33LIMA

FE is sufficient, inasmuch as most or all mods will work with it, including the new theatres - Italy, North Sea, Eastern Front and now Palestine. However, FE2 is in most respects better. Improvements include better performance on newer PCs, persistent plane wrecks and greater default view distances. I have both but play nearly always in FE2. Palestine and Western Front, with First Eagles: Italian theate and North Sea, with First Eagles 2: Unfortunately there is no 'mega mod'; there's campaligns and theatres a-plenty, notably Ojcar's month-by-month Western Front one, but you have to download the campaign, planes and other components separately. Two-seaters feature in Ojcar's campaign, the Italian campaitgn and some others, just select a squadron flying the mount of your choice. As in the stock sim, you can't man the observer seats though. Not sure in which if any campaigns the Br. XIV is flyable. EDIT - yes the Breguet 14 features in Ojcar's Armchair Aces - Verdun campaign. I believe it's the A Team's model.

The new Steel Tank Add-on (STA) mod is based on the previous NTA mod, which at time of posting is no longer available. The new mod is available here. So far, three mission packs and compatible versions of the main terrain mods are available. More content is reported under development.

Strange...doesn't happen to me if I follow the drill...are you clicking on the correct d/l link when you get there? As seems common in such file-hosting sites, the page is festooned with several links - this is the right one... ...you then get a choice of two options, click the free one and after a 20-second wait the download begins (if not registered on 4Shared, after offering you some further options IIRC). It's all working painlessly for me now, no bad stuff picked up or detected.

Try this, worked for me just now (had the same problem): Open the file Phonix_DATA.INI and edit as follows: [Pilot] SystemType=PILOT_COCKPIT PilotModelName=narrowpltA.LOD ----- change this from narrowplt.LOD to narrowpltA.lod, as shown. PilotHeadNodeName=Head Position=0.0,0.05,-0.01 MinExtentPosition=-0.27,0.2,-0.2 MaxExtentPosition= 0.27,-0.2,0.7 Clue was, I had files in my Objects/Pilots folder for narrowpltA, but nothing for narrowplt. Works fine, now:

I think you need to be registered on the STA forum, to access the download links there (otherwise you just get those popup ads). Register, then log in to the forum. Then the download links work first time, every time. Sorry, just realised this myself. After that, the download procedure is the same at it was, with the previous, NTA mod.

I believe the Albatros DIII (OAW) is a stock aircraft (which if that's so, means it should be listed in the drop-down list of flyables in the 'single mission' option). It's distinguished from the sim's DIII, as you would expect, mainly by the rounded rudder and offset radiator. The real Austrian Albatrosses are the Oef versions, which you can find here, if you haven't already.

Campaigning in the Balkans - in a tanksim with a storyline! For my first tanksim campaign to get its own set of mission reports, as a ground-based counterpoint to the concurrent IL-2 campaign reports, I thought I'd start with something slightly different - one of the few tanksims that will let you fight in Cold War era Soviet tanks. It's none other than IDDK's 2005 release, Iron Warrior - T72 Tank Command, also sold as T72 - Balkans on Fire. I've had this for a while but never really got to grips with it. Now I've made a start and I'm glad I did. You won't get big all-arms battles between NATO and the Warsaw Pact on the North German Plain. But what you do get is an impressive simulator of the T34, T55 and T72 with an unusual and engaging backstory, which reminded me of Operation Flashpoint - Cold War Crisis - or perhaps more appropriately, the Red Hammer expansion. For Iron Warriors casts you in the role of a former Soviet Army tanker and Afghanistan veteran who's volunteered to fight with the Serbs in the Yugoslavian Civil War of the 1990s. You'll fight vicious little battles in rolling countryside, with both sides making the best of whatever kit they can get hold off. As well as playing the Russian volunteer's campaign, there are some training missions; plus you can play some of the campaign missions singly, from the other side. Furthermore, there's a good selection of user-made single missions still available online, here. At the time of writing, the sim itself is still available; for example from Steam, and at a very good price. Iron Warriors is highly configurable and my DVD-cased version came with a small but decent manual. Like any good tanksim, it takes practice to pick up on all the controls and become reasonably proficient at fighting your tank. In many respects the sim is reminiscent of Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942 (I believe some of the dev team moved on to work on the latter sim) with a map interface which allows you an element of control over any units attached to yours and the ability to cycle through and inspect the units after a battle. The first mission In keeping with the Russian volunteer backstory, when you kick off the campaign, you are presented with your diary, in a military-style notebook. This is nicely crafted and it certainly helped me get 'in character' for the campaign. Turning the pages, my sim persona has added a little more detail, reminding me who I am, where I am and what I'm doing here. And now we also have the basis for the first mission - basically, my crew and I must get some war booty - in the form of an abandoned but functional T34 tank - back to our local base. Starting the mission itself, here's the actual briefing and map. Information is a little sketcky, notably on the strengths, dispositions and equipment of both sides, but the job is clear enough. Looking at the map (which you can expand) it's good that the contours show the lie of the land, as well as the location of an enemy oupost or ambush, apparently covering the road that would take me back to base. I quickly decide that I will not follow the road. Instead, I will attempt to by-pass the enemy, to my right. I can see from the countours and spot heights that if I keep far enough right I will be in dead ground, with the enemy the other side of a hill. If the Croats are mobile and have someone watching their backs I might still have to fight my way through. But as in that old Scots saying, no wise man rushes to a market where there's nothing to be bought but blows. My orders are to get my trusty old tank to our base, not go looking for trouble when I can avoid it. Plan made - time to get busy! ...to be continued!

Thanks Snachito! I'm sort of dreading the next Iron Warriors mission 'cos I just know they're going to stick me back in that T-34 I delivered...and that next time, there'll likely be no going the long way around and avoiding getting shot at! Good mind to report sick, by the time the T-55s arrive, I'll be feeling much better

Glad you got sorted!

And I nearly forgot - I think there's a DivX codec you need to install, during the installation process - the game won't run without it.

PS another long shot but worth trying - if you have a recent version of Windows maybe the sim needs components of an earlier version of DirectX? I have this installed already as I play some older sims but it may be worth installing DirectX9: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=34429 Apparently, multiple versions of DirectX can co-exist happilly, you don't lose anything by installing an older version.

I'm no expert but this does sound like some kind of video problem. May not help but here are my settings in the Video section of the IW config program (the one you run separately from the game, and which can configure may options more than are available, in game. If these work for me, maybe they will work for you...failing that, maybe try uninstalling, deleting any leftover folders manually, then re-installing.

Never had that problem. I have Vista 64 and avoided installing the sim in Program files or Program files (x86) as is often recommended for pre-Vista sims. Maybe that helped. I recall that the same team's later sim, Steel Fury, could sometimes fail on loading, with a blacked-out screen for example, if there was something the sim didn't like, selected under 'Video options'; so maybe some trial and error there, would help. Good luck!