Hi all

In Roleplaying, there's the concept of "in-time" and "out-time" meaning "In character" behaviour, and "out of character" behaviour.

This thread is for the later. A place to discuss the game, the campaign, your holidays, or other things without the need to be a British or Luftwaffe Fighter pilot.

I'll start:

I have to say, I'm toroughly happy with how things are turning out here.

First, yesterday was pretty cool because it seems many of us flew the same intercept against a very similar raid for the RAF. As we, as single pilots, can not change the course of the battle much, I expect that the AI-controlled strategic campaigns will actually remain quite "coherent" with each other. So when we report on things in our game, they will often match things in other people's game, generating a "meta-campaign environment" that wraps us all in. I find this very immersive.

Second, today was the first time (and I had the game since before the 2.10 release) that I flew with a full squadron, without having been jumped first by 109s, into a bomber formation and saw an orderly focused attack develop. The sound of the Hurri engines as each Squadron member breaks out and into the attack line, the sight of seeing these guys hit into the Emils... was one of the most awesome flightsimming moments ever. I was chasing my Green Leader when he shot down an Emil in a turn, and the picture how that bird went down smoking in front of some very large clouds over the open sea - this game is like an aviation art painting sometimes.

I'd love to see a few more people sign up, but for now this is just great. I hope all here will make it trough the summer motivated and fly as regularly as possible.

Also, if you look at yesterday's After Action Reports, we have an awesome number of views, which to me means that other people are interested and following this historical reenacement of the Battle.

Concering holidays:

I'll be leaving the country on friday this week, and will be gone till the following thursday. Heinkill or Itkovian will certainly take over the daily thread generation and summary. I'll again be gone for four days around the 6th August, and for 10 days in late September (I might actually miss the Battle of Britain day... or maybe I can get Wifi in my Maltese hotel room).

I suggest if someone goes on holidays, to provide a backstory in the last AAR before leaving.

Aye, I am loving how things are working out.

As for when you are gone, I'll be happy to generate the threads, though the summaries might have to wait for your return (for one thing, I don't know how to lock the threads).

In any case, the summaries are more for posterity I think. I can quickly imagine us collating all the daily threads when this is all over, and preserving them (and the summaries) for future visitors to read long after the campaign is over.

Great work everyone.

Itkovian

I ditto the above; I'm sure Itkovian loves my character!

I leave for my hols on the 31st of July or thereabouts

I'm actually not locking the threads, I'm just editing the initial post (and thus the thread title) to read "summarized & closed" once the day has passed. I actually did that too early yesterday, but I knew I'd not have web access today so I summarized them early.

Since only the creator of a thread can edit the initial post, it would be your's or Heinkills work to edit. But I can write the summaries if you don't find the time, you'd just have to paste them in.

I absolutely plan to keep the daily summaries in a campaign log, maybe even mirror them against real life daily summaries to see if the flow of our campaign here manages to stay somewhat historical. In my day job, I'm often bored (I'm an IT Admin in a kind of "Fire Department wait for emergency" role) so usually I should have time at around 10:00 Central European Time to work trough the threads.

I've also been talking with Doug about regularly appearing News Bulletins like yesterday, which will be like weekly newspaper articles on the Battle.

If anyone here is interested to help me write those, I'm happy to have some help.

For the VEF IL-2 online war, back in the day, we even had a virtual "Der Adler" publication on our Squadron website, with a newspaper style layout and pictures. But I'd run out of time for that if I tried.

For me, the experience of this campaign so far has been overwhelmingly more immersive than any "just for myself" SPC campaign in the past. I think that's why it's good to have as much "meta summaries" and "meta background" spanning all involved squadrons.

I do, they're fun to read. Just don't shoot the CO's dog, alright?

Itkovian

We'll see

Regarding the early closing of yesterdays summary, I actually had a late encounter with the luftwaffe off selsey bill at 19.55 hrs! I bagged a Me110, but just as touched down at westhampnett
a small hand reached up and grabbed the joystick and I nosed in, writing off my hurricane. The small hand belonged to my 15 month old daughter, an issue that I'm sure didn't occur in the real BoB!
I decided not to write up an combat report for the mission as it seemed unfair to have the crash logged against me, but to try and claim the Me110 wouldn't be cricket either.
We need a standing order - 'No children in the cockpit' (after bed time!)

If I was you, I'd have claimed the Me-110 and ignored the crash. I already ignored two crashes due to the insane wind and gusts (see gameproblem thread). I know I can land and takeoff, so when the game (or real life) throws stuff at me that isn't normal, I ignore it.

I am planning on writing all my characters reports in letters; and if it gets tedious then they will be snippets of reports to the IO. If I have time in this weather, I may aim to build the squadron up with fictional pilots and a few other not-so fictional ones.
At this time, I may also run my 19 squadron parallel. Maybe Moggy and Silk are destined to meet in the future?

Also, testerday I scored four victories in the best combat I have played in BoB2. It really was enthrawling playing a mission without time-skipping or anything. Seeing the raid get bigger is a magical feeling (and quite scary in some ways).
But the victories against the stukas were a bit too easy. I literally only pressed the gun button for less than a second, and each one caught fire or blew up. It goes to show what hitting them in the right spot can do.

Sometimes you get a bit of luck, and things go down easily. Other times you may empty half your magazines in a target and they refuse to go down.

Had that happen to me on the 10th with those Stukas. I was a bit rusty mind you, but those buggers didn't want to die.

On the other hand, in a previous SPC (with the 151) I ended up downing 5 Me109s in one sortie. It was glorious, and also was exactly like you describe. I set something like 3 of them brewing in a single burst. Lucky hits is all it takes.

Of course, the problem is the same applies to your own aeroplane. Sometimes you will soak up bullets like crazy and have no problems, but sometimes the only warning you'll get that you have someone firing at you is when a wing gets torn off.

Itkovian

Very true. I had changed my gun convergence though from 280 to 230. I may drop it lower, but I'll need to see the postitions I get into in the battle ahead...

Just want to say, brilliant aars everybody! I like the variety of approaches. I also like the way people capture the reality of the conflict...some are fighting for their lives, while others complain they are stuck on the ground waiting...wasn't this exactly what it was like in July 1940? For both sides. I just finished Steinhilper's 'spitfire on my tail' and he spent the whole of July waiting for action and writing home complaining to his mother either about being bored, or about what a dick Dolf Galland was. Things didn't stay that way for long!

Ps though this is a sim, so if you really are frustrated at your unit not getting into the action why not set up your own patrol or raid? It is very easy...

I set up 19 squadrons engagement. I didn't think it would work, but it did

This really is turning out to be one of the best flight sim based experiences I've had - and I've been flying them in all sorts of guises since the early 1980's.
You know, I don't even mind about ending up on the ground for a day - it's the anticipation of what could happen!

