GREEK FIRE V4.8 ~ Spitfire MkVb & MC202 Campaign

[Jaegermeister]

 

12/13/23  Now updated for IL2 GB V.5.108

 

Greek Fire Revisions version 4.5;
Revised mission logic to work with current version 4.505 of IL2 Battle of Kuban
Added 4k Spitfire Vb skins, created by me with the official release template

Added the newly released AI C-47 Dakota aircraft to the missions where appropriate
Added new special effects released in recent updates
Adjusted friendly and enemy AI behavior due to recent AI updates
Added new campaign screen art for all missions
Updated in game GUI mission maps
Corrected aircraft speeds and altitudes in all missions
Corrected British aircraft and airfield call signs for correct radio transmissions   

Readme file included with mission files for your reference

 

Greek Fire Revisions version 4.8;
Revised skins file to include Turkish FW190A3 that was missing

Changed Dakota and Bf109 skins to included in-game skins to reduce file size 

You can download the new file from this link;

Greek Fire Campaign compatible with V 5.108

 

Previously Updated for IL2 GB V.4.505 with English language flying for British Commonwealth.

 

All missions are now counted complete after a successful takeoff.  

 

This is a 15 mission offline campaign which requires IL2 Great Battles ~ Battle of Kuban to run and also requires the Collector Planes Spitfire Mk.VB and the Macchi MC.202 Series VIII. It is a historically based recreation of a misguided attempt by the British Commonwealth Armed Forces to occupy the Greek Dodecanese Islands in the Aegean Sea after Italy surrendered to the Allies in the fall of 1943. It became known as "Churchill's Folly". I have tried to represent the actual events as closely as possible with one minor diversion, having to do with a derelict Italian fighter plane abandoned on the airfield. 

 

 

 

 

Unzip all files to your IL2 Sturmovik Great Battles root folder. This should install the missions files under data/Campaigns/Greek Fire and the aircraft skins under data/graphics/skins/xx.  You can also unzip the files to your desktop and install them manually.

 

The 4K custom Spitfire Vb skins are made by me for this campaign. 

 

The intelligence report in the mission briefings will give you a factual account of actual events in September 1943. You will be given a short overview of your expected mission requirements in the briefing, and then some general navigation guidelines. I would suggest you try to follow the directions, but if you want to just fly around and look for targets, that might work too.

 

I know many people fly without the HUD enabled, but I have included a number of subtitle messages that are useful and informative if you wish to use them. I would suggest you keep them turned on. They are displayed at the bottom of the screen where it is the most appropriate for VR display users.

 

It’s a target rich environment, but you will find yourself limited by the amount of ammo the Spitfire can carry. 

 

I hope you enjoy flying for the South African Air Force in this questionable and ill fated adventure!

 

~S~

 

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by Jaegermeister

[Raptorattacker]

No link Jaegermeister it just goes to the 'Something appears to be missing' banner!...

Edited June 11, 2019 by Raptorattacker

[Jaegermeister]

Gotcha, thanks.

Try it now

Edited June 11, 2019 by Jaegermeister

[JUSTPLANECRAZY]

THANKS very much Jaegermeister nice looking campaign for me to fly tonight, i was at a loose end last night as i had lost 18 or 19 campaigns due to the new update, looks like happy days days are back again NICE ONE CHEERS.

[Jaegermeister]

Your welcome. Good luck with it.

 

I figured a few people might be doing something other than flying the Me262, but I wanted to wait until after the update to release it so it didn’t have to be updated right away. It looked to me like it was working fine yesterday evening after updating the binary files. I haven’t tested the AI behavior yet but that should be better as well.

[keeno]

Thanks very much! Cheers

[JUSTPLANECRAZY]

Just have to say THANKS again Jaegermeister , shortly after finding this new campaign i stumbled upon the thread between yourself and Chipwich which explained in a language even i could understand Lol, how to convert and get my campaigns back, THANKS to both you guys very much appreciated. 

[Jaegermeister]

2 hours ago, keeno said:

Thanks very much! Cheers

 

Your welcome... good shooting

 

1 hour ago, JUSTPLANECRAZY said:

Just have to say THANKS again Jaegermeister , shortly after finding this new campaign i stumbled upon the thread between yourself and Chipwich which explained in a language even i could understand Lol, how to convert and get my campaigns back, THANKS to both you guys very much appreciated. 

 

Your welcome for both. It’s pretty easy to fix them. I know the Mission Editor can seem daunting, but it’s fairly simple really. It’s just tedious.

[Chief_Mouser]

Ooooh nice. The Dodecanese campaign was something that I'd like to have seen in the old Il-2, but there never was a decent map made for it. I went to Kos many years ago and had no idea of the 1943 history there. Churchill's Folly indeed - it didn't help that the Americans saw it for the waste of time it was and refused to pitch in with anything other than a token effort.

