"The Kuban Wall" Campaign

[KodiakJac]

@IckyATLAS

 

Thanks for the update, Icky!  I can imagine creating or updating a campaign like this takes an enormous amount of time.  We'll all look forward to when you release the new version, and I'm sure your hard work is very much appreciated by the community!

 

Happy New Year!   

[IckyATLAS]

News from the campaign:

Time to release the updated version is fast approaching. There has been a lot of retesting and debugging, improving the missions and the planes that can be flown so that the player can have diverse experiences. Improving also the coherent persistence of events and effects on the map from one mission to the other is also a very important feature for me. I had also to review each mission to better make use of the new atmospheric models.

 

Mission 03 which is the 4th mission in the campaign was impossible to win, this has been now adapted and I was able to make it, so it is now possible to pass this mission. It was really a very difficult play with many parameters to keep the mission not too easy with some challenges.

 

I have been extremely positively surprised by the excellent quality of the collector vehicle GAZ-MM 72-K. So I decided to improve the campaign with a plus and the coming updated release will contain a new mission that is entirely played with this vehicle. This mission inserts perfectly well in the campaign history and scenario. It allows a hint and a connection with the 2nd phase of the campaign planned later. Instead of flying on this mission you will be driving, but no spoiler here it will be a real mission with some challenges. This mission is finished already and is in testing phase. It means that to play the campaign you will need to have this vehicle. If you do not have it I urge you to buy it in any case as it is really an excellent high quality vehicle that you will enjoy driving.

 

[KodiakJac]

Looking forward to your new version of The Kuban Wall, Icky!  ?

[IckyATLAS]

The Kuban Wall is now ready for release. Nine fully revamped missions. I will wait for the next update due in a week or so (I suppose), and if all is well it will be released right  after.

[IckyATLAS]

4.703 is not yet out so I have added an additional mission, see news on top.

[Youtch]

Could i suggest to add in the main description which are the planes and vehicles you play this campaign?

 

I know there is a readme, but currently there is no link to be downloaded, and it is hard to figure out what planes are flyable and needed.

 

Thank you very much in advance,

Y.

[Falcon41]

IckyATLAS,

     Any idea as to when you'll be able to update your campaign?

Falcon41

[IckyATLAS]

On 3/18/2022 at 4:33 PM, Falcon41 said:

IckyATLAS,

     Any idea as to when you'll be able to update your campaign?

Falcon41

Thank you for your interest. I have good news, It's done at 99.99% and is planned for release this coming week-end. Finally there will be 11 missions in the campaign. I have also improved the "delivery" with an easy and clean install. It all comes in one unique folder to put in the Campaigns folder. You do not need as before to have the Media Folder (contains images and sounds) for the campaign in the Missions folder. This will allow you to fly fighters and bombers, have a vehicle based mission, a night mission, a mission high in the Kuban mountains and pilot a German fighter plane as a soviet pilot.

Basically you will need to start from the beginning as I have reviewed and improved all the missions, as well as the performance to avoid time dilation which in average is basically zero on my machine. I am sure it will be worth the wait ?. As usual all missions cannot be fully tested due to the complexity of some, hence the enormous time that would be needed, so if there are issues I will quickly address them. After that I will maintain it. I have the plan for Part2 but am not yet ready to start implementing it.

[IckyATLAS]

Released! Just after the week end. Nearly on time ?

Enjoy!

[Youtch]

Congrats.

 

It would be good to list in the initial post which are the planes used and needed for this campaign.

[IckyATLAS]

10 minutes ago, Youtch said:

Congrats.

 

It would be good to list in the initial post which are the planes used and needed for this campaign.

Right. I will do shortly.

[KodiakJac]

Has anyone been able to complete the 3rd mission attacking the bombers?

 

I've tried about 10 times, and I give up.  I'm going to delete the mission files for the 3rd mission from the campaign folder to move on to the next mission.

Edited April 19, 2022 by KodiakJac

[Missionbug]

10 hours ago, KodiakJac said:

Has anyone been able to complete the 3rd mission attacking the bombers?

