themightysrc

"Mightysrc you are right about the paranoia. I developed a growing apprehension as June 1915 got nearer, when I understood I was likely to see the first enemy aircraft. When they first came stooping down on us I was like a cat in headlights for a moment. I finally remembered to turn into them and, as you have pointed out, they seemed to go for the wingmen." I'm glad that you've been able to put the guide to good use (by the sound of it). There's a lot of talk been had round these parts about making OFF the authentic experience, much of which has been thoroughly undermined by the simple fact that you can always enlist yet another pilot as and when your current one snuffs it. used to get through, literally, dozens of pilots - the pile of dead aviators under my desk was formidable. I finally came to realise that this happens simply because I wasn't paranoid enough in the air, and the BE2c is a wonderful, if slightly unnerving, way of getting into the frame of mind where one will do practically anything to avoid a fight, partly because it gets in the way of your mission, but mostly because you don't really stand much chance in a fight, particularly if you don't know the early war ropes, so to speak. So I run at all opportunities - like Lou - or dodge, or hide, or whatever else is necessary to avoid trouble. It's amazing how quickly you get to loathe bright sunny days, yearning instead for cloud, rain and snow, and how you learn to curse Hun archie, who points out your existence to everyone within 4 miles, damn it. You'll get into the mindset - sounds in fact as though you're pretty well there! - and you'll end up a snivelling nervous wreck like the rest of us BE2 jockeys. It's coming to something when one looks forward to the day that you get onto the infamous RE8 as a form of release from the torture...

"We have only seen enemy aircraft on the last two missions. The second time, some of them were still buzzing around near the airfield when we got back - which seemed most unsporting" Hi again Wayfarer - I actually forgot to include one of the most useful tips ever for the BE2 when I wrote it up. It is this. When I was wet behind the ears with the BE2c (note to Olham: RFC pilots were all ritually licked by their aircrew behind their ears prior to their first dozen or so missions), I experienced several trouser filling experiences with Fokker monoplanes that were down to my inexperience and paranoia (the experience increased; so, funnily enough, did the paranoia), and I found myself, when threatened by Beastly Huns, putting down at adjacent Entente aerodromes (NB, do not do so East of the Front) and simply sitting there, engine off, watching the local AA whack the s**t out of the Huns, who inevitably got shot down or got bored and flew off. It's a little bit gamesmanlike, if you will, but as a simple and easy way of getting out of trouble, it takes some beating - the beating is, instead, handed out to the Huns. You can then start up the motor and go merrily on your way. Odd I'd forgotten that one: I suppose I've got used to running away until a scrap's inevitable, and then piling in on my own. Hey ho - one for the revision, perhaps.

Hi Lou and Wayfarer, Glad that you've both enjoyed my contribution, and even, I hope, got something out of it. It's difficult to write a guide to the Quirk that doesn't simply dismiss it as a complete horror, so I hope you didn't mind my, er, kindly understatement of the BE's qualities. I was hoping that there would be enough factual information in there to enable people to actually fly the damn thing with some success without putting them off the experience before they'd even tried it. I was thinking about writing: "The Albatros DIII: should you see one of these, immediately throw yourself out of the cockpit, which will give you a better chance of surviving the experience, even at 6000 feet..." but I thought that might be a wee bit discouraging to BE newbies. I'll admit it though: it's not an easy life in the BE, so you have to grasp at whatever minimal advantages are sent your way. I've learned to love cloud and rain, and, conversely, get that puckering sensation whenever I see new dots on the TAC. To be sure: OFF is a great challenge, but if you wish to experience it at its fullest, and probably in a manner that more closely mirrors the horrors of WWI aerial fighting, there's no better way to do it than in one of the most ghastly warplanes ever built. Cheers, Si

"I was wondering has anyone made it thru a campaign . 1916- end of war ?" Not waving too violently yet, but Vic started on 01.02.15 and it's now - 104 misions on - 28.06.17. That's a pretty good run I think. Anyone improve on that?