I know for a fact that flying every day is an impossibility for me due to work & family, but what I'm doing is using a random number generator online to pick the duty rota for flying each day. Each character in my squad has a number from 1 to 24 and I just get it to pick 11 values in a closed sequence between 2 and 24 (1 is the CO, and he always flies at the moment). This way, sometimes I'll be in the air, others on the ground.
Being on the ground though still means that I can play the campaign but just accel time through a whole day and note the results at the end. I've found this can take as little as 10mins and it's something I can fit into the "checking my email" routine.


Too true!
Flew my first sortie today. was determined to do it realtime from takeoff to landing. We actually ended up scrambling from Kenley alongside the resident Spit squadron - 24 RAF fighters on the off at the same time. When we actually started to get ready to merge from the intercept it really was superb. You get so focused on the job in hand that the rest of the world just ceases to exist for that moment in time.


Rob
(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

I actually do not want to die! I have never played a sim so carefully before (I don't fly online) and I am avoiding risks (just as pilots then might have) which I'd usually take in any other sim.

And CPS, I am marvelling at your AAR's. I am keeping a track of a few fictional pilots in the squadron, but making a hole squadron! I take my hat off to you for that

This really is awesome everyone. Best sim experience ever.

Just some general info: We now have three threads "pinned" to the forum header graphic. We keep the "Technical/Game Problems" thread freefloating for now - it might eventually sink to the bottom. This one here is freefloating too. Between these two threads, we should be able to handle all requests, ideas and problems that come up "out of game time". Anything else goes into the AAR threads.

As I discussed with Philip today, the entire board is in fact on Giant After Action Report. That always was the idea behind setting it up as subsection of the AAR forum. So we try to minimize the threads that are not AAR related, as they kind of "break the storyline".

I think the way it's running now makes sense and will give us a great experience.

Oh, one very minor thing with the AARs:

All you guys are talented writers. You just gotta be careful when you quote BBCs total tallies for the day and they don't match or anything else that relates to other squadrons or the war as a whole.

Normally this is the stuff I try to put in the closing summary for the day, since then I can make it so that nothing new contradicts it.

For example, if someone writes "No.151 came to our aid" and I post below that No.151 was not flying the entire day, then we are creating divergent realities. I understand what you're trying to do, but often it's easier to be a bit more vague in terms.

What we're really doing here - to quote myself - is writing one Giant After Action Report, a Giant Open-Ended Story about the Battle of Britain. The more we build upon each other's story elements, the better the result will be.

Fair point. Ive edited my last AAR (12th July) with regards to the BBC report I mentioned. The number I originally quoted was taken from the end of day summary of my SPC. Will leave them out from now on as far as tallies go

Previously it read:


Now it reads:


Think this keeps it more in keeping with the bigger picture as far as air combat results go.

As far as targets/assets are concerned (airfields, RDF's, factories, convoys etc), I think as a whole we should still mention them by name if we fly patrols/intercepts/raids over them, however if we experience one or more of them taking heavy damage but it's not specific to any mission we ourselves flew on that day, then maybe we should (if we feel the need to mention their destruction at the time) just say something along the lines of:

Enough detail to be of interest to the reader, but vague enough not to break the flow of the AAR summaries.

Thanks for the compliments on the AAR's I've done so far. It's been great reading all the others. The collective imagination here could write a script for a Hollywood war movie that actually makes sense, is interesting and is (dare I say it) historically correct better than the over paid buffoons employed by the industry

Keeping tabs on a whole squadron is easy at the mo. It's all down to random numbers.... a roll of the dice so to speak and a bit of lady luck thrown in. A bit like surviving a world war or any other conflict I guess. One day that number coming up may be yours, and fate has decided there is nothing you can do about it.

Rob
(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

You got it, Bomber. Generally speaking, you can always comment on the AARs above you - they are already written, so you can quote stuff from them. But at the same time it's good practice to not touch stuff that an AAR below your's might mention (like the activities of another player squadron).

You can always comment on Squadrons NOT registered to a player.

Also agree about the damage reporting.


Additional info: Doug, the Site Admin, just suggested to mark all "administrative" threads as "Reference:" So now we have a handful of "Reference" threads, and the AAR threads. That will make it easer to visually unclutter the forum reading.


Oh, and dare I say I actually enjoyed NOT fighting today.

Wiglaf is still on convalescent leave in Amiens... but the MO will pass him fit for service soon, and he'll be back on front line duty this Saturday by the latest.

Congratulations to those who have made it to Ace already! Well done! This shows a level of skill and mastery of aerial combat that one simply would have expected not from the simple and rustic Britischers! But watch out - I will soon be on your tails!

All the best!

- Argy

P.S. Here is the conversation that Mr. Hitler has in store for your Churchill when he demands his unconditional surrender! I expect to hear this broadcast on the wireless very soon!


Sorry, but I just couldn't resist

Just a note that my 85-Squadron 'Moggy' Cattermole posts will be in black, and my Silk (or Silko as he's nicknamed) 19 squadron ones will be in blue

Sounds doable for me.

BTW, I like the format of your letters, very good reading - but if you can do me a favor: Fill out the standard combat report too, and then write the letter below it.

When I'm doing the evening summary for each side, the things I'm looking for most are the kills/losses count for each squadron and the location/type of enemy formation. With the standard report form, I can quickly glance this information over for each squadron, but it takes a lot more time to filter that out of your letter format. So maybe if you can just fill out half the combat report with the main things (kills, losses, location, type of enemy AC), it would save me some time.

BTW, the summaries for Day3 are already written, but Itkovian will have to insert them since we haven't managed yet to sort out how to edit each other's postings.

I'll edit my AAR to remove the BBC mention. And the summaries have been added.

That said, if we mention squadrons and actions out of turn, chalk that up to the fog of war. Our pilots were simply mistaken (which, let's face it, they very frequently were).

Itkovian

True enough. The BBC just struck me as a particularly bad examples since all pilots would have heard the same news

The best thing really is to enjoy reading the other people's report before posting your own (at least that's how I do it), half the fun is in the reading anyway. And you'll quickly recognize how to adapt your post to the already exsisting day account.

OK, I will edit my posts sometime today with that as well

A small summary will do. Just so I don't have to manually keep tally of your exploits between all the paragraphs.

And congrats on turning Ace today

I think there's something wrong with the Stuka Defensive Gunners. Or maybe they ought to be flying in a more layered formation. Easy pickings right now, but that will change if we face 50+ Heinkels or Ju-88.

I have been thinking that as well. When I attacked in my spit, I was flying at basically no throttle and was only getting slight resistance. It was quite easy. But when the formations of escorts increases as well, we'll have a tough fight too...

I don't know, the Stukas I faced were quite menacing quite frankly. Then again, maybe it's more difficult because I put the LW skill modifier to High. I just need to learn not to get on their 6 to shoot them down.

That said, Stukas SHOULD be easy pickings. They were in RL, after all.

Itkovian

That's a thought; I haven't changed that skill modifier. Still, I find I get into some great scraps with the 109's so I may leave it as it is.

