In the first screenshot already after a dogfight, in the second one the escorts of Wellingtons all ready on their ceiling. Another quick takeoff during a bombing on our airfield by Bf 110s, and in the last one... ufff, we've survived, we're returning to base alive and the 111th Squadron's campaign can be continued.
On full real it has its climate, it hell does, because each flight is a challenge, from which we must return most of all alive, no matter if with a new shield or without. But what if our machine gets shot and oil covers the windscreen or for some reason we can't continue our flight, in example we've been wounded and the screen before our noses turned red? We can bail if we're alive and we can easily continue our campaign. But on one condition. It must happen on ,,our" side of the frontline. Be smart here. When you fight above the Channel, and have the line without any reference we must wish ourselves good luck and observe how close we are to our cliffs of France or England and how far to the other ones to at least visually check our chances of survival.
In order: JG 2 on their way to the target, contrails of the other machines at 6500m, bomber cover and the return from a mission.
During one mission I got rather seriously shot by a Spit. The screen turned a bit red because I got slightly injured, but I had no problems with flying. Worse was my engine, which was leaking oil. I reduced RPMs to keep the airspeed of 240 km/h, fully open radiators and my soul on my shoulder. What's worse is the ceiling of 3000 m, so not high enough for a long glide, and shot I was next to the Isle of Wight. Luckily I evaded the Spit and escape was the only option left, to make a rescue mission possible after bailout.
Spits in flight during a sunset above the la Manche.
A straight way south with a slight descent. Less than 20 km behind the British island the engine entirely broke. The Bf 109 trembled and became a glider. The airspeed I tried to keep at about 200 km/h. Most important is to bail on my own side. A bail on ,,the other one" means captivity and the end of the campaign. Yes, our adventure may finish also in such a way. I jettisoned the canopy to be ready to jump, a bit more, more to the south, fly my Messer. Somewhere in the midway I was yet at 500 meters above the sea. The last moment for a bail. I straightened the flight anf bailed out from the cockpit. The parachute opened just above the water. The plane fell to the channel next to me and the whole dive I was watching swinging on the big white swinger of the parachute. Now is the moment of the truth. The end of the mission and ,,ufffff..." there is next button. That means I landed on the right side. The campaign states because of the rescue mission and getting back to health I've just skipped two missions of my Gruppe in which I haven't participated and I'm starting the next mission a few days later. Here one must pay attention to everything, even by stupidly damaging own engine they can get captured and end the history of their pilot.
Dogfights beyond our frontline. Better not to end our career here.
We'll have free hunts, too. The dogfights are mostly at high level. We can be leaded to the combat area by the ground control, which will give us heading to our airfield (if we can't navigate ourselves), or report us where the nearest enemy fighter is. If we fly for the British side we also get independent communicates from the CH Dover - our radar operating Centre. The operators of the radars will inform us more precisely where something flies from and on what ceiling (this option is outcluded in the campaigns for the German side). Thanks to both these functions and our vision we can be directed precisely even with cockpit view only (it's even more necessary because the black point of the aircraft on the horizon appears in the distance of 2 km in CoD).
Spit's Spit, but the damage model in CoD is simply beautiful
Sometimes there are many machines in the air. Once even I was jumping from one to another in the outside views and I counted... 60. While escorting bombers we can have a flight flying from three to several tens of aircraft. Sometimes the flying wing with tens of bombers in formations plus escorts made of another tens of fighters impresses, but it sureli isn't the old Battle of Britain II, where sometimes there were even hundreds of machines.
Oh these ,,codish" sunsets and sunrises. Sometimes one can fly just for them. Here we have a late sunset.
I haven't noticed the number of the machines influencing the FPS. Well maybe when something starts to happen, I mean in example many explosions, shooting and smokes at a time with this kind of formations, but the FPS drop was slight, allowing further smooth gameplay in CoD plus the Desastersoft's campaigns. Sometimes the missions are time limited. I mean in example we must do something in a frame of time, in example shoot down some precise aircraft during a 50 minute time. It might annoy sometimes, sometimes during the entire flight our and enemy ways won't meet or we fly on completely different ceiling than they do, what makes spotting the enemy machines impossible. There are also such ,,calm" sightseeing flights. We also must frequently look back.
If we have to get so low it should only be to land or pursue the last enemy...
Our wingman will be helpful here, and sometimes also the other flight's pilots who will inform us about enemy airplanes sighted (luckily in CoD it works and they report us even which o'clock the enemy is at). The campaigns also have some extensions, like radio comms. When we complete our mission they will say us some good word in German or English. When we don't, they'll yell at us like hell. Particularly "nice" it sounds in german
, I recommend it. We stand up straight and salute next to our computer. Well almost
. It's a nice teaser overall. There is more of these comms, sometimes they appear in relation to other groups pilots making their goals, about what they will inform us by radio. It adds climate, especially during dogfights. On airfields the comms work poorly, but it's fault of the CoD and its bugs, so it's hard to blame the creators. Also when we fly into our waypoint some info on the next one or further mission goals appears.
