The Little Brother (IAR-80)

[Sandmarken]

Timeframe: May to July 1943

Unit: Grupul 4 vanatoare, 49th Escadrila

Aircraft: IAR-80

Duration: 10 Missions

Author: Sandmarken

 

Background: The 4th Fighter Group of the Royal Romanian Aeronautics (Grupul 4 vanatoare, Fortele Aeriene Regale Romane –ARR-) was first composed of 2 Squadrons (Escadrila) the 45th and 46th both equipped with the Polish PZL 11, and mainly tasked with training and home defense duties. In July ’42 they converted to the IAR-80 A which was a better performing plane, although inferior to most of its opponents. So it’s pilots didn’t take part in the offensive against the Soviet Union, but once the now famous 7th and most of the 8th fighter groups were decimated at Stalingrad and slowly rebuilding men and material (109G6 for the 7th and IAR-80 Cs for the 8th ), the 4th fighter group received a new squadron, the 49th , hastily converted to the better IAR-80 C, and was sent to the eastern front, where the axis forces were now retreating towards the Crimean peninsula, pushed back by a more and more strong and determined foe: The mighty Red Army.

 

A very big thank you to @AndreiTomescu who has done an incredible job with historical research, mission suggestions, writing many of the briefings and mission testing. Also a very big thank you to @Jaegermeister who has helped me alot with the editor, tested many of the missions, provided pictures and given feedback. This campaign would not be possible without their help!

 

Another thank you to @MarcoPegase44 and @Obelix from who I have borrowed some skins. 

 

Install: Download the file, extract it and put the data folder in your main il2 folder. 

File: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R72qrERvkUT_92VmNRCR4MRlW_LkMBpD/view?usp=sharing (New version with fixes and improvements thanks to @Jaegermeister)

 

Some notes: A mission is complete when you land back at the airfield. In cases of emergency, all friendly airfields can be used.

 

Do not hide the HUD as it will give vital information about the mission!

 

Please tell me if you find bugs and I will fix it! 

Edited April 1 by Sandmarken

[Juri_JS]

That looks like an interesting campaign. What are the historical sources you've used? In the past I had problems to find much information on the missions flown by IAR-80s in the Kerch Strait area.

Edited June 1, 2024 by Juri_JS

[Jaegermeister]

Congratulations on your new release @Sandmarken!

 

Sorry I haven't had more time to get all the way though it, but I will try to finish the 2nd half this weekend and I will send you my notes like before. Maybe we can still get that English grammar editing done too.

 

 

[Sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Jaegermeister said:

Congratulations on your new release @Sandmarken!

 

Sorry I haven't had more time to get all the way though it, but I will try to finish the 2nd half this weekend and I will send you my notes like before. Maybe we can still get that English grammar editing done too.

 

 

Thank you!

Yes, I think people who played my campaigns know that English is not my first language. 😅 But this time, I used the pro version of ChatGPT to spellcheck, and I was sure it would be up to the task of cleaning up my spelling and grammar!

Edited June 1, 2024 by Sandmarken

[Sandmarken]

2 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

That looks like an interesting campaign. What are the historical sources you've used? In the past I had problems to find much information on the missions flown by IAR-80s in the Kerch Strait area.

The research was difficult, at least for someone that doesn't know Romanian. Luckily @AndreiTomescu has been of great help finding sources in both books and online.

Information about the 4th group and 49th squadron was very sparse. Most written info from 1943 of course turns around Ploiești and the oilfields. What seems to be the case was that the 49th squadron was stationed at Yevpatoria north of Sevastopol as their main base and then flew patrols towards the east and used airfields like Feodosia and and Kerch as forward bases. Of course only Kerch is available on our map so everything cannot be 100% historical. But I've tried with Andrei's help to make the missions and story tell of what kind of missions they flew and a little of their situation flying under German command. 

 

Some of the online sources are : https://www.iar80flyagain.org/cu-o-escadrila-de-avioane-iar-80-in-crimeea/

 

http://www.virtualarad.net/orizont_aviatic/august_2003/articol7/articol_7.htm

 

https:/www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/modellers-guide-to-iar-8081-variants-2/

 

https://www.ww2.dk/lwairfields.html

(This source was used to determine which squadrons were actually present at the time of the campaign, as I believe career mode has this somewhat wrong for the summer phase. As most of the attack units had by then left for the battle around Kursk, who actually was present was the 3rd Romanian dive bomber group flying Ju 87s. Sadly, they are not represented in-game, but from what I read in source number two, they were a successful group.) 

 

 

About the books you will need to ask @AndreiTomescu 🙂

Edited June 1, 2024 by Sandmarken

[alpenspion]

First mission completed! Great airfield atmosphere! For me, a Story is always important in the campaigns, which was successful here. Now add a language pack in Romanian and everything will be fine!