Lt/Captn/Major (delete as applicable) Wayfarer, "Firstly, I am glad to have it confirmed that the engine conks out on starting if the throttle is too low - I have been setting it at half to be sure." It's one of those things - I don't know how true to life the OFF BE2c is, but you'll simply have to live with it. As the authors point out, at least it's a spur to getting airborne. "Then there is, 'ease your mixture to half, promptly'. I always dutifully lean and enrich regularly with variations in altitude, but is there a way of knowing when you are actually at half? I seem to get maximum revs of about 1150rpm whatever the conditions - does that seem about right?" That sounds right to me. If you look down - assuming you're using TrackIR - whilst you're buggering about with the mixture, you can actually see how far along you've pushed the mixture lever. I wish they had advance/retard. Now that would be a whole new bundle of hassle and paranoid fumbling. 1150rpm is probably about right. I rarely look at the rev counter, preferring hear what the motor's up to. "Arthur has not yet been sent on a bombing mission but Major Timm's forthright assessment has certainly made an impression on him." Lucky old you! Where are you up to in the war? I started as early as I could, but the bombing missions were a long time coming. In fact, having just looked back at my pilot's notes for Vic, there was no bombing prior to 1916, and then it slowly accumulated to the point now where it's more or less a given, whilst reconnaissance and spotting are rarities. Oh, and don't expect to get a scout escort should you be asked to bomb a Hun airfield or a railyard 20 miles behind the lines. You're expendable, and the likes of Albert Ball have much better things to do rather than to prevent you falling to an early grave in a seething mass of flames. Having said that, bombing is a piece of piss in a BE because you can hardly miss, you're travelling that slowly! Vic's bombing stats are astounding - 77%, which is 120 bombs out of 156 launched. Of course, you'll get no bloody thanks for it: you'll be assigned yet another sodding bombing raid (without escort). "Although Arthur himself has never looped the old Quirk, my 'test' pilot Algernon Crumpetly-Flim (of the Buckinghamshire Crumpetly-Flims) - following the thorough instructions of Flight Commander W G McMinnies R.N - has managed it quite comfortably." Indeed - a grand family, the Crumpetly-Flims. Both Major Coppitt and Major Timm speak highly of their derring-do and willingness to laugh in the face of death, which has, regrettably, taken such a toll upon that fine family. You can loop a Quirk, but check out your insurance policies first. Further research has made it clear to me (see Tales from the Front thread) that it's probably safer to do so in a Quirk than an RE8. Whilst it's hardly useful in combat, it does give a sense that the BE isn't a complete deathtrap in a fight, and that you can probably do more with it than most people might think. That's one reason Major Timm actually has 22 confirmed kills, the majority of which are EIIIs, although there are Halberstadts and Albatri in there. "And finally landing - 'an aeroplane as well designed as the BE2 is hardly likely to present difficulties to even the most average pilot'. Well all I can say is that a chap can only do his best ... there was no need for Arthur to snigger like that!" My dear comrade and fellow flyer - you will be quite safe following the nostrums of Majors Timm and Coppitt. The BE2c and its variants are, indeed, quite wondrous machines and will serve your companion Arthur well indeed. Having bollocks made out of steel will also help. Cheers, Si

" Currently the only model we have is not at all useful against anything else than Eindeckers" Hi Hasse, Trust me - depending on the quality of your AI opponents, you can down all sorts with a BE2, as they tend to fixate on the rest of one's flight. I've shot down EIIIs, Halberstadt DIIs, Albatros DIIs, Roland CIIs and even the odd Albatros DIII! I won't pretend that it's easy going, but it is doable. Quite agree though that the BE2 should more properly armed. I suggest that the current BE2 is slightly remodelled into the BE12, and that the BE2 have only that rear facing gun for the observer - that would be marvellous (for you Hun scout types!).

"it would be nice, if I could warp past a flight of BE2c, which won't attack my Albatros flight anyway." Ahem. May I introduce Major Timm of No.12 RFC? Alright - I don't go looking for bloody Albatros scouts, but I'm damned if you lot are going to get away scot free if I have the drop on you!

"Arthur Winteringham will be sincerely grateful. I have nearly done for him several times in one. Every now and then the doleful cry of 'I've killed Arthur!' echoes around our living room. Even my wife seems genuinely distressed. I think she has a soft spot for him - after all he does look rather handsome in his photograph. Luck has been on his side up until know, but he'll appreciate any help I can get." Trust me - I will do what I can. My best regards to Arthur and your wife, in a purely platonic sense. This is survivable; a little like owning an Austin Allegro.

Right then - I've put it off long enough. I'm going to write about how to survive being a victim of the Quirk. I think I can finally do it justice. Give me a few days, ladies and gentlemen... Cheers, Si

That does it: I'm really going to have to try this. I guess it's easier given that the map we have in the game is, er, not optimal, so I tend to use it only for waypointing and thereafter float about a Google map of wherever I'm headed, but I think that the time has come to finally take the plunge and do it properly with printed paper maps (possibly laminated, if I can sneak them into work - f*** knows how you laminate an A3 map!). I've noticed that the better I've become at flying in OFF, and the more things I hit with both bomb and bullet, and the easier I find dogfighting - in a BE2c of all contraptions, for God's sake - then the more I'm beginning to nudge towards DiD and chucking away the player aids. I'm not quite ready to fully ditch TAC, although I have the white blobs mod and the opaque labels as well, and don't think I could pilot without the onscreen compass - did they really not put one in the BE's? - however I'm slowly but surely getting into a semi-DiD mode, and this seems the next logical step. I'll let you know how I get on (with a new pilot, I hasten to add...). Cheers, Si

"Did we lure a member of the team to let out some top secret hint?" Er, no, probably not.

