Baldric

Very very nice, Olham! Congratulations on winning that wonderful prize. Splendid contest indeed. I shall toast you and your medal this evening with a little French Brandy

I certainly haven't even had a pilot on the medals podium until just recently, with the Iron Cross being awarded to Lt. Johann Untreimeyer, but he's been lucky in the flights of French Sop.Strutters that seem never ending, although its started to get 'hairy' as now they're also sending N17 escorts. If we see escorts or suspect them, Johann and his flight dissappear like ghosts into the clouds. His flight has been shot to pieces and managed a barely flying machine home a couple of times-- by home I mean any friendly aerodrome will do. Most missions we don't even complete as we're intercepting flights of Strutters enroute to whatever locale we're attacking/patrolling, and if Johann has expended all his ammunition belts, then he and his flight just return home, usually limping home. Discretion and selectivity, and knowing when to tactically withdraw (i.e., "RUN AWAAAAY!") is simply my cunning plan. I lost probably 10 pilots up to Rolf, then three while waiting for one of them to amass enough hours to submit as a DiD (no rule, just didn't want to keep submitting names to Siggi until I had one who seemed to warrant it) which was Reiner, then when he died, I went through six more including a stab at a French pilot (SPAD VII) and a British pilot (Pup) who are now pushing up poppies in Flanders (and I've only been flying this sim since early September). I'm sure Johann will buy the farm soon enough and doubt that I'll manage to get him to 20 confirms. Absent friends

Hiya Rossmeister, welcome aboard! Jasta 1 is a good choice, and my many pilots have been flying with 'One' since 1916, and I'm currently in April of 1917. Glue your hair on because it starts getting intense soon enough! Best of luck

If I may, I'd like to indicate a differing story--- it's 'Bloody April', 1917, down the lines towards Verdun and south. My main DiD (Dead is Dead) pilot is flying Albatross DII's for Jasta 1. Currently the date is 8 April, and his Jasta is down to three functional pilots- one flight. The French Escadrilles Du Chasse are eating up my pilots wingmen, and other squadron pilots, almost as fast as replacements can be added. The French are flying Strutters, N17's and SPAD VII's in an AI gankfest. I'm not thinking the sim is pro-German as my DiD counterpart limps home, sputtering, jammed guns, or shot to pieces landing as safely as he can behind our lines, fight after fight. I've been in some of the most viscious dogfights I've ever experienced in a sim at this point in the campaign. Gawd, I really enjoy this sim!

I'm still relatively pants at dogfighting other fighters, but I've learned to be very selective about whether to engage or not and thats the hard part (for me anyway). If my flight has Advantage (numbers, height, and possibly cover-- like diving out of the sun/clouds) I may give it a go and launch an attack. My other rule is never to stay engaged in a protracted fight. This sim is awsome in that scraps tend to be aeroplane magnets and mostly never your side, so if you fear being outnumbered, hit the enemy hard fast and furiously but then get the heck out of there. Never let the enemy draw you down to the deck or your pilot is likely going to end up in a casket. When scanning for enemy machines watch for flak bursts- if you are on your side of the lines flak indicates enemies and either scout that out or avoid depending on your mission. There is an aircraft recognition chart in one of the pdfs on the disk and I highly recommend you use that if you don't know the machines, and even if you use the TAC/Labels combo to ID machines, because it might give you that split second ability to identify the enemy before the TAC/Labels go red. Note that a bogey that turns red from white may be too close, especially if they have height on you (height = dive speed= on your tail faster) and if you think/know they're fighters and you have no advantage, make a tactical withdrawal and save your pilots. Even though its an immersion breaker, the Pause Key is your friend while learning, as you can also go into various other views while paused and have a look around. Up close and personal gunnery is huge. Regardless if you have twin machine guns, or a single poxy Lewis Gun, controlling the trigger finger is important to maintain fire discipline. A decent one second burst in the right spot (engine, cockpit) seems to be a viable way of, at the very least, removing speed/control from your enemy and makes it a bit easier to take them down. A long three-second burst up close into the engine/cockpit ought to end your foe's existence. So short bursts (1-3 sec) are good for extending your ammo supply and also avoiding gun jams. Anyway, take what you will from my blathering as I'm still learning too edit-- Oh and read Dicta Boelke as his rules are golden

Stiff upper lip, m8, no letting the lower lip wobble either. There now, carry on. Salute to your fallen pilot, a knight of the air. Losing the first is tough, losing the 'best so far' is tougher--- and then losing about six others after that, before settling back down, and actually having a chap survive is really tough in the "Crap, I've lost it" sense...... thats been my experience so far. Cheers m8, keep the faith.

