Part 9: S01E09: 1956.11.01 (A six-pack)

S01E09: 1956.11.01 (A six-pack)
I skip five missions of mostly nothing.

A - 1956.10.31



8-plane Armed Recon near Suez again. I decided to be a smartarse and rearrange the waypoints to take a trip over both enemy tank groups. Only, when I arrived at the target area, there were no tanks at all, and we got jumped by MiGs and Meteors, while my squadron buggered off to the north like the last time. Not much to show, except for that warm welcome.

Bonus clip (no commentary)


The right wheel was shot off, so I bailed out - another day at the hospital. Two other pilots ended up as POW and MIA.

B - 1956.11.01



The remains of the Egyptian troops attempt a morning counter-attack. 4 of us fly defensive CAS, i.e. the enemy tanks are the ones moving now. Nothing of interest happens, except I get so low, I graze the belly of the plane against the sand and survive. No visible damage, but the plane acted like it lost a third of the right wing.
This engine doesn't do belly landings - without the gear all planes take damage from the ground and then explode.

C - 1956.11.01



Exactly the same deal as the previous mission, only in a different area, and with less sand in my face.
Oh, and as you see the two MiG squadrons finally redeployed deeper. Now everyone hangs out near Cairo.

D - 1956.11.01



Friendly tanks go on another offensive. 4 of us help out, even though there is a small problem with supplies.



We're so out of rockets, I can't fully equip everyone. I end up giving myself and 1-3 the usual 10 rockets, while 1-2 and 1-4 get 2 500-lb bombs each.
You can only hang bundles of 6 or 4 rockets on the P-51D hardpoints, and there is no way to equip less than 4.
Emir got promoted to Catpain.

E - 1956.11.01



Aka the "fuck it" mission. There are no enemy tanks left, nothing is going on, and the game tries to send us on pointless strikes or patrols.
I boot the sim and immediately quit. Mission failed, but no harm done, and the world time moves forward. Our tanks capture Suez.
Which brings us to today's episode.



Fine, game, I'll do a Combat Air Patrol, I don't need rockets for that. The briefing tells you to go and shoot down whatever, but in fact one of the enemy flights is marked as the primary target. Nobody will tell you, which one, and the mission can be completed even if you kill some planes from other squadrons.

The mission video


In which the MiGs seem to suffer from major brain and manufacturing defects



So, 2 air kills makes it 6 total, and Emir is now an ace. The only ace on the entire map - that's something I can easily check, because all friendly and enemy squadron aces are reported when you hover your mouse over the map icons.
There are no benefits for the player. However, an AI pilot, who survives to become an ace, turns into a god of war.