Next up I drew the short straw and got lumbered with... the Yak.
Having almost never flown it before (and not without reason, might I add), I had a very interesting five minutes of play - exploring all of its multitude of flaws - before a passing German kindly put me out of my misery by hitting me hard enough that I could legitimately fly home and throw the plane away.

Here's me frantically trying to climb to meet the incoming attackers. But that wasn't going to work, was it Mr Yakolev?

Here comes the merge...!
And we're done!

FSM, Your screen(plays) are top notch!

The early VVS fighters do not have armored windscreens

I do like Mangas' repaints. I dl'd them last night but I have yet to install them. I sent him my personal thanks yesterday.

The klimov powered fighters require more hands on engine management than do other fighters.

Here's my formula starting at sea level:

1500m= mix 80%
2000m= supercharger stage 2
3500m= mix 60%

I use this for Yaks and LaGGs both. Also below 2000m, I will not fight German aircraft, I will only run to climb, turn and re-engage. The Yak and LaGG both are great dogfighters above 3000m, and I will happily go toe to toe with a 109 at this altitude.

While other people will debate this, the performance of these aircraft open up at around 10k feet, and they become markedly faster and receptive to energy fights.

I don't remember if it is clear from the briefings, but the historical info that I used to make these missions indicate that the 5thIAP(KBF) was strapped for aircraft, and put in the air whatever they had available, and being a junior pilot, the player I would figure, flew whatever was available at the time.

Tell me if that helps...

B50

Ha! I'm amazed at everything I've seen and read. B50, it appears the Hornet drivers are experiencing the same thing as everybody else that's gone up against those F-22s. I can't wait till some guy in a Fulcrum or Flanker variant (no matter how advanced) thinks he can take one on someplace in the mideast. I'd love to see some of the videos I know they are taking of those fights. Keep us appraised of stuff like that man...it's fascinating.
I'm not sure which misn it was I encountered the mislabeled mig skin, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out. I gotta go back and try and estimate. I'm in the Yak now.

FSM, those are great shots man. I never got any kills in the Mig, and now I'm in the Yak that has none of its speed, nor the firepower and agility of the I-16. I've only been able to engage 109s head on and have collided and died once doing that. No matter how I climb, I can't get above those guys, and the 109s own the Yaks from what I've seen. very realistic.

BTW, where do I find those cockpit paints? I'm in the process of transferring all my stuff to a new computer quazi built for me that is considerably more advanced than mine, and that's what most of my time is going to right now. I gotta figure out which files I transfer to get the cmpn files to pick up where I left off to.

Very useful info B50. Thanks, I will see if it works.
Your briefing about the plane types was very good I thought so I was quite interested to see which one I'd be assigned to.
Enforcer - check out the "Posts added since last visit" function at the top right of the AAA main page, or else look at Cockpit repaint section. All install with a few clicks. There are some by Mangas and also one by vpmedia - which I tried out last night in the cool ground attack mission back in the good old I-16.

One other tactic I have used to beat the AI 109's that can't overheat are:

Use yourself as bait. Fly in a level attitude, or slight climb, and draw the 109 down to your altitude as he approaches from behind. As he starts to fire, pull a tight horizontal turn and force the 109 to overshoot. As the 109 passes, reverse and fire a short burst dead astern to cause what damage you can in that short window. After that you may be able to get a good shot at his wingman obliviously following his leader.
Then, bring your aircraft about horizontaly, placing the 109 on your six as he begins his insane climb script. Do not under any circumstances try to follow this maneuver. By placing the 109 on your tail and staying horizantal, you (1) gain separation and (2) gain airspeed placing you in the drivers seat. While accelerating away (to at least 450km/h) and watching the 109 over your shoulder, wait until the 109 has descended to your altitude while trying to catch up. Then with your energy, and the separation you've gained, pull up into an Immelman, and you will find that now the roles are reversed. Your LaGG or Yak is now diving down on the 109, as he is climbing to meet you.

This will also work VERY well in the Hurricane, as with its heavy armament, 109's are at a disadvantage head-on.

B50

Wow B50, I already discovered that on my own, though your method is a bit more organized than mine.

FSM, thanx for the info, I'll check that on the AAA site.

