What Stags said.
I'd add that it also has elements from Interceptor Ace and Nightfighter Ace (both also Gregory Smith designs), with promotions and awards and such. I think Zeppelin Raiders does the same, though I've not yet gotten that one to the table.
I played a single mission yesterday just to get a feel for it, and it very much is B-17 at its heart. Nothing wrong with that. I posted some minor issues to the Solitaire Wargames group on FB yesterday and think Gregory wasn't entirely happy with my post, LOL. Didn't mean to make him mad, I was just making some observations as to how vague the manual was in places. (That's what they get for not asking me to proof it, ha.)
My mission was not great - rolled up the shipyards at Newport News, Virginia, as my first target, in Zone 6 (which is the furthest Zone). Got all the way to Zone 5 before we finally were intercepted by a pair of P-80s. One, my top turret gunner destroyed, but the second one was missed; that second one ended up killing my top turret gunner (our flight engineer) and destroying our bomb sight (which automatically makes any bombing result 'Off Target'), not to mention damaging the hell out of our starboard wing and getting a hit on the fuselage to boot. There are three ranges - Long, Medium, and Close, at which enemy interceptors come at your bomber, and they start at Long. They then move to Medium, and you exchange fire, then Close, and you exchange fire, and then if the interceptor is still 'alive,' it breaks off. The bad thing is, this second interceptor came in from 9:00 high and my top turret was the only gun that could attack it. With the Flight Engineer dead, there would be no way for me to fight him off, and unlike B-17 I don't think you can move crew to replace others on the plane, so I gave up at that point. The interceptor would have gotten two free attacks on us with no chance of retaliation on my part (the Me-264 I was flying only has four gun emplacements, and none of the other three could target it), and I didn't see the point in pushing to the next Zone, having to go through another interception round, then AA fire, then an off target bomb run, then more AA fire, and then more interception chances. I figured we'd be dead meat. But I got a feel for the game - lousy luck losing a gunner AND the bloody bomb sight on our first ever interceptor attack.
In any case it's quite fun despite me having my Schnitzel handed to me.
