A bit unusual night in the mains. When I first logged, I was the only mongrel on, and went to the smallest arena. About 15 mniutes later, we had 3 more come on and the four of us started with some easy furballing. However, the evil Bishites put together a scary big mission with F6Fs coming in way above the rest of us...and totally porking, then capping, our base. (I think at this point it was me, Duncan, MacViper, and Olds.)
So we 4 made lemonade out of the lemons. Off we went to another base, just in time to see a few Rooks hitting a V base. We went up together, and split by pairs to deal with threats to the east and the west. I went after some B24s about to drop, and got 2 of them...but broke off too late, and lost the outer half of my right wing. The other 3 went after the remaining attackers, and tallied up at least 3 fighters and a goon. We got a public thanks from the GV guys who had been there alone -- good PR for the mongrels!
Tank had been defending valiantly up at the capped base, where the Nits had finally reasserted themselves. We made our way there, but right around then got a message that more mongrels were in the other arena, since ours had been filled up in the meantime. So, off we went.
At first, it was cooperative furballing over tank town. While not strictly winging, we all gave each other cover wherever possible -- and when CD announced he had bagged his first ever MA kill, and wanted to egress, there was a chain of us moving in to cover him from the center of tank town off to where he was completely clear. And yes he did land (which gave us opportunity to explain the whole perk point thing..
)
Ghosth hunted around and found a nice little base capture opportunity, though I was a little worried at a 1 plane DAR bar that might mean we'd get spotted. I went to the proposed launch tower, went external view, and looked around -- only to spot a dot moving out at our town. So, I upped an La7 and chased him around as he tried to hit the ack and town buildings. Since his mind was on other things, he ended up being a fairly easy kill...though he probably thought his mission was a success too, as he managed to use up his ord.
Well, around this time I began to wonder why he was so eager to hit the town when he was here by himself -- only to find the answer seconds later, when a gang of rooks popped up into dar altitude. I called the incomings out on squad channel (hopefully my voice didnt go TOO many octaves up!) and in less than a mnute we had a building horde of our own.
Things got pretty busy for a while, but the long and the short of it was that the Mongrels ate the Aces and 8s for lunch. I don't think we lost anyone to combat fire (hmmm..now I remember that someone went down to buff guns, but all the same..).... we pretty much owned them. At one point I saw 5 or 6 consecutive Mongrel pilots land kills, 2 at a time. (Including CDDAWGS!!) there were other text messages filling the buffer, and we were in "defensive planes of choice", but it was pretty impressive all the same. The A8s tried a second wave, but it was a "no-go" for them, as the Mongrels kept together and chewed them up as they arrived piecemeal.
All in all, a very good night, but with a different style of MA play. We traveled the map, and the arenas, looking for bases to defend and attacks to break up. In the process, we got some good team practice, some nice kills, and the satisfaction of stopping the bad guys' efforts cold.
Attending through the evening were: Simaril, Ghosth, Mikira, Duncan, Olds, MacViper, cdDawgs, LuckyI3, tank, and Vader. If I missed anyone, sound off!!
Friday nights (FSO) at 11 PM Eastern 
