Blitzkreig 1940: CFS3 ETO Expansion

[33LIMA]

A Luftwaffe Messerschmitt Bf110 Campaign in the ultimate CFS3 expansion

 

 

CFS3 - so far anyway - marks a controversial end to the Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator series. In returning from CFS2's Pacific to the European Theatre of Operations, CFS3 had many new features. On the positive side, there was a modest but intriguing range of flyable aircraft, including the 'usual suspects' like the Spitfire, FW190 and P-51 but also medium bombers like the Ju-88 and B-25 Mitchell and some late-war prototypes like the Dornier 335 'push-pull' heavy fighter and the P-80 and Vampire jets. There were 'autogen' scenery objects to populate the terrain; and most of the ETO was covered, in a single 'map'. Less positively, graphics were questionable, with many rather poor cockpits and odd, mostly unrealistic coloured bands and other markings the player could apply to personalise his flight. Wingman commands were still the same limited set from CFS2, with no ground control interaction, a major gap. AI, damage models and flight models were dubious. Wingman radio traffic sounded canned and cheesy. And while there was a dynamic campaign at last, it was a rather odd beast, a sort of parallel universe 1942-45 ETO where the Germans could have invaded England and their shipping plied the English Channel in daylight.

 

But at least CFS3 covered the ETO, and while the air-to-air experience wasn't great (and completely left out battles with the heavy bombers) it made a passable job of simulating its declared subject: tactical fighter-bomber and medium bomber operations in the latter part of WW2 in Europe. For those of us whose fancy wasn't really caught by the Eastern Front, it was worth playing. Especially as the modders got to work, with groups like the Ground Crew and the AVHistory team developing many new planes. Commercial add-ons helped too; Firepower was widely praised, my other favourites being D-Day and Just Flight's Memphis Belle.

 

Nowadays, much of the modder's good work on CFS3 is available as a great package, under the title of the ETO Expansion. Others are still around, including Mediterranean Air War (MAW) and a Pacific Expansion. This mission report features the ETO expansion, which adds a real host of aircraft starting with those from the Spanish Civil War, along with much-improved airbases, scenery, ground and aircraft textures, period menu music and improved effects. Details of the package and download links are available here:

 

http://www.mrjmaint.com/CFS3/ETOHome.html

 

Installation is fairly complicated and involves creating a second CFS3 install; but there is an excellent .pdf guide which takes you through the process step by step and is pretty foolproof if followed.  The job's well worth while; it's still CFS3 at its core but on the outside, it's pretty well a whole new animal - CFS3, Jim, but not as we know it.

 

One of ETO Expansion's features is the addition of extra campaigns. You can now start your World War 2 in 1940, either during the 'Phoney War' when the two sides faced off at the Franco-German border immediately after the Polish Campaign; or as I chose, in the Blitzkrieg, when in May 1940 the Germans attacked in the West in one of the most successful and decisive campaigns of the war.

 

Having run the front-end ETO Expansion process which sets up the sim's spawns for this earlier period, I used the ETO Start 'selector' desktop proggie to choose the 1940 era. Pilot and campaign creation was next; both done in conventional CFS3 style. I chose to fly as a Luftwaffe fighter pilot. Unlike European Air War, CFS3 doesn't make it easy for you to fly your plane of choice. You select the role - fighter or bomber - and CFS3 picks the unit and the aircraft. There is a facility to transfer or change planes but it's limited. For this mission, I was allocated to a 'Zerstoerer' (destroyer) unit - as the Luftwaffe called its heavy fighters. Flying the sleek twin-engined Messerschmitt Bf110 and also known as 'Goering's Ironsides', these units were something of an elite. Disillusionment was to follow, when the Battle of Britain ruthlessly spotlighted the limitations of such aircraft in an environment dominated by more agile single-engined fighters. But that was all in the future. This was May 1940, and my Gruppe was about to play its part in the great Blitzkrieg in the west which, in a few weeks, would bring France to her knees and Britain to the verge of defeat.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