Well I'm up to misn 15.....my third attempt at 15...after the 4 tries it took me to survive 14. I seem to keep catching a round in the cockpit that kills me after I've blasted as many as 4 AC in a misn. I finally survived my 4th attempt at 14, when things are pretty rough on the few remaining pilots near Leningrad. I had to avoid the 109s and tell my wimgy to attack fighters and ask for assistance. I managed to take out three Ju-88s the last time I had to fly the thing.


I managed to get that many because I used the rockets. If I wait till I'm pretty close, I can usually do some good with those. (BTW, for some reason the procedure for posting from photobucket has changed a bit.)

In 15, I got back into the Lagg, which I greatly prefer as I have alot of experience in it. I always carry the rockets on it to, though here I've already fired them all.


In 15 my Laggs were assigned Il-2 escort, which we did handily, until we encountered a large formation of Stukas escorted by those Kraut aces again. This time I set my flight upon the fighters and asked for assistance from a flight of P-40Cs that were nearby, attacking a large formation of Stukas. I handily blasted 4 of them each time I flew the misn.


But I got blasted again by a sneaky Nazi ace.


But I flew it again, making sure I stayed well away from the 109s. My flight and the P-40s held their own quite well while I bounced the Stukas, handily blasting them with rockets.


Then I started blasting them with 20mm and mgs.


And was doing pretty good......


But nearly ran afoul of some fascist AA....


Then as I was using up all my last MG ammo on my 5th kill, I got blasted thru the floor by one of those magical gunners that can shoot planes beneath Stukas.


So I'll just have to try misn 15 for a third time.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Enforcer572005,

Well it certainly seems like you're getting your value out of the campaign It was only supposed to be 40 missions.

those 109's do keep you on your toes don't they?... There are some times that the only way I survived was to run and evade the entire mission. Then, another time I play the same mission, I shoot down three 109's and fly home at my leisure. I experienced a wide variety of outcomes when I was building and testing.

I'm looking forward to playing through again myself with all of the new mods and sounds.

These screenies got me hyped. I'm still spending alot of time reworking an old campaign, and gathering drawings for a 3D project, but I'll be back behind the stick again in not too long.

B50

Yeah it does fly differently each time, and I have to be careful to stay as far away from those 109s as I can. I had forgotten how much faster than the Soviet fighters they were.

I'm about to fly 15 again, and hopefully not get as greedy kill wise on the Stukas. I've been killed 9 times, 8 of which are in those two misns. Most of the time I get it is because I get to intent on killing Stukas.

I really like the way the misns are organized and laid out. The events work out really well, and they can change a good bit with the least amount of variation in the way you fly it. Pretty realistic in my opinion.

I believe you may be reaching the peak of intensity as far as the winter of '41 '42 goes. Soon you will be in a Hurricane, out over the water, with a whole different set of problems.

B50

I downloaded "The Siege" and all works fine.

But where can I find the Pilot Skins? I've searched in the whole ZipFile without success.

And what should I do with the Thumbs.db? Where should I put this into?

King_Franky,

You have searched the zip file properly. Don't worry.

After dl'ing the M4T file myself (so I can play on my new machine) I have found that the pilot skins folder is not in the download.

I will fix this today, as this is one of the coolest things about the campaign I think. Using a skin pack I got from elephant, and some other textures, I made summer pilot skins, summer skins with life jackets, and winter pilot skins sets with leather suits and fur boots.

Look on M4T later today for version 1.1

I will also upload the pilot skins pack as an individual download, so that the 700 people who have dl'd it so far will not have to again.

B50

Also, the "Thumbs.db" is a file that windows uses during the transfer and copying of pictures and other files. It is not (intended to be) part of the download and may be deleted.

Ah, I was wondering about that,too. So many damned things to include, aren't there?
Played the infamous mission no.14 last night. I was thinking Enforcer was just a big cry-baby - this is easy I thought as I dropped down like a brick onto those Ju88s, laying about in all directions with wobbly green jellybeans of death. Having dispatched a couple I thought it was about time to boogie.

And THEN I saw them coming in.

Why the long face? I don't think anyone wants mission after mission with boring bombers the whole time...

In a stock Normandie-Nieman DGEN I just started flying the Yak 1B (Awesome pit Mangas! ), I shot one Fw-190 down at 1000m and followed another up to 6000m with my squadron and got shots on him too...

Does the Soviet Union not provide you with adequate equipment? What is this defeatist rancor?

Just kidding. I'm glad you're having fun.

B50

Oki Doke, Thank you very much!

