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Hello gents', Any thoughts on starting up a DiD (dead is dead) series of single missions in FE2/FE? Should help to bring new life into our special sim. Rules don't have to be as strict as for the DiD campaigns running for WOFFue over on the SimHQ website, but a list of some sensible rules should help to get everyone started - and will be a good break from modding and skinning too. I'm including some preliminary rules below and will try to start up a series of (DiD) single missions soon, either on the eastern or western front (have spent two years already in the Palestine front and currently looking for a change). This may work in campaign mode too (such as for Ojcar's campaigns), but I've tried to develop the rules specifically around single, evolving missions, for variety and historical realism. If you choose to start up a DiD series of single missions, don't forget to post brief notes on your exploits and some good screenshots here on this thread - for immersion - posts can be brief or long, as per taste. RULES FOR DID STYLE SINGLE MISSIONS IN FE2 (probably works in FE/FEgold too) 1. make sure to begin with a new pilot if your current one is killed in action 2. missions must be flown from your base to the target and back again (no in-the-air or close-to-target beginnings); you may however skip/delete certain waypoints while en route if they are less important to getting to your target area 3. missions may be begun in scouts or two-seaters, whatever you prefer (no need to begin with a two-seater career) 4. if you are shot down and alive but "captured" behind enemy lines (such as sometimes happens after bailing out at low altitude), fast-forward six months for your next mission for the western front, and one full year for the eastern, Italian, and middle eastern fronts (we will assume you eventually escaped back to your side of the lines); these same rules apply if you manage to crash-land and survive on the wrong side of the lines (with wing missing, fuel leak, etc.) but have not bailed out 5. crashing into your wingmen or enemies will count as legitimate termination of your current pilot and will require that a new pilot be made 6. one out of every ten missions must be flown from start to finish in bad weather (inclement or snow, your preference depending on season, but avoid snow if flying in the middle eastern theater; I recommend the latest inclement/snow tweaks found in ver. 9.5 of my FM pack, for immersion) 7. use the following settings for "enemy air activity" in the FE2/FE menu, per theater and per period, for max. historical realism and to minimize extreme kill ratios: light - for the whole period in the middle eastern theater // for the whole period in the eastern theater // for the Italian theater to July of 1917 // for the western theater to October of 1916 // for the Italian theater from August to November of 1918 // for the western theater from August to November of 1918 moderate - for the Italian theater from August of 1917 to July of 1918 // for the western theater from November of 1916 to February of 1918 heavy - for the western theater from March to July of 1918 8. lighter "enemy air activity" than suggested per period and theater may be used, but not higher than suggested (no need to install my further congestion controls that are available in the Flight folder of ver. 9.5 of my FM updates pack unless you enjoy hard-core simming in WW1 with wide expanses of sky, with no aircraft for hours on end; I will work on those further to fine-tune them for a later FM update pack) 9. flight models should be flown at maximum realism (I strongly recommend my FMs for historical realism and consistency for a DiD series of missions but you can fly other ones too, as long as they are flown on "hard" settings) 10. no time compression 11. no autopilot (although the level flight command is acceptable for long flights) 12. make sure to have Cap'n. Vengeur's medals pack/ranking system installed since that pack gives awards more slowly and realistically 13. you may begin a DiD style single mission at any point in the war (for example, you may begin flying for the French in July of 1916, or as an American flyer in August of 1918, etc.) 14. if you are flying DiD style single missions, proceed chronologically from the date of your first single mission (for example, if your first single mission was in July of 1915, your next one should again be in July of 1915 or later, not earlier in the year) 15. fly a minimum of 2 and maximum of 5 missions per month in 1914 and 1915 (across all theaters), a minimum of 3 and maximum of 6 missions per month in 1916 (across all theaters), and a minimum of 4 and maximum of 8 missions per month in 1917 and 1918 (across all theaters) - this will produce realistic, historical attrition rates and also increasing risk of being shot down, captured, etc. (will also depend at what initial point in the war you begin your pilot's missions; for example, beginning in January of 1917 will put you in a situation where you will be flying a min. of 4 missions per month right away); if your mission is stamped with a date that is only a few days from the end of a month, start your next mission in the following month, overriding the rules set for min./max. flights per month - this will be the only exception to rule no. 15, for the sake of chronology 16. transfers from one theater to another are allowed if historically realistic and if made possible by Cap'n. Vengeur's medals pack (for example, flying for the French in 1916 but transferring in June of 1917 to fly for the French giving support to Italy, in the Italian theater, perhaps flying a Nieuport, etc.) 17. if transferring from one theater to another, skip one month of flying for realism 18. if you crash-land but survive on your side of the lines (for example, wing missing, engine shot up, fuel leak, etc.), skip one month of flying for realism (hospital) 