 

I've tried about 10 tens, and I give up.  I'm going to delete the mission files for the 3rd mission from the campaign folder to move on to the next mission.

 

Same for me, I just gave up on it sorry to say, far too many objectives to complete I think and as a player we do not know really what or where, the author will know exactly what each objective is and what to avoid, not so easy as a player unfortunately .

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[IckyATLAS]

Dear campaign players, I plan to release the missions as single missions so that you are not bound to play the campaign in sequence with a necessary success to move forward. I can understand that it may be frustrating, but I am not a professional game designer so I learn as times goes by, but still guided to try to be as "real" as possible.

As I said before tuning the difficulty is not an easy task between too easy and too difficult and frustrating in both cases.

 

Unfortunately this new mission release is taking some time as I had other professional and personal obligations. I hope to be able to release independent missions next week.

I also need to check no issues with the latest Update 4.704.

 

Regarding Mission 03  Save the Convoy, I was able to do it so I considered possible. The fact that I designed it, is not sure here that it helped but it is possible on one of the conditions. The primary mission success conditions are mentioned as:

 

Landing at Gelendzhik-1 Airfield, having avoided the destruction of more than one tanker and more than two cargo ships. You must also overfly the convoy leading destroyer and at least three bombers must be destroyed. You must avoid that Porkryshkin is shot down.

 

The conditions above will allow the mission to succeed after properly landing. If you are KIA or CM Court Martial then it is lost even if you satisfied the other success conditions.

 

Overfly the convoy:  I agree that overflying the destroyer is a general term from the previous version, in reality as soon as radio contact is made with the convoy destroyer and this happens at about 10 km from the leading destroyer then that condition is achieved. The exact condition should be "to make contact with the escort destroyer". 

This may free some time for you to move your attention to the bombers, instead of continue flying until you end up overhead of the destroyer or the convoy. This knowledge probably helped me.

 

At least three bombers must be destroyed:  This is clear enough it does not matter which ones. Three is enough.

 

Avoid the destruction of more than one tanker and more than two cargo ships:  Here all the strategy is to look at the incoming bombers to try to pick out or hinder those who would attack the tankers. There are two tankers in the convoy and five cargos. The tanker is a more valuable asset and you have little margin. With cargoes you have a little more as two can be sunk. The elements to guide the overall strategy are:

- Protect the tanker first

- Then check bombers attacking cargoes

- You do not need to shoot down the max number of bombers (only three yes), but try to disrupt them from their attack on the ships.

- Use the wingman but here results are mixed and too dependent on the situation. You may be lucky or unlucky but AI is outside my control.

 

Avoid that Porkryshkin is shot down: This is maybe too much of a burden. Send him back to base as soon as you can, but beware that all your wingman may do the same, so think about it carefully.

 

If you consider all these conditions then only two are firm conditions: Overfly the convoy and Destroy Three Bombers.

The other conditions are always fulfilled until one of them is not any more!. This is a very important difference. I knew it but you knew it too simply you may not have thought about it in your strategy.

 

What I did in my winning mission was that once I felt that all the conditions where valid and could stay so for enough time, I flew back as fast as I could to land at my base and get the mission success condition registered. Because once this success is recorded all the other conditions become invalid (I designed it so) and it won't change the outcome even if CM. Beware if you get  KIA it should not change as per my design but I do not know how the internal IL2 engine manages if the Player is killed and makes the mission unsuccessful.

This means that after that landing you may fly back again and continue. Attention however not to be killed because of this uncertainty with the game engine.

 

 

The secondary mission success which is to sink a submarine does not allow to succeed in the mission. And this is true for all missions. Secondary objectives that can be sometimes as complex and demanding as the primary objective are there to extend the life of the mission scenario and environment mainly when you replay it.

In this mission there are three submarines in total. One that is visible at the beginning, an easy target, and two others lurking in the sea further away and moving towards the convoy. They will go at periscope depth once they spotted the convoy and may attack it. The two additional submarines may be one, two or none as there is randomness here. You may see them but later as the convoy has progressed in the direction of Gelendzhik-bay. This will be only if you play it for an extended period of time.

