Invasion Watch - recon pilot mini-campaign (Bf-109 G-6 late)

[Juri_JS]

 

I've released a campaign for the Bf-109 G-6 late on the Normandy map. The campaign is inspired by Nick Beale's research on the Luftwaffes pre-invasion reconnaissance missions. In six missions you will fly the recon version of the Bf-109 G-6 late as pilot of 4.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 123 in the month before D-Day. Mission types include both photo and visual reconnaissance missions. Photo recon missions use the games camera feature.

Download link:
http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/download/download.php?action=view&id=1318

Your plane in the campaign is the Bf-109 G-6/U3 sub-variant, that is mostly identical to the Bf-109 G-8 dedicated reconnaissance version. It has either two RB 12,5/7×9 or RB 32/7×9 cameras in the fuselage for taking stereoscopic aerial photos. Some aircraft also have a Robot II camera in the wing root. Armament is identical to the fighter version of the Bf-109 G-6. Your aircraft is equipped with the MW 50 water-methanol mixture injection system that will give you an extra boost. Carefully read the description in your aircrafts specification section to use the MW 50 correctly.

4.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 123 was based at Berney airfield, that isn't in the game, so I had to use Beaumont le Roger instead.

Installation:
Extract the folder 'data' from the 'Invasion_Watch.zip' file into the IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad main directory. This will put the missions into the 'IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\Campaigns\Invasion Watch' folder and the skins into the Bf-109 G-6 late folder in the 'IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of Stalingrad\data\graphics\skins\' directory.

Remarks:
- A mission is complete when the player returns to his home airfield or successfully lands at another airfield.
- Do not hide the entire HUD (H key) when flying missions. Doing so will disable the messages you receive during flight and also the camera icon.
- Keep an eye on your fuel consumption during longer missions and use your engines maximum performance only in emergency situations!
- There are no waypoints in the missions, but you can use autopilot for take-off and landing.
- In visual recon missions you have to look for enemy ships. Once you've spotted a target, you have to correctly identify its type, position, course and tonnage. This is done by approaching to within 2,5 km, then your pilot will automatically record the necessary information.
- In photo recon missions you have to overfly your target at the correct altitude. When you're over the marked target area press the left Windows key and 1 key (LWin+1) to activate the camera. The camera will only work correctly when your pitch and roll are less than 15 degree. When clicking on the camera icon a photo of the target area will be taken.

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Juri_JS

[Juri_JS]

By the way, I am looking for a native English speaker to proof-read the mission briefings. If anyone is interested, please send me a PM.

 

And feel free to post screenshots from the campaign.

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by Juri_JS

[jeanba]

Looking good and original

 

Thank you and happy to play your new campaign

[Hanu]

Have to try this out in weekend, thanks a lot! Really enjoyed your Kuban campaign.

[Sandmarken]

Woow cool!

[itsbillyfrazier]

I look forward to trying this out Juri, many thanks.

Edited March 31, 2023 by itsbillyfrazier

[Juri_JS]

Some additional information:

 

In the campaign I tried to simulate the British air defence system. When the player's aircraft is near the English coast, enemy fighters might be scrambled and vectored towards the player by ground control. Therefore it's a good idea not to stay in enemy airspace for too long. There are also other fighter groups that will only patrol in a certain sector or conduct fighter sweeps, such flights will not head towards the player over longer distances and will only engage when spotting the player. What doesn't work in the game is flying at low altitude to avoid radar, at the moment we have no checkzone trigger in the mission editor that would allow this.

 

There is a lot of randomization in the missions. A mission that is rather eventless when played the first time might have more enemy activity when played the next time.

 

Carefully read the messages by your own ground controller (callsign Sunflower). As long as the German radar network is intact, he will warn you of fighters in your vicinity and will sometimes give you other information about the situation in the air.

[Cybermat47]

One of the most unique ideas I've seen for a campaign! Downloading right now!

[Juri_JS]

4 hours ago, Cybermat47 said:

One of the most unique ideas I've seen for a campaign! Downloading right now!

I was a little tired of shooting and bombing stuff, so I thought it's time for something new.

[DragonDaddy]

10 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I was a little tired of shooting and bombing stuff, so I thought it's time for something new.

Tired of shooting and bombing stuff? Is that even possible?

[Juri_JS]

1 hour ago, DragonDaddy said:

Tired of shooting and bombing stuff? Is that even possible?

I guess I am getting old.

 

But don't worry, in the campaign there is a lot to shoot down, for those who don't like to avoid combat. I've designed the campaign in a way that allows both styles of playing. In reality German Bf-109 recon pilots usually avoided combat, but there were also some who were eager to score kills. Several pilots from reconnaissance units did achive ace status.

 

Here some information on Hans Schuster an ace of 4.(F)/Aufklärungsgruppe 123:

https://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2020/09/fw-hans-schuster-4f123-eins.html

 

In mission 5 you will fly together with Schuster.

