Dec 2022: New Campaign Server Main Objective - other updates

• Goal of the current TWC Operation Jubilee Campaign on our Cliffs of Dover server:
  
  Your goal is to push front line all the way across the channel, and then further onto enemy ground, pushing it forward until you have captured the ground for at least one enemy airfield.  It might well be one of the provisional airfields you see on enemy territory right near the oceanfront.
  
  We believe this will take about 15000 points - more or less.  It's not based so much on how many points, though, as how far the front line is pushed.
  
  THEN to actually complete the campaign you must make an active "temporary landing ground" on the enemy's side of the Channel.
  
  Instructions in-game with chat comment <lghelp.  But in short:
  
  - push the front line COMPLETELY clear of a previously existing enemy airfield
  
  - Take AT LEAST 3 different types of aircraft (ie, you and two or more of your pilot friends) and all land safely/alive at that currently vacant field
  
  - Chat command <makelg
  
  - This turns the previously unused/vacant airfield into an airfield/spawn point you can use, stocked with whatever aircraft you have flown to establish it.
  
  - Take a screenshot or a few proving you have accomplished this - ie, your aircraft landed at the airport, the screen messages saying the landing ground was established, the new map showing the landing ground as active etc.
  
  - Post to the forums and/or discord to establish your victory for everyone to see.
  
  - You have completed this campaign and are now the victors!
  
  - This might not be as easy to accomplish as you hope - the enemy will, if they have any sense - but doing their utmost to prevent this beachhead from being established and stocked with aircraft.
  
  
• More about Landing Grounds and <makelg: I strongly suggest practicing making a temporary landing ground a few times, ahead of the real thing, just so you know that it works and we can work out any technical bugs.
  
  You can do this be finding any existing airfield on your territory that does not have a spawn point.  Fly to it and land safely, bringing along at least two other pilots who do the same, then chat command <makelg.
  
  You should receive a message indicated success and the new LG should show up as a spawn point that you can use on the Flags Page in-sim.
  
  That airfield should then be stocked and usable with whatever aircraft you have flown to it when you established the LG.
  
  What's more, once established, a Landing Ground should persist in that location, with those same initial aircraft, until/unless destroyed by the enemy.
  
  We developed all this for our planned Tobruk Campaign, a few years ago, but it's never really extensively been tested or used.
  
  But now is the time!  Again, I strongly suggest that folks try this a time or two long before the time comes to establish the "real" LG that will win the campaign for you.
  

In other news:

• I just fixed a long-standing bug that prevented repairs to (most) airfields from happening immediately.  They did happen, just next time the server turned over.
  
  Now, for example, if you fly in the repair supplies that bring the airport damage down to zero again, or turn the map, you should see that airfield back in service in just a few minutes.
  
  
• Also, HQ has reprioritized the work of the AI squadrons. They have often taken on the work of bombing front line airfields, important radar installations, other key objectives, etc. Now more of that is being left in the hands of local leadership (ie, you) and to local initiative. The AI squadrons will still support the general work, attack military objectives etc, but they are putting more of the onus on you as the front line forces to handle the most strategically important objectives.
  

Other recent Campaign Server updates (I've posted these to Discord, but maybe some people haven't seen them there):

- You can switch sides. So if one side looks to need help, please consider switching. It's a lot more fun to fly if the two sides are relatively equal in strength. - HQ decided that frontline forces should be allowed to exercise their own initiative more. So turning the map requires just a few key primary targets designated by HQ - BUT in addition to that, it will require quite a lot of additional objectives, which you can choose at your discretion.

 - Start airports for ferry & repair missions have been slightly expanded.

 * For Red, start airports now include Farnborough, Odiham, Upavon, Netheravon, Larkhill, and White Waltham
 * For Blue, new airports for starting ferry/repair missions are Beauvais Nivillers, Beauvais Tille, and Crecy.

 - Points for completing a repair/ferry mission have been increased somewhat

 - I found & fixed some bugs bug in awarding individual points for completing the repair/ferry missions, that happened in some situations.

 - Tweaked the primary objective assignment system. With the new objective system, most objectives are determined by local initiative and only a few really key objectives are assigned by HQ

- With this update, it was hard to determine how much remained (ie, how many points, how many objectives to take out) to turn the map. All the primaries were gone - but no map turn! Now what? Well, now the Tab-4-2 command listing remaining primary objectives (or chat command <obj or the online General Situation Map) will include a summary like this:

REMAINING BLUE PRIMARY OBJECTIVES:
.....
Remaining objective points to turn map: 175/200 (if all primary objectives destroyed)

So that should give you an idea of how many enemy objectives you need to go after to turn the map.

