35 Aerial Warfare Basics

(YF) "I haven't heard of that map before. What is the name of this battle?"

(BM) " Oh you know what,I'm actually not sure what this battle was called. I think it was a lesser known part of World War 1 so not many people would be aware of such a minor battle. The results were only less than 20 altogether after all,what's 20 casualties to a total of over 2000?"

(HX) "Tell you what. I think the best thing we can do at this moment is to try and find this map. If we do then we will have an advantage over the others."

(YF) "Certainly, if we find this map then the practice and experiments we can carry out are threefold of what we can achieve with the next best aerial map I know of."

(BM) "Alright let's get to work."

The five of them began to look for the map that Baron told the about. And looked, and looked, and looked until they finally found it. There was a reason that this map was not well known, and that's because it was under a category that no one visited ever. These were the battles that lasted only a few hours at most. Generally most strategists preferred battles that took longer than a few years. This not only proved how each strategists planned for the long term, but also how they fared during long and drawn out battles.

With the map finally in their sights they spared no time in entering the simulation, this time as a group battle 2vs3. Han Xin was to be paired with Yue Fei while the other three were grouped together. They had chosen to split into these groups because Yue Fei and Han Xin had the most experience out of all of them and therefore could work together to figure out how to do the most damage with the less than 100 jets they had. Against the over 2,000 fleet of Ban Chao, Xu Da,and Baron.

Although the advantage was overwhelmingly in favor of the group of three, they had decided that this simulation would be a practice round before actually beginning to practice. So this simulation would be a sort of introduction to the basics of aerial warfare. Once they began the simulation the five of them got together to discuss what they had planned to do. They all met up on neutral ground the moment they got into the simulation. Baron was the first to speak.

(BM) "I think it would be best if Yue Fei and Han Xin gave an introduction to aerial warfare to Ban Chao and Xu Da."

(YF) "Yes I think that's a great idea. You two haven't done any of these types of battles have you?"

(BC) "Once actually, but I was humiliated so badly it still haunts me."

(XD) "Never."

(YF) "Well to be honest, aerial warfare is not that different from land battles. It's only the objectives, the means of victory, and the types of weapons that change. You still have to target strategic positions, you still have to plan ahead, you still have to be vigilant and not underestimate the enemy, you still have to try your best to cripple the enemy."

(HX) "Let me expand on what Yue Fei said. The warfare aspects do not change, however, you will have to think up new strategies to fight in the air. Whatever strategies do or do not work in the sky is what we should be testing today. First things first. One of the most important aspects of aerial warfare has to be the strategic bombings of various locations. Say we bomb a city. Sure we could lower the enemy morale, but that's it. However, if we successfully bomb a military base, or any equivalent place with top officials or lots of enemy planes, then we would have dealt a devastating blow to the enemy."

(YF) "Yes, although we would have to be vigilant of the enemy doing the same to us. Another thing to watch out for are spies in your ranks. Spies may be one of the biggest threats to any battle."

(HX) "One of the determinants of an aerial battle is the use of radars. It won't guarantee you victory, but it can guarantee you some Intel on the enemy. Then you'll have some time to prepare for the oncoming attack."

(BM) "I believe the jets for this map don't have any radar sensing capabilities, nor has radar even been invented yet by that point in history. But I do have a blueprint for the radar tower that can help us with that."

Complete silence followed suit.

(HX) "Do you realize what you just said?"

(BM) "No.... What for you mean?."

(YF) "Do you know why the Chinese community don't have many great Aerial strategists? Its not because we lack the capable strategists. Its because we lack the necessary blueprints to manufacture the advantage."

(BM) "Really? Actually that doesn't surprise me too much. Only recently has China began to start seriously investing in the air space of warfare. Naturally the few people who have designed and built more advanced stuff have either gone to other planets or are still alive."

(YF) "Im not too sure about that but I'll take your word for it. The other countries like England, Japan, Germany, and the United States have all surpassed us in this field just to name a few. Thankfully our land based simulations even out our poor air based performances."

(BM) "Hmmm, I had no idea that was our current situation. Looks like we need to seriously modernize if we are to progress any further into the tournament. Much less win it. Anyway we need to continue with the basics"

(YF) "Ah yes, we will also need to use a few planes to go on reconnaissance missions. However, we will be able to decrease the amount of times we do that if the radar tower that Baron has has already been built."

(BM) "Alright I get it, I'll draw a few blueprints for you guys later."

(HX) "There are a few more points to give you guys, but I think it's better if you guys experience it for yourselves. No matter what we say, experience triumphs over pointers."

(BC) "Yes, let's get our preparations underway."

(XD) "Finally, I was wondering when you'd finish."

(BM) "Alright I'll get started on the radar tower blueprints, and maybe a few other things that might help us in the future. You guys can get started on experimenting."

They then split up to accomplish their own tasks.Baron left to go draw up some blueprints, Ban Chao and Xu Da left to go study up on some more military aircraft strategy. While Han Xin andYue Fei discussed how to best use their limited amount of jets to take out as many of the enemy planes as they could. The preparation time for this map was only 1 week and so the time went by fast. The five of them met just before the battle began on neutral ground to speak again.

(BM) "Alright guys here are the blueprints I've made for you all." Baron said as he handed each of his allies 3 separate sets of blueprints. "The first one is the radar tower that we mentioned before. The radar can detect aircraft and ships as long as they have a navigation system."

(BC) "I fear for what the future of Earth will be like if we have already developed something like this."

(BM) "Trust me, this isn't all that impressive compared to some of the even more modern weapons we've built. We sure do like to fight each other. Anyway, the second blueprint that I've drawn for you guys is the radio set. This device allows you to communicate orders to your units immediately. Just like smoke signals that you guys are used to using, except you can ditectly talk to them. Of course, you'd have to install a receiver on each plane which is what the third blueprint is for."

(HX) "Some of the newer maps that are fought in the air are indeed better than what you have presented to us here. However, this will definitely help us when the map that we are fighting doesn't include these kinds of technology. Such as the earlier ones."

(YF) "Gosh Baron, I never imagined that you would have so many blueprint ideas floating up in your brain. This is quite the advantage that you've given us."

(BM) "It's not too difficult to obtain this kind of information by the time I died. In fact, its available to a large swathe of the population. Most people don't bother with it though, but that's their decision."

(XD) "Did you do a lot of traveling around then? It seems like by the time you died it was a relatively peaceful era."

(BM) "Yes actually, I've been all around. I've seen many war factories, met many strategists, and best of all became a beacon of hope for my country........Wait we are getting off topic. Let's begin the battle after all of Han Xin and Yue Fei's planes have been equipped with the radio technology. We need as much practice as we can get."