Going to buy the game soon - a few questions..

[Ronsun]

Hi guys,

Old guy here living in England. Got me a VR headset and want to live the dream of piloting a Spitfire over the English Channel, defending against the German bombers. Therefore I'm thinking of buying IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad but have some questions.

It looks to me like I will have to buy the base game (BoS) plus expansion Battle for Normandy to get over the English channel. Is this correct? 

I will probably only buy the base game to start with this weekend (fingers crossed the wife lets me), as money's tight, so I have a few questions about that if you don't mind.

 

1. Should I get it through Steam or the official website? What are the pro's and cons (if any)
2. Do these expansions ever become available on sale? and is there a way to know in advance of when a sale is coming up for them?
3. I have a rtx 4070, Intel i5-14600K 3.50 GHz, and 32GB RAM, and an old Saitek X52 Pro - Am I good to go? My headset is a Quest 3.
4. Does the game have like a flight school tutorial type thing to help get rookies like me off the ground?

That's all for now and I hope to see you in the air someday. Many thanks,

Treetops

[Art-J]

Only if you buy on Steam the requirement for buying BoS first is there. That's because with the way the Steam works, it does indeed treat BoS as a "base" product to build upon, with other theaters being treated as DLCs / expansions. When buying directly on website, however, you can start with whichever theater you want (for example buy only Normandy and skip all the rest).

 

It is possible to link accounts and buy some things here and some on Steam, but it doesn't work both ways and depending on how you launch the game (via standalone launcher or Steam one) you might not always have access to all purchased content then. I'd rather not complicate things if it's not needed. Choose one path and just stick to it.

 

Sales of complete expansions and/or individual collector planes do happen quite frequently on regular basis. Knowing them in advance without access to crystal ball is rather difficult but they happen in typical circumstances similar to other games ie. Christmas, Easter, WWII Victory Day etc etc. You usually don't have to wait long for one of these.

 

The game does not have any flight school tutorial, nor does it feature frequently updated manual unfortunately. With that being said, community resources are great solution for that problem, with Requiem's Air Combat Tutorial YT channel being the best startng point (it's not active anymore but majority of videos on it were done using Il-2GB series):

https://www.youtube.com/@RequiemsACTL/videos

 

Can't comment on hardware requirements for VR being monitor guy myself. Nevertheless, Il2 GB series is rather known to be less demanding and more VR friendly than bloated behemoths like DCS and MSFS, so you'll probably be fine.

 

EDIT: about tutorial part, take a look at these materials (and generally "Manuals, Tutorials, Guides and Tips" section of the forum):

https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/forum/163-col-ninnys-how-to-fly-tutorials-for-new-and-advanced-players/

 

 

 

 

Edited June 6 by Art-J

[[CPT]Crunch]

Don't buy on steam and you can choose any module you want as a start.  No tutorial but it has a very good quick mission mode where you can start parked with engine off, on the runway ready to roll, or in the air at any altitude you choose.  Can set the time and weather, choose your ordinance, configurations and fuel load, the targets you wish to engage or fly alone for practice on any map you own.

 

There are regular sales throughout the year you can cheaply add to your collection.  Quest 3 is a good headset and works well with this game, not familiar with a 4070, your CPU should do well being top tier.

[ITAF_Rani]

3 hours ago, treetops said:

Hi guys,

Old guy here living in England. Got me a VR headset and want to live the dream of piloting a Spitfire over the English Channel, defending against the German bombers. Therefore I'm thinking of buying IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad but have some questions.

It looks to me like I will have to buy the base game (BoS) plus expansion Battle for Normandy to get over the English channel. Is this correct? 

I will probably only buy the base game to start with this weekend (fingers crossed the wife lets me), as money's tight, so I have a few questions about that if you don't mind.

 

1. Should I get it through Steam or the official website? What are the pro's and cons (if any)
2. Do these expansions ever become available on sale? and is there a way to know in advance of when a sale is coming up for them?
3. I have a rtx 4070, Intel i5-14600K 3.50 GHz, and 32GB RAM, and an old Saitek X52 Pro - Am I good to go? My headset is a Quest 3.
4. Does the game have like a flight school tutorial type thing to help get rookies like me off the ground?

That's all for now and I hope to see you in the air someday. Many thanks,

Treetops

Hi treetops, wish you a great fun..

[jollyjack]

yep, avoid steam, and BTW: stay away from the treetops.