I'm on mission 4 and enjoy your campaign very much.

I started playing this yesterday, after reading all of the positive feedback it's received so far. I played the first 3 missions and I'm really enjoying it. Normally I don't care for the I-16, but I'm having a lot of fun with it.

Cry baby?....cry baby? (Picture Jack Benny).....
Well!

Ya, those Nazi aces are a real pain, but in this misn, I actually managed to (without rockets yet) take out four Stukas, got jumped by a flt of 109s, shot one 109 off a guy in my flight, asked ground control for more help which showed up and raised hell with Jerry, and made it home with little damage...In a Yak yet....and on my first try.
Here I jumped them and took one out while my flight wades through them as well.


I started through the flight taking a well aimed squirt at whichever one I came closest to, while dodging most of the return fire at that. I only shot the ones I could get a good angle on and could get close to wthout over_exposing myself to fire. I waited until I was pretty close and the 20mm worked really well.


I closed and got this one. I got the satisfaction on this misn of actually intercepting them before they hit their target. First time that happened. The 109s have jumped us by now, but I sent everyone to attack them the first instance they showed up. The P-40C flight that showed up at the same time helped out greatly.


After I had hit at least 6 of the Stukas and saw smoke trails all over the place, the 109s started causing a real problem with the Yaks and Laggs in my flight. I saw one of ours getting hassled by one, and I made a fast past from altitude which let me overtake quickly. I got him with my last burst of 20mm then climbed quickly back up to altitude. The Stukas were nowhere to be seen, so we broke contact and hauled home with only one loss. I didn't know I got the 109 until he crashed a few moments after I made my pass, so no screenie.


I was lining up for approach a short time later (since our base was so close to German lines) when I cycled through the enemy planes to see how many Stukas remained. This was the only one.....and the gunner had bailed since the pilot was dead. This was my fourth Stuka kill of the misn as it turns out. My flight killed them all...I think there was 8 or 10. I never got to count them as I was too busy shooting and dodging lead.


I THINK I got all these in order and I THINK htey are all from that misn. They wind up getting a bit outta whack sometimes after I convert them to jpegs, but this is what happened during the misn. I can't remember the last time in this sim I got 5 kills in a misn. I had not done too well for most of the recent misns, so I was well satisfied that I used correct tactics and actually shot straight this time....plus I was really lucky and had some help.

You guys just starting this thing should like the historical feel it has. Really dramatic and it just 'feels' right.

The I-16 is a good fighter if you use its strenghts. It's slow, but really agile. If you keep a bit of speed up and pay attention, it won't spin out so much on you. I love the -24 model due to the cannon to.

Thanks for all of the screens guys...

The "Just right" feel was what I was going for. I didn't want it to be too hard, but then of course not to easy either.

Making "The Siege" has certainly got my skills up to taking on aircraft that out perform my own. I went 1v2 against a pair of 109A5's in my Yak-1b and came out basically on top. I consider downing one and living to complete the mission is finishing on top

My only gripe about the Soviet aircraft is that they are so lightly armed that you must be a sniper every kill. 1 or 2 20mm plus a couple 12.7's will burn a 190, but there's no dipersion with the weapons so you must be spot on. Also the ammo load is so small, that you really only have enough for 2 or 3 fighter kills a mission. But I guess that's part of the challenge.

The Upside: watching axis aircraft get positively obliterated under the firepower of your Field Modified Hurricane MkII after learning how to aim in a LaGG.

The downside: Wishing you were back in the LaGG, so you would be able to catch axis aircraft.

B50

Some pictures from Mission 14 - taken before the verdammt Ace nailed me when I wasn't looking.

I'm on mission 4 myself.

I must say that vpmedia's retextured maps are AMAZING!!

My only problem is that I get stutters over the city when water is in view (water=2), and after about 20 minutes, the game will pause 3 or 4 times and then crash. Everytime on this mission.

Do you guys think I should try the new 4.09.dll's? has anyone had a similar problem and fixed it?

I have a fairly capable computer:

2.83 Quadcore, 9800GT

I wonder what it is about this particular location on the particular map that does this. Every other part of every other map in any other campaign is absolutely sterling, mindblowing even. And then I fly over Tallin, and its like a 1.0 Pentium3 with 512KB of ram with integrated video.

Maybe I'll just fast forward...

thanks for the screens and stories.

B50