33LIMA

'C' stands for Combatflugzeugmitderguymitdasmaschinengewehrsitzeninderbak I forgot what 'B' stands for so don't ask :)

Down...but not out! Having shot away the SPAD's interplane struts on one side - and some of his bracing wires on the other - I pulled aside and waited for his wings to fall off. No sense in using up what little ammo I had left, eh? Down below, the German flak gunners didn't seem to share my confidence in the SPAD's imminent and inevitable demise. They seemed to have briefly paused in their shooting while I had made my own attack. But as the SPAD, slowly losing height but still flying, edged back towards the French lines, the flak resumed firing at him. The gunners were right. The SPAD just kept on flying, impossibly but surely. Cursing the vagaries of the impressive but sometimes wayward RoF damage model, I closed in from the SPAD's left rear, trying to keep clear of the flak bursting in his wake, and opened fire again. By this time, what with previous stoppages, only one of my Spandaus still had some ammunition left. Gun firing all right, gun stops. Carry out the Immediate Action - cock the weapon and carry on. Gun still not firing...out of rounds! At that point, something extraordinary happened. An AA round burst right in front of the Frenchman. The SPAD seemed to flip upright, vertically, with his wings suddenly at right angles to the airflow. The violence of this move ought to have torn his wings clean off, damaged or not. But it did not. Instead, the SPAD nosed over onto one side and then fell away, as I watched, rather dumb-struck by these odd proceedings. The German flak seemed to be equally bemused and stopped firing. The bullet-, shell-, and aerodynamics-proof Frenchman leveled out and continued to edge diagonally across towards his front lines. I went down after him and closed in, indulging in a spot of formation-flying with my erstwhile foe. I seriously contemplated edging right over, slipping my wingtip under his, and trying to flip him over into a fatal dive, as Spitfires are known to have done with V-1s in 1944. But I thought better of it; I was not going to risk my virtual skin thus. The SPAD kept on keeping on, descending very slowly. I let him drift off to my right, and finally saw him make a respectable forced landing close to the foremost enemy trenches, seemingly untroubled by nearby shell-bursts from German field artillery, who had evidently decided not to waste their own rounds on this indestructible enemy aeroplane. At that point, I called it quits and headed home. To be honest, in the excitement I had forgotten about my flight-mates; I could have tried to order them to attack that last SPAD but instead, settled for leading them home alive. This was some consolation for the SPAD's refusal to do the decent thing and fall to pieces. Best of all, when I ended the mission in RoF and switched back to PWCG, I discovered Weber's kill, which made it two-nil for the mission; three if you count the force-landed SPAD. The debrief screen is below. I believe I could have zoomed it in to get a clearer view, but you can still see how it shows my track, RB3d-style, in blue dots, and top left lists the highlights of the mission...crediting the third SPAD to the AA gunners in fact! I suppose this was fair enough; they showed me where he was and enabled me to set him up, for them to knock him down, in the end. This superior mission debrief is another of the great features of PWCG. Anyway, the main thing is, I now see respectable levels of flak, with PWCG-generated campaign missions. I will try increasing air and ground object densities, to see if it can be increased further, without overstraining my modest system. More AA fire (and brighter, slightly more persistent flashes from each burst and more visible smoke 'puffs') would be nice, although I gather than there are some limits in RoF which bite here, and that PWCG flak is thus limited to parts of the Lines and some potential rear-area targets, and may thus never be quite as common (and useful a target indicator) as it is in FE2 or OFF. Still, it's a major improvement - to realism, as well as playability - and I'm much looking forward to further outings with PWCG, whose continued improvement seems remorseless! Great stuff - PWCG is highly recommended (as is RoF and its magnificent Fokker triplane)!

Let battle begin! Reaching the northern limit of our assigned patrol route over the enemy trenchlines - and ignoring both the inaccurate flak and the SPADs the view system had revealed were lurking under our tails - I swung us around and back to the south. The SPADs followed, gradually gaining height and creeping closer. At this point, looking around as I completed my turn, I legitimately spotted one of the SPADs, swinging around below and behind us, now just a couple of hundred feet below. I banked around and spiraled down onto the enemy scouts, giving my flight the signal to attack, as I did so. The battle was on! My sudden appearance amongst them seemed to startle the French fliers and I was soon making good shooting at one of them. The other SPADs fought back, making plenty of use of the vertical. Their speed made them hard to catch. I refused to dive down after them but watched and waited for one to reappear at my level, before attacking. They kept up their speed and I was reduced to some long-range snap-shooting, firing carefully-aimed short bursts in an effort to force them to turn without wasting my ammunition. At this delicate point in the combat, my view system went haywire. I was mouse-looking around and tried to padlock a target. Instead, it was as if my virtual pilot had collapsed in a heap with his head down towards the front right of the cockpit. This, perhaps, is not the viewpoint most conducive to effective dogfighting, I thought to myself. Unable to move my cockpit viewpoint, I switched to the external view and disengaged, flying east towards friendly territory while I continued to struggle to restore my ability to see more than the breech ends of my machine guns, my pocket watch and a nice patch of blue sky. Looking up, I could see my three flight mates. Like me, they seemed to have the sense not to fritter away their height advantage. Evidently, the remaining SPADs had disengaged too, at least for the time being. I did not know at the time that one of my flight - Weber - had also destroyed a SPAD, and that the other had dived down and out of the fight. I'm not sure how I managed it, but as I came level with the German reserve trenches, I managed to clear my stuck cockpit view. And this was the point when, at long last, AA fire stepped in, to provide a clear indication of the presence of other aircraft. There, below me, was a trail of black flak bursts. And at its head, was another aircraft - a SPAD! I rolled over and went for him like the proverbial bat out of Hell. He seemed slow in seeing me coming and I got into position behind him, snapping out steady bursts as the range wound down. I knew I was low on ammo but my fire soon took effect. ...to be continued!

