20 Single & 10 Multiplayer Missions, 5 New Maps, and 129 Aircrafts!
Squadron management will also play a key-role in the dynamic campaign system. Every pilot has a name, photo (it is possible to replace the default photos) a rank, medals, sorties and kills. Each pilot's skill level is defined by combat experience. Pilots can be killed, captured, promoted, awarded or transferred. Losses are replaced, but new pilots will likely have minimal combat experience. Each squadron has a limited amount of combat ready planes, and if this number drops below some point, the squadron will be short-handed.
Players may choose to play from any time of 1941 to 1945 and fly for either Germany, Russia, Finland or Hungary.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles includes from the original IL-2 Sturmovik game:
There are 5 new main gameplay maps:
Gulf of Finland maps include the large area that covers the cities of Helsinki (capitol of Finland), Tallinn (capitol of Estonia), Leningrad (St. Petersburg), the Finnish Gulf itself, Kronstadt island and other islands fortifications, and the great lake Ladoga. The city of Helsinki and Leningrad have been designed using old 1939-1940 maps and contain a number of unique and well-know buildings and objects.
Both maps of the Finnish Gulf have been designed that to cover the historical battles of 1941-1944 during the Russo-Finnish war.
The Hungarian winter and summer maps include the great lake Balaton and the surrounding area around, including small part of Slovenia.
The L'vov map include the parts of Soviet Ukraine and small parts of Poland and Slovakia.
Controlling Multi-Engine Aircraft
Advanced Engine Controls
The engine control routines have been reworked and expanded for the Forgotten Battles; you now have more detailed control over your engines, with more realistic feedback. However, some tasks (like engine start-up procedure) remain simplified and usually performed with a single keystroke.
Throttle Control
Remains essentially the same it was prior to Forgotten Battles. Yet now you may push it farther than Combat Power (100%) to force your engine into the War Emergency Power (Emergency) mode (up to 110%). Note that there is no Power 110 keyboard shortcut, so you'll have to use Increase Engine Power control key (keyboard + by default) to gain War Emergency Power (Emergency) when controlling throttle with keyboard.
Emergency Power
A number of aircraft modeled in the game have special systems allowing an engine to gain advanced performance over a short period of time (alike the notorious nitrous oxide injection system). These systems vary the principle of operation, but for all aircraft so equipped they may be engaged using the Boost (WEP) On/Off control button:
Supercharger Control
Mixture Control
Most of the engines allow the pilot to adjust mixture richness manually. While the nominal position of this control (Auto Rich) should provide normal engine operation in all flight configurations, some input may be required on high altitude or when the engine has taken battle damage. It is common to use increased (Full Rich) set-up during take-off or as a means of Emergency Power.
Radiator Control
New to Forgotten Battles is advanced radiator control. In Advanced Engine Controls difficulty mode you now have 5 cowl or radiator flap positions to provide more accurate control over it, plus, on the aircraft so equipped, you may put the radiator flap in automatic mode.
Propeller Pitch Control
The way of controlling the Prop. Pitch and keys used remain the same as before the Forgotten Battles, with the addition of Increase Prop. Pitch and Decrease Prop. Pitch control keys for a more convenient and accurate propeller control. However, the propeller governor routines has been reworked to achieve a more detailed and accurate model, plus several governor mechanism types were added.
Fixed Propeller
Some older airplanes found in the game (like TB-3) are equipped with simple fixed pitch wooden propellers. Those, of course, have no automation or control, and require no pilot input.
Variable Pitch Propeller
These propellers have variable airscrew blade incidence. In this case, Prop. Pitch Control directly varies the airscrew blade pitch, and needs to be adjusted constantly as the airplane speed changes. Note that setting the blades pitch too low may result in engine over revving. Note that there was special equipment on the Bf-109 (F, G and K series) and FW-190 fighters providing automatic propeller control, however the pilot may input the changes of pitch and adjust blade angles manually whenever he finds necessary.
Constant Speed Propeller
The most advanced, yet most common through the aircraft of the WWII era was the Constant Speed Propeller. In this case, pilot uses the Prop. Control to set desired engine RPM, while the propeller governor attempts to maintain the set RPM.
Aeromechanical Screw
This type of airscrew uses balance of aero dynamical forces and propeller inertia to maintain optimal blade incidence. Thus, it requires no input from the pilot.
Propeller Feathering
Some propellers provide an option to 'feather' its blades that is to turn the blades parallel the airflow to reduce the drag. That becomes essential when an engine fails in-flight.
Magneto Control
Extinguisher Control
A number of aircraft, mostly large airships, had built-in fire extinguishers in the engine compartment. On the aircraft so equipped, you may fire the extinguishers on the selected engines using Fire Extinguisher control key. However, this doesn't guarantee to put out the engine, and the extinguisher has only a limited number of charges.
Level Bomber bombsights for multi-crewed aircraft of the Forggten Battles
The Forgotten Battles introduces the level bomber bombsights. With the release there will be present Lotfe 3D bombsight of He-111H-2 and H-6 and OPB-1 optical bombsight for Soviet early war bombers, like TB-3.