Review added for this Add on expansion
here is an article from simhq
http://www.simhq.com/_air/air_110a.html
Information here
http://www.airwarfare.com/Sims/FB/fb_3p_boe.htm
http://www.justflight.com/en/(znn3wirtoiew3a45ijfz2bqi)/index.aspx
Airwarfare.com
A short text to describe your forum
Battle over Europe Justflight
Moderator: dieg777
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Battle over Europe Justflight
by dieg777 on Fri May 13, 2005 9:44 am
Last edited by dieg777 on Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- dieg777
- Chief reviewer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 2:27 am
- Location: scotland
by dieg777 on Thu Jun 02, 2005 4:14 pm
Battle over Europe Review
Background
To give this review any credit a small history lesson is in order. Now sit up at the back and pay attention. Thank you. I will now begin
In the days of IL2 Sturmovich and Il2 Forgotten Battles, all those years ago, the action was concentrated on the Eastern Front. This was the original intention and design of Oleg Madox the creator. However, with the growing popularity of the sim, us Westerners wanted to see and act out the action in the areas of our historical interest, i.e. the Western front and this is where this expansion comes in.
Like other expansion packs this includes, new campaigns, missions and skins. As mentioned in my The Last Days review, similar to these can be found on the Web for free so an expansion pack, for me, has to be special to justify spending cash on it.
It was developed by a small team and included Ian Boys and Vadim “Starshoy” Kolosov , the former an experienced skinner and campaign designer and the latter who was part of the original Il2 team and developed the mission generator.
They set up to develop an add-on that would cover the western front and in order to do so created the Ardennes and Normandy maps. These maps were included in the official Aces expansion pack as part of the agreement between Oleg and Russian Rocket Games for assistance on this expansion. So most of us have benefited from the work of this team.
So on to the review of the product. Note some of the descriptions are taken from the actual product descriptions but the views and comments are my own.
This was launched in early 2004. Apart from Operation Barbarossa it was the first big add-on I can recall seeing on the shelves in game shops alongside Il2 products.
.
Patches are available here
http://www.airwarfare.com/Sims/FB/fb_3p_boe.htm
http://www.justflight.com/en/(gcg5ncuofdqorzrdxazok245)/index.aspx
See patches section for full description
Campaigns
This is the meat of the product
Battle over Europe is a dynamic campaign add-on for Il-2 Sturmovich: Forgotten Battles. It utilizes an updated version of the game generator, although this has been subsequently improved by Starshoy; who continues to develop and support this product.
The action takes place between June 1944 and May 1945 in the Western European theatre, mainly over Germany and France. Players can fly in 12 campaigns for the USAAF or Luftwaffe, (RAF was added in a patch) focusing on single-engine fighters and fighter-bombers in short range tactical and close support operations.
Offline campaigns
There are 12 Dynamic campaigns (six per side) for Luftwaffe and USAAF on the Western Front. This was increased in a patch to include RAF fighter and Bomber campaigns. Every new mission is generated based on 61 mission types and thousands of potential targets for each of the 12 campaigns - for a total of roughly 3.5 million unique missions. Mission types in these campaigns include air superiority, free hunt over enemy territory, bomber intercept; paratrooper intercept, ground attack, close air support, and many others mission types against dozens of potential target types in thousands of locations.
For the first time in IL-2 the user could fly missions on the Western front over Normandy and Ardennes.
You are able to enlist in dozens of historical squadrons and choose between several historical planes for each campaign, with distinct missions for each campaign/plane combination.
