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#4618901 - 01/18/23 11:40 AM What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre?  
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I have a 1.28c version and a UAW160 adaptation. I cannot find the original files.
From what I can see it is basically a theatre based on the default ETO with a static frontline that relates to the Battle of the Bulge.
Setting the date to winter 1944 with seasonal terrains installed gives the right atmosphere.
A quick test of the Ardennes careers in 1944 seemed to have missions that were not particularly related to the Battle of the Bulge.

What am I missing?


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#4618905 - 01/18/23 12:37 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
Did it have the Arado jet bomber?

#4618911 - 01/18/23 01:13 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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The "pnames.str" file has these:

P-38J
P-38J
P-47D
P-47D
P-47D
P-51D
B-17G
B-24J
B-26B
FW 190F-8
Spitfire IX
Spitfire XVI
Spitfire XIV
Typhoon IB
Tempest V
Ju 88S-1
Bf 109G-14
Bf 109G-10
Bf 109K-4
Mosquito FB VI
A-26B
B-26C
FW 190A-8
FW 190D-9
Me 262A-2a
Ju 88S-1
B-26G
P-47D
Mitchell III
V1

...a strange arrangement wink

If I recall correctly Modred's AoE was based on this.

My basic question is due to Stratos asking "BTW, there's any install that gives a Ardennes 1944 winter style tileset?" in the GoG thread.

Did Emil make any changes to the theatre? I suspect it is the default ETO with a static front line based on the bulge.


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#4618925 - 01/18/23 05:15 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
I'll check mine.

#4618998 - 01/19/23 05:37 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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IIRC He reduced the range of all planes trough editing their fuel capacities, so during campaigns the target area is mostly centered around the Ardennes.


-Sir in case of retreat, were we have to retreat??
-To the Graveyard!!

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#4619003 - 01/19/23 06:38 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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....but am I correct in my opinion that "eaw.tm", "eaw16hm", "targets.dat", "airfield.dat" and "tardata.dat" had not been modified?
My 1.28c version did not have terrain tiles, so I guess that the original did not.


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I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619012 - 01/19/23 11:13 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
Agree the pnames list. Funny, I had it in my head that it included the Arado..

Also agree no new terrain map/tiles or base layout.

#4619023 - 01/20/23 08:23 AM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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I have made it for UAW160, but I have not converted the skin and FM files, so it is just the theatre.
1.28c is the logical release using a "dir.set" file. However, I do not fully understand the set-up.

[Linked Image]

There are three folders American, British, and German.
They appear to contain skin and VCG files.

The "ArdennesFM4" folder also has some skin files for the hurr slot.
If I reference all of the folders in the "dir.set" file then the skin files that are in the "American" folder will be loaded first, and only the ones that are not in the "American" folder will be loaded from other folders.

Does anyone have a "readme" for this theatre?

BTW
I needed to add the 1.28 target files to this set-up because 1.28c has the additional "allied carrier" target which throws out the targets and bases referenced in the campaign files.




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I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619034 - 01/20/23 11:36 AM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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It seems to me that the Battle of the Bulge was a ground battle and when weather permitted many sorties would be flown against enemy armour. In that case there is a just cause to edit the targets or to even make a new reduced theatre for UAW160.


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I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619048 - 01/20/23 01:10 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
Readme from : https://www.thatoneplease.co/EMIL.html

1944 ARDENNES CAMPAIGN
======================

INTRODUCTION
------------

The 1944 Ardennes Campaign replaces the 1944 original ETO Campaign with one starting
on 16 December 1944, when the German attack "Wacht am Rhein" takes place in the Ardennes
and ends at 2 February 1945 as the German ground forces are fully defeated.

The aim of this campaign is to simulate the air and air to ground war in Belgium,
the Netherlands, France and Germany during the "Battle of the Bulge" between the Luftwaffe,
the 2nd Tactical Air Force and the 9th Air Force. All German, American and British aircraft
will participate in an equally divided amount of escort, sweep, bomb, intercept and
interdiction missions.

Selecting a normal campaign you fly a mission every 2 days with a total of 25 missions.
Unfortunately it is not posible to fly a long campaign as flying a mission every
2 days seems fixed.

