[joeybuddy96]

I own the Steam version of IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946. I'd like to play through the game in linear order, starting with the original game's tutorials, and moving through each campaign in the game in order as they appeared on the release copy, followed by the tutorials and campaigns as they were released in the expansion packs by date. The 1946 collection lists the missions and tutorials out of their release order, meaning that it lists contents from the expansion packs and more difficult planes and missions. I have been advised to take a learning path other than the one the game provides via tutorials and campaigns, as the unofficial resources may be of improved design and understanding of what is required to gain mastery. I like to have some tool of measurement for knowing that I'm reaching completion of the game; IL-2 is a simulator, not an arcade, and is nearer to being a sandbox game due to the number of mods, custom campaigns, and unofficial guides, so players have never really beaten the game. It's the open nature of the game that makes me want to work from the basic, core game, and work my way outwards with all of the unofficial material.

One unofficial way to complete it in a linear order would follow missions as they occurred historically by theater of operations for a single country, then to replay the campaign when it branched off at the latest.

The second unofficial way to complete in linear order would be to play every mission in which one model of plane was ever seen in, in order of invention and release to combat. This means that it wouldn't be a single instance of the model followed, but the dates any instances of the model was in a mission.

The third unofficial method would be to complete missions as they occurred historically by date, first as one side, then replaying the same mission as any additional models seen in the flight by one side, then as the opposite side, then as any additional models seen by the opposite side.

An accurate completion of the missions would require a list of all of the combat planes that were present in combat missions and a list of all combat missions (including when and where they took place, the result of the fighting (including which targets were confirmed damaged or destroyed, and which were not confirmed), and the weather conditions).