- The idea behind being able to choose more of you own objectives, is that you can decide strategically which objectives might be most worth your while. Maybe you decide to cripple the enemy by going after their fuel reserves most of all, maybe you try to deny them key airports, maybe you work to take out their radar capability, etc. Maybe you take out their resupply airports!! Whatever it is, you can determine a strategy that works to accomplish your war aims and pursue it - without quite so much interference from HQ.



- Tips for taking out a moving or ship-type objective - like shore patrols and submarines: One of the RED objectives right now says to recon out on the middle of the ocean somewhere.    So . . .  that is bound to be some kind of MOBILE naval objective,  maybe a destroyer or submarine or something.

Those objectives are going to START within the area given but they are mobile, so they might leave that relatively small area before you get it reconned.  However, as a rule all the naval type objectives will patrol the general area where they were first found. They are mobile, ie, continually moving, but they are still assigned to a general area to patrol. So you might find them a sector or two away, or maybe even 3 or 4 sectors away, but you won't find them randomly way on the other side of the map.

So if you recon that immediate area first but don't find the objective, then just continue reconning in a search pattern of the surrounding area and with some luck you will eventually find it.

Also . . . these ships/submarines and the shore patrols are TRULY MOBILE objectives.  Meaning that they are vehicles or ships of some kind and they are driving and moving around continuously.  This is a bit different from a mobile radar or mobile armour etc - these  move around from time to time but they are not CONTINUOUSLY on the move as, for example, shore patrols and submarines are.

So for these moving objectives, you'd better look at the recon report and note how old it is.  If it's 30 minutes or 1 hour old then you have a good starting point to search for the unit.  If it's 2-3 days old then maybe not so much (it will still be in that general REGION but might have traveled rather far in 3 days vs 3 hours . . . ).

If you send someone up to recon that area again, then you'll have a more up-to-date location.  Also (a trick!) note that recon pilots receive immediate notification of the exact location (sector & keypad) for any objectives that are MOVING.  So they can loiter in an area and give ground attack pilots below up-to-the-minute updates about location and location changes on those MOVING objectives.

For example, if attacking a submarine, you might send one recon pilot up to 20000 ft to search for the target and get current coordinates, and a couple of ground attack pilots to go to those coordinates and kill the target.

Of course, the defenders can AND SHOULD look for that recon aircraft and drive it off, etc.

I've even brought something like a Sturmovik strike force (<cover aircraft), flown up to 20000+ feet, scouted out the objective, then went down & found and tried to kill it.  This is a bit more awkward because as a recon pilot, you can't carry bombs or torpedoes.  And the <cover aircraft pilots are not always the most highly trained . . .

Another strategy I've used is to fly up and recon that area, get the up-to-date coordinate for the mobile/moving objective, then fly straight home and come back with the proper force to attack it. By the time you get back, the recon is a bit stale, of course.

So altogether the best strategy would be to organize a little task force with one recon, who can also act as top cover, and a pilot or two (or more) to fly low and accomplish the actual attack.

- Tips for taking out a moving/mobile target like shore patrol convoys & submarines. Someone on the forums asked me about taking out a moving/mobile target.  Here is what I told him:

The target was: AX25.6.5 Deal-Sandwich Shore Patrol Convoy (248369, 255048, 1) 2hr Level 8

He went to that location but never found anything.

So here is what I suggested:

Shore patrol convoys are MOBILE.  So they are driving and moving all the time.  The coordinate given is only the particular spot where they happened to be when someone reconned them.

So you have three strategies:

#1.  They are somewhere in that AREA. They will patrol the area given - so for example Deal-Sandwich Shore Patrol is patrolling the shore area between those two cities.  That is a large area but not TOO large. So just fly around low (low - VERY low) and check all the roads carefully in that area, etc.  Pretty soon you will find them - probably when they start shooting at you.

You can start searching at the coordinate given, and search outwards from there.  There were there at one point in time, and since they are on regular PATROLS they might return to the spot/road from time to time, also.
[4:47 AM]TWC_Flug:

#2. The big trick, and one few people have caught onto:  Get a buddy and send them up to recon height in a recon a/c (ie, no bombs etc).  They patrol the area where you are looking for this ground patrol, and take a recon photo every minute or two.

Whenever one of these MOBILE patrols is spotted in the recon photo, the recon pilot will get a special message (immediately!) which indicates there is a mobile convoy type patrol in the area they just took a photo of, and which exact sector, including double keypad, that the mobile patrol is in.

Now your recon buddy gives you this info either via text message, discord or whatever.