 

[IckyATLAS]

Dear players as promised I have just released all the 11 Scripted Missions of the campaign as single missions. Please check the main post at the top of this thread for the update information and links to download that version. Enjoy!

[Nadelbaum]

Hi @IckyATLAS, I finally had time to start this campaign. Flown the first two missions, really nicely created! I love the radio "chatter" and the overall feeling.

 

I'm about to start mission 02 Stop the Bombers, but saw a minor discrepancy: In the briefing you mention 4 rockets and 4 bombs as the payload. However, the payload that gets loaded by default is just the rockets. Not a big deal as you can change the payload before flying the mission, but wanted to give you a heads up.

[IckyATLAS]

12 hours ago, Nadelbaum said:

Hi @IckyATLAS, I finally had time to start this campaign. Flown the first two missions, really nicely created! I love the radio "chatter" and the overall feeling.

 

I'm about to start mission 02 Stop the Bombers, but saw a minor discrepancy: In the briefing you mention 4 rockets and 4 bombs as the payload. However, the payload that gets loaded by default is just the rockets. Not a big deal as you can change the payload before flying the mission, but wanted to give you a heads up.

Ok tanks, noted. I will check this. 

[Nadelbaum]

On 4/18/2022 at 11:09 AM, KodiakJac said:

Has anyone been able to complete the 3rd mission attacking the bombers?

 

I've tried about 10 times, and I give up.  I'm going to delete the mission files for the 3rd mission from the campaign folder to move on to the next mission.

I managed to finish this mission in 5 or 6 tries.

Spoiler

First I tried to take care of the AAA so that the other flight could take care of the bombers, but the other flight always failed to destroy enough of them. In the end I just made a very fast pass over the airfield and dropped my bombs and fired the rockets. I managed to destroy 3 bombers and the rest of the flight(s) took care of the additional one. A hard mission in any case.

 

Now I'm struggling with the "03 Save the Convoy" mission ?

Edited July 4, 2022 by Nadelbaum
Moved stuff into spoiler section

[Nadelbaum]

03 Save the Convoy wasn't that bad if you follow the tips from @IckyATLAS.

 

Spoiler

As soon as you reach the convoy (you get the radio chatter) start flying towards the bombers. In my case the AI wingmen went to attack the high flying 2 Heinkels and I concentrated on the low flying 3 Heinkels. Only one of them got through, but it missed the convoy. After running out of ammo I just flew back to base as quickly as possible

 

But now I have a question with regards to 04 Scramble. The main objective is quite unclear. I managed to thwart the bombers, but it seems that there's something else that needs to be done before landing back at the airfield. This something is not clear for me unfortunately. All hints are welcome.

[Nadelbaum]

Also, the rearm doesn't seem to work in 04 Scramble. Repairing and refueling is OK, but rearming cannot be initiated.

[Nadelbaum]

Mission 06 Silence, the La-5FN can't hold enough fuel for the roundtrip. What's the idea here? 

 

Also, the "info.txt" in the campaign has "missionsAmount=8". This should probably be updated as well. 

 

 

[Nadelbaum]

Mission 09 Training, keep on getting failure when flying through the valley. Made about 10 attempts. From the final one I made a recording and analyzed it in Tacview. It confirms that I had no violations compared to instructions (do not overfly the village, stay below 100m, follow the river and the road). So either I'm (again) missing something or maybe there's a bug?

 

I really like this campaign, it is challenging and makes you fly (and drive) different planes, which is a nice change compared to most of the campaigns. It clearly has it's place. I can see that a lot of time has been spent on it, including the "story" descriptions. But moving from a great campaign to an excellent campaign would require some revisiting. I hope you have time at some point.

 

 

Edited July 9, 2022 by Nadelbaum

[IckyATLAS]

I am a little late to answer your comments, but I did a pause, as it is a very time consuming projects and had also other obligations that did not let me much free time. Nevertheless I confirm the project will continue and will be improved. 

On 7/9/2022 at 11:17 AM, Nadelbaum said:

I really like this campaign, it is challenging and makes you fly (and drive) different planes, which is a nice change compared to most of the campaigns. It clearly has it's place.