 

Edited April 1, 2023 by Juri_JS

[sevenless]

14 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

I was a little tired of shooting and bombing stuff, so I thought it's time for something new.

 

Heretic! ?

 

No seriously, what a great idea. Highly appreciated. ?

[durruti]

Wow ! Great Stuff as always, many thanks for the hard work !

 

Mission 2 starts with shooting, very nice :

 

 

[alpenspion]

Once again another great campaign from you! Destroyer AA killed me in Mission 2 ? 

[durruti]

Finally managed to pass Mission 2, very heavy, i needed five try outs and got killed four times: destroyer aa, spitfire patrol of 4 planes i couldn´t escape, back gunner of a bomber, and aaa at the harbour.

So what leads to success for me was the following tactic :

Spoiler

-ignore the p 38´s attacking the home airfield

-climb to 5000m, once reached reduce ata to 1.0 to save fuel

-dive to 2000m to identify ships, i recognized 

Spoiler

3 convois

-use the power of the dive to climb up again to 5000m

-keep distance to fighter patrols

-decide wisely which bomber to attack

At my succeeding flight i managed to kill 2 mosquitos at the french coast :

 

 

That was immersive fun, looking forward to the rest of the missions, very well done !

 

[Juri_JS]

Just a reminder - when trying to escape enemy fighters below 6000 m don't forget to use the MW50 system. It's activated by setting throttle to maximum. When enemy fighters are still far enough away it's usually possible to escape. Most fighters will avoid following the player too far into German air space and will turn back after a while.

 

It's also good to know at which altitudes Allied fighter types reach their maximum performance and to avoid these altitudes when trying to escape.

Edited April 2, 2023 by Juri_JS

[ITAF_Airone1989]

On 3/31/2023 at 12:03 PM, Juri_JS said:

What doesn't work in the game is flying at low altitude to avoid radar, at the moment we have no checkzone trigger in the mission editor that would allow this.

 

You can use the "spherical" instead of the cylinder one.

You have to put many of them (but should not be a problem) and set their height a little above sea level.

[Juri_JS]

3 minutes ago, ITAF_Airone1989 said:

 

You can use the "spherical" instead of the cylinder one.

You have to put many of them (but should not be a problem) and set their height a little above sea level.

This wouldn't really work because a spherical checkzone is round like a ball. To achieve a full coverage the checkzones would have to overlap. In a mission area of 200 x 200 km the number of checkzones would be enormous.

 

What's needed instead would be a cylinder type checkzone that allows separate values for height and radius. A single checkzone of this type would be enough for the whole map.

[Jaegermeister]

Glad you got the recon issues sorted out Juri! This looks like a nice campaign, Thanks for the efforts. 

[Hanu]

Three missions completed. On second mission I got stuck into fight with P-38's at Beaumont-le-Roger and had to retry it. I think that Portsmouth mission is the next one, but there was that much warnings about air defence, so I chickened out last night when I was still in happy feelings ?

 

Very exciting, lots of tactical thinking and also luck is needed. I like a lot. I've focused on the mission and mostly evaded the targets of opportunity, even on the way back. Once I managed to surprise a northbound P-38 flight and pick one before zooming back to heights and breaking contact. I picked one Mosquito too from the coast.

 

Bearing information would be nice to when a close-in enemy flight is reported, but I understand the difficulty to achieve this, and I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble in the end.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Hanu

[Elem]

Thank you Juri. This is a refreshing change from what we've had before. First mission completed and nicely challenging. Would be nice to see the results of our photographs but that will no doubt have to come from the devs.

 

[Juri_JS]

7 hours ago, Hanu said:

Bearing information would be nice to when a close-in enemy flight is reported, but I understand the difficulty to achieve this, and I'm not sure if it is worth the trouble in the end.

Yes, this would be nice, unfortunately we have no trigger that checks bearing.

[Calos_01]

Great idea, perfect campaign. It´s something different, I like it very much. Thank you!! 

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

Magnificent campaign again @Juri_JS. I enjoyed it a lot. Thank you very much!

[Juri_JS]

Has anyone already finished the campaign? Were missions too easy or too hard? In photo recon missions were you able to photograph all targets or did you break off the missions because of enemy fighters?

[LF_Mark_Krieger]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:45 AM, Juri_JS said:

Has anyone already finished the campaign? Were missions too easy or too hard? In photo recon missions were you able to photograph all targets or did you break off the missions because of enemy fighters?

I finished it and I think their difficulty is ok if you are cautious and listen to your radar stations. Very exciting returns sometimes with enemy on my tail and with emergency landings in other aerodromes sometimes. I was able to photograph everything. 