 

'Churchill's Folly' by Anthony Rogers and 'War in the Aegean' by Peter C. Smith & Edwin R. Walker, if anyone wants an interesting read. Personally, I think that Churchill gets blamed too much, but in this case he was sadly misguided. Should have left the whole area alone until the end of the war.

[Jaegermeister]

Oddly enough, the Kerch peninsula is very appropriate to substitute for Kos if you can ignore no ocean on the west end and some place names. I think it’s a slightly larger land mass, but not by much. Hopefully the “suspension of disbelief” will last a little while. I don’t think IL2 pilots are nearly as used to improvising maps as we used to be.

 

It was definitely a shoestring operation, and yes it was a mistake for them to try to occupy a few small islands when the Germans were still strong on Crete, Rhodes and in Athens. They were literally surrounded from the start. “Churchill’s Folly” is frequently applied to everything from Gallipoli to the Gulf War, but during WWII it seems to refer to Kos and Leros.

 

[Raptorattacker]

11 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

Try it now

Thanks matey, GOT it!! I'll report back after I've given it a spin!! 

[Jaegermeister]

6 minutes ago, Raptorattacker said:

Thanks matey, GOT it!! I'll report back after I've given it a spin!! 

 

Nice... being a Brit you should appreciate having roundels on your crate for a change, even if they were Afrikaners.

[Raptorattacker]

48 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

being a Brit you should appreciate having roundels on your crate

Ha! Ha! Well, the first mission was smooth as the proverbial baby's bum so here's to the test flight in the Folgore!! Thanks, it promises to be a good way to spend some time that I should be using to do other much more important (but unavoidable) things!! 

[Jaegermeister]

Spoiler alert, first mission is a milk run. Now you only have 14 missions left to get your 40 kills...?

 

At at least I’m not going to make you do circles around the island until you run out of gas for the first 3 days like they really had to do. ?

Edited June 12, 2019 by Jaegermeister

[keeno]

Jaegermieister,

 

this campaign is brilliant! i'm on mission 5 and it's so immersive. It's beautifully written, so plays out just perfect. The use of the map we have to represent the chosen combat area works very well, kind of reminds me of a Malta campaign. Great use of aircraft to represent planes we haven't got and lovely skins.

 

Top notch, well done!

 

Thanks for the hard work that has obviously gone into this!!

 

Cheers.

[Jaegermeister]

Thanks for the feedback keeno. I'm glad to hear you are enjoying it. 

 

I have seen it said that Kos was like "a little version of Malta at it's worst moments."

[Swing]

Thanks for this new campaign Jaegermeister !

[Jaegermeister]

Your welcome Swing, good luck with it,

[Falcon41]

Jaegermeister, I have flown 5 missions and loved each of them.  Great job with this campaign, although I must admit I've never heard of it before, but then with all the conflicts around the globe then, its not unreasonable for some of us to not know of all the specifics.  Enjoying the campaign and keep up the good work.  I've tried the ME; however, completing even a single mission can be overwhelming at times, so I really appreciate the effort it takes to develop and complete a campaign.

[Jaegermeister]

Falcon, I’m glad you are enjoying it! I think this one, small and obscure though it is, took 3 months of spare time to complete. It keeps me out of trouble I guess...

 

Sometimes it’s strange how you find out about bits of history. This sim did used to be called “Forgotten Battles”: I was looking up Spitfire MkV aces and wondering what area I could replicate and fly that would have some historical significance related to it. I ran across Corrie Van Vliet DFC, with 12 victories, and mainly because I had never heard of him I started looking into his story. That led me to the story of Kos (Cos) and what you have now. Usually when these things work out, they sort of fall together and tell their own story. I’m just the one looking up the information and translating it in the Mission Editor.

[Jade_Monkey]

I just completed mission 4 and I'm thoroughly enjoying the campaign so far!

I think the map choice conveys the greek island environment surprisingly well, sometimes I get an Arma3 vibe ?

I like to follow the leader and maintain formation, it's very gratifying when you do it right!

[Jaegermeister]

I’m glad you like it so far Jade_Monkey. I enjoyed your Spitfire campaign as well. I originally made the missions with the player aircraft leading most of them, but I ran into some issues with taxi waypoints on the grass airfields and found it better to be the wingman.

 

I also like flying formation in VR and it gives you something challenging to occupy yourself while doing boring patrols around the “Island” ?

[Seryozha]

17.06.2019 в 19:03, Jaegermeister сказал:

Сокол, я рад, что вы это нравится! Я думаю, что это один, маленький и неясными, хотя это, потребовалось 3 месяца свободного времени, чтобы закончить. Это держит меня от неприятностей, я думаю ...

