STORM of WAR: BATTLE of BRITAIN CAMPAIGN

EDIT: PILOTS OPERATIONAL FOR CAMPAIGN:

F/L Wolverine
P/O DNR
O/CDT StiC
SAC Alpine
SAC Elvis
LAC Hooves
LAC Abortedman
Catseye (on attachment)

BREAKING NEWS!

Today, the first major multi-squad campaign since the game became relatively stable for online flights has been announced.

5./JG27 and their partner squadron 9./JG26 will be running the campaign which will involve the participation of multiple IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover squadrons, including the ACG Group of No.501, No.64, and No.401 Squadrons!

The campaign is scheduled to start:

JUNE 17th, 2012 @ 3:00 PM EST

More details as they come! For now, there is the start of a Campaign Webforum up here: http://sowc.forumotion.co.uk/

Stay tuned!

Hey guys, I've registered and am now just waiting e-mail confirmation back from Osprey. Unfortunately I'll be in England for real on the 17th when this kicks off, in fact that's they day I fly home so I'll be taking a vid of the cliffs of dover and will post it here if it turns out.

I'll be away 8-18 Jun. Good luck on your first mission. Wish I could be there.

Only one open slot left in the 6 spots originally given to our squadron.

Currently registered pilots are:

F/L Wolverine
P/O DNR
O/Cdt StiC
LAC Alpine
Catseye

So if you intend to fly, hurry up and grab a spot. I may be able to get more, but I can't guarantee it.

UPDATE!

The final spot in the No.401 contingent of six pilots has been taken, but I can ask for more spots! If you have any intention of taking part in the campaign, then you need to contact me via PM or email ASAP.

Current roster:

F/L Wolverine
P/O DNR
O/Cdt Stic
LAC Alpine
LAC Hooves
Catseye (on attachment)

Also, those of you who are registered (the above) are now assigned the appropriate permissions on the campaign forum, so more of it should be open to you including our first mission brief. Head on over and take a look!

http://sowc.forumotion.co.uk/

Remember, we will be flying Hurricanes so brush up on your skills in that aircraft before the start of the campaign.

Catseye and I are in the midst of a useful discussion over convergence settings. I've traditionally favoured 250 yards for both settings, but I'm increasingly seeing the benefits (and risks) of tightening that up to 150 yards to further decrease the inherent dispersal of each gun, thereby creating an even more devastating bullet concentration.

Given that our primary role will be defensive attacks against the Luftwaffe bomber forces, is there consensus on how we set our guns (including ammo mix)?

Just completed some tests using Mk1 Spit and Mk1 Hurricane against some Do 17s and I guess this will come down to personal preference. The 150 yard convergence has some interesting results but I personally found that rapid splay of bullet stream nullified the effect I was trying to achieve, that being a deeper and more parallel zone of convergence. Anway, I'll be sticking with 250 but I'm sure much discussion will continue, which is the really fun stuff.

I think as it was in the war, it will be a personal preference thing. I personally like 180 yards as I like to begin firing at around 200 and come in. I also find this works well for me with deflection shooting, where I get most of my fighter kills.

Experimentation is good!

dnr wrote:Just completed some tests using Mk1 Spit and Mk1 Hurricane against some Do 17s and I guess this will come down to personal preference. The 150 yard convergence has some interesting results but I personally found that rapid splay of bullet stream nullified the effect I was trying to achieve, that being a deeper and more parallel zone of convergence. Anway, I'll be sticking with 250 but I'm sure much discussion will continue, which is the really fun stuff.

I think that "personal preference" seems to be the key. After a lot of testing of variations in my convergence settings and loadouts just like you guys have, it came down to an analysis of the types of engagements I was most likely to engage in.

When the Rotol equiped Hurricane was the RAF preferred aircraft before the last patch, I was using it to intercept and engage BF109's and found that most of my shots were taken from in close and in turn fights. Now, that current role has changed post patch so I am considering a convergence setting that is more suitable for bomber intercepts where I start shooting from further out. I'm now experimenting moving my zone upwards betwee 200 - 250 yds. I will know better which works for me after testing is complete offline.

With the Spitfire, most of my action is now in dogfighting - so I will keep my convergence settings the same as before (150 yds.) as it seems to work better for me in-close on BF109's.

Always fun trying to figure this out.

UPDATE!

It looks like the Red side has filled up, so I will no longer be able to ask for additional slots. If you're not one of the guys already signed up, you're out of luck!

Those of you who signed up, if there are any dates during the campaign that you cannot attend, let me know and we will see about maybe getting someone to fill in the spot.

IMPORTANT! If you intend to be a 'backup pilot' you STILL NEED TO REGISTER on the campaign forum! Plenty of links above (check the first post in this thread) to the forum.

Remember, we're practicing this weekend! See you then. 3:00pm EST Sunday.

Although I will make every effort to attend each week, I know there will be days I can't make it. More reason for anyone wishing to sign up to do so.