19. any type of single mission may be flown, depending on the types available for the aircraft you are flying at the time, but one out of every ten missions minimum must include one of the following types of missions (these are usually the most rigorous): offensive patrol // balloon busting // (armed or unarmed) reconnaissance // army co-op; reconnaissance missions may sometimes be gruelingly long if they are the "long reconnaissance" type 20. settings in your huddata.ini file, in the Flight folder, should also be set realistically, as follows (notice the map and label settings giving limited info., and also notice that the target cone and other identification boxes for aircraft have been disabled; the waypoint boxes can be left on, and padlock view may be used): [HUDLabels] EnableLabels=TRUE LabelFriendlyAir=TRUE LabelFriendlyGround=FALSE LabelEnemyAir=TRUE LabelEnemyGround=FALSE [MapLabels] EnableLabels=TRUE LabelFriendlyAir=FALSE LabelFriendlyGround=TRUE LabelEnemyAir=FALSE LabelEnemyGround=FALSE [Map] MapDisplayLabels=FALSE [Display001] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=TARGET_ENEMY //ConeSize=5 //BoxSize=5 //BoxType=TRIANGLE //BoxColor=0.0,1.0,1.0,0.75 //ConeModelName=redcone [Display002] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=TARGET_FRIENDLY //ConeSize=5 //BoxSize=5 //BoxType=TRIANGLE //BoxColor=0.0,0.0,1.0,0.75 //ConeModelName=bluecone [Display003] DisplayType=DIRECTOR ObjectType=NEXT_WAYPOINT ConeSize=5 BoxSize=5 (pick size you want, I prefer smaller boxes) BoxType=SQUARE (use whatever shape you want, TRIANGLE or CIRCLE work too) BoxColor=1.0,1.0,0.0,0.75 (use whatever color you want for this) //ConeModelName=whitecone Happy flying DiD style, Von S

Guess what

Into battle in one of WW1's least successful fighters! Perhaps only the much-maligned Royal Aircraft Factory could have imagined that they could make a fighter out of the BE2, a low-powered and badly-armed reconnaisance machine renowned for its inherent stability...and as 'Fokker Fodder', vulnerable to the little Eindekkers, let alone later German fighters. In fact the Factory seems to have had no such illusions. The BE12 was designed originally for single seat longer-range reconnaisnce and light bombing. BE2s often left the observer behind when carrying bombs - and the pilot operated the camera on a recce - so a single-seater BE with a more powerful engine and more fuel doubtless seemed like the proverbial good idea at the time (mid-1915). The resultant BE12 had a more powerful engine but wasn't even intended to be armed, at first. By the time it was ready for service, though, the situation at the front had changed and - a forward-firing Vickers gun having been fitted in place of early efforts at synchronised and unsynchronised Lewis guns - the BE12 was pressed into service as a fighter, serving in the Royal Flying Corps with No.s 19 and 21 Squadrons on the Western Front from the summer of 1916. Within a few months their unsuitability as a fighter seems to have become obvious and they were back at their designed job as a (rather vulnerable) light bomber. Later, they moved onto rather less hazardous duties on Home Defence. So, why would I want to chance my virtual life in such a machine? Well, what better reason than the fact that a BE12 is one of a series of new planes released for First Eagles and FE2, by prolific modder Stephen1918 http://combatace.com/files/file/15121-raf-be12/? Not only that, but the later BE12a version is also available: http://combatace.com/files/file/15124-raf-be12a/ ; note the different wings with shorter span below, as also fitted to the BE2e: And having checked out the BE12 in First Eagles, I was minded to savour the same experience in Wings Over Flanders Fields, which has featured the BE12 from release. So that I could fly the BE12 in an FE2 campaign, after installing the aircraft, I hand-edited Ojcar's Armchair Aces Flanders month-by-month campaigns for the summer and autumn of 1916, substituting Stephen's BE12 for the previous mount of 19 Squadron, up to the time it moved onto SPAD VIIs. This is a simple Wordpad job, changing a single entry in two files for each campaign (FlandersFrontxx.ini and FlandersFrontxx_data.ini, starting at xx=12 and ending at xx=16). That done, I created a new pilot and off we went! My chosen campaign based us as Cappy, starting on 1 September 1916. Our first mission was to escort some 2 Squadron BE2s to Marcoing, just over the Lines near the big town of Cambrai. Our assigned altitude was a mere 1700 feet. I chose two pilots from the bottom of the squadron roster to accompany me. Before launching the mission itself, I had a good look at the map, which is a zoomed-out but exact replica of what you can see in the 3d world. But I forgot to apply my usual practice of moving the last waypoint further back from our objective area. This is a good idea because it gives you a longer run-in and thus more time to suss out the situation, ahead. The other thing I forgot to do had more serious consequences, later. Some modder-made FE planes have a very restricted horizontal field of vision for the virtual pilot from the cockpit, often giving you no view much aft of directlty sideways. Invariably, I hand-edit the relevant data file to increase this wherever I find it, so I can look over my shoulder and past my tailplane. A restricted rearward arc isn't too bad in most 2-seaters, where your observer, sitting right behind you, blocks your view in that direction. But in a fighter, it's potentially catastrophic. The padlock is also blocked, beyond this same arc. Unfortunately for me, the BE12 has one of these restricted arcs of rearward vision. But such things were far from my mind as I left Cappy behind, pleased with the superior pulling power of my 150hp motor - superior, that is, to the bog-standard BE2 - and levelled off with the throttle back while my two flight-mates caught up. So far, so good... ...to be continued!