Waiting for Godot Archie... As we gained height on our leg to the south, running parallel to the Lines, I could see that my flight-mates were lagging a little. So I throttled back to enable them to catch up. Thereafter, they maintained formation quite well, despite some porpoising on my part - nearly as good the AI does in FE2 and much better than in OFF (don't know if WOFF improves this) where your flight slides well outside, even in gentle course changes. Also in RoF, your wingman command set lets you vary formation, though I'm not sure if this was so practicable in real life. I stuck with the default 'echelon right'. Despite the tiring tail-heaviness, the experience of flying in RoF is IMHO much the best in any current WW1 sim; not to be missed. The visuals are just great. Here's the DrI's cockpit, which is complemented by dynamic shadows (FE/FE2 has these but not OFF/WOFF) and the superb sounds: I also love the RoF terrain and environmental effects. Even on my lowly graphics card, they look fantastic. OFF/WOFF's more varied trenchlines (also those of IL-2 DBW 1916) are better and RoF's overall effect is perhaps a tad bland or impressionistic but I find it extremely convincing and effective. Some of the scenery 'items' like towns look a bit like models placed in a wargame landscape rather than a model diorama but I still think RoF's the best, though I have yet to fly over WOFF's impressive new landscapes. By now, as we neared the Lines, I had my eyes peeled for signs of air activity...especially for any flak. I switched to the external view and had a good look around. Cheating? Not to my mind, not at all; just some compensation for the limitations of 'MonitorVision', in effect flying with your head inside a box with a rectangular flap cut in the front. That's not realistic either, no matter which method you use to 'move the box around'. Anyhow, of flak or enemies, nothing did I see...not yet anyway. Early days, still. As this mission was something of a try-out for flak activity levels, I decided to use the excellent RoF view system to really cheat and see what else what was in the air, even though I was not going to react to anything thus revealed, until I spotted it 'legitimately' (I fly RoF with no other aircraft icons on the in-flight map screen). And this is what I saw: There were three French SPAD XIIIs in the air. The two behind looked in the pic above like they were recovering from a near-miss while attempting to keep formation (which I have seen happen before, in OFF and FE2 as well as in RoF). Looking around to orient myself, I realised the SPADs were behind and below us. In fact the b***ers appeared to be stalking us, as we turned and flew north, approximately along the line of the enemy trenches. At that point, Archie put in an appearance! I'm fairly sure he was firing at us, not the Frenchmen. I heard the rounds before I saw them, for they were bursting consistently well below us, and did not do a very good job of correcting their aim. AA bursts are not as visible in RoF as I'd like them to be. You can see them clearly in the 'SPAD's eye view' below (my flight is the top line of specks) but in the view looking down and behind from my own machine, the bursts are lost against the terrain, and even the flash of their bursting is not much better. But at least, the AA gunners were now in business and earning their crust. ...to be continued!

