Il-2 Sturmovik: 1946

[Sylvester Stadler]

This is one of the best flight simulation games I have played, especially with the different aircraft and the high quality of the terrain and camo schemes. The biggest problem I have encountered is the lack of performance of various aircraft such as the Fw 190A, the Me 262, and the Ta 152H which the Allied aircraft can all outrun. For instance, when I create my missions of the Ta 152 and Me 262 against the B-29, my game enables the B-29 to outpace both of these high performance aircraft, from sea level to 10,000 meters. The game seems to give Allied aircraft a significant advantage which they did not possess in reality. This is also true of the Fw 190A against the Spitfire V. This is a severe distraction from an otherwise well-designed game. Does anyone else have these problems?

[1.JaVA_Sjonnie]

This is one of the best flight simulation games I have played, especially with the different aircraft and the high quality of the terrain and camo schemes. The biggest problem I have encountered is the lack of performance of various aircraft such as the Fw 190A, the Me 262, and the Ta 152H which the Allied aircraft can all outrun. For instance, when I create my missions of the Ta 152 and Me 262 against the B-29, my game enables the B-29 to outpace both of these high performance aircraft, from sea level to 10,000 meters. The game seems to give Allied aircraft a significant advantage which they did not possess in reality. This is also true of the Fw 190A against the Spitfire V. This is a severe distraction from an otherwise well-designed game. Does anyone else have these problems?

Hi, I've played this sim for 5 years now. I'd say it's typical of you as human vs. AI flown aircraft. Specially if those AI are at ace level and lightly loaded. The Me 262 is (and was IRL) useless over 8000m so if you can't catch a B-29 , thats logic. The Ta-152 is different, maybe the mission pushes the B-29 to its limits and could therefor be difficult to catch for a human player.

Do you fly online at all?

[Sylvester Stadler]

I do not play online since since the telephone lines give me a maximum of 33.6 kps.

The maximum speed of the B-29 was 357 mph at 30,000 ft. Service ceiling was 33,600 ft. (Famous Bombers of the Second World War by William Green)

The maximum speed of the Ta 152H was 467 mph at 40,682 ft. Service ceiling was 44,289 ft. (The Focke-Wulf Ta 152 by Thomas Hitchcock)

The maximum speed of the Me 262A-1 was 540 mph at 19,686 ft.; 538 mph at 29,560 ft. Service ceiling was 37,565 ft. (Jet Planes of the Third Reich by J. Richard Smith and Fighters by Wm Green)

Around 30,000 ft the Me 262 has a speed advantage of 181 mph over the B-29. The Il-2 game is a fraud in this regard.

[Griffon]

hello!

i do play this sim for ages now and i can tell you, the discussions about certain fm defects fill quite a few pages on the net;
that said, the game in its current state is the basic IL-2 engine from over 10 years ago, burdened by the addition of a high altitude part for USAAF ops, shipborne ops for the PTO and several other thingies, all creating a compromise sim that is far away from being a study sim where all values are correct and reflect real life;
the mentioned high altitude FM is flawed from the beginning, as the original game was and is a IL-2 sim, optimized for low level fighting!

personally, I have experienced quite a few Spit V vs 190A duels recently, and I can tell you that this set up is pretty well matched up;
if you try to outfight a Spit in a turning contest, your tactics are plainly wrong;
if you get the Spit in your sights though for a second or a little longer, its armament will shred each and every Spit to pieces!
the key is to adhere to the original slash and run tactics;
in a Spit, keep turning and try to outfly the 190 in the horizontal;
given two pilots of equal ability, the one who sees his opponent first will win;
if they engage each other from a neutral position, a draw should be the normal outcome....

but never ever think about IL-2 as a close to reality sim!
its fun, its great its addictive, but its not 100% historically correct!!!

[jeanba]

I am also playing this sim a lot.
Indeed, the purpose of most of the question I ask in this forum is to design historical missions.
Actually, the results of those mission is rarely historical and a lot more aircraft are shot down.

[Kryten]

Il2 is at the end of the day a game, it's flight models are the authors interpretations of the limited amount of data available about the aircraft, they have done thier best to produce a flight performance as sensibly close to reality as they are able with the information at hand!

The final version of the aircraft may not meet your expectations based upon your own perceptions, likes and dislikes, but noone can in reality produce a flight model that is factually correct simply because the parameters are too varied and the information is not available!

You quote top speed figures, but this is an arbitrary figure quoted at a certain altitude, what the figure does not give you is how much fuel was the plane carrying, how much ammo, how long does the aircraft take to reach this speed?
if your climbing to intercept a bomber flying straight and level the climb slows you considerably, when you reach the required altitude how long does it take to accelerate to an intercept speed, how hot is your engine? how far away from your target are you, the list of parameters is endless!

the real problem playing against the AI's is that the computer flies the AI planes at thier maximum, the AI pane will always be climbing/diving/turning at the optimum for those conditions in the programme, unless you understand the full performance envelope of the aircraft you are flying then you will not achieve the same peformance that the computer does!

I play the game online and am currently running the Ultrapack 2 mod on UKdedicated 3 server, when you play online the game makes much more sense as the human players you fly against are in the same position you are with regard to performance, the games not perfect but it works well enough to make online missions and dogfights a truly entertaining pastime!

a few tips I can give you, with regard to the FW190, if you try and turn fight with a Spitfire/Yak3/9, La5 etc you will lose just about every time, the FW190 strength is in its ability to maintain its speed in dives and climbs, position yourself above your target make a controlled diving attack then full power zoom climb back up out of harms way, if you miss , you miss, reposition and try again!
The Fw190 had the edge over the MkV Spit but if you fight the spits fight in the turn you will lose, if a spit gets behind you dive away, if your fighting at low level your in trouble anyway so you need to maintain a reasonable height to allow you to escape, also keep your speed up, if you end up chugging along at 160mph the FW's acceleration will leave it gasping and your a sitting duck, if you cant get a firing position pull off and get some space!

it is in reality the tactics used in the second world war and if you copy the techiques used by those men you find the game much more enoyable, its so easy to get suckered into a turning fight on the deck, once your down there its game over, its just something you have to learn!

its a very good game, not perfect, and certainly not a fraud, but judt because you think your favourite plane should do this and that, bear in mind the game developers had a lot more info to work with than you, and still had to make compramises along the way!

regards
Mike.

[Nokose]

I have a question about if anyone has loaded Il-2 Sturmovik 1946 up on Windows 7. I've found that my first three discs of Il-2 (Forgotten Battles & Ace expansion) are not compatible with W7. So does it work before I spend any money on it?

[GMichalski]

for me is one of the best simulators, but with the ultra-pack improve all his faults....or almost...i think that depends of the person.
From the performance of the planes it is not important so much what matters is the one who pilots...
regards.