Anyone else complete a full Battle Of Moscow career?

[peterk1]

Last night, after almost a year of playing IL-2 pretty much every day, I finished a Battle Of Moscow career using the realistic tempo of missions. It was my 4th attempt, 2 German and 2 Soviet - and I finally did it from the Soviet side in the Mig-3.

 

Small caveat. I did give myself 3 lives per mission. I didn't have to use that 2nd life very often and only made it to the 3rd life 3 or 4 times. Those 3rd life games were stressful missions!

 

All in all, I flew 120 missions - 105 of which were successfully completed. I logged 100+ flight hours and 33 kills. The kills were roughly split 50/50 between fighters and heavy bombers. I made it to the rank of Captain and have been expecting to get the promotion to Major for the last 6 weeks of the campaign - but that promotion never came.

 

Tikhon Petrenko began his career flying the I-16. He really did not like the plane very much and it was a lot of work. Many of those early missions involved quite long flights and even when no enemies were around, it was a stressful plane to fly. Routinely, he would be the only pilot out of a group of 6-9 who would return home after a mission. Kills were very few and far between in the I-16.

 

A month into the campaign he jumped at the chance to transfer to a squadron that flew the Mig-3 and he stayed with them for the rest of the battle. Initially, the Mig-3 was just as challenging to fly as the I-16 was and he had several close calls. With time though, he learned techniques that worked and he started enjoying himself and enjoying some success as well.

 

Early battles in the Mig were difficult. The squadron's airfield was right on the frontlines for several weeks. It resulted in short flight times which was good, but getting swarmed by the Germans and getting attacked almost immediately after takeoff was a regular occurrence. The German pilots seemed to have the upper hand in almost every engagement and they just seemed to be more skilled.

 

After a week or so, the map changed overnight to snow and stayed that way for the next 4 months. The squadron transferred to a new base on the outskirts of Moscow and fortunes began to gradually change. As we got into Decemeber/January, there were far less German planes in the air and gradually they began to seem less intimidating and I was able to fight them on even terms. Other pilots in the squadron also started to get regular results. The advantage began shifting slowly towards the Soviet side and you could feel it. December/January were the good times for Tikhon and he climbed to the top of the Soviet kill board.

 

Tikhon became squadron leader for the first time in the middle of February 1942 and he started choosing his own missions carefully, trying to not venture into enemy territory so often and only taking missions in order to give other pilots, who would otherwise have to fly two missions a day, a rest.

 

That helped the days fly by a little faster and make survival a bit more likely. But it never lasted forever. Whenever Tikhon got injured, no matter how slightly, a new squadron commander would be assigned and we would have to go back to following orders again!!! That wasn't fair. Three or four times, Tikhon bumped his head a little during a landing and lost his commander position.

 

As we went into April 1942 and only a few weeks left in the campaign, the temperature went above 0 degrees and I hoped to see a return to the green maps. They were more beautiful to look at and easier to navigate by, but it never happened. During this late section of the campaign, Tikhon unfortunately was not the squadron commander and he was being asked to fly frequently and many of the missions involved long stretches of time behind enemy lines. To make things worse, the German pilots seemed to be getting better in skill compared to the winter months. Or maybe they got a new version of the 109 during the winter. Or maybe both.

 

Tikhon's squadron would always have a numeric advantage, but these 109's knew how to stay out of trouble and it was no joke when 3 or 4 of them showed up. They would always cause lots of damage.

 

I could feel the game actively trying to kill me during these last few days of the campaign, but in the end I survived. Our squadron, normally 20 strong was whittled down to only 5 pilots and planes.

 

So much fun. It was a great marathon. Highly recommend the long career to anyone. But you need to enjoy the flying part of IL-2 and not be after combat all the time, because there are a lot of quiet moments.

 

Now, on to Stalingrad.

Edited May 28 by peterk1

[spreckair]

I too have completed the Battle of Moscow on realistic timing with both a German and a Russian pilot, at the same time, about two years ago.  I also continued the two all the way through Stalingrad and Kuban--it took me about three years total, although I also flew other (AQM and campaign) missions too.  Oftentimes for me, flying the Russian pilot means ignoring your flight leader's plan (always flying too low), and always knowing when enough is enough and either fleeing or bailing out!  Flying on the Eastern Front is great since the flight times aren't as long as the Western Front channel scenarios. But joy comes for the Russian pilot in Stalingrad and beyond then the Yak becomes available.  I am flying it again just for kicks.  I really like both the BF 109F and Mig-3, so it is a joy of a career to fly. 

[peterk1]

35 minutes ago, spreckair said:

  Oftentimes for me, flying the Russian pilot means ignoring your flight leader's plan (always flying too low), and always knowing when enough is enough and either fleeing or bailing out! 

 

Tikhon Petrenko and spreckair both learned the same lessons. I almost always sneaked up an extra 500m about 20km out from the area that I thought was going to be hot.

I almost never tried to fly in formation since it was very tight. I'd usually fly within 1km to the left of the leader.

And after dropping bombs Tikhon always mashed that throttle forward and ran for the border as quickly as possible and then waited for everyone else to catch up.

==========

 

Little tip for people saying that AI squadmates don't react to enemies, or that the enemy AI has laser focus on only the player:

A couple of nights ago I was returning from a mission with my group and I noticed a bunch of 109s behind closing fast. I tried everything to get the rest of my squad to notice them so we could attack. They didn't budge and I had 3 109s gang up on me and I lost.

I replayed the mission, but right before getting to that part of the mission I slid into my spot in the formation and then started looking back at the enemies. The squadron leader reacted right away and the whole group turned and attacked.

 

So the moral is, try not to fly off on your own (even if you're still very close) when there are enemies around.