Luftwaffe
May 1944: France - Bf-109G-6, Bf-109G-6 Late, FW-190A-8
June 1944: The Invasion - Bf-109G-6, Bf-109G-6 Late, FW-190A-8, Me 262A-2a
September 1944: Berlin Air Defense - Bf-109G-6 Late, Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, FW-190A-8
November 1944: Hungary Air Defense - Bf-109G-6 Late, Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, FW-190A-8, FW-190D-9
December 1944: Ardennes Offensive - Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, Bf-109K-4, FW-190A-8, FW-190A-9, Me-262A-2a
February 1945: The Last Days - Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, Bf-109K-4, FW-190A-9, FW-190D-9, Me-262A-1a
USAAF
May 1944: Preparing the Invasion - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
June 1944: Operation Overlord - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
September 1944: Bombing Berlin - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
November 1944: Bombing Hungary - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
December 1944: The Battle of the Bulge - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
February 1945: The Last Days - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
RAF
This seems to be the same as USAAF but just substituting plane types. E.g. Spitfires for P-47
It includes Historical US military ranks and awards given out by the campaign engine in realistic fashion. Names and faces of US pilots for the squadron roster component of the campaign engine.
Online campaigns
It also introduced an Online Dynamic Campaign feature where users will be able to play dynamic campaigns online with other players, where results of each mission will directly influence the situation in the next. But I have not used this so cannot comment on its merits.
A Host can choose from dozens of historical squadrons for Luftwaffe and USAAF, set force balance and order of battle, players can choose between multiple ground and air objectives in each mission. Host can choose between historical front line movements, or situation at the front directly influenced by player performance from mission to mission. Many other customization options are available to host, with statistics of best player performance automatically generated.
Available campaigns
Ardennes Winter
Ardennes Summer - fictional campaign, ideal for quick and intense non-historical battles
Normandy
Pacific - fictional campaign with USAAF vs. Japan with intense battles over a small sized map
.
Single missions
The single missions are a bit disappointing in that there are only three new single, three co-op and six dogfight missions for online play for US and Germany, this was increased in the patches with a few for RAF. The ones included are however well thought out and interesting, my favorite is a night-fighter mission for RAF using Hurricanes which is very engrossing and exciting.
Skins
The skins are well done and seem very accurate, there are 93 total skins for a total of 20 aircraft types. This is counting the aircraft subtypes, i.e. P-47D-22 and P-47D-27 are counted as two different aircraft (and they do have different skins).
Here is an idea of some included.
USAAF
P-47D-10 "razorback": 8th AF generic, ace skin - Bud Mahurin 56th FG, 78th FG, ace skin - 78th FG "Nice Kitty"
P-47D-22 "razorback": 78th FG Olive Drab, 78th FG bare metal, ace skin - 78th FG "MX G", RAF generic, RAF Invasion Stripes, ace skin - RAF 73rd OTU "White 18"
P-47D-27 "bubble canopy": 56th FG D-Day, 56th FG Ardennes, 61st FS 56th FG, ace skin - Francis Gabreski 61st FS 56th FG, ace skin - Hub Zemke 56th FG, ace skin - Dave Schilling 56th FG, 78th FG D-Day, 78th FG bare metal, ace skin - 78th FG Scholz, 354th FG, ace skin - 354th FG "AJ D"
P-51D-5: 4th FG, 78th FG, 339th FG, 352nd FG, 353rd FG early, 353rd FT late, 357th FG, 361st FG Olive Drab, 361st FG Olive Drab bare metal, 364th FG, RAF
B-17G: 94th BG, 303rd BG, 306th BG, 351st BG, 379th BG, 381st BG, 385th BG, 398th BG, 401st BG, 452nd BG, 457th BG, 487th BG
Luftwaffe
Bf-109G-6: III/JG1, ace skin - III/JG1 "White 5", JG26, ace skin - Mietusch III/JG26 "Black 22", JG3, ace skin - Fischer II/JG3 "Black 1"
Bf-109G-10: I/JG3 Ardennes, ace skin - Seidl I/JG3 "Black 8"
Bf-109G-14: JG53 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - Michel JG53 "Blue 2"
Bf-109K-4: JG7 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - JG7 "White 1"
FW-190A-8: JG1, ace skin - II/JG1 "Yellow 6", II/JG2, ace skin - Pips Priller II/JG26 "Black 13", II/JG26 D-Day
FW-190D-9: JG54 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - JG54 "Yellow 2"
Me-262A-2: KG51 Ardennes, ace skin - KG51 "White B"
Review
This is based mainly on flying the RAF Spitfire missions available after the patch.