 

Иногда это странно, как вы узнали о битах истории. Этот сим же раньше называл «Забытые Сражения»: Я смотрела Spitfire мы тузов и интересно, что область, которую я мог бы повторить и летать, что бы иметь некоторую историческую значимость, связанную с ним. Я побежал через Корри Ван Vliet DFC, с 12 побед, и в основном потому, что я никогда не слышал о нем, я начал искать в его истории. Это привело меня к истории Кос (Cos), и что у вас есть сейчас. Обычно, когда эти вещи работают, они вроде падают вместе и рассказать свою собственную историю. Я просто один смотрит вверх информацию и перевод его в редакторе миссий.

Reasonable thought. Do not be shy. Map Kuban can be run for the following campaigns. For Africa and the Mediterranean

[FoxbatRU]

11.06.2019 в 15:07, Jaegermeister сказал:

run and also requires the Collector Planes Spitfire Mk.VB and the Macchi MC.202 Series VIII.

Your campaign and summer discounts are a great reason to buy an Italian plane!?

[Jaegermeister]

Yes, now is a great time to get the Macchi Folgore. It’s an interesting airplane and there is not much content for it. I would love to see an Italian campaign at some point in the future and get to fly it more.

 

Keep buying content and maybe Jason will add my next one to his sponsored list! I’m just waiting on the American Folgore and the Western Europe map.

[Blitzen]

Many thanks---this sounds great!

[Jaegermeister]

Your welcome, I hope you enjoy it. Post back when your done and let us know how it went.

[MaxTurn]

In Mission 1,  I have Soviet Stars not SAAF Roundels.  Anybody else have this issue?

Edited July 3, 2019 by MaxTurn

[Jaegermeister]

You have to select custom skin in the plane load out menu;

 

After you start the mission, select Spitfire MK VB setup.

On the load out screen, there is a 2nd tab at the top to select your aircraft skin. 

Click on “official”

You will get a drop down list, select “custom”

Select your skin listed on the last line of the mission briefing.

Right click “accept”

Start mission 

[MaxTurn]

Thanks, I missed that entirely when I went to the the setup page.  I looked forward to trying the campaign. 

[Emil109]

I, thanks, download, regards from Spain ?

 

[Jaegermeister]

10 hours ago, MaxTurn said:

Thanks, I missed that entirely when I went to the the setup page.  I looked forward to trying the campaign. 

 

Good luck, much more fun with the right paint job... ?

 

8 hours ago, Emil109 said:

I, thanks, download, regards from Spain ?

 

 

De nada, disfrutalo!

[Grobby]

Dear Sir,

I have the same skin problem unsolved.

Playing under 3.101b/ W10, After start of mission 01 Escort. Clicking spitfire MkVb Set up ( Down Under)

I read the message: Attention/ Some of the aircraft parameters are locked for this mission/ followed by two choices Cancel or accept

Only accept works but then I' m stuck in game with the Sov Skin.The other planes seem to wear the correct skin.
The skin exists and can be used in single missions

This is not the immersion I'm sure the campaign is worth.

Could you give me a clue of  how I could solve the case, please.

Regards,

G

 

 

[Jaegermeister]

On 7/3/2019 at 10:10 PM, Jaegermeister said:

You have to select custom skin in the plane load out menu;

 

After you start the mission, select Spitfire MK VB setup.

On the load out screen, there is a 2nd tab at the top to select your aircraft skin. 

Click on “official”

You will get a drop down list, select “custom”

Select your skin listed on the last line of the mission briefing.

Right click “accept”

Start mission 

 

 

[Grobby]

Thank You for the gentle answer, Sir

To be clear: after the show up of the "warning" and the acceptation, at the lower right corner there is a Grey Tab with an arrow. klicking on it makes the loadout screen appear!

Sorry for the inconvenience, I feel like a fool but now I fully enjoy your work. Thank U for that.

Check Six,

G

[Jaegermeister]

No problem at all. I know it’s a bit tricky to find.

 

Good luck and enjoy! ?

[Raptorattacker]

@Jaegermeister Thought you might quite like this little incident?...

 

[JonRedcorn]

ah nothing more satisfying than seeing a 109 hit the dirt and blow into a million little pieces.

[Jaegermeister]

That’s nice indeed. I always like seeing burning aircraft over Kos. Sort of a theme going on you know. ?

[Raptorattacker]

25 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

Sort of a theme going on you know.

 

59 minutes ago, JgonRedcorn said:

ah nothing more satisfying

Eggcisely! I thought you'd appreciate it. Great fun campaign, like I've said before. Thanks again!