Archie arrives at the front (the RFC knew AA fire as 'Archie' after one of its pioneer fliers, unimpressed by the accuracy of early German AA fire, famously began singing the ribald music hall ballad 'Archibald, certainly not!' as the rounds burst) I generated my second Jasta 11 mission and found the date had advanced to 3rd April 1918 and our unit had been re-located to Cappy. I have 'moving front' disabled in PWCG so the front lines are where they appear in-game, which I think (correct me if I'm wrong) is fixed in RoF and thus does not reflect the gains made in the German spring offensive. Anyhow, our airfield was conveniently close to the trenchlines and we were assigned a patrol mission, which I accepted, again having ensured that I led the flight and that we were four in number. Here's the PWCG briefing screen: You can see the large town of Amiens on the left centre of the map and Cambrai, top right. The red and yellow dots appeared after I had accepted the mission, if I recall right; likewise the linked dots of green-brown and light blue. The latter may signify each side's active front - very useful if they track the 'moving front' and you've selected it - but I have no idea what the reds and yellows indicate - if it's ground units, they are rather strangely mixed up with each other's front lines. Though not visible here, the briefing text also provided me some 'int' (or 'intel' as the US call it) on friendly and enemy forces - the former comprising Jastas 5, 17 and 37 in Albatrosses and Flieger Abteilung 16 flying DFWs. The enemy units listed were the RAF's 23 and 45 Squadrons with their correct historical mounts of Dolphins and Camels respectively. 'Twenty-three' was one of two RFC squadrons which flew SPADs (No. 19 the other) and as they were therefore familiar with the Hispano-Suiza engine, they were a natural choice for re-equipment with the similarly-engined Dolphin. Of course, the RAF was formed from the RFC and RNAS on 1 April so these were both now flying with the new service, in real life. Also operating with the enemy in this area were reported to be two French units: SPA 20 and SPA 34, both listed as flying RE8s. This is one of those PWCG stand-in planes, usually for the Dorand AR two-seater I believe. I don't know what these two escadrilles were actually flying at this point in the war; their title suggests the 2-seater SPAD XI. But I do think that the Breguet 14 or now, the new Sopwith Strutter, would be better substitutes, even though the latter - which served in greater numbers with the French than the RFC - was being phased out of front-line service at the time of this mission. Here we are, on the flight-line at Cappy; I'm nearest the camera with the blue flight-leader streamers. We are all allocated default Jasta 11 'skins' with red noses and trim, but still with the 'Maltese' cross which was replaced by the rectangular 'Greek' cross in March. I could have chosen a different skin for my plane but I had few installed for Jasta 11. Cappy is rendered as a less well-equipped aerodrome than our previous base, with just tented hangarage. We did have a fine water tower though. From the frequency with which these towers appear at RoF airfields away from towns, I suspect some virtual building contractors have signed some lucrative contracts with the air services! Perhaps they are the same contractors who have ensured that many a French village in First Eagles has a similar water tower! The RoF DrI is a magnificent bird, beautifully rendered in every detail. She sounds as good as she looks, both as regards her engine and the roar of the wind in flight. The only thing I don't like is that - in common with most RoF planes I've flown - she seems very tail heavy and needs continual forward pressure on the stick to keep her nose down, even if throttled back somewhat. This is tiring and because the middle wing obstructs the view of the horizon, I find I'm porpoising a lot and generally wandering off track. Flying in the external view is easier in that respect, because of the better view of your aircraft in relation to its surroundings. A pity because flying 'in-cockpit' is one of the treasures of the RoF experience and as a non-head tracker user; I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with using the mouse to look around (I was a confirmed hatswitch user). I'd have preferred my virtual riggers in RoF to have done more to ensure my machine flew level at or close to full throttle, without having continually to maintain forward stick pressure. I checked the controls, started my engine, and after waiting for the others to start up, roared off. The little Fokker bucks and sways a bit alarmingly on the take-off run but I've found that if I resist the temptation to make corrections to anything but an extreme swing, she will reliably fly herself off without incident. Up, up and away we went, leaving Cappy behind us. Manfred von Richthofen described the DrI as able to 'climb like a monkey and turn like the Devil' and the RoF version certainly gained altitude quite readily. As we climbed higher, flying past a second landing ground close by, I could see the 'shelled area' clearly, quite a short distance to our right. The war was not very far away, now. ...to be continued!

No ground objects, no flak... Or to be more precise, 'low' ground objects, no flak...or near as makes little difference. That was the lesson I learned from a first crack at a mission, followed by a rapid response from Pat to my subsequent query in the RoF PWCG sub-forum. But I'll describe some highlights from the mission anyway, flak-less though it was. Problem was, I kicked off without changing any settings. Flak levels are linked to ground object density and I found I needed to increase this from the default 'low' to 'medium' to get any flak (that I saw, anyway). There might have been more if I hadn't left the air object density at 'low', too, but having only a 512Mb 8800GT I didn't want to stretch things too far on the first outing. Anyhow, I wanted to fly from April 1918 and in PWCG, I created a German campaign and a pilot with Prussian nationality, starting 1 April, during the great German spring offensive of the war's last year. I checked the drop-down list of available units. If I recall right, two flew the Fokker triplane I had in mind - Jasta 2 (known as Jasta Boelcke by that date, after its illustrious founding leader) and Jasta 11; I chose the latter, Manfred von Richthofen's first command. We were based at Mesnil-Bruntel. I then opted to generate my first mission, but scrubbed the balloon-busting job I was allocated. A second try brought me the patrol I wanted, up to then along the trenchlines. I had chosen the rank of Oberleutnant for my pilot and as intended, this gave enough rank to be made flight leader. I used the PWCG 'pilot selection' option to make up the number flying to four. The squadron roster lists ace Ernst Udet...and the Red Baron himself, although at that date, shortly before he was shot down, he was commanding Jagdgeschwader 1 rather than Jasta 11, with which staffel I expect he might have flown anyway. Well the subsequent mission was flak-less. Using Ctrl+F2 I was able to check on enemies in the air. These included two lone RE8 two-seaters nosing about behind German lines, one of which flew along the enemy reserve trenches for a while, drawing no flak at all, despite being good targets. See for yourself, if you don't believe me. The RE8s were both a bit higher than this initially, certainly not too low for flak, let alone MGs. Likewise the flight of Camels that later flew more-or-less head-on into us, over the Lines further north, did so without their presence being heralded in any way by German flak bursts. I got one of the Camels in the subsequent air fight despite hitting some pronounced adverse yaw in left-hand turns that wanted to force me around and out of the turn. Then this happened. I think it was structural failure from over-stressing the airframe; if not, then maybe the wheels of a second Camel I was fighting did the damage. I actually managed to make a forced landing in friendly territory. Again, see for yourself, if you doubt me. What happened next was anything but friendly. The Camel I'd been fighting came down and repeatedly strafed me. So much for chivalry between fellow airmen! I had managed to land some hits on him and he was obviously not one bit pleased. It was quite scary, on the ground. I've never actually been shot at but I have heard high-velocity rounds going close overhead and striking nearby on the range (including a 'Figure 11' target I was holding up above the 'butts' for the firers, just above my head). Those were the days when 'gallery' ranges were not electrified and the RoF effects were most realistic, in comparison. Both the sound effects, and the visuals, of big spurts of dirt and the odd clod of earth flying - 'Just like the real thing', as Airfix used to say. Sufficiently so, that I got quite cross with this vindictive virtual Englishman. As you might well guess, I was not at all displeased to see a black-tailed Albatros mosey over, slip in behind the Camel on his third pass and start shooting. My comrade's aim wasn't very good, but it was good enough, in the end. Anyway, I had survived my first mission, flak-less though it was. Armed with the knowledge that I needed to increase ground object density in PWCG to remedy this, I lost no time in taking to the air again. ...to be continued!

