Fun Mission

[Poochnboo]

I picked up BOM with my promo code and with the Summer Moscow mod it's a really nice map. I decided to set up a simple little mission. Me and another Spitfire intercepting a Hienkel 111. Well...it sounded simple!

I started us on the ground and away we go to hunt down the intruder that control has found for us. We fly around looking for him and I can't find him! Surprisingly enough, neither can my wingman. We're up for a rediculously long time and I decide it's time to head home. I enjoyed it, though. It felt kind of real not being able to locate the enemy bomber. 

I retry it. Restart the mission and away we go. Believe it or not...we can't find him again!. This elusive intruder is good. We head back and have to tell the C.O. no joy again.

This is silly now. I'm doing it again. Fly all over and yeah..no HE111. I land, shut down the engine and slide open the canopy. I look up. Tracers! My AI buddy has located him and there, right over the field, they're blasting away at each other. "Well, I'll be damned!" I slam the hood shut, start my engine and I'm hurling down the taxi way hoping to get in a shot before my wing man nails him.

But he's not doing so well. I see that he's now making dry runs at the Hienkel. He's out of ammo! It's taking me an eternity to get up there but I finally do and get in a shot. Pieces fly off, but no killing blow. Damn, my shooting sucks. I get an engine smoking, and then the other one, but then....out of cannon rounds! Only .303's left.

He's still up, slowly losing altitude and his gunner is firing away at me. I'm shooting back with the machine guns but it's more for my own morale than anything else. And there's my wingman, still making dry runs on him to draw their fire. Plucky little devil, I'm thinking. Finally, I'm dry, too.

Nothing to do but follow and hope he goes in. Slowly but surly he's going lower and lower. I can see the field in the distance that he's trying to get to and I'm thinking that he may actually make it! But then his luck runs out. In he goes into a woods. No dramatic explosion. Just bellies in to the trees. And his gunner even keeps shooting for a while. 

This was so much fun, and so immersive that I decided not to just end the mission. I led my wingman back to base and made a nice three pointer. I then ruined the whole thing by ground looping my Spitfire. Tower told me to vacate the runway so I sheepishy taxiied off and shut down. 

This was the most fun single mission I've played since I've owned the sim. There was something that felt so real and immersive about the whole thing. I can easily imagine the frustration of a real life RAF pilot not locating the intruder he's sent to find and then the elation of spotting him. I love that the HE111 didn't just disintegrate after my first shot, too. That added to the reality of the whole thing. 

Anyway, that was fun and I thought I'd share it.