[Sandmarken]

22 minutes ago, alpenspion said:

First mission completed! Great airfield atmosphere! For me, a Story is always important in the campaigns, which was successful here. Now add a language pack in Romanian and everything will be fine!

Great to hear you like it! 

 

I will have to ask Andrei for the Romanian translation. To be honest, I don't know how to translate a campaign into another language. 

[AndreiTomescu]

Hello guys!

truth to be told, i've played missions 1-6 first hand during the "birth" process and i can say Sandmarken did a tremendously good work. And also hard work.....

IMHO, his missions, and this campaign falls in the line, are all about IMMERSION, adventure and reliving the times.

I am soo very proud and thankful that he did a story with these long forgotten little heros of the war: the IAR and their pilots. (All the glory went to the 7/9th gr, equipped with Bf109)

Also making some research brought me some good times!

I think this mission really deserves to be an official one, so to be one of that with the IAR.

[AndreiTomescu]

dunno if it's possible to put voices, like radio , chatter, and so in romanian. if yes, won't be a problem to get voices with different accents, from different regions of ro, just for the....immersion! to translate the text , mission description in ro, that's piece of cake.

[Jaegermeister]

9 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

dunno if it's possible to put voices, like radio , chatter, and so in romanian. if yes, won't be a problem to get voices with different accents, from different regions of ro, just for the....immersion! to translate the text , mission description in ro, that's piece of cake.

if you translated the text into Romanian in the correct html format and posted the .txt files, anybody that wanted the briefings and subtitles in that language could simply replace their localized campaign text files in the campaign folder with those new ones and it would appear in game.

 

 

[Jaegermeister]

@Sandmarken, I finished flying your campaign. I sent you my notes by PM with suggestions.

 

I have to say the IAR-80 is very difficult to fight in with the combination of constantly watching the prop speed and that super long nose keeping you from seeing where your deflection shots are going. It's not too hard to survive if you use it to B&Z but getting away from the P-39s is not easy. I got shot down once, had to run for home with no ammo various times, and got quite a few kills although there was no total kill count at the end so I don't know exactly how many. Your solution for that is in my notes.

 

Overall very challenging, enjoyable and well balanced campaign! Thanks for making it.

 

[Sandmarken]

3 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

@Sandmarken, I finished flying your campaign. I sent you my notes by PM with suggestions.

 

I have to say the IAR-80 is very difficult to fight in with the combination of constantly watching the prop speed and that super long nose keeping you from seeing where your deflection shots are going. It's not too hard to survive if you use it to B&Z but getting away from the P-39s is not easy. I got shot down once, had to run for home with no ammo various times, and got quite a few kills although there was no total kill count at the end so I don't know exactly how many. Your solution for that is in my notes.

 

Overall very challenging, enjoyable and well balanced campaign! Thanks for making it.

 

And thx for helping me with it, it has been alot of fun! I have uploaded the new version with your fixes and improvements! Thank you very much! 

[ShamrockOneFive]

Love to see that the IAR80 has already got a scripted campaign. I've downloaded and installed and spent a few moments looking at the first mission, the briefings and everything looks really great. I'm planning to check it out.

 

Also given it a boost here! https://stormbirds.blog/2024/06/02/check-out-this-free-campaign-for-il-2s-iar80/

[Sandmarken]

33 minutes ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

Love to see that the IAR80 has already got a scripted campaign. I've downloaded and installed and spent a few moments looking at the first mission, the briefings and everything looks really great. I'm planning to check it out.

 

Also given it a boost here! https://stormbirds.blog/2024/06/02/check-out-this-free-campaign-for-il-2s-iar80/

Thanks a lot! It's a great honor being mentioned in the Stormbird blog iv been reading for years 🙂

[Jaegermeister]

1 hour ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

Love to see that the IAR80 has already got a scripted campaign. I've downloaded and installed and spent a few moments looking at the first mission, the briefings and everything looks really great. I'm planning to check it out.

 

Also given it a boost here! https://stormbirds.blog/2024/06/02/check-out-this-free-campaign-for-il-2s-iar80/

 

Wow, that was quick! You're on the ball this weekend Shamrock.

 

 

[ShamrockOneFive]

4 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

Thanks a lot! It's a great honor being mentioned in the Stormbird blog iv been reading for years 🙂

 

Happy to support the effort here! It looks like a fun campaign!

 

3 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

 

Wow, that was quick! You're on the ball this weekend Shamrock.

 

 

 

It was all thanks to a post over on the Reddit group! Made me aware of the campaign and then as I dug into it things seemed to be really cool. Plus I love to see scripted campaigns come for recently released aircraft.