With this info - which includes the actual CURRENT sector the mobile patrol is in - you can generally navigate right to that spot and find them pretty quick.

If  you don't find them right away, your recon buddy can keep taking recon photos and updating you with their current position/sector until you do find them.

Note that you can the put the double keypad location into Knickebein in order to precisely locate that sector. Command is something like: <ka az20.3.5

Now you can use Knickebein to fly to that location but also, even more important your <cover aircraft can target that point or (more useful) enemies near that point (Tab 4-4-4-4-6).

#3. I usually take something like a sturmovic aircraft and then some sturmovic COVER aircraft also.  You could also take bombers and then bomber COVER.

When you give the cover aircraft the coordinates/sector to target, then when they get close enough to the target they will tell you the exact objective they are targeting.  They start looking at the coordinate you give them and search outwards a certain radius until they find something. So if it is AA or a building or just a coordinate or something, you know they have not found the mobile objective, so you can call off their attack and keep searching.

(You want to call off their attack because if it is the wrong objective, they will go waste all of their ammo killing it, and have nothing left for the real objective. Though . . . if there are many active AA units in the search area, a lot of time it pays to kill them off first.  This makes it a lot easier to do low level searches.)

If on the other hand their objective is a tank or other mobile vehicle type objective, then they have located the patrol.  You can watch where they attack and follow them in.  Or see the sector & double keypad they where they have located the enemy, then put that into Knickebein and use that to navigate to that location yourself (<ka bd29.6.9 or similar chat command).

Again, Sturmovik type aircraft will work best as your cover aircraft in this scenario.  They are made to attack ground targets of this type, and specifically look for them.  So Stuka, JU-88 ground attack versions, 110s, etc.  On the Red side, hurricane fighter-bombers, Beaufighters, or Blenheims - particularly the fighter versions.

#4. Important! When you give the cover aircraft the coordinates/sector to target, you need to use cover targeting method "Nearest enemy to Knickebein Point".  If you just use method "Knickebein Point" your cover aircraft will target exactly that point - whatever is there.  But if you use method "Nearest enemy to Knickebein Point" they will actually search the immediate area around that point for any enemies that are there - whether that is a tank, truck, AA, radar, or whatever.

#5. Another pointer - whenever you successfully attack an objective,  that counts as a "recon" and the position information on the recon list is updated (presumably if you found & attacked the enemy, you also reported their position to HQ - and they added that info to the recon list).

Particularly with these continually moving targets, these recon updates are super helpful. If someone recons to find their current position, then someone finds & attacks them fairly soon (since they are easiest to find with a fairly current recon position), then that will update their position information again, etc.

#6. Note that the recon list includes information for how recent the recon was done.  So for an airport or other non-mobile target it doesn't make any difference if the recon is 72 or 96 hours old.  But for these mobile patrols, a recon that is just 30 minutes or 60 minutes old is a lot more valuable than one that is days old.


 - Info in Asset Condition Summary & Recon List

Looking at the Military Asset list and the recon summary gives you a bunch of help info about the objective.  The two lists give somewhat different info and exactly what that info is might not be 100% apparent to everyone.

Each bit of info is helpful in one way or another as you fly the campaign.

Asset list entry:

Flugfeld Audembert (BA20.4.5) 85%; last: 7hr35m (1.5 days)

That objective is 85% destroyed, last hit 7hr35m again, and it will be and estimated 1.5 days before the damage is repaired.

Note that this gives you the double keyboard location of the objective (BA20.4.5).  You can use this on maps to locate the objective and also enter it into the Knickebein system (<ka BA20.4.5) and navigate yourself and/or <cover aircraft to it.

Also note - when you enter a Knickebein point into chat, EVERYONE ON THE SERVER, including enemy pilots, can see it!  So you are giving away your intentions to the enemy, and you probably are going to need some kind of strategy for dealing with that.

(In real life, the radio beams each side set up to guide there bombers could be picked up and used by enemy as well as friendly pilots.  In setting up the radio beams, they were giving away their intentions to the enemy - who was DEFINITELY listening in. So they had to develop ways to deal with this information leakage, just like you do . . . .)

Recon Summary entry:

AU22.1.3 Brookland Radar (212973, 220079, 0) 3X, 8.5hr L5, 100%

This objective has been reconned 3 times, last time 8.5 hours ago.  It is level 5 (difficult/importance/campaign points awarded) and is currently 100% destroyed/out of commission.

This gives the double keypad location, but also and more important, the exact coordinate position (212973, 220079, 0).  This precise coordinate position is the most important bit of information discovered by the recon mission (beyond the existence of the objective itself - which is important, too!).