Well that was a lengthy list of what is included but what does it add to the IL2FB series? The first thing that grabs the attention is the mission briefings. These are greatly enhanced and all written by the original developers of Forgotten Battles. They really are more detailed and immersive so are a major plus. The after mission briefings are also excellent and quite original- I returned early from a mission after taking damage to be roundly told off in quite sarcastic tones for my early landing- I took it quite personnel and went into a sulk for the rest of the night!!
There is a lot more ground activity and especially flak going on. On the d-day missions you can see the tracers as ground forces fire fight to gain control- you really feel that you are in a close fought battle trying to break out from a small beach head.
The action is shorter so far, due to the missions, but is very varied as described above.
The AI seems to be set high as well and is probably a fair reflection of the time so you have to be careful in a firefight and treat the enemy with a bit of respect.
Overall an excellent addition which concentrates on an area of my own personnel interest.
Support
Just Flight the publisher has a support site and forum and has issued follow up patches. These are hidden away on their site here.
Go to Just flight
http://www.justflight.com/en/(gcg5ncuofdqorzrdxazok245)/index.aspx
Click on support
Sign on for their forums
Click flight forum
Click other products
Click battle over Europe
There are 2 patches
Night fighter
RAF Update
Starshoy continues to support this by updating the mission generator and by answering enquiries through the simhq forum here.
http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards ... orum;f=127
Overall very good.
PROS
Concentrates on western front
Well developed and supported package
CONS
Mainly of interest to those flying P47 or P51 on red or Me109 and FW190 on blue
Some slowdown on busy maps.
Conclusion
If you want to know if this is worth it then I would say yes. It is a good overall package in its own right but more importantly if you buy this you will support those who (as far as I know) gave you the western maps and B17, without which further expansions like The Last Days would have been more difficult to produce. By supporting these developers we might be able to get further expansions in areas that Maddox/1C might not interested be in and I am all for widening the base of producers for our community.
Background
To give this review any credit a small history lesson is in order. Now sit up at the back and pay attention. Thank you. I will now begin
In the days of IL2 Sturmovich and Il2 Forgotten Battles, all those years ago, the action was concentrated on the Eastern Front. This was the original intention and design of Oleg Madox the creator. However, with the growing popularity of the sim, us Westerners wanted to see and act out the action in the areas of our historical interest, i.e. the Western front and this is where this expansion comes in.
Like other expansion packs this includes, new campaigns, missions and skins. As mentioned in my The Last Days review, similar to these can be found on the Web for free so an expansion pack, for me, has to be special to justify spending cash on it.
It was developed by a small team and included Ian Boys and Vadim “Starshoy” Kolosov , the former an experienced skinner and campaign designer and the latter who was part of the original Il2 team and developed the mission generator.
They set up to develop an add-on that would cover the western front and in order to do so created the Ardennes and Normandy maps. These maps were included in the official Aces expansion pack as part of the agreement between Oleg and Russian Rocket Games for assistance on this expansion. So most of us have benefited from the work of this team.
So on to the review of the product. Note some of the descriptions are taken from the actual product descriptions but the views and comments are my own.
This was launched in early 2004. Apart from Operation Barbarossa it was the first big add-on I can recall seeing on the shelves in game shops alongside Il2 products.
.
Patches are available here
http://www.airwarfare.com/Sims/FB/fb_3p_boe.htm
http://www.justflight.com/en/(gcg5ncuofdqorzrdxazok245)/index.aspx
See patches section for full description
Campaigns
This is the meat of the product
Battle over Europe is a dynamic campaign add-on for Il-2 Sturmovich: Forgotten Battles. It utilizes an updated version of the game generator, although this has been subsequently improved by Starshoy; who continues to develop and support this product.