A Hurricane Mk.I heating up its engine in the morning for another mission.
I've also started the campaign for the Hawker Hurricane; the one with John Dundas, the nemesis of Wick, in Spitfire and for a pilot of the Bf 110 C-7 are left. So we'll have here bombing, fighter and escorting missions. It may be interesting too. That's why most screenshots in the text are from the campaigns for German machines, but as I mentioned at the beginning - almost everyone can find here something for themselves. I can even possibly update it with info on the missions for the British side RAF.
The JG 2 goes up. At the times of Wick the Jagdgeschwader 2 scored its 500th aerial kill.
Returning to the topic of the main campaign with the Luftwaffe ace of the BoB period, I must say, I liked it very much. We have nicely prepared briefings, fancy screens, nice climate on full real and it isn't that easy to score something, and after all we must pay much attention not to end it early. It's all in statistics, promotions, medals and so on. The missions are sequenced historically, including goals, which we must complete. Our goal are also the aerial victories that Helmut Wick scored (we have some predicted amount of machines to kill, dependently on types). The climax of the climate is the last mission, in which the pilot dies. Knowing this, we just fly for death.
A screen from the last mission with H. Wick in the main role in the campaign. I'm jumping from high level on lower flying Spits of 609th Squadron (6,5 km). A fast descent. The favorite tactics of a Luftwaffe ace.
Despite the communicates of our ,,tour of death" in this mission I factically got shot because of my unawareness by one of the Spitfires. It was also effective and in spite my TrackIR wasn't working (it crashed after I returned to the game from the desktop), so I wasn't able to look around and got shot. The only option left was bailing out near the Isle of Wight. I wasn't fighting for survival anymore, I thought it would be worth to finish it like it happened, by bailing out of the machine into the depths of the sea…. (sorry for the spoiler, but I couldn't resist
.
Accurate bursts at the plane of F/Lt Paul A. Baillon, the wingman of J.C. Dundas and also the 56th kill of the German pilot. A while later Wick himself couldn't fly further. Shot most probably by Dundas, he had reported his position and bailed out of the Bf 109 E-4. Dundas didn't celebrate his victory long though. At that time the Wick's wingman - Rudi Pflanz - effectively shot down the nemesis of Wick. A drama in Hollywood style. The alone fall of the Luftwaffe pilot on the parachute near the Isle of Wight. His body has never been found, just like J.C. Dundas'.
Nowadays the Desastersoft is working on another two titles. The first one will be the Channel Battles - 1940 where we will fly: Bf 109 E-1,3 and 4, Hurricane and Spitfire, and also Bf 110 and Ju 87. The title is already ready in German version, the translation is in progress. It should come into sale in this version this summer. The next title will be ,,Adolf Galland - The Gentelment!", which is another set of historical missions telling the story of another ace and a great pilot. In both cases the propositions for fans of CoD and this period of dogfights are must-have.
The Battle of Britain - the distinctive Messerschmitt and the effective workhorse of the RAF - the Hawker Hurricane as the nemesis of the Hun.
I admit, the addon for the Cliffs of Dover called ,,Fighter Aces! Helmut Wick vs J.C. Dundas" surprised me in the positive way. The entire campaign set has been thought about and prepared not badly. And it also gives us many unique features which the original campaign doesn't have. It adds new missions for different machines and sides of the conflict of the biggest dogfights of the II world war period. The product is worth mentioning and the current price is a bargain. In the package we also have English manual which is 43 pages long, in pdf, and also codes for historical target marking for the Luftwaffe, which is used in the briefings before the missions. Honestly, what the Desastersoft has done should be and example for the 1C how they should do it when they released the CoD on the market of the new IL-2 title thirsty simmaniacs. Of course in the described text I don't mention the bugs related to the CoD itself because it's another story, but luckily one can live with them. The only thing that can annoy the most is the communication with the other pilots, obeying orders by them and the entire AI, which... fly as they fly. But another patches for the CoD may fix this and then it'll be worth to catch the Desastersoft's product again even to walk through the same missions again, but it's no tragedy. In the campaigns themselves the only thing I would factically add is more Flak and scramble missions, some script with triggers for more enemy planes to launch, so the dogfight would be some more dramatic. Despite this - I'm giving the product a high mark, even more because of the demo so that anyone can play, see if it's their climate and how it works for them. Decide by themselves to buy or not to buy. Keep it up Desastersoft, and we're waiting for another missions and titles from this developer! Bravo!
10.06.12, YoYo
5/5 YoYosims recommends