The mission begins

 

Broken cloud and rain greeted me as I arrived on the airfield. I don't recall if I was assigned to a named unit but the skin of my Messerschmitt represents an aircraft of the staff flight of V (Zerstoerer) Gruppe of Lehrgeschwader 1. Like the famous Panzer Lehr Division, the geschwader was nominally a 'trials' unit and was unusual in being equipped with a variety of aircraft types at the same time:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lehrgeschwader_1

 

However, LG1, like Panzer Lehr, was fully operational in WW2 and participated in the May 1940 offensive in the west. For this mission, we were based at Vechta airfield in northern Germany (if I recall right, this was later famous as a night-fighter base) and were allocated a 'close support' mission, striking enemy ground units in support of friendly ground forces. Here's the briefing; it's basically the stock CFS3 format, and our target is a good way to the south-west, just across the border in north-eastern Belgium.

 

 

At the pre-flight stage I might have been able to opt for a different target or perhaps a closer one; I don't recall, though you usually can, in the stock CFS3 campaign. Anyway despite not being able to carry bombs - realistically, as it I think was Erprobungsgruppe 210 which later began the first operations with the Bf110C4B fighter-bomber version - off we went. Obviously, whatever targets we found in our objective area, we were going to have to rely on our heavy nose-mounted armament of two 20mm cannon and four 7.92mm machine guns.

 

The ETO Expansion Bf110C is a fine machine, with the correct 70/71/65 camouflage (Schwartzgrun/Dunkelgrun/Hellblau) and represents a real-life aircraft, complete with the wolf head emblem of the Gruppe.

 

 

The cockpit is certainly superior to stock CFS3 versions and is complete with an alluring but rather distracting picture of a close friend (?) stuck to the instrument panel.

 

 

Normally, CFS3 seems to give you eight aircraft for campaign missions (the player is always leading the operation) and this was no exception. Also as usual, and despite being fighters ourselves, we had an escort - a similar number of Bf109Es. Both types of Messerschmitt do not feature in stock CFS3: they, and the French, Belgian or British aircraft we might come up against, and perhaps the ground targets we might be attacking, are courtesy of the ETO Expansion. You can see the 109s sweeping the skies ahead of us in the pic below. Assuming they stuck with us, that left me with just what was waiting for us on the ground, to worry about.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

Outward bound

 

Chaperoned by our escorting 109s, we headed steadily south-westwards, towards our distant target area. I had climbed to just over 4,500 feet and decided to stay there, in the rain but below the broken cloud base. I decided that we would make our approach and attack at low level.

 

 

To save time, I decided to use the CFS3 'warp' function, calling up the map beforehand to monitor our progress and ready to come out, if anything untoward happened. It generally doesn't. But CFS3 tends to give you these un-realistic straight courses right to your objective, whereas (for example) First Eagles and other Strike Fighters sims give you a more realistic 'dog leg' flight in with waypoints you can adjust in the planning stage, and an 'Initial Point' before your objective, which you can place to choose the direction and distance of your run-in to the objective.

 

One other bad thing about the CFS3 'warp' feature, in my experience, is that it invariably climbs you to a pre-assigned altitude, which is typically tens of thousands of feet. And if there's no encounter to interrupt it, you come out of 'warp' close to your objective, at that considerable height. Pretty silly for a tactical air war sim, where you will often want to attack at low level, and especially frustrating with torpedo strike missions. So i was pleasantly surprised - when I manually ended 'warp', well short of the objective - to find that I had stayed at about the same height. If this is an ETO Expansion feature, it's a very welcome one.

 

I decided to descend, and to make my run-in to the target at even lower level. This would give me little time to pick up on targets visually; but better that, I reasoned, than arrive at the optimum height for light flak and then stooge around being shot at while I sussed out the opposition and made a plan.

