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Ground attack in Il-2: Battle of Stalingrad
By 33LIMA,
Helping close the ring around Stalingrad in a new phase of the battle!
One of the things I like about the Single Player campaign in IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad (BoS) is the way it follows the main phases of the historical battle. BoS unfortunately doesn't let you create multiple pilot identities who can serve with named, historical squadrons; the next best thing is to choose the same plane for each campaign mission, as if you were flying with the same unit. For my first run through the campaign, I decided to fly for the VVS and soon settled on the superior Yak-1, first in a long line of successful fighters that went on to serve throughout the 'Great Patriotic War'.
The second 'chapter' in BoS's campaign is set during Operation Uranus, the Soviet counterattack which trapped the German 6th Army in Stalingrad. Having got several missions into the chapter, I had by then unlocked some bombs and rockets, as well as several 'skins'. I had flown escort and intercept missions so far, so I decided it was time to try out my new weapons and hit some ground targets, in direct support of our forces on the ground. I rationalised this as our aviation regiment being called upon to play a more tactical role, now that the ground war had become more mobile and reached a critical phase, with Red Army units having broken through and fighting hard to link up and complete the encirclement of 6th Army. I could have chosen to fly a Sturmovik instead but for the sake of continuity in my simulated fighter pilot career I stuck with my trusty Yak, operating in the fighter-bomber role
Here's the the initial mission selection screen, showing that the flight I will lead, operating from our airfield at Illarionovskiy, has been ordered to take out enemy artillery positions. These are presumably resisting the advance of our 65th Army up on the northern flank of the developing Stalingrad pocket.
Moving on to the detailed mission briefing, I can see that this will be an early morning sortie. As usual, this briefing provides quite a detailed flight plan, complete with distances, bearings and timings for each leg, but I have to start the mission itself to confirm the size of my flight and the escort (if any) and see the actual weather conditions for myself.
Beforehand, I zoomed in on the target area and had a good look at the lie of the land. I wanted to pre-familiarise myself with the terrain features on the run-in to the target, to help orient myself during this critical time. I also wanted to plan my run. Seeing that there were enemy airfields north and south of my planned track, I decided I would stick to the latter and attack from east to west. If anything, I would drift slightly south of the leg to the target, with the wooded but gentle bend in the River Don providing a good line and the town of Bolshe Nabatov providing a last major reference point for my final run-in to the target. The latter was in very open country and the town seemed likely to be very useful in helping me pick up the target with the minimum of delay. The BoS map is an excellent rendition of what you can see in-game and despite all that snow, decent visual navigation is not only possible but fun, with aircraft map icons just a key stroke away if you get lost or otherwise feel the need of them.
For this mission I had a choice of bombs or rockets and selected the latter: six ROS-82 rockets in fact, three, on rails, under each wing. I also chose my favourite stock skin for my own Yak, featuring a red nose, as befits a proper 'Stalin Falcon'. My two wingmen were more sensibly attired, in worn winter camouflage.
Take-off is always an interesting time for me in BoS. I don't find the Yak nearly as tricky as the LaGG-3 for ground handling but with your flight roaring off soon after you begin to roll, it can still go seriously Pete Tong. Dawdle or swerve too much, and a flight-mate can be into you, in no time, flat.
But not this time. It wasn't one of my better take-offs but it worked and soon, we were on our way!
On the way!
I swung around towards the south in a gentle right-hand turn, throttled back to let the other two Yaks catch up. Al-flown aircraft in BoS use the same flight model as the player's aircraft so they have no magical ability to overhaul your plane, if you fly full throttle!
At this point I looked around and above for any sign that the powers-that-be had thought our mission worthy of an escort - and if they had, whether they'd showed up. Reassuringly, the answer to both questions was 'Yes'. Above and behind us, a flight of LaGGs was already in position.
Hopefully, if we were intercepted, I would be able to rely on our comrades to cover us. My contingency plan in the event that didn't work out was that I would order my own flight-mates to cover me and attack the ground targets myself. I had been taught that 'Selection and Maintenance of the Aim' is the master principle of warfare (and contrary to what John Keegan who lectured there said in 'The Face of Battle', these principles WERE taught at Sandhurst at least up to that time). My aim on this mission was clearly to destroy the enemy gun positions and that would take absolute priority over running up my modest score of air-to-air victories. Whatever else happened, I was determined that those German guns were going to get a pounding!
Sensibly in my view, BoS casts the player in the flight-leader role. Some may like to fly as a wingman but I relish the additional tactical responsibilities and challenges of flight leadership, including thinking through how I will carry out my orders before the mission starts and then leading and controlling my flight, during the sortie.
My first task now was to get us to the initial waypoint, from which we would fly our leg to the target. As is often the case in BoS and as it should be, navigation points are laid over real-life landmarks which are visible both on the map and in the 3d world. In this case, our waypoint lay over a roughly inverted L-shaped stretch of woods, the stem of which ran alongside the River Don, which at that point ran nearly north-south. Here's that part of the map again: see what I mean?
There was very little cloud cover and looking ahead, I could soon make out the distinctive piece of woodland by the left-hand bank of the frozen river. It wasn't long before we reached it and I made the right-hand turn that would take us into the target area. I currently let the sim handle my radiator and engine settings beyond throttle; you can see from the screenies below that the engine management AI is visibly opening and closing the flap at the back of the big water radiator cowling under my fuselage, to manage my engine temperatures for me. Neat!
I was by now flying at about 75% throttle and had accepted the recommended fuel load (about 65% IIRC). As there was no cloudbase I didn't have to stick to the recommended height of around 500m but had decided against going in high. Unfortunately the BoS inflight and detailed briefing map doesn't show the front lines but I remembered from the original map, which does, that I would be in enemy territory more or less the whole way, from this point forward. I had now arrived at the war!
Target in sight!
Not long after turning onto the last leg up towards our target, I noticed a single condensation trail, which appeared briefly at about four o'clock high. It seemed to be curving away from us and to betoken no immediate threat.
Another of the things I like about the BoS Single Player campaign is that while individual formations are often quite small, the sky is very often alive with other flights, going about their own business. I won't always see them but I have come across other friendly and enemy flights which have clearly nothing to do with my own objective and which generally continue with their own mission, even to the extent that enemy fighters will ignore me and carry on, as they should, sticking to the bombers they were escorting, rather automatically and robotically diverting to attack me.
Today I had my own mission and I ignored the distant sighting. On we went, leaving further behind us the point where our three rocket-laden Yaks and our LaGG escort had crossed the River Don.
The river had curved around and now lay off to our left, helping guide us towards the town of Bolshe Nabatov which I would use to pick up the target, out in the open country to the west. It wasn't long before I had the town in sight. Having studied the map before taking off, I knew the main road running through Bolshe Nabatov pointed slightly north of the target area. So If I followed the line of that stretch of road, I should soon spot the enemy gun positions, just to my left. That was the plan, at any rate.
Armies in the field being trained to camouflage their positions, picking up a target in open countyside was always going to be a challenge. And this was very open countryside, particularly featureless. Where were they?
Anxious not to miss my target or to lose time stooging around looking for it like an idiot, I 'cheated' and briefly turned on the on-screen icons, just to get a quick indication before I got too close. Even then, icons off again, I nearly failed to see the target. It was only when I noticed a muzzle flash from a field that I finally spotted the gun line itself. By that time, I was practically on top of it!
Well, there they were! I could now see that our target was a line of four field guns, standard LeFH 18M 10.5 cm field howitzers as it turned out, complete with a couple of little ammo bunkers behind the gun line. I was too close to attack and flew over them, dipping my wing to get a good look and relieved to find I wasn't being shot at during my unplanned little flypast.
I opened the throttle and pulled up and away. As I did so, I looked around and seeing no enemy aircraft, gave my flight the order to attack the nearest ground target. I think I'm right in saying that in BoS you cannot (as in CFS3, for example) padlock a specific target then order it attacked, which is admittedly a bit too precise for a time before laser designators or even thoroughly reliable radios. From the occasional foray with a Stuka in a single mission, I was unsure how well this would work out. Would the AI do as they were bid? If so, would they attack the right target? I was soon to find out!
Down to business!
I had more or less stumbled onto the German battery and, as I overflew it, ordered my flight-mates to attack independently. My plan now was to pull up at full power, chop the throttle and wing over, reversing my course and dropping back down onto the target in a shallow dive.
As I came around and rolled out, I realised that I was flying into the rising sun, but in a way, that helped me pick up the targets, since the guns stood out as darker spots against the bright white sheen of the snow.
I lined 'em up and cut loose with my rockets. Or tried to. Nothing happened. No rocket so much as left the rails. I should have paid more attention when the armourer was explaining how to use these things - I was hitting the wrong switch...or keystroke, to be precise! I flashed over the guns, mortified that the gunners hadn't even bothered to run for cover! I all but expected to see one of them thumbing his nose at me, as I flashed past overhead!
Opening the throttle, I climbed away again, then throttled back and pulled up and around again. This time, I was coming in with the light behind me.
And this time, the rockets performed as advertised. I had a bit of difficulty, though, keeping the targets lined up as I dived onto them and was unsure how much to allow for the fall-off in rocket trajectory, compared to guns and cannon. I'd had no previous practice with this weapon, which didn't help. There was also the little matter of pulling up before hitting the gound. Not having set up to fire salvoes, I fired one missile with each trigger press. The results were reasonably spectacular but not otherwise terribly encouraging.
I did manage to clobber one gun position before running out of rockets. Emboldened by the lack of AA fire, I made a couple of further passes with my guns, which knocked out a second field piece.
Looking back, I could now see two of those proverbial 'smokin' holes in the ground'. But half the battery was still intact, and my orders called for its complete destruction.
Where were my flightmates? What were they up to? In the excitement of making my own runs, I had rather left them to get on with setting up and making their own attacks. But so far, this was turning into a one-Yak show.
