TIE Corps Commander Report #5

Date Submitted: August 8, 2018
From: TCCOM/AD Pete Mitchell
To: Entire TIE Corps Fleet

Fiction

After a short and uneventful hyperspace journey from the Challenge to PLT Daedalus, AD Pete Mitchell maneuvered his TIE Guardian towards the landing platform.  Even with just his fledgling skill in the Dark Side, Pete could sense something was off…

Pete hopped out of his TIE after landing and looked around.  There was very little going on in the hangar.  While this was a surprise visit, Pete expected someone to meet him after he identified himself before landing.  Perhaps everyone was hurrying to be ready for inspection.  He began walking towards the CO’s office.  On his way, he didn’t see what he was used to in his time as a cadet with formations of cadets marching through the halls or even singles in smart uniforms hurrying to make it somewhere on time.  He saw a few less people, but those he did see where barely in uniform. They might be wearing the uniform pants, but they hadn’t seen an iron in ages.  They wore their tunics half unbuttoned.  He sensed a general lack of order and purpose to the place. 

When Pete made it to Colonel Heatherly’s office and quarters, he was quite taken aback.  There was only a rec room with cadets playing various table and video games. 

“What the…” Pete muttered to himself.  He grabbed the shoulder of the nearest cadet, just a bit too harshly.  “Where is AD Heatherly?” he asked.

“Who’s that?” the cadet replied.

“Who’s that?!!   He’s the commanding officer of this platform and training facility!”

“Never heard of him.” 

“How long have you been here, cadet?”

“A bit over a year.”

“Over a year!  Why haven’t you graduated and been transferred to a squadron?  Why haven’t you heard of Colonel Heatherly?  Who is in charge here?!!”

“We are.” The cadet replied matter-of-factly. 

“Who’s ‘We’?” asked Pete. 

“The cadets, all of us.”  The cadet responded with an inquisitive look on his face. 

“How does anyone get trained?”  

“We have volunteers that have been here for a few years that train us, and we sign up for the classes we want.”

“How do you graduate, and why are you still here after over a year?”

“We graduate when we want to move to the fleet, or we just go back home.”

“This is all news to me.  Where is Colonel Heatherly, though?  How have I still been getting reports where everything is normal?”

“I’m not positive, but that may be what the droid in the corner does…”  He pointed to a C8 model droid in the corner, hooked into a datalink.  “I still have no idea who Colonel Heatherly is.”

“Wow, well this trip has been more enlightening than I expected.  Thank you for your help cadet.”

………

After a few days of inspections on Daedalus, Pete returned to the Challenge to meet up with AD Plif. 

Pete and Plif met in the small conference room.  They both saluted and greeted each other. 

“Good to see you Plif.  I certainly had an interesting trip.  How about you?”

“You could say that”  Plif replied

“Well I’ll go first, as Daedalus is first in the process”  Pete proceeded to tell Plif the story of the cadet-run training program there, for about half an hour.”

“The funny thing is it seems to work.  The pilots that want to fly learn to fly, the pilots that want to concentrate on other things do that.  The pilots that never want to leave, stay and train others.  I never could find any information on what happened to COL Heatherly, though…”

“Well the squadron training was quite varied.  It ranged from handing the newbies a pilot manual and having them read it, to hazing, to overdosing on Kappa Hype…  For some it works, for many it didn’t.  I think the main thing is we need to match pilots to the squadron culture a bit better, if possible.”

“That’s a good idea, and perhaps, a bit of standardization would help, with each commander adding their flare.  Did you ever find your name plaque?”

“You know, I never did find the real one. I did find about 30 cheap knock offs, though.  Just about every pilot in Wing II had one on their door…” 

News

First, congratulations and thank you are in order for LT Kiba, who has been selected to take command of Sin Squadron and is now CM Kiba!

We also had two new pilots join the fleet this week, both of which have already made it to LT!  Please welcome and congratulate LT Ravin and LT James379!

In TIE Corps Pilot League, we have a new weekly winner: LC Earnim Branet! He swept this week!

AD Pickled Yoda has released the first new custom battle in some time: XvT-TC-146!  To celebrate, AD Plif has created two new competitions around it. One for the highest score, and one for the best review, so get in that cockpit and fly it!

