33LIMA

Good tip, will check out that one.

I managed to play Phase 2 in 64-bit Vista without any drama or the need to grab a missing .dll IIRC. To be honest I don't miss it, Phase 2, for all its many virtues, is effectively a feature-rich but early beta compared to OFF Phase 3 - you can see they are related but P3 is so very far ahead as to make P2 not even a good indicator as to whether you will like P3. 'Free' for P2 compared to $29.99 plus shipping for P3 may seem like good value, but it's not. Sure, postage from the US to the UK was not cheap but it's worth every penny/cent, I spent a LOT more on various CFS2 addons which I found were worth it; but even all of them together, didn't have half the content OFF has.

FWIW in my last-but-one mission (second in an SE5 56 Sqdn campaign, starting in March '17) we escorted a trio of FE2s to bomb a Hun aerodrome a good few miles 'over'. Having climbed to height (about 8,000 feet) we swept in ahead and above them in true 'Freijagd' style rather than staying close. Dunno what happened but I lost them for a bit then saw one come in much lower and bomb the 'drome, followed, much to my relief, by the other two. By that time I was keeping an eye on some aeroplanes higher and to the east. These turned out to be a couple of V-strutters, along with a group of DFWs, up at about 9,000 feet and heading west, presumably on a bombing mission, or maybe an important photo recce job. So they do happen, on both sides. Bear in mind that much of the 'tactical' bombing on the Western Front in the last 2 years or so of the war, by both sides, was done at night, under cover of darkness. What was done in daylight, was probably done more by the Allies than the Germans, due to the latter's more defensive posture, for much of the war. Based on what I've read, notably AG Lee's 'No Parachute' & 'Open Cockpit', and JTB McCudden's 'Flying Fury', the sort of Hun two-seaters I reckon we should see should mostly be (i) singly or in small numbers at medium altitude near the lines, doing artillery observation or photo-recce or (i) singly at VERY high altitude (c.20,000 feet) on longer-range photo-recce missions (the typical Rumpler mission, maybe we will see this in OFF P4 which has a Rumpler CIV IIRC). In the last year or so you would also have met CL types or J types low down near the lines on 'close support' duties. Personally I would think it fairly unrealistic to come across German 2-seaters out on daylight bombing operations, more than rarely. Likewise Gothas, Friedrichshafens or AEG types, or Gigants, which were mainly creatures of the night, apart from the former's early London raids. 'Independent Force' daylight bombing missions and intercepts would be a nice future addition, but that would require DH9s (or even a DH4, as 55 Sqdn did better with the 'obsolescent 'Fours' than the unfortunate units flying 'Nines') and maybe an SSW DIII or DIV. TBH I'm not sure the sim's been invented, or will be for some time, that isn't better flown/driven/fought from the role of a junior team leader. Unless it's rigidly pre-programmed, I doubt even very clever AI could do a particularly convincing job in that role, whether it is a flight leader, a tank troop commander, or an infantry section commander. None that I've ever seen anyway. IL2 for example tries its best but can do little more than lead you to and from waypoints and yell at you to get back into formation if you veer off, tactics are limited to going hell for leather at the nearest enemy. An AI flight leader who practices the Boelcke Dicta and who can tell you what you did wrong when/if you're back in the Mess would be great but I'm not holding my breath. Acting as a flight leader adds a whole new dimension to most sims and as has been pointed out OFF provides you the tools to do the job well enough.

Good news there Polovski - agree strongly with SRC, the best thing to do is give the standard version a flexible Lewis for the observer - in the front cockpit, of course. When further time permits, maybe clone it with the front cockpit covered in, and either a Vickers where the Lewis is now, or a Lewis on the top plane, so you have the BE12. Two for the price of one, almost, except there's all the additional work to integrate it with the campaign. But a basic BE2c that can at least shoot back, would be a really big improvement. Not that shooting is the BE-all (sic) and end all in OFF. Earlier this evening, I flew the first mission in a Walfisch campaign in dirty weather and I would have been quite miffed if anyone had dared to shoot holes in my lovely light blue Roland. Just flying to and from the Lines in OFF, and drinking in the experience of the lovely planes, the tremendous scenery and cloudscapes, and the roar of your engine almost drowning out the drum-fire you can see going on in the desolate, shell-swept landscape below, is an experience which can fill the senses all on its own; marvellous and not to be missed. Likewise, I have just landed from a balloon protection mission flying SE5as with 'Fifty-six' in beautiful sunshine; there was nary a Hun in sight but I would not have believed I could have got so much enjoyment from a sortie in a combat flightsim where not a shot was fired in anger, apart from some Archie. What can I say, but 'wow!

