A couple of weeks have passed since I made two posts asking for help in getting started, and got the help I needed of course, and so I thought it was only fair to report on my (slow) progress.

I decided to go straight in to the Campaign and in the interests of 'realism' I let the system allocate me to a squadron and an aircraft.

Which is why I find myself, having survived basic training with the fearsome Captain Trigger, allocated to 54 squadron doing circuits in near-darkness in my Be2c on home defence duties around Castle Bromwich, Birmingham, England. I don't know when I'll be sent to France, I'm impatient to go, and little do I know that my 4 hours of flying time will be about as much use as the 14 which some real pilots got before they saw action.

The look of the sim, and the flight models (well I did cheat and do a few quick combats just to see what they were like) seem massively improved over what I recall of WOFF I. The attention to historical detail is astonishing.

I must also mention the wonderful colourised photos of aircraft and their pilots which make them look like they were taken yesterday. The introductory contemporary film clips in combination with the music are frankly almost too poignant to watch, it just makes you think of all those young men who are going to die. This, and the pacing of the campaign, makes it so much more than just a 'shoot 'em down' simulator.

I think it's a truly great achievement and I thank everyone involved for enabling me to participate.

Alan

Bigfish,

Welcome to the Madness. Not sure what date you've reached in campaign but as for 54 Squadron heading to France, look here:

https://SimHQ.com/forum/ubbthreads....book-and-54-sqn-farewell-banquet-program

Enjoy,

epower

Welcome back to the madness, Bigfish!

Once you get settled in, you might want to check out some of the many mods that are also available.

I particularly recommend Jara's Mission Editor, Lou's maps mod, and the Consolidated Airfields mod. Jerbear also has a wonderful "skins" mod that adds hundreds of additional realistic skins to the aircraft already in the game. Sandbagger has a site where all of these mods and many more are located. You can find a link to his site under the User Mods sticky post on this same forum.

Happy flying and always watch your six!

Gentlemen, outstanding! Thank you both for your good wishes.

epower, your treasure is quite remarkable and thank you for sharing it. So 54 squadron certainly knew how to booze in style, and I don't think it's going to be long before I'll be sitting down with them at the Grand Hotel Birmingham to join in their six toasts. I was very interested to see that the sixth, and final, toast was to the 'Air Mechanics', and there they are all listed (and presumably fed and watered with the pilots?). I've seen some references to their loyalty to their pilots, and how hard they worked under terrible conditions, but they are largely invisible and it's good to see their names.

BuckeyeBob, many thanks for your recommendations regarding mods. I am an absolute sucker for such things so will certainly follow up. Just as soon as I've managed to program some buttons to reload my Vickers ...

Best wishes

Alan

Welcome to the Front old bean. Watch out for the Hun in the Sun!

And a good help to learn WOFF is "How to WOFF" by @Rick Rawlings:
https://combatace.com/forums/forum/338-woff-bhh2-general-discussion

Greetings

Thanks for the plug, Becker01! It's actually right here , too!

Ups, Yes! You are right of course, Rick. I have seen your videos on CA and so I forgot to mention the SimHQ-link here.

Greetings!

Welcome to the wonderful world of WoFF -- and to echo BB's comments, all of those mods listed in his post are excellent. I would also mention BB's own (and I think essential) mod that gives a greater variety of clouds, cloud types, etc. in WoFF (OCM ver. 5.0), as well as his Historical Weather Mod. They work best when used together, and also via JJJ's fine Mission Editor. Also worth mentioning is JJJ's "MultiMod" (that allows for quick control of such things as gun dispersal, wind/ turbulence effects, etc). Once you begin tinkering with the various mods, and if you are also interested in loading some FM (flight model) tweaks too -- might I recommend the various FM folders (for WoFF BH&H2) that are located over here.

Carry on gents' & happy flying.

Dern it! I knew I forgot to mention someone!

Actually, as you can tell from his signature line, VonS is one of the most prodigious flight sim modders out there, and I was certainly remiss not to mention his FM mods. He also has some graphics tuning mods and is the go-to expert on getting WOFF to work on a Mac, if you have one of those machines. He has also put together several nice scenarios for RAF_Louvert's Italian campaign mod, if you ever feel like getting some Alpine air.

Again, Sandbagger's website is the best place to find any WOFF or WOTR mod you might be looking for.

And because of the last mod-postings please let me say BTW that I have written a mod-list "WOFF BH&H II-Mods: There! - 01.10.22". There you will find the mods, @BB and @VonS have mentioned and more. You can read the mod-source and where you can download them (Sandbaggers website, dropbox, ... ).

Because of the different sources and download-variants it's not so easy for new and come-back-player to find the mods. It is the intention of the list to make it easier with a better mod-overview. Here is the link:
https://combatace.com/forums/topic/95976-woff-bhh-ii-mods-there-011022/

I hope it's a little help for you @Bigfish.

Greetings!

Gentlemen, I apologise for not responding sooner but I've just got back from a fishing trip beyond the reach of the internet!
I return home to discover I've been visited by a bunch of WOFF heroes, and I thank you very much for your good wishes and advice.
Wodin, thanks for the tip, it's easy to forget when all your concentration is focussed on keeping up with a leader who always seems to be able to climb a bit faster in his kite than mine will go!
Becker01 yes thanks I've watched Rick_Rawlings' videos several times, what a tremendous help they are, and thankyou Rick for calling by!
VonS thanks for those pointers and I'll certainly follow up on your suggestions about FM mods, which I didn't know about. From my presently limited experience of WOFF II I must say they already seem much improved over WOFF I. My Be2c does a very nice stall, I haven't been brave enough to try spinning it yet, don't know if it will - maybe it's deliberately too stable? From what I read it's unlikely I'd have known how to recover from one at that point in the war in any case.
Hi again Buckeye Bob and thanks for your suggestions, I'll be following them up.
Thanks once more gentlemen for taking the time. I'll report in when I'm posted to France, if I survive that long!
Alan