 

Thank you Nedelbaum and all others that appreciate the Kuban theater of war and this campaign for your comments. I will address all of them. There are indeed bugs and some issues with success conditions that I could not always completely test due to time constraints. I also saw that the factory chimney smokes do not appear, which is a nice visual addition for cities like Krasnodar or Novorossiysk. A bug crept in the campaign due to the unfortunately random errors appearing on effects altitudes, and thus also chimney smoke heights that jump in the sky. This issue has been addressed in other posts and I have a swift way of correcting the heights but some object links have to be restored (and this was missed) related to the player plane to activate them when they can be seen. 

This fall I will put online a new version in which bugs will be cleaned up and answer your comments. Some additions will also be made with infantry modules. I hope we get the Russian and German soldier skin version to make it more credible.

I will wait for the release of BON before releasing a new version as there could be some nice stuff coming up that could also profit to this campaign. 

A major release like BON will most probably request that all missions and campaigns be resaved to remain compatible and playable with the latest IL2 update version. It may also generate some issues with existing versions to be ironed out, which could create some delay.

Thank you all for your patience.

[Nadelbaum]

Thanks @IckyATLAS. This is a free campaign and I really appreciate the time you have put (and apparently plan to still put) in it. If you manage to come up with an update I'll definitely finish the last missions, just take your time. And I've already marked the campaign in my personal notes as one that I will definitely revisit after all the others have been tackled.

[LoupVert]

On 7/5/2020 at 7:45 PM, IckyATLAS said:

The new updated and extended Campaign based on IL2 Version 4.703c can be downloaded now!

Here you can download: The Kuban Wall Campaign V2 - Part 1 - Update 4.703c

(...)

Update 06/05/22

(...)

Here you can download: The Kuban Wall Missions V2 - Part 1 - Update 4.704

(...)

 

That looks awesome Icky, I can't wait to enjoy it. Lots of hard work you did put in there.

 

My brain is having a moment here, though : which one is the most up to date ?

 

Looking at the rev number, I would guess 4.704. But then, why is 4.703c above it and even still mentioned ?

 

Cheers

[IckyATLAS]

Thanks. I hope indeed you will enjoy it. Do not hesitate to make any comments.

The latest game version is 5.004b. This campaign should be compatible with 5.004b as there is no fundamental change from 4.704.

The 4.703c indication is an error from my side. I will correct it.

[IckyATLAS]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:01 PM, Nadelbaum said:

But now I have a question with regards to 04 Scramble. The main objective is quite unclear. I managed to thwart the bombers, but it seems that there's something else that needs to be done before landing back at the airfield. This something is not clear for me unfortunately. All hints are welcome.

There was a bug here. Normally if you damage one of the incoming high altitude bombers that should be enough. I am now correcting this.

 

 

On 7/5/2022 at 6:49 PM, Nadelbaum said:

Also, the rearm doesn't seem to work in 04 Scramble. Repairing and refueling is OK, but rearming cannot be initiated.

That is strange I will have to test it normally you can either do the three or not at all. Either you are on an airfield where the service and maintenance place is active in which case you can do all, or the place is inactive and then you can do nothing and you have a radio message about it. The Flag on the service and maintenance place will give you the status. If it is white and at mid-mast then you are free to go, if it is white and down then there is no service at this place for lack of parts ammo and people, and if it is on the top in color then it means the service place is operational but occupied and you have to wait, the wait time can be anywhere from 3 minutes to 30 minutes. You can also fly to another airfield that has an operational service place. I will have to test this strange behavior.

 

 

On 7/7/2022 at 6:45 PM, Nadelbaum said:

Mission 06 Silence, the La-5FN can't hold enough fuel for the roundtrip. What's the idea here? 

 

Also, the "info.txt" in the campaign has "missionsAmount=8". This should probably be updated as well. 

This was unforeseen, initially it was another plane planned and it could hold enough fuel, then I changed to a La-5FN but did not check this side effect.

I will check this and maybe I will have to change the player plane.

 

 

It took a lot of time to answer but so is life, we do this for a hobby so other things have always priority. Thanks for your patience.