I never realised how great a target the Stuka's are though. Normally when playing this phase, I have run into the escort before the bombers, but running into the Stuka's first I have found I can get in real close and down one with a quick squirt, leaving a lot more ammo to go after some more.
I should try and get print-screens of my AAR. At the moment it certainly doesn't look historical, but I've played it as closely as I can to real life and I haven't cheated.
I am also making sure I land at home all the time as well, whereas I used to play the campaign and just alt-x out. Trying to make it home can be fun as well

I was hoping that a Medium Skill modifier will give us some bad, some really good, and a large amount of average pilots, whereas I'm worried that a high skill modifier will mean lots of Aces, no recruits. I've been shot down by 109s in the past, so they can be pretty deadly to me at current settings.

And the bomber defensive fire is something else anyway.

So far my problem is that I've been running into big Me109 "adds" in my missions, usually from other raids, or perhaps as escort groups that were previously distracted.

The sim has a great scaling system that ensures you don't get a whole pile-on, which sends only a proportional amount of enemy fighters to engage your squadron. So when, for example, you come into contact with a raid that has 4 squadrons of escort, the sim will only send 1 squadron to attack you. Essentially, the escort squadron get peeled off one by one whenever an RAF squadron makes contact.

So when you make an intercept, your goal should be to identify if any escorts are breaking to attack you. If so, especially if they're 109s, it is wise to have your squadron attack them (and leave the bombers to be attacked by another RAF squadron, you've done your part by taking care of some of the escorts).

However, one problem is that this proportional response only applies within a single raid (or so it seems). That means that if you run into another raid (and perhaps an escort group that was not present when you made contact), then you will get ANOTHER squadron attacking you (and so will the other RAF squadrons, depending on how many additional attackers there are). At which point the situation can turn very deadly for the RAF.

This seems to be more true at higher skill levels (note that I am using the dynamic SPC AI skills added in 2.10, but I did put the LW skill modifier to high in the config menu). I also raised the RAF skills accordingly, and limited the AI to 2 fighters per target (against AI and player). But even so, the simple fact is that 2 vs 1 can be very nasty, and the increase skill makes it deadlier still (it means, for example, that the higher gunnery of the 2nd attacker is more likely to land a crippling blow before the defender even has the chance to use his higher evasive skills).

The end result is that when the odds go against me, things can go _very_ badly indeed. That's why I order my squadron to RTB, as sticking around is suicide in those cases. Unfortunately, the AI RAF squadrons don't know better and tend to get clobbered as they try to stick around. The good news is that this can run both ways: when WE outnumber the LW we do quite well. But so far I've been unlucky with the additional groups of 109s showing mid-battle.

Maybe the latter is due to my not waiting for my unit to make contact before fragging in (I hop in on take-off, and use map acceleration to get to the initial point). At worst, if I keep getting jumped by additional raids like that, I will change the AI modifiers back for a bit (but not for a week at least). That said, as I recall things get less insane when the true raids start, problem with convoy raids is sometimes they are quite close to one another, and enemy raids overlap.

Either way, it's definitely a lot of fun to look out for your squadron like that. My heart went up in my throat when I looked up and saw the full squadron of 109s bouncing us in the last mission.

Itkovian

Hehe, welcome to History

As I see it (and read it), the Luftwaffe had the advantage of deciding when and where to strike. While the RAF spent long hours patroling over every convoy, the Luftwaffe picked one and hit it in full force.

Logically, this seems sound and realistic to me. It also means you'll be badly outnumbered often.

I admit I still haven't figured out how to direct my AI. I'm not using padlock, and PL seems to be at the core of the combat radio system.

The way it works, as detailed by Buddye, assuming you have the settings right, is that he randomly determines the skill level of each plane, and then applies a modifier based on your setting. That modifier is negative for below medium, and positive for above medium.

What this means is that, yes, there wouldn't be any recruits anymore at High LW skills. It would also means that there are more Aces than at normal, but it wouldn't result in a whole gaggle of aces either. The random factor remains, it's just that scale has shifter upwards a bit.

I think that the end result is as follows:

1- Dogfighting is generally more fun, as you have to contend with better opponents.

2- 2vs1 situations and getting bounced are deadlier than at normal. Increased AI in such a situation inherently benefits the attacker more than the defender, since usually in this case the defender is either unaware of the attacker or is busy lining up a shot on his target (until the defender goes evasive, his increased AI is nullified).

Of course, the problem then is simple. If the side you are flying is constantly outnumbered or getting bounced, then playing at medium is probably better.

I'll see how it goes. If it gets excessive I'll drop it down to medium (the problem being that you can only change it when you frag in... the base AI modifiers are set when you start the campaign as I recall). But so far I just think I've been unlucky with additional raids entering the battlespace and their escorts attacking.

Itkovian

I think if you save the campaign after you changed it by fragging, it should stick. You could also always launch a 12th August "clean sheet" campaign with new settings if you find it's been set too hard.

From other campaigns I have played in BoB2, the 109's only get worse from this point on...
Thankfully I have yet to run into the 109's on their own, although both my squadrons seem to be playing well against them. I think things are going to get interesting in August/September.

If it gets too bad I'll reduce the skills accordingly. I've done another SPC with these skills setting, and I was luckier in those instances.

Again, this isn't a question of them striking with a huge raid that overwhelms us. The game engine has a proportional response system that is designed not to have 4 squadrons attacking you at once (which would be wrong anyway, as then the bombers would immediately lose cover). The problem is I've been unlucky with other raids or free hunting flights stumbling into our area as we are already battling our normal foes.

It happens, hopefully it won't be too often.

Itkovian

Actually, I have played a campaign and literally run away from an engagement with 109's. In this instance, I time-skipped on the 2D map, and a gaggle of 109's followed me home and strafed me when I tried to land. It was a bit odd to say the least!

This game is truly a hate/love affair. Had a bunch of problems today scrambling a manual intercept (see the game problems thread), had a CTD to desktop and a very weird "duplicate No.151 squadron" bug.

And then I had the most random, funny, interesting fight of my life, as written in my AAR.

If you issue the 'bugger this lets go home' command the enemy AI will disengage. Not widely advertised because it is a form of 'cheat' which came about when Buddye developed the code to stop AI slaughtering AI units which had disengaged...but useful to know if the above happens again!

Very interesting summary for the 4th Day RAF reports. It seems we are still getting the same kind of raids (place, time, size) because five of yesterday's intercept match to at least one other report by a different squadron.

It's almost as if we were flying in a multiplayer event.

It is quite interesting isn't it?

BTW, I'd like to remind people to always save their game every minute or so. Yesterday I had a CTD in game, so had to start from the beginning of the day again which was annoying; especially because it had been a half-hour or more stooge.

Generally I never had this sort of problem. But then again I fly as Sqn. Ldr., which gives you many more options.