FacetrackNoir seems to have moved on to V1.50, all they have for d/l now is V.1.30 and a v.1.50 update. I did grab TIRViews.dll from the latest TrackIR s/w (tried an earlier version first but strangely it lacked that file). FacetrackNoir itself seems to run ok but it just doesn't work at all, in game. I gather it's freetrack you used, which needs LEDs. I'll maybe give that a go. Can you recommend an online construction tutorial for someone who knows nowt about electronics, and always found he had one hand too few when it came to using soldering irons?

Hi Src, yes I remember seeing a ref to the 'lo-vis labels' mod, thanks for the reminder, will track that down. If I'm gonna use the labels, I may as well try to make them look a bit less conspicuous. Another alternative might be a font more like IL2 uses, instead of CFS3's 'Mr Blobby' font. I think I'll stay away from the 'white blobs' mod, bad enough if I have to designate targets for the wingies every time, worse if half the time I'm ordering fratricide. Yeah Uncleal I've started flying as a Leutnant from the outset now, so I might as well enjoy the benefits of the Officers' Mess...now which way is it you have to pass the port, left or right...anybody?

My mistake chaps it's the hi-res skin that stops the damage showing, have that selected as well as sliders at 5. It's the Albatros DIII (early) that has the undercart appear at 240 yards (checked with labels on) so yes it's probably just some planes have this LOD issue. I never used the labels in CFS3 (or IL2 either) but I have started turning them on now and then in OFF as it helps me keep tabs on my wingmen with whom I already feel a good more identification in OFF, than I did in CFS3 - not least as witnesses to my claims, nice touch that, adds a bit of WW1 atmosphere, sort of thing that brings a sim to life! The 'bl**dy radar' and the labels could be argued to be a substitute for the eyes of your wingmen, after all it's not just the leader's job to keep a lookout.Provided, as I suspect is the case, the dots appear at the distance you might typically expect to see 'something' and turn red/blue at the distance you might typically expect to recognise what the 'something' is. Not a cheat, just a sort of 'situational awareness plot' (albeit it looks like a bl**dy radar ). Just put in a claim for 3 BEs, shot down in flames one after the other, the last after a long tail chase, NE of Douai, with Archie picking them out for me, much more fun that the railway attack we were detailed for. All wingmen were in the area and it was well behind our lines so I will be most displeased if I don't get some confirmations. Just as well I got them, I gave the 'A' attack command repeatedly thinking that the wingies would get stuck in but they didn't, maybe as the BEs, which were directly in front within 500 yards, weren't the 'offishul' mission target. It looks like I need to allocate specific targets via 'TAC' to get them going. Yes I had read the sticky saying you needed to order your wingies to attack but I though they would pick their own if I didn't designate specific targets; seem to remember it worked that way in CFS2 if not also CFS3. Anyway they flew right past one of the BEs without firing a shot after I'd made my attack, maybe they were caught by surprise as they were just expecting me to knock him down on the first pass, "Hey look, Theodor, the Boss missed, maybe he's not such a hot shot after all". Being flight leader is going to take a bit more practice.