Mission accomplished!
Pulling up from my last run, I finally looked around the skies again. I wasn't the only one having a bit of excitement, as it happened. My LaGG escort was doing a good job; there were no German fighters around but they were enthusiastically drawing fire from what looked like every AA gun in the neighbourhood.
As I reached the top of my pull-up after my last pass, I came up just below the LaGGs, who seemed to have become tired of being shot at. Or more likely, their protective orbits just happened to have taken them over in my direction.
I made another pass with guns. This time I didn't do much further damage but the German gunners, having by now realised that I did occasionally manage to hit what I was shooting at, did me the courtesy of abandoning their weapon and making themselves scarce.
It wasn't until I was pulling up, that I realised that somebody had managed to destroy a third gun. Now that I thought of it, I recalled some radio chatter indicating that a flight-mate was attacking a target. Further confirmation that I was not being left to complete the enemy's destruction alone wasn't long in coming. First one Yak, then another, slipped in behind and beneath me and blew up the last German howitzer with some well-aimed rocket salvos! Urrah! Bravo!
Job done - time to go home! I slowly levelled off and oriented myself for the trip back to the next waypoint, calling my flight back into formation as I did so. The LaGG escort had fallen behind and they gave me an anxious moment until I identified them as friendlies. They were soon climbing back up to cover us and it wasn't long before they were once more above and behind.
Soon, my own guys were close behind me as we headed back up north. They had not expended all their rockets but I wasn't about to risk their necks and valuable Soviet property for the sake of such opportunity targets as we might have been able to find. We had got those guns and were all still in the Land of the Living; that would do us nicely. It's always a source of satisfaction to me, if I can bring my flight-mates back in one piece. Even if they are nameless 'bots', in my imagination they are my comrades, looking to me for leadership...and for their survival.
Above us, the LaGGs followed protectively. If it wasn't for their finnicky ground-handling, I'd probably be flying one of these machines now, instead of transitioning to the Yak after my BoS training missions. They really are sleek birds, even if less well-armed and lower-performing than the Yaks.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. We turned for home at the last waypoint and I took the opportunity to admire the view, with the low sun's rays nicely picking up the subtleties of the frozen landscape. As in real life, the steppes in BoS are frequently traversed by balkas (gullies) and in appropriate lighting, you realise that the BoS terrain is not the flat, featureless white affair that it can sometimes appear to be.
Nearing our home base, I gave the 'Return to base' order. While I orbited, I was pleased to see my two flight-mates make their own approaches and land successfully, with navigation lights lit. I then made my own approach and managed to get down without seriously breaking something, for once. In the screenie below, you can see the red and green wingtip lights of one of the other Yaks as it taxies into the dispersal area, having cleared the active runway. Neat!
Here's my mission results screen. With this sortie I unlocked another skin and some additional weaponry, which I may put to good use at some point. I even got an award! it's likely not an authentic, historical medal, but at least it shows that comebody cares, up there in the higher echelons of the RKKA, the Red Army of Peasants and Workers!
As I've said elsewhere I'm not a big fan of BoS's unconventional approach to the SP campaign trimmings, nicely-implemented though it is. I'd much prefer the ability to fly conventional pilot careers or failing that, the sort of themed mision sets that will likely come once the sim's full mission editor is widely released. In the meantime, an approximation of a pilot career can be achieved with what we have now and I'm finding the results highly satisfactory!
One of the things I like about the Single Player campaign in IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad (BoS) is the way it follows the main phases of the historical battle. BoS unfortunately doesn't let you create multiple pilot identities who can serve with named, historical squadrons; the next best thing is to choose the same plane for each campaign mission, as if you were flying with the same unit. For my first run through the campaign, I decided to fly for the VVS and soon settled on the superior Yak-1, first in a long line of successful fighters that went on to serve throughout the 'Great Patriotic War'.
The second 'chapter' in BoS's campaign is set during Operation Uranus, the Soviet counterattack which trapped the German 6th Army in Stalingrad. Having got several missions into the chapter, I had by then unlocked some bombs and rockets, as well as several 'skins'. I had flown escort and intercept missions so far, so I decided it was time to try out my new weapons and hit some ground targets, in direct support of our forces on the ground. I rationalised this as our aviation regiment being called upon to play a more tactical role, now that the ground war had become more mobile and reached a critical phase, with Red Army units having broken through and fighting hard to link up and complete the encirclement of 6th Army. I could have chosen to fly a Sturmovik instead but for the sake of continuity in my simulated fighter pilot career I stuck with my trusty Yak, operating in the fighter-bomber role
Here's the the initial mission selection screen, showing that the flight I will lead, operating from our airfield at Illarionovskiy, has been ordered to take out enemy artillery positions. These are presumably resisting the advance of our 65th Army up on the northern flank of the developing Stalingrad pocket.
Moving on to the detailed mission briefing, I can see that this will be an early morning sortie. As usual, this briefing provides quite a detailed flight plan, complete with distances, bearings and timings for each leg, but I have to start the mission itself to confirm the size of my flight and the escort (if any) and see the actual weather conditions for myself.
Beforehand, I zoomed in on the target area and had a good look at the lie of the land. I wanted to pre-familiarise myself with the terrain features on the run-in to the target, to help orient myself during this critical time. I also wanted to plan my run. Seeing that there were enemy airfields north and south of my planned track, I decided I would stick to the latter and attack from east to west. If anything, I would drift slightly south of the leg to the target, with the wooded but gentle bend in the River Don providing a good line and the town of Bolshe Nabatov providing a last major reference point for my final run-in to the target. The latter was in very open country and the town seemed likely to be very useful in helping me pick up the target with the minimum of delay. The BoS map is an excellent rendition of what you can see in-game and despite all that snow, decent visual navigation is not only possible but fun, with aircraft map icons just a key stroke away if you get lost or otherwise feel the need of them.
For this mission I had a choice of bombs or rockets and selected the latter: six ROS-82 rockets in fact, three, on rails, under each wing. I also chose my favourite stock skin for my own Yak, featuring a red nose, as befits a proper 'Stalin Falcon'. My two wingmen were more sensibly attired, in worn winter camouflage.
Take-off is always an interesting time for me in BoS. I don't find the Yak nearly as tricky as the LaGG-3 for ground handling but with your flight roaring off soon after you begin to roll, it can still go seriously Pete Tong. Dawdle or swerve too much, and a flight-mate can be into you, in no time, flat.
But not this time. It wasn't one of my better take-offs but it worked and soon, we were on our way!
On the way!
I swung around towards the south in a gentle right-hand turn, throttled back to let the other two Yaks catch up. Al-flown aircraft in BoS use the same flight model as the player's aircraft so they have no magical ability to overhaul your plane, if you fly full throttle!
At this point I looked around and above for any sign that the powers-that-be had thought our mission worthy of an escort - and if they had, whether they'd showed up. Reassuringly, the answer to both questions was 'Yes'. Above and behind us, a flight of LaGGs was already in position.
Hopefully, if we were intercepted, I would be able to rely on our comrades to cover us. My contingency plan in the event that didn't work out was that I would order my own flight-mates to cover me and attack the ground targets myself. I had been taught that 'Selection and Maintenance of the Aim' is the master principle of warfare (and contrary to what John Keegan who lectured there said in 'The Face of Battle', these principles WERE taught at Sandhurst at least up to that time). My aim on this mission was clearly to destroy the enemy gun positions and that would take absolute priority over running up my modest score of air-to-air victories. Whatever else happened, I was determined that those German guns were going to get a pounding!
Sensibly in my view, BoS casts the player in the flight-leader role. Some may like to fly as a wingman but I relish the additional tactical responsibilities and challenges of flight leadership, including thinking through how I will carry out my orders before the mission starts and then leading and controlling my flight, during the sortie.
My first task now was to get us to the initial waypoint, from which we would fly our leg to the target. As is often the case in BoS and as it should be, navigation points are laid over real-life landmarks which are visible both on the map and in the 3d world. In this case, our waypoint lay over a roughly inverted L-shaped stretch of woods, the stem of which ran alongside the River Don, which at that point ran nearly north-south. Here's that part of the map again: see what I mean?
There was very little cloud cover and looking ahead, I could soon make out the distinctive piece of woodland by the left-hand bank of the frozen river. It wasn't long before we reached it and I made the right-hand turn that would take us into the target area. I currently let the sim handle my radiator and engine settings beyond throttle; you can see from the screenies below that the engine management AI is visibly opening and closing the flap at the back of the big water radiator cowling under my fuselage, to manage my engine temperatures for me. Neat!
I was by now flying at about 75% throttle and had accepted the recommended fuel load (about 65% IIRC). As there was no cloudbase I didn't have to stick to the recommended height of around 500m but had decided against going in high. Unfortunately the BoS inflight and detailed briefing map doesn't show the front lines but I remembered from the original map, which does, that I would be in enemy territory more or less the whole way, from this point forward. I had now arrived at the war!
Target in sight!
Not long after turning onto the last leg up towards our target, I noticed a single condensation trail, which appeared briefly at about four o'clock high. It seemed to be curving away from us and to betoken no immediate threat.
Another of the things I like about the BoS Single Player campaign is that while individual formations are often quite small, the sky is very often alive with other flights, going about their own business. I won't always see them but I have come across other friendly and enemy flights which have clearly nothing to do with my own objective and which generally continue with their own mission, even to the extent that enemy fighters will ignore me and carry on, as they should, sticking to the bombers they were escorting, rather automatically and robotically diverting to attack me.
Today I had my own mission and I ignored the distant sighting. On we went, leaving further behind us the point where our three rocket-laden Yaks and our LaGG escort had crossed the River Don.