In any case, when I see we're in trouble, I use R-4-something (Return to Base). And I can confirm that the AI still behaves realistically in those situation. It doesn't immediately break and isn't immediately left alone by the AI.

However, it is true the AI does not chase them back to base, which is very realistic given their fuel limitations.

Itkovian

Hmm, I can't remember which position I was flying with then. I used to always fly as squadron leader, but am enjoying my position as Green leader.

Have you guys had a read here yet:
http://battleofbritainblog.com/

I just checked it out, and I think it will truly well fit within/next to our AARs. This is the blog that actually triggered the campaign idea. I dropped a comment in the "about" section linking here.

Nicked from the Storm of War Forum:
http://www.cockpitinstrumente.de/archiv/Dokumente/ABC/m/Messerschmitt/Me%20110/ME110-manual.pdf

English Language Me-110 flying manual. Should be nice to have for the resident Luftwaffles.

Edit: Actually reading trough it, you get to realize what a fine mechanical thing this aircraft was. The workings of the controls, starter operations, even down to the rectractable ladder for entering the cockpit sound as cleverly designed as any modern General Aviation Aircraft.

It certainly is intersting to compare. What I have found is that the campaign generates missions very close to that which happened in reality, however choosing to scramble your own squadron will (of course) change the flow of events.

I'm wondering if the convoy routes are entirely random, or based on some historic table. Right now, it's the convoy placement more than anything else that defines where we fly our missions.

A lot of it is random. When I had my CTD the other day, the events weren't exactly the same as before which proves this.
Take my 19 squadron campaign; already 40 a/c have been shot down in one day which I found astounding for that day. Also, I got the message for increased bomber formations earlier than in my 85 squadron campaign so I am not sure which part of the campaign triggers this...

RSColonel - just a little thing you may want to correct in the end of day summary for the 13th July (RAF). The CO of 54 Squadron needs to have the word "Major" removed... should just be "Squadron Leader Dunsworth" I believe?


Cheers
Rob
(P/O RNH)


CPS_Bomber

Keep in mind that the kill rate in 3D is much higher than in the 3D map. The 2D map tries to preserve an accurate level of kills, while the 3D sim can be a LOT more lethal than it was in reality.

This is mostly due to the sim AI being far more persistent than in reality. In short, pilots are not anywhere near as cautious as the real ones were (who would often do things like turn home the moment they think they have a kill, and would very rarely "latch on" to someone for fear of someone killing them).

Even we players are not as accurate. On average, we tend to fly like the most bloodthirsty of pilots, as we don't really fear as much for our lives. In reality, tailing an enemy would not be done for more than a few seconds for fear of someone doing the same for you, and most pilots would turn for home the moment they could not see anyone else.

The end result is a more fun flying experience... but it also means you have to be very wary of situations when you are heavily outnumbered.

Itkovian

Very true, I have never really thought of it but my flying is quite bloodthirsty

CPS, you may be right, but to me S/L sounds like a function title, not a rank... and the game gives the option to only launch 1 plane on an intercept, the "Squadron Major".

If it's truly incorrect, I ought to remove it... anyone knows for sure?

Squadron Leader is a rank. The RAF ranks can be found below:

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

I admit, I rather like having my Sqn Ldr commander flag on my kite. Very nice little detail that is absolutely unnecessary, and yet adds a lot to the atmosphere.

Itkovian

Trust me my friend, I'm ex Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) for 6 years teaching aircraft recognition, plus I was in the cadet force (The Air Training Corps) before that - I know the ranks available!

Major is what you'd find in the British Army or German Luftwaffe among others.

Commissioned Officers, 1940 period, flying ranks:

P/O or Pilot Officer
F/O or Flying Officer
Flt Lt or F/L or Flight Lieutenant
Sqn Ldr or S/L or Squadron Leader
Wg Cdr or W/C or Wing Commander


Squadron Leader is very rarely if ever used as a job title in service (ie someone in command of a squadron), it is a rank first and foremost. Commanding Officer or C.O. should be used to denote the officer in charge of a squadron. "Boss" or "Skipper" are popular informal terms to denote and refer to the commanding officer, and are generally used amongst the men (on the Commanding Officer's approval of course).
It has often been the case where Officers of higher rank (Wing Commanders for example) are in the position of Commanding an RAF squadron - they are still referred to as the Commanding Officer... they wouldn't be called Squadron Leader as it would technically be a verbal demotion.

Cheers!
Rob

(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

Aah, interesting. Good information.

That said, I read in some books mentions of the commanding officer being referred to as "OC" (as in Officer Commanding, I guess). Was CO the vernacular, or OC? Calling someone the CO and XO feels more american to me, for some reason.

Not that I know much about the British armed services after the napoleonic wars, mind you.

Itkovian

Who thinks RAF press gangs would be great.

Yes, O.C. is also used, but it's more in the sense of:

"The C.O. is W/C Dunsworth"

or (as in a letter)

"Signed, W/C Dunsworth, O.C. 54 Squadron"


XO is most definately an American thing (Executive Officer). In the RAF, this is (as good as for comparison) the Adjutant or "Adj". It is Different to the Second in Command or 2IC.

Adj is again a job title, not a rank in the RAF, as depending on the unit and it's manpower, you can have an Adj thats a F/O (Flying Officer) or even a Squadron Leader if the O.C. is say a Wing Commander.
Be aware that Adj can be an actual rank in other military forces (Frence Air Force for Example).

Not too confusing, eh?

Cheers!
Rob

(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

Okay, I yield

Hein, your 15th July Stuka AAR almost killed me.

"The engine stopped."

"They usually do, when they are under water."

.

Thanks for the info, CPS. Very enlightening.

Itkovian

I'm seriously expecting the Stuka career to be a short one. So far have nearly been shot down in three of four missions. In WoP there are really only a couple of decent stuka missions to use as templates, with targets including shipping, dover port, dover RDF, manston or hawkinge airfields, or canterbury AAA. The AI escorts are usually outnumbered. I have greater respect for any Stuka pilot who actually got bombs on target in the face of fighter opposition...I certainly can't.

Gentlemen, as previously said, I'm leaving the country tomorrow, until wednesday evening.

I might have internet, but I won't fly. "Thankfully" yesterday's terrible results will keep No.151 grounded anyway for another two or three days, so I'm not missing out on any flying.

I'm leaving it to Itkovian or Heinkill to create tomorrow's (16th July) AAR threads so they can edit the daily summaries into their own posts.

Please all keep up the excellent style and work. It's been a most pleasurable flightsim experience so far.

As a reminder to all, if the current day AAR threads aren't up when you want to report, please save to file (notepad or word) and post later.

Lets try to keep the daily threads "clean" of any administrative or not-in-person comments. They are the core of our "roleplaying" here, so I'd like to leave real world comments out of them.

Yes I will apologise before hand for doing that

No need to apologize, we didn't communicate that very clearly so it's mostly our fault.

