Official Historical Campaign "Ice Ring"

[BlackSix]

11 hours ago, KodiakJac said:

Ok, thanks @BlackSix 👍

I tend to try and stick around until the red attack marker tuns off.  Thanks for the info on the real attack methods of Russian pilots against nearly impossible odds. 

🙂

I'm forced to set the attack duration to 3-5 minutes because the AI cannot use all weapons in one go and makes very long maneuvers before the attack.

After completing the attack, you can go directly to the airfield without going through all waypoints and when you are near the airfield it will switch to landing mode.

[KodiakJac]

2 hours ago, BlackSix said:

🙂

After completing the attack, you can go directly to the airfield without going through all waypoints and when you are near the airfield it will switch to landing mode.

 

Thank you!  I did not know that 👍

[AtomicP]

I've been having more trouble with mission 11 ('Closer to the front') than I would like. I get near the target area where you're meant to attack a load of trucks but I keep getting blown to bits by 109s. Seemingly my escort isn't up to the job and there's no way I can defend myself since in this mission the tailgunner is not equipped.

 

Does anyone have any advice? I've tried staying treetop height, sticking to waypoints and not (i.e. making a bee line to the objective) but I still get bounced. Unfortunately checking your six in a Il-2 is more or less impossible so the first sign of the 109s is tracer streaking ahead of me and loud bangs as bits of my plane fall off!

[AtomicP]

Never mind, I dumped the bombs and headed straight to the airfield at the last waypoint, 'mission complete'.

[GOV]

I am having the same issue with "Closer to the Front",  I don't see a way of dealing with the 109's that come swooping in.  IF you ignore them they kill you, if you fight, they kill you.  Anybody have any other suggestions other than ditching the bombs and running for the mission end point?

[BlackSix]

13 hours ago, [QCP]GOV said:

I am having the same issue with "Closer to the Front",  I don't see a way of dealing with the 109's that come swooping in.  IF you ignore them they kill you, if you fight, they kill you.  Anybody have any other suggestions other than ditching the bombs and running for the mission end point?

This is not the first complaint and this situation needs to be fixed. When this campaign was being developed, the fighters behaved completely differently. The fix will be available in the next update. Probably the only way out now is to immediately fly to a new base. I apologize that everything is working out this way.

[BlackSix]

The difficulty level was reduced in the 11th mission in the 5.506 update: four Bf 109s that previously attacked the player's group on the way to the target were reduced to a pair and now primarily attack the player's cover flight.

[Skrimps]

I have played through this campaign multiple times. One of my favorites by far, especially since I prefer to ground pound.

[Kubert]

Just finished this campaign.

 

 

7 missions were flawless. I concidered myself as Ilyushin veteran, but mission 8 slapped me back to reality and BF-109 showed me that I still have more to learn and ended my no death run.  Excep that and mission 10 when I touched a tree when dodging another BF I was only two times slightly damaged. 

 

First time in restart of mission 8, AA guns took my tail wheel.

 

 

Second time in mission 13. One BF didn't let me do my job and bullied me entire time over target zone.  At least he was preoccupied by me and let my squadron do all the job. This time I lost one of the main wheels. 

 

 

What is wrong with these guys? Is it new Luftwaffe tactics? Steal ours wheels and sabotage ours landings? 

 

Thanks BlackSix and IL-2 team for unique experience. Fun and satisfying campaign. 

 

EDIT: Typos.

Edited July 25 by Kubert

[Kubert]

Second playthrough of the campaign. Now proper one, without a death. 

 

 

I made some photos along the way. 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

Of course some dramatic moments. 

 

 

 

 

Who is faster? Truck or IL? 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Does someone know how much recording impacts the game performance? 

 

Edited August 22 by Kubert

[jokash]

Just playing the 7.mission i think (Going Home),and i saw a flight of 3 Ju52,flying from the east side of the Volga towards the west side.What were they doing there, there aren't any German formations there.Also in another mission,maybe 2nd or 3rd, the same thing happens...2 flights of Ju52 coming from the east side flying towards Stalingrad.What are they doing there?

[BlackSix]

12 hours ago, jokash said:

What are they doing there?