That quote...let me think....Full Canvas Jacket? :) Thanks for the feedback!

I'm interested in the answer to this too, tho I also place high value in the (to my eyes, best in breed) new cockpit, plane and terrain textures (the latter in particular are approaching photorealistic; amazing work) plus the better inflight map, the better integration between Manager and campaign, the extra flyables, the 'dot mode' visibility option which should reduce reliance on on-screen aids, mission improvements etc. On the AI front, the particular points that interest me most are: - do they AI fly formation any better? Specifically: - do they fly somewhat tighter formations? - do they no longer slide well wide, when the player leader makes a turn? - do they often fall below and behind a player flight leader, on the climb? - re two seaters and the former CFS3-style 'bomber tactics', do they now do more than maintain (rather wide!) formation and shoot back? Is their repetoire more varied? - how well do the new wingman commands work eg the 'split' command to avoid the AI following down a damaged player leader; and can you still order a general flight attack by hitting the A key a couple of times, as opposed to having to turn on the TAC, select a target before hitting 'A'?; - does the AI still 'rolleroaster' a lot, at low level? Pre-release videos seem to show a really major improvement in AI low-level behaviour, keen to know if this is sustained; - to what extent does the AI still tend to 'follow you home', even to the extent of German scouts flying a longish way into enemy territory? This is a frequent problem in sims and I have the impression OFF's new AI's more selective, situational thinking will reduce this 'target fixation', even if we players may take a while to get used to seeing flightsim AI that does not always robotically obey Lanoe Hawker's 'attack EVERYTHING' dictum.

Value is in the eye of the beholder; each to his own. People are gladly paying $95 for access to the alpha version of IL2-BoS (10 flyable planes ultimately, if not at the outset) and consider that well spent. If you have to pay VAT on the $60 and are used to waiting and buying your sims after the release price has been reduced, and you need to upgrade your hardware to run it...if...if...if...WOFF may seem expensive...but an insult? As to whether it's good value, I don't think Steel Beasts (no harm in naming it) is an appropriate comparator as it's something of a special case. First Eagles and RoF are more appropriate comparators...and indeed OFF if you're considering 'upgrading' to WOFF. FE2 is very good value especially if you consider the many freeware planes and stuff; RoF the best value possible (or rather lowest cost, not the same thing) if you stick with the two free flyables, otherwise the costs come at your choice and rate. As for WOFF, the basic graphics engine has some limitations compared to some other sims, but out-of-the-box, you get fifty-plus flyable planes fully integrated into a great SP campaign system, exquisite new cockpit, aircraft and terrain textures, a shed-load of historical content, many improvements (and some brand-new features) compared to OFF, great music, and great support from the developers. Comparing the three current commercially-available WW1 offerings as packages, content for content, experience delivered for experience delivered, to my mind, WOFF certainly looks competitively-priced.

A footnote in history... I forgot that I had intended to end this piece with a second RFC 'jingle' about ('jibe at' might be a better term) the much-maligned BE2c. So here goes. You can find these in several books that I've read over the years, but Arthur Gould Lee's 'No Parachute' is (like his follow-on book 'Open Cockpit') not just one of the best WW1 airwar memoirs ever written, but a good source for the words of little songs like this (sung to the tune of 'And They Called It Dixie Land'): Oh! they found a bit of iron what Some bloke had thrown away, And the RAF said 'This is just the thing We've sought for many a day'. Then they built a weird machine, Strangest engine ever seen, But they'd quite forgotten that the thing was rotten, And they shoved it in a flying machine. Then they ordered simply thousands more, And sent them out to fight. When the blokes who had to fly them swore, The RAF said 'They'll be all right. The bus is as stable as can be, We thought up every bit of it ourselves, you see.' They were so darned slow they wouldn't go, And they called them RAF 2cs! Service humour - don't you love it!

Best just zap it, methinks. It seems not to be historical and Stephen1918's Fokker M7/BI fills the role (and is the one used in Gterl's new Italian campaign, whereas I think the 'BII' is not used in any campaign; none that I play anyway). So no real need to 'disarm' it. I know, I know, it's had to resist the temptation to have 'everything' but one can go too far...!

This is the one I was thinking of, the M10Z, you can see the resemblance; tho it doesn't have the inverted V struts above, like the model or the earlier Fokker, and of course the different fin and undercarriage: Ojcar is right of course, it is very unlikely these machines were ever armed with MGs, and a synchronised one never.