As an information for all, I would say the general idea is to keep the daily AAR threads totally "in character", "in-time" (as roleplaying slang goes). So no reference to "my game", "my campaign", "my pilot got killed..." - when you're posting in the AAR thread, you ARE the person you registered your squadron with. This is the best and easiest way to keep atmosphere and immersion for the many readers of the daily AARs (many of whom aren't flying with us, but enjoy reading the historical semi-fiction we're creating here).

For the "administrative stuff" where we talk about the game as a game, conceptual suggestions or general questions happen in this thread, problems and solutions have their own thread, and some stuff can also go into the registration or rules threads.

I hope this makes things clearer.

just to add that this is interesting; 85 was due to intercept the convoy off the coast of northfolk yesterday and I accidentally simmed the action in the 2D map and it said WHISKEY was all but wiped out. when I reverted to a save-game and flew the mission i was able to save it. Certainly intersting that our events, CPS, are similar!
Unfortunately I had to bail out in the mission but it is interesting that a lot of our events match.

I've been saving the progress of each day at 06:00, 12:00 and 19:00 plus straight after landing if any flights take place for my sqn), so I've reloaded the saves from the 15th to see how things panned out.

The convoy was also WHISKY, and as of 12:00hrs 10 out of 12 ships had been damaged or sunk. 54 Sqn were providing cover when a raid of 100+ Me110 & Ju87 attacked.
66, 242, 222 and 253 were all scrambled, but all too late. 54 got stuck with the Me110's and the Stukas finished off the convoy. They were turning for home when the rest of the RAF sqns arrived. It was a short fight with 2 losses each for the RAF and the Luftwaffe. Looks like the Luftwaffe wanted to head home due to fuel, and the RAF sqns were reluctant to give chase (again likely due to fuel).

615 (my sqn) is having a lovely peaceful war right now! If things don't hot up as we head into August, I may request a transfer to another unit briefly.... however as I'm just south of London, I know that September will be more than busy as should the end of August! Oh, the agony of choice!

Anyway, for now I've intoduced a domino league for the pilots of 615 to keep them occupied It's fun learning the proper rules myself at last! If you'd have said to me a few weeks ago that inbetween flights I'd start learning traditional English pub games just to write fictional AAR's, I don't think I'd have believed you!

It's also a chance to revisit some old favorite history books while waiting for the scramble bell and refresh the old memory on events elsewhere in the conflict at this time.

Rob
(P/O RNH)


CPS_Bomber

Hmm, interesting that 85 got scrambled for me...
I mean, I had put them on standby but I hadn't set them up for that raid.
But it matches my events; although 54 were absent for me

I am sure things will hot up in August...it's the calm before the storm. I may stop setting up raids for 85 because although we've got a lot of kills for only a couple of losses, I think that (come August) we may need every pilot possible..
saying that, we just got some new planes (a new VY-R for me :D) and we have a full squadron so morale is excellent

Oh yes, august gets very busy indeed. Nothing beats it, quite frankly. Once you hit Eagle Day not a day goes by you don't get multiple very large raids.

The nice part is we now get eased into the routine. By the time the real raiding starts, we'll be pretty good at it.

Itkovian

well, 85 have been on holiday in my SPC!
They've only flown twice - both on the 11th. First was an uneventful patrol over a convoy (strangely the exact same spot where Whisky was to be destroyed on the 15th), and a little later an intercept where they got stuck in with 36 unescorted Stukas, claiming 4 for no loss.

Out of interest, what RAF squadron would you all say has been the most active so far in your own campaigns? Is it your own or an AI controlled unit?

In mine, 1, 32, 54, 501 and 151 all seem to be being run ragged on an equal measure - but thats just from memory and their icons seemingly being on the map almost continuously. Will have to take a look at the squadron diaries now to see for sure!

Rob
(P/O RNH)


CPS_Bomber

IN mine, 1, 32, 501, and 242 have seen a lot of action. 54 doesn't seem to do much for some reason...

Up to 19:30hrs on 16th July, here are my most active:

32 - 9 sorties
501 - 11 sorties
151 - 13 sorties
54 - 15 sorties
1 - 17 sorties
66 - 8 sorties
242 - 7 sorties
213 - 10 sorties
238 - 9 sorties
152 - 12 sorties
234 - 8 sorties

Not including those in 13Grp, there are a number of units spread amongst 11/12/10Grps that still haven't flown at all. The majority seem to have just 1, 2, 3 or 4 sorties under their belts.

Rob
(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

66 have had more action than I thought. I am wishing now that I'd picked them instead of 19 squadron for my spit campaign...

In mine both 32 and 501 have been posted to 13 Group without having suffered much in the way of casualties.

There are patterns but there are variations too.

Interestingly today I flew 2 patrols over Totem but no enemy, In my Luftwaffe campaign the strikes set up against this convoy were aborted as too long a range, hence no attacks.

Having a lot of fun with this after being away from sims for a while.

S!

Its funny, my groups morale is plummeting (its now poor) and we aren't even flying that much and the flights we do get go pretty well. I mean we shot down like 25+ aircraft on the last flight, and only lost 5 machine 3 pilots. You'd think there'd be a party, but no apparently its just a wake.

Was one of those lost pilots the CO? Units take a huge morale hit when the CO is kia.

Slightly OT, but I did a little bit of minor skin personalisation today.
A couple of factors made me choose 43sqn and Tangmere. Firstly the history of the squadron and Tangmere (see WC HR Allen's 'Fighter Station Supreme'). Secondly I have some friends who I visit regularly that happen to live midway between Chichester and Tangmere, so about a mile and a half from the airfield directly under the east/ west runway approach. (It's a 17th century cottage, so was there during 1940. I keep meaning to go into object adds and place it.) Every time I visit I can't help but look up and think back...

I'm flying Green Two (FT-Y) in particular because I happen to have a die cast model of that aircraft sitting on my desk:


It's also (by co-incidence) the aircraft depicting 43sqn on the RAF BoB site:


As you can see, the aircraft bears the no. P3386. Now so does my in-game crate. I also added a kill mark below the cockpit, hopefully the first of many!

Just a little out of character background I thought may be of interest.

Cool! I'm not using Multiskin, maybe I should. Used to paint my IL-2 kills by hand...

My character's just come out of convalescent leave today. He'll be flying tomorrow, transferred to a new gruppe (I / ZG.26 are now Category C and out of the fight.)

Keep it up chaps! Well done to all so far!

- Argy

P/O Charles Anderson little brother, Gustav Anderson is sure to come from a OTU tomorrow, with luck he will be posted to 11 grp... as you have read, Charles and his mates in 501 were sent to Scotland on the 12th of july and he grows bored without combat.

so stay tuned

also, my real me will be traveling from the 4th to the 11th August, but hope to be back for the heavy days of mid august.

and remember todays weather was poor in France, you know jerry gets lost over water... LOL

Convoy phase is so boring for Luftwaffe side, unless you fly a Stuka. Most fighter units just sit and watch. The real action in a LW spc only begins August. I hope people hang in...

