Modern Equivalent of LucasArts Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe?

[Gusington]

I loved Battlehawks 1942 and Their Finest Hour back 25 years ago. I missed out and never played Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe, and it haunts me to this day...I really feel like I missed out  :(

Can anyone recommend a release in the last five years similar to Secret Weapons? I picked up BOMB recently but I don't expect it to be as epic. I also played Crimson Skies about 10 years after it was released and pretty much missed the boat there too.

Any suggestions appreciated!

[Staggerwing]

There's always IL-2, available at GOG for $9.99. It's the 1946 version and has a crapload of content including stuff from the Pacific theater and even Luft'46-type planes.

[steve58]

^Pretty much what Staggerwing said, but IL2-1946 goes on sale fairly frequently anymore.  Just saw it for $2.49 on HumbleBundle store the other day, so if you're interested in it, wait a bit and it'll be on sale somewhere...

p.s.  Its been a while since I've messed with IL2-1946, but always was able to find some interesting stuff/mods over at SAS and All Aircraft Simulations.

[Gusington]

Hmm interesting. You guys enjoyed Il2 1946? I know some of the more recent releases from that shop have not been so er...warmly received (CLoD).

EDIT: Checked out the reviews on Steam and they are almost uniformly excellent. Looks like there's tons of missions, campaigns and planes to fly...I am going to assume the Me262 and the Komet are in there, and German 'flying wing' planes...those are the ones I am really looking for. Is there a '1946' campaign, flyable from the German side?

[jomni]

There's always IL-2, available at GOG for $9.99. It's the 1946 version and has a crapload of content including stuff from the Pacific theater and even Luft'46-type planes.

Nope.  Cannot compare.  There's no big campaign where you plot your raids, etc.

Campaign Battles are the heart of SWOTL, allowing the Player to plan missions inside the Campaign Battles, using the Mission builder. This feature allows the player plan their own way to fight the air war, without any limitations. Whatever the player's tactics, the success or defeat are determined by several overall Winning/Losing conditions. In particular, there are 8 factors which make up the German war economy in SWOTL:

GERMAN FIGHTER PILOTS
DEPLOYED GERMAN GRUPPEN (LUFTWAFFE GROUPS)
AVIATION FUEL
JET FUEL
GASOLINE IN STOCK
MUNITIONS IN STOCK
BALL BEARINGS IN STOCK
TRANSPORTATION CONDITION
Of these 8 factors, only the first 4 have direct impact on the Luftwaffe. The last 4 factors are general war industries, and so they affect only the German ground forces. American Campaign Battles will have as a goal the destruction of the war industries (Strategic Bombing), the Luftwaffe (D-Day Air Superiority), or both (Final Victory). German Campaign Battles concern the defense of the same elements.

[magnus]

IL-2 1946 is probably 12 years old+-.

It has a staggering amount of mods now, but it does not have a strategic campaign as was pointed out.

SAS has a mod, used to be " full Monty ", that allows you to fly from 1914 until the 1990s I believe, with all the bells and whistles.

[Staggerwing]

Ok then.

There is one other flight sim that can be had for a reasonable price that has campaigns for both axis and allied players: Battle of Britain II.-.Wings of Victory. It is a reworking of Rowan's original BOB game. It is not cutting edge but the planes look pretty good considering the game's age and the campaigns are detailed, with maps and raid planning or defensive prepositioning. Also, the game engine allows for a shitload of aircraft to be part of a mission while keeping the frame rates reasonable.

[W8taminute]

jomni hit the nail on the head.  I really don't think there is a game out there that does exactly what SWOTL did but that BOB game you mentioned Stagger comes close.  I had so much fun playing as the Germans and researching jets in SWOTL.  If you could survive the allied bombing campaign and get to jets the tide of the battle quickly changed in your favor.  I remember tearing bomber formations apart single handidly in an Me-262.  Flying the Komet rocket plane was a riot as well.

Playing as the allies was fun too because you needed to bomb the science labs of the Luftwaffe to prevent them from getting jets.  Then there were the V1 sites to get rid of.  I can't remember but wasn't it also part of the missions to try and knock V1s out of the sky as well?

Oh and one more thing.  How cool was it that you could rename pilots and bomber crews?  I used to name my best fighter pilots after my friends and family. It hurt like hell when one of them were shot down though.

[Jarhead0331]

IL-2 1946 is probably 12 years old+-.

It has a staggering amount of mods now, but it does not have a strategic campaign as was pointed out.

SAS has a mod, used to be " full Monty ", that allows you to fly from 1914 until the 1990s I believe, with all the bells and whistles.

Its called the CUP, or Community Universal Patch. it is downloadable in 3 separate modules...Dawn of Flight covering WWI, WWII covering the obvious, and Jet Age, which adds Korea, Vietnam and beyond.

[jomni]

I like flying B-17 in the Swotl campaign. Finishing a tour of 25 missions was a great achievement .

[Gusington]

So there is nothing released in the last 10 years that has a dynamic campaign that also allows piloting of the Me262 and Komet?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Nope.

You can use the DGEN random dynamic campaign generator for Il2-1946 but it's not very interesting.

You can also create a campaign for War Thunder and select the 262 or the 229 or the 163 and fly those but they have silly victory conditions that only work if you're playing arcade mode.

[jomni]

Is Bob 2 still worth buying at this day and age?

[Shelldrake]

Is Bob 2 still worth buying at this day and age?

It is still a great game with the latest BDG patch.

http://bob2wov.com/download-the-latest-patch/

[undercovergeek]

So there is nothing released in the last 10 years that has a dynamic campaign that also allows piloting of the Me262 and Komet?

RPS has just done a 25 best sims if you fancy a peep over there