You can put the x,y location into the Knickebein system and use that to fly to that exact location (<ka 212973 220079).  Once entered into Knickebein, you can also instruct your <cover aircraft to target that point OR target the nearest enemy to that point.

Coordinate points are far more precise than double keypad locations. For example, you could probably target an airfield with a double keypad location and hit somewhere on it. But a double keypad location is far to imprecise to locate an exact building, hanger, tank formation, ship, or the like.

Once you have the coordinates for your objective and have entered them as a Knickebein point, you can use those Knickebein points to target your cover aircraft (Tab 4-4-4-4-6) in two specific ways:

 - Targeting the current Knickebein POINT works well for heavy bombers, for example when they target and airport or fixed objective.

 - Targeting NEAREST ENEMY TO A POINT works well for dive bombers and sturmovik or ground attack type aircraft.  They will locate the nearest enemy they can find to that point, and will search for a fair sized radius around it to find an enemy.  They will try to coordinate and attack different specific enemies in the area - so not all of them are attacking the same enemy tank or AA or ship or whatever.

Also they will communicate to you (via the chat screen) which specific enemy they are attacking (such as "tank" or "ship") and its position as a double keypad sector.

If they CAN'T find a specific enemy to attack - which they will usually do once they get fairly close to the target, close enough to make things out with their binoculars, say - they will continue to say that they are simply target the specific POINT given.  At this point you can try to call off their attack if you want - they will attack and bomb or shoot that point, which might be useless to you if there are no enemies their.

- Targeting <cover aircraft via a Knickebein point is one way to do it.  You can also drop a bomb to indicate the attack point, or drop a flare to indicate the attack point.

With each of those methods, you have the choice of targeting the exact point (where the bomb or flare was dropped) OR  the nearest enemy or enemies to that point.

Just for example, one method I have used to attack moving vehicle convoys using <cover Sturmovik aircraft like the Beaufighter, Hurricane fighter-bombers, Stuka, or 110s.

#1. Choose "Nearest enemy to bomb point" as my targeting choice (Tab 4-4-4-4-6)

#2. Fly around and locate the enemy convoy.

#3. Attack them and drop a bomb on or near the convoy.

#4. The <cover aircraft then identify that point (where I dropped my first bomb), look for enemies near that point, and start attacking them.

Using <cover aircraft to attack a flare point or the enemy nearest a flare point is similar. You use Tab 4-4-4-4-6 to select flare point or nearest enemy to flare as the targeting option. The moment you choose that option a flare is dropped (give it time to drop and look back - you'll see it smoking away).  Your <cover aircraft will target that flare point to attack, or the nearest enemy to that flare point.

To stop the <cover aircraft from targeting your flare point, bomb point, or knickebein point, just use Tab-4-4-4-4-6 to select "No target point - follow me".

... Maybe you decide to cripple the enemy by going after their fuel reserves most of all ...

Thanks Flug, you've done an excellent job on this server! It is a real masterpiece. Thumbs up!

I have a question with regards to taking out fuel supplies:

The game was recently (last year?) changed to restrict refueling to a minimum of 30-50% depending on the aircraft. This was done to address some concerns a few people had, that taking off with too low fuel gave a certain advantage to some aircraft.

So even if we bring the fuel supplies down to 0%, the planes will still spawn with that minimum fuel load limit set by the game. Is this a correct assumption? And in that case, does this not defeat the purpose to take out those fuel reserves (I mean apart from enjoying the sight of burning canisters...)?

Also a question with regards to how scoring points works:

A level x target gives you x points each time you destroy it. What happens if you hit it again, and again, and again? Would you score x points each time you cross a multiple of 100% (i.e. 200%, 300%, etc.)?

... Maybe you decide to cripple the enemy by going after their fuel reserves most of all ...

RE: Fuel Supply restrictions
So even if we bring the fuel supplies down to 0%, the planes will still spawn with that minimum fuel load limit set by the game. Is this a correct assumption? And in that case, does this not defeat the purpose to take out those fuel reserves (I mean apart from enjoying the sight of burning canisters...)?

This is a great question. And one that HQ has given a great deal of thought and  consideration.

What happens is, as your fuel supply becomes more limited, HQ issues directives as to how much fuel you must take.  It becomes a bureaucratic nightmare of the type that independent-minded pilots intensely dislike.

Just for example, there is a fuel shortage going on but you may find that HQ has directed that all aircraft fly with 80% fuel - even if they would wish to have less so as to be more nimble!

This is the first difficulty that happens - and only affects fighter pilots.