StiC,

Don't worry about that. I'm sure given my workload and requirements to travel that I won't make every event either. We'll join in when we can.

On that note, I'm off to Bristol for the week. Good luck on the first mission. Should be a good furball above those ships. I've modelled this exact battle in mission building and it gets wild with Stukas bombing the ships, 111s and Do17 bombing from above and the 110s and 109s providing cover.

It looks like the campaign may be postponed a week or two so that we have the patch for it and the 100 octane fueled aircraft that we should have.

This pushes it further into my vacation, so I may only get to fly the first and maybe the second mission, depending on how things go.

dnr wrote:Just completed some tests using Mk1 Spit and Mk1 Hurricane against some Do 17s and I guess this will come down to personal preference. The 150 yard convergence has some interesting results but I personally found that rapid splay of bullet stream nullified the effect I was trying to achieve, that being a deeper and more parallel zone of convergence. Anway, I'll be sticking with 250 but I'm sure much discussion will continue, which is the really fun stuff.

I just refitted my guns on the Hurricane tonight in anticipation of it becoming less a dogfighter and more a bomber interceptor in the next patch due sometime next week. (hopefully)

I've settled on a convergence of 250 yds horizontal and 300 yds vertical.

With the sight left at 400 yds. ( I know it will hit anywhere within this range), I start short bursts as I approach 350 and move in aiming at the outer edge of an engine nacel. I find that I am able to clip a wing off in the area of 300 yds. If I don't get it by then, it seems that it is harder to remove the wing as you get closer. ???? Tried this many times and been noticing this for a long time. So, I'm thinking that if I don't remove the wing by 250 yds., I will break off rather than get inside their top and bottom gunner range and try again from distance. More evaluations to come.

Been distracted with IRL stuff so I haven't gotten a chance to read about the full campaign, looking to get a spot on the dossier if one opens up. I've registered and see my name on the list marked with a +, for "backup" status I imagine. I'll be on standby if anyone cannot make it.

If a permanent spot does open up within our outfit I'll be happy to take it.

Hey abortedman,

We have several pilots who might not be able to make every mission (myself included) so I believe there will be room for you for the most part.

I estimated we'd get 6 pilots per mission, but I didn't know who exactly those six would be any given day.

I myself will be missing for 3 to 4 missions while I'm on vacation, so you're guaranteed at least that many missions to participate in.

So, when the mission starts, we'll go with the 6 guys who are there to fly. But remember, anyone else reading this, if you intend to do this you still need to register on that site (which you did).

Sounds good. I'll be on standby in TS when you guys launch to be ready when/if a spot opens up. Thanks for throwin my name on the list as a backup.

EDIT: SoW Forum post just updated numbers and confirms 42 out of 45 slots on Red taken...that leaves three spots open...can I get a scramble order for a +1 slot request to our flight?

AbortedMan wrote:EDIT: SoW Forum post just updated numbers and confirms 42 out of 45 slots on Red taken...that leaves three spots open...can I get a scramble order for a +1 slot request to our flight?

I'll see what I can do.

I am confuse!

So I think I actually do have a dedicated spot after all, I think Farber was under the impression that I was a tag-a-long and not actually in the 401 and that you were attempting to add an additional slot for a pilot other than me? Is that '+' on the names signifying pubber, or specially added backup slot? According to the campaign thread on 1C multiplayer forum, Farber says I'm *in* and counted as a dedicated pilot, so maybe my request wasn't actually needed in the first place.

I count only 32 names on the Reds list and a bunch of what I'm assuming are reserved spots with numbers, which is kinda confusing in itself...I'm not sure where he is getting his count of 46 reds from.

I apologize for the late registration and confusion.

Understood. I was under the impression that with all the shuffling around and Farber doing his thing behind the scenes we had gained an extra slot in our squadron.

Either way I'll be there for launch since the probability of a slot being open is high. I imagine it's going to be chaos trying to get a proper count of EVERYONE just before the mission starts. That being said, is there anything we can do internally to facilitate the organization, or are we going to just be on standby following the flock?

It looks like they counted wrong :P

So you've got a spot, Aborted. I'm hoping we can get Elvis in as well since he had the same issue (away on work).

HOPEFULLY he registered today...HINT HINT?

We're working on a mission plan (the squadron leaders) and I'll disseminate all of that info to the squadron soon.

Okay, this is the final word on pilots.

THE FOLLOWING PILOTS ARE OPERATIONAL FOR THE STORM OF WAR: BATTLE OF BRITAIN CAMPAIGN

F/L No.401_Wolverine
P/O No.401_DNR
O/Cdt No.401_StiC
SAC No.401_Alpine
LAC No.401_Hooves
LAC No.401_Abortedman
SAC No.401_Elvis
Catseye (on attachment)


If you are not on this list, you are not flying come campaign day. End of. Finit.

Man, that's a confusing forum to navigate. I hope I wasn't supposed to post something somewhere or if my registration is enough.