Official Historical Campaign: Battle of the Hurtgen Forest

[Deacon352nd]

AEthelraedUnraed,

Thank you so much not only for your permission but also for all your hard work in making this campaign. The explanation clears up any confusion I had. Thanks again. 

[Jaegermeister]

On 3/30/2022 at 4:58 PM, AEthelraedUnraed said:

I'm not Jaegermeister, but as the creator of this campaign I like to think I'm well qualified to answer this question

 

And you are way more qualified than me to explain how this all works anyway. I believe you are the one who "wrote the book" as it were.

 

 

Edited April 10, 2022 by Jaegermeister

[Snakeye]

Just played this campaign and loved it.  It had nice touches that I wasn't expecting and brought me back to my 12-years experience flying and controlling Close Air Support for the USAF.  Like "Hell Hawks", the custom radio calls certainly aid in immersion and as well in searching/finding the appropriate targets.  This challenge I enjoyed! 

 

Thanks for the work and quality in this - as well as the historical explanations and timeline.  Top notch - highly recommend this!

[VA_Kamicosmos]

Looking forward to this and HellHawks!  I've flown Russian, German, and UK scripted campaigns, and just finished up Wind of Fury last night.  I've gotten up to flying with full realism options, and working on not using any markers, so I feel I am now ready to tackle these two campaigns!  They also have a special place for me, my grandfather was an Infantryman in the 9th Infantry Division, 60th Inf Regiment, and saw combat at both Hurtgen and the Bulge (and on to Berlin).  I'll be flying these missions in honor of him!

[VA_Kamicosmos]

First mission was very fun!  I'm not sure what hit me, but when I bombed my target I got hit hard, plane pitched way forward, and I thought 'this is it!'.  Not sure if was the flak that I hadn't suppressed  or perhaps a wingman's bombs went off and I flew through the explosion.  I had just released my bombs so I don't think I hit myself.  But I do have a habit of bombing way too low and have blown myself up in the past so...I'll adjust those bomb timers in the future!  (I also forgot the custom skins, but I have those installed now and am looking forward to seeing those on the next mission!  I saw there are 4 skins, do I just pick one of the -28 ones, or does it assign one to me, or do I need to stick to the default skin so that the wingmen get the right ones?)

 

(I'm recording these as I fly them so I'll start a thread in the videos forum for those)

[AEthelraedUnraed]

5 hours ago, Kamicosmos said:

I also forgot the custom skins, but I have those installed now and am looking forward to seeing those on the next mission!  I saw there are 4 skins, do I just pick one of the -28 ones, or does it assign one to me, or do I need to stick to the default skin so that the wingmen get the right ones?

Nope, it doesn't assign any of the skins to the player aircraft. You're free to choose whichever skin you like though. In most of the missions, there's either less than four aircraft, or one of the aircraft is a D-22 so there's usually one skin that isn't used already. The mission briefing says which skins are used.

[VA_Kamicosmos]

Excellent, thanks for the answer!  I noticed the list and figured I'd have to pick my own.  Which works out well, cause I have a skin I've been wanting to use for a while.

 

Oh, and the second mission, supporting the 60th Infantry Regiment?!?!  Thanks so much!  It was very cool to fly support over my virtual grandfather down there somewhere in those hilly woods!  Very cool!

 

Took me a while to figure out that Siren Sound was the German jamming signal.  Very cool how it gets louder as you get closer to the source of the jamming!

 

(Now if I can just get the hang of the -28.  It is heavy and floaty at the same time, and I keep slamming into the ground trying to bomb and strafe stuff.  Apparently my bf110 experience doesn't relate here!  LoL)

[VA_Kamicosmos]

I watched Requiem's 'dive and glide bombing' videos for the p-47, helped a bunch!  Went up in an Advanced mission and took out 10 guns (and a 190A-8 that got too nosey!)

I'm also quickly learning that the P-47 is kind of like flying a jet, you have to plan ahead a bit more, slowly ramp that engine and supercharger up and down, and always be a couple steps ahead of the plane in your head!

 

[SCG_Neun]

Excellent Campaign, many thanks, very well done!

 

[Spidey002]

I got the secret objective in mission 2! Now I’m wondering what other secrets you’ve got in store…

[nachinus]

This campaign is really excellent. I just wanted to wholeheartedly thank the author because one can really tell how much effort, attention to detail and hand-made map work this must have taken. It has been one of the best IL2 experiences I've ever had!!... even if the P47 is really not my cup of tea.