As fuel reserves fall to critical levels, however, restrictions are more severe and affect all aircraft.  It turns out the HQ can waive the minimum fuel load restriction, and as fuel reserves fall critically low that does happen.

But throughout this process, HQ and not pilots determine fuel load levels.  That is the major issue - perhaps you'd like a small load to be nimble on a short flight; perhaps you'd like a full load to fly a long reconnaissance flight. 

Doesn't matter what you want - HQ has made the decision for you.

I will add - when needing to make longer flights with limited fuel, tremendous fuel savings can be achieved by flying at lower performance levels. Flying at high boost and wartime performance levels guzzles fuel at an extremely high rate.

Flying at far lower boost and RPM levels, and with radiators closed down to the degree these lower performance levels allow, can dramatically boost range - at the cost of performance and speed, of course. But we do what we must with the resources we have!

Also a question with regards to how scoring points works:

A level x target gives you x points each time you destroy it. What happens if you hit it again, and again, and again? Would you score x points each time you cross a multiple of 100% (i.e. 200%, 300%, etc.)?

Once an objective has been destroyed, you can continue to add further destruction.  You do receive both personal points and campaign points for this, and additional time is added to the repair time of the objective.

However, there are diminishing returns.  Once something is destroyed, how much more can you destroy it?  So it will take more and more ordnance to achieve the same amount of destruction. As a rule, pilots would be better advised to seek out new and less damaged targets.  However, if they choose to continue to add damage to already-damaged targets, nothing is stopping them!

Pilots may have noticed that HQ has been struggling to provide promised repair crews after our brilliant battlefield victories.

Effective immediately, a new repair policy has been instituted by HQ in order to remedy this situation and to more equitably distribute available repair crews and material where it is needed the most - accounting for inevitable shortages and deficits caused by the ravages of war.

Availability of repair crews will be determined according to three factors:

- General Production and Supply - from which our repair materials must be obtained

- Current Military strength - repair crews, transportation, and support and provided through our military capacity

- Military Leadership - who are responsible for coordinating logistics and repairs

If any - or worse, all - of these factors are weakened, then repair services will be weakened proportionally.  If all are strong, then repairs will be accomplished at full speed!

Airmen and local commanders may note that they can directly contribute to the strength of these three factors by flying regular repair flights.

Successful and strategically gauged repair flights to the right objectives may shore up a weak area of our military strength, paying substantial dividends in the availability of future repair crews when those battle are won!

I just updated the Jubilee Campaign with some refinements I've been working on over the past week:

#1. REAL winds aloft and real-er weather. - Winds aloft from ground level to 30,000+ft mimic the real wind speed & direction you will find in that part of the world.

- For now I have kept ground level wind very calm, less than 3-4knots, and upper level winds quite calm - less than 25 knots or so. But when Operation Genghis Khan hits (soon!) we'll have FULL REAL winds including commonly up to 50-80 knots at altitude, and occasionally 100-150 knots.

- Wind speed & direction listing for all altitudes at Tab-4-4-4-8 (included with Time Left info) - Wind speed & direction summary on the radar page also, near the bottom

- You'll want to brush up on the directions for bombing in windy conditions - excellent video by Rostic here. (And you might want to experiment with the hack Rostic mentioned, to figure out the slip using the method he shows and and then DOUBLE it - most of my high-alt bombing trials in strong winds have been undercorrected and that hack might fix it).

 - Bomb sight in blue bombers seems to want your actual ground speed - so you have ot correct indicated airspeed to true airspeed, and then correct that again to account for wind.

 - Red bomb site accepts indicated airspeed - but again, you'll have to estimate corrections to that for wind speed.

- Another issue is <Cover bombers. At high altitudes/strong winds they seem to undercorrect.  That means you will probably need to do some math to figure out an updated Knickebein Point for them to target, depending on wind strength, altitude, and the direction of your attack.

FYI cloud coverage is now also similar to real historical data for the area - see this page for example: https://weatherspark.com/y/150362/Averag...Year-Round We'll have the same proportion of clear, partly cloudy, and mostly cloudy days you see there.

Same goes for wind direction & strength (not at ground level for now - I've toned it down to avoid problems with windmilling etc, but starting about 50-100 meters up).

FYI we are skipping the fully overcast days for now, which are about 30% of the historical total - simply because CloD won't go beyond "mostly cloudy" for now. When TrueSky appears though, we can revisit . . .

Recent server updates continued:

#2. A lot of refinement to the new Flak Defense System.

 - Most important, it now factors in AA crew awareness & response time.

 - In particular if you come in low & fast as you approach the target, and stay low, and don't hang around too long, you will evade their detection. You will have some flak at most objectives, but they won't pull in the massive reinforcements if they can't detect you - or if you are in and out faster than they can get crews over to the flak batteries and get them going.