[AndreiTomescu]

21 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

combination of constantly watching the prop speed

they tried to buy the license for a constant speed propeller in '38-'39, but to no avail. In parallel tried to develop one at home for the K9 engine (failure) but also for the K14 engine (almost done, but....no)   There was some developed for a reductor for the K14 engine, in the '40 was ready, because otherwise the engine developed huge vibration and the cell (fuselage) failed. It was ready for the Odessa campaign.  Rest of the developments were posponed because marchall Antonescu decided to rely on the new german ally for supplying aircraft, the Bf 109. The IAR factory produced only a limited nr of IAR 80/81, because the rest of the production was shifted towards repairing and assembling Bf 109s.

21 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

super long nose keeping you from seeing

legacy from the PZL 11/24 airframe, despite having a rotary engine (K14, a Gnome clone)

21 hours ago, Jaegermeister said:

where your deflection shots are going. It's not too hard to survive if you use it to B&Z

they usually fired slightly from below and preferred to attack during turn. The B&Z tactics, so usual with the Bf109 E/G, were less used with IAR: once you loose height/speed, it's difficult to regain. It's good turn radius was something praised by its pilots.

Edited June 3, 2024 by AndreiTomescu

[AndreiTomescu]

Some info/trivia about the "little brother" (frățior in ro) name.

The IAR had a much larger airframe than the Bf109 (it was misidentified very often by the American pilots with the Fw190). But it had much poorer performance....especially at high altitudes, lacking a compresor.

That's why it was seen as a complementary aircraft, the Bf109 being harder and harder to obtain in the late stages of the war (for the Romanian airforce). It's weaponry was very often based on what they could get, that explaining the wild mix of guns. And that's why, despite being larger, it was called, affectionate or not, as the.....little brother.....

Edited June 3, 2024 by AndreiTomescu

[Sandmarken]

@AndreiTomescu you probably have enough sourcematerial for several more campaigns. 😃 especially with the incoming odessa map!

[AndreiTomescu]

just to keep things interesting, another little fact about the IAR:

 

the fuel gauge was working badly, rarely showing true values. And more often, not working at all. That's why the IAR pilots always, always used theit wrist watch as fuel gauge: 1 hour 35 min from full tank to engine stop. Of course it depended on the engine rpm, but that was the average. They never exceeded 1h35min.

[Calos_01]

I just downloaded this campaign and it's a real challenge to fight while constantly checking  prop speed. I've only had time for the first mission so far, but based on your past campaigns I expect it to be great again. Thank you very much!! 👍

[ShamrockOneFive]

Have just come from flying the first mission. Lots to like and I'm looking forward to flying it some more. You may want to try and put some sort of trigger on the IL-2s because after dumping everything we had into them, two followed us back to base, evaded the flak, shot my elevator controls out and then shot me as I attempted to ditch. Definitely brutal

[Sandmarken]

4 hours ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

Have just come from flying the first mission. Lots to like and I'm looking forward to flying it some more. You may want to try and put some sort of trigger on the IL-2s because after dumping everything we had into them, two followed us back to base, evaded the flak, shot my elevator controls out and then shot me as I attempted to ditch. Definitely brutal

That's not how the Il-2s should behave! I will look at them when I get the time. I was sure I had set them not to fight back, as it's the first mission and all! Make sure you have the latest version, by the way! You can just put it on top of the original one, and the progress will be saved. 🙂

Edited June 12, 2024 by Sandmarken

[AEthelraedUnraed]

On 6/1/2024 at 7:43 PM, AndreiTomescu said:

dunno if it's possible to put voices, like radio , chatter, and so in romanian. if yes, won't be a problem to get voices with different accents, from different regions of ro, just for the....immersion!

Well if you look in the data\Audio\radio\gbr directory (the other countries work too, of course), you can see what would be needed. There's 4 or 5 pilot voices (actor15*), at least one airfield control tower (actor16*), at least one ground controller (actor17*) and two gunners (actor18*). That's 8 (or more) different voices, each with between 37 (gunner) and 229 (pilot) audio files. If you can find some volunteers to record an edit all this, then I'm sure the Devs would be happy to include them

 

@Sandmarken Looks like a very interesting campaign; I'm going to have some fun playing it later on!

[Sandmarken]

1 hour ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Looks like a very interesting campaign; I'm going to have some fun playing it later on!

Thx! I hope you will enjoy it 🙂

[ShamrockOneFive]

On 6/12/2024 at 1:42 AM, Sandmarken said:

That's not how the Il-2s should behave! I will look at them when I get the time. I was sure I had set them not to fight back, as it's the first mission and all! Make sure you have the latest version, by the way! You can just put it on top of the original one, and the progress will be saved. 🙂

Next chance I get to replay it, I'll download the latest version just to be sure.

 

They were relentless in going after us.