 

There is some stuff I didn't even know was possible with IL2 mission designer engine!!! 

Edited May 25, 2022 by nachinus

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I noted a small bug in mission 2, where the 3d models of a town (Weisweiler) didn't match up with the ground textures. Fixed this and re-uploaded.

[Missionbug]

Great work, thank you very much, really appreciated.

 

Take care and be safe.

 

Wishing you all the very best, Pete.

[jollyjack]

Now don't you think your player's is a little over time here in your nevertheless great Jug campaign:

 

 

torpedo mod "Torpedo He-111, Ju88, Ju-87, Bf-110, 190, P-38, Pe-2, IL-2 Stronger Trail, Shorter torp" loaded.

Funny is that the P47 is not listed as affected plane !

 

A new skin with this instead of the heart might justify matters ..

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by jollyjack

[paul_leonard]

I think this link is broken.

Campaign: http://aethelraed.nl/hurtgen.html (~15MB, updated 13-06-2022)

 

Thanks for fixing.  Downloading now.

Edited July 24, 2022 by paul_leonard
Update

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 7/23/2022 at 7:41 PM, paul_leonard said:

I think this link is broken.

Campaign: http://aethelraed.nl/hurtgen.html (~15MB, updated 13-06-2022)

Thanks for notifying me. There was a problem with the domain configuration. As you've noticed, I've fixed it but I waited with posting as it would still take some time for the changes to propagate through the DNS system .

[Adger]

Great campaign, 1st mission done no problems so far with the latest patch.. i few pics if that's ok @AEthelraedUnraed

 

[amadeusdemarzi]

I'm encountering a strange bug on the first mission, when I load in on the first mission, I get the map/planning view, when I click start however, the game appears to just freeze, i can see in the upper bar area, the game is rendering behind, but the map never disappears and the mouse cursor shows the loading spinner and never goes away.

 

I have to force quite to recover. I installed the missions using JSGME, both the skins and the mission pack.

Edited September 24, 2022 by amadeusdemarzi

[AEthelraedUnraed]

1 hour ago, amadeusdemarzi said:

I'm encountering a strange bug on the first mission, when I load in on the first mission, I get the map/planning view, when I click start however, the game appears to just freeze, i can see in the upper bar area, the game is rendering behind, but the map never disappears and the mouse cursor shows the loading spinner and never goes away.

 

I have to force quite to recover. I installed the missions using JSGME, both the skins and the mission pack.

Hmm, I just booted up the first mission to see if anything's wrong, but everything works here. Maybe there's something wrong with your install? The fact that you mention JSGME makes me believe you use mods - is that the case? If so, mods tend to have all kinds of unforeseen consequences. It's possible some mod is somehow incompatible with my campaign (or with the latest game update, and it just happens to fail for the first time on my campaign). Try to disable all mods and see if the campaign works then. After that, you can enable your mods again until you've found which one causes the problem. A quick way of pinpointing is to test it in halves: enable half of your mods; if it works, the problem must be in the other half (and vice versa). Enable half of the mods of this other half, and rinse and repeat.

 

If it still doesn't work, verify the integrity of the game files if you use Steam. If you use the standalone version, I've heard you can do something similar by deleting the "updates" folder, but I can't verify this.

[amadeusdemarzi]

I use JSGME, but really just for installing custom campaigns and maps. 

 

So far I've tried the following, but so far none have worked:

 

* Disabled all `mods` except for this campaign and skins

* Renamed the `update` folder, which definitely triggered some sort of game integrity check, even downloaded a few files

* Tried also disabling the skins and only had the single campaign mod

* Tried enabling mods from the title menu (I normally have them disabled)

 

So yeah, none of these appear to have any effect on the bug, it's quite strange  

 

Edit:

Ok, this issue is probably not at all related to this campaign. I just tried playing a level for the official hell hawks campaign and I am seeing this same freezing issue when I click start. I wonder if it's somehow related to the aircraft? But super weird, because I was playing that campaign fine last week, the only real difference since then has been time  

Edited September 24, 2022 by amadeusdemarzi

[amadeusdemarzi]

Ok, I figured out the problem! Something had gone mucky with my profile assignments, not sure what or how, but once I removed both existing keymap profile and pitch assignments to the P-47, everything worked fine. Additionally, when I re-added them to the plane, everything continued to work. Not sure how that sort of corruption happened, but I was tipped off that somehow that specific plane was not working on any map

Edited September 24, 2022 by amadeusdemarzi

[Na-zdorovie]

really like the way its going, only done first mission, (alone) but like the radio uses.

my problem is, first mission taxi to runway at first i just exploded? ok re start, then i saw the burning car in middle of the taxi lane, avoided this time, nice touch i thought, but it blew up as i whent passed, no major damage so decided to continue, but looking back none of my squad mates can manoeuvre around it, hence doing alone

[Spidey002]

Just finished the campaign. Well done! Incredibly immersive. 
 