Got no experience with VR, but seems Flying Circus is very rewarding; simpler plane controls without seeing the keyboard. 

When i started the community was very helpful, especially JimTM with the mission editor, and Beebop RIP with skinning.

[Aapje]

That hardware is perfectly fine for VR, with the caveat that it of course requires lowered settings compared to a flat screen setup. Setting it up can be a bit tricky. Watch one or more guides like these:

 

 

The Saitek is the worst part of your setup, and if you stick with the game, you might want to upgrade that.

 

There are multiple sales throughout the year, and the upcoming sale is the Summer Sale, which typically matches up roughly with the Steam Summer Sale. The rumor is that the Steam Summer Sale will be at the end of June.

 

Discounts are better the older the module is. 75% is the normal discount for the older stuff (most of the modules by now).

 

Start with 'Normal' difficulty at first. Do a quick ground attack mission where you start in the air and have no airplane opponent. That way you can check your HOTAS bindings, graphics/VR settings and get a feel for flying. Then you can try taking off and landing (tip: you need rudder).

Edited June 6 by Aapje
July -> June

[Skycat1969]

Steam or no Steam: Buy here if you want to skip Battle of Stalingrad. Buy from Steam if you are worried the game won't work and you'll need to refund it, or if you simply trust Steam more with your financial information.

 

The aircraft in this series are easy to fly if you have automatic engine and radiators enables, simplified physics, etc. Complex management is kind of difficult to do in VR even with a HOTAS setup. I use Voice Attack and I have a profile that lets me do about 80-90% of all possible keyboard commands. Try tbe demo version of VA and you can program up to 20 commands.

 

Battle of Normandy is my least favorite of the modules, I think because I don't really like flying over water. On the other hand, the "Overlord" scripted campaign is one of my favorites. Kuban was my favorite for SP career mode -- which is funny because Kuban also has lots of water. But if you want to fly Spitfires, Typhoons or Tempests, Normandy and Bodenplatte are the two modules to get.

[MDzmitry]

2 минуты назад, Skycat1969 сказал:

Battle of Normandy is my least favorite of the modules, I think because I don't really like flying over water.

You can set a later date though, one where there were already Allied frontline airfields in Normandy used by both Americans and the British (well, mostly Canadians to be precise)

[Skycat1969]

Sure, but the whole Normandy career is a chore to be endured in my opinion. I'm into July 1944 on my Luftwaffe career (which I've carried from Moscow through Kuban), and I flew 1 hour 36 minutes last night on a single mission to shoot up some vehicles.  In Moscow and Stalingrad I used to fly 2-3 missions a night because they were usually only around 20-30 minutes each. I lost interest in the whole series for a while because of Normandy, and I'm really just starting to get that interest back.

[Ronsun]

Thanks all for the extremely useful tips and links, much appreciated and I will definitely be using them. I haven't decided whether to go Steam or Store yet, but spent the evening sorting out my PC ready for when I decide. When Steam has sales on for the expansions, does the official store have the same discounts?

 

Cheers

[LukeFF]

54 minutes ago, treetops said:

When Steam has sales on for the expansions, does the official store have the same discounts?

 

Usually, yes

[Ronsun]

59 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

 

Usually, yes

OK cool thanks. I decided to buy on here, Battle of Normandy. Many thanks again.

[MDzmitry]

When discounts come, I seriously suggest also getting the Bodenplatte module. Thus you'll be able to continue your pilot's career past the summer of '44 practically all the way to the end of the war in Europe.

Also some aircraft like Spitfire IXe and Tempest Mk.V are already present with certain units in Normandy campaign if you ever want to fly them, and Bodenplatte would unlock them for you.

And the West Europe map will be a breathe of fresh air for you if/when you get tired of flying over the Channel.

[jollyjack]

4 hours ago, MDzmitry said:

And the West Europe map will be a breathe of fresh air for you if/when you get tired of flying over the Channel.

 

That's why i'd still love a Catalina waterplane, have a fishing stint on the way across.

 

[Seb71]

I think nobody mentioned this, but it's better to buy the "Premium"/"Deluxe" edition of each "Battle of" game (which includes an extra 2 "collector" planes, also available separately). Keep this in mind for (any) future purchases.

[Vishnu]

Also....get the S&L expansion pre purchase NOW before it goes up in the price, as it gets closer to release!  You do get 2 planes from the expansion now as they are currently ready and flyable.   You will get all other goodies as they are released once they pass testing.