If anyone wants a transfer to a more active squadron (both Luftwaffe and RAF pilots) then just put it in the registration thread. I don't want anyone to get bored.

Agy, let me know where you end up, so I can update the registration table.

Just hang in there. Things get more exciting later on. Indeed, even late July gets very active.

By the time you hit august, you will be flying so often per day it'll be difficult to keep up.

Itkovian

Agreed!
For most RAF squadron's down in 11Grp, once late July comes you'l be thinking back of those quiet summer days and wishing you were there again

That's why I'm sticking with my original 615 Squadron at Kenley.

Try to resist the tempatation to transfer to another unit unless you've been moved to 13Grp for a rest. Use the quiet days ahead (once you've completed a day in the SPC) to do free flight single missions or practice dogfights & aerobatics. Get some time under your belt in your chosen aircraft and test it as thouroughly as you can - it may save your pilot's life in the days ahead

I've played a number of commander campaigns in BoBII and the original Rowan's BoB....(this is my first ever SPC), and if they're anything to go by, things can get ugly very, very quickly.... boredom is not an option, but virtual death is a very likely possibility!

Rob

(P/O RNH)

CPS_Bomber

If I have time to play today it'll be lucky.....I may not be able to post a report for any action even if I fly. Sorry gents. It'll save you from reading my essays anyway :P

Date it for tomorrow if you have a dud day tomorrow.

Okay Gentlemen, I'll totally drop of this world the next two days. I'll put up the 19th July AAR threads now (a tad early).

Bader, Itkovian and Heinkill have the rights to create new threads for 20th July and 21th July. If you can't find a thread, save to file and try again later.

Please keep the spirit up, looking forward to reading your AARs.

I've given Len a backdated promotion to Pilot Officer as that seems more accurate for him.(Ive edited the previous references)

As far as the amount of action I'm running a 609 SPC alongside this and things have got very hairy indeed.

S!

OK no chance to fly today (18th) so that's 2 days I have missed. Thankfully my letter style benefits for this

No flying time yesterday, and maybe I won't be able to fly today either. If i can't fly today, I have missed 3 days in which case I will put 85 on release and miss any action for that point....
I'll be missing the first half of August as well because I am on holiday so it looks like I'll miss a lot of great action!

If my SPC is anything to judge by, things should be heating up right about.... now.

It'll be fun to see if that's how it works out for everyone. It's interesting to see that there is something of a general pattern emerging (even though the details can be vastly different, probably due to player intervention... like I make sure recon flights are shot down). It's been quiet for everyone these last few days, for example.

Anyway, I think the action will pick up for everyone this week.

Itkovian

OK I have simmed the days up until today. I may have the time to play, but I don't know. In any case I haven't seen any action so there was nothing to add anyway. But certainly the action is heating up.

I noticed that within the Luftwaffe campaign, there are a lot of missions created with the bingo limit broken, that get cancelled later on, especially in the evenings. This looks like a bug to me, but is no great problem.

I only read this thread today, so I just realized, that I should add the General report at the top of my posts. Since it helps you with writing the summaries I will ad them to my posts.
There hasn't been much activity in the Luftwaffe threads for the last two days, but I hope that will change again.

For now, I'm quite happy that I don't have to fly every day since II./JG3 is now down to only 16 planes and morale is quite low... Strangely enough even with a kill ratio of 3:1, morale isn't coming up again, but that might be due to the lack of planes... As far as I can tell, no CO was shot down so far...
But I also realised, that morale is coming up again if there's a day or two of inactivity.

And finally, I wanted to congratulate everybody for the great AARs. They are simply marvellous!
Really immersive!

Talking of immersion, today's 'in-game' raids on Tangmere have actually really been emotional. I do have a real life affection for the place, and it's now a smoking ruin. Reality and sim becoming a little blurred, I'm going to be flying a lot more aggressively and pressing home attacks with much less regard for personal danger from now on, not just from a pure 'roleplay' basis, but because I'm genuinely p*ssed off!

BoB II is simply the most immersive experience I've ever had on any computer, and this campaign has taken it further. I expect a short and bloody career, watch your backs up there boche!

I agree; it's great as well that these events match in all my campaigns too, as Tangmere has been hit in all of them. It is the most immersive sim I have ever flown.

Tangmere is indeed a prime target for the LW, as is every other coastal aerodrome. My guess is that they already know those are Fighter Command, so they don't even need recon to bomb those (I've been busy downing every single recon flight, so in my experience that means they'll start hitting every aerodromes they see now, starting with those they know belong to Fighter Command).

Itkovian

Okay gents, I'm back from my trip, but caught a nice stomach virus to go... so still a little damaged. We have a nice backlog of un-summarized AAR threads, this will take a little to catch up with.

Thanks for keeping up the effort.

If we see no action do we always have to post? I ask because I try to find the time every-day to fly and post, but sometimes I am just too busy. 85 doesn't see a lot of action, but I don't like missing too many intercepts for fear of losses lowering morale.

Well, it shouldn't be more than twice in a row without action. If it is, I guess you can skip some of the no-fly reports. they basically serve to give an overview.

I spoke too soon....poor Peter Townsend.

Just fast-forwarded from 16th to 22th July, and wow, things seem a lot hotter these days. Lots of raids on coastal airfields, also seems like a generally higher sortie raid. I guess the medium LW bomber squadrons are now becoming active in force?

Yup.

Itkovian

Most awesome intercept so far, today. Two Squadrons of Hurris crashing into a group of Me-109s.

And that all in towering clouds, multiple layers of them.

I admit that "1 vs 1" I always had reservations about BOBs fighting compared for example with IL-2, but in a large scale engagement, it's the most awesome sim experience you can have.

On a general note, our group's activity here (in the campaign forum) seems down a little from initial start. Which I guess was to be expected, holidays and all. If we can keep it cooking at current level, I'm not worried.

Some of us are still flying Convoy Patrols or posted North, once the action spreads and squadrons move/pilots get posted we should get more combat reports.

Maybe try and recruit some 'replacement pilots' for some of the other squadrons.Make people aware you can set up a SPC and run it forward to the current date without flying, then when you start flying its like you are a new pilot whose joined the squadron.

Maybe a thread for non players to comment in? and be encouraged to join.


S!

I just keep having no time to fly, let alone post an update. If it's any consolation my squadron is quiet, but it's a shame....

Strangely enough, the Luftwaffe campaigns seem to diverge much more between players than the RAF ones.
In my campaign, the Luftwaffe didn't attack ANY coastal installations or airfields, but in others, they already have changed tactics to do so...

When I was playing July, 24th, I had a lot of problems with CTDs in the campaign mode (i.e. 2D). Had to reload the game at least six times! That really started to get annoying! The day after, everything was fine again. Strange...