 

[IckyATLAS]

On 7/7/2022 at 6:45 PM, Nadelbaum said:

Mission 06 Silence, the La-5FN can't hold enough fuel for the roundtrip. What's the idea here? 

 

Also, the "info.txt" in the campaign has "missionsAmount=8". This should probably be updated as well. 

 

 

It was really a bad choice from my side. After checking performances the LA5FN has something like 40 minutes combat flight time. Nice plane but really short on range.

Now you will have a brand new YAK9t and it should be ok. info.txt corrected to 12 see below.

On 7/9/2022 at 11:17 AM, Nadelbaum said:

Mission 09 Training, keep on getting failure when flying through the valley. Made about 10 attempts. From the final one I made a recording and analyzed it in Tacview. It confirms that I had no violations compared to instructions (do not overfly the village, stay below 100m, follow the river and the road). So either I'm (again) missing something or maybe there's a bug?

This is a little tougher but working on it. It is a very complex coding because you have a lot of multiple level embedded conditional logic in this mission. 

 

On 7/4/2022 at 7:01 PM, Nadelbaum said:

But now I have a question with regards to 04 Scramble. The main objective is quite unclear. I managed to thwart the bombers, but it seems that there's something else that needs to be done before landing back at the airfield. This something is not clear for me unfortunately. All hints are welcome.

There was a bug here that has been corrected. You just have to damage one of the high altitude bombers to succeed. 

Regarding the Functions Rearm and Refuel they do work when I tested it, but in my case repair (which starts automatically once you are in the service and maintenance area) has not worked or did not complete. I had a nearly destroyed plane and just made it to the repair area, but it did seem stuck in repairing. Maybe if the plane is too damaged it does not work or takes ages to be repaired, dunno. Anyway there has been a lot of posts in this forum about malfunctions of these functionalities, so I do not guarantee it works perfectly with all planes, but it has in general worked well at least in various tests I did.

 

I have improved also for all missions the mission startup sequence, and made some improvements here and there.

Before releasing a new update I plan to add at least one additional new mission in this campaign. Stay tuned.

 

[FeuerFliegen]

In case you weren't aware, both on missions 2 and 3, over the port of Novorossiysk, there are multiple large ships that are just floating around at 2-3km altitude; some upside down, some sideways.  some are on the ground upside down or sideways sitting in the grass.  and once or twice a ship fell from the sky and hit the ground sideways.  I took some screen shots; I'll upload them later.

 

Edit- I actually think it was missions 01 and 03; didn't realize the first mission was marked 00.

Edited July 28, 2023 by SCG_FeuerFliegen

[FeuerFliegen]

[FeuerFliegen]

Regarding the mission 06 - Silence

 

I saw some of you said the LA-5FN cannot make it round trip.  It can; you just have to use the correct power settings.  I personally would climb up to 2000-2500m, and set my engine to between 1950-2050 RPM, and about 350mm manifold pressure (no more than 400-420mm).  This will have you flying at approximately 300-310kph IAS.  You will make it the entire round trip while still having about 25% fuel leftover when you land.

 

My issue with the mission; it says that the success conditions are that at least 5 telecom antennas (out of 8 are destroyed, and at least 3 bombers must make it back and land safely at Gelendzhik-1.  I did this, even waiting around until all bombers landed, taxiied, and despawned.  Still failed. 

 

To those who have passed this mission- what did you do?

Edited December 17, 2023 by FeuerFliegen

[jollyjack]

Them flying ships, makes me think of 'Drain the Oceans" on National Geographi Channel.

I wonder how you could do that, even on purpose. Upside down they look like perfect UFOs, now if they could move and shoot?

 

Icky, the link on the first post goes to the older version IMO, and i have 5.004b already, thanks. Never got to playing it, but just tried it:

v 5.002b - Just finished 01,  I yakked me two Fockes and a Bf110 on the way up.

That way long flights never get boring. Your stuff is always showing off great programming skills. Compliments!

Edited March 14, 2024 by jollyjack

[IckyATLAS]

Dear simmers, I am very happy to announce that after two years here is an updated and improved campaign. More missions and "reviewed and improved older missions.