 - Once you drop your bombs on them of course they will BECOME aware of you. But even then it will take some time for them to organize their response.

It might take a minute or two, instead of just a second or two. So if you come in low, VERY low, and fast, and strike hard, and get out of there fast and low - there is a good chance you can do it before all the big guns wake up.

- When I say LOW I mean - VERY LOW. Like literally skimming the treetops, and even staying below treetop level when you can. Lower even than needed to stay off of radar - because what you are trying to evade here are human observers scanning the area for possible attacks. You've got to stay low enough to stay out of their sight and muffle your sounds, and come in fast enough to maintain the element of surprise.

#3. By a strange coincidence, test pilots are reporting that Knickebein reception tends to weaken or fail when flying at very low altitudes. The ground clutter interferes with radio reception, it seems.

On-screen you will something like "????" when the Knickebein reception fails.

#4. In related news, spies report some activity related to the divisions of each army responsible for creating and maintaining the radio beam navigation system - perhaps a vulnerability to be exploited? Keep your eyes glued to the recon reports and perhaps something will show up... (edited)

As the server gets more features, I try to update the in-sim help to match the new capabilities.

You can access the help with chat command <help.

Below are the current KNICKEBEIN help screens (access in-sim via <khelp).

Note NEW option (rolling out in the next day or two - thanks to Noofy's suggestion) to enter several coordinate points at once:

• <ka 324133 284333 : 143433 231332 : 13243 54622 : 187323 123123 : 233111 54342
  

Just separate coordinates with a colon : - or semicolon, asterisk, vertical bar, or exclamation point.


Note line chat length in CloD is limited, so you can enter only so many at once.

FULL Knickebein Help Screens:

>>>>KNICKEBEIN BASIC OPERATION

• To set up Knickebein waypoints: <kadd AW23.2.8 AY26.1.2 BB21.1.8 (etc)
  
• Then Tab-4-4-4-4 menu to start, stop, move to next on list, etc
  
• OR use Chat Commands like: <kstart - (reach 1st waypoint) - <knext - (reach 2nd wp)
  
• <knext - (reach 3rd wp) - <koff
  
• Knickebein operation depends on the status of your Knickebein/Radar Beam Navigation HQ!!!!
  
• If the HQ is destroyed, your Knickebein system will become inoperative until HQ is repaired.
  
• However - you can still use KB to communicate target locations to your <Cover aircraft. But your own navigation is disabled.
  

>>>>KNICKEBEIN ADVANCED OPERATION 

<kadd: Formats like BA14 AC9.2 AZ.2.6 all work. Add 1-10 waypoints at a time.

• Example: <kadd AW23.2.8 AY26.1.2 BB21.1.8 AZ20 BD18.3
  
• <kadd 200311 192300 adds an exact map coordinate (x,y) point; get coordinates from TWC radar web site, recon report (in-sim with Tab menu OR on radar web site, or Full Mission Builder
  
• Add several coordinate points at once by separating them with colon: <kadd 142381 150321 : 213433 184333 : 284332 312324 : 175444 08223 : BA14.3.2
  
• You may use any of these to delimit entries: : ; | ! *  (colon, semi-colon, vertical bar, or exclamation point).  I made a few options for delimiters because some people may have some of those keys mapped to flight sim functions.
  
• Note that that line length in chat is limited, so you can add maybe 4 or 5 coordinates at most.
  

Command detail:  
Main Knickebein commands are on the Tab-4-4-4-4 menu OR Chat Commands <kstart <knext <kprev <koff <kon <kclear

• <kstart 4 or <k 4 - starts Knickebein @ waypoint #4 (#1 if none given),
  
• <knext - skip to next waypoint, <kprev - back to previous waypoint,  <koff - display off,
  
• <kon - display back on, <klist - list waypoints,  <kdel 4 - delete waypoint #4
  
• <kclear - clear all waypoints, <kinfo - info abt current waypoint
  

Most commands can be abbreviated to 2 letters, so <ks, <kn, <kp <kl, <kd, <kc, <ki, <kh etc
Main commands accessed via Tab-4-4-4-4 menu to avoid cluttering Chat

<kstart <knext <kprev will all vector you from wherever you currently are
to the given waypoint. So you can <kadd a large number of potential
targets before takeoff, then during flight <klist <knext <kprev to select
the one you want, and vector direct from where you are to it.

About the Historical Knickebein System
Knickebein used one narrow beam to keep pilots on course to target and another beam crossing the first to indicate when target was reached.