The river had curved around and now lay off to our left, helping guide us towards the town of Bolshe Nabatov which I would use to pick up the target, out in the open country to the west. It wasn't long before I had the town in sight. Having studied the map before taking off, I knew the main road running through Bolshe Nabatov pointed slightly north of the target area. So If I followed the line of that stretch of road, I should soon spot the enemy gun positions, just to my left. That was the plan, at any rate.
Armies in the field being trained to camouflage their positions, picking up a target in open countyside was always going to be a challenge. And this was very open countryside, particularly featureless. Where were they?
Anxious not to miss my target or to lose time stooging around looking for it like an idiot, I 'cheated' and briefly turned on the on-screen icons, just to get a quick indication before I got too close. Even then, icons off again, I nearly failed to see the target. It was only when I noticed a muzzle flash from a field that I finally spotted the gun line itself. By that time, I was practically on top of it!
Well, there they were! I could now see that our target was a line of four field guns, standard LeFH 18M 10.5 cm field howitzers as it turned out, complete with a couple of little ammo bunkers behind the gun line. I was too close to attack and flew over them, dipping my wing to get a good look and relieved to find I wasn't being shot at during my unplanned little flypast.
I opened the throttle and pulled up and away. As I did so, I looked around and seeing no enemy aircraft, gave my flight the order to attack the nearest ground target. I think I'm right in saying that in BoS you cannot (as in CFS3, for example) padlock a specific target then order it attacked, which is admittedly a bit too precise for a time before laser designators or even thoroughly reliable radios. From the occasional foray with a Stuka in a single mission, I was unsure how well this would work out. Would the AI do as they were bid? If so, would they attack the right target? I was soon to find out!
Down to business!
I had more or less stumbled onto the German battery and, as I overflew it, ordered my flight-mates to attack independently. My plan now was to pull up at full power, chop the throttle and wing over, reversing my course and dropping back down onto the target in a shallow dive.
As I came around and rolled out, I realised that I was flying into the rising sun, but in a way, that helped me pick up the targets, since the guns stood out as darker spots against the bright white sheen of the snow.
I lined 'em up and cut loose with my rockets. Or tried to. Nothing happened. No rocket so much as left the rails. I should have paid more attention when the armourer was explaining how to use these things - I was hitting the wrong switch...or keystroke, to be precise! I flashed over the guns, mortified that the gunners hadn't even bothered to run for cover! I all but expected to see one of them thumbing his nose at me, as I flashed past overhead!
Opening the throttle, I climbed away again, then throttled back and pulled up and around again. This time, I was coming in with the light behind me.
And this time, the rockets performed as advertised. I had a bit of difficulty, though, keeping the targets lined up as I dived onto them and was unsure how much to allow for the fall-off in rocket trajectory, compared to guns and cannon. I'd had no previous practice with this weapon, which didn't help. There was also the little matter of pulling up before hitting the gound. Not having set up to fire salvoes, I fired one missile with each trigger press. The results were reasonably spectacular but not otherwise terribly encouraging.
I did manage to clobber one gun position before running out of rockets. Emboldened by the lack of AA fire, I made a couple of further passes with my guns, which knocked out a second field piece.
Looking back, I could now see two of those proverbial 'smokin' holes in the ground'. But half the battery was still intact, and my orders called for its complete destruction.
Where were my flightmates? What were they up to? In the excitement of making my own runs, I had rather left them to get on with setting up and making their own attacks. But so far, this was turning into a one-Yak show.
Mission accomplished!
Pulling up from my last run, I finally looked around the skies again. I wasn't the only one having a bit of excitement, as it happened. My LaGG escort was doing a good job; there were no German fighters around but they were enthusiastically drawing fire from what looked like every AA gun in the neighbourhood.
As I reached the top of my pull-up after my last pass, I came up just below the LaGGs, who seemed to have become tired of being shot at. Or more likely, their protective orbits just happened to have taken them over in my direction.
I made another pass with guns. This time I didn't do much further damage but the German gunners, having by now realised that I did occasionally manage to hit what I was shooting at, did me the courtesy of abandoning their weapon and making themselves scarce.
It wasn't until I was pulling up, that I realised that somebody had managed to destroy a third gun. Now that I thought of it, I recalled some radio chatter indicating that a flight-mate was attacking a target. Further confirmation that I was not being left to complete the enemy's destruction alone wasn't long in coming. First one Yak, then another, slipped in behind and beneath me and blew up the last German howitzer with some well-aimed rocket salvos! Urrah! Bravo!
Job done - time to go home! I slowly levelled off and oriented myself for the trip back to the next waypoint, calling my flight back into formation as I did so. The LaGG escort had fallen behind and they gave me an anxious moment until I identified them as friendlies. They were soon climbing back up to cover us and it wasn't long before they were once more above and behind.
Soon, my own guys were close behind me as we headed back up north. They had not expended all their rockets but I wasn't about to risk their necks and valuable Soviet property for the sake of such opportunity targets as we might have been able to find. We had got those guns and were all still in the Land of the Living; that would do us nicely. It's always a source of satisfaction to me, if I can bring my flight-mates back in one piece. Even if they are nameless 'bots', in my imagination they are my comrades, looking to me for leadership...and for their survival.
Above us, the LaGGs followed protectively. If it wasn't for their finnicky ground-handling, I'd probably be flying one of these machines now, instead of transitioning to the Yak after my BoS training missions. They really are sleek birds, even if less well-armed and lower-performing than the Yaks.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. We turned for home at the last waypoint and I took the opportunity to admire the view, with the low sun's rays nicely picking up the subtleties of the frozen landscape. As in real life, the steppes in BoS are frequently traversed by balkas (gullies) and in appropriate lighting, you realise that the BoS terrain is not the flat, featureless white affair that it can sometimes appear to be.
Nearing our home base, I gave the 'Return to base' order. While I orbited, I was pleased to see my two flight-mates make their own approaches and land successfully, with navigation lights lit. I then made my own approach and managed to get down without seriously breaking something, for once. In the screenie below, you can see the red and green wingtip lights of one of the other Yaks as it taxies into the dispersal area, having cleared the active runway. Neat!
Here's my mission results screen. With this sortie I unlocked another skin and some additional weaponry, which I may put to good use at some point. I even got an award! it's likely not an authentic, historical medal, but at least it shows that comebody cares, up there in the higher echelons of the RKKA, the Red Army of Peasants and Workers!
As I've said elsewhere I'm not a big fan of BoS's unconventional approach to the SP campaign trimmings, nicely-implemented though it is. I'd much prefer the ability to fly conventional pilot careers or failing that, the sort of themed mision sets that will likely come once the sim's full mission editor is widely released. In the meantime, an approximation of a pilot career can be achieved with what we have now and I'm finding the results highly satisfactory!
Stalingrad Stuka - classic style
By 33LIMA,
Flying the Ju 87 over the front on the Volga - in Il-2 1946!
Why fly the Stuka in 'classic' Il-2 - over Stalingrad, to boot - when you can fly it in Il-2: Battle of Stalingrad (BoS)? If you have access to both sims, that's a good question. The new sim models the Stuka to a level of detail that is visually much superior, plus BoS portrays the city and the battlefield around it in tremendous detail. See what I mean?
Well, there are three reasons for playing this mission in the earlier sim, in my case. Firstly, I want to to make a comparison - to feature Stuka campaign mission reports from both sims, one after the other. Secondly, flying the Stuka and some Soviet fighers in the newer sim actually spurred me to do something I had only dabbled in before - start some serious Eastern Front campaigns in the older sim, for the VVS and flying the Stuka. And the third reason is this:
At the moment, AI-flown Stukas in BoS regularly crack up soon after takeoff, often leaving you on your own, after your flight-mates have fire-balled or belly-flopped onto the snow. Well, that's the result I'm getting anyway, and I'm not alone. The solution, for now, appears to be - fly an air start. So that's likely what I'll do, for the next mission report. But for his one, I'm starting with the original sim. Well, not quite the original, since what we have now is a sim that's had about thirteen years development and modding. Here, I'm using Il-2 1946 with the latest Dark Blue World mod installed. The mission itself is, I believe, from a stock Stuka campaign. This is divided into several mini-campaigns, starting early on during Operation Barbarossa and extending to the Battle of Kursk and beyond. Having created a new pilot with the surname of the most famous and successful Stuka pilot, I was pleased to find out that I could go straight to the Battle of Stalingrad. So that's what I did.
The Il-2 '46 Stuka has a comparatively lower-polygon 3d model but it's still a pleasing replica. Moreover, the sim features several Ju 87 variants, notably the early-war B version; the more angular D version most common on the Eastern Front; and the G model tankbuster with two 3.7 cm cannon. Here's the plane I'll be flying now, a Ju 87D-3. It has the correct fuselage code (A5+AH) for the campaign's unit, the 1st Staffel in I Gruppe, Stukageschwader 1 - 'A5' signifying StG1 and 'H' indicating the 1st Staffel, which is in I Gruppe. The second 'A' is my individual aircraft letter; one of IL-2's nice touches is of course that other aircraft not only also have the correct unit markings, they each have different, individual aircraft letters.
A virtual tour of operations with an historical sqaudron is one thing that you don't get in BoS for now. In Il-2 '46 you do and you can look up your unit roster, where you can keep track of your comrades and your relative success...or the lack thereof, as the case may be. I dislike flying as a wingman, preferring the tactical challenges of flight leadership. So for my pilot, I have selected the rank of Hauptman, which I hope will give me plenty of opportunity to show my mettle as a Stuka leader...or again, the lack thereof, as the case may be.
Here's the briefing for my first mission. We're kicking off in mid-September, just before 6th Army's first big attack into the city of Stalingrad itself; the snows and the first Soviet encircling attacks are still a couple of months away. In the second screenshot below, I have scrolled down the text to show how Il-2 lists your flight's composition, which BoS doesn't; though like BoS, I'm only going to find out that we've got an escort when I start the mission itself.
