What is Scorched Earth (SEOW)

Now the prime objective of the 69 GIAP is to fly together in an organised manner against opposing squadrons in online wars.

If you mainly have experience of flying a simulator offline against the computer or just fly around in circles in online dogfight rooms this concept merits a bit more explanation.

Currently we are using the Scorched Earth system which is a set of software which is installed on one of our or our opponent’s computers.

We will meet up with an opposing squadron and negotiate a war scenario which will normally be loosely based on a historic theme. Examples we have flown include the Spanish Civil War, Greece v Italy, the Korean War, WW1 western front, Midway and of course numerous different battles over the Eastern front. So you could find yourself in a Sturmovik over Stalingrad, an I16 over Madrid, with the RFC over the Somme or a Zero over Midway.

The two opposing squadrons will agree upon the map, what type and quantity of planes, ships, tanks, artillery are to be used and the objectives which may be points based or tied to the capture and defence of key geographic points. Each side will have factories which manufacture and resupply planes and vehicles to make good losses.

The overall objective of all this is to ensure a balanced, fun game play with objectives so if we don’t have a Sopwith Camel handy in the game we will paint a Fiat to look like one.

Each side will prepare a starting template disposing their forces and enter it into the Scorched earth software. So you know which side of the map you are on and roughly what you are up against but the rest is up to you to find out.

Each side then plans their missions which may include recon, strategic bombing to eliminate factories, ground attack, escort or defensive cap over assets. You seldom have the resources to do everything so decisions must be made. This takes teamwork with someone responsible for overall strategy, someone planning air missions, another pilot will plan ground moves and we may even have an admiral.

Having received the plans of both Red and Blue teams the Scorched Earth system will generate a co-op mission, both sides meet at a prearranged time and place (on the internet), fly the mission and the logfile results are fed back into the system which calculates the next starting position.

Typically we are flying two wars in parallel, one running every Wednesday and one every Sunday. A campaign will typically last about 20 missions – so will last about 6 months including setup.

This means that once or twice a week you fly a big co-op mission with between 20-30 human pilots. It will last up to 90 minutes and you will have a job to do which will have a direct influence on the progress of the campaign. Of course, if you crash your plane on take off that’s the end of your evening and the cost of repair work will be added to your mess bill – so there’s a bit of pressure and excitement involved.

Now pilots may just reserve a plane, read the briefing, turn up and fly, others will attend specific practice sessions and may participate in the planning.

If you are a competitive squadron experienced in SEOW you probably are already in contact with us but if you are just starting out we may arrange a short test campaign to help you through the learning curve. That way you use our infrastructure and we lend you one of our officers to show you the ropes.