Edited April 25, 2023 by LF_Mark_Krieger

[Calos_01]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:45 AM, Juri_JS said:

Has anyone already finished the campaign? Were missions too easy or too hard? In photo recon missions were you able to photograph all targets or did you break off the missions because of enemy fighters?

I have finished the campaign and I´d say it is very well ballanced. Not to easy but doable, those destroyers are quite dangerous. I didn´t have to abort missions. The take a picture and run home tactic worked well. Some of the returns were quite challenging.

[KoreyPong]

Having played some of your previous campaigns, I just want to thank you for your work. Playing these recon missions is actually the best time I had in Il2.

 

The mix between opposite feelings ("I hope everything goes smoothly" vs "Well, I could use some action...") creates a real tension.

 

So best regards to you (and to Sunflower, you just feel so lonely when he is out ! )

 

PS : now all my 109s will fly as "Blue 4" for good luck and fun times.

Edited July 9, 2023 by KoreyPong

[KodiakJac]

Wow, Juri!  I just completed Mission 1 of Invasion Watch, and it offers fantastic tension throughout the mission.  Planning my ingress and egress on the recon targets, fuel consumption, and dodging sectors with enemy aircraft reported by Sunflower kept me thinking every minute of my 1 hour 20 minute flight.  I'm exhausted...lol

 

This is going to be a great campaign, and one of the most unique campaigns in IL-2 Great Battles.  Don't be shy about doing other recon campaigns like this that pique your interest!

 

Thanks! ??

Edited December 9, 2023 by KodiakJac

[Juri_JS]

The campaign was updated:
- Most Spitfire V were replaced with the new Spitfire IXc, which should make the campaign a little harder.
- At some locations barrage balloons were placed.

 

http://www.axis-and-allies-paintworks.com/e107_plugins/download/download.php?action=view&id=1318

[Hanu]

Finished this today. I really enjoyed it. Very well balanced In my opinion. Very stressful missions sometimes. I had to pull the trigger only a few times, and that is what I was expecting also. Careful planning and fuel management was desperately needed; sometimes I had to land on fumes only, as the lamp had been glowing soooooo long time already...

 

And for me the ending was reallly dramatic ?

 

Spoiler

I Identified the boats easilly and got away without a contact and with good amount of fuel left. So I decided to do the diversion and help E-boats. Got 3 Moskitos, the last one managed to limp home, but I was in no position to follow. Climbed back to 6k and headed back to Beaumont-Le-Roger. Lamp started to glow after feet dry and I kept quite a lot altitude if I had to glide home... Finally I glided quite steeply with radiators open and got "Mission Complete!" before landing. Ok, I still just focused taking her back nicely and did a beautiful landing. For the honoring the campaign I decided to taxi to parking feeling quite proud of myself until.... A Spit came out of nowhere!!! At least the silhouette looked like on. Strafed me! My vision burst into blood and the my eyes went black...

I could hear the ambulance coming to me, at least I thought so. Just hang on Hanu it said to myself. Woulds felt so bad that war would be over for me I thought when I eventually passed out...

 

 

Unique approach and unique campaign. Hats off @Juri_JS!

Edited March 21, 2024 by Hanu
Typos

[Juri_JS]

20 hours ago, Hanu said:

Finished this today. I really enjoyed it. Very well balanced In my opinion. Very stressful missions sometimes. I had to pull the trigger only a few times, and that is what I was expecting also. Careful planning and fuel management was desperately needed; sometimes I had to land on fumes only, as the lamp had been glowing soooooo long time already...

Drop tanks would be really useful in the missions, but on the other hand it would make the missions much less thrilling.

 

Regaring your last mission...well, I thought the end of the campaign needs some drama and tragedy. My initial thought was that most players would get shot down during landing approach. Probably you landed too fast, but getting strafed after landing is ok too. ?

[jeanba]

Finished it last week-end and it is one of the most enjoyable campaign of Il2GB.

It is very original, there is a lot of tension and they require a lot of planning (and planning update) to survive.

I was shot down several time but it each time, I could identify a mistake.

 

Thank you Juri

[Ulricus]

Thx Juri for this great campaign! ?

 

Away from shooting and bombing, it was a good insight into the tasks of recon pilots: Sneak in and out, avoid dogfights, use your plane's strengths for escape - and always keep an eye on the fuel gauge (screen shot)!
Besides I learned the map navigation tools, how to take recon photos and the value of the AFN-2 NDB.

 

All-in-all, it was really fun playing your campaign! 

 

Edited April 4, 2024 by Ulricus

[Alan_Grey]

Finished. A wonderful and challenging campaign. Thank you for all your campaigns. You are the number one in creating campaigns for me. I wrote a review of this campaign on my blog, but only in Czech. I'm already looking forward to your last one, which is left. Train Busters. Will you be preparing another one? Or do we have to wait until the Karelia campaign? Many thanks again!

Recenze – Invasion Watch – Juri_JS

Edited March 9 by Alan_Grey