And here we are on the runway, six Stukas in single file, with no less that eight Bf 109s lined up behind us. With an escort like that, surely we should be quite safe from any Bolsheviks foolish enough to try conclusions with the might of the Jagdwaffe!
One way or another, I would find out, soon enough.
...to be continued!
Mini DCS A-10C Review by Eric J
By Skyviper,
Mini DCS A-10C Review
By Eric J
The A-10C is perhaps one of the best aircraft to fly, along with the A model Hog I reviewed beforehand. However the A-10C is the jewel in my opinion of the study modules (FC3 is still good don’t get me wrong) and deserves note as it’s perhaps the most complex aircraft compared to the other modules. That and its wartime record (of which I’ve used in Afghanistan myself) gives the aircraft an excellent reputation for an old aircraft still doing its job to the warfighters currently in Afghanistan and again in Iraq against ISIS.
Flight Model
As of 1.2.14 the flight model of the C model is unchanged, but there are still some nuances when flying the C compared to the A model in Flaming Cliffs 3. Maneuverability is better but there is still oscillation when you pull too hard on the stick, and you can lose control of the aircraft but that’s if you consistently pull the stick. Generally though the C model flies better and in various mountain flying tests can be inverted and not crash into the side of the mountain, but again take it easy when handling the A-10C anyway. And it is recommended as always to be firm with the aircraft and it will perform for you. It is not a speedy aircraft but overall it is comfortable for me is that what it does in real life.
To start somewhere on this aircraft I will start with cockpit stuff and then go into the other details as they come along. So the first thing is of course the cockpit is fully clickable with full 6DOF support. Of course most of these have keyboard mapping and quite honestly when transitioning from the A model to the C model it looks daunting at first. Well, the most daunting task of the A-10C is of course the startup sequence. If I remember correctly there are nineteen steps in performing this task and quite frankly was one thing that initially turned me off about this aircraft. I don’t mind taking the time to learn clickable planes and compared to the VRS Super Hornet F/A-18E, the C Hog is way more complex than that aircraft, which relatively speaking is easier and when the DCS: Super Hornet comes out (or DCS: Hornet) I may transition to those jets. However there is an automated sequence that is available for both startup and shutdown so if you’re like me who really doesn’t care about learning the steps, then that option is always available.
Along with that are the myriad CDUs, radios that of course are well explained in the rather exhaustive manual (which is as a PDF document, 671 pages. So there’s a lot of manual reading. However while complete, it still takes a lot of flying and practicing to get proficient at the basic level as it’s highly recommended to take it one step at a time and recommended to (if you can afford it) a Thrustmaster Warthog stick. However I do use a TM Hotas X and quite honestly don’t mind using it as it’s growing on me and recommended as a “low end” stick but otherwise has proven to be real nice for the most part in flying in the C model. However, if you can afford to purchase such a stick then it’s highly recommended and the simulation recognizes the stick and automatically maps everything for you according to the correct stick functions. It also shows you what does what in the manual. For those without such a stick it takes some hunting and pecking and while not as complete as the regular manual, the Quick Start manual does help greatly in figuring out what to at least get you shooting. The reason is that it shows the keys to use and below is a small short reference for those who need to get flying in the air and have spent hours trying to figure everything out:
HOTAS CMS Forward = Ejects flares/co untermeasures
HOTAS Boat Switch Aft = White Hot switch for TGP
HOTAS Boat Switch Center = CCD (normal camera) switch for TGP
HOTAS Boat Switch Forward = Black Hot switch for TGP
HOTAS China Hat Switch Aft = Resets TGP and Maverick and HUD when thatpage is SOI
HOTAS China Hat Switch Forward = Zoom in/out for Maverick and TGP when on that specific page
HOTAS DMS Aft = Zooms out TGP view
HOTAS DMS Forward = Zooms in TGP view
HOTAS Master Mode Button = Switches between NAV, GUNS, CCIP, and CCRP modes
HOTAS Slew Do wn = Moves Pipper down when TGP/HUD/Maverick is SOI
HOTAS Slew Left = Same as above and moves the pipper left
HOTAS Slew Right = Same as above and moves the pipper right
HOTAS Slew Up = Same as above and moves the pipper up
HOTAS TMS Forward = Allows you to select AREA and POINT settings on the TGP,
where POINT is designed for moving targets.To designate for targets hold this command down which
is necessary for JDAM and the CBU-103/105
Nosewheel Steering Button = During flight allows you to fire the laser from your TGP
(IR or Designator/Both) and naturally when you land allows you to steer the nosewheel
While the above doesn’t cover everything it does allow you to get started and as you spend more time in the manuals as well as the various supporting forums to ease you along in your journey (and what it is) in becoming a proficient pilot, as well as getting in the virtual cockpit and flying the aircraft. As you see also most of this focuses on weapon employment which of course is what the A-10C is best at, in the simulation and most definitely in the real world. As a former JFO who deployed to Afghanistan needless to say when these were supporting elements in my light infantry company they were always welcome. But overall the handling of the C Warthog is of course better than the A but I still fly the A because I like both for their own reasons. The A version for its simplicity and ability to focus sometimes better on the fight, while the C model with its bells and whistles offers expanded capabilities and abilities in the close air support fight. The only other thing compared to the FC3 A-10A is that when you land ensure you activate the Nosewheel by pressing the N button (keyboard default) and it will enable steering. I’ve found this out the hard way when starting on the C as when I landed at speed the rudder does provide some input and help but when you slow down the aircraft moves around so remember to do this everytime you land. It also when using the TGP enables you to fire the laser designator/IR Laser when the system is SOI. And for those who always hear it and wonder what it is, it means Sensor of Interest, or in layman’s terms, makes that page or HUD active for you to directly manipulate.
The last part of the module is the JTAC portion, which is very comprehensive and while as a JFO I offered my input to the module I can’t think of everything and therefore the other JTACs or SMEs still made this one of the best modules to date. And yes I am one of them but the product shines through as the least buggy of the modules so far and quite honestly while I tend to express my opinions later in the review, I do highly recommend learning this plane. As five weeks into flying it I still have a long way to go in knowing everything, but then again I know enough to be successful on the virtual battlefield. Admittedly I did not and don’t use the JTAC portion of the module simply because I’ve done the real thing so overall I don’t need to “get on the ground” that much and simply fly as if a JTAC was talking to me for when I practice flying.
While I touched on weapons use above, the aircraft with its upgrades uses the AN/AAQ-28 Litening III targeting pod (or as colloquially referred to as the “TGP” on various forums) as its main sensor platform and at first is hard to use but once you get the basic familiarity of the system and its limits and capabilities, becomes second nature to use compared to the A model. But the merit of the A model is that you can focus on shooting more than the C, which to be fair has done its fair share but overall in some cases takes a bit longer as you need to put the TGP in the right spot but in some cases allows you to setup for shots better than the A version. And like most other things when the DCS: Hornet and DCS: Super Hornet modules are released the constant use of the TGP will help you along (given the constraints of those airframes of course) in using that on those aircraft.
The C model can also through the TGP use the JDAM and WCMD munitions, as well as the Paveway GBU-12 and GBU-10 through the internal laser designator (which can also “shoot” an IR laser as well for A-FAC duties). More often than not I use the GBU-12s more than the GBU-12s or even the GBU-31s as their better and more precise than the big brothers. However even I like the big booms (former forward observer so high explosives in a way my specialty) and needless to say they deliver. However a full range of rockets, and bombs are available for use if you prefer the old iron bombs (and the TGP can also enhance accuracy if you use it right) to hang off the pylons, as well as fuel tanks and travel pods (which don’t do anything but good enough for atmosphere for a related mission) and uses historical configurations as well as preset configurations for you to explore the aircraft and use. And the gun of course is well modeled, and you can select from a Combat Mix to HEI to Training Practice rounds. And while the screenshot is just a taste of what you can carry the aircraft responds accordingly when the munitions are dropped from the aircraft as re-trimming your aircraft is of course a necessity.
With all of this the aircraft is fun to fly just on its own and without the weapons play. The aircraft does come with Night Vision Goggles so unlike the un-modded A-10A, is day and night capable and only enhances your virtual flight.
3D Model/Textures
Like the A model Hog the A-10C is accurately modeled in the 3D model. My only complaint which is superficial is the inclusion of the Pave Penny pod and the mounting frame. Current A-10Cs do not mount this as its unnecessary weight and drag on the aircraft. While practically this doesn’t hinder or enhance play it would be good to have a correct aircraft (and so the Hog C pilots have another reason to act superior on the forums). Despite this everything works as it should and the cockpit needless to say is fully functional.
From what I’ve seen on the forums a lot of people seem to make a lot of skins for the A-10C and therefore neglect the A version, which uses the same templates and textures. It causes confusion for some people from what I’ve seen who assume A-10A textures don’t work with the A-10C, and after doing a few myself, the only major difference is the wedge behind the cockpit is mapped… somewhere. In any case the details are always amazing and always appreciate the time put into the default textures. My only real complaint is the 23rd FG version, in which the colors are totally off and to me looks like the artist used some decals from an image for the shark mouth, which in my opinion is lazy but overall though the two-tone grey textures are topnotch, and while as an artist it’s slightly off to me, it works and therefore I deal with it. I just prefer the European 1 still to the two tone grey but again that’s a personal opinion and not anything against the art team of Eagle Dynamics.
And needless to say if you don’t like the textures at all that Eagle Dynamics supplied with the module, the templates in Photoshop format are available from the main DCS site. Manipulating them is at first difficult but again the quality of the templates (I wish they would add some more of the 3D mesh areas for the other bits that seem to be missing, such as the wedge antenna and the doghouse between the engines as well as the holes in the airframe) is very impressive and comes with the MD textures, so I do appreciate putting MD first as a Maryland resident but that’s not the case. While there is no reason to assume anything it does help with orienting various textures on the 3D mesh, such as the engines, which require careful orientation in order to look right.