Google 'WW1 plane crash' and view results under 'images'. Some are minor landing accidents or crash landings but others... I recall a pic in one of the Pen & Sword 'Airfield & Airmen' series that showed a Camel that appeared to have gone in vertically, into a field with some mud on the surface. It was just shattered, with the wings completely compressed right up to the leading edges where they hit. Just two lines of compressed wood & fabric sitting on the mud, with some crushed debris where the fuselage had hit, in the middle. Equally there are shots of planes which crashed and DID burn. A burst fuel tank spreading liquid and aerosol fuel over hot engine components... At the other extreme, isn't RoF notorious for a violent impact leaving a slightly-bent lawn dart? PS there's a lot more here if you've the stomach for it: http://www.earlyaeroplanes.com/archive5.htm

"The old lie; dulce et decorum est pro patria mori." (WW1 poet Wilfred Owen, the Latin translating as 'it is a sweet and fitting thing to die for the mother country') So far, so good. We had slipped across the Lines, made a single photo-run over the objective, and were now headed back the short leg to the Lines and friendly territory. Still keeping up with me were flight-mates Ward and Carey, who were my only escort. It was common practice at that time, at least in the RFC, for machines on a recce mission to be closely escorted only by some similar machines from their own squadron, relying for greater protection on any friendly 'offensive patrols' which might have been in the area. There were other aircraft not too far away, including a pair of SE5as. However, by the time I could have used their help, these two had been drawn down into a low-level chase with a Rumpler. Now, the only other aircraft in our area were the Hun scouts which had been involved in the air fight below us. Having evidently finished off their original opponents, they were now spiralling up after us. We were possibly half-way to the Lines when the first Hun slipped in behind Carey, who was just below and behind me. The Albatros wasted no time and was soon making good shooting. Whether in a selfless attempt to draw off the enemy scouts or in sheer desperation, Carey drifted off to my right, with Huns in hot pursuit. He didn't last long. First an aileron was shot away. I hoped he'd be able to make it, nevertheless; but the Huns kept shooting and soon he was going down. Next to be attacked was Ward. He was assailed from behind by three Huns, with their leader's tracers whipping past and into him. I didn't see him go. One moment he was there, the next time I looked back he had disappeared somewhere below. Now, it was just me and the Huns. I was out of friends and rapidly running out of options. What to do, what to do? A moment's hesitation; then I pushed the stick forward and dived steeply for our side of the Lines, which I had now reached. It wasn't long before the first Hun tracers were whipping past me. Back into friendly territory but with some very unfriendly people snapping at my heels, I steered towards a nearby airfield which a quick look at the map showed lay not too far off. As I'd hoped, a British AA battery opened fire on my pursuers. After some initial hesitation, my observer started snapping out short bursts from his Lewis. At this point I also ran out of altitude and had to level off. Some of my pursuers seemed to be hanging back, but their leader was undeterred and now rapidly caught up with me. Turning to avoid him would likely see me face-to-face with the rest of the swarm so I kept on my way, hoping that either my observer or the friendly AA fire would clobber the Hun behind me before he clobbered me. It was not to be. The Albatros fired another burst, there was a bang, and my propeller spun to a stop. Down I went, hoping to make it to earth with both myself and my precious virtual photographs intact. Sportingly - or perhaps unwilling to further hazard being shot down by our Archies - the Hun stopped shooting and broke up and away. Unsportingly, my observer let him have a final burst from the Lewis, as he did so. Fortunately, this provoked no retaliation and I managed to plonk my kite down in a convenient field, somewhat the worse for wear but still in one piece. Well, that was that. We'd accomplished our mission, which was rated as a 'success' in the debriefing screen. Militarily perhaps; but it didn't feel very successful, bought as it was at the cost of two crews lost. Perhaps we'd been unlucky. We nearly got away with it, and might have done so had the air fight below us gone on a bit longer, or had a friendly patrol arrived on the scene. In not waiting for the skies to clear before heading across the Lines, I had gambled on one or both of these things happening. I'm not sure to count the result as a win or a loss but it was an expensive result. So concluded my first mission in Stephen1918's new BE2c. As an experience, it was at turns thought-provoking tactically, exciting, nerve-wracking and intense. If you don't fancy trusting your virtual life to 'Stability Jane', the new BE will make a fine target! It looks the part, my only observations being that the lower lip of the pilot's cockpit coaming could perhaps be a scale inch or two above the upper longeron and the control wire from the kingpost to the upper and then lower ailerons could be a bit further forward, instead of near the trailing edges. She's otherwise at least as good a 3d model - much better, in my view - as the OFF and WOFF BE2cs which have excessive wing overhang, lack some prominent landing and flying wires and have a very unusual set of extra bracing wires between the outer interplane struts and upper wing tips. WOFF has some new armament variations including the flexible Lewis the OFF version sadly lacked and includes an excellent 'Strange mount' for the gun. As with other FE aircraft, the dynamic shadows and good aircrew animation really help bring this new BE 2 to life. The factory-finish clear doped linen 'skin' is very good indeed, with subtle seams and stitching and the subdued RFC roundels look most realistic. As for flight models, the FE BE2 rolls left due to torque so can't be flown entirely 'hands off' and when diving her for home I found she needed quite a bit of forward stick deflection to get her nose down and keep it there. Speed and climb seem much as you'd expect. Undoubtedly, she's a delightful and much-needed addition to the FE planeset and one I'll be returning to often. The new BE is available here: http://combatace.com/files/file/14468-raf-be2c/ The 1917 part of Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' campaign - for now you have to edit two campaign data files in Wordpad to get the new BE - is available here: http://combatace.com/files/file/12810-armchair-aces-1917/