File Name: HD Menu Screens for First Eagles 2 File Submitter: MigBuster File Submitted: 09 March 2014 File Category: First Eagles Hanger, Menu Screens HD 16:9 menu screens for First Eagles 2 (1920 x 1080) created for myself This is a set of Images only - no ini files or changes Click here to download this file

Flying the German Air Service's premier fighter in First Eagles 2 The Siemens-Schukert Werke's DIII and DIV are described with some justification in Gray & Thetford's 'German Aircraft of the First World War' as 'Without doubt...the best German fighters to reach operational status'. The first SSW D-type (biplane scout/fighter) was basically a copy of the French Nieuport 11 with a German engine and a conical spinner. But the DIII was a wholly-new machine, a barrel-shaped fighter built around the powerful Siemens-Halske ShIII rotary engine. Early operational deployment in Spring 1918 ended with the aircraft being returned for modifications to correct serious engine problems but - joined by the DIV version with a reduced-chord upper wing - the type was back on ops during the summer. The Siemens-Schukert was highly manoeuvrable and had an outstanding rate of climb with excellent high-altitude performance. They served with Jastas 14, 15 and 22, the Marine Jagdgeschwader and, in the home defence role, with Kests 4a, 4b, 5, 6 & 8. Their work in the latter capacity inspired a member of the Independent Force, formed to mount 'strategic' bombing missions into Germany, to pen the following appreciation: 'It's not the Pfalz or the Fokker Scout It's the Siemens Schuckert that we worry about They do fly high, with the beaucoup speed We can thank our stars that it's the pilots they need!' The plane and the mission First Eagles is one of the very few sims ever to have featured this outstanding warplane, courtesy of the A Team Skunkworks. Public assess to their functional download pages is by email application only and once granted, care must be taken to observe the site's download and usage rules, but it's very worthwhile as the A Team's collection includes some excellent and essential WW1 types like the Sopwith Pup and Triplane. http://cplengineeringllc.com/SFP1/ In fact, as the A Team acknowledge, their SSW DIII is based on that featured in Illusion Software/Silver Wish Games's Wings of War. You may remember that when released, this neat little WW1 air war game's great-looking planes and excellent landscapes and envirommentals had many simmers attempting mods to make it more sim-like. Sadly, these didn't get far beyond unlocking all the flyables and killing off the deadly rocket armaments, but it was still great fun and a highly professional and well-produced package, well worth a blast if you can track down a copy: Back in FE2, I wanted to play a campaign mission so opted for Ojcar's 'must have' Armchair Aces month-by-month campaign set. In the FE campaign creation screen, I cycled through those for Flanders in the last months of the air war till I found a staffel flying the SSW DIII - Jasta 14 (which really did fly the type) in October 1918, flying from Masny aerodrome, north of Cambrai and west of the larger town of Valenciennes. When I kicked off a mission, I found that the weather was awful - a few patches of blue sky visible but mostly cloud, rain and general murk. Not for me. I don't much mind bad weather in Over Flanders Fields, but only because - apart from the clouds themselves - it doesn't really hinder your visibility. In FE and in RoF, more realistically, bad weather really does clobber your visibility. It also makes for dull screenshots, because your plane is dull and unlit (unlike OFF, where the planes in bad weather look bright, like they've been spot-lit for a movie). Another problem with bad weather in FE2 is that you're stuck with it for the campaign, as it inexplicably lost the original FE's ability to vary weather, in-campaign. Anyway being stuck with murk is not my cup of tea, really. So I edited the campaign's data file in Wordpad, replacing the starting (and in FE2, unchanging) weather - 'INCLEMENT' - with 'BROKEN'. That did the trick. Things looked better, and there was no murk to blind me. The weather sorted, my first mission was a defensive patrol, behind our side of the Lines, down south to Bonvais, the far side of the town of Cambrai. Two aircraft were allocated to the mission but as I usually do, I opted to pick three to accompany me, selecting Vizefeldwebels Neumann, Heim and Josten from the bottom of the staffel roster screen. Here we are on the grass at Masny. The SSW is one of the relatively few FE planes not to feature individual aircraft markings, and although there is at least one different skin available, I elected to stick with the stock one, with a snake-marked brown fuselage and 'lozenge' pre-printed fabric wings. As usual with FE planes, there's plenty of animation - wheels, pilot, control surfaces, the rotary engine and even the cocking handles on the MGs. And provided you don't have shadows turned off in the plane's .ini file, you get dynamic self-shadowing (in the cockpit as well as outside if you have the sim's graphics/shadows option set to 'high' or better). As usual, FE kicked off the mission with my engine just having started and my prop picking up speed, which is arguably more realistic than the ground-crewless self-starting featured in other sims. In the external view, I paused to let the others take off and then opened the throttle. There was little swing and once my wheels were off the ground, I decided to go for broke and perform an immediate test of my machine's renowned climbing abilities. I yanked back on the stick and up she went, cocking a snook at the row of Fokkers parked outside the canvas hangars to my left. Off to a good start, at any rate! ...to be continued!