And last but not least, various liveries are available online at Lockonfiles.com, the main DCS site, as well as on CombatAce.com. Adding them to the stock liveries is easy and if done correctly can enhance your play online or by yourself.
Functionality
I went over most of the functionality of the aircraft above, but for this portion again it looks daunting at first but overall the cockpit is fully clickable and works great. After a while the operation of various systems does become second nature and instinctive to use but overall if you take the time to figure the aircraft out, is very rewarding (like anything in the DCS series) the aircraft will provide you with good playtime as well.
Major issues so far
It wouldn’t be fair to say that the aircraft is bug free; however compared to some other aircraft it’s relatively bug-free. Granted Eagle Dynamics/TFC doesn’t catch all of the bugs but overall there is no feeling of it being bugged and not usable. It’s fun and enjoyable to fly and that reason alone that the bugs are kept to a minimum keeps me flying it. However the ones that seem to be notable is improper inventory notations through the DSMS page when rearming on the ground but as such the weapons do show correctly on the aircraft.
Final Thoughts
While at first I shied away from the A-10C because of the complexity, not the overall quality of the product I highly recommend buying this module if you can. Not because I had a personal part in the overall grand scheme of things but the fact that it is one of the best polished modules to date. Granted every program has its issues but the patch updates keep it flying well and starting to enjoy the aircraft more and more as I get more competent with it.
Happy Holidays 2014
By Erik,
This is the best time of year where we each spend time with our families and loved ones to remember a year gone bye. Our holiday wish for each of you is that in the joy of the festive lights and wonderful food you take the time to remember the people that mean so much to you. Fill your heart and the hearts of other's with the joy of the season and remember the true meaning of the holiday. Give thanks to those who have fought for and defend our freedoms today. Remember what has been given so we may enjoy our loved ones and never take our great blessings for granted. Be nice to each other out there and we hope for each a warm, safe, and memorable holiday.
Season's Blessings.
Escorting Sturmoviks in IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad
By 33LIMA,
Flying a typical Single Player campaign mission in the new Eastern Front air combat simulator!
At the risk of being promptly if figuratively burned at the nearest stake, I have to confess that the original IL-2 never really kindled my lukewarm interest in the air war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. However, the latest sim to carry that name has managed to do so, to the extent that I have been flying mainly Soviet planes from the outset in IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad (BoS). Not only that, but I have just recently kicked off a parallel Soviet campaign - the excellent and highly recommended 'Blinding Sun', flying the sleek MiG-3 - in IL-2 '46. For someone who's been mostly interested in the Luftwaffe and the RAF up to now, there's something faintly exotic about the red-starred, pointy-winged Soviet fighters. For those of us tempted by the lure of the orient - or just interested in WW2 warbirds, whatever their origin - BoS offers in addition to its other aircraft the choice of three superbly-modelled VVS (Soviet Air Force) fighters: the underpowered LaGG-3, the generally superior Yak-1 and - if you have the premium version - the La-5, basically a later derivative of the LaGG with a more powerful, radial engine.
For my initial forays into the BoS skies, I stuck with the LaGG, mostly as I think she's the most visually attractive of the trio. With just one cannon and one MG, though, she's rather lightly armed, even by Soviet standards. And I have found her ground handling to be particularly tricky, even if, once in the air, the LaGG seems to perform well enough.
For my first serious effort at playing through the BoS SP campaign, I decided to switch to the Yak-1, which has two MGs rather than one and a better performance than the LaGG . The Yak-1 is visually much the same aircraft as the later Yak-7, -9 and -3, the main identification point, shared with early Yak-7s, being that the Yak-1 lacked the cut-down rear fuselage and 'blister' canopy introduced from the Yak-1b version. Despite the similar wing and tailplane planforms, the Yak is not hard to distinguish from the sleeker LaGG, at close range anyway.
This mission is one I flew early on during the second 'Chapter' of the BoS SP campaign. This segment is set in the timeframe of Operation Uranus, the first of two big Soviet pincer attacks and the one which closed the ring around 6th Army in Stalingrad.
In the BoS SP campaign, you have one player profile who can fly any available plane from any available airfield on either side, rather than one or more pilots flying with historical squadrons. Like (I expect) most traditionally-minded combat flight simmers, I dislike this approach. The nearest I can come to a more conventional pilot career is to fly the campaign while sticking to the same side, flying the same plane and operating from the same airfield, with the option to 'transfer' to a different field and plane if I choose. So that's what I'm doing here.
I had flown the campaign's first Chapter (covering the period just before the first Soviet counterattack) in the Yak-1 from Verkhne Pogomnoye, just north of Stalingrad on the eastern side of the River Volga. The second Chapter re-set the airfield choices, offering either Peskovatka on the German side and Illarionovskiy on the Soviet. To continue to fly the Yak, I choose the latter airfield. In effect, with the opening of the offensive, my unit had been moved from east of the Volga well to the west, near to the area of the northern bridgeheads from which one of the great pincers had already cut deeply into the enemy's big salient. Below is the tactical map for this timeframe. You can see that the pincers have already nearly completed the famous link-up near the town of Kalach on the great bend in the Don, having broken through the flanks held by Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian units whose weak anti-tank weapons were no match for the T-34s or KV-1s. Victory is in the air, history is in the making, and now it's time for me to play my part in driving the Fascist invaders from the Motherland! Za Rodinu! Za Stalina!
Before all that, there are some BoS preliminaries I must go through. Having chosen my base and my plane, I must now also chose a type of mission. Virtual HQ should really be telling me what I'm to do but like CFS3, BoS prefers to let the player choose his task. I must also choose whether I want an air start ('Short' mission duration) and the difficulty level (I fly in 'Normal' mainly as 'Expert' blocks external views and disables some other stuff I like at least to be able to use when I feel the need).
I may also pick a colour scheme and my weapon loadout. Here, I can select 'skin' (aircraft colour scheme) and equipment options which I have so far unlocked, while completing the first Chapter of the campaign. There's been some understandable angst about the BoS 'unlocks' feature. While I don't much care for it myself, you don't need the unlocks and to they extent they're desirable, well, they come to you as you progress. At this point, I had unlocked some rockets and some skins for my Yak and from the latter, I chose a striking red-nosed paint job. I have been flying mostly 'Intercept' missions up to now but this time, I decided to fly an escort job (variants on the ground attack/close support theme being the other options). We were accordingly tasked to accompany some 'attack planes' - which for the German side means Stukas, for the Soviets, Sturmoviks - down to an unspecified target in open country, in the northern sector of the bulge. Here's the briefing map for this mission. Unfortunately this map - which you can also refer to during the mission, as well as a 'mini-map' - no longer shows the front lines. And there's no indication of what the target is. Likewise it's only when you start the mission that you see who you're escorting and what size your own flight is (though the latter seems invariably to be either three or four aircraft, with you as flight leader). As usual in BoS, for the purposes of unlocks and progressing your player profile, you are given a personal, numerical mission objective: in this case, that no more than two Sturmoviks should be lost. Out of how many, I don't know until the mission begins.
Helpfully, as you can see, the map does show the bearings, distances and indicative timings for each leg of the flight plan. If I had chosen an air start, I need only have flown the legs to and from the target ('Action Point' in BoS terminology). The very close correspondence between this map and what you see in the 3d world makes decent visual navigation possible in BoS. B-17-2 the Mighty Eighth was the only other combat flight sim I recall playing which had such a good potential for visual navigation. Even though I tend to keep the aircraft map icons switched on, I still find it a joy to pick up landmarks, especially when I can rattle off the names of places I remember from reading accounts of the real battlefield, as I see them brought to life in BoS.
This is one of the aspects of the sim that I most appreciate. Truly, BoS is a 'Time Machine' that brings me back to this momentous point in history, much as its fans say of Battle of Britain 2 - Wings of Victory. Some look at BoS and see mainly unlocks and the lack of a conventional pilot career. I look at BoS and see mainly great aircraft, desolate but lovely environments, visceral air combat…and a powerful sense of time and place, of history bought to life.
But enough of such reflections. There's a job to be done. It's time to pick up those Sturmoviks, which have flown up from their base to the south. Here we are on the airfield, four Yak-1s, the others in well-worn winter camouflage, in stark contrast to my gaudy machine. I have chosen a full mission duration, not an air start. With 'Normal' difficulty selected, instead of needing to start up and taxi out (which comes with 'Expert' difficulty level), I'm lined up on the runway at the head of my flight, engine running and good to go. Meanwhile, the Sturmoviks have arrived - just three of them, on this trip - and are now swinging in from the west. I opened my canopy and checked my controls while I waited for the right moment to take off and go after them. In the pic below, you can see our four fighters, throwing up glistening clouds of snow, just above the nose of the Sturmovik in the foreground. One of the reasons I chose the Yak over the LaGG is that I've found the latter's ground handling very tricky. Take-off runs regularly end with my machine pirouetting wildly as my efforts to use differential braking fail to keep me straight. The Yak is also tricky but is much more manageable, more reminiscent of planes in IL-2 '46. BoS nicely replicates formation takeoffs with shorter gaps than its predecessor's 'conga line' takeoffs, so getting run down by a following aircraft is a risk if you mess up your run. This time I crabbed left and right and back again despite applying throttle slowly. I was overtaken by the Yak on my right but made it off the ground; which is always a good start. I timed it fairly well too, as the Sutrmoviks were crossing ahead of us as we lifted off. At least that's what I'll tell the CO, if and when I get back, if he says anything about cutting it fine. I swung around in a wide turn to the right, throttling back slightly so that the others could catch up as I looked around to pick up the Sturmoviks again. Below me you can see our airfield. It's been said the BoS airfields are a bit bland but if you look at aerial photos taken in the area during the timeframe of the BoS campaign - November 1942 to February 1943 - they look exactly right - basically, frozen. In their white camouflage, the Sturmoviks were quite had to spot against the snowscape. You can just about see a couple of them below, just left of my auxiliary ring and bead gunsight. It was mainly their movement that revealed them to me.