Apart from its tail, which is typical of early Pfalz types, this machine appears identical to the Fokker M10Z. Thetford and Gray's 'German Aircraft of WW1' says that 'a small number of this type was supplied to Austro-Hungarian air force, who designated it BII'. Stephen1918 makes reference to this on his download page for the single-bay version, the Fokker M10E (BI in Austro-Hungarian service): http://combatace.com/files/file/13103-fokker-m7bi/ It was not uncommon practice in Germany for planes to be licence-built by other companies who sometimes fitted different components, including tail surfaces.

Looking really great! Shame on you, for dropping bombs on it...tho the cratered version is most effective!

Theirs not to reason why, theirs but to do or die... At this point, just as I was about to wheel left and run into Hun-land and over our recce objective, things got complicated. Specifically, AA fire broke out, in two directions. Ahead and below, some dark bursts denoted enemy fire. Of rather greater concern, the skies to my left, which had looked to be clear, were now also stained with the bursts of German Archie. I hesitated half-way through my turn towards enemy territory. The activity to my left was obviously the greater concern, and as I watched, I could see the shapes of several aircraft wheeling in a dogfight, rather below our level. Before too long, a dark streamer of smoke stabbed down earthwards and a bright orange fireball on the ground marked the end of one of the combatants. The AA fire further south was actually directed at this fellow, though all I could make out from my height was a single aircraft flying north along the trenchlines quite low, tracked by Hun Archie. As for the air combat over Hun-land, this consisted of a battle involving some DH5s and at least one other BE2, none of which seemed to be faring too well against some eager-beaver Huns in V-strutted Albatros DIIIs. If I'd had any sense, I would have drawn back into friendly territory, gained lots more height, and come back later when the neighbours were no longer at each other's throats (and liable, some of them, to make a grab for mine). But the objective seemed such a short, short distance away. The air-fight lower down might tie up the enemy scouts while I made my planned dash across, I thought. Then I thought some more....right! That's it. We're going in. Hell for leather, Devil take the hindmost and all that sort of thing. Over we went, as fast as we could...which wasn't very fast. Not in a BE. The air fight went on below us, claiming at least one further casualty whose crash I saw. Steadily, the trenchlines fell away below and behind us and the target village drifted closer...and closer...and closer. Finally, keeping her nice and level, I overflew the village. Whatever virtual photographs we were able to take in that one pass, I was not going to tempt fate by attempting any more. I swung around hard left and ran for home. My flight-mates, although now somewhat lower, gamely followed, as if their very lives depended on it...as indeed they did. ...to be continued!

Onward and upward... Having quickly arrived (courtesy of the 'next encounter' aka 'warp' key) at the last waypoint before our objective, at which point I planned to review the situation, it became evident that some reasonably hasty re-planning would be desirable. There were two reasons for this. The first issue was that I had come out of 'warp', as to be expected, at the mission's programmed height. At 3-4,000 feet, this was a tad low. So I decided to fly further south and gain some more height, before turning left, crossing the Lines, and running into my target. The second issue, you can see in the screenie below. Looking left into Hun-land, I could see Archie at work - a cluster of puffs of AA fire, roughly over the trenchlines. They looked to be darker bursts and thus German fire directed at an RFC mission. I wasn't entirely sure at that distance but in any event, the sight of this activity, which was liable to draw more aircraft to the scene of the action, confirmed me in my decision to head further south over friendly territory. As we flew on, looking three-quarters right, I saw some more AA fire, this time well over our side of the Lines, denoting the presence of a threat - Huns! I hoped they would be two-seaters, perhaps on a recce mission like our own, and not scouts. The latter were, I reasoned, less likely to favour making sight-seeing trips into our hinterland. But one never knew quite what the wily Hun might be up to. So I kept a careful eye in the direction of this AA fire, ready to run for it, if those bursts showed any sign of tracking in our direction. Fortunately, they did not. Looking left again, the AA fire in that direction seemed to have died away. But I was not yet as high as I wanted to be before turning into harm's way. So I continued to lead the flight onward and upward, fretting at my machine's slow rate of climb but gradually getting up towards my desired minimum altitude of about five thousand. Looking back, I could see that my flight-mates were now weaving about a bit, but keeping up quite well. Back over the trenches, the AA fire I first spotted had erupted again but had drifted well astern. I was not unduly worried about it or whatever it portended. As I flew on, I looked for landmarks, orienting myself by checking back and forth between in-flight map and what I could see from my aircraft. I picked out on the map two reference points from which I would judge my left turn - a roughly circular wood a short way 'inland' and level with this a larger, kidney-shaped one whose long side ran along our side of the shelled area. 'Reference point - half left, three miles - kidney-shaped wood - will be known as Kidney Wood!' I told myself (the old infantry training dies hard). Even though my objective now lay almost due west across the Lines, I decided to gain a little more height on my southward track, then turn in once I'd reached Kidney Wood. On we went. Peering left into Hunland, I could make out the enemy airfield near our objective. And I could see the target itself, a modestly-sized village near a bend in the river, some way north of a road bridge. You can likely make it out in the screenie below; it's just ahead of and slightly above my port upper wingtip. Not long now, I told myself...but the best-laid plans of mice, men and BE2cs gang aft awry, as the great Scots poet would doubtless have said, had he flown the type. Matters were about to take an unwelcome turn. ...to be continued!

