Hello

Can anyone point me to what the best WW2 European Theatre of Operations sim?

I used to love SWOTL back in the day.

Prefably I am looking for mid to late war.

Many thanks,
G

anyone?

I'd say you're on the right track with European Air War.

It's dated graphically, of course, but I really think it can't be beat for the overall experience. Hopefully you can get it running without too much trouble.

Il2 1946? I was always a bigger fan of the pacific engagements but it covers a lot of europe too!

It depends on what's more important to you: there is no sim with a combination
of
>right period
>authentic aircraft and flight model detail
>good graphics
>good damage model
>well constructed player career/campaign
>multiplayer
>computer flown plane AI
>aircraft variety


You have to pick among them.

>IL-2 Series (except Cliffs of Dover) these all merge together, and IL-2 1946 consolidates
them all - great graphics, fairly good aircraft detail, vast and abundant aircraft variety,
virtually no player career/campaign, excellent multiplayer, so those two in combination mean
multiplayer is where it is most successful, not much in the way of western europe maps,
though I gather there are community mods now (and mods for campaigns as well). Pretty
crummy AI.

IL-2 Cliffs of Dover - 1940ish era; fantastic graphics, with fully realistic lighting
including fully modelled moving shadows over 3D objects, and specular reflections,
excellent aircraft detail, with fabulous 3D cockpits, and a stunning graphic damage model,
excellent multiplayer, and even less, ie none whatsoever, player career/campaign than
previous IL-2 products, so again mainly good for multiplayer. Map is SE England to NE France.
Far fewer planes than the previous series, but more than BoB2 (below). Currently requires
a bleeding edge machine to run well, and some folks have trouble even then. There is
debate as to whether the AI remains as bad as for the previous IL-2 offerings, or if it
has gotten worse. This plus the lack of any career/campaign have resulted in a less than
enthusiastic reception to this sim, which is just reaching its first birthday.. The terrain
is irritating to those familiar with the modelled region, as it is accurate in some aspects
and wildly wrong in others.

>European Air War - ancient 1999 graphics somewhat updated by community mods, but still
very dated, reputedly a good campaign/player career, though I've never played so I can't
say, nor can I speak to the aircraft and flight model, variety, damage model, multiplayer, etc.

>Battle of Britain II - 1940 July-september only - close to perfect dynamic commander-level
campaign, quite good dynamic pilot campaign (no promotions, but that's historical to the brief
time window); excellent flight models, good aircraft detail, graphics better than EAW - nearly
equivalent to IL-2 series except for IL-2 CoD which is in a class by itself; good internal
(software bookkeeping) damage model unfortunately not at all represented by a corresponding
damage graphics, very limited plane set, fewer still flyable, just spit, hurri, 109, 110 Ju87,
plus gunner positions on the three german level bombers. Multiplayer is barely supported, ie
it exists but is a bit rough, being beta'd sporadically depending on interest. Fortunately,
this is made up for by the absolutely stunning AI, which makes offline flying at least as
good as IL-2's multiplayer. BoB2 continues to be the gold standard for campaign and AI.

BoB2 and IL-2 CoD represent two extremes in flight sim realization - there is very little overlap
in the strengths of the two, and simmers continue to dream of a product which would represent
the merging of the best of each.

There are other sims out there as well, of varying age, detail and quality.

Fighter Squadron: Screamin'Demons over Europe
aka FS:SDOE or just SDOE, is about contemporary to EAW, and was produced with an
open aircraft modelling substructure so users could create their own planes, consequently there are
about 250 planes available from the SDOE community. The main negatives are the DX7 level graphics,
which means lousy water and skies, and a poor terrain engine which means small or obviously checkerboard
terrains. It has fairly good flight models, and is fun on a somewhat above arcade but not fully detailed
sim level. It has adequate multiplayer, but insufficient user base now to use it (I think IL-2 pretty
much dominates multiplayer). AI is moderately good.

Janes WW2, I know only that it exists.