The direct route from the western airfields to the Stalingrad pocket was very dangerous. The Russians had deployed many anti-aircraft batteries and fighter patrols there. Some German crews chose a detour through the Soviet rear, a longer but safer route, avoiding anti-aircraft positions and large airfields and approaching the city from the southeast and east. I wrote about this in the second briefing.

 

The German planes did the same in August 1942 during the bombing of Stalingrad, they attacked the city from the south, southeast and east. But at that time, the Soviet fighter aviation was completely suppressed and this was done for greater convenience.

[Sandmarken]

3 hours ago, BlackSix said:

The direct route from the western airfields to the Stalingrad pocket was very dangerous.

It is interesting how many ways the Ju 52s tried to reach the city. Big groups escorted, small groups, over clouds, at ground level, only at night, different routes and so on. Still, they were extremely vulnerable. The whole operation seemed very desperat. When Pitomnik fell, the other airfields lacked any sort of crew to unload the planes, so the pilots and gunners had to do it themselves. No guarantee the supplies ended where they were needed.

[jokash]

On 9/8/2025 at 8:18 AM, BlackSix said:

 I wrote about this in the second briefing.

I thought i caught a glimpse of it...same as i didn't read in mission 7 that i was supposed to detach from lead and land separately with my wingman,got lost going back

[BlackSix]

I try to write high-quality and not very long texts and give an explanation of what is happening in the missions, in the hope that they will be read)))

[jokash]

mission 8 is reincarnation hell...if the AA doesn't grind me,the 109's will.How best to command my flight to attack the target artillery area...do i just do "attack nearest ground" command or "follow our mission",or "patrol for ground"...i need them to draw away some flak.

[Kubert]

3 hours ago, jokash said:

i need them to draw away some flak.

 

Or try to spend as little time as possible around flak. Fast pass, stay low to block enemy fire with trees, run to safer part of battlefield, climb and repeat.

 

I chose this AA first and sprayed him with all rockets...

Spoiler

 

 

...then pressed myself as low as possible to the ground and with opened canopy zig-zagged above the city to the Volga with checking my six. When I saw no BF behind me, I did climb above forest, the same way as we entered the battlefield, knowing there were no AA guns at that path.

Spoiler

 

 

When at altitude again, I choose artillery battery where I destroyed AA gun before, bombed it and flown away the same way as before. Low, with canopy opened and zig-zag to check my six.

Spoiler

 

 

Two passes, 1x AA and 4x cannon destroyed, only one AA hit on my plane. At that point I had enough, decided to not push my luck further and fly home. 

 

I did not give single order to my flight during entire mission. They started hunting on their own. Only when I decided to go home I told them to follow me...copy my actions or something like that it is called.

 

It was my second playthrough of this campaign. First time I died once, but this time not. 

Edited September 10 by Kubert

[jokash]

19 hours ago, Kubert said:

 

 

...then pressed myself as low as possible to the ground and with opened canopy zig-zagged above the city to the Volga with checking my six. When I saw no BF behind me, I did climb above forest, the same way as we entered the battlefield, knowing there were no AA guns at that path.

 

I tried coming low to the area,to avoid 109's,but they still came later.This part you cant really influence.I hope the AI does follow me into the attack without orders,most try's i had them ordered to ground attack.I want them to follow my attack with me,not after i made my first pass, that they start preparing for their first.

[Aapje]

I am flying the same campaign now and did basically the same as Kubert. On the run-in it seems that you need to be sure to stay far enough away from the 109s, and they will keep fighting with the fighters. Then attack the AA first, and once they are done, the artillery is defenseless. There are also some parked planes that can be hit once the primary objective has been completed.

[jokash]

Also where the **** is my escort...they take off then end up somewhere else?Shouldnt they cover us?

 

EDIT: The escort is flying a direct W 270 route,then going to the target area,while our waypoints are more direct way to target.After going 270,then target area,the yaks were right above us.Completed the mission now...was not attacked by 109's,except for one wingman who got shot down by them.

Edited September 11 by jokash
new information

[Kubert]

53 minutes ago, jokash said:

I tried coming low to the area,to avoid 109's,

I am not sure if altitude has any impact on detection by enemy. My guess is, no. So I prefer to approach from higher altitude and gain some speed in dive instead. It allows me to spend less time above target area during pass.