GH, I use this mod and it's absolutely excellent, as you can't tell from the TAC who's a friend and who's the enemy....very scary. Equally, having to squint or peer hard at the labels on the planes as they slowly hove into view is also unnerving, but means that the damn labels don't distract. The relevant bit of XML is: <Colors FriendColor="0x1FCCCCCC" EnemyColor="0x1FCCCCCC" TargetColor="0x1FFFFF00" BogieColor="0x1FCCCCCC" GoalColor="0x1FCCCCCC" HumanFriendColor="0X1f00FFFF" HumanEnemyColor="0x1f00FFFF"/> which is easy to find and mod (having saved the original file, natch!). If mucking about with files sounds a bit worrisome, then PM me with your email address and I'll happily email the relevant file to you. Cheers, Si

Hi Mate, welcome to my world. I've been flying a BE2 campaign for months now - still alive, amazingly! - and I will concur with your views, on the proviso that I have Hitr (and you really should get it, it's excellent), which modifies AI behaviour, or rather allows you to choose AI aggression. Always turn towards your Hun - they will attack your supine mates - and you might survive; anything else, other than a dive to the deck is suicide, unless you have Hitr and set enemy aggression to Historical, under which you'll see marvellous flying and fewer attacks. Frankly, I'm not looking forward to 1917, still less 1918. Cheers, Si

Hi Pol, I'm very impressed. You've clearly taken on many of the comments passed here over the last year or so. I'll beg you for more German/French/Briddish two seaters in the hope that this will be fulfilled, but even if it's not, I think I've seen enough to persuade me that you've spent the last few months very productively. I very much hope that this taster is the least that you can release at this stage - I'm more than aware that you have commercial competitors who'll probably be sniffing around for hints - and therefore if we see nothing else until P4 is released, I'll completely understand. BTW - is that a Snipe flying over those tents? UKW? what do you think?

Brill - I'll be downloading later. As for front lines; the obvious solution to me is to print the map out and then using several different sheets of transparent/plastic sheet, draw the front lines on freehand, and simply overlay onto the map. Voila - accurate lines on an accurate map. Simples.

Olham, Nice one. Come on then - where can we download these super new amalgams? Cheers, Si

Lou, As ever, you're absolutely bob on with that comment - however, (at the moment (added as caveat!)) I have a lovely partner, a nice place to live, a decent job, a cracking car and all my own teeth. It doesn't get much better that than. Oh, and I have a BE2 pilot with 60+ hours on the clock and an unquenchable sense that he'll see the end of the war... I'm beginning to sense a problem here.

""need" is a relative term, (good old Maslow)" According to my memory of Maslow's Hierarchy (good ol' Psychology degree and PGCE), OFF does fit in rather well - self-actualisation and all that.

We don't need any more scouts, and whilst heavy bombers are entertaining eye-candy, we don't really need those either. What we actually need is a French two seater and one of the Albatros two seaters.

Indeed - echo the above: many happy returns, Shred. Hope it's a good day. Cheers, Si

" so if you want to be truely realistic try flying with paper maps" Google maps is also your friend.

"Still know very little about WW1, but I have ordered "Lions of July" now, which you recommended" Wotcha Olham, I think that you should also invest in a copy of Hew Strachan's superb history - http://www.amazon.co...howViewpoints=1 - (hope this copies OK!). Strachan is probably the best British historian now alive, and he's not a revisionist; far from it, he is an absolutely peerless historian whose prose, as far as I'm concerned, is little short of brilliant. It's something like Tom Holland, but without any guesswork whatsoever. Buy his book, and I guarantee that you will not regret it, even if you have to read it in English, rather than translation.

Thanks for that Hasse Wind, It's a subject that I think I'll be pursuing somewhat more actively in due course, but your essential narrative is clear: the larger the industrial base to a society, the more likely it will survive a war, assuming its industrial areas aren't overrun. There's also a hanging thread about aircraft design, but I think I'll hang onto that one for another day! Cheers, Si

I have to agree - the Halb is a much misunderstood scout. It seems to me that in the rush towards twin machine guns (accepted and understood), that the Halberstadt was overlooked. It's certainly more robust than the DIII Albatros, and arguably tougher than the DII. It's as good a gun platform as the Pup or Sopwith Triplane - what's not to like? The little time I've spent in Halbs has been enjoyable, as you have a scout that can shoot down anything sent your way, without question. In a way, it's a pity that the Albatros D series was put into service - I do wonder what would have happened if Halberstadt, Roland, Siemens, Fokker, Pfalz and other German manufacturers had had to come up with better designs than they eventually did. It's an interesting historical note. Why is it that Germany - which manifestly had the upper hand in April 1917 - lost it so terminally? It seems clear from the reading that I've undertaken that the German air force never again - even during Operation Michael in 1918 - achieved air superiority (as we'd call it nowadays) for any length of time. The shocking accounts of early 1918, when RFC/RAF casualties were enormous, highlight that there seems to have been no such experience in the German air service. That is something of an eye opener. Surely the German high command must have known by then the usefulness of ground attack aircraft? Clearly something went very wrong, and it led to entente supremacy in the air.

"we don't take such stupid things like burning flags or bibles as serious insults, but regard them as what they are: helpless stupid acts" It takes a man whose first language isn't English to spell out in plain English what is obvious and clear. Bravo, Herr Mahlo. You see further than most. If you consider the burning of a holy book or your country's flag to be an attack on you personally, then it is well due time to consider your priorities in life.