When you play this campaign DO NOT select Limited Supply or you may not have bombs to carry.
I would like to quote Charles Gunst on this : "Did you join up to be a fighter pilot or
a supply clerk anyway?" :-)



UNITS available for the 1944 Ardennes Campaign:
-----


- German Aircraft Slot Base

II/Jagdgeschwader 11 Bf 109G-14 Emil Deelen
IV/Jagdgeschwader 27 Bf 109G-10 Gustav Bonn
III/Jagdgeschwader 77 Bf 109K-4 Kurfurst Dusseldorf
I/Jagdgeschwader 4 FW 190A-8 Anton Deelen
I/Jagdgeschwader 2 FW 190D-9 Dora Dusseldorf
II/Schlachtgeschwader 4 FW 190F-8 Hurricane Bonn
I/Kampfgeschwader 51 Me 262A-2a Me 262 Dusseldorf


- British 2nd TAF

No. 126 Wing Spitfire IX Spit 1 Sint-Truiden
No. 127 Wing Spitfire XVI Spit 9 Le Culot
No. 131 Wing Spitfire XIV Spit 14 Florennes
No. 124 Wing Typhoon IB Typhoon Sint-Truiden
No. 122 Wing Tempest V Tempest Le Culot
No. 138 Wing Mosquitb FB VI Bf 110C Florennes 0 0 33 33 33 %


- American 9th AF

48th FG P-47D P47C Sint-Truiden
405th FG P-47D P47D Saint-Dizier
362nd FG P-47D P51B Chievres
367th FG P-38J P38H Juvincourt
474th FG P-38J P38J Florennes
363rd FG P-51D P51D Le Culot
416th BG A-26 Bf 110G Reims


Other non flyable planes participating in this campaign are :

B-17G B-17 slot
Mitchell III He 111 slot
B-26B, C, G B-26, Me-410 and Ju 88C slot
B-24J B-24 slot
Ju 88S-1 Ju 88A and Mosquito slot
P-47D Ju 87 slot
V-1 V-1 slot



INSTALLATION
------------

I recommend to make a new clean EAW install for this addon. This way you are sure that no
files from other campaigns/addons/skinpacks are 'contaminating' your new EAW installation.
Patch EAW to version 1.2a.
ECA 1.4 and ECA Panel are not needed for this addon. Having ECA 1.4 or ECA Panel installed
before installing the files of the addon will not have consequences. Do not use ECA Panel
after installation of this addon or all campaign specific files will be overwritten.

To install copy the files in the following .zip files into your EAW main directory :

Campaign.zip contains the campaign files, mainscreen and single mission screens.
Flight.zip contains the Planes.dat and flight model files.
Skins.zip contains the skinpack and the cockpits.
Hangars.zip contains the hangars and sprite disabling files.

Say yes to overwrite files with the same name in your EAW directory.



REMARKS, PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS
-------------------------------

1)

This Ardennes campaign is not 100% historically correct, but it is a good representation
of the air war during the winter of 1944. Since on the original map of EAW there are no
targets at all in the Ardennes, the fighting doesn't exactly take place in the Ardennes.
Maybe in the future there will be ground targets placed in the Ardennes so that missions
can be flown above the actual battlefield.

By choosing airbase locations near to the historical front, removing all droptanks from all
the airforces supplies and limiting the fuel content in the American fuel tanks of all
fighters and all medium and heavy bombers, I gave the aircraft a limited range :

Flyable American planes : 250 miles (400 km), A-26 375 miles (600 km)
Flyable British planes : 140 - 240 miles (225 - 390 km), Mosquito 310 miles (500 km)
Flyable German planes : 270 - 340 km (170 - 210 miles)

By doing this the EAW engine is obliged to search for targets around the historical frontline
during the Battle of the Bulge. So the action takes place in the area formed by the eastern
half of Belgium, the southern half of The Netherlands, a small part of north France and a
small part of west Germany around the Rhine.

2)

Flight models and plane characteristics are based on the superb ECA Panel by Charles Gunst.
However I made some adaptations as I also did in Pacific Tide and the Battle of Britain.

Defensive guns on bombers are given the same rate of fire, muzzle velocity and range as the
offensive guns of the same type on the fighters. To compensate for their increased power the
dispersion factor is larger and so results in less accurate defensive fire. The Ju 88S-1
retains accurate defensive fire together with high speed treetop hugging flying behaviour.
If I didn't do this it would be considered murder to send these planes into combat against
those heavily armed and armoured Thunderbolts.

To prevent what the makers of the ECA Online flight models called "Shot off tail syndrome"
I applied their solution : doubling the tail hit points while halving the tail hit bubble
size, both for fighters and bombers.

The great Rendermod by Max188 is applied so that planes retain better visibility over larger
distances.

The fuel burn rate is 1.75 (in the original EAW it is 1.0). Completely correct fuel burn rate
would be 2.0, but this leads to major problems with computer controlled planes as they cannot
conserve their fuel. The value 1.75 leads to really nice dropping fuel gauges while on
mission, but retaining enough fuel reserve to reach your homebase safely. Alt-N also
conserves fuel.