I have also posted a new competition Top Muse to provide me with ideas for my report fictions and provide you with some difficult to get IS ribbons!  See my previous email or the competition write up on the database for details.  Basically, email me your ideas. 

Oh, it’s also MSE time again, so let’s make it quick and easy for AD Plif his first time around as SOO!

Also, I am having some trouble getting email on completed IU courses, so if you have passed any in the past two weeks, and haven’t seen it added to your profile, please forward me the email.  Thanks!

Promotions

LT Kiba to CM

SL James 379 to LT

SL Ravin to LT

Transfers

LT Kiba from Kappa 3-2 to Sin CMDR

Open Command Positions

Alpha Flight Leader

Theta Flight Leader

TCCOM Competitions

TIE Corps on Patrol 2018:

Round 16 Assignments:

TIE-Free 260: A Station Too Far

XvT-Free 188: Protect VIPs for Recon Officer's party

XWA-Free 123: Drak's Night Out

BSF emails/pilot files will be due by 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern/1 am London on Monday August 13.

Rules:

It’s a new year, so this will change a little.  Every TWO weeks, there will be a free mission from each of the major SP platforms (TIE, XvT, XWA) assigned.  Pilots will fly each mission that they choose and BSF the battles to the TC database and forward the BSF email to Pete Mitchell.  If the pilot has earned a high score, BSF it and also send the pilot file to Pete Mitchell in case the BSF is not approved in time. 

Each week the pilot with the highest score in each platform will earn 4 points.  The next highest score will earn 3, the next highest 2, and all other submissions will earn 1.  If the winning pilot in a platform also earned a high score, that pilot will earn 5 points for that platform.  Points will accumulate for the week, month, and year for more awards.

Awards:

Annual:

IS-PW/GW/SW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the year.  (at least 5 participants)

IS-GW/SW/BW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the year in each platform (at least 4 participants)

Monthly:

IS-GW/SW/BW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the month (at least 3 participants).

Weekly:

IS-SW/BW for 1^st and 2^nd total points for the week (at least 3 participants).

IS-SW/BW for 1^st and 2^nd in each platform (at least 2 participants).

TIE Corps Pilot League 2018:

Round 15  Results:

TIE-Free 61: Horn #1 – Current HS = 56,135

XvT-Free 24: Arrival of VA Priyum to ISD Grey Wolf – Current HS = 58,360

XWA-Free 30: Capture the M/FRG Hound – Current HS = 13,685

Overall:

Round 16 Assignments:

TIE-Free 66: The Battle of Yavin – Current HS  = 56,346

XvT-Free 25: Steal Rebel Warheads – Current HS = 129,770

XWA-Free 35: Routine Patrol – Current HS = 15,660

Rules:

This competition is similar to TIE Corps on patrol, but it is handicapped to make it accessible to more pilots.  Every TWO weeks, there will be a free mission from each of the major SP platforms (TIE, XvT, XWA) assigned.  Pilots will fly each mission that they choose and BSF the battles to the TC database and forward the BSF email to Pete Mitchell.  If the pilot has earned a high score, BSF it and also send the pilot file to Pete Mitchell in case the BSF is not approved in time. 

BSF emails/pilot files will be due by 5 pm Pacific/8 pm Eastern/1 am London on August 20.

Each week the pilot with the highest handicap score (expressed as a % of the high score) in each platform will earn 4 points.  The next highest score will earn 3, the next highest 2, and all other submissions will earn 1.  If the winning pilot in a platform also beat the high score (without the handicap added), that pilot will earn 5 points for that platform.  It is possible for a pilot to be the only pilot to beat the high score, and not win that platform.  If for example, pilot A got 90% of the high score and has a 25% handicap for a total of 115%, and pilot B got 105% of the existing HS (and earned a new HS) with a handicap of 5% for a total of 110%, Pilot A would win the platform for the week for 4 points and pilot 3 would only earn 3 points. Points will accumulate for the week, month, and year for more awards.

Handicaps will be calculated as follows:

The average score in the platform as a percent of the high scores will be calculated as an average of all scores on that platform since the beginning of the League (avg).  The handicap will be calculated as the difference between the average and 100%.  For example, if a pilot’s average score in TIE is 75% of the HS, his handicap will be 100%-75%=25%.  If a pilot then scored 85,000 pts on a mission with an existing HS of 100,000 points, his handicap score would be 85% + 25% = 110%.