Quite impressive collection. I agree with Itifon though that it would be nice to know the stories behind that particular collection's (not as an ersatz MVR 'collection') individual piece. I imagine that MVR's medals, if in private hands, would likely grace Christies or Sotheby's rather than eBay, would be worth a small fortune. As I've no idea what became of MVRs awards, I can only hope they have a resting place in a museum at least where everyone has access to see them. Nice pic Lou, huge thanks for sharing as I've not seen those before in that manner.

This is an area I haven't delved into for a long time so I'm waaaay out of the loop knowledge-wise. I used to use Paint Shop Pro to make historical skins for our IL2 group, back in 2002/2003ish, and of course some personal skins for friends. Is Paint Shop no longer the skinners choice? I have never used Photo-Shop but would be interested in having a go when I have a bit of time.

Since my best German pilot died a couple of days ago I've been checking out some of the machines for the French and British. Chose an RFC squadron that had Sopwith Pups (March 1917) since I'd never sim flown one before. Nice little machine! First mission my pilot was lead for 2nd Flight on an aerodrome attack (Jasta 2's field) and the whole raid was a smashing success with my avatar sucessfully shooting down two Albatross DIIIs (watched replay as I only out one claim in, but replay showed I actually had two oh well lol). Buoyed by the sudden success, I flew the second mission for that day, this time an offensive patrol near some northern enemy airfields. Now a curious thing happened, and this time my pilot was not selected to lead the flight. No worries, as I can almost pretty much keep up with AI leads. We get over the front lines and lo and behold we get intercepted by three Jasta 18 Albatross DII's. They quickly cut me off, and I'm staying above them and climbing a bit at the same time I'm circling. I managed to pump some rounds into one Albatross, but not enough to kill, only enough to have him fly away smoking. The other two enemy pilots just keep on firing short bursts at range into my machine which finally decides its had enough lead and slams into the turf. Far away are two little specs...the other two chaps from 2nd Flight heading towards the target destination having left me to die. Its probably a good thing my RFC pilot died, otherwise there'd be a couple of chaps missing anotomical bitz, i.e., a large portion of their backside from the @sschewing I'd be giving them. Never had that happen as a Jasta pilot. Coming back to the side that doesn't abandon their wingmates.

Wow, all those screenies are sweet! Great stuff!

Thanks Lou, I needed the laugh! I was a huge fan of Breatheds "Bloom County" (have most of the 'book' versions). Awsome and thanks again!

Hi Stiffy, welcome m8 to the skies! New pilots buy the first round

Awsome pictures, Olham. The Albatross is, for me, the most enjoyable WWI warbird to spend a lot of time in- whether sim flying, or when I first got introduced to its clean lines in the ancient table top games "Fight in the Skies" (TSR, Mike Carr) or "Richtofen's War" (Avalon Hill, RCReed). For the Allies, my favs would be the Nieuport 17 and SPAD VII. Thanks for sharing these- love seeing the old photographs- very inspiring!

I've added a paragraph too (Leaf85). I will play both sims (RoF and OFF) but my time spent already with OFF has far exceeded time in RoF and I've had OFF for less time (early September as opposed to midsummer). I've also tried to advance interest in OFF on the forums we host for the Hussars and I know at least one other gamer who is interested. Not much, but I am trying

Just had a similar problem where the two claims were 'erroneous' and I couldn't tell what was wrong with them- all the correct information, spelling etc, and both were rejected out of hand. I reviewed the mission (scramble) and noted that even though I shot the upper wing off one of the attacking Fe2bs my pilot did not get video credit for the kill as I realised several of the other pilots also had this machine targeted. Sadly the one I did get video confirmation on in the replay was mine alone, but because it was attached to the 'error' claim both were torn up by the Intel Officer. Oh well, back to risking my pilots neck some more.