 

 

As you can see, the ETO Expansion pack significantly improves the default CFS3 terrain. Another good feature which you won't notice from the screenies is the sound. My Messerschmitt's two DB601s made a very satisfactory sort of snarling, whining roar as we bored along.

 

As we neared the border, we overflew an aerodrome, which I only noticed at the last minute. For a moment, until I realised I was definitely still over friendly territory, I was a bit anxious that the airfield defence people were going to take exception to our visit. But all stayed quiet. Fortunately perhaps, flight sims don't seem to model 'blue on blue' incidents.

 

 

So far, so good...not long now!

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

First strike!

 

 

I turned right and led our eight Bf110s on the run-in to the target area. Another ten miles and we would see what lay there.

 

As we sped on, low over the rolling, tree-dotted countryside, I popped on the Tactical Display, mainly for a quick navigation check. To prepare for our attack, I had previously cycled the TAC to display target type 'Vehicles'. When the time came, I would use this to allocate targets to my staffel. For a sim featuring the era of radio-equipped aircraft, the CFS3 'TAC' is not an unreasonable substitute for being able to use the radio like you might in real life and the limits to what you can organise during mission planning.

 

Looking at the TAC, I could see the light blue line to the final waypoint - the target area - was just slightly right of our track. However, the purple arrowhead, whose appearance indicated the proximity and direction of our main targets, was right of this again. I stayed in a 40 degree bank and maintained a steady right-hand turn, noting as I did so that our Bf109 escort was beginning to turn with us.

 

 

With the TAC confirming my arrival in the objective area, I searched ahead and around me for targets.  At first, I saw nothing. Then...there they were! Crossing a field between patches of woodland, a ragged group of vehicles was moving in the open, their presence betrayed by the 'rooster tail' plumes of dirt they were throwing up, despite the wet conditions. I didn't notice at the time, but just beyond, lay an enemy airfield. In the cockpit view screenie below, looking back you can see that my gunner appears to have jettisoned his canopy and bailed out, but he's still there; it's just a feature of the rendering, perhaps deliberate so you see what your gunner sees without having to ask him!

 

 

I pulled up and rolled around nearly onto my back to come in at them, cutting the throttle to tighten my manoeuvre. At the same time, I selected targets amongst them via the TAC and ordered in my staffel. For CFS3 veterans, the technique is ingrained - select target, hit 'A' key to despatch two planes on their attack; select another target, then 'A' again; repeat as necessary. The battle was on!

 

 

I swept in at the enemies. I knew that they were most likely to be tanks or AFVs of some sort, as only tracked vehicles could reliably travel cross-country in early WW2. In fact, they were little WW1-vintage Renault FT tanks, though I wasn't sure at the time. Nor was I certain that even my 20mm cannon - Oerlikon types, firing relatively low-velocity HE shells - would do them much damage. But in I went! From somewhere or other, enemy gunners were watching, for flak began to burst around me.

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

Plane versus tank, 1940-style

 

 

This is where the effects of playing too many different sims made themselves felt. In IL-2, I have two joystick buttons arranged to fire MGs and cannon separately. But in CFS3, one of the same buttons fires all guns and the other one changes views. So when I applied the IL-2 two-key firing technique to CFS3, let's just say that the results were not conducive to keeping my sights on the target. It took me a couple of firing passes, to work out what I was doing wrong!

 

 

At this point, as my staffel made their own attacks and I swung around for another one of my own, I realised where the AA fire was coming from...the nearby airfield! As I watched, I could actually see the muzzle flashes of a battery, near the end of a row of what looked like aircraft pens. I decided that I would let my staffel get on with it, while I indulged in a little of what nowadays would be called 'flak suppression'...perhaps also destroying some enemy planes on the ground. I hauled my big fighter around, and nosed down at my new target.

 

 

I should have tackled the flak first but as I came out of my turn, I realised that I was well placed for a strafing run along the line of the pens. But as I screamed in, I saw that they were empty!

 

 

This was proving a bit more difficult than I had expected!

