From here on out, I’m going to use in-flight recording and TacView to hopefully get some diagrams and video clips of gameplay. We’ll see how it goes.
Also, a note about campaign settings: It struck me as odd to come across 4 un-escorted Stukas. I checked the campaign settings and the escort odds were set strangely low - only 40% odds that the Stukas would have escort. On advice of some folks on the Il-2 forums I bumped those settings up to 70-90%, as well as increasing the maximum number of escorts from 2 to 10. We’ll see if this has a major impact on performance, in which case I will drop the settings.In simple config I set Air Density = Low, Ground Density = High (to simulate the forward march of the Wehrmacht), and for Advanced config I highlighted the important settings below.
PWCG can create enough units to make a modern gaming CPU crawl, which means on my little i7-4710HQ I have to use some common sense.
Last we met our heroine Serzhant Natasha Stylova*, 27th IAP, she had heroically shot down three dive-bombers in her first sortie. Life is good for Natasha, until – her next mission.
*- I realize now that “Stylov” is a male patronymic surname instead of a female surname “Stylova”. I can’t change this in the campaign AFAIK, making Natasha extra trans.
(for reasons that will become clear, this section is written as a non-canon interlude)
Natasha prepared to taxi to the runway. It was the duo mission with Szt Golubtsov. She hadn’t flown with him before - then again, she hadn’t flown with most of 27 IAP. The mission seemed simple enough: egress into Nazi airspace in the vicinity of Kamenka, fight anything that fought back, and come home in one piece. She thought it was a bad idea to assign the two least experienced pilots in the squadron to hunt by themselves, but hey, what did she know? She just got here. I’m sure the comrade Major knows what he is doing. She and Szt Golubtsov could provide good cover for the sturmoviki of the 312 ShAP. It would be her first flight command.
But things started to go wrong right away.
She found herself in her MiG-3, looking across at Szt Golubtsov… comrade Golubtsov did not move. She engaged her engine, as if to signal him to do the same. Still motionless.
Engines, comrade! Follow my lead! Follow our mission! The Szt stared back blankly.
He seemed to keep staring, navigation lights lit like a beacon, as she taxied to the runway, took off, and began climbing. She could not lose sight of him motionless on the ground, even as she rose to 5km.She was most of the way to cruising altitude before she realized that she had forgotten to retract her landing gear. Perhaps, like Golubtsov, she too was rooted to the ground.
She was unsure what to do. Should she continue with the mission alone? What would the good Major want? Take off, Yuri! She fired off a green flare, as if he could hear her.
As she approached the turn into sector, below her flashed light off a wing, it seemed to her. Could it be…?
Yes, bombers!
Three?
Friendly? Enemy?She had to know. It seemed suicide, but she nosed down into a straight dive towards them.
She had only ever dreamed of flying a MiG this fast. The airspeed indicator went 500, 550, 600, 650… She realized she had to pull up. She pulled up.
The elevators weren’t responding.
Of course. Control authority was reduced at high airspeeds. Like a dive. She was nearing the dive speed limit of 750 km/h. She shot past the three bombers now, silver like fish. She could not make out their markings still.
The nose was coming up. But not fast enough.
The ground came closer, closer…She awoke with a start, sweating.
War is hell folks! And AI taxiing is broken on certain airfields. I’ll do a re-fly or maybe a regeneration of this mission.