Wings of Prey. A fairly recent production by a group which licensed the IL-2 game engine. It is another
Battle of Britain product, with a very small map, and limited, scripted play. It has enhanced graphics
relative to IL-2 series but nowhere near as good as CoD, except for the terrain, which is the best
representation of SE England yet produced. An irritating feature of this product is a "period look"
visual which has been lain over the view, and can't be turned off. It adds a mud-green tint, darkening
at the edges, over the whole screen, so it looks like you're looking through the bottom of an old
algae covered aquarium. don't know any more about this one.

...The good thing about these is that they're all cheap. The most expensive is CoD, which runs I think
around $35 these days. BoB2 is $20, IL-2 1946 is ~$8, the rest, who knows...

The problem with this one was that it was severely limited by it's focus only on the Battle of the Bulge and the Ardennes terrain. There were some user mods, but they weren't really perfected like they could have been. By that time user interest had dwindled anyway.

I played it for some years and had some of my missions published. The mission builder was one of it's best features. It also had quite a moving cinematic presence.

Here it is TODAY

If you want a large map coverage of all of Western Europe, there really aren't many choices:

1. European Air War is still the most realistic if you want mid- to late war, long range fighter missions like escorting/intercepting bombers. Unfortunately, EAW's graphics and models were comparatively crude even when it was a new title in 1998. Also, the sim didn't feature a visual damage model so its difficult to know how badly you've been shot up other than your plane stops flying correctly. Fourteen years of mods may have kept it somewhat fresh but I'd advise that you'll be gambling on video card and OS compatibility either way.

2. B-17II: The Mighty Eighth. This was Microprose's follow-up to European Air War and it shows a similar desire to portray air combat operations accurately. This time, however, the focus is on B-17 Flying Fortresses and the men who fly them--their morale, their training, etc. In addition to flying the plane you can jump around to various crew positions and assume duties like ball gunner or bombardier; the Norden bombsight works like the real device should you want to try your hand at dropping your bombs 'into the pickle barrel.' You can also fly a handful of USAAF and Luftwaffe fighters but this aspect of the sim is more a novelty than a fleshed out feature.

3. Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3: The Battle For Europe. This title had great potential but was released in an unfinished and agonizingly inconsistent state, presumably to reach the shelves for the Christmas 2002 shopping season and to beat "IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles" to the punch. Consider this a WWII-inspired action game with a mediocre strategy game bolted onto it. As your pilots progress in the campaigns, you can upgrade them to increasingly superior aircraft including early jet fighters and concept designs. If you like strafing and bombing trains, tanks, aerodromes, factories, ships, etc., the explosions and other visual effects are exhilerating and cinematic. The FirePower addon by A2A Simulations (formerly Shockwave Productions), as well as various free mods like have attempted to make CFS3 a serious simulation.

If you want a good dogfighter with a wide variety of mid and late war aircraft, including SWOTL type designs like the Gotha 229, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 is the best overall collection of aircraft, weapons, vehicles and maps. The drawback is that the maps give limited coverage of various locations all over the world, some more accurately than others, and with differing expanses of coverage. Western Europe is minimally represented with a couple of English Channel/Normandy coast maps that either fake or ignore England; two Ardennes region maps; a small Berlin area map; and a nonspecific yet very interesting "Western Europe" map. (The series was originally developed as an Eastern Front sim, then was expanded to the Pacific War, and most of the maps and campaigns support these directions.) The collection does not ship with a true Western Europe campaign, which was by design to force sales of the now discontinued "Battle Over Europe" missions expansion CD. The AI is notoriously frustrating but the most recent patch has attempted to correct its most egregious behaviors.

Unless you're happy playing pre-year 2000 games, I'd say IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 is really your ONLY choice.

Birds/Wings of Prey is an alternative if you like action more than sim.

Right now the best WWII sim period is still IL2 1946. Pick a theater.. pick a plane.. and have a blast.. There are some up and coming sims out now that have potential .. but it is as of yet un realized .. from Cliffs over Dover to Wings of Prey and the rest of the Gaijin offerings.. right now IL2 1946 is still king.

With IL2 there are some incredibly well done maps that add more European content.
The bigger mod packs have them as standard.
The default campaigns aren't do good but there's thousands of user made campaigns.
Often, especially in the older, pre-mod days, the builders substituted different areas or made
other like compromises.