Have just tried Facetracknoir (v.1.50) and the program itself seems to work on its own, with the camera tracking my face ok. But When I launch OFF,sitting in the virtual cockpit, head movements get no response. I used the FakeTrackIR option, and copied over the recommended TIRViews.dll from the latest TrackIR drivers. No joy. Then also tried the settings.ini recommended on these forums - all that did was give me a forward cockpit view that was completely upside-down, with no movement. All I was doing was starting up Facetracknoir, minimising it and leaving it running while I started OFF. I saw no ref anywhere to any setting you need to apply in OFF (or CFS3) for it to accept Facetracknoir input rather than hatswitch. Would be keen to see a dummy's guide to getting this particular proggie working on OFF, from anyone who has managed it - it's free, and there's no need for fiddling with LEDs and a soldering iron. If it can be got to work reliably, it would be a big boon for those of us too poor, too henpecked or too mean to splash out on TrackIR.

Thanks for the responses guys, only posted as I couldn't find the answers in the OFF KB, game documentation or other threads. Re LODs, I had aircraft sliders on 4, then went to 5 and the undercart seemed to appear at the same (close) range so I'm a bit baffled still - which is my normal condition anyway so no surprises there :) I did notice getting higher-res skins on 5 but may go back to 4 as I tend to fly zoomed out a bit in external view to avoid the CFS3 'fisheye lens" effect and only hop into the' pit when battle is imminent. Plus I gather you don't see damage with aircraft at 5. Will fiddle a bit. Re the BE2s, FWIW I think the best thing would be to feature the most representative service configuration rather than a rare local mod that makes the already-vulnerable BE virtually defenceless; even tho there are probably practical diffs simulating fields of fire from 2-2 different mountings covering different arcs (1xStange mount and 1-2x'candlestick' mounts) between which the observer could swap his Lewis. Anyway for now, then, I'll stick to shooting down BEs and leave flying them to braver players than I. I'll continue to compromise by playing 'death on die roll' and as I did last time, retire my pilot if I think he's had one convent bed too many. Main problem at the moment (and it's realistic, not an OFF issue) is spotting enemy aircraft; unless against the sky they can be very hard to see (and even against the sky, hard to spot if head-on). I generally use the improved OFF version of the CFS3 'radar' only for the nav lines (set to 'ships') and only turn on air or ground targets for wingman targeting or padlock (pain that CFS3 doesn't let you padlock without the bl**dy radar). Makes life harder but to me flying around dangerous skies trying to see the Bad Guys before they see you, so you can do unto others but do it first, is as much a part of WW1 air combat simulation as the actual fighting. And OFF does this rather well.

Well, I put in a bit more time in the SE5 and I'm now inclined to think that the sideslip in turns is mainly from adverse yaw, nothing more dramatic than that. I'm not sure I'd expect this much of it in an SE5 with its inline engine and fairly large fixed tail surfaces, but there it is. After a bit of practice I find that with a bit of bottom rudder and an eye on my bank angle and rate of turn, I can now fly more or less perfectly level and quite tight turns without sideslip and generally enjoy myself without messing up the scenery. Tried a simple circuit in the SE and am coming to the conclusion OFF is a rather good flight simulator, never mind the 'combat' bit. No VSI to watch but it certainly brought back recent memories of flying the Cessnas, watching my speed, altitude and heading, looking out for traffic before making turns, judging when to roll out onto the new heading and all the other good stuff. The combination of sound, scenery and the feeling of flight was all pretty convincing. BTW I managed a couple of 360 degree flat turns in the SE. The wings did wobble at times, but only a bit, I'd still consider it a flat turn. Trying to do everything with the joystick like you said is a pain in the...wrist, actually; but it was possible. Started at a heading of 360 at 2300 feet and ASI settled at 112mph at full power, and came right around in a left-hand turn with the rudder, just using aileron to keep wings level; didn't lose any altitude, either, used the Z key to keep tabs on the metrics. So not sure why some report it can't be done; if I can manage it, anyone should be able to, unless a wing dipping over maybe 5-10 degrees for a split second is taken as a 'fail', which to me is more in the realms of precision aerobatics rather than routine flying.