Recreating the dawn of the fighter aircraft in First Eagles 2 "Hundreds, nay thousands of machines have been ordered which have been referred to by our pilots as "Fokker Fodder" ... I would suggest that quite a number of our gallant officers in the Royal Flying Corps have been rather murdered than killed" Noel Pemberton-Billing MP, campaigning in 1916 against the dominance of the Royal Aircraft Factory in the design of RFC aircraft "...McCudden gave him another burst, and the Fokker broke off the attack. For the rest of the flight, the Fokker merely accompanied them, more like an escort than anything else. 'We live and we learn' was McCudden's comment on the deflation of the Fokker Menace story" Alexander McKee in 'The Friendless Sky' The deployment of small numbers of a rather inferior monoplane armed with a fixed machine gun synchronised to fire forward through the airscrew was just one of a series of swings in the fortunes of the main combatants in the WW1 air war. Shortly beforehand, French pilots like Garros and Pégoud had sent shock-waves through German ranks with similar weapons, unsynchronised but with deflector wedges to protect their props. And within months, the Fokkers themselves had been eclipsed by superior enemies in the form of the Nieuport 11 and DH2, which in turn were outclassed by the Albatros. But it's the Fokker 'Eindekker' which gave its name to a whole chapter in air warfare, even if this owes as much to its exploitation in a British politician's campaign to secure a bigger role for private enterprise in British military aircraft design, as it does to the plane's own qualities. For despite its gun, the Fokker was a rather mediocre aeroplane, low-powered, with wing-warping rather than ailerons. And while its principal RFC prey the BE2c certainly suffered from a badly-placed observer with a limited field of fire, there are accounts which confirm the BE was not just the 'Fokker fodder' of legend and could defend itself ably enough if well-handled and not caught by surprise. Anyway, enough potted history! Having recently flown Stephen1918's superb new BE2c in the hostile skies of Spring 1917, I wanted to step back nearly two years and see the BE (and/or its fellow RFC machines) from a different perspective - through the gunsight of a predatory Fokker pilot, hunting his two-seater quarry in the period which truly pioneered the concept of the fighter aircraft. I decided to kick off a campaign in Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' month-by-month campaign, starting in August 1915. At this time, Immleman and Boelcke were on the threshold of making names for themselves flying their new Eindekkers. Keen to do likewise, I created a new pilot and opted to fly with Kampfeinsitzer Kommando (KEK) Douai, based at nearby La Brayelle and flying against the RFC. Thanks to the modders, no other modern WW1 sim comes close to First Eagles in its flyable planeset, just as Red Baron 3d set that standard, before it. FE benefits from an excellent series of Eindekkers by modders Laton and BortdaFarm. Versions available are the EI, EII, EIII (which look much the same but have progressively more powerful engines) and even the twin-gunned but overweight EIV. And there are some look-alike Pfalz equivalents. For this campaign, our mount was the Fokker EI, with only an 80hp engine and a single 'Spandau' 7.92mm LMG 08/15. Ojcar's 'Armchair Aces' campaign integrates modder aircraft like these (and many more) into the FE campaign system and was therefore a natural choice to try my hand with an Eindekker in campaign mode. At this time, it was common for a flying unit on any side to operate more than one type of aircraft. Fokker monoplanes were initially allocated in ones and twos to ordinary two-seater units. While I believe you can do this sort of thing in single missions in FE, in campaign mode you have one plane type per squadron. As a staffel's Fokkers seem generally to have operated independently of the unit's two-seaters, it's easy enough to handle this by using the squadron roster, pre-mission, to ensure you fly either on your own or with one or maybe two companions. No need for missions with eight or twelve Fokkers lined up on the flight line, impressive though that may look! Operations in (slightly) greater strength become more realistic later, by which time Fokkers were often concentrated into Kampfeinsitzer Kommandos. I believe KEK Douai was associated with two-seater unit Flieger Abteilung 62 and actually formed in late 1915. Our first mission was in effect a 'scramble', to intercept an incoming enemy flight headed for Aniche airfield nearby. Although air defence/air raid warning systems were rudimentary at this time, it is clear from many accounts that Eindekkers were 'scrambled' in this fashion and did not always just fly patrols. To accompany me, I'd selected one other pilot, a senior NCO by the name of Rall, and here we are on the grass at La Brayelle. Assuming you haven't opted for an air start, FE starts you off in this fashion, with your prop just starting to turn, which gets around the issue of invisible ground crew in other sims (although I quite liked the invisible mechanic's cry of 'Good hunting, sir!' or 'Hals und beinbruch!' as you started up in CFS2 WW1 expansion 'Combat Aces'). As we took off, I noticed flak bursts quite low in the sky, ahead of us. Snatching a glance at the in-flight map, it seemed clear that this must be the flight we were intended to intercept. Peering into the sky near the tip of the trail of busts, I could make out a pair of specks. These looked to be heading towards a friendly airfield which I could see as I gained height, a few miles distant. Today, I would not have to look far; trouble was coming to me! ...to be continued!

