Hasse Wind

But war is nasty, and it's not our fault the engineers of the Royal Aircraft Factory decided the Quirks don't need the ability to defend themselves. It sure would be nice to actually get the Blue Max some day in OFF. My pilots always die before the 20th kill is confirmed. Though most of them never even get the 20 kills...

Unfortunately the idiots are sometimes the same people who design the software or hardware.

Two-seaters that shoot back are very unsportsmanlike. I prefer BE2c's - they know how to behave when attacked by superior German fighters flown by the Kaiser's elite. "The road to Pour le Merite is paved with good Quirks", as they say.

So it seems they don't behave extremely stupidly or don't try to do anything impossible for bombers, but they lack the skills to be really effective as fighters. Interesting, and thanks for experimenting Creaghorn.

You're flying scramble missions with the DFW? I always skip those when flying a bomber career - too dangerous, in my opinion. I remember mentioning in some thread that it would be really cool if we had cameras for reconnaissance missions in OFF. You'd be given some target to photograph, and then you'd fly there in your two-seater and try to take the required pics. There would have to be some kind of of a mechanism in place that would let the sim recognize what we're doing with the camera though, and I have no idea if that's even remotely possible in CFS3. But if it is, it would be something that's never been seen in flight sims, as far as I know. It would definitely make the recon missions more interesting than they are now.

Jim, long johns are a must in cold weather, though I've never seen those 'trap door' models except in movies and comic books. Olham, nice to meet you in Jasta 2 - let me buy you a drink when I get back from the next patrol mission. Good thing this amateur Jasta now has some real fightin' aces in its ranks, those Boelcke and Richthofen guys we have here know nothing about flying. Let's teach them some lessons! I haven't yet shot down anything with my Halb, but I'm kinda starting to like the old crate. It's no Nupe as a turn fighter, but definitely better than the Eindecker in every way. It always feels strange to fly a German scout with only one MG, though... Gute Jagd, mein Kamerad!

I've now created a new pilot in Jasta 2, 1916, flying the Halb. Now let's see what that old crate can do...

Thanks, Creaghorn. I had no idea that kind of stuff has been digitized in Germany - it wasn't that long ago you had to physically go to an archives building and order the documents you wanted to read. But this is Internet at its best. Extremely interesting reading. Unfortunately people who don't speak German won't get much out of those documents. Maybe some day we'll see a whole Geschwader flying and fighting together in OFF, exactly like MvR describes it in his notes...

Fascinating stuff about the Croix de Guerre - I didn't know that. Getting the award must have ceased to be anything special after some ace received it for the umpteenth time. And a guy like Foch must have had a ridiculous number of CdG's...

I've never tried the Halb in the campaign mode. It must feel like a great improvement after the Eindecker, if one starts a career flying the monoplanes and lives long enough to get the Halb. Fokker D.II would also be an interesting addition to OFF, as it's one of those early and not terribly succesful German biplane fighters meant to replace the Eindecker before the coming of the Albatros.

Keep us informed, Creaghorn. I'm interested to see what you discover. I have no idea how difficult it is to change the AI in CFS3, but it's already so much more improved in OFF that maybe it wouldn't be impossible to make reasonable changes to the two-seater AI for those Fees and Rolands and maybe some other two-seater types. I'd be willing to pay for improvements such as this in the form of expansion packs or something; whatever makes it possible to improve OFF also in the future.

An FPS with muskets? Now that's something that's not been seen very often!

It's not such a major issue when you have about ten times more guns than your opponents. Artillery conquers, infantry occupies. Thanks for telling about your experiences to us. Ever since I left the army, I've been fascinated by big guns and their role in military history. Too bad many wargames almost leave artillery completely out of the equation, or simulate its effects indirectly with some additional combat value to infantry and tank units.

I've never seen this one, absolutely hilarious! Those guys were the masters of British humour, no doubt about it.

I'm sure they weren't, there being a war and all that. All my experiences are from peace time manoeuvers, so it goes without saying things were MUCH easier for us. But I really appreciated the trucks we had, though we probably suffered more than the grunts in wintertime, sitting on the back of the trucks in freezing conditions, and not having enough room to move our limbs much. But I prefer cold weather to terrible heat - I almost can't understand how people are able to live in places like Iraq! By the way, what kind of guns did your unit have? I had the pleasure of operating a Soviet 152mm howitzer, model 1955. It was an excellent weapon, reliable in the worst of conditions, and good for rapid concentration of fire. The Russians have always known how to build powerful guns!

The best part of the Eindecker must be that nice little fuel tank sitting right behind the pilot's seat. It gives you the feeling of being well-protected in case of fire.

Welcome! As far as I know, the N.28 is already under development and will be released in the future in some add-on pack.

Maybe we'll see more of these fightin' Rolands in Phase 4? The Walfisch is definitely a better plane than the Eindecker, so it's not at all surprising they were used as heavy fighters in 1916, and could easily defend themselves against the early Entente fighters.

I don't get queasy, but I fully agree with you on that terrible visibility. Landings are probably best done by sideslipping.

I think the living conditions on that field were much better than what the guys living in the trenches were used to. No matter how dangerous missions they had to fly, at least the pilots could spend their nights and free time in relative safety compared to the frontline men. Poor bloody infantry... (When I was in the army, we artillery guys almost always had it easier than the infantry - they had a lot of foot marches, while we had our trucks to move the heavy pieces.)

Great pictures and story! But I wonder if they even had such searchlights in Berlin during WW1 - there weren't that many Entente planes capable of flying there and back again, only one Handley Page (V/1500) comes to my mind which had such a long range, and it came into service too late to be used against Berlin. Edit: I'm pretty sure Denmark would pay a high price for allowing the Brits to use their territory...

That's absolutely true, and in fact the Allied bombings and later land combat in Germany as the Third Reich was conquered by advancing armies from all directions destroyed an awful amount of historically invaluable documents, and not only related to WW1. Historical records about the E.V/D.VIII are very scarce; it can be said with certainty that the E.V couldn't have seen much combat (or maybe none at all), because then there would be reports available from such encounters also from the Entente side of the frontlines. But some Jastas definitely had them for a few weeks, and I have no problem with getting to fly those Fokkers in OFF campaign, as long as we won't be meeting whole wings of E.V's/D.VIII's - that would be too much, I think.

I absolutely agree with Waldemar about the Pfalz tactic to be used against the Brisfits. I've shot down 3 of those beasts by diving hard down on them and firing like crazy - sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's never safe to fight against the Brisfits. And nothing forces you to attack them in most situations, just fly away to fight some easier guys. It's a really unfair opponent - flies and fights like a scout and yet has its own rear gunner with 2 guns.

Have you tried changing the rear gunner settings to less accurate in the workshop? I've noticed they are probably too accurate with the normal settings. Yes, it lowers the realism ratings, but who cares? I can't say I've always had my engine damaged when attacking Brisfits (often yes, but not always), but nowadays I tend to avoid those bastards altogether and go after easier opponents.

Have fun! The war will still be going on and the fighting will still be as fierce in 1918 when you return.