"The fighters are our salvation, but the bombers alone provide the means of victory." - Winston Churchill
Introduction
Bombing the Reich comprises 30 missions (mostly night missions). There are 30 missions as that was the standard number of missions flown in a first tour with Bomber Command (if a crewman managed to survive that long). However, it is not meant to represent a single tour with a single squadron, switching planes perhaps once or twice. The missions attempt to touch on virtually every type of operation embarked upon by Bomber Command during the strategic effort over Germany and occupied Europe during the Second World War. Aside from the more common bombing missions, there are also missions as diverse as Dambusting and photo-reconnaissance. In the missions, you can act as either a bomber crew member (and occasionally a fighter pilot) on the British side, or a night fighter pilot for the German side.
Be warned! As most of the missions are night missions, they are very dark. They need to be dark enough to make picking out a target very, very difficult, but light enough to make the external views interesting. Once your eyes adjust, the instruments and map are readable as are most of the markings on the planes. Nevertheless, you will probably need to be in a dark room with only a small light on your keyboard to play! If you find them too dark or too light for your liking, feel free to open them in the mission editor and tweak them to suit.
About Version 2
Bombing the Reich was originally created in the early days of FS-SDOE when night missions were only achievable through a specific 'night' terrain called Dover Night and tweaking the lighting settings in a text editor. It was very difficult and cumbersome. Also, the planes available at the time were very limited in number. Time and a pool of very talented patch and plane builders have changed both situations dramatically. To bring the missions up to date and give them a new lease on life in a world where 'Dover Night' is completely obsolete, several changes have been made:
- The terrain was changed, through a text editor, to the stock Dover terrain. This was viable as the only difference between Dover Night and Dover was their colors.
- The time settings were modified through the Mission Editor to change night missions back into night missions, but now everything is automatic and shaded appropriately, the effect being much more consistent and visually appealing.
- The planes involved were evaluated and changed in some cases to more historically appropriate planes and to add some further variety. The number of planes was also reduced in some cases to try and avoid over taxing lesser PCs. In general, no more than nine planes appear in any one scenario, but great effort was made to retain the original balance.
- For the most part, all airfields, on both sides, were given a single super anti-aircraft weapon for defense to deter the other side from flying where they shouldn't!
- In the missions without German aerial resistance, a single nightfighter was placed on an airfield somewhere. It was given no mission, but to mix things up and add some variety, one may fire up the mission from the Axis side, get into the air, and see what you can do!
- Appropriate runway lights were added through the Mission Editor, then positioned by Notepad.
- All towns, etc. in Axis territory made Axis!
- The mission mechanics themselves were tweaked to better achieve what was intended in the original missions, in light of experience gained since the early days of FS-SDOE of just what makes a good mission.
Recommendations
As for in game aids, here is some advice regarding realism and playability:
- In Flight Map: Consider this your navigator. If you want a real challenge, try to navigate without it and use a printed map!
- Show Enemy Aircraft: Off. While this may simulate some things, it generally offers too much information to be realistic. Unfortunately, seeing ground units cannot be disabled, but since one cannot tell the difference between a harmless Klaxon and an 88-mm flak gun via the map, the info it imparts is not too precise, which is good.
- ID Tags: Off. This is way too much of an aid to aircraft location to have any realistic value. Use it if you're 'training' or just find life without it too hard in night scenarios, but it's certainly not realistic!
- Target Map: If you are flying a bomber, consider this the ground mapping H2S radar. Since it also shows planes, it should only be turned on during the bomb run. Also, since it shows all targets, it can be confusing, which is good. Ground-mapping radar during WW2 was very rudimentary. For fighters, this is a mixture of ground control instruction and your own aircraft's radar. Generally, only two seaters should use it. Single seat 'Wild Sau' fighters should hunt by looking for bomber silhouettes against searchlights and clouds in their patrol area.
Of course, for variety and challenge, you can mix and match any of the above aids for any level of realism or fun you desire. You can justify just about anything! H2S for instance did not come into wide use until 1943, and not every plane was eventually equipped with it (Pathfinders had first dibs), so flying without it at any stage of the war is realistic. Similarly, there were things like the tail warning Monica radar that bombers could use to detect an approaching fighter, so knowing where enemy fighters are via the Target Map isn't always unrealistic, etc., etc. The deadly move/countermove electronic game in the night skies over Germany only ended when the war itself did!
Minimum Requirements
- Online Standard as of September 2007 (Patch 1.6.0.6)
- Axis Legacy PlanePack v3
- British and Commonwealth Legacy PlanePack v4
- PlanePack 6.1 Legacy PlanePack v3
- British Expansion PlanePack v1
- German Expansion PlanePack v1
Credits
- Original Bombing The Reich campaign concept and creation: GT
- Environmental revamping and overall revamp coordinator: 3dp
- Mission mechanics revamping: Hip63
Installation
Simply run the installation program Bombing_The_Reich_v2_1.exe.
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Feedback to 3dp@msn.com.