Life and virtual death on and above the ocean waves in Ojcar's 'Unsung Heroes' seaplane campaign Rise of Flight is not the only WW1 flightsim to feature seaplanes. Thanks to modder Stephen1918, First Eagles/FE2 also got its feet wet, with a series of floatplanes suitable for the Channel coast and a 'terrain' package, complete with some shipping. Fellow-modder Ojcar then provided us with a campaign to complete the scene. The aircraft are available here... http://combatace.com/files/category/360-first-eagles-add-on-aircraft/ ...the terrain is here... http://combatace.com/files/file/14129-north-sea-terrain/ ...and the campaign is here: http://combatace.com/files/file/14164-unsung-heroes/ The campaign needs a separate install of FE, which for FE2 is just a matter of copying the game executable, renaming and running it. This creates the 'mods' folder where you install the new items. The drill for FE(1) is slightly different but equally simple. You can combine the seaplanes in a normal install, but this campaign really needs a separate one, to avoid oddities like vehicles or landplanes moving on the sea surface. This limits the campaign to aero-naval action but it's nicely done and makes a fun and interesting challenge, nevertheless. The campaign is set in 1917 and the briefing sets the scene nicely, with some short but interesting historical background to help you get 'in character'. The Germans, having occupied a stretch of coastline running from the eastern end of the English Channel to the southern end of the North Sea, are contesting the British and allied blockade and running some naval operations of their own. Both sides have the support - for this campaign - of seaplane tenders and their aircraft. Which is where the player comes in, of course. I elected to fly for the German side, in a late-model Albatros W4. This was a fighter, basically a scaled-up Albatros DII with two large floats. For our first mssion, dated 1 November 1917, two of us were detailed to fly a defensive partol around our tender, the SMS Answald. I could have increased our strength by selecting more pilots from the squadron roster, but I thought we'd stick to a twosome. That was my first mistake. Anyway here we are, ready for the 'off'. If you don't have an air start selected, FE, logically enough, starts you on the ground. Also logically enough, if there's no ground - as in, the middle of the North Sea - you're started on the water. Like so. The ship in the background isn't our tender - which vessels were the progenitors of proper aircraft carriers - it's our surface escort. WW1 warship identification's not my speciality and it may be a representative type rather than a model of a real vessel but it looks suitably Victorian. I suspect FE doesn't model sea states which is just as well as I had enough trouble with all that water, in the 'dead calm' we got. Getting off the ground - sorry, water - was the first challenge. Basically I opened her up and when it felt right, pulled back on the stick to increase the angle of attack and get a bit more lift in an effort to unstick. This worked...eventually. But my W4, once airborne, soon confirmed my suspicion that she was going to be rather less tractable than the scouts I was used to flying. She felt somewhere in between one of those, and a two-seater. Slow in the climb, ready to buffet in an impending stall if I increased the AoA too much, but reasonably willing to turn without behaving badly. As you can see, you don't get a wake effect (unless I've not installed something somewhere, must check...) but the sea surface and our little flotilla made a nice backdrop for Stephen1918's beautiful plane, as myself and my wingman - the AI manage water takeoffs just fine - climbed slowly away. In a nice touch, our ships fly the correct Imperial German ensigns at stem and stern (the former being the pointy end, I believe). Behind us in the pic below, you can see both our escort and our seaplane tender. As I orbited, slowly gaining height and getting a feel for my machine, the gunners on both our ships decided to give me a little surprise by commencing some brisk shooting. Fire and smoke bellowed from every barrel and tracer fire sped up and past us, directed at a target or targets which I had not yet seen. Obviously, our patrol was going to be no mere sight-seeing trip... ...to be continued!

