryTime = 0
• ExitWhileMoving = 508
• FighterWarningRange = 42,240
• FlightModeFlags = 5248
• FogLoFarMiles = 18.0
• FogLoNearMiles = 1.0
• FuelBurnRateMult = 1.0
• GroundAutoLethality[Armored] = 0.1
• GroundAutoLethality[Hard] = 0.1
• GroundAutoLethality[Soft] = 0.1
• RadarMode = 400
• RadarUpdateRate = 30
• SectorCounterAlt = 1000
• SectorCounterRange = 158,400 (30 miles)
• TaskGroupRespawnTime = 360
• TowerBasedRadarRange = 158,400 (30 miles)
• StratFlags = 1

• Bunker (ammo, barracks, fuel, radar) hardness = 0.7, downtime = 5 minutes
• Hangar (bomber, fighter, vehicle) hardness = 1.5, downtime = 5 minutes
• Gun bat, down time = 800 (bat -- 8", 5", quad 40 mm)
• Gun bat armor, down time = 800 (baa -- 8", 5", quad 40 mm)
• ca, de hardness = 0.7, downtime whole day
• cv hardness = 1.4, downtime whole day
• All 5”, 8”, and quad 40 mm disabled on all ships.
• B-24J has all bomb loadouts disabled other than 12x250 lbs.

CM Items

MOTD:

Welcome to the Target for Today “Leyte, 1944”!

Play is from 12:01 pm (noon) Eastern time on Saturday

until 12:01 am (midnight) Eastern time.  Play any times

you want.  Pilots get unlimited lives.

Takeoffs happen on every hour mark (noon, 1 pm,

2 pm, etc.) and are shut down otherwise in between.

If you miss a takeoff hour mark, please join us for next one.

If you are not registered, you are welcome to play,

but please stay in country Rook until you are assigned

to a side.

Side CM Duties:

• Discussed in CM forum.

References

https://weaponsandwarfare.com/2015/08/15/sho-go-plan/
http://www.pwencycl.kgbudge.com/F/o/Formosa.htm

http://www.historyofwar.org/air/units/USAAF/43rd_Bombardment_Group.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Leyte

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Air_Force#US_Far_East_Air_Forces

-- Curran, Jim. Check Six!: A Thunderbolt Pilot's War Across the Pacific (Kindle Locations 5006-5007). Casemate. Kindle Edition.
-- Japanese Army Fighter Aces, 1931-45, By Ikuhiko Hata, Yashuho Izawa, Christopher Shores.

-- Aircraft in Profile, Vol. 5, by Windrow

https://www.pacificwrecks.com/airfields/philippines/tacloban/index.html
http://www.frontiernet.net/~freitag/Korat/0080fs.htm

Credits

Design:  TFT Team (Swareiam, KCDitto, Spikes, Perdue3, AKKuya, Brooke)

US CO:  AKWarHwk (Swareiam)

IJ CO:  AKKuya

Change Log

v1 (12/11/2018)

v2 (12/12/2018)

-- Added Ki-45 as the Japanese attack plane (using Bf 110C as Ki-45).

-- Changed hardness of attack targets (de, ca, bunkers) to 700 lbs and cv to 1400 lbs to accommodate bomb load of 110C.
-- Put in information on ship placements.
-- Tweaked hardness of hangars to 1500 lbs to account for loadout of Ki-67.

v3 (12/13/2018)
-- P-47’s changed to D-11’s (ones in Leyte were razorbacks).

-- Made scripts for setup, opening/closing launch windows, starting a Phase.
-- Put side CM instructions in.

v4 (12/13/2018)
-- Added strafing points for attackers going after land guns.

-- Made points system more clear.

v5 (12/18/2018)
-- Increased radar radius from 25 to 30 miles.  25 is very close.  Can fit at least 30.
-- Decreased radar update rate from 120 to 30.  120 is too long for short radar coverage.
-- Mandate at least 2 land-target Missions by level bombers and at least 1 land and 1 sea by attackers.

-- Added more references.

v6 (12/23/2018)

-- Based on new reference, corrected which P-38 group was at Tacloban and allowing P-38L’s.

v7 (12/25/2018)
-- Put in more prominently that takeoffs are on the hour marks, not in between.

-- Clarified definition of “Attempt” to include being in the air when new Phase happens.

-- Put in link to registration.

v8 (12/27/2018)
-- Changed name of P-38’s to 8th FG/80th FS (which were at Dulag, see new reference).

v9 (1/16/2019)

-- Being able to launch only at hour marks can make it at times harder to get 3 Mission in for bombers and attackers.  Reducing requirement to 2 Missions.

v10 (1/23/2019)

-- Clarified no bombs or rockets on fighters (other than Ki-45).

-- Clarified that F6F’s take off only from carrier in 13.4.