The Menacing Ferrets have continued to promote play in the WW2 arena on Monday and Thursday nights through the fall, keeping the numbers within reason during prime time, anyway. We've put the "gorilla war" on hold for the holidays. The final results for 2005 were close as can be. The Axis and Allies each won 25 matches overall, and split the tour-of-duty championship six-five in favor of the Axis. Thanks once again to everyone who makes the effort at preserving the only persistent historical arena online. iEN's exclusivity in that regard is about to disappear, as Aces High is planning to start up its own "Combat Theatre" historical arena. Soon as that happens, I'll be checking it out in earnest with Snofox, Kavikk, Nitowl, et al. Before you ask: the Ferrets aren't leaving Warbirds... at least, not as long as half of us are flying on comp'ed accounts. All else being equal, the price is right. iEN seems to have a coherent strategy now as regards the arena setups, which to my mind is a better idea than just reacting to irate customers willy-nilly. It'll be interesting to see how things play out, and in the meantime the Sunday S3 is still the best online game in the universe, if you ask me.

The Ferrets roster underwent some pretty serious revisions this fall. As I mentioned, Snofox, Kavikk, and Nitowl quit for the greener pastures of Aces High. Troy is either downwell or back-to-school, and Mattke is in Iraq for another couple of weeks. Aggie is back after his move to Ft. Drum (a mere 35 miles from Ferret HQ in Kingston), and new guy Tnymax is settling in well. Wallyg's 100th BG(H) squadmate, The notorious Elltee, has stuck it out with the Ferrets long enough to earn the coveted Legion of Ferret and honorary squad membership. Avengers CO Lutrel has also joined up for S3 action with the Ferrets until he gets his crew all moved in from the WB2.77 arena, which iEN plans to close for good in the near future.

Hearty thanks and congratulations to Nitowl and York, who earned their six-month service awards this fall, to Twinky for his one-year star, to Troy for his three-year star, and to our redoubtable Doones, who's been putting up with us for four beautiful years, now. Salute!

Owing to these service awards, Nitowl and York also now qualify for Second Lieutenant squad rank, and Twinky makes full Lieutenant grade and earns his spot on the Thursday night ops rotation. New pudd'n' Tnymax showed up for his tenth squad night, earning him the rank of squad Sergeant and a permanent spot on the Ferret roster.

Meanwhile, Butterbar Lytnin hasn't relented from his... ahem... dogged pursuit of fighter greatness, collecting three more Fighter Ace Awards as top WW2 arena fighter, including the coveted Medaille d'Or commemorating his fifth fighter title overall. This marks the first time a gold medal has been awarded: now you know the magic number is five. Butterbar York was also keeping himself busy this fall, earning the Master Bombardier Award for his number-one WW2 arena bomber rank. Way to go, you beautiful score-whores!

In Squad Select Series action, the Ferrets concluded the Five Days in July series, but earned no shiny gongs on account of the general all-around deadliness of anti-shipping work in Stukas. The series was ruled an Allied victory. We did much better in Flying Point, the last series of the year. Our Flying Fortress expertise earned us six gongs, including a Silver Star and second place overall for Maj. Momo. Nevertheless, the Luftwaffe pulled one out of the hat, winning the series despite our strategic bombing successes.

Forty-four pilots entered the tenth edition of the Ferrets' Challenge air-race, nearly doubling the last turnout and making for a very exciting race. The Cebu Circuit was an old-fashioned barnstorming style cross-country race. With a racecourse just a hair longer than the range of a Focke-Wulfe, the Ki84's came out in droves. For his first-place finish, Dhyran of the Parrots won a free month of WB's courtesy of iEN, and of course the coveted Ferrets' Challenge Blue Ribbon and a fresh bucket of steam. Defending champion Drache and racing regular Pistol won ten- and five-dollar account credits, respectively. Congratulations to everyone who took part, and thanks to Invstr for flying the spotter jet, to York for reffing, and to SKYDVR for his ongoing help with these events.

That just about wraps it up for Fall 2005. The new S3-style icon settings in the WW2 arena are getting mixed reviews, and the change hasn't improved the online numbers: folks either love 'em or hate 'em, it seems. For my part, I think it makes for some intense fights, and it favors the sneaky pilot (guilty), but it's very difficult to actually find the fight without a dedicated radar operator in the tower. A suggestion for time-delayed, historically accurate inflight "donut radar" might help the situation, but the timeframe for implementation is anyone's guess. Putting on my swami hat, I'd say we should expect more changes to the arena settings early in the new year.

Col. H.C. Rana
Over and Out