First Eagles 2 is full of surprises!

[33LIMA 972]

Had to do a system re-install the other day. First sim re-installed was First Eagles 2 and I kicked off a new Jasta 5 Cambrai campaign (there's just something about those sleek Albatros DV's and those red-edged green tails, and the exploits of the 'Golden Triumvirate' of Mai, Rumey, and Koennecke) flying out of Boistrancourt in November '17.

 

Funny, but a few days away from 'the Front' and I had already lost my edge: the tactical caution that FE had taught me, not just to accept the first combat offered, but given any option, to back off or gain height if necessary, look around, make a plan and attack on my own terms, aiming to bring back my pilots as well as damage the enemy. A few scraps against heavy opposition soon reminded me. Not many sims can so effectively reinforce the lessons of the Boelcke Dicta and Mannock's equally famous and influential teachings, but FE/FE2 can and does...

 

Anyhow, we draw a line patrol for the next mission and I bring along an extra pilot for a flight of 5, from ranks thinned out by my first few days of incautious leadership. The last mission had gone a bit better, after I declined combat with an incoming formation of 2-seaters escorted by half-a-dozen aggressive scouts, and instead sought out easier pickings. This time I would also reapply my hard-won experience.

 

Lined up and ready to go, I held off for a few seconds, waiting for the Jasta's amateur photographer to grab a few pictures [screenshots] of our crates. Then throttle open sharply, apply some rudder to correct the swing, and bring the tail up to reduce the drag and increase the lift as I hare away across the grass.

 

As I accelerated, I noticed a couple of aeroplanes ahead at 11 o'clock low. Not that unusual to see a couple of friendly aircraft heading out or returning to the many local airfields, so I gave them only casual attention...till I noticed another aircraft dead ahead, head on, and heading right for us; a neat, most un-Germanic-looking single-bay biplane with pronounced dihedral on both wings...and realised that our airfield 'Archie' had suddenly started firing into the air, seemingly all around us, as we clawed our way into the air...

 

Bl**dy hell - we were being attacked on takeoff! Thank goodness they hadn't come in from behind us, it would have been a slaughter! As it was, it seemed pointless to give the signal for air combat but I did so anyway, before turning as tightly as I dared so close to the deck, to get and stay out of the line of fire of the incoming SE5s.

 

The next few minutes were a desperate ones, trying to keep my tail clear with tight turns at low level, trying to avoid hitting the ground and instead gaining what height I could, while waiting for any opportunity to counterattack. There was nowhere to run, no place for cautious tactics; it was kill or be killed; nothing to lose, them or us. More by luck than judgement, I managed to get behind an SE that had crossed in front of me and after a few minutes frantic jinking after him, relying on that to keep me clear of the Tommies whose tracers I could see zip by me every so often, I downed the first attacker. The odds were now more even! More tight turns, more tracer, and then another enemy crossed in front of me and also paid the price.

 

Suddenly, the sky was clear of aircraft, and I climbed up in a spiral at full power, looking around me. A couple of DVs were below and climbing up to join me, and a third was closing slowly from further out on the same level. Surprised on takeoff, but we had four out of five left, maybe the pilot down safe, and at least a couple of kills! I don't know whether I was mostly relieved, or elated!

 

Nearby, a smoke trail was being dragged across the sky westwards; an enemy in trouble! As I watched, I could see he was not losing altitude. So, here was an opportunity to remind to our erstwhile visitors of our displeasure at their impoliteness in calling upon us un-announced.

 

Off after him I went, gaining gradually, with my flight reforming to my rear. As I closed the range, and nosed in behind for a killing shot, his outline was obscured by the smoke he was trailing, tho I did finally notice that this particular SE5 seemed to have the outsides of both lower wings shot off...unusual...too late I realised it was an RE8, not having seen that some of these 2-seaters had also been in on the attack.

 

Nothing for it now, but to get him before the rear gunner got me! At first, my fire seemed to be unanswered, and his smoke made precise aiming more difficult. But then my shots appeared to hit home, and his prop slowed and stopped as I broke away, just as I saw the gunner's muzzle flashes winking through the smoke. Looking back and up as I dived down and ahead, I could see his prop had definitely stopped, and that he was at last going down.

 

Suddenly, I remembered my comrades, whom I'd just unwittingly led into the arc of fire of a 2-seater. I had got away with it, but had they? With my heart in my mouth I saw an Albatros to my right, not on fire but now also trailing a dirty cloud of dark smoke and going down in a turning descent. As I watched, his dive steepened to near vertical. I had to force myself to watch him all the way down, willing him to level off and make a forced landing. Naturally, it was not to be. A sudden splash of yellow fire against the green of the fields and it was all over.

 

Having watched the end of a comrade who died because of me, I also then watched my Tommy, with matchless irony, make a perfect dead-stick landing in a field just a few hundred metres from the smoking wreck of the Albatros. I thought for a moment about strafing him as he sat there; then I turned away, and led my two surviving comrades back to our airfield. The pilot of the missing Albatros had survived being shot down, and we had got four kills between us. But the last one had cost me a needless loss, which was down to me; and me alone.

 

Well, if you've read this far, maybe now you know why I just don't agree when I see people describe FE (and other TW sims) as a sim lite which (in even TK's own words) puts fun above all else. Yes FE can be fun, and yes it lacks some things like pilots jumping out of flamers or threatened balloons being winched down or the sound of your wheels rumbling on the grass or a realistic pilot logbook; but it has gorgeous planes, lovely environments and a helluva lot of excellent and accurate historical content. More than that, it does a truly exceptional job of putting the player in the cockpit of a plane flying on combat operations in WW1. From what I've experienced playing FE/FE2 and WoE/SF2E, TW sims don't need to make any apologies or excuses about accuracy, content or immersion; they can at least hold their own across the board with absolutely anything else out that's there out now, from the classics to the very latest.

Edited May 23, 2011 by 33LIMA

[Heck 496]

Thanks for the great after action report. And I completely agree with your appraisal of FE/FE2.

[+Dave 2,322]

Awesome report my friend.

[+quack74 329]

Makes me want to go upstairs and play a few missions from my "Caporetto" campaign and do some more skins!

[33LIMA 972]

Makes me want to go upstairs and play a few missions from my "Caporetto" campaign and do some more skins!

 

And that reminds me that on top of 'vanilla' FE, I still have all the extra content to look forward to playing, like your campaign and all the other excellent stuff freely available from the peerless FE/SF mod community. S!