On your display, the directional beam is shown via symbols + (turn right), - (turn left), or = (you're right on).

The second beam (distance to target) is shown via symbols | (1 km) or . (100 meters)
<khelp6 for more

About the Knickebein Display

• KB display looks like "---- ||||||" OR "++++++ ||||||||" OR "= ...." OR "= *"
  
• Each + or - is 100 meters left/right of the beam center (=)
  
• Each | or . represents 1km or 100m from target, max 10 km shown (*narrow* beam)
  
• At "= *" you are on target within a 100 meter square, the approx. accuracy of the historic Knickebein system.
  

Can you "ride the beam" and drop your bombs accurately on target at dusk or at night, as historic WWII-era pilots did?

Here is the full listing of the in-sim help for the cover aircraft system.

Note new commands/options (again rolling out within the next few days - thanks again to Noofy's suggestion):

• <creserve 1 4 - set specific squadrons to stay in reserve (ie, stay with you and not participate in current attack or bombing target)
  
  
  
• <cattack 1 3 - set specific squadrons to leave the reserve and participate in the current attack
  
  
  
• <flare - drop a flare at your current location.  This does not target cover bombers or do anything else but literally "drop a flare" from your aircraft to provide a visual marker directly below your current location.
  

Full Cover Aircraft help:
COVER FIGHTER & BOMBER SYSTEM

• Tab-4-4-4-4 menu OR Chat Commands <cover OR <cover Beau OR <cover 3 OR <cover 3 6 AS will launch a cover squadron of aircraft name or type # indicated. Optional: Add # of aircraft to launch and formation type.
  
  
• Tab-4 menu OR commands <clist - list available cover fighters & ID#; <cpos - position of your current fighters
  
  
• Tab-4-4-4-4-7 sets cover aircraft attack mode/target
  
  
• <creserve 1 4 and <cattack 1 3 to set specific squadrons to stay in reserve OR participate in the attack
  
  
• Tab-4 menu OR command <cland - release cover fighters to land (IMPORTANT!)
  

• <cover 3 5 - means launch a flight of 5 aircraft of type #3
  
• <cover 2 6 AS - means launch a flight of 6 aircraft of type #2, formation: ASTERN
  
• Formation types: VI=Vic, V3=Vic3, AB=Abreast, AS=Astern, RI=Right echelon, LE=Left echelon
  
• <cland 2 release group #2.  Get group # from Tab-4 menu or <cpos
  
• <cdist 200 - set cover formation distance 200% normal. <cdist 50 - set cover distance 50% normal. <cdist 1000 - cover distance 10X normal
  

Cover aircraft include cover fighters and bombers. They are available heavy bomber pilots, close air support aircraft (sturmovik/close air support types), and some fighter models.

Bombers, Sturmovik/Strike Aircraft, and Fighter-bombers always include bombs loaded by default. You can force the fighter or bomber version of your cover aircraft by specifying 'fighter' or 'fi'
or 'bomber' or 'bo' at the end of the <cover command.

• Examples: 
  
• <cover 21 fi (will load 2 of aircraft #21 in fighter configuration/no bombs)
  
• <cover 32 VI bomber (will load 2 of aircraft #32 in Vic formation, in bomber configuration)
  
• <cover 12 3 AS fighter (will load 3 of aircraft #12 in Line Astern formation, in fighter configuration/no bombs)
  
• <cover 3 bo (will load 2 of aircraft 3 in bomber configuration)
  

• <creserve 1 4 OR <cr 1 4 - instruct squadrons #1 and #4 to stay in reserve, joined with you, and not join the current attack.
  

• <cattack 2 3 5 OR <ca 2 3 5 - instruct squadrons #2, #3, and #5 to participate in the current attack (as ordered by Tab-4-4-4-4-7)
  

These commands are so that you can bring a large group of cover aircraft with you in missions, but deploy selected cover squadrons on any given objective.  Any cover aircraft in "Reserve" mode will stay with you ("follow") and will not drop bombs or attack ground targets.

Tab-4-4-4-4-7 has several modes of attack for your bombers & fighter-bombers:

• KNICKEBEIN POINT - attack the position of the current Knickebein point (<khelp for info on the KB system)
  
• NEAREST ENEMY TO KNICKEBEIN POINT - find an enemy ground vehicle, ship, AA gun, train, or other ground object near the Knickebein Point and attack it.
  
• NEXT BOMB DROP POINT - when you drop your NEXT bomb, the cover aircraft will note that point and attack it.
  
• NEAREST ENEMY TO BOMB DROP POINT - note point of your next bomb drop and target for ground/naval enemies near that point.
  