 

56 minutes ago, jokash said:

I want them to follow my attack with me,not after i made my first pass,

 

AIs kinda live their own life in this game...never expect from them to follow orders as you wish. Instead, observe their behavior and adapt accordingly. If I want attack together with them, I never give them order...instead, I take extra care to hit waypoint and waiting for automatic order "search for targets". Then they start their attack run and I just put myself to the last position behind last plane in the formation. Only when I hit waypoint and they do nothing for too long, then I give them order "patrol for ground targets", not "attack nearest ground target". It works most of the time. 

 

Orders and communication in GB series is not adequate, but it is possible to work with it. Only some observation and know-how is needed to find out all limitations.

[BlackSix]

The most important thing to remember is that you are not obliged to complete the task assigned to you (except for missions with redeployment).

 

You may encounter strong AA defense or fighters and not be able to reach the target or not be able to stay over it for long. This is war and all sorts of things happen in it. The logic of the missions does not punish you if you cannot complete the task. Make just one attack and immediately return home. If you encounter strong resistance on the way - drop bombs and missiles and return home, this is normal.

 

Five minutes after takeoff, the airfield switches to the standby mode and is ready to count your landing and count the mission. This is how all my campaigns work.

[Sandmarken]

59 minutes ago, BlackSix said:

The most important thing to remember is that you are not obliged to complete the task assigned to you (except for missions with redeployment).

 

You may encounter strong AA defense or fighters and not be able to reach the target or not be able to stay over it for long. This is war and all sorts of things happen in it. The logic of the missions does not punish you if you cannot complete the task. Make just one attack and immediately return home. If you encounter strong resistance on the way - drop bombs and missiles and return home, this is normal.

 

Five minutes after takeoff, the airfield switches to the standby mode and is ready to count your landing and count the mission. This is how all my campaigns work.

This is how all campaigns shoud be made!

[jokash]

On 9/12/2025 at 10:23 AM, BlackSix said:

This is how all my campaigns work.

I'm aware you don't need to actually do anything specific in target area,but still what's the point if I'm gonna skip missions without satisfying resolution...i died like 10 times already through the campaign, so the sense of "staying alive" is lost.

[Kubert]

It is good that way. If destroying target would be mandatory, then we had to restart mission even after we survived being damaged before reaching it. Imagine, you do attack run, miss bomb, during circle to another pass got damaged and can't continue attack. Satisfying resolution in this case is impossible to achieve and that makes everything from now on pointless because mission failed. But, because destroying target is not requirement, we can still limp our back home with damaged plane and fight another day. I don't consider this as mission skip. Something just gone wrong. Usually when this happens to me, it is my bad decision. Like, tunnel vision and lost of situational awerness, underestimating situation, taking wrong path to target, greed, etc. When only landing back at airfield is requirement, it allows player who wasn't killed learn from his mistakes and continue in the campaign without mission restart and thus without interupting its flow. I actually think this adds to sense of stying alive. Because mission completion is focused more on pilot's life than objective status. For me, survival is personal challenge. If the game ignored that I survived the worst and came back, because target is not destroyed...well, that would piss me. It would be like "good you made it back with oil on windscreen, fuel leak, half of tail gone and holes in a wing, but now do it again because you didn't destroy 50% of targets but only 45%". In that case there would be a lot less point of staying alive.

Edited September 13 by Kubert

[Aapje]

1 hour ago, jokash said:

I'm aware you don't need to actually do anything specific in target area,but still what's the point if I'm gonna skip missions without satisfying resolution...i died like 10 times already through the campaign, so the sense of "staying alive" is lost.

 

This way, people can have their own goals and are not forced into a certain play style. Some want to focus on staying alive and are fine with abandoning the mission if things seem dicey, while others want to smash, smash, smash, or something in between.

[jokash]

my response came out wrong...i wanted to say that I make myself do the objective to consider it for myself that i have "played" through that mission properly.

[Kubert]

I understand. In that case be prepared for more mission restarts. Because that is goal more ambitious as survival alone, which is challenge as it is, especially during first playthrough. There are so many variables which can change outcome of the mission...I bet even BlackSix can't finish all his missions as intended all the time.