European Air War is a WWII
combat flight simulation by Microprose Software released in the fall
of 1998. The original boxed version gave players the ability to fly in
single missions or careers for the RAF, USAAF and the Luftwaffe. EAW
quickly became known for it's immersive campaign and variety of ships
to fly. Campaigns