I'm wondering how colourfast the printed fabric is/was, and how much doping may (or may not) affect what was eventually the final result? If dope did have an affect, it could suggest minor variations in light/dark/bright/dull and easily allow for playing about with the colour pallet. Nicely found, Olham. I think I may have to get back into skinning...now to find the time :D

Olham- you are most correct of course- I was thinking with my heart not brain- that transit from a turn-fighter to a pure E-fighter might (most likely actually) cause a quick re-roll of a dead DiD pilot . I have no idea how the real pilots managed to transit like that- were they given hours in the air/'inservices' to acclimatize to a new machine, or did it just arrive one fine day and they were told "There ya go, have at it, figure it out for yourselves..." ? I had picked Nov. 1916, Esc No.3, since Guynemer's pilots made the switch from N17's to SPAD VII's around mid-November 1916- so after months of flying a turn fighter suddenly they were equipped with an E-fighter. Can someone enlighten me as to how the transition was made during the Great War (these days everyone involved goes on course, or at least thats the way it was when I was 'in')

I'll have to give the SPAD VII a go. There truly are so many possibilities in this sim, aeroplane-wise. I'm probably one of the few who admires the Spad incarnations- probably because it was one of my first model kits I ever built well (that and a FokDVII) waaaay back in the early '70's *cough* The number of guns doesn't excite me much, just whether or not the machine is a viable weapon platform, as I've never been a 'sprayer' just controlled bursts. Perhaps I'll fly a French DiD pilot starting with Nieuports and flow into Spad VIIs. I need another pilot anyway, as Reiner has nudged into the 19 hour range and I'm getting nervous lol.

Ugh, I feel for you Olham. Sounded like a long day that got even longer :( Very sorry to hear of the demise of Herr Mahlo as I was following your writings of his exploits with great interest (now looking forwards to more great stories of your other pilots!). !S! To missing friends,

Excellent video, Lou. That was an epic dance. Love the music choice as well (was that the Berlin Philharmonic ? ). If I FRAPped one of my fights there'd be title, 6 seconds of footage, then credits hehe. Brilliant m8.

Hiya Jaa! Welcome to some good times indeed.

Nicely done on the medal and the survival, Iti. That survival is huge, and well worthy of a toast and tales.

Very nice indeed!

No WWI pilot (that I'm aware of, which isn't saying much given my Mothers families closed mouth, "We shan't talk of the War(s)" policy, and my Fathers side of the family info not overly available either) but I did have a great-uncle badly gassed at some point during WWI who needed to have every post-war window of his house open even in the middle of winter until he died, and my Mums grandfather a Boer War vet (Ladysmith et al.). My grandfather flew with the RAF in WWII (seeing action in France, BoB, Malta, and Far East), and I have some of his memorabilia. It was probably a combination of the 'silence' and the era that I grew up in that actually fostered my curiousity, rather than muted it.

I've only just begun to 'leave' enemies alone-- when I first started playing earlier this month, my DiD pilots would go after everything , and naturally I'd have my 'stupid' moments and get a pilot killed/captured trying to come to the aid of a comrade, or get too low and die from ground fire. Worse for me was engaging a group of enemy fighters and completely forgetting Dicta Boelke- something I've used for years in other combat flight sims like IL2-- and losing my best pilot. I was starting to feel quite pants at this sim, but in reading some of the battle reports above, or reading about others adventures with the game, I'm doing just fine for the length of time I've been able to enjoy this sim. I guess what I'm saying is that I agree with BH about the degree of suckage being relative. :) I'm still campaigning at the end of 1916, early 1917 for Jasta 1, and my newest best pilot (not on Siggi's list) has got a bunch of missions flown- all in crappy weather, with 1 confirmed kill, 1 pending claim, almost 8 hours of survival, and hasn't lost a wingman yet (knock wood). And three flights of enemies over two missions, all 'ignored' as they had too much advantage and by the time we gained enough altitude and started searching the cloudbanks we had missed them (playing/trialling Tac off) Its just taken me a bit of time to settle in to what the sim offers campaignwise, and to leave the Stachelitis behind. Personally I wouldn't worry about 'suckage' as I haven't seen anyone here judge anyone else and they're very supportive no matter the skill level-- makes for a great comfort level which makes play even better :)