First outing with Stephen1918's latest addition to First Eagles/FE2 Of the three current WW1 airwar sims, one of the areas where First Eagles is ahead (and likely to remain so!) is its planeset. Including variants, I have about two hundred installed! This is not just padding - one of the features which distinguished WW1 in the air was the considerable variety of aircraft which fought it. As FE shipped with a small set of planes which just about covered its intended 1918 era, this particular advantage is entirely owed to Third Wire for making its sims so 'open architecture'...and even more, to the many modders who took full advantage. Amongst the most prolific of late, in the FE field, has been Stephen1918, who has added many a fine machine to the WW1 skies. Recently, a good few of these have been from the eastern or Italian theatres, which both now have planesets about as good as the western front in other sims. But with his latest release Stephen's back on duty on the classic, Western Front - it's the Royal Aircraft Factory BE2c. This machine needs little introduction. It was a mainstay of Royal Flying Corps combat operations from the very first days of the war until about mid-1917, when it was finally replaced, at the front anyway, mainly by the same manufacturer's RE8. First Eagles has had the BE2 for some time, of course, available from the A Team skunkworks. But with skid-type landing gear and an uncowled sump/lower nose, these really portrayed the machine as it would have flown in the first year or so of the war, 1914-15. The new model provides FE with a long-needed version that's representative of the BE as it appeared from sometime during 1915 to 1917. In this form, though benefitting from a lower-drag V-type undercarriage and a cowling around the angular engine sump, it's still armed with a Lewis gun on a mount operated by the observer from his seat ahead of the pilot. Along with a comparatively low-powered engine, this arrangement was of course the BE2's main weakness, long after the Germans had switched the observer and his gun to the rear seat, with the introduction of the 'C' type machines. It's often reported that the BE2d version moved the pilot to the front cockpit too, but I think this is an incorrect reading of the introduction of basic duplicated controls for the 2d's front cockpit observer. Basically, the BE2 was a good machine that was retained in service long after it should have been replaced by a better type. Those who flew it sang its praises thus, in imitation of the 23rd Psalm: The BE2c is my bus; therefore shall I want. He maketh me to come down in green pastures. He leadeth me where I wish not to go. He maketh me to be sick; he leadeth me astray on all cross-country flights. Yea, tho I fly o'er No-Man's Land, where mine enemies would compass me about I do fear much evil, for Thou art with me. Thy joystick and Thy prop discomfort me; Thou preparest a crash for me in the presence of mine enemies; Thine RAF annointeth my hair with oil; Thy tank leaketh badly. Surely to goodness Thou shalt not follow me all the days of my life Else I shall dwell in the house of Colney Hatch forever. Having found that two-seater careers in FE can be dangerous and short, and knowing the BE's reputation, I was somewhat dreading my first campaign mission in the 'Quirk', as it was known. Ever the optimist, I created a brand-spanking-new pilot. I named him Harvey-Kelly, in memory of the pioneer RFC aviator who landed first amongst the RFC's first arrivals in France in August 1914 and served with distinction until, flying a SPAD, he was killed during 'Bloody April' by von Richthofen's Jasta 11. As the new BE is not yet included in an existing campaign, rather than just flying some single missions, I hand-edited Ojcar's Flanders 'Armchair Aces' campaigns to feature the new plane. Foolishly, I elected to start my campaign in May 1917. By that time, the Eindekkers were long gone and I was thus unlikely to become 'Fokker fodder' - as critics dubbed RFC machines during the 1915 'Fokker scourge'. Furthermore, 'Bloody April' was over and the RFC was beginnng to receive better aircraft, not least the excellent SE5 from the same Royal Aircraft Factory as the machine I would be flying. But this was still a very dangerous time to be flying a BE...as I was soon to find out! ...to be continued!

Not for the faint of heart - battling Huns and high ground in scenery to die for! The latest campaign for World War 1 air combat sim First Eagles/First Eagles 2 is by Gterl and covers the fighting between Italy and Austria-Hungary, 1915 to 1917. Those of us who have been following the development of this new terrain have been slavering over Gterl's screenies and waiting keenly for its release, which has now come: http://combatace.com/files/file/14440-italian-terrain-incl-1915-1917-campaign/ Better still, the terrain comes complete with a campaign, which - as usual with FE campaigns - you can play from the perspective of any of the flyable planes in any of the featured squadrons, on either side - so it's actually a set of campaigns, covering both scouts (as fighters were called in those days) and the two-seater 'working planes' which mostly did the important stuff - reconnaisance and bombing (although this distinction evolved over time and was only coming into vogue about the time this campaign starts). As the download page says, you need also to download and install the listed freeware aircraft, most available here at CombatAce, the others at the A Team Skunkworks. Be careful to respect and observe the different registration and download rules at each site. http://combatace.com/files/category/360-first-eagles-add-on-aircraft/ http://cplengineeringllc.com/SFP1/ Many FE players will already have most or all of these planes installed - I had all but one of them! If not, it's more than worth the effort. The campaign is built for First Eagles Gold (=original First Eagles plus the Expansion Pack) but works equally well in First Eagles 2, which is what I play. Only thing to note here is to observe