Update - just flew a short flight in an Albatros DIII and the behaviour seemed quite different/better - rudder promptly producing decent 'secondary' roll, no 'exaggerated' (IMHO) sidelsip in turns, and flat turns didn't have what seemed to be an excessive 'skid' either - perfect! And the DIII is another beautiful thing to behold, against the wintry landscape and glowering grey clouds of March 1917. But I would like to do some flying in SEs, the Pfalz and the Roland and wonder if their sideslipping tendencies could maybe be reined in a bit; it could hinder their effectiveness in the hands of AI pilots, too - maybe something for a modder, if not the dev team? With so many planes in the sim, it would be amazing if every single FM was as good as it might be, especially since the original CFS3 Game Studio team didn't seem do particularly well in the FM department with many less planes and an engine intended for WW2. I'm not complaining or pretending I know more than the experts, just providing some feedback.

I've just got OFF3/BH&H and compared to Phase 2, it's obviously the major improvement I'd hoped for; everything is sooo much better, from the planes and the environment to the AI and the interface. And it seems to perform better, too. I'm looking forward to starting some careers, including some in 2-seaters - even if you don't fly them, OFF P3 is way ahead of the other modern WW1 flight sims in the variety of 2-seaters in the air, and a worthy successor to RB3d (another later-war German one like the Rumpler CVII or LVG CVI would be ideal). So far, I especially appreciate the improved appearance of the many aircraft, and of the environment/terrain, along with the much better dogfighting AI, which from what I've seen so far, is another area where P3 is way better than P2. The Pup is a joy to behold, and the Roland CII is a most impressive crate and reminds me of my Airfix 'Dogfight Double" days. Also nice to be able to fly and fight against the unloved but elegant BE2c, another one of the many excellently-depicted planes. But I'm not entirely convinced on this rudder control issue. No argument, pedals are better (I just have a Cyborg twisty stick). Perhaps also, WW1 planes needed more rudder use; my only RL flight time is about 10 hours on the Cessna 150/152/172 which had about WW1 levels of HP but being modern designs, didn't need much rudder, from what I remember - takeoff, landing, balancing turns. The planes in OFF seem to need rather a lot of 'bottom rudder' in turns, otherwise the tail dips to the extent you get a significant sideslip which can quickly become fatal near the ground, if not corrected. Flying level turns is hard even if you have a plane with a turn & slip indicator, regardless of whether pedals make this easier, which I have no doubt they do. My question is, is the extent of this sideslip behaviour realistic? Maybe this is just better modelling of what I've heard is a common tendency to tail-heaviness with WW1 planes; tho in OFF P3, the noses seem to have no tendency to rise in level flight, even at full power. Anyway I'm not sure if the sheer extent of a sideslip in a turn is quite right - height loss yes but I'd have expected such a pronounced sideslip, only if I tried to overcorrect height loss by holding the nose up too much, or maybe overbanked. But the sideslip seems very pronounced, even in a gentle turn (c.20 degree bank). In that respect, it reminds me of the CFS2 WW1 addon 'Combat Aces' and I had my doubts about that, too. The other strange rudder-related thing is when I try to do a 'flat turn' with just the rudder (like Voss in his last fight, and I recall a German 2-seater pilot doing the same after an attacker believed to have been Navarre damaged his roll control) . In an OFF SE5a, when I apply rudder, I do get some roll in the same direction (this being the secondary effect of rudder, after yaw IIRC) and have to put in some opposite aileron to keep wings level; so far, so good. In the Roland CII and Pfalz DIII, however, I get no roll, the wings stay level - strange. In all three - and this is the really strange part, to me - the plane seems to keep on skidding nearly on the original course. I'd expect some sideways skid in a flat turn, but the amount seems visibly too much. The SE is not too bad, the nose does come round slowly. With the German types, the sideways component is such that the plane (judged against landmarks at low level) seems to be flying almost sideways, with the fuselage 30-45 degrees to the direction of travel, and way more sideways component. They seem to be able to fly this way indefinitely, unless I apply and maintain full rudder, which after a little while makes then stall and spin out. I'd expect the German planes with their lack of dihedral to skid more than the SE5 but it seems way too much. I'm flying auto mix on, auto rudder off, FM realistic. For comparison, on the SE5a in First Eagles with 'hard' settings, if I try a flat turn, I get a faster, more pronounced roll after putting in the rudder, and have to put in more opposite aileron than in OFF, to keep the wings level. But when I do, the plane 'crabs' around in a flat turn more like I'd have expected, with much less sideways component. Similarly in turns, in FE2 a certain amount of bottom rudder helps to balance the turn and hold off height loss, perhaps a bit more than I recall from Cessnas, but the tendency to sideslip without it - the sideways component - is a good deal less than in OFF. Any thoughts, folks? Try flat turns in a Roland or a Pfalz and see what you think. Something that might be worth looking at as an FM improvement - not so much the flat turn thing, which seems another, less important symptom, but the [EXTENT of the] tendency to sideslip in turns.