*The first round any pilot flies in any platform will not have a handicap added as the pilot will not have an average.  Therefore, the first round, there are no handicaps, only scratch scores. 

**I reserve the right to create a maximum handicap.  At this point, it is 75%. 

Awards:

Annual:

IS-PW/GW/SW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the year.  (at least 5 participants)

IS-GW/SW/BW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the year in each platform (at least 4 participants)

IS-GW/SW/BW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd most improved averages over the year in each platform (at least 4 participants, must have flown at least 10 missions)

Monthly:

IS-GW/SW/BW for 1^st 2^nd and 3^rd total points for the month (at least 3 participants).

Weekly:

IS-SW/BW for 1^st and 2^nd total points for the week (at least 3 participants).

IS-SW/BW for 1^st and 2^nd in each platform (at least 2 participants).

 Top Muse:

Competition runtime:  Through the end of the year.

Units involved: All active TC members

Competition medals:  

IS-PR/GR/SR for the remainder of the year (4+ entries)

IS-GR/SR/BR for the month (4+ entries)

IS-SR/BR weekly (3+ entries)

Description:    

This is the easiest fiction competition ever! You only need to come up with an idea, not write a whole fiction out. Each week, please submit your idea for the short weekly fiction in the TCCOM report each week by Sunday at midnight GMT. Your idea can be as simple as a sentence or more of an outline. Do NOT write a whole fiction. The winning idea will be turned into a work of fiction by the TCCOM for his report. The author of the winning idea will win an IS-SR and 2 points towards the annual and monthly standings. The second best idea will earn 1 point towards the annual and monthly standings.

Ideas will be judged on criteria such as: originality, relevance to recent events and previous TCCOM fictions, ease of turning into a short fiction, and other whims of the TCCOM. Any ties for the monthly or annual totals will be broken by selecting the best idea over the time period as judged by 3 members of the TIE Corps Admiralty Board that are not part of the tie.

How to participate: Each week, email your idea directly to me. 

TC Competitions

Ace of the TIE Corps 2018

MP Co-Op Ace of the TIE Corps 2018
MP Ace of the TIE Corps 2018
TIE Corps on Recon - 2018

TIE Corps Vs. AI 2018
COO's Star Wars Challenge; Episode IV
COO Riddle 2018
COO Monthly Assignment

TIE Corps on Patrol 2018

TIE Corps Pilot League – 2018

Top Muse

Reviewing the Line

Securing the Line

Trivia Grand Tour: Season Two

TC/EH Combat Events

COO's Monthly Challenge 2018 - January

EH vs RS – We’re still Fighting!

Weekly Hammer PvP Shootout

Weekly TC PvP Shootout

Career Awards Requirements

FCHG:

Dragoon - 100 points - ISM
Knight 250 points - PC
Aquilifer 500 points - BS
Executor 2000 points - SS
Imperator 5500 points - GS

Combat Rating:

Marksman 1st 100 points - ISM
Officer 1st 300 points - PC
Veteran 1st 600 points - BS
Ace 1st - 2000 points - SS
Tan 5000 points - GS

CoOp/PvE:

Private 1st 100 points - ISM
Gunner's Mate 1st 300 points - PC
Campaigner 1st 600 points - BS
Master Ranger 1st - 2000 points - SS
Top Ace Ranger 5000 points - GS

TCCOM's Activities

Medals recommended: 8

SP Missions: 0 (0 MTD)

MP Matches: 20(20 MTD)

EABF2 – MP

Mail activity
Telegram

Discord

Conclusion

Time for shineys!  Get your MSE’s in! 

TCCOM-IOA/AD Pete Mitchell/TC-1/ISDII Challenge
GSx4/SSx10/BSx3/PCx10/ISMx6/IS-2PW-19GW-82SW-80BW-7BR/LoC-IS-CSx8-Rx1/LoS-PSx6-RS-CS-Rx3/DFC-BW/MoC-1doc-1poc-1goc-2soc-12boc/CoLx2/CoB/LoAx10/OV-18E [ARCN] [Marksman 1st][Ace Ranger 3rd] {IWATS-AIM-BFM-HIST-MCBS-MP/2-SM/2/3/4-XAM-XWAC-XWAI}

Ace of the TIE Corps 2017