From: brooke@cco.caltech.edu (Brooke Paul Anderson)
Newsgroups: rec.aviation.simulators
Subject: Re: Air Warrior (WWII multiplayer combat sim)
Date: 7 Oct 1992 09:31:08 GMT
Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
NNTP-Posting-Host: sandman.caltech.edu

Someone asked me to post more information about Air Warrior.
Basically, AW can be considered as consisting of two parts:  the
flight sim part (which runs on your microcomputer, gets input from
the joystick or mouse, shows on the screen the view from the cockpit,
handles the flight dynamics, etc.) and the communications part (which
sends your plane's position and attitude to the modem and which gets
the positions and attitudes of the other planes so that the flight sim
part displays them correctly on your screen).  For the communications
part, you need to connect to GEnie, which has nodes in many cities across
the country.  All of this runs concurrently, of course, so that you
are flying a flight sim with and against up to 40 other people.

The following is a description of a scenario I played in a couple of
months ago.  It gives a feel for what AW is like.  It is a description
of my participation in a battle that simulated a hypothetical engagement
between the Japanese Army air forces and the air forces of the British
Royal Navy in the Indian Ocean.  The Japanese had 8 Zekes, 4 Ki-84s, and
6 Ki-61s; and the Brits had 6 Seafires and 6 Corsair II's (each carrying
2 500-lb bombs).  The objective for the British was to destory a Japanese
airfield, and the Japanese were to stop that from happening and to destroy
as many Brit planes as possible.  In the writeup, A:12, A:13, and A:19
refer to Japanese airfields, 15 is an unused field, and B:13 is the Brit
carrier.  Also, since AW does not model the Ki-61, Yak9Ds were used instead,
hence my reference to them.

========

It was the last Sunday, and, after having lost the previous four
battles, the Japanese had no reason to play conservatively.  Our
illustrious commander, the honorable Bullshido (otherwise known
as "Gray Eagle") decided that we shouldn't stray too far from
A:19 so that we could all dive on Brits as they ran from the
(invevitably) destroyed primary target.  Nevertheless, I think
the Zekes and Ki's went out hunting just the same.

The Yaks, on the other hand, being totally unsuitable for hunting
of any sort (not that they aren't the finest planes in the sky,
mind you), did in fact stay relatively close to A:19, waiting to
pounce on Corsairs as they ran home.  I was in one of those sleek
and powerful Yaks, and my job was to keep a lookout southeast of
A:19.  

I was able to get to 24k and was milling around over A:13 when
calls came in of Corsairs approaching A:19 from the west.  I flew
straight for A:19 and got close right about the time two Corsairs
were making their runs on the primary.  I could see them:  two
dots screaming along down low.  I could see them heading
southeast, so I started a vertical dive as they were still a
distance away.  As they zoomed under me, about 12-15k below at
this point, I rolled my plane 180 degrees and made my dive more
shallow, holding the nose about 30 degrees ahead of the racing
Corsairs.  I was travelling at well over 400 knots and was
cutting them off nicely.

Once I got into icon range, I began making my dive even more
shallow.  By the time I was on the deck, it was clear I was
overtaking the Corsairs from dead astern.  Perfect!  Now all I
had to do was make sure I didn't auger as I lined up.  My eyes
were locked the screen; I watched the range gradually decrease. 
900 yards, 800, 700 . . . At 600 yards, I opened fire on the
trailing Corsair.  Ping, ping, ping, ping -- four hits -- and
then I was right ON him.  I decided in an instant to press on to
the lead Corsair, which was already in range.  I never let up on
the trigger.  Nevertheless, I was worried that the trailing
Corsair hadn't turned and that he would be filling my tail full
of lead as I charged past.  I began to see hits on the lead
Corsair, and, although I was tensely awaiting hits from the
trailing Corsair, these hits never came.  I counted five hits on
the leader, and then he broke hard, up into a maximum-g loop.  I
followed him up and spared a look back -- the trailing Corsair
had indeed turned.

For the moment, I was happy.  The two Corsairs were turning hard,
bleeding off speed, but still I was only one Yak against two
Corsairs.  One might get away!  I tried briefly to keep an eye on
both at once, but gave up and concentrated on only one.  Luckily,
several Zekes and Ki's had been charging hard after the Corsairs
and caught up to the three of us shortly.  I got a couple more
hits on a Corsair and then decided that the Zekes and Ki's could
more easily finish them off -- I disengaged and flew north to get
clear.  Shortly thereafter, I got two "a kill has been recorded"
messages.  Yes!

However, I still had 50% of my ammo left, and calls were coming
in about Spits near 15.  I turned southwest and headed for more
action.  The calls continued -- Zekes and Ki's were fighting four
Spits south of 15.  By the time I got there, the number was down
to three, but several Japs were smoking.  I called out the
position and situation and made a high-speed pass through the
furball, firing as I went through.  Then I pulled up into a
shallow climb.  One spit had enough energy -- he came around and
pinged me once, so I pulled up hard into a loop and came racing
back through.  I'm not sure if I hit anything during those first
two passes, but, on the third, I got a hit or two on one of the
spits.  Before I made the fourth pass, the hungry Zekes and Ki's
polished everything off.

By now, there was only about five minutes left in the battle.  I
climbed towards the B:13 sector just in case any Brits were
straggling through.  I heard calls of a Corsair heading south
from A:12 -- and saw it far in advance -- but it was 5-10k above
me as it zoomed past to safety.  Some calls were coming in from
guys who were in the process of cornering some Brits, but time ran
out shortly thereafter.

All in all, it was a very fun battle.
 

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