How about an island map with 5 main islands. A Russian island, a Japanese island, a German/Italian island, a Brittish island, and an American island. The islands are restricted to that nations aircraft(and aircraft they used in quantity during the war). Each island has one or more airfields, a port, and an industrial site. Each nation has a single carrier group. Add flack towers to enhance defense.Destroying industrial targets increases repair/regen time for structures/pilots. Fuel dumps restict fuel and ammo dumps can restrict ammo load. Give pilots points for landing(finishing sorties) especially carrier landings! This would cut back on the "kamikazi" attitudes.Start in 1942. Or use the simple island map IEN had for the free arena. 4 colors, 4 plane sets. beef up the airfield structures, increase number of paras required to capture. Add port and industry targets. Each color gets a CV. Would be great fun. S.Keohane
Ah yes, you are correct, only 4 colors!. Anyway, I will try and find the map ien used for the free fighter arena years ago. Ok FOUR teams....Gold(German/Italian planes) , Red(Japanese) , Green (USA) and Purple (Russia/UK) exact color doesnt matter...the idea is 4 teams with specific plane sets and make fields and ports harder to capture. Would be very fun and interesting.
imho japan has problems in row of planes. namely, it lacks: 1.good strafer in mid-late war (Ki-45 KAIb or at least Ki-51) 2.good heavy bomber in mid-late war (G5N1/11?) 3.good high-alt interceptor in mid-late war (J2M3,J2M5?) 4.good naval attacker (D4Y2a, B6N2a, C6N1-B?) 5.good medium (2000-3000kg) bomber in entire war (1000kg max Ki-21-II, G4M, Ki-67, P1Y1) 6.good high-velocity bomber in late war (Ki-67, P1Y1?)
In the origional scenario there were no 4 engined bombers available at all and the designers limited the fighter types available. Each side also had one field that was nearly impossible to destroy.(took 28 paras and I think all the structures and flack took twice the damage to destroy) The Japanese did very well because of the emphasis shifted to dogfighting and fighter-bombers. Getting into a furball with a swarm of low wingloaded Jap aircraft can get you killed quickly! One tactic to survive was to zoom&boom, keep your energy high and hope for a lucky shot! I think the USA had the worst time of it in the early phase-39,P-40,P-38,F-4F3, SBD and TBM were hard pressed to survive against oponents!(Try any of them against a Spit V or Bf109F and you see.) Seanix
Well, we can all argue over whats the best plane,whats modeled right or not, and all ways people seem to cheat in the game. This gets us nowhere. I think splitting the nationalities as I mentioned above would add a whole new dimention to the game. The numbers of players is dropping off. Doesnt anyone fell the game a bit repetitive? Its a great sim why not give my idea a try?
