Forgotten how much fun offline can be...

[Skipper]

I'd forgotten how much fun offline play can be!Just started a newB-25 in New Guinea campaign today and had quite a bit of fun with it.Set off from the A/F at around 12:30 and orbitted to let my wingmen catch up.I was playing with "full real" so I had worked out a course and rough timing so I headed off and reckoned it would take about 20 mins to target.
The scenery on this map is really quite good with lots of mountains to fly over but on the outward leg not much happend apart from me getting a bit lost and not reaching the target until 35 mins after takeoff! (It's all those damn rivers! )
The flak started and the smaller AAA and I made my attack run taking out 4 E/A on the ground and 1 car but taking quite a bit of damage(Gun sight smashed , fuel leak , one engine trailing some greyish smoke) but she was still quite flyable so we made course for home.
This was where the real fun started and it became a fight for survival.I was hit by AAA again passing another A/F and this destroyed about half my instruments , gave me a fuel leak and injured my co-pilot but we carried on.It was about 5 mins later when I was messing on with my TIR and taking in the scenery I happend to look directly up and saw something diving fast from the sun.Obviosuly I flicked onto my mid-turret gun position and as it got closer I saw it was a Zeke.It was then a second came down and they began to line up on my six.I flicked back to the pliot position and it was hear I heard a line shouted from my rear gunner I had never heard before.It was something like"Corkscrew/break we have a bandit on our tail!!!"I took evasive action and flicked back to the tail gunner position and manged to saw the wing off the first zero whos plane neraly collided with my own as it span out of control to the ground.I managed to hole the other one and it limped away and for the time I was safe.
However , I was still miles from even crossing into friendly territory and losing fuel but I didnt have any idea how much because my instruments were shot up.Then came the mountains.I had to fly along them and slowly creep up them bit by bit because my engines didnt have the power to directly carry me over them and this was quite hair raising because I could have ran out of fuel at any moment.
Luckily I manged to navigate the mountains and have never been so happy to see the coast and a friendly A/F.I called for landing clearance and told them to have the Crash crews on standby It was a great feeling landing and thinking I'd survived despite the odds.The mission took around 75 mins and I was suprised at how much I enjoyed it considering it was an Il2 generated mission.
My elation soon turned to despair however when the next briefing loaded and its the same target next sortie!So i'm off to fly it now , wish me luck

Skipper

[arne_and]

Good reading, thanks skipper. GL

[:FI:TacticalS!]

Great stuff Skip! Still can remember great memories flying the I-16 in the early days of FB with the stock generator.

Noticed this for anyone interested in Battle of Britain stuff:



Link over at SimHQ - http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards ... 4;t=003553

[Skipper]

Thanks Tact , I may give that a try.From what i've read on the Ubi forums its supposed to be pretty good.I like the way the maps been done too!Adds that little bit of immersion that Oleg didnt provide as standard in il2

I managed to survive the second mission of my campaign aswell!Took off like last time and headed to target which took me about 25-30 mins flying and didnt see anything but a cloudless sky.Then getting nearer the target zone things started to heat up!Our escorts began to dive down on Oscars(I could have sworn there was about 50 of them at the time , as it turns out only 10 )Nearly bought it a couple of times and got hit quite badly by flak when I made my initial run over the airfield and then on to sink a tanker which I hoped/imagined might be carrying supplies to the airfield I was attacking.
Again though , the return flight was the most enjoyable part of the mission.Flying back on a rough heading to base I was struck again several times by AAA and it was over the radio I heard that numbers 3 and 4 when down.My port engine was emitting quite large clouds of grey smoke so I played with the throttle to keep her going as long as possible but while still over enemy territory , she cut out and became inoperable.It didn't take me long to realise flying over enemy jungle territory wasnt exactly good odds for survival.I called up number 2 and told him to head for base and it was quite chilling to see him peeling away in the opposite direction!I new where I was on the map however and I manged to set a new course for crossing over to friendly lines.It was shortly after this I received a radio call from Red 2 that he was going down Seems he was caught by some Oscars and I thanked the good lord I'd decided to head for friendly territory I just (literally by inches) manged to skim across a hill and have never been so happy to see a landmark on my map indicating friendly territory.I flew in low over Jaure villaged and imagined scaring the hell out of the locals as I put down with a belly landing on a river bed.Luckily all my crew were fine apart from a slight wound to the waist gunner but I was quite upbeat and ready for the next op.
Went to the briefing screen and it was then it dawned on me that someone wants rid of me.The target for the day was the airfield next to the one I'd just attacked! Looks like I might not finish that tour after all but A-Apple has been lucky so far

Skipper

[:FI:Heloego]

Thanks, Skipper!

Even w/out TS, the offline experience is still great! I still install the original IL2 because I like its missions, too!

Keep Flying!

[Skipper]

Thanks Helo.I haven't played the original il2 in literally years!It was and always will be a damn good game though

I'm afraid to report the 3rd sortie was rather boring!Nothing much happend really.We all made it back with minimal damage and gave the enemy a good pounding and saw NO enemy fighters ,so A-Apple is keeping me safe it seems .At the risk of cursing it , this is the first DID campaign I've played and i'm really enjoying it.Certainly makes you think about "going in for just one last pass" Still , I've earned the Air medal but it seems my squadron is the most decorated out there with nearly every pilot having a DFC!
Unfortunately the failings of playing offline on il2 do crop up occassionally.The act I have been again detailed to attack roughly the same area as last time seems to suggest the PC is just churning out the same old mission and altering the A/C opposition slightly but I suppose this is how it would have been in RL.

Think i'll go off to fly my fourth sortie but its quite sobering how one tour was about 25-30 missions and how close I have come to death on only 3 missions

Hopefully my next report will be a little more exciting!