The action takes place between June 1944 and May 1945 in the Western European theatre, mainly over Germany and France. Players can fly in 12 campaigns for the USAAF or Luftwaffe, (RAF was added in a patch) focusing on single-engine fighters and fighter-bombers in short range tactical and close support operations.
Offline campaigns
There are 12 Dynamic campaigns (six per side) for Luftwaffe and USAAF on the Western Front. This was increased in a patch to include RAF fighter and Bomber campaigns. Every new mission is generated based on 61 mission types and thousands of potential targets for each of the 12 campaigns - for a total of roughly 3.5 million unique missions. Mission types in these campaigns include air superiority, free hunt over enemy territory, bomber intercept; paratrooper intercept, ground attack, close air support, and many others mission types against dozens of potential target types in thousands of locations.
For the first time in IL-2 the user could fly missions on the Western front over Normandy and Ardennes.
You are able to enlist in dozens of historical squadrons and choose between several historical planes for each campaign, with distinct missions for each campaign/plane combination.
Luftwaffe
May 1944: France - Bf-109G-6, Bf-109G-6 Late, FW-190A-8
June 1944: The Invasion - Bf-109G-6, Bf-109G-6 Late, FW-190A-8, Me 262A-2a
September 1944: Berlin Air Defense - Bf-109G-6 Late, Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, FW-190A-8
November 1944: Hungary Air Defense - Bf-109G-6 Late, Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, FW-190A-8, FW-190D-9
December 1944: Ardennes Offensive - Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, Bf-109K-4, FW-190A-8, FW-190A-9, Me-262A-2a
February 1945: The Last Days - Bf-109G-6/AS, BF-109G-10, Bf-109G-14, Bf-109K-4, FW-190A-9, FW-190D-9, Me-262A-1a
USAAF
May 1944: Preparing the Invasion - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
June 1944: Operation Overlord - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
September 1944: Bombing Berlin - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
November 1944: Bombing Hungary - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
December 1944: The Battle of the Bulge - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
February 1945: The Last Days - P-47D-10, P-47D-22, P-47D-27, P-51D-5
RAF
This seems to be the same as USAAF but just substituting plane types. E.g. Spitfires for P-47
It includes Historical US military ranks and awards given out by the campaign engine in realistic fashion. Names and faces of US pilots for the squadron roster component of the campaign engine.
Online campaigns
It also introduced an Online Dynamic Campaign feature where users will be able to play dynamic campaigns online with other players, where results of each mission will directly influence the situation in the next. But I have not used this so cannot comment on its merits.
A Host can choose from dozens of historical squadrons for Luftwaffe and USAAF, set force balance and order of battle, players can choose between multiple ground and air objectives in each mission. Host can choose between historical front line movements, or situation at the front directly influenced by player performance from mission to mission. Many other customization options are available to host, with statistics of best player performance automatically generated.
Available campaigns
Ardennes Winter
Ardennes Summer - fictional campaign, ideal for quick and intense non-historical battles
Normandy
Pacific - fictional campaign with USAAF vs. Japan with intense battles over a small sized map
.
Single missions
The single missions are a bit disappointing in that there are only three new single, three co-op and six dogfight missions for online play for US and Germany, this was increased in the patches with a few for RAF. The ones included are however well thought out and interesting, my favorite is a night-fighter mission for RAF using Hurricanes which is very engrossing and exciting.
Skins
The skins are well done and seem very accurate, there are 93 total skins for a total of 20 aircraft types. This is counting the aircraft subtypes, i.e. P-47D-22 and P-47D-27 are counted as two different aircraft (and they do have different skins).
Here is an idea of some included.