Hi von Oben i've not attempted any 'scientific' analysis of aircraft visibility. But whatever the numbers are, I have always been struck by the difference between OFF and FE, manifested as the former giving me significantly less time - flying with minimal visual aids - from detecting a threat to being able to see enough about its composition, bearing, height and course, to decide on a suitable response. RoF is similarly not as satisfactory as FE, tho for some reasons that are different (eg sparser flak coverage, tho recent PWCGs are doing something about this). WOFF's IL-2-like 'dot mode' for longer range aircraft may help improve the situation here, as it was presumably intended to do. It's not just about aircraft level of detail models or rendering range. How flak is portrayed makes a big difference; maybe the biggest. In FE, flak is relatively closely grouped around the point of aim (unlike OFF); is visible at quite long range and produces nice clusters of bursts (unlike RoF); and doesn't disappear and re-start if you pan away (unlike OFF). RoF's flak coverage seems significantly more sparse than either FE or OFF so enemies that should often (IMHO) attact AA fire too often (IMHO) don't and thus escape observation. I haven't played DBW 1916 often enough to form a view of where it falls on this scale; possibly towards the 'better' end. Re RoF, when doing single player, there are some things you need to be online, to be able to do. Career beta is one of them, I believe. I'm not sure about Pat Wilson's Campaign Generator which is the main alternative and what I've been using, mostly; I think a connection is only needed to download it, not play. I log in online routinely anyway so haven't noticed. The post by Trooper117 here is right I think: http://riseofflight.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30702

Hey, I hope somebody got that Gotha's number - that looks like a war crime there! Looks great and looking forward to the new Verdun, International Military Tribunal or no...

Meanwhile, back on the Western Front...! First installments in my campaign mission report on the new BE2c are up: http://combatace.com/topic/81025-fokker-fodder-flying-the-new-be2c-in-first-eagles/ Have to finish this tomorrow...need to get some kip now...zzzzzz