Skipper

[:FI:Falcon]

Skip!

I played the same B-25/New Guinea campaign about a year ago. I missed most of the target and got ak-aked as I turned toward base. Losing fuel and smoking badly I managed to miss any enemy planes and more AA by getting lost. The whole return flight was very exciting.

Even though the Owen Stanleys are way under-modeled they were getting taller while I was losing altitude steadily. By the time I made it to the last mountains I had to fly through the valleys missing treetops by inches.

With the airport in sight and feeling very proud of my engine management and expert flying ability the whole world went awfully quiet.

...

Oh yeah, that fuel thing.

Well, with the imaginary glory music in the background (and actual humming my wife swears she heard coming from me) I landed on the numbers and taxied off the rw to stop right in front of the pub.

Who would'a thunk that those boring bomber missions could be so cool.

Thanks for the stories and the "memories" Skipper.


Fal "Fill'er up" con

[Skipper]

Cool story Falc I hope you had a nice large Guinness upon leaving your plane

In the last mission it seems my luck ran out(along with the rest of the squadrons ) and I was hit so badly my plan had to be ditched off oro bay and i'm now enjoying some Japanese hospitality

Unfortunately none of the A/C returned with 3 being KIA and myself and another having the luxury of getting out shaken but not stirred I went down after a pass over an A/F as I was torn to shreds by AAA that I hadn't seen

I slowly began to lose height and despite valiant efforts to get back we eventually went down 3 km off the coast and 50 km from friendly territory Guess i'll just have to put my fight up and wait for Falcon to do a daring air rescue

In your old time old boy

Skipper

[:FI:Sneaky_Russian]

OK just reminded me, So created a group at MSN for skins and missions.
Just click on the I-16 to enter site, download criticize,buy me a beer whatever. choose La 5fn,Hurricane,Sturmovic,Helll or 109

The 5FN's take off from an in-the field base - so mind the trees on your left they're invisible since I patched to v1.22. Their brief is to attack the enemy airfield and take on the fighter escort. Not quite "Vulching" but it is a race against time.

by the way who won tonight?

[:FI:IceFrog]

Looks like I might not finish that tour after all but A-Apple has been lucky so far Skipper

I was just reading a book about the RAF and this was one statement:
“British fliers helped immeasurably to shorten the war………in this huge contribution all RAF commands shared in proportion. But the costs struck disproportionately. Of the 70,253 RAF fliers killed in the war, 55,573 were in Bomber Command,”

and you guys want to be bombers?

Do any of you guys know of a good book on the air war in ww2?

[:FI:Nellip]

I have been flying an offline campaign in the Mossie on the NW Europe map. First two missions were OK, shot up a few trucks and was well protected by escorting Spitfires and Tempests.

Third mission is another story completely

This time its a ground attack mission on a railway yard, but on the way there we keep getting bounced by Doras which make short work of the escorts and then pick off the Mossies. I cannot influence the course we take as I am a lowly Flight Sergeant at the moment (you know I keep getting the message "What the hell, stay with your leader"! )

Flown this message three times so far and failed every time. Last time I managed to survive the initial bounce of the 190's and destroyed the target - only one other Mossie of 5 survived, but then we got bounced again on the way back and I bought it.

I will try again tonight, wish me luck

Lots of good books on the air war Icefrog - I read quite a few pilot biographies. I will pm you a list of some I have later.

[:FI:TacticalS!]

I haven't installed it since my last reformat, but what really added to my offline campaign experiences is the free VAC (Voice Activated Commands) program that allows you to "talk" to your AI flight/wingman.

TS!

[Skipper]

Do any of you guys know of a good book on the air war in ww2?

It depends what sort of book you are looking for really...

Lots of good autobiographies out there on Amazon(published by Goodall) can be picked up brand new for 1p

I have read:

First Light-Geoffrey Wellum(Unique from the rest as its written by someone who wasn't an "ace")
Wing Leader-Johnnie Johnson
Enemy Coast Ahead-Guy Gibson
Nine Lives-Alan Deere
Warburton's War-Tony Spooner but wriiten about Adrian Warburton

"Spitfire into Battle" witten by Wing Commander Duncan Smith(Ian Duncan Smith's father for those who are interested ) I didn't enjoy as much but its still an interesting read and is the only book I have read which talks about the Air war over Sicilly and Italy.

"Tail-End Charlies" , "Fighter Boys" , "The Dam Busters" and "The Dam Buster Raid" are all fantastic reads and some of the stories in Tail-End Charlies will really make you think and wonder "Would I have been able to do this/survive if I had been placed in such a situation".All display tremedous feats of courage!

A few other good war books you might want to pick up(not on the air war though) are:

"Stalingrad" and "Berlin-The Downfall 1945" written by Antony Beevor which I really enjoyed.Both really bring home the brutalness of the Eastern war and the Soviets upon their own men.

"The Great Escape" is also a fantastic book to read if you get the chance and really makes me wish IL2 had a better "capture" function so you had the ability to evade capture and break out of POW camps.Unfortunately there aren't really that many games out there that do this

I also really loved the fictious novel "Where Eagles Dare" by Alistair Maclean-probable one of the best books I have ever read with all of the tension of the film and more! The first 633 Squadron novel is also quite good too but it is fiction aswell

Hope this helps

Skipper

[Skipper]

But the costs struck disproportionately. Of the 70,253 RAF fliers killed in the war, 55,573 were in Bomber Command,”

Just seen this over on the UBI forums and the statistics /propoganda might interest you.

http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums/a/ ... 1681062714" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Skipper

[:FI:IceFrog]

It depends what sort of book you are looking for really...

I like books that that are full of facts and details, basically an overload of information that makes my mind explode (which doesn’t take much).
Thanks i'll check these out