USAAF
P-47D-10 "razorback": 8th AF generic, ace skin - Bud Mahurin 56th FG, 78th FG, ace skin - 78th FG "Nice Kitty"
P-47D-22 "razorback": 78th FG Olive Drab, 78th FG bare metal, ace skin - 78th FG "MX G", RAF generic, RAF Invasion Stripes, ace skin - RAF 73rd OTU "White 18"
P-47D-27 "bubble canopy": 56th FG D-Day, 56th FG Ardennes, 61st FS 56th FG, ace skin - Francis Gabreski 61st FS 56th FG, ace skin - Hub Zemke 56th FG, ace skin - Dave Schilling 56th FG, 78th FG D-Day, 78th FG bare metal, ace skin - 78th FG Scholz, 354th FG, ace skin - 354th FG "AJ D"
P-51D-5: 4th FG, 78th FG, 339th FG, 352nd FG, 353rd FG early, 353rd FT late, 357th FG, 361st FG Olive Drab, 361st FG Olive Drab bare metal, 364th FG, RAF
B-17G: 94th BG, 303rd BG, 306th BG, 351st BG, 379th BG, 381st BG, 385th BG, 398th BG, 401st BG, 452nd BG, 457th BG, 487th BG
Luftwaffe
Bf-109G-6: III/JG1, ace skin - III/JG1 "White 5", JG26, ace skin - Mietusch III/JG26 "Black 22", JG3, ace skin - Fischer II/JG3 "Black 1"
Bf-109G-10: I/JG3 Ardennes, ace skin - Seidl I/JG3 "Black 8"
Bf-109G-14: JG53 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - Michel JG53 "Blue 2"
Bf-109K-4: JG7 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - JG7 "White 1"
FW-190A-8: JG1, ace skin - II/JG1 "Yellow 6", II/JG2, ace skin - Pips Priller II/JG26 "Black 13", II/JG26 D-Day
FW-190D-9: JG54 Operation Bodenplatte, ace skin - JG54 "Yellow 2"
Me-262A-2: KG51 Ardennes, ace skin - KG51 "White B"
Review
This is based mainly on flying the RAF Spitfire missions available after the patch.
Well that was a lengthy list of what is included but what does it add to the IL2FB series? The first thing that grabs the attention is the mission briefings. These are greatly enhanced and all written by the original developers of Forgotten Battles. They really are more detailed and immersive so are a major plus. The after mission briefings are also excellent and quite original- I returned early from a mission after taking damage to be roundly told off in quite sarcastic tones for my early landing- I took it quite personnel and went into a sulk for the rest of the night!!
There is a lot more ground activity and especially flak going on. On the d-day missions you can see the tracers as ground forces fire fight to gain control- you really feel that you are in a close fought battle trying to break out from a small beach head.
The action is shorter so far, due to the missions, but is very varied as described above.
The AI seems to be set high as well and is probably a fair reflection of the time so you have to be careful in a firefight and treat the enemy with a bit of respect.
Overall an excellent addition which concentrates on an area of my own personnel interest.
Support
Just Flight the publisher has a support site and forum and has issued follow up patches. These are hidden away on their site here.
Go to Just flight
http://www.justflight.com/en/(gcg5ncuofdqorzrdxazok245)/index.aspx
Click on support
Sign on for their forums
Click flight forum
Click other products
Click battle over Europe
There are 2 patches
Night fighter
RAF Update
Starshoy continues to support this by updating the mission generator and by answering enquiries through the simhq forum here.
http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards ... orum;f=127
Overall very good.
PROS
Concentrates on western front
Well developed and supported package
CONS
Mainly of interest to those flying P47 or P51 on red or Me109 and FW190 on blue
Some slowdown on busy maps.
Conclusion
If you want to know if this is worth it then I would say yes. It is a good overall package in its own right but more importantly if you buy this you will support those who (as far as I know) gave you the western maps and B17, without which further expansions like The Last Days would have been more difficult to produce. By supporting these developers we might be able to get further expansions in areas that Maddox/1C might not interested be in and I am all for widening the base of producers for our community.
- dieg777
- Chief reviewer
- Posts: 87
- Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2004 2:27 am
- Location: scotland
2 posts • Page 1 of 1
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests