IL2 sturmovik 1946

[Derkylos]

How did I manage to miss this? D:

IL-2 is one of my all-time favourites, being a bit of a WW2 nut, and especially in the aerial department:P

'Tis a good game, rather old, but very realistic (bit too realistic for newbies with all the difficulty cranked up, but that's another of it's pros-the ability to edit the difficulty so easily and in such detail).

Advice for a newbie: turn off all the options relating to aircraft control/stability (flutter, torque, turbulence, head shake, etc) get a handle on flying and shooting with them off, before turning them on one by one. Making proper and full use of a 1940s era single seater is very different from flying anything more modern.

As for fighting, start off attacking bombers or similar slow planes. Find yourself a nice, open (not covered by too much defensive fire...tail gunner accuracy is one of the few flaws of the game) location, and put some fire into the engines/wing roots. Most 'planes carry fuel tanks in the wing roots and, with a nice set of incendiaries (take a look into some 50 cals or the like), you can easily light them up in a few rounds. Your other target is either the engine or pilot (preferably with cannons-the explosive shells are liable to do more damage here), but that requires a grasp of deflection shooting and lead, and that the enemy be so kind as to expose his flank to you in a chase fight.

As for the coloured projectiles, that is due to the way tracers worked. A small cannister of phosphorescent material in the rear of the tracer round would light up on leaving the barrel of the gun, resulting in a glow from the rear of the projectile, making it easily visible to the pilot...and everyone else in the vicinity. These were coloured in order to indicate which side the fire was coming from, and, thus, where your allies were.

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