My comrades were evidently intending to go in at very low level. This can make escorting them something of a challenge. Sometimes in BoS there is a fairly unbroken low overcast, giving you little option on an escort flight but to stay below it, to keep sight of your charges. Today, however, while there was a certain amount of low cloud, it was quite broken. So I climbed up to about 2000m and at about 75% throttle, took up position above and behind the Sturmoviks, flying a zig-zag pattern. This is the tactic I usually adopt on an escort mission in a WW2 sim. The weaving enables me to keep my speed up, ready to react quickly, and also means I'm less vulnerable to attack myself, compared to just flying straight and slow, in line with my bombers. On the climb, I could see signs of the fighting on the ground, in the form of smoke billowing up from a town to our right, not too far off. Our route consisted of a leg to the south-west, then a right turn to the east and the target. A prominent frozen river, the mighty Don itself, was a useful reference point - the last mile or two of our first leg ran pretty well along the frozen river as it snaked on its way across the barren steppes. When the Strumoviks reached the L-shaped riverbank woods which marked our first waypoint, I saw them turn right and I turned with them, my flight sliding neatly across, somewhere just behind me.
So far we, looked to be the only aircraft in the vicinity. But appearances can be deceptive! ...to be continued!
In the BoS SP campaign, you have one player profile who can fly any available plane from any available airfield on either side, rather than one or more pilots flying with historical squadrons. Like (I expect) most traditionally-minded combat flight simmers, I dislike this approach. The nearest I can come to a more conventional pilot career is to fly the campaign while sticking to the same side, flying the same plane and operating from the same airfield, with the option to 'transfer' to a different field and plane if I choose. So that's what I'm doing here.
I had flown the campaign's first Chapter (covering the period just before the first Soviet counterattack) in the Yak-1 from Verkhne Pogomnoye, just north of Stalingrad on the eastern side of the River Volga. The second Chapter re-set the airfield choices, offering either Peskovatka on the German side and Illarionovskiy on the Soviet. To continue to fly the Yak, I choose the latter airfield. In effect, with the opening of the offensive, my unit had been moved from east of the Volga well to the west, near to the area of the northern bridgeheads from which one of the great pincers had already cut deeply into the enemy's big salient. Below is the tactical map for this timeframe. You can see that the pincers have already nearly completed the famous link-up near the town of Kalach on the great bend in the Don, having broken through the flanks held by Italian, Hungarian and Rumanian units whose weak anti-tank weapons were no match for the T-34s or KV-1s. Victory is in the air, history is in the making, and now it's time for me to play my part in driving the Fascist invaders from the Motherland! Za Rodinu! Za Stalina!
Before all that, there are some BoS preliminaries I must go through. Having chosen my base and my plane, I must now also chose a type of mission. Virtual HQ should really be telling me what I'm to do but like CFS3, BoS prefers to let the player choose his task. I must also choose whether I want an air start ('Short' mission duration) and the difficulty level (I fly in 'Normal' mainly as 'Expert' blocks external views and disables some other stuff I like at least to be able to use when I feel the need).
I may also pick a colour scheme and my weapon loadout. Here, I can select 'skin' (aircraft colour scheme) and equipment options which I have so far unlocked, while completing the first Chapter of the campaign. There's been some understandable angst about the BoS 'unlocks' feature. While I don't much care for it myself, you don't need the unlocks and to they extent they're desirable, well, they come to you as you progress. At this point, I had unlocked some rockets and some skins for my Yak and from the latter, I chose a striking red-nosed paint job. I have been flying mostly 'Intercept' missions up to now but this time, I decided to fly an escort job (variants on the ground attack/close support theme being the other options). We were accordingly tasked to accompany some 'attack planes' - which for the German side means Stukas, for the Soviets, Sturmoviks - down to an unspecified target in open country, in the northern sector of the bulge. Here's the briefing map for this mission. Unfortunately this map - which you can also refer to during the mission, as well as a 'mini-map' - no longer shows the front lines. And there's no indication of what the target is. Likewise it's only when you start the mission that you see who you're escorting and what size your own flight is (though the latter seems invariably to be either three or four aircraft, with you as flight leader). As usual in BoS, for the purposes of unlocks and progressing your player profile, you are given a personal, numerical mission objective: in this case, that no more than two Sturmoviks should be lost. Out of how many, I don't know until the mission begins.
Helpfully, as you can see, the map does show the bearings, distances and indicative timings for each leg of the flight plan. If I had chosen an air start, I need only have flown the legs to and from the target ('Action Point' in BoS terminology). The very close correspondence between this map and what you see in the 3d world makes decent visual navigation possible in BoS. B-17-2 the Mighty Eighth was the only other combat flight sim I recall playing which had such a good potential for visual navigation. Even though I tend to keep the aircraft map icons switched on, I still find it a joy to pick up landmarks, especially when I can rattle off the names of places I remember from reading accounts of the real battlefield, as I see them brought to life in BoS.
This is one of the aspects of the sim that I most appreciate. Truly, BoS is a 'Time Machine' that brings me back to this momentous point in history, much as its fans say of Battle of Britain 2 - Wings of Victory. Some look at BoS and see mainly unlocks and the lack of a conventional pilot career. I look at BoS and see mainly great aircraft, desolate but lovely environments, visceral air combat…and a powerful sense of time and place, of history bought to life.
But enough of such reflections. There's a job to be done. It's time to pick up those Sturmoviks, which have flown up from their base to the south. Here we are on the airfield, four Yak-1s, the others in well-worn winter camouflage, in stark contrast to my gaudy machine. I have chosen a full mission duration, not an air start. With 'Normal' difficulty selected, instead of needing to start up and taxi out (which comes with 'Expert' difficulty level), I'm lined up on the runway at the head of my flight, engine running and good to go. Meanwhile, the Sturmoviks have arrived - just three of them, on this trip - and are now swinging in from the west. I opened my canopy and checked my controls while I waited for the right moment to take off and go after them. In the pic below, you can see our four fighters, throwing up glistening clouds of snow, just above the nose of the Sturmovik in the foreground. One of the reasons I chose the Yak over the LaGG is that I've found the latter's ground handling very tricky. Take-off runs regularly end with my machine pirouetting wildly as my efforts to use differential braking fail to keep me straight. The Yak is also tricky but is much more manageable, more reminiscent of planes in IL-2 '46. BoS nicely replicates formation takeoffs with shorter gaps than its predecessor's 'conga line' takeoffs, so getting run down by a following aircraft is a risk if you mess up your run. This time I crabbed left and right and back again despite applying throttle slowly. I was overtaken by the Yak on my right but made it off the ground; which is always a good start. I timed it fairly well too, as the Sutrmoviks were crossing ahead of us as we lifted off. At least that's what I'll tell the CO, if and when I get back, if he says anything about cutting it fine. I swung around in a wide turn to the right, throttling back slightly so that the others could catch up as I looked around to pick up the Sturmoviks again. Below me you can see our airfield. It's been said the BoS airfields are a bit bland but if you look at aerial photos taken in the area during the timeframe of the BoS campaign - November 1942 to February 1943 - they look exactly right - basically, frozen. In their white camouflage, the Sturmoviks were quite had to spot against the snowscape. You can just about see a couple of them below, just left of my auxiliary ring and bead gunsight. It was mainly their movement that revealed them to me.
My comrades were evidently intending to go in at very low level. This can make escorting them something of a challenge. Sometimes in BoS there is a fairly unbroken low overcast, giving you little option on an escort flight but to stay below it, to keep sight of your charges. Today, however, while there was a certain amount of low cloud, it was quite broken. So I climbed up to about 2000m and at about 75% throttle, took up position above and behind the Sturmoviks, flying a zig-zag pattern. This is the tactic I usually adopt on an escort mission in a WW2 sim. The weaving enables me to keep my speed up, ready to react quickly, and also means I'm less vulnerable to attack myself, compared to just flying straight and slow, in line with my bombers. On the climb, I could see signs of the fighting on the ground, in the form of smoke billowing up from a town to our right, not too far off. Our route consisted of a leg to the south-west, then a right turn to the east and the target. A prominent frozen river, the mighty Don itself, was a useful reference point - the last mile or two of our first leg ran pretty well along the frozen river as it snaked on its way across the barren steppes. When the Strumoviks reached the L-shaped riverbank woods which marked our first waypoint, I saw them turn right and I turned with them, my flight sliding neatly across, somewhere just behind me.
So far we, looked to be the only aircraft in the vicinity. But appearances can be deceptive! ...to be continued!
IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad - the CombatAce review, part 4
By 33LIMA,
The verdict!
Before we get down to brass tacks here, as a lead-in I'm going to run briefly through another SP campaign mission, illustrating some of the features that I think are worth highlighting at this point and have influenced my own verdict on IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad.
This was a third effort at flying an intercept in a Yak-1, from our base north of Stalingrad to an area south of the city. Previous efforts had failed to meet my personal objectives, partly as I'd been happy to play the flight leader and see what happened when I cut the others loose on the target, resulting in them shooting it/them down (the good news) and me missing out on XP and unlocks and awards (the bad news). This time I decided to go in first and have my flight cover me.
As seems normal with a repeated mission, the general target area was the same but the other details had changed - time of day (it was now dusk), we had a different flight plan and height, there were four in my flight instead of three and the targets were different. So there is some variety here, if replaying a mission. Time was short so I appreciated the option to choose an air start, mission by mission. Here we are (one Yak out of shot) on the leg in to the target/Action Point, with the mini-map zoomed out. Turning the 'HUD' off removes labels from aircraft and the map, as well as turning off the instrument readouts.