Ah, I must try that one, I thought you had some magic shield against the Betty gunners! If I was careful and stuck to short firing passes, I could get a few of them but any effort to get them all before they got to the Lexington, by being less cautious, ended in my getting my engine shot off its bearers, usually. Kates sound like they might be easier prey than those G4Ms; at least there are no 20mm rear guns to worry about in WW1.

That sounds like 'Butch' O'Hare's mission, one of my favourites too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_O%27Hare Always liked CFS2, with all its limitations still a better Pacific war sim than Pacific Fighters IMHO. Never really took to the Combat Aces WW1 addon, a nice plane selection but their textures were CFS1 standard not CFS2, and the German missions started you off in a Fokker against DH2s and N17s without a nice, easy bit of Fokker Scourge against hapless BE2s to get you into the groove. Plus the FMs were a bit turgid and the AI seemed unable to handle WW1 planes...Lawn Darts, anyone? At least you got the (invisible) mechanic talking to you as he spun the prop and wishing you 'good luck' or 'hals and beinbruch' (according to custom). Loved the CFS2 Dambusters addon, couldn't see the keyboard properly with the lights off but the roar from those four Merlins as you rolled down the Scampton runway on takeoff, was worth the price of admission on its own.

Have to agree with WM and TS. I have about all the various editions of IL2 and while it's got better, the SP campaign is still a bit dry, and as another poster on another forum said, it has lots of planes/variants I don't much care to fly in places I don't much care to go (especially little/no RAF and limited NW Europe). For me, Complex Engine Management is a bore rather than a feature. Sniper AI gunners smash my reflector sight every time (even thru armoured glass) and if they somehow miss that it's my oil tank. Scenery popup and forest tile zig-zag is particularly dstracting, and I hate the conga line, dust-cloud takeoffs etc etc. Plus I got a fanboy Attack when I posted a lukewarm review - just a lukewarm one! - on Amazon. Not bad, just not that good.

A Cross and Cockade article on Contact Patrols (of which only the 1st page is readable online to non-members) describes them as "basically this was a means to find out where your own troops were during an advance and was performed by the Corps Wings of the RFC" which is in line with any accounts I've read, of what they usually did in practice. Of course this involved recce-ing hot spots and you were presumably quite liable to find yourself finding out where the Bad Guys were too, the hard/painful way like Major Hawker, even if you didn't necessarily start out with that object in mind :) Anyhow, a realistic Contact Patrol in OFF ought I think to involve having to make a low-level flight over the objective(s) in question, at or very near your own troops' (expected) advanced positions, for the primary purpose of checking if said own troops were actually 'in possession', as opposed to 'trench strafing' and other more intrusive or unfriendly visitations. Clearly, 'contact' in this WW1 context does not mean what it does today, ie contact with the enemy only - with the side effect of requiring considerable care and not a little ingenuity on the part of anyone with a radio, to find ways of describing communicating with people, without using ''that word' and thereby getting right royally chewed off by The Powers That Be ("Hello 33 Lima this is Zero, DO NOT use that word, unless you mean it. Out!" Been there, done that) Diverging from a Contact Patrol into the offensive would have been in military terms a serious and ill-advised departure from the cardinal principle of "Selection and Maintenance of the Aim" (as it was called in my days anyway) and in my book a cause for a brickbat rather than a bouquet, assuming you made it back in a condition to make either option genuinely meaningful. If I send you out in an expensive aeroplane to find out whether the Black Watch have made it into Gouzeaucourt so our own guns don't shell them, then that's the gen I want you to bring back, come what may. And if you fail because Jerry shot you down when you decided to 'have a crack' on the way home, and so much as a single Jock gets so much as a single avoidable 'friendly' shell splinter in his ar**, then you are lucky Jerry got you before I did. Youthful exuberance and agressiveness is acceptable as a supplement to, but not as a substitute for, a basic level of sound military judgement.