[Sandmarken]

58 minutes ago, ShamrockOneFive said:

They were relentless in going after us

Probably what happened is that after they were triggered to go home, they somehow decided to go back on the attack, its an easy fix and il take a look if this happens to be a problem in the latest version 🙂. With the AI of this game, there are just so many things that can and will go wrong. 😅

[Jaegermeister]

11 hours ago, Sandmarken said:

Probably what happened is that after they were triggered to go home, they somehow decided to go back on the attack, its an easy fix and il take a look if this happens to be a problem in the latest version 🙂. With the AI of this game, there are just so many things that can and will go wrong. 😅

IL2s really shouldn’t attack fighters. It sounds like there is an issue with the airplane type assignment or AI behavior for that aircraft type. 
 

Even when you assign a force complete high and trigger a waypoint with high priority, an airplane that is in attack mode will have to either get over a kilometer away from the enemy aircraft or go quite a ways away from the high priority waypoint that is active. Something like 20 km.

 

If you can duplicate that behavior and record a track, it should be submitted with a bug report. I recall that A-20s have been known to do the same thing.

[actionjoe]

Many thanks for this campaign ! I transformed it to coop campaign, and it was fun and challenging at the same time.

You can find here some AARs (in french) https://www.checksix-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=454&t=220125

 

 

Edited October 26, 2024 by actionjoe

[Sandmarken]

57 minutes ago, actionjoe said:

Many thanks for this campaign ! I transformed it to coop campaign, and it was fun and challenging at the same time.

You can find here some AARs (in french) https://www.checksix-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=454&t=220125

 

 

That's really cool! I tried to read your reports with a translator. I can imagine it would be cool to play it in co-op. I had some co-op versions of my other campaigns as well, but I lost them in a computer crash I had earlier.

[SARFlytitus]

@Sandmarken Thanx for this little Great campaign. Really unusual and amazing.

I always loved the look of the IAR 80 ,for my taste is a perfect mix of old and new design.

Very immersive context and so much fun to play. Much appreciated, Bravo !

 

[Sandmarken]

8 hours ago, SARFlytitus said:

@Sandmarken Thanx for this little Great campaign. Really unusual and amazing.

I always loved the look of the IAR 80 ,for my taste is a perfect mix of old and new design.

Very immersive context and so much fun to play. Much appreciated, Bravo !

 

Thx! Im happy you liked the campaign! 

[Vishnu]

NVM...works great! Thanks!!

\

Edited December 12, 2024 by Vishnu

[ACG_Nikki]

On 10/26/2024 at 11:17 AM, actionjoe said:

Many thanks for this campaign ! I transformed it to coop campaign, and it was fun and challenging at the same time.

You can find here some AARs (in french) https://www.checksix-forums.com/viewtopic.php?f=454&t=220125

 

 

 Hello actionjoe, could you please make it possible to download this?

Thanks

[Sandmarken]

1 minute ago, ACG_Nikki said:

 Hello actionjoe, could you please make it possible to download this?

Thanks

Its pretty easy to convert a campaign to coop. Let me know if you cant get it from actionjoe, then il send you a guid on how to do it! 

[actionjoe]

I have sent him a pm🙂

[Vishnu]

Fun campaign...just finished it.   Keep em coming....

[Vendigo]

After "Downfall" I wanted to try another one of your campaigns, and this one is interesting because this is my favorite location in the game!

  

First mission, a long flight and finally upon landing I crashed and killed the pilot because the engine of my IAR didn't slow down regardless of my pulling the throttle all the way down, in panic I switched the engine off but it kept going at around 30% regardless! Maybe I should have read the manual on how to fly the IAR.

PS

In the screenshot you can see the IL-2 that followed us to our homebase. This IL-2 had been so badly beaten I thought he was done, but as we were going back to base he started following us!        

 

Spoiler

 

Edited April 2 by Vendigo

[Sandmarken]

33 minutes ago, Vendigo said:

After "Downfall" I wanted to try another one of your campaigns, and this one is interesting because this is my favorite location in the game!

  

First mission, a long flight and finally upon landing I crashed and killed the pilot because the engine of my IAR didn't slow down regardless of my pulling the throttle all the way down, in panic I switched the engine off but it kept going regardless! Maybe I should have read the manual on how to fly the IAR.

PS

In the screenshot you can see the IL-2 that followed us to our homebase. This IL-2 had been so badly beaten I thought he was done, but as we were going back to base he started following us!        

 

  Hide contents

 

Sorry you had a crash landing! The IAR 80 is a difficult plane to master, I think. It annoys me that the IL-2s have followed you to base. This bug started being reported some time ago. I will go back and fix this issue as soon as I get the chance.

 

[Sandmarken]

The link is updated, and in the new version the IL2s shall no longer follow the player back to base!