the slightly different installation drill for FE2 - for example, the stuff in the folder 'Groundobjects' [plural] should, for FE2, go into a mod (sub-) folder called 'Groundobject' [singular]. Old hands with Third Wire sims like FE and Strike Fighters will know the drill; anyone else can get the 'gen' here at CA on the SF2 knowledge base, or ask for advice. It's not needed, but I made a second install of FE2 just for this campaign; amongst other things this means if I fly a single mission, I'm less likely to find myself fighting against or alongside planes that didn't serve on the Italian Front. Again, there are posts here at CA which describe the drill for both first (FE) and second generation FE2) Third Wire sims; ask if in doubt. Not difficult and second nature once you know the drill. The Campaign begins! I elected to kick off playing for the Italian air arm, which I gather was called the Servizio Aeronautico before it became independent of the Army and adopted the more familiar title of Regia Aeronautica. I usually favour the 1916-1917 era as the earlier planes are decidedly underpowered even by 1917 standards. But this time I decided to start at the beginning, in June 1915. So I created my pilot - Umberto Bernadotte - and found myself assigned to 1a Squadrigilia Veneto, based at San Giovanni. First thing I noticed was the quality of the opening campaign briefing. It was short but nicely written, I thought, and brought a wry smile to my face. A perfect mood-setter. We were allocated the Voisin LAS, 120 HP engine version. This is a pusher biplane with a radial engine, unusual compared to the more common rotaries. It's also a two-seater, with the pilot in front and the observer behind, with a Hotchkiss machine-gun mounted on a frame above and behind the pilot's head. I believe this type of machine scored the first recorded air-to-air kill back on the Western Front. Although later, bigger and more powerful Voisins gave sterling service as night bombers, even by mid-1915 they were rather obsolescent and I was not entirely looking forward to taking one of these machines to war, over potentially mountainous terrain, and likely against better-equipped foes. But I had signed up and orders were orders! And for my first mission, those orders were to carry out an offensive patrol over Flugfeld Galital. This was an Austro-Hungarian aerodrome some distance to the north, on the far side of what looked from the planning map to be some rather high ground. I decided to take five of us, using the 'Roster' screen to select four companions from the bottom of the list. I got Biron, Pinna, Buscaglia and Novelli - yes you get decent localised names! I'm not sure if this is because I have Capitaine Vengeur's medals pack, or some other mod, installed, but it's a neat touch. I didn't waste any time, accepted the default loadout (no bombs, I was not going to weigh us down on our first flight over high ground) and headed to the flight line, where my virtual mechanics had the prop swinging as I popped into the cockpit. I opened the throttle immediately, countering a tendency for my machine to nose up on its four-wheel, cart-like undercarriage. Any attempt to pull her off quickly seemed futile and my heart was in my mouth as we got closer and closer to the trees at the end of the airfield. In FE you can 'ghost' through trees but it was still pretty scary! I managed to edge her gently off the grass just as the boundary came up and just about cleared the tree-tops, knowing from past experience with the Voisin that she would happily stall if pushed too hard. Phew! I gained height slowly, being careful to keep the speed up and not pull the nose up too steeply, for fear of a stall close to the ground, which could have only one ending. Gradually, as we gained height, I was able to spare a bit of time to observe and admire my immediate surroundings, which consisted of pleasant, arable land, fairly level and scattered with many tracts of woodland. So far, so good! But there was a long way to go. If I had known what lay ahead, I would have been a lot less keen to keep going! ...to be continued!

File Name: Italian Terrain (incl. 1915-1917 campaign) File Submitter: gterl File Submitted: 07 December 2013 File Category: First Eagles - WWI and Early Years - Terrain and Environmental Mods Italian Terrain WW1 V2.0 ******************************* Update (2.0): - Removed ships that show up on land - Added fortresses (Austrian & Italian) - Changed ocean tiles - Minor corrections INTRODUCTION The Italian Front during WW1 refers to a series of battles fought between 1915 and 1918 in northern Italy between the armies of Austria-Hungary and Germany against Italy. Italy hoped that by joining the countries of the Triple Entente against the Central Powers it would gain Cisalpine Tyrol (today's provinces of Trentino and South Tyrol), the Austrian Littoral, northern Dalmatia and some areas of western Carniola. Italy had hoped to begin the war with a surprise offensive intended to move quickly and capture several Austrian cities. Well, the war soon bogged down into trench warfare similar to the Western Front fought in France. INCLUDED - Italian terrain/front WW1 - Ground objects - Italian campaign 1915-1917 (incl. needed skins) FAQs Q: Is the scale of the map correct A: No Q: Why not the Piave river front, in order to create late 1917/1918 scenarios? A: Because Q: Are all the named towns and cities correct (placement and naming) A: Yes as good as it gets. Q: Does it include more than one season? A: No, currently not. Might be released with version 2 Q: Is the frontline correct? A: Yes as good as it gets, representing late 1917 with certain omissions in order to get targets for the campaigns (like Monfalcone being Austro-Hungarian) Q: The river Isonzo seems to cut through the mountains, is that correct? A: To a certain degree, but I had to modify massively the heightmap in order to make things look right (e.g. river not flowing up/down the mountains) Q: The northern part of the map, e.g. toward Munich, seems without further