Downtown D1 - Cyberboard Game File

By request, I am now making the cyberboard game file for scenario D1 available from my web site. If you do not already have the Downtown Gamebox required for Cyberboard, then make sure you download and install it as well. Place the gamebox file (gbx suffix) and the game file (gam suffix) in the same directory, and then open the game file using Cyberboard.

Currently, the game file contains all turns up to and including turn 4. As future turns are completed, the game file will be updated with the new moves.

Downtown D1 - Turn 4 Summary

This map shows the situation at the end of turn 4.

Turn 4 sees a bit more action, as SAM sites light up and try to get a good lock on the incoming raid. At the start of the turn, a new flight (#100) is shown to be another jamming flight, which will no doubt be used to try and befuddle my SAM and Fire Can battalions. We'll see about that...

The detection phase helps me out a bit, as three more US aircraft are detected, whereas my DRV flights on the deck are proving problematic for the US radar operators. So far, so good - let's hope this can hold up for several more turns!

During the US movement phase, US flight #305 climbs away from the other three flights on the deck (#'s 105, 300 & 101). Since all flights tasked with bombing would need to change altitude at the same point in the flight path (as it was plotted before the game started), I am guessing that the three flights still on the deck are the main strike package. The other flights above the deck must then be on SEAD, CAP, Jamming, or Strike/CAP missions.

During the DRV movement phase, my three flights continue on or past Hanoi. I am thinking that I will most likely need to double-back flight C as it is significantly further ahead of the other two flights, and it would be best to try and split the attacking forces between as many potential targets as possible.

During the SAM Acquisition phase, I decide to light up several SAM radars and see what I can acquire. I've kept most of them offline for this long to try and give as little information to my opponent as possible, but I think that now is the time I need to start trying to knock planes out of the sky to hopefully soften up the CAP for my MiG flights. Thus, SAM sites A, B, C, E and F go live in quick acquisition mode. This allows these sites to try and acquire targets, albeit with a penalty modifier. With SAM site G activated at the end of last turn, this gives me 6 SAM battallions with which to try and acquire targets. There are three flights I target for acquisition (with 2 SAM batallions each): US flights 202, 204 and 207. SAM site A doesn't acquire flight 207, but SAM B does get a partial acquisition. SAMs C and G try and acquire flight 204, getting one full and one partial. SAMs E and F both get partial acquisitions of flight 202. The US movement phase of Turn 5 should be very interesting!

Thursday AM Surf Report

The more often I surf in the early morning, the more I love it. Today brought near perfect offshore winds - just enough to hold the wave up for that fraction of a second before the lip plunges over the edge. Unfortunately, the high tide made the beach break a little inconsistent. I made the best of the situation and caught a few very fun waves, so I'm glad I woke up early. No surf for me on my lunch today.

Hump Day Double Shot Surf Report

I went out early in the AM this morning, and caught a few nice rides before heading off to work. There was a slight offshore breeze, but the water was still fairly glassy and some wind swell produced a few nice sized waves, even if they were a bit scattered and inconsistent.

On my lunch, I headed back out hoping that the wind which seems to kick up right around 10 or 11 am wouldn't show up today. No such luck! It was mixed up, blown out, and choppy. In short: crap-o-la. I may head back out tomorrow morning to catch some more decent surf.

Downtown D1 - Turn 3 Summary

This map shows the situation at the end of turn 3.

I continued to move the three DRV flights towards Hanoi. I have yet to decide what to do with them after they have reached Hanoi, however. I could either split them up and go after what I am assuming are the USAF bomber flights (105, 300 and 101 - due to their relatively slow speed of 3 movement pts) and risk them getting in the way of SAM shots, OR let them loiter until after the SAMs have blown their wads, and try and pick off stragglers.

Right now, I am guessing that the raid target is one of those along the Red River. Making a few assumptions about the target and flight path of the strike, I could get my one real DRV flight to intercept probably during turn 7 or 8, and it looks like it would be just inside the envelope for SAM launches. If I was able to successfully engage at least one of the strike aircraft, that would be a big help, since merely engaging a strike a/c is a mission kill as the a/c must pickle it's bomb load. I would then need to get my DRV a/c out of the SAM strike area to allow them to do their thing...Hmmmm. Decisions, decisions!

Also, at the end of Turn 3, SAM site G goes live. I imagine this will make their pulse jump a little. Let's see if we can't knock one of those two a/c at high altitude out of the air.

End of the Work Week Surf Report

I surfed twice yesterday: once in the early AM when the tide was low and the conditions were extremely calm but the waves were small, and once on my lunch. The lunch session was much better, with plenty of fun waves to pick off, and some decent waves to work with.

Today, the swell was predicted to pick up significantly, but those of us in the North County didn't get the full brunt of the swell due to us living in the 'shadow' of Pt. Conception and some of the islands off the coast of southern California. However, we did see a good boost in wave size which showed up for the lunch break surf today. Unfortunately, the waves didn't have good shape, with close outs the norm as the set waves rolled in. At the end of my session, I was knocked in a bit by one set wave, then I got dumped, rolled, and rinsed by the largest set wave of the session. After pulling the sea weed out of my nose, and evicting the hermit crabs residing in my ears, I just paddled back in and called it a day. I haven't gone through a rinse cycle like that in a long time.

Victory at Sea Surf Report

The last two days, just before lunch, the wind has been kicking up and making somewhat of a mess out in the water. Today was better than Monday, as the wave size seemed to pick up a bit. I caught a couple nice rights today, then caught one more mediocre ride in and called it a day.

Downtown D1 - Turn 2 Summary

First of all, Allan C. has provided this link for his mission write-up. I can't click on it for fear of seeing something I shouldn't, so if there is a problem with the URL, please let me know and we'll get it corrected.

No more flights are detected during the detection phase, so Allan C. again moves his flights onto the map. The four flights on the deck make their way due NE, using the ridge lines for SAM cover.

I position my flights to head towards Hanoi once they are all up to speed, so that they will be protected by the flak cover which Hanoi provides in abundance. Here is their situation at the end of Turn 2:

At the end of turn 2, I decide to keep SAM site G unactivated for now. I hope I'll be able to lite it up when the main raid force enters the map and do a bit of damage with it then.

In the US Admin phase, Allan C. places two flights at High altitude just off of the map, signaling their entrance to the map next turn.

End of turn 2.

Moonlight Beach, Early in the AM

The commute to work was unusually light, so I stopped by Moonlight Beach to see if the storm that passed through last night left some residual swell in it's wake. As you can see from the photos below, it looked real fun out there. Too bad about the high bacteria levels due to the run-off.

There was a slight off shore breeze holding the waves up just the right amount:

*Brrrrrrrr!*

This one guy seemed to be catching most of the waves:

Gmail - Google's Email Service

Although today is April Fool's day, this is no joke. Google, every savvy internet user's favorite search engine, is branching out to the email arena. Currently, Gmail is in a limited beta test phase, but may soon expand their test group to include more people. It sound as if they will be integrating spam filtering as well as a few other features like organizing related email as "conversations", and allowing the user to search through all their email. With a one gigabyte data limit, a user wouldn't need to worry about continually purging older emails. Here is another article on Gmail to further whet your appetite.