I noticed the section in the 'First Dogfighters' episode on the AR Brooks SPAD-vs-DVII combat got fairly badly shot down in flames on the Aerodrome.com, as regards its general accuracy. Seems the only plane that definitely went down on fire in that engagement was one of the US pilot's squadron mates earlier in the fight, and the Huns only lost one plane with the pilot not killed. Took some serious liberties with Brook's own account, which was a lot less bullish apparently; all this stuff about magic incendiary rounds flaming Fokkers by the dozen was a tad overdone. Excellent series tho, the CGI recreations are nothing short of superb, much better than Flyboys or Red Baron, good though some of the better air combat moments were, in both those rather more dubious accounts.

Fair enough, tho accounts of Contact Patrols I've read seem generally to involve establishing contact with friendlies. in 'Bloody April' Sholto Douglas of 43 Sqdn refers to a new and different type of patrol designed to recce the enemy as '..orders that were specially devised for such an event, and which, new in conception, were known as counter-attack patrols. We were instructed to fly these patrols...low down behind the captured positions, and...concentrate on reporting immediately on the enemy preparations for counter-attacks'. It's one thing defending yourself, but if it had been up to me, a pilot who risked not bringing back vital information through going out of his way for the sake of 'having a crack at Jerry' would have been mentioned in something, tho not in Despatches :) Does anyone know if OFF can in any way 'encourage' you to fly any such missions low down, or does it make no difference if you fly them at several thousand feet, more like a photo recce mission? No CFS2-style 'interview without coffee" fwith the Old Man, I daresay, but do you get a 'mission fail' result or do your troops do less well in that sector?

AFAIK the purpose of the Contact Patrol was to establish the positions held - eg limits of advance made, during an attack - by your OWN troops, not to recce, let alone engage, the enemy. So for one thing, flying a Contact Patrol should not generally or necessarily involve DELIBERATELY crossing the lines at all (except in the sense of lines your troops had moved past). Aircraft on a Contact Patrol would sound a klaxon (horn) and friendly troops were supposed to respond by signalling their presence in various ways. All very well nipping over and attacking targets of opportunity but you should be jolly-well court-martialled for doing anything which risks you not getting the gen you were sent out for, which could make the difference between life and death for the PBI. As regards height, as low as you need to go, to do the job; anything over 1000 feet is probably too high. Not sure how an OFF mission can encourage proper tactics on a contact Patrol, unless a critical, 'pass/fail' mission objective can be set to fly in the vicinity of a certain spot/waypoint, or series thereof, at no greater than a (rather low) minimum altitude; fly too high and you really should fail the mission, nine times out of ten.

Soldiers (or airmen) always have more pressing concerns than using the correct appelations for their own kit, let alone their enemy's, whether they know them or not. In my day, my rifle's designation was plain to see, for anyone who cared to look, stamped on the receiver - 'RIFLE, 7.62mm, L1A1'. But anyone who called it that, would have been stared at, as if they'd just landed from Mars - it was 'THE' SLR, just as the Sterling was 'THE' SMG and the L7 was 'THE' GPMG (pronounced 'Gimpy'). So no surprises, then, that Allied troops in Normandv, and NW Europe generally, invariably referred to MG42s (and probably MG34s as well) as 'Spandaus', too.