In the brief run-in I experimented with formation changes which the AI executed slickly. I then gave them a 'cover me' command to ensure they didn't attack the enemy on sight, but stuck with me instead.
Our targets turned out this time to be two He 111s escorted by I think a single 109. I made a beam attack on the two winter-camouflaged Heinkels while to my complete satisfaction, my flight moved in to get between me and the Messerschmitt. This resulted in a dogfight after a bit of jockeying for position, with the 109 initially going wide and attempting to threaten my flight-mates from above and behind, rather than rushing straight at them.
My shooting hasn't got much better (the most recent update cuts the current lag between trigger pull and weapon firing, which will help) but it wasn't long before I had one of the bombers smoking. I took a noisy hit or two in return, but without suffering any serious damage. The visuals and effects are gorgeous, with vestigial tracer smoke trails, fantastic aircraft and lovely environmentals, like the terrain and clouds softly caught by the light of the setting sun. The finest of aviation art could do little better than this. I mean, look at the sun glinting on the props of the distant Heinkels, in the bottom pic. Beautiful.
Having damaged one bomber and needing only to shoot it down (or damage one more enemy) to complete my mission goals, I decided to cut the flight loose. By this time the Heinkels were rapidly receding, once more escorted by a 109 and two of my flight reported they were too far away to engage.
At this point some searchlights came on below and picked up the German bombers. After a few seconds held in the searchlights they turned left, probably having bombed whatever was protected by those lights, down there in the darkening snowscape.
I led the flight after the Germans and repeated the dose. This time, my flight got the 109 and I was able to put in a couple more passes at both bombers. The one I hit first started straggling.
As I was coming back for another pass at the smoking Heinkel, I saw him turn sharply. As I watched, his nose gradually went down, until he was falling from the sky, Clearly, the damage I had inflicted had become critical and he was doomed. The crew thought so too for they started bailing out. A kill!
Though now very low on ammo, I decided to have a crack at the last Heinkel, which I had clipped with a burst earlier on. With a bit of luck I might nail him with my last few rounds; if not, I would call in the rest of my flight to knock him down. He was now very low and I suddenly noticed that he had his gear and flaps down and that his landing and navigation lights were on. Looking ahead of him, I saw an airbase, to which the German was evidently on his final approach.
Evidently, the pursuit had taken us some way over into enemy territory! Now, it was my turn to be caught in searchlights, German ones this time!
I fired off my last rounds at the big German bomber, then broke up and away, pursued by some desultory flak.
Out of rounds at last, I climbed up and turned away, calling my flight back into formation. I wasn't going to risk our virtual necks in low-level operations over an enemy airfield, for the sake of finishing off one damaged bomber. The searchlights lit me up one last time as I banked around. Last I saw of the Heinkel, he had decided to execute a go-around and perhaps fly on to a less dangerous airfield. I left him to it.
Darkness was creeping in on us and I didn't want to dally. Heading back towards friendly territory, a headlight on the ground to my left drew my attention to what I could see was a train (visible just above my canopy, in the pic below). This might have made a good opportunity target for my wingmens' remaining ammo, had I felt like risking them. Which I did not.
A little further on, back over what I took to be friendly territory, a town was burning, perhaps the target of the He 111s earlier. If so, we had avenged our comrades!
Soon, we were over the town of Beketovka on the Volga just south of Stalingrad, providing an excellent reference point for my final leg home and confirming the the fidelity and attention to detail with which BoS has recreated the battlefield's historical landscape.
With the burning city itself below my left wingtip and looking down to my right, I got a shock to see some enemy aircraft wheeling about, low down over the frozen Volga. They looked to be single-engined types, possibly Stukas. Whatever they were, they did not molest us and with ammo low and in my case gone, I decided that honour had been satisfied and that we should all continue back to base, just to the north.
The scale of this sortie had been small, but it was beautifully formed. The superb visuals; the sounds, the radio comms; the tactical handling of my flight; the air combat; the activity on the ground including searchlights and trains; the credible behaviour of the AI; the barren landscape with its battered towns rolling beneath us; the chance near-encounter with another German flight going about its own business...this mission alone was proof positive for me that BoS delivers a combat flight simulation that is deeply engaging on every level. And at the end of the mission, I actually could not wait to run through the results and check out what points I earned and what I might have unlocked!
I would love to see flight results - kills and losses - added into the little sequence above which would be just enough to elevate BoS's mission handling to a much better level. But I have to say that the sim's distinctive approach to the player's role and his or her progression is something that, as a steadfast simmer, I can not only learn to live with, but to appreciate. Even if it were otherwise, to answer the question I left hanging at the end of Part 3, the depth and richness of the flying and air fighting experience delivered by BoS missions is really first class, worth coming back for more and the price of admission, on its own.
Before I move on, just to cover briefly a couple of loose ends, below are the screens which show (top) on a 'Pilot card', your game profile's vital stats and (bottom) on a 'Plane card', where you stand with the unlocks for a particular aircraft, which shows both what you have unlocked, and what's left to unlock.
And finally, while I haven't done any level bombing yet, here is the view from the Heinkel's Lofte bombsight, and what you see from the bombardier/navigator/airgunner position, looking back into the cockpit...which incidentally, famous test pilot Eric Brown disliked as contrary to appearances, pilot visibility was poor, dangerous in bad weather and producing a 'hall of mirrors' effect in strong sunlight.
And just to be clear, missions aren't always as small-scale as the one described above. Two missions later, still flying my trusty Yak, four of us escorted six Sturmoviks on an exciting and successful low-level strike on German motor transport, ignoring a formation of 109-escorted Heinkels which were level-bombing some of our guys just over the front line.
We fended off some intercepting Messerchmittts, one of which was my next kill after a difficult chase as, damaged by an early hit, he manoeuvred desperately to avoid me. That and at least one kill by a wingman was compensation for the one of our own that I knew we had lost
Out of rounds I was chased towards Stalingrad by a German fighter, who gave up when a wingman rejoined me. Together we flew north back to base up the Volga, past blazing ruins in Stalingrad and the famous grain elevator, ignoring the Stukas buzzing angrily over the river.
The BoS skies can be busy as well as dangerous. Perhaps only Russian developers could have recreated the time, the place and the combat so well.
And so to the reckoning...
Each CombatAce reviewer will have their own assessment but for me, this is a difficult one. It’s hard to avoid comparisons with other combat flight sims, especially with the original IL-2, which BoS's branding naturally invites. We do need to remember here that the original IL-2 is a product that's matured over almost exactly thirteen years of development and modding. And I think we need to take a deep breath and count to ten, before we rush to judgement on BoS's unconventional approach to some of the basics.
In the developer blog, they point out that the unlocks are content that's been made available freely (albeit after 'grinding') rather than as Down-Loadable Content payware, as in RoF. It's also apparent that 1C/777 hoped or believed the unlocks would actually appeal to some players, likely including people used to 'grinding' from playing those 'other genres'.
Like it or not, the BoS SP campaign approach - the unlocks, the pilot levels and awards and the lack of pilot and squadron identities - doesn't mean BoS can't deliver a solid, convincing air combat simulation experience. I find that BoS does exactly that, with considerable polish and flair in very many respects.
Are the unlocks et al a show stopper for die hard fans of the combat flight sim genre? Your call, but not for me, absolutely not.
The relatively recent tank sim, Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942 (SF) has no role-playing elements worthy of the name, in sad contrast to say, Panzer Elite. And SF's stock campaigns are just sets of scripted missions (with some replay variability), covering but a few weeks in May/June 1942 in a single area of operations. But once you've made a plan from the map, loaded the appropriate ammo and ordered your driver to advance, while the rounds begin to fall and the tracer starts to fly, the experience of playing the mission itself is actually very engaging. It puts you right there, leading a tank platoon into battle in a small-scale but reasonably convincing simulation of a WW2 all-arms, company-level operation. What SF does, it does more than sufficiently well, to pass muster as a top-notch tank sim, in my books and for many others. Despite limitations elsewhere.
So let it be with Ceasar. Or said of BoS, in my view. Like SF, BoS lacks some features I would like to see, including some I consider quite important. Some of the features it does have, nicely implemented though they are, I'm not crazy about. However, for me, in the round, and judging first and foremost from the experience BoS delivers, upon release, of flying Eastern Front air combat in WW2 (as opposed to simply 'flying WW2 planes') this is a great new addition to the combat flight sim genre.
We have a decent set of superbly-rendered aircraft (soon to be joined by an AI Ju 52) with a great feeling that you're actually flying or fighting from them. We have an historic battlefield rolled out before our very eyes, with adequate levels of ground activity, pleasing to the eyes and recreated in a depth and to a level of detail which more than compensates for the limited breadth of a single area of operations. We have the opportunity to fly small-scale but reasonably challenging and generally convincing sorties over this battlefield, as the battle itself unfolds, in its successive phases, where history, not the player's actions, determines the course of events. The air-to-air and air-to-ground action can be as visceral and exciting as any I've experienced. Sure, a little more suspension-of-disbelief-building in mission presentation (and less 'gamey' objectives and terminology) would be nice...but when you're up there in BoS, over that white-frozen but beautiful virtual landscape, in that nicely-rendered virtual cockpit, fighting for your virtual life while the war goes on around you, all other things seem somehow less important.
Back down to earth, here are my pros and cons.