I loved how the tac numbers worked, as though they were just waiting for the game to implement them!

 

I especially liked the end cards in the last mission. Helped put a bow on the campaign and give me a sense of completion that’s missing in many of them. 

[Skrimps]

@AEthelraedUnraed Looking to try out your campaign, but the download link does not appear to work. I'll wait a bit and try again but just an FYI in case something is broken.

[photog95661]

Indeed, the download link does not work.  I will try back later.

[AEthelraedUnraed]

4 hours ago, Skrimps said:

@AEthelraedUnraed Looking to try out your campaign, but the download link does not appear to work. I'll wait a bit and try again but just an FYI in case something is broken.

Well spotted. I forgot to renew the dynamic DNS hosting plan I've got. Fixed it, but it might some time before it has completely propagated through the DNS system. Should work again within a couple of hours or so at most.

 

On 10/2/2022 at 4:44 PM, Na-zdorovie said:

really like the way its going, only done first mission, (alone) but like the radio uses.

my problem is, first mission taxi to runway at first i just exploded? ok re start, then i saw the burning car in middle of the taxi lane, avoided this time, nice touch i thought, but it blew up as i whent passed, no major damage so decided to continue, but looking back none of my squad mates can manoeuvre around it, hence doing alone

Tried the first mission. Something must have changed in the AI taxiing as indeed the car now collides with the first flight. Fixed this and uploaded a new version. Just copy-paste over the old files to update.

[Na-zdorovie]

thanks for that

[Scorpio_L]

>>Campaign: http://aethelraed.nl/hurtgen.html (~15MB, updated 24-10-2022)

 

I'd like to try this campaign out, but, all I get when clicking the link is a connection timed-out error.

 

[pumo]

I dont get it how to install this ?

If I copy direct to

D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Campaigns\Hurtgen (under that folders audio,tex files 01.* etc.) it wont show in scripted campaing menu. I tested with  JSGME it copies all files to under D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\ folder, and wont show up in menu even then.

[Sandmarken]

Maybe you made your own extra  folder (it can happen when you extrac the file) . Check if the hurtgen folder has a new folder called hurtgen inside of it. If so, take out that folder  and put directly in the campaigen folder. 

Edited March 17, 2023 by Sandmarken

[pumo]

no its  just one Hurtgen:

 

edit: my mistake,. there was one dir (Campaign_Hurtgenwald) befora data, that at least it works with JSGME
 

Edited March 17, 2023 by pumo

[August22]

I can't download the campaign. The link isn't working.

[FoxbatRU]

Cool campaign. Thanks! It immerses you well into the history of the events described. I really liked it. I also really liked the additional small villages that were not on the map initially.

 

 

I translated it into Russian for myself and changed the map to winter in recent missions to play with the "early winter" texture mod. Plus, for small things (I changed the color of the assigned code for the green Thunderbolt, the call signs of the group in one mission, and so on).

[Billsponge1972]

Just finished this campaign! 

The p-47 is such a monster!

 

I'm relieved that there was no air opposition!

 

Thanks so much AEthelraedUnraed!

 

Fantastic experience for single player!

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I just moved the download to Mediafire due to ongoing problems with my own file server that I'm not sure I can fix soon.

 

On 4/15/2023 at 12:28 AM, FoxbatRU said:

Cool campaign. Thanks! It immerses you well into the history of the events described. I really liked it. I also really liked the additional small villages that were not on the map initially.

 

 

I translated it into Russian for myself and changed the map to winter in recent missions to play with the "early winter" texture mod. Plus, for small things (I changed the color of the assigned code for the green Thunderbolt, the call signs of the group in one mission, and so on).

Thanks for your kind words. Would you be willing to share the Russian translation? I'd be happy to include it in the download

(The same obviously goes for any other translations people may have made)

If you have a list of the other issues you've fixed, or can share them, I'd be thankful too. I think I already changed the colour for the green Thunderbolt but obviously I must have missed it somewhere.

 

On 5/10/2023 at 2:43 AM, Billsponge1972 said:

I'm relieved that there was no air opposition!