3)

The homebases are not 100% correct mainly for German an British units. Eindhoven and
Woensdrecht cannot be used to prevent British planes to fly mainly missions over north
Holland and north Germany. The historically correct German airbases around Frankfurt and
Rheine are too far away to reach the front without droptank. EAW seems not to assign
interdiction missions if you cannot carry a bomb. So the Germans are moved to Deelen,
Dusseldorf and Bonn.

4)

I could not include the Ar 234 jet bomber, because EAW seems not to be designed for jet
bombers. The sound is disturbingly wrong, the plane does not fly fast enough to escape
interceptors and often it crashes into the ground at the rendez-vous point.


CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
----------------------------

Microprose for giving us the best flight simulations in years : 1942 Pacific Air War and
European Air War.

Paulo Morais for all his genius in designing the necessary tools to work with all EAW files.

Charles Gunst for providing basic addons as ECA 1.4, ECA Panel and the EAW Editing Notes.

Mosi for the single mission selection screens and the mainscreen.

The skinpack and hangars are compiled by using high quality work by the following
artists in random order. It is impossible to list what specific improvement is made by
every single artist as the whole EAW experience is becoming more and more a community
achievement.

Artists:

Marco Bonafede, PO Prune, Redeyes, Migge, Mosi, Captain Manduca, Woolfman, LLv34_Doc,
Claudio Wilches, Allessandro Borges, Steve Belanger, Toni Deu, Binni, HarryM, Mr Johnson,
Serb, Paulo Morais, Stewart Nunn, JWC, Stanley99, Fabio Mele, Stag, Dan Shaw, Winger69,
Charles Gunst, Col. Gibbon, Moggy, other members of 'The Firm', Papa Romeo and Dominique
Legrand.

I really hope I did not forget anybody. If you see elements of your work in this addon and
your name is not mentioned, warn me and I'll update this readme file.


Dirk 'Emil' Schoorens
emil@pandora.be
http://emil.free.fr/

#4619049 - 01/20/23 01:11 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
Originally Posted by MrJelly
It seems to me that the Battle of the Bulge was a ground battle and when weather permitted many sorties would be flown against enemy armour. In that case there is a just cause to edit the targets or to even make a new reduced theatre for UAW160.


I agree.

And perhaps get the Arado in.

Last edited by Moggy; 01/20/23 01:14 PM.
#4619055 - 01/20/23 02:18 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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Thanks Moggy.
I will see what I can do.

I have got the Ju88S in for UAW160


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Mark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619060 - 01/20/23 03:12 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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A slit trench at RAF Gravesend
thumbsup

#4619061 - 01/20/23 03:36 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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[Linked Image]

I was looking at two types on the same runway for a screenie. The intensity of the shadows were very different.
Which files are involved in the creation of the shadow?

Shadows turned off but here are the two bombers:
[Linked Image]

Last edited by MrJelly; 01/20/23 04:29 PM. Reason: Screenie added

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Mark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619063 - 01/20/23 05:06 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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The shadow is usually pointing to the TEX.tpc file and the linked TRA.tpc file.

You can adjust the intensity of the shadow by changing the amount of transparency in the TRA.tpc file.

Or you can send it to me. biggrin

BTW, that's the wrong Arado. The one pictured is the four engine "C". You want the twin engine "B" variant. The "B" is in the ETO folder but the "C" is in the "ALT" folder.


Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
#4619069 - 01/20/23 05:47 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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Fixed and I found a multiskin version for the Ju88 S


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Mark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619070 - 01/20/23 05:56 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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Ok.

Now answer me this. How did you get two different aircraft on the runway at the same time?


Heck, even paranoids have enemies.
#4619072 - 01/20/23 06:12 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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That campaign will benefit a lot from the Max188 Winter terrain, the one where the snow does not cover all ground but in patches, more tipical in Western Europe than the Russian steppe snow we often see in many sims. But I don't know If that terrain is available anymore.


-Sir in case of retreat, were we have to retreat??
-To the Graveyard!!

sandbagger.uk.com/stratos.html
#4619073 - 01/20/23 06:33 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: Rotton50]  
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Originally Posted by Rotton50
Ok.

Now answer me this. How did you get two different aircraft on the runway at the same time?

In a multiplayer host only with the friendly primary and friendly secondary planes flying from the same base wink


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Mark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
#4619075 - 01/20/23 06:44 PM Re: What was special about Emil's Ardennes theatre? [Re: MrJelly]  
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Mark Twain: I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man's reasoning powers are not above the monkey's.

I am now of an age at which I no longer need to suffer fools gladly
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