Here:



Official release:

*Fly three of the best fighters of the First World War
*Set in the First World War, recreating the greatest battles over France.
*3 campaigns featuring high-flying combat action set in the last four months of the war during the Allied counter-offensive to push the German army out of France.
*Random mission generator for maximum flexibility and replayability.
Campaign missions are also randomly generated for a different outcome each time you play.
*Fully scalable difficulty options to challenge both novice and expert pilots.
*Open architecture for future expansions and user mod support.

"Review" at Playcom:

First Eagles is an air-combat game for PC that aims to recreate the romance, adventure, and excitement of engaging in great air battles over the trenches of France during the First World War.
The player-flyable aircraft include three of the best fighters of the First World War: French SPAD XIII, German Fokker D.VIIF, and British Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a. The player can join the newly formed US Air Service, British Royal Air Force, French Military Aviation, or Imperial German Air Service and engage in the desperate struggle to control the sky over the trenches.

It will be released in Europe first this time, still finalising a distributor Stateside and in other areas.

You can purchase a copy online:

http://www.play.com/Games/PC/4-/3250869/First_Eagles_The_Great_Air_War_1918/Product.html

We'll answer as many questions as possible, so have at it - line forms on the left!



Gramps

18 quid delivered to the door. Dam that's good!

Cool! I've been looking for information on this sim all over the place. The only mention I could find on the Thirdwire site was in the Forums, nothing on the main page at all. Very odd way of promoting it.

Ok, some questions.

a) The sim is being released with just three flyable aircraft correct? Are more planned? How many non flyable aircraft are there?

b) How many missions in any one campaign?

c) Does the campaign cater for leave, injury, promotion, medals etc a la RB3D? Are there accurate maps covering the frontline France? Is there any movement/action at ground level?

d) What variety of missions are available to be flown? Ie is it just air combat, or are there ground missions, recon, bombing etc?

e) How many aircraft can be in the sky at one time? How big are the dodfights?

f) Is this a stand alone sim or does it dovetail in with the rest of the Thirdwire products?

That'll do for starters.

OK Pips, I'll answer what I can (The sim isn't on the PC I'm using at the moment).

Four flyables, although the Fokker is a two-fer, so only 3 actual aircraft. There are no more official flyables planned that I know of, but The Community has some surprises in store! from memory there's another 4 or so AI only aircraft, which are but a few minutes of notepad time away from being flyable.

There are two Campaigns, how many missions is up to how successful you are (or aren't!).

The Campaign works in the same way as all previous SF series Campaigns. The maps are accurate, as far as I know, with some action at ground level on the frontline (tanks only at the moment, but The Community will also provide more variety, with time), remember this is an air-to-air (lite) sim though.

Again from memory, the mission types are:

Offensive Patrol
Defensive Patrol
Intercept (the Bosch are often attacking your field as you take off!)
Army Co-operation
Bombing
Balloon Attack
Balloon Defense
Armed Reconaissance
Reconaissance

Same size as other ThirdWire titles, but again you can tweak them with notepad, and you can also (in Single Missions) select up to 16 aircraft for your side, so up to 24 or so I suppose (stock). Also keep in mind these aircraft are the most highly detailed of the stock aircraft so far, medium detail is about the same as high on SF, for example.

Both! Totally stand alone, or if you want you can import other era. Some of us already have 1920's, 1930's and WW2 installs of this sim!

Next!

Cheers

Gramps

Thanks for the quick answers Gramps, I appreciate it. Just another question if I may.

Will information on additions ot the sim be posted here? Is there anyone in particular(including yourself) that we should be watching for these additions?

They'll be posted at the usual places. Here, CombatAce, and the Forums at ThirdWire. The usual suspects (including the A-Team) will be bringing the mods to The Community.



Gramps

this forums will Prolly Be Changed to..... "SF:P1/FF:WB/SF:G/WoV/WoE/FE:TGW"

Gramps:
Thanks for the info.
Having never run a European computer (I'm in the US), is there a difference in the CD of each place? I mean...could I mail order the sim from Europe to the US and have it run the same here in my US computer ?
I know VHS is not the same (for example).
Sorry for such a basic question, but I just do not know and am willing to order from Europe if it will work.
Thanks.

No difference & absolutely.
I originally got my copy of SF P1 from Canada.
Bear in mind though that European market prices/currency exchange rates/carriage may make it seem dear to those of you used to US pricing.

For some reason I am really looking forward to this one... I hope it becomes available soon in the US.