• DROP FLARE & TARGET FLARE DROP POINT - at the moment you press the button to select this option, you drop a flare.  Cover aircraft will attack the flare point.
  
• DROP FLARE & TARGET ENEMIES NEAR DROP POINT - at the moment you press the button to select this option, you drop a second flare.  Cover aircraft will attack enemies near that point.
  

For KNICKEBEIN point targets, you need to check Recon Reports for exact coordinates to target - ideally before you leave home base.

BOMB and FLARE drop targeting are more flexible. You can fly to the enemy, drop a bomb or flare to indicate your desired target point, and cover aircraft will target it.

Targeting by POINT (Knickebein, bomb, or flare point) is good for heavy bombers who can blanket an AREA with ordnance.

Target by NEAREST ENEMY (to Knickebein, bomb, or flare point) is required for dive bombers and sturmovik aircraft to operate correctly & target effectively. With a NEAREST ENEMY target, dive bombers and sturmovik aircraft, will actually do a dive bomb or close ground attack. Without it, they will simply drop from altitude.

NEAREST ENEMY targeting also works for heavy bombers to drop from altitude. It can be useful if you need to target specific naval or ground objectives - even moving/mobile objects.

When targeting by NEAREST ENEMY, cover pilots will look for ground and naval targets near the given point and will search a wider radius if none is found.  They choose the highest-value targets they can. Each cover pilot will choose a different ground target in the given area, if possible.

Cover pilots will inform you of their chosen target and its double-keypad location in the periodic <cover info listing.

They must be quite close to the target point, 5-10km generally, before they can identify a specific ground enemy target.

If pilots cannot identify a nearby ground enemy, they will simply target the given point - listed as "(coord) AZ03.4.2" or similar

COVER AIRCRAFT LISTING - EXPLANATION

#1 2mi200°A0  175mph70° - 2xHurricaneMkIId No bombs ESCORT

• This means that cover aircraft squadron #1, consisting of 2 Hurrican MkIIds, is 2 miles from you, compass direction 200 degrees, angels Zero.  The squadron is flying at 175mph at heading 70 degrees.  They have no bombs are are in "ESCORT" mode.  This group is NOT in reserve (if it were in reserve there would be a notice [[[RESERVE]]] included).
  
• FYI "ESCORT" "FOLLOW" "GROUND ATTACK" (or GATTACK) "AIR ATTACK" (or AATTACK) and similar, are CloD's internal names for the aircraft's current task.  The server is passing them on to you as that is the best indication we have of what the aircraft is actually doing.
  (The server can give AI aircraft gentle suggestions about what it would like them to do, but regardless of that they do what they want.  These tasks are telling you what the aircraft is actually doing right now, which might be quite different from what you have ordered - or what you expect.)
  

#2 0mi50°A0  165mph60° - 2xBlenheimMkIVF No bombs ESCORT (99:98) [[[RESERVE]]]

• The #2 squadron consists of 2 Blenheim Mk IVFs with no bombs.  
  
• They are at 0 miles (rounded, so could be anywhere between 0 and 1/2 mile), compass direction 50 degrees from you, Angels 0. 
  
• The squadron is traveling at 165mph and heading 60 degrees.  
  
• Their current task is ESCORT.  
  
• One aircraft is at 99% health level (so 1% damage) and the other is at 98% health (2% damage).  
  
• This squadron is set to [[[RESERVE]]] so it will not participate in any ground attacks - until you change their mode back with <cattack 2.
  

BLUE IS OFFICIALLY THE WINNER OF THIS CAMPAIGN!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

It was an amazing, hard-fought campaign by both sides, but particularly by Blue this time around. Really, I have never seen anything like it. Hats off to the Blue pilots!!! 

The assignment was to push the front lines all the way across the Channel and capture an actual airfield on enemy ground.

The front lines got stuck for what seemed like FOREVER just a few hundred meters off the coast of Deal - and then when the breakthrough came it was not there at all, but way out west at Ford.

The Homeland Defense force at Deal must be a hell of an outfit!

(Actually there was a kind of bug in the frontline code, or let's just say it did not perform as expected, and that has been addressed for future campaigns. FYI all involved in that little debacle have been sacked.)

Here are some screen shots of the airport capture:


Front lines pushed across RAF Ford and cleared of enemy activity.



New BLUE base established at Ford - the FIRST BEACHHEAD on enemy territory - making BLUE the WINNER of this campaign!!!!!!

   

Screenshots taken by ATAG_Noofy of the newly established based - proof of Blue's history-making victory!

   


   

Huge congratulations to the dedicated Blue pilots and everyone who flew in the campaign!