Mainly Mission 08 has been much improved regarding the German landing operation. You have three new missions. Other have been also reviewed and the variety of planes to fly have also been improved.

Please go to the first post that I have re-edited and you will find the link to a brand new package and all explanations for you to enjoy.

 

[Billsponge1972]

Thank you IckyATLAS!! This is one of the best scripted campaigns out there! A must have by a master of the craft!

[Mike2945]

Dear IckyATLAS,

Thank you for updating this very original campaign, which I look forward to replaying.  I note that Missions 6 onwards do not have a 'MISSION' file - is that deliberate, an omission, or aren't MISSION files needed for a mission to run?

 

Mike

[IckyATLAS]

7 hours ago, Mike2945 said:

Dear IckyATLAS,

Thank you for updating this very original campaign, which I look forward to replaying.  I note that Missions 6 onwards do not have a 'MISSION' file - is that deliberate, an omission, or aren't MISSION files needed for a mission to run?

 

Mike

Normally you do not need .mission files to play. The binary files are enough as long as you have them.

There should not be any .mission file, in any of the missions btw., as this will reduce the size of the whole package.

I will check this evening and upload a corrected package if necessary. Thanks to let me know.

 

********

 

Package checked and set straight and clean, only binary files.

 

Edited June 26, 2024 by IckyATLAS

[IckyATLAS]

A very unfortunate bug has been detected related to the new folder naming.

Before the Campaign folder and the Missions folder had both the same name The Kuban Wall. As I released them together I renamed them differently 

Campaign - The Kuban Wall  and  Missions - The Kuban Wall just forgetting that all the sound and image files of the game have their file address hardcoded and thus could not be accessed anymore. 

This has been corrected, and the Read Me file adapted too.

The new Campaign folder zip file must be re-downloaded and reinstalled in the game folders. 

You can do it here: 

 

The Kuban Wall campaign V07-24

 

or in the first post that has been edited.

 

Sorry for this inconvenience.

[IckyATLAS]

Maybe this document was already on the forum but for those interested in the Kuban operation between the Soviet and German Army, mainly during the Kuban Bridgehead and the evacuation by the German Arm, a very interesting document can be found View of The Defence and Evacuation of the Kuban Bridgehead, January -October 1943

It corresponds to the period of my campaign but clearly the reality is a completely different thing.

 

In this document just for a hint you have the following numbers related to evacuation of the German army, starting October 43 and here we talk about what is left.

 

• 65,000 men
• 800 motorcycles
• 1,100 cars
• 2,000 trucks
• 600 tracked vehicles
• 600 trailers
• 5,400 horse-drawn vehicles
• 15,000 horses
• 900 guns of all calibers

These numbers were much higher at the beginning of the Kuban campaign. And we have to add to these numbers the huge number of Soviet equipment that was available in the same time and adds up in the same region.

As side note we see that horses play a major role and this is why I am unhappy that we do not have moving horse drawn vehicles/carts in this sim. We do not have them even static.

 

To have an idea of the naval forces situations this Wikipedia page is very useful Black Sea campaigns (1941–1944)

When you sum up all what was available in terms of naval equipment, ships, submarine, cruisers, destroyers etc. it is huge.

 

Regarding the Luftwaffe I found that in the spring 1943 period the Luftwaffe had about 900 aircraft committed in this region and the Soviets 600 but which went up to 1150 by may. And there could be up to 100 combat sorties altogether per day.

 

Now you can hint at how difficult would be to have something that makes you feel in the sim the reality of the campaign.

Compared to all of this (Air Land and Sea) we play basically on empty maps. By empty I mean of dynamic stuff, not bridges or buildings which are there.

Even my campaign which has a lot of stuff pales completely compared to the reality.

I am planning some missions related to the evacuation from Novorossiysk and the Taman peninsula but it will be difficult to show this.

 

 

 

 

 

[roadrunner2255]

Great campaign. Can't seem to be able to get past the mission 'nightmare' I follow the route exactly but it still says mission failed when I land. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong

[Vishnu]

Looks interesting..just downloaded it.  Hope you managed all the bugs.   Great work and patience!