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA]

Ziel zerstoert!

 

On my next run at the enemy airfield, I made no mistake. My rounds raked the flak battery near the aircraft pens, setting off an explosion which smothered the enemy weapons in a large billowing cloud of dust and smoke. Finally, it seemed, I was getting the hang of this ground attack business!

 

 

But I had noticed a second battery, at the apex of a triangular pattern of trackways, near the airfield boundary. I pulled up and around, then lined up on him...you're next, my friend, I thought wickedly. The enemy gunners seemed to have similarly evil thoughts directed at me or my comrades, for as I closed in, I saw their muzzle flashes.

 

 

Too late my friends! My guns blazed and their rounds hit home. On my second pass, another explosion, then I was over them and away, leaving my target shrouded in smoke and dust.

 

 

At that point, I decided enough was enough. I had wasted a good deal of ammunition on my ineffective attacks on the tanks, and expected my comrades might be risking their necks for similarly poor returns. I was determined to keep some ammo in reserve, in case we had to defend ourselves from enemy aircraft. So I flew off, orbiting the enemy air base in a wide arc which brought me back onto a heading for the German border and home. I called my staffel to break off and rejoin me, throttling back to enable them to do so. In the murky weather I could see neither them nor our escorting Bf109s, but at least, there were no enemy aircraft around.

 

 

Looking behind at intervals, I was mightily relieved to see my men slowly closing up and to be able to count them all present and correct.

 

 

After passing the border without incident, I started 'warping' home. About half way, we came out of 'warp' automatically, causing me to look around anxiously for the enemies this usually means are just out of 'TAC' range. Suddenly, a flock of aircraft whizzed past low and right. I wasn't inclined to hang around to find out who they were. I opened up to full throttle and sped off. My 110s were no slouches for speed and if these were enemies and they wanted to catch us, they would have to make an effort! But the other aircraft never re-appeared; if they were hostile, perhaps they ran into our escort.

 

Soon, we were back at base. It's at this point that CFS3 pops up a little panel to tell you the mission goals have been resolved, and offering you the option to continue and land, or to quit the mission and see the debriefing, there and then. I chose the latter option.

 

Although credited with the guns destroyed, I had not completed enough of the mission goals to make much of a success of it. Specifically we had not destroyed the tank formation, whether that was a realistic goal or not. Though not as badly as CFS2, unfortunately CFS3 still retains this rather silly, rigid 'mission pass/fail' assessment. It's much too 'black and white' and in sims whose designers know better, is sensibly not applied or at least not a big deal. In the Blitzkrieg campaign, I am not clear whether or not repeated mission failure could produce the result that it's Germany who gets 'blitzkrieged'!

 

Anyway, this was a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting mission. Even if you wrote off CFS3, you might well find a lot to like about its re-incarnation in the ETO expansion. And there are Mediterranean and Pacific expansions to try, too. For any simmer interested mainly in the western European theatre, CFS3 plus the ETO Expansion - especially if you're prepared to play to its tactical air war strengths - is definitely recommended.

 

Disclaimer - I'm listed, rather undeservedly, as a contributor to the ETO Expansion, though my contribution consisted of precisely one set of skins, for this 'wellenmuster' Ju88 with optional worn temporary black undersurfaces, which I was very flattered to be asked to have included in this great free mod.

 

[Pat Pattle]

Thank you 33Lima, another thoroughly enjoyable tale! 

[Grizzly50]

Yes, 33Lima, great review.

[33LIMA]

My pleasure, and thank YOU guys for this great mod, still going strong!

[33LIMA]

PS - CFS3 ETO Expansion now looks even better, thanks to Ankor's DX9 mod, which adds dynamic self-shadowing to aircraft and reflective water textures and works with conventional or modded CFS3 installations, as well as OFF and WOFF:

 

 

 

...and the Bf 110 featured in this mission report, in the latest (July 2016) version of Ankor's mod - no more fishe-eye lens external view:

 

 

Available here.