Yeah, it's mostly historical and the 366th didn't encounter any enemies during this timeframe, AFAIK. There is one opportunity to get a few kills though (or get shot down) during one of the missions

[Billsponge1972]

I'll definitely be flying this campaign again after I finish "sky nomads".

I'm quite nervous to encounter enemy aircraft in my "Jug" at 4,000 ft! ?

[FoxbatRU]

4 часа назад, AEthelraedUnraed сказал:

Thanks for your kind words. Would you be willing to share the Russian translation? I'd be happy to include it in the download

(The same obviously goes for any other translations people may have made)

If you have a list of the other issues you've fixed, or can share them, I'd be thankful too. I think I already changed the colour for the green Thunderbolt but obviously I must have missed it somewhere.

Yes, of course. The translation is attached to this message on the Russian-language forum.

https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/5560-новая-кампания/?do=findComment&comment=897065
As for the other edits, I won't even remember. There didn't seem to be any global errors. The only thing in some recent missions I changed the season. Where it seemed to me that a snow map was meant, there was a non-snow map. But I could have been mistaken, because I don't know the historical moment so well. Although I learned a lot more when I translated and played your campaign.?

 

 

I also slightly redesigned the skins of the player's squadron. I made the emblems and identification marks less bright and copied them from other people's skins. But it's a matter of taste. If necessary, I can put them somewhere.

[FeuerFliegen]

Spoiler

Hey, just had an idea for certain missions on your campaign where there were Germans held up in houses where they would be shooting machine guns from inside-

I was wondering if you could use one of the destructible houses from Battle of Prokhorovka? I thought that would be really cool see the houses we attacked fall apart in a more realistic way.

 

 

^^ Spoilers ^^

Edited August 5, 2023 by SCG_FeuerFliegen

[AEthelraedUnraed]

I just published a small update:

- Major bugfix for the previous version where some unpublished development files were accidentally linked in some files, which caused issues with forests.

- Added ID codes for all AI aircraft.

- Added some additional ground scenery to Asch airfield.

- More consistent icon naming for those flying with icons on.

- Some slight bugfixes.

- Added Russian localisation by @FoxbatRU.

 

Download from the link in this thread's opening post.

 

NOTE: IF YOU DOWNLOADED THIS CAMPAIGN THE PAST MONTH, PLEASE UPDATE OR YOU WILL EXPERIENCE ISSUES!!!

(Apologies for the inconvenience)

 

------------------

 

On 7/3/2023 at 9:06 PM, FoxbatRU said:

As for the other edits, I won't even remember. There didn't seem to be any global errors. The only thing in some recent missions I changed the season. Where it seemed to me that a snow map was meant, there was a non-snow map. But I could have been mistaken, because I don't know the historical moment so well. Although I learned a lot more when I translated and played your campaign.?

The snow is correct It snowed on November 9 (I think - can't find the exact date again) which remained for a couple of days (note the picture for the 5th mission is dated November 13) but when the American offensive resumed on November 16, almost all of the snow had melted as can be evidenced from photographs. Even during the final missions of the campaign in December 1944, photos show very little snow, if any. The snowfall the following Battle of the Bulge is famous for only really occured right at the start of that battle on December 16

 

On 8/5/2023 at 3:29 AM, SCG_FeuerFliegen said:

  Hide contents

Hey, just had an idea for certain missions on your campaign where there were Germans held up in houses where they would be shooting machine guns from inside-

I was wondering if you could use one of the destructible houses from Battle of Prokhorovka? I thought that would be really cool see the houses we attacked fall apart in a more realistic way.

 

 

^^ Spoilers ^^

Hmm, nice idea, but the buildings aren't really correct or even believable for Germany, except one or perhaps two. Also, I'd have to do some mission redesign and retesting to make it work, which I don't have the time for at the moment. I'll keep it on my mind for if I ever do

[FoxbatRU]

34 минуты назад, AEthelraedUnraed сказал:

The snow is correct It snowed on November 9 (I think - can't find the exact date again) which remained for a couple of days (note the picture for the 5th mission is dated November 13) but when the American offensive resumed on November 16, almost all of the snow had melted as can be evidenced from photographs. Even during the final missions of the campaign in December 1944, photos show very little snow, if any. The snowfall the following Battle of the Bulge is famous for only really occured right at the start of that battle on December 16

Thanks, valuable information. This question bothered me not only in this campaign, but also in others and in my career. When to include heavy snow, when not. Now I will use.