Battle of Britain 1960

[Stwa]

Well, this was to supposed to be my annual visit to Combat Ace for 2014. But, I just had to check out the download section, and I found this British Isles terrain by Baltika. I am not sure if I ever saw this one before. Dunno?

 

I always want to do a modern Battle of Britain, but just never got around to it. I fiddled with a few dem files, but that was it. This map from Baltika is very nice. And, I was able to make it operational is just a few minutes. I wanted to make a few changes, because the terrain has many Soviet bases already in England.

 

So, I changed all the ENEMY targets to FRIENDLY with a find and replace command. Then I cloned a nice large air base and added it at the end of the target list as an ENEMY base and positioned three of them in France, but directly south of London.

 

So already, I can fly CAP missions until I puke while the Soviets throw everything they have at me.

 

 

 

 

[+JonathanRL]

I always want to do a modern Battle of Britain, but just never got around to it.

 

Well, I did, a wee tiny thing called Operation Stamford Bridge. You can read the briefing here:

http://combatace.com/files/file/14549-operation-stamford-bridge-battle-of-britain-1980/

 

Download:

http://combatace.com/topic/80769-battle-of-britain-1980-mission-briefing/

[+Gepard]

Available since X-Mas 2009

 

 

http://combatace.com/files/file/10371-battle-of-britain-terrain-for-the-60th-and-70th/

[Stwa]

OMG! Its Gephard!

 

Thanks for the info on your terrain. And thanks for the others down through the years. I have Israel 2 and Persian Gulf.

 

For some reason, that I cannot explain, when I get a third party terrain, the first thing I do is remove all non-stock target types. In this case, just reference GermanyCE_types.ini.

 

This step only took a few seconds with Baltika's terrain.

 

Anyway, on my system, I am supporting 9 different terrains, and for the most part each terrain folder looks like the following:

 

 

[Stwa]

That being said, sometimes I go "hog wild" with a terrain. For Israel 2, I retiled the entire terrain with a custom set of WOV tiles. The I customized some of the custom tiles.

 

Here is what the IsraelME terrain folder looks like.

 

 

 

[+Gepard]

For some reason, that I cannot explain, when I get a third party terrain, the first thing I do is remove all non-stock target types.

 

 

If you do this, you will lose a lot of targets. Perhaps it is neccessary if you want to make SF2 terrains compatible with WoX, but for terrains, which are written for WoX you dont need this step.

 

By the way, i made a little campaign for that terrain. Its called France vs UK. For the case that MiG bashing with the Hunter had become boring for you, then you can try to defend old England against Oragans and Mysteres. Or you can play it for the "Grand Nation" and try to escort Vatours to London and back.

http://combatace.com/files/file/10278-france-vs-uk-campaign/

Edited December 17, 2014 by Gepard

[Stwa]

Don't worry Gepard, Mig Bashing never gets boring, because now everyone is in Great Britain.

 

[Stwa]

New planning maps are started. I will add the air base and text labels when I have figured out where everything is gonna go in France.

 

 

 

[Stwa]

And it looks like the Dutch have moved in a few squads as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2014 by Stwa

[Stwa]

If you do this, you will lose a lot of targets. Perhaps it is neccessary if you want to make SF2 terrains compatible with WoX, but for terrains, which are written for WoX you dont need this step.

 

Uh-huh! [impersonating Barney the purple dinosaur]

 

Now please remember, that I only added a few enemy air bases in France for this terrain. There appeared to be only 1 non-stock target, that I pitched.

 

But, the total number of targets present in the target data file are 11,786.

 

 

 

[Stwa]

Me thinks the Americans and the French will fly Super Sabres, but more C models than D models.

 

Ok, so I have cloned over 1962 Red Hammer, and I would expect to have a campaign ready shortly. I will call it Battle of Britain or perhaps Red Herring.

 

Here is a map of cold war airbases in France, that we will assume were captured by the Soviets, according to the story line. I will get the cordinates for these and get what I can into the game.

 

 

 

[Stwa]

Mai è stato così tanto dovuto da tanti a così pochi.

 

 

[Stwa]

Just in case anyone is interested, here is a listing of the total targets in each of the 9 terrains I maintain. I only use stock targets.

BritishIs UK = 11,786
Germany CE = 10,350
Israel ME = 8,532
Persian Gulf ME = 8218
Vietnam SEA = 5,098
Cuba CARIB = 776
FalklandIs* SA = 285
Iceland* NA = 257
SolomonIs* SWP = 179

* = These terrains have off map enemy air bases, which have only 1 target each, the runway.

[+Menrva]

This is very interesting stuff, I am trying to do the same in SF2, although I prefer enhancing the terrains with the great tiles made by our CombatACE artists. I wonder how you managed to create planning maps similar to those of the stock terrains, to me it seems pretty difficult.

[Stwa]

Just use something that supports layers. I use limp Gimp.

 

Here are a couple I did back in the day. Israel DES was one of Gephards first terrains. It is considered a classic. Then there was Iraq ME. I like to do the Middle East maps. Once and a while I drag these terrains out for some real fun.

 

 

 

 

[Stwa]

Once you have the basic map in, then use Excel to plot the locations of all the target areas you want to indicate on the maps.

 

I use 3 zoom layers, and make each map independent of another. It is just grunt work really.

 

 

[Stwa]

I am having a real blast with this terrain. And I didn't build it, Baltika did. And I can confirm he was very thorough and meticulous.

 

Well, I hope to see you guys again soon. It was great chatting with everyone. We have been ordered up again, and it is very real. A CAP mission over John Lennon Aerodrome. Yup! The Empire is back.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2014 by Stwa

[+Menrva]

Thanks for all the info, Stwa, very appreciated. I really like your idea of making everything sort of stock, planes and screens included.

 

BTW, I am working (actually I've stopped for a while) on a new Iraq-Iran map that uses the same area as the one showed in your planning map. In fact the one that you are using is pretty inaccurate since targets and cities are not where they should according to real life. It was one of the first terrains for Strike Fighters, indeed a nice area.