Having been 'into' modern and WW2 wargaming with 1/76 and 1/300 models, I thought I would love games like Combat Mission (original) and more recently Theatre of War, but in truth, I found I don't like any of them much - they seem to be decent simulations of wargames with miniatures, and not simulations of war. Maybe I need to get more into them than I ever managed, to appreciate them... The problem I have is that they give you the role of the commander of a re-inforced platoon or company, in terms of the forces you have and/or the objectives you're given. But then, they make you act as a miniatures wargamer. Now, having had some army experience, I know the way this works in real life. You don't operate like a wargamer does, moving individual tanks or infantry sections about. You get your own orders. You do a combat appreciation (the simplified form I was taught, is 'Aim-Enemy-Ground-Plan') and make your plan. Then you give your orders to your sub-unit commanders; basically give them a formation to adopt (normally 'one up' or 'two up'), an axis of advance, and objectives (areas) to secure/end up in. Break it down into successive phases if necessary. Off they go. You intervene as and when necessary - exercising 'command and control. But not by ordering individual units about; by repeating the cycle, just faster, revising the orders to your sub-unit commanders, who mover their own 'pieces' about, not you, using their own training and initiative to good effect (you hope!). Games like CM or ToW seem to me not to provide the ability to do this, in a form I recognise or appreciate anyway. Sure you can make ad hoc groupings of individual tanks etc for the purpose of giving an order but the mechanics just seem too much like moving miniatures, or groups of miniatures, rather than role-playing the role (sic) of a platoon or company commander. Rome Total War seemed ok, inasmuch as you could group your cohorts and exercise more coherent control. Been a while since I dabbled in wargaming, but the radically-different Wargame Research Group WW2 combined arms rules released in the late 1990s IIRC, finally seemed to have got the point - that what mattered was giving orders to your sub-units who then followed SOPs/tactical drills, not moving miniatures about, or fancy multi-phase turns like the abstruse Challenger rules that seemed to be gaining in popularity. The WRG rules seemed finally to have made the sensible decision, as they put it so well, to break with the traditional fascination with armour thickness and weapon penetration, and concentrate on command and control. Way to go. Much the best sim I ever found for modern-era lower-level combat was Steel Beasts (only ever played the original). Even with its rather excellent approach to setting up your force for the mission, obviously devised by people who understood how 20th Century armies operated on the battlefield, I felt it didn't really give you the tools a real-life commander would use, once the battle had started and you needed to intervene (mainly, the ability to give simulated radio orders to your sub-unit commanders, and AI versions of the latter leaders, who would apply tactical drills to execute them). Overall tho, SB is not just a really good tank sim, it is still by far the best, certainly the most realistic, post-WW2 simulator of platoon and company-level combat, in my experience. Possibly I would have somewhat mellowed my views about the CM/ToW genre, had I persevered and maybe I'm missing it, but CM (original) and ToW in my limited experience, are good wargame simulators, but not-so-good warfare simulators. Fun maybe but not very realistic overall, regardless of weapon capability mechanics. Chess with tanks.

Oh, wow! Those are gorgeous pics! I generally use FE screenshots as my desktop background, and have now switched to the one of the Hannover formation - beautiful! FE/FE2 can hold its own with anything else out there, both for eye candy and for content/immersion.

Sounds good - I have just ordered OFF Phase 3, myself, which I plan to play alongside First Eagles 2, my current favourite. I have OFF Phase 2 but rather hate the AI - CFS3 was never a good dogfighting sim and its AI seemed unable to cope with WW1 planes, even worse than CS2's (in the Combat Aces add-on); frequent crashes on takeoff, poor formation flying, and repetitive 'roller coaster' combat manoeuvring, which I believe is much improved in Phase 3, along with the many other improvements. Looking forward to it, especially playing Bloody April-era campaigns. Have to confess a soft spot for the much-maligned BE2c; a really elegant plane, suffering mainly from an engine ok for 1914 but hopelessly underpowered by 1917. Always remember as a teenager on my first visit to London, seeing the BE that was hung from the roof in the Imperial War Museum. After me, now: "The Be2c is my bus, therefore shall I want, He maketh me to come down in green pastures, He leadeth me where I do not wish to go..."

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.

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!