Pros
Beautifully-rendered aircraft, especially externally
Great feeling of flying combat aircraft
Beautiful (if snowbound!) environmentals
Generally very good combat experience Good developer support & exceptional engagement
Good aircrew animation
Good planeset
Good set of well-presented on-screen aids
Ability to fly, gun or bomb
'Complex Engine Management' adds depth (if you want it)
SP campaign follows the main phases of the historical battle
Crisp, clean easy-to-use interface and high 'production values' Mostly, decent AI
Mission Editor is opening up additional SP campaign possibilities
Cons
No real pilot persona or historical squadrons in stock campaign
Unlocks could be handled in a more historical fashion (or opted out of)
No padlock in campaign Edit - padlock IS now functioning in campaign, as of the pre-Christmas 2014 update
Limited ground control/tower presence
'Gamey' terminology in some places
Wingman command windows large and centred
Near cloud effect interferes with aircraft rendering
And since life's not all black-and-white, just to expand on the above assessment...
Some room for improvement?
In campaign, no ability to view your flight's results post-mission, just player's solo achievements
Difficulty organising flight in making effective ground attacks Formations are sometimes small, even for the Eastern Front Aircraft could be visible further away, without icons/labels
Formation-keeping - there's a certain amount of straggling
Laden bombers seem a bit too agile Aircraft lack individual/unit markings
Stock SP campaign mission briefings rather bland Landscape perhaps a little too bland, even for 'snowbound' Own pilot is invisible, in 1st person view
Greater ability to fine-tune on-screen aids, within presets, would be useful
Limited flexibility of graphics adjustment (presets)
And the score? I make no allowance here for longer-term potential or the desirability of 'supporting a new product in a niche market'. Nor am I having any regard, either way, to any (sometimes rather fraught) discussions of, or opinions expressed about, BoS, elsewhere. However, I am making some allowance for: the fact that a manual is coming; the prospect of user-made campaign mission sets, which have already begun to appear; a facility to incorporate user-made 'skins' which is I believe coming; and the fact that an AI Ju 52 is definitely being produced, filling the big planeset gap. The mission editor is reported to be tricky to use and we may never get pilot logbooks; but sets of scripted missions, able at least to give the player an identity and an historical squadron, will likely see the arrival, over time, of a decent supply of at least adequate, and possibly very good, 'conventional' if not 'dynamic' Single Player campaigns, which will boost longevity.
So, remembering that I'm rating only the Single Player element here, on this scale.....
5 - Must Buy - Delivers a consistently outstanding experience with minimal flaws that do not detract from the gameplay in any significant way.
4 - Highly Recommended - Delivers a fun and enjoyable experience well worth your time and money, despite some room for improvement.
3 - Recommended - Delivers a solid gameplay experience with a few irritations that occasionally disrupt enjoyment.
2 - Difficult to Recommend - Delivers some of the promised fun, but not without significant problems in the gameplay experience.
1- Not Recommended - Delivers a sub-par gameplay experience; doesn't fulfill its promises; offers more bugs than fun.
...this reviewer's final score is: 4 - Highly recommended
As things stand, with a few non-critical reservations, I would recommend the new sim to any air war enthusiast and in particular, to those with an interest in the Eastern Front or in the Soviet or German warbirds which fought there. BoS should also appeal strongly to those who relish the extra realism of being able, if they choose, to manage their airscrew pitch, mixture, radiators and all the other stuff the real pilots had to handle. I have found IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad to be a detailed, well-produced, enjoyable, effective and rather beautiful evocation of the air war over and around one of the decisive battles of the Second World War. Which, I guess, is about what it set out to be.
But - unlike the Stuka below - we're not quite finished here yet!
Coming next - the view from the other reviewers' cockpits...including Multiplayer!
In the developer blog, they point out that the unlocks are content that's been made available freely (albeit after 'grinding') rather than as Down-Loadable Content payware, as in RoF. It's also apparent that 1C/777 hoped or believed the unlocks would actually appeal to some players, likely including people used to 'grinding' from playing those 'other genres'.
Like it or not, the BoS SP campaign approach - the unlocks, the pilot levels and awards and the lack of pilot and squadron identities - doesn't mean BoS can't deliver a solid, convincing air combat simulation experience. I find that BoS does exactly that, with considerable polish and flair in very many respects.
Are the unlocks et al a show stopper for die hard fans of the combat flight sim genre? Your call, but not for me, absolutely not.
The relatively recent tank sim, Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942 (SF) has no role-playing elements worthy of the name, in sad contrast to say, Panzer Elite. And SF's stock campaigns are just sets of scripted missions (with some replay variability), covering but a few weeks in May/June 1942 in a single area of operations. But once you've made a plan from the map, loaded the appropriate ammo and ordered your driver to advance, while the rounds begin to fall and the tracer starts to fly, the experience of playing the mission itself is actually very engaging. It puts you right there, leading a tank platoon into battle in a small-scale but reasonably convincing simulation of a WW2 all-arms, company-level operation. What SF does, it does more than sufficiently well, to pass muster as a top-notch tank sim, in my books and for many others. Despite limitations elsewhere.
So let it be with Ceasar. Or said of BoS, in my view. Like SF, BoS lacks some features I would like to see, including some I consider quite important. Some of the features it does have, nicely implemented though they are, I'm not crazy about. However, for me, in the round, and judging first and foremost from the experience BoS delivers, upon release, of flying Eastern Front air combat in WW2 (as opposed to simply 'flying WW2 planes') this is a great new addition to the combat flight sim genre.
We have a decent set of superbly-rendered aircraft (soon to be joined by an AI Ju 52) with a great feeling that you're actually flying or fighting from them. We have an historic battlefield rolled out before our very eyes, with adequate levels of ground activity, pleasing to the eyes and recreated in a depth and to a level of detail which more than compensates for the limited breadth of a single area of operations. We have the opportunity to fly small-scale but reasonably challenging and generally convincing sorties over this battlefield, as the battle itself unfolds, in its successive phases, where history, not the player's actions, determines the course of events. The air-to-air and air-to-ground action can be as visceral and exciting as any I've experienced. Sure, a little more suspension-of-disbelief-building in mission presentation (and less 'gamey' objectives and terminology) would be nice...but when you're up there in BoS, over that white-frozen but beautiful virtual landscape, in that nicely-rendered virtual cockpit, fighting for your virtual life while the war goes on around you, all other things seem somehow less important.
Back down to earth, here are my pros and cons.
Pros
Beautifully-rendered aircraft, especially externally
Great feeling of flying combat aircraft
Beautiful (if snowbound!) environmentals
Generally very good combat experience Good developer support & exceptional engagement
Good aircrew animation
Good planeset
Good set of well-presented on-screen aids
Ability to fly, gun or bomb
'Complex Engine Management' adds depth (if you want it)
SP campaign follows the main phases of the historical battle
Crisp, clean easy-to-use interface and high 'production values' Mostly, decent AI
Mission Editor is opening up additional SP campaign possibilities
Cons
No real pilot persona or historical squadrons in stock campaign
Unlocks could be handled in a more historical fashion (or opted out of)
No padlock in campaign Edit - padlock IS now functioning in campaign, as of the pre-Christmas 2014 update
Limited ground control/tower presence
'Gamey' terminology in some places
Wingman command windows large and centred
Near cloud effect interferes with aircraft rendering
And since life's not all black-and-white, just to expand on the above assessment...
Some room for improvement?
In campaign, no ability to view your flight's results post-mission, just player's solo achievements
Difficulty organising flight in making effective ground attacks Formations are sometimes small, even for the Eastern Front Aircraft could be visible further away, without icons/labels
Formation-keeping - there's a certain amount of straggling
Laden bombers seem a bit too agile Aircraft lack individual/unit markings
Stock SP campaign mission briefings rather bland Landscape perhaps a little too bland, even for 'snowbound' Own pilot is invisible, in 1st person view
Greater ability to fine-tune on-screen aids, within presets, would be useful
Limited flexibility of graphics adjustment (presets)
And the score? I make no allowance here for longer-term potential or the desirability of 'supporting a new product in a niche market'. Nor am I having any regard, either way, to any (sometimes rather fraught) discussions of, or opinions expressed about, BoS, elsewhere. However, I am making some allowance for: the fact that a manual is coming; the prospect of user-made campaign mission sets, which have already begun to appear; a facility to incorporate user-made 'skins' which is I believe coming; and the fact that an AI Ju 52 is definitely being produced, filling the big planeset gap. The mission editor is reported to be tricky to use and we may never get pilot logbooks; but sets of scripted missions, able at least to give the player an identity and an historical squadron, will likely see the arrival, over time, of a decent supply of at least adequate, and possibly very good, 'conventional' if not 'dynamic' Single Player campaigns, which will boost longevity.
So, remembering that I'm rating only the Single Player element here, on this scale.....
5 - Must Buy - Delivers a consistently outstanding experience with minimal flaws that do not detract from the gameplay in any significant way.
4 - Highly Recommended - Delivers a fun and enjoyable experience well worth your time and money, despite some room for improvement.
3 - Recommended - Delivers a solid gameplay experience with a few irritations that occasionally disrupt enjoyment.
2 - Difficult to Recommend - Delivers some of the promised fun, but not without significant problems in the gameplay experience.
1- Not Recommended - Delivers a sub-par gameplay experience; doesn't fulfill its promises; offers more bugs than fun.
...this reviewer's final score is: 4 - Highly recommended
As things stand, with a few non-critical reservations, I would recommend the new sim to any air war enthusiast and in particular, to those with an interest in the Eastern Front or in the Soviet or German warbirds which fought there. BoS should also appeal strongly to those who relish the extra realism of being able, if they choose, to manage their airscrew pitch, mixture, radiators and all the other stuff the real pilots had to handle. I have found IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad to be a detailed, well-produced, enjoyable, effective and rather beautiful evocation of the air war over and around one of the decisive battles of the Second World War. Which, I guess, is about what it set out to be.
But - unlike the Stuka below - we're not quite finished here yet!
Coming next - the view from the other reviewers' cockpits...including Multiplayer!
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