Favorite selection?

[mbMike]

I received Pacific Fighters from my wife for Christmas. Went out and bought a Saitek Evo joystick and have been having a blast. It was recommended that I pick up FB+AEP, so I did that. I love this whole series, really brings flight sims back to the fore-front for me.

Which of these 3 premium add-ons are most enjoyable based on your opinion?

Thanks,
Mike

[Hard Sarge]

Well
would say it depends on what you like

to be honest, think FB is needed as you most of the planes for the game from there

lots of combat on the Russia front

AEP is a good add on, adds more plane types

to be honest again, think if you can afford it, you should get all of them

Plus BOE, that is a good add on, gives you missions/campiagns for the Allies in France

I have really enjoyed TLDs

of course, I would take it in steps, so you can enjoy each one as you get it

HARD_Sarge

[HomeFries]

It sounds like you have FB+AEP+PF, so you have everything you really need at this point. You can spend plenty of time with the stock dynamic campaigns, or you can download a program called DCG that will also generate dynamic campaings. Many people prefer DCG campaigns to the Dgen campaign engine that comes with IL-2. You can get it at Lowengrin's website.

Personally, I would start with a good scripted campaign; because being scripted, they are balanced for playability and tend to be more fun the first time through. You can go to the Pacific Fighters Site (mission page) to download some. "Two Little Ducs" is excellent, and I highly recommend it.

If you are looking for payware campaigns, Case Blue and The Last Days are both outstanding. Case Blue is a number of scripted campaigns that are well designed, while TLD is a huge amount of dynamic campaigns that are set late in the war in some interesting locations and interesting times (incl. alternate history). I highly recommend BoE as well for the western front dynamic campaigns, but cut your teeth with Two Little Ducs first.

Also, check out the SimHQ Forums; they are very active and you will hear the latest and greatest of what goes on in the IL-2 community.

Hope this helps,

[mbMike]

Yeah, I don't think I want to buy any campaigns right now. The ammount of options I have in PF+FB+AEP is overwhelming me. And it's so much that I'm having a hard time focusing on one campaign.

But I do want to support Matrix Games at the same time, so I'm not opposed to picking up one of the 3 campaign add-ons they have offered at some point.

I'll go hunt down the campaign mentioned above and add that to my "To Play" List.

Thanks for the insight.

[HomeFries]

Glad I could help!