The mission begins At the campaign creation screen, as usual with FE (FE2 in my case), I had the choice of flying with a range of operational squadrons from either RFC or Luftstreitkrafte. I reviewed the available RFC units and chose No. 2 Squadron. From its number, it was one of the Corps's senior units and one of a number still flying the BE2c in this campaign. I kicked off the first campaign mission. It was May 1st, 1917; and we were at Bruay aerodrome, some way north-north-west of Arras. Our mission was a reconnaisance to a marked but unspecified village a few miles behind the enemy front lines. This village was south-east of our airfield, about half as far again as Arras. I went to the squadron roster, which had a realistic number of pilots at realistic ranks. There were few NCO pilots in the RFC; most were lieutenants, some captains, with squadrons generally a major's command. FE reflects this nicely and the names don't sound like they came out of a modern 'phone directory. I decided to take two other pilots with me, and picked them from the bottom (less experienced) end of the roster, as I usually do. I studied their names for a bit; these were the men I would be leading, and whom I would try to bring alive with me, through the campaign. While this little bit of squadron-management isn't right for the flight leader role in which FE casts the player, it does produce the means by which you can fly with a flight whose members you know and for whom you feel some responsibility. Likewise flying as leader from the start means you're never kicking off as a novice player. But then, we mostly aren't novice flight simmers, are we? Besides as leader, not only do you not cast yourself at the mercy of the vargaries of an AI flight leader apt at times to hit typical AI limits, but you save yourself the chore of formation-keeping. Best of all, you get to make plans before the flight and tactical decisions, during it. For me, FE's way is best. Simple, but very effective. Before finally starting the mission, I checked out my route in the planning map. This showed the front line as having pushed east from Arras, a nice touch reflecting the small gains made in the battle of that town's name, over which conflict 'Bloody April' was fought. The assigned route had a few of the usual 'dog-legs' but was not too far short of direct. I don't recall our assigned height, but it was low, maybe three and a half thousand. I wasn't worried as I could vary this to my liking; I would likely fly at about five thousand feet, which is a realistic height for a WW1 photo-recce mission. To accomplish this I would fly across my objective at least once at about that height, perhaps twice, going out and coming back, if tactical conditions permitted. They did not, in the event. Looking at my allocated route, I was concerned about the way it crossed the Lines into Hun-land on a diagonal, some way short of the objective . This left me with quite a bit of my run-in over enemy territory, where we would be exposed to both AA fire and attack by enemy aircraft. So I dragged my 'initial point' - the WW2-era term FE uses for the last waypoint short of your target/objective - back across into friendly territory, to a point behind the British reserve trenches and somewhat north of level with my objectve, as it were. My plan was that, on reaching the 'initial point' I would review the situation and if all seemed clear, turn left and make a dash (to the extent that a BE can really dash!) across the Lines to the objective, then straight back over. This would leave me over enemy territory for the shortest possible time. Plan made; off to the flight-line. And here we are. As usual FE gives each plane distinctive markings; in this case, serial numbers on the fin, as in real life. No fancy skins are yet available for this new BE2 - just the one I got - plain doped linen - or one with brownish PC10 upper surfaces. The latter would have been more appropriate for a 1917 machine and I could perhaps have selected it pre-flight, but last time I tried it my 'loadout' screen crashed the game (some installation error on my part somewhere I'm sure; all else works fine) so I didn't bother. That's me in the middle, flying 1671. Stephen's BE is a fine bird; unlike the BE2c in OFF/WOFF, it isn't missing some prominent bracing wires and it benefits from the self-shadowing and decent aircrew animation that comes as standard with FE/FE2. RoF has this of course as well as even better visuals...but it doesn't have a BE....yet, anyway. The new FE machine has the larger fin with a rounded leading edge. These were introduced on later-production machines - from mid-1916 or thereabouts - to increase directional stability, I believe. Stability was just the thing for a 'working aeroplane' flown by hastily-trained crews and the BE appears to have deserved its alternative nickname, 'Stability Jane'. It's a bit unfair, though, as many have done, to criticise her for being unable to manouevre with fighter aircraft, designed as such. An observer in the rear with a better field of fire would have been rather a good idea, though. Off we went. speaking of observers, BEs were fitted with a wide range of mounts for the observer's Lewis Gun. Stephen's is a compromise, which gives the gunner a relatively wide arc of fire, which they could get in real life by switching the gun between mounts. To my eye, it's a sort of combination between the so-called 'goalpost' (crossbar) mount between the rear centre-section struts and a 'candlestick' mount on each side. In the model, these are joined up to give a roughly semicircular ring. However, as the plane's readme says, the aircraft comes with a restricted arc, roughly comparable to the rear mount only, but it explains how you can easily hand-edit a file to increase this. One thing I will definitely be increasing is the pilot's arc of vision to the rear - at the moment you hit a hard stop at about 60 degrees each side of straight ahead. This leaves a massive blind spot to the rear. I will increase this arc so I can look back over my own tailplane. I was soon airborne. The tail seems to come up of her own volition quite soon, but she needs time after that to allow the speed to build up. Otherwise, she unsticks in what feels like a semi-stalled condition, where you're having to keep the elevators up quite a bit to keep the nose level. Best strategy seems to be a long takeoff run followed by a very shallow climb out, to let the speed build up before you really begin a serious climb. The AI seem less restricted and often pull up quite steeply for a bit, after takeoff, not uncommon in FE. There was a pair of unidentified aircraft passing fairly low near us as we took off, but they were not attracting any AA fire, did not react to us, and were certainly 'friendlies' (you can see these two in the 'flight line' screenshot at the top of this post). Here's the cockpit and the view ahead. Although these views are probably somewhat zoomed-out, it's true that your observer doesn't block your view ahead too badly, and though he won't sit down as observers do in RoF (too much!) he's nicely animated, scanning for targets as best he can. And here's most of my route, shown in the in-flight map, which is what you see in-game and has no labels. My 'initial point' is the yellow box on the eastern side of the (grey) town - Arras possibly. My objective is just off-screen; as I planned it, not far behind the north-south brown strip that represents the 'shelled area' of No-Man's Land. As the leg up to my re-positioned 'initial point' lay well on my own side of the Lines, I used the 'next encounter' aka 'warp' key to save a bit of time. We came out at the 'initial point' itself, well positioned, as I had intended, to assess the situation before making the shortest possible run-in to enemy territory and our objective...and hopefully, back out again, with our precious photographs. ...to be continued!

Yes there's not a modern sim that can touch FE for its planeset and therefore cover the WW1 air war so well, as regards the variety of aircraft that was such a feature of the conflict. Many have contributed but Stephen - ably assisted by Ojcar, whose campaigns furthermore bring the planes to life - has made really remarkable contribution. I mean, thirty-five planes is more than many sims have in total! Marvellous!

Hi there! this sort of thing has sometimes happened to me but I'm darned if I can remember why planes sometimes don't show up and how I fixed it. The 'typical' reason I CAN think of is that they don't have the files needed for the cockpit, which means in effect that they are AI-only planes which the player can't fly. That should not be an issue with these, though. If you're sure you didn't use the FE2 version with its different install routine and instead installed into your main install folder (and not the FE2-style 'mods' folder under your username), all I can think of is: 1. installation issue - have you looked at your C:/Program Files/ThirdWire/First Eagles/Objects/Aircraft folder, to confirm that the planes in the pack all appear there, each in their own folders and complete with a Cockpit subfolder with appropriate-looking files? 2. service dates - in trying to select one for a single mission, have you picked a date during which the planes were in service, as defined in (IIRC) it's .ini or data.ini file?

Yes vonOben that's Edward's Flanders terrain. Despite tile repetition being somewhat less well-hidden than in stock FE, I like it a lot. Apart from looking lower-res at low level its main disadvantage to my eye is the unsophisticated, high-contrast, too-unvaried reproduction of the 'shelled area'. It's the default terrain for the 'Bloody April' campaign which includes many of my favourite planes as well as being set in my favourite era so I use this terrain a lot. Jan Tuma's replacement for stock seems possibly the most popular but I quite like the simpliflied but otherwise quite realistic stock terrain, which looks better low down. At the moment of course I'm lapping up Gterl's Italian terrain, which sets a new standard as well as some new challenges!