towns? A: Correct. All forests and lakes are there but apart from the major cities (Salzburg & Munich) I've not yes included smaller towns. INSTALLATION 1. Make a backup copy of your First Eagles folder (just in case) 2. Extract the file into a temporary folder (like c:\temp\) 3. Copy all the relevant folders into the respective First Eagles game folders (example: c:\temp\First Eagles\Terrain\wwiItaly into your c:\Program Files\First Eagles\Terrain folder) 4. Drop the skin folders into the respective aircraft folders and add the included lines into the aircraft ini file PREREQUISITES - FE Gold (might work also with FE2, sorry guys don't know), with the latest patch - Aircraft for the included campaign: Voisin3_120 Voisin3_150 Nieuport11 Nieuport17 SVA5 MSTypeL MSTypeLAO PfalzEV FokkerD2 HBC1_160 HBC1_200 HBC1_230 oefD3_ba53a oefD3_ba153a oefD3_ba253 LloydC2 Hansa_BrandenburgDI AviatikD1 AlbatrosD3OAW PhoenixD2 RumplerC1 AviatikC2 Farman MF11c SP3 Ca3 Dfwci FokkerM7BI CREDITS As usual i want to say thank you to all guys who helped me to create the Italian terrain, to TK, Jan Tuma, Stephen1918, ojcar, Gepard, Heck, geo, quack74, Edward, A-Team (airplanes not included), Guitarclassic55 (for the wonderful menu) and a lot of others. Sorry guys, at the moment i have forgotten the names. Please contact me if you want to be named at this place. Thanks for files, suggestions, bug findings etc. DISCLAIMER The Italian terrain is freeware. You are free to modify and share it, BUT Commercial use is prohibited. If you find bugs please post them in First Eagles section of Combatace.com forum. Hope you enjoy it. Sincerely gterl Click here to download this file

Hello! Been flying FE2 ALOT recently. While I'm having a blast, I remember downloading a mod campaign called 'Bloody April 1917' a while back. I found those files, (including the required planes) and promptly installed everything. Now it all works great... except for a few things. First, to anyone who flies the Sopwith Pup/Triplane and Bristol, do you have to push forward with your stick to get the aircraft to take off? I normally only have to apply slight rudder or aileron (sp?) when taking off with the stock planes, but those aformentioned planes simply will not take off unless I lower the nose of the aircraft. Is this intended? I seem to remember Rise of Flight doing something like this, but I have never encountered anything like it in FE2. Second, my guns don't do damage in ANY of the 1917 planes. The Noopie 17, Spad 7, Triplane, and Pup have all done several missions where I got behind my target and was putting out a whole lot of lead... and nothing. The mission results screen always shows something like 600+ fired and ONE hit. :\ I can't figure it out, am I missing some sort of file? The gun does a firing animation, but there are no tracers. Third. Not really sure how to describe this, other then micro-stutter. You see when I get hit in the engine, or my plane stalls, or when I'm firing, my plane starts to stutter around, or 'warp'. Its very odd. Its much more noticeable in third-person. It also occurred when I was trying to take off, and didn't know about putting the aircraft's nose down. I've no idea what to make of it. I'm pretty sure I followed the DL instructions perfectly, but this sure has me stumped. Sticking with the stock campaigns for now, as they run perfectly. :)

Of late, I've been posting comparative reports of campaign missions, flying the same plane in turn, in each of the 'big three' current sims - Over Flanders Fields, Rise of Flight and First Eagles - in another forum. The aim is to highlight the single-player campaign experience offered by each sim, albeit as I see it. I've already covered the Nieu.28 but with the release of Quack's superb set of Nieuport 28 skins for First Eagles, I thought I'd 'import' that concept to CombatAce, starting with that famous French-US fighter. Commencing with Over Flanders Fields, I already had a campaign started, flying with the "Kickin' Mules" of the 95th Aero from Toul, in May 1918. So I just kicked off another mission. At the moment I'm flying OFF with only four mods. One is Andy's sound mod, another Lothar's map (which improves the awful, CFS3-style briefing and inflight maps, tho they still bear a limited resemblance to what you see in the 3d world). I also use my own FlakMod (which produces tighter groups of flak bursts without greater lethality, on the 'hard' setting especially, making it somewhat easier to track the position and heading of enemies who are being trailed by AA fire). And finally I'm also using my own ArcMod, which gives gunners back the ability to depress their guns to any degree, cut by stock OFF to prevent firing through tailplanes (a cure worse than the ailment in my experience, as it seriously 'nerfs' a gunner's arc of fire). Both my mods are available here at CA, with many others. Anyway here we are, ready to go. I'd chosen the 'high-resolution textures' option (which means minor damage doesn't show) and the ability to select my own skin (which means you can't instead select a reduced fuel load, to increase your power-weight ratio). The rest of my flight had the default 95th Aero skin. Our squadron roster contains several real-life aces, but it has about two dozen pilots overall, which is rather a lot. There's no ability to choose your flight-mates and you are often allocated a rather large flight. In this case I was allocated a reasonable five (including myself) for a mission escorting three French Sopwith Strutters to bomb an enemy target. The original target area was rather far away and in the briefing map, I used the 'optional mission' facility to swap this for a closer objective. You can't change the type of mission or move the waypoints, just try for a different objective with its own set of fixed waypoints. The OFF Nieu.28 comes with the Hat in the Ring expansion pack. It's a little angular in places and in the external view has the CFS3-style 'wide angle lens' look but it's a nice bird with very nicely-done textures. ...to be continued!