[MajorMagee]

He started off saying he wanted to experience Battle of Britain scenarios, and everyone seems to be talking past him. Let's be honest about this, that's really Cliffs of Dover, not BoX...

[Dagwoodyt]

2 hours ago, MajorMagee said:

He started off saying he wanted to experience Battle of Britain scenarios, and everyone seems to be talking past him. Let's be honest about this, that's really Cliffs of Dover, not BoX...

Cliffs doesn't have a VR implementation and there is no statement from the developers as to when such an implementation might be available.

[Zooropa_Fly]

7 hours ago, Dagwoodyt said:

Cliffs doesn't have a VR implementation and there is no statement from the developers as to when such an implementation might be available.

 

I think they're working on it

 

[Skycat1969]

"Cliffs of Dover-Blitz" is cheap on Steam ($10 USD), so maybe it's worth OP checking out.

 

I haven't been following Team Fusion's plan to maybe someday release VR capability. I was excited four(?) years ago when TF first started showing their development videos. And then it just began to feel like they are a private club enjoying a really cool VR mod.

 

I've always appreciated the potential of Cliiffs of Dover, but it just never stuck with me as a sim. The three phases of CloD ownership for me have been: 1) How do I set up my controls and make the game flyable? 2) Sight-see London and strafe windmills; and 3) Start the campaign and immediately get killed by bombers. And then I uninstall the whole mess.

[Kubert]

Reason why I avoiding Cliffs of Dover is lack of single player content. If it had dynamic career mode or at least reasonable long scripted campaign, I would probably tried it. Battle of Britain always intrigued me.

[kalerider1]

For quick tutorials have a look at Utopioneers flight school. Really useful when starting out in the game.

 

[w00dy]

I would ask how do you play games in VR? Do you use Steam VR? If you use Steam VR, that's your answer. I would also highly recommend Voice Attack like Skycat did above, personally I think it's a must when playing flights Sims in VR. I own everything in the great battles series and only bought BOS from steam, everything else I bought from the store, once I linked my steam account. Also steam dose auto updates which I find very useful with my limited gaming time. As for your PC, it should run the game fine. Though like others have said you may need to lower the graphic settings for VR. As the 12GB of vram on your 4070 may limit you. I regularly go over 12GB of vram usage on my settings, but mine are set quite high. I would also recommend some software called fpsVR, which you can use to monitor your system usage, such as vram, CPU.

[Aapje]

6 hours ago, w00dy said:

If you use Steam VR, that's your answer.

 

SteamVR works with the website version. In general it is the case that SteamVR games don't have to be bought on Steam to work.

[AlexandreCosta]

I recommend using Open Composite for a better performance. It replaces Steam VR.

[w00dy]

On 6/13/2025 at 6:48 PM, Aapje said:

 

SteamVR works with the website version. In general it is the case that SteamVR games don't have to be bought on Steam to work.

 

Well you learn somthing new every day

[No145_Bunny]

Hi Ronsun,

 

Have a look at joinig an on-line Squadron like Tangmere Pilots (we are UK based), we can help you with your IL2 journey and technical assistance and help you with your dream of flying a spitfire with like-minded people as part of an active squadron flying co-op missions. Happy to have a chat with you.

 

http://www.tangmerepilots.co.uk/NewForum/

 

S! Bunster

[Ronsun]

On 6/23/2025 at 12:01 PM, No145_Bunny said:

Hi Ronsun,

 

Have a look at joinig an on-line Squadron like Tangmere Pilots (we are UK based), we can help you with your IL2 journey and technical assistance and help you with your dream of flying a spitfire with like-minded people as part of an active squadron flying co-op missions. Happy to have a chat with you.

 

http://www.tangmerepilots.co.uk/NewForum/

 

S! Bunster

Thanks Bunster I will consider it. Appreciated.

[Ronsun]

Thanks everyone for all the useful info, links, and tips. I ended up buying BoS in the end, and not BoN. It seemed to pull on me as it was the first in the GB series. I'm therefore now training myself to fly in the IL-2 (1942), which I'm really enjoying even though it is a really steep learning curve and I'm dropping out the sky a lot.

In VR it is a stunning game, and I'm happy at the moment just practising flight without much combat. It's a great escape and gave me a real sense of achievement when I made my first successful landing. I've got a long way to go, but hopefully oneday I'll have enough confidence to join a MP server and fly alongside some of you. 

Cheers all,

 

Ronsun