Rather bothered that my airfield (westhampnett) has been bombed four days running.Does the campaign engine in SPC mode deliberately pick on the players airfield?
On a different npte I tried posting a pic on yesterdays report but it didn't work. Is there an issue with images hosted on flickr? Or am just being a bit of a thickie?

Flickr should work IMHO...

Manston is all to hell too, but so was Tangmere, Hawkinge... we're getting it good. I don't think it's deliberate.

No, it does not. It just so happens that Tangmere and Westhampnett are coastal aerodromes, and so get hit often.

For example, Biggin Hill hasn't been hit yet, but all coastal aerodromes have been severely raided in my SPC.

Itkovian

Here's a summary of my pilot's career to date and his Squadron's record.
excell spreadsheet feel free to use for yourself.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=38ZLB1IH
S!

Great aars today all. I think after this I'll get the relevant permissions and put them into an eBook for all to enjoy!

We'd tried telling Specs that I'd shot down five, but he wasn't having it and gave me two. What a twat he can be; so I tipped my drink over his head and the mess erupted in a brawl with cushions being chucked around, chairs toppled and drink being spilt everywhere..."

"I recall going to Shanklin on the Isle of Wight as a child. The coloured sands are amazing. I collected them in a test tube and put a stopper in the top..."

"In any case, it was a good day to recover from our short time off, as it were. The boys seem to have enjoyed themselves these last two days, and the effect on morale was palpable..."

"Woken early and told to pack up -Moving to Wittering. I had no idea where that was! Much of the Squadron ground personnel set off by road during the night. We found the place and landed safe and sound. Two other squadrons here -One spit the other hurri. Mean little airfield to squeeze three squadrons on."

"Sitting ducks again... 4 good pilots cashed in their chips and another 8 a/c lost. We simply can't continue like this. After today's casualties I'm apparently taking a section myself in future. Things will be different! "





PS anyone recognise 'Tex O'Hara'?

Hein, the name sounds really familiar to me...or am I imagining things?

I too enjoyed the AAR's today; we both seemed to coincidentally go off on lone missions

Love the new Hein pilot!

Interesting about the campaign: I feel as if we'd be getting the crap kicked out of us. Major airfields being taken out daily, entire squadrons wiped out in a single engagement.

Then you look at the summary so far and realize we're now having double the number of Spits ready to fly as in the begin of the battle.

I think it's a very interesting history lesson to put losses into comparison.

Hint: The book was 'spitfire parade' by...

Ah, Biggles! I still have not read that book yet but for some reason the name is so familiar

See, the sad part about being raised in Quebec, is that the first thing I heard that was remotely connected to Biggles was that Monty Python sketch.

I know better now, of course, but I can't help but call him Don Bigles.

Itkovian

In case nobody noticed, there seems to have been a forum rollback today. Make sure to check the AAR you posted today is still up.

Itkovian

Campaign Promotion

Just to be clear, I'm in no way worried and I'm more than happy with the way the campaign is going.

But we're definitely seeing a drop in views on the daily AAR threads, which means less non-pilots are reading them, and of course some pilots had to cut down their participation a little also. For example I'm missing Radicaldude and Argy on the Luftwaffe side.

Not sure if most of you noticed, but since the inital announcement on 10th July I did two more front page SimHQ news items for the campaign. Now Doug is asking for something a little larger which will help keep the fires burning and Merlins turning.

To quote:

**************************
A long, single-page highlights article of the campaign to date would be good. Can Heinkill and the others supply 1 or 2 excerpted stories, and an image or 2?

A video clip would help too. If someone can grab some FRAPS video, I can give them an ftp area to upload it, and I'll produce it.
**************************

I can write up some text no problem, but Hein really has a talent for writing, and he can do videos. Anyone else of course also welcome to help. Lets make a large front page SimHQ update that will draw in more people, maybe two, three more registered pilots. We still have almost 50 days to go!

Wish I could contribute more... maybe I will, but my time is very limited. It's all I can do to fly and write my AARs (long story short, we unexpectedly purchased a house, moving in august, so life got suddenly very busy *grin*).

But anyway, feel free to grab one of my AARs as a sample, if you wish.

Itkovian

Suggest we time it to get people on board for aug 12 eagle phase. I will write a piece on that theme, including some extracts of reports so far.

That has always been my favourite start point...the convoy phase, especialy in spc mode, involves too much inactivity and dull patrols unless you go looking for trouble. I fear if we do manage to attract new flyers during convoy phase we may lose them again. Especially for Luftwaffe.

Also we need to open this up somehow to non bob2 flyers. We need an easy way in for IL2 flyers - find the best IL2 campaign and promote it strongly. Ithink 'spitnfire' will do if we start Aug 12.

As for videos I can do one to accompany an article, but it is not my strength. I only have Freeware fraps and windows movie maker and haven't experimented beyond that.

Good idea on timing it with "Adlertag". However, I wouldn't want to wait two weeks now until something happens, so maybe we can put it "in advance" one week. That would give people time to get signed up, figure out the game, prepare for launch.

IL-2 Flyers have been invited from the beginning, but they just don't seem interested. Also, they need to fit their reports into our structure somehow...

For video, it would be enough if you can upload some unedited raw footage from your "guncam" and I think Doug would process and edit it.

If I manage to get time, I'll fly for 602 Sqn when they move down on the 13th Aug.

Chaps, I will be leaving for my 2 week holiday on July 31st so I'll miss the first few days of eagle phase. However, I'll try and move 85 north in order for them to get back to strength. We lost too many kites when Debden was bombed.

@Puff; was it you who did the fantastic drawings of the Hurricane?

Agreed, on all points.

Now what kind of video do you need? I have in-game replays of all my missions so far. Maybe I could email an especially fun one to someone who knows video editing or some such (assuming they have BoB2 2.11 installed)?

And really, Aldertag is going to start soon, that's the perfect time to get things kick started.

Hein, if you don't mind a suggestion: perhaps you could write a sort of Aldertag briefing from the LW point of view, and this would serve as our kind of announcement of the coming activities? Or perhaps a propaganda piece about it? You seem to be able to get the Jerry feel spot on, for some reason.

We basically need to get out the message that Aldertag is when the insane fighting starts, with multiple raids of 100+/200+ striking out every day. It gets completely insane for a couple of weeks there, and results in some of the best fighting. Give them a feel of how it's going to be like, with Jerry preparing for an all-out air assault.

And, of course, at the start of Septembre we should do another "ad" campaign about the London phase, which is even crazier (especially once the aerodromes recover and all the squadrons are moved south again).

Here's an idea: if we want to give people a good idea of how things become eventually, put up a video of the Battle of Britain IA mission. Because after Aldertag (and especially the London phase), that's pretty much how all mission go.

Thank you.

Itkovian

For Video, I would say we need some large formations, maybe done with the free floating camera or some such (I'm not very good with the view system in BoBII).

And of course one or two cockpit kill videos, maybe from a Spit and 109. To close it off, a Stuka dive attack from the external view...

That are the kinds of shots you usually associate with the BoB, and I think showing large formations in-game will drive the point home what the game can do.

Guys, considering I am going to miss 2 weeks, I think it'd be easier if I start skipping the time now until then. My issue is that, even when released, my squadron will get scrambled and depsite moving squadrons out of 13 group I can't move 85 into 13 group. So do you think it'd be better starting a new campaign for the August phase? I am dubious about doing this as it will be like starting afresh.
Otherwise, can anyone tell me the best way of making sure my squadron won't get scrambled so I can accelerate time? wish you could skip days in the campaign....

You can always chancel a mission when your Squadron gets called up. That's what I did for my six days, of course it helped that two or three days were taken by the squadron being Cat C. For the last few days of my holiday, I just released them and whenever I saw their icon/waypoints popping up, I immediatly clicked the icon and deleted the mission.

Might be a bit much work for two entire weeks, so yeah, maybe you're better off starting a new campaign run from 12th August. In some ways I think I might do this myself, since the Fighter Command Strategic AI hasn't done a good job so far, and I'd love to have a "reset" for the sad state we are in right now.

Whatever you do with the campaign as a whole will not effect your experience as a single squadron pilot or your AARs, I think.

No, but Pete Townsend will still be alive, and the squadron should still be at Debden...
I can cancel the mission and so I think I'll procede in this way...
that's 2 campaigns though, so 4 weeks to miss in total...

It's actually quite simple. Just release your squadron. The only thing you must keep in mind is that your squadron will be put on readiness automatically at the start of the day, at 11:00, and at 16:00, and you might have to cancel some patrols that get scheduled at the start of each session.

So, if you want to keep your current campaign, I suggest you do the following:

1- Move your squadron to some out of the way spot, like Pembrey or Digby. Way out in 10 or 12 Group.

2- If you really don't want any scrambles at all, release your squadron every morning, and at 11:00 and 16:00. You may need to cancel patrols, or better yet reassign the to other squadrons. But since you moved to an out of the way spot, you won't have to do many of those (Pembrey is ideal for this).

3- When you want to play again (like August 10), move the squadron back to a closer location and stay at readiness. If you have a particular aerodrome in mind (that's not smashed to bits) and there's no room, just move a squadron to another aerodrome, and take its place.

Remember, you CAN assign squadrons to a beat up aerodrome, it just means they can't fly (in fact, later on in the campaign, odds are you won't have enough working aerodromes left for your squadrons, and some will have to stay released until repairs are done).

That should cover your situation nicely.

Thank you.

Itkovian

The AI commander doesnt really do much in the way of posting does he? apart from often sending 32 and 501 to 13 Group right at the start.

Its a pity you cant alter the campaign settings i've tweaked mine since I started for a backup campaign but I cant change this one. In RL 238 got posted just after Eagle day so if I survive until then I may do a change then to a fresh squadron and a new pilot (and new campaign settings)

S!

What settings do you want to change?

As far as I know, pretty much everything can be changed.

As for the AI commander, he does actually move squadrons around, but only in certain circumstances. When a squadron is too low in morale or hardware it will release them. When their aerodromes are critically damaged they will reassign squadrons elsewhere.

Finally, when the London phase begins, at one point the AI should shift a whole bunch of squadrons back to 11 Group, when the aerodromes have been repaired.

So yes, there is movement, but it is rare. You shouldn't hesitate to play with things around if you want to have some fun (for example, I moved 302 Squadron to Biggin Hill in my campaign, so my squadron wouldn't be alone (I love taking off with other squadrons)).

Itkovian

Thanks for the info

On the subject of daily summaries: I'm running out of things to write. With the pure convoy phase, there sometimes were some exceptional "large" raids to deserve extra mention, but right now, the battle is all over the country, major airfields are getting hit every day, it seems a tad redundant to mention particulars.

What do you guys think?

I personally don't think the summaries are necessary, but I admit they are nice. But it's a lot of work, and the goal here is to have fun, after all.

Maybe once the campaign is over, we cna get some sort of running narrative.

But if you want to do them, just say something to the effect that the LW has launched an all-out assault against the RAF, and then mention highlights from the squadrons (so if a squadron slaughters an enemy formation, or is itself slaughtered, that might be worth a mention).

Itkovian

It may be better to wait and then make a narrative once all the information is in, it also lets people go back and polish things up.

S!

It was things like adding tags, but I saw your other thread about altering things on the frag screen.
All the years I've had this I never knew you could do this. In retrospect 'sim config' in big yellow letters was a bit of a clue.
Thanks

S!

Great reports and screenies Bader! Nice to see you got to do more than just joyflights today!

Ah ah! Another squadron gets a dog! We're going to have to start posting pictures. :p

Itkovian

Luftwaffe mascots were a little more 'hard core'...

I'm away from home until after the weekend so 266 have been posted.

I'll be back with a new pilot, probably a sprog posted from an OTU to a veteran unit in the South. Any suggestions as to units which haven't been featured yet?

S!

I remain unimpressed. Basset Hounds are still better mascots.

Itkovian

Nice screenies Paul! That first one in particular very atmospheric...

Gentlemen, sorry my AAR for the 6th of August is late being posted. Although I was able to fly yesterday I was without internet connection due to tech problems with my phone line

It was a good result too for once, so I really needed to add the report. Apologies as i know it messes up the order of things on the forums


Cheers
Rob


(F/O (Acting) RNH)

CPS_Bomber

It should be okay since there will still be new reports posted to 29th Day, meaning your 28th "bumb" will drop off again.

Bugger, lost another pilot today. I was enjoying writing up the missions of 'Tex' but I had to try and fly like he would have flown and when I got into a situation today where I had to decide to run away and fight another day, or fight to the death, I decided Tex would have fought to the death.

Oh well.

Might take a bit of a break with RAF pilots for a while! I seem cursed. No one else is losing theirs! Of course, being a crap pilot doesn't help...

Hi chaps,

Have you come across this?

Accounts of Heinz Migeod, Luftwaffe Stuka. Pilot

It's a link to a link over in the IL-2 forum. It's an amazing collection of interviews with Heinz Migeod who flew Stukas. during the Battle of Britain campaign among many others. The accounts are in video format on YouTube and are very, very interesting covering his time before the Luftwaffe in the Artillery, then going on to flight training, France, Britain ... and finally to Africa. If I recall correctly, my Grandfather fought in Africa at Tobruk and El Alamein too - albeit on the ground - so for me it's very touching to get a perspective from the other side.

Many, many thanks to DoolittleRaider who provided us with this unique and highly relevant resource!

Hope you're all enjoying your flying as much as I am!

Cheers

- Argy

Nice AARs radicalduder! Good to have you back on our side. We need you!

Excellent find! Loved them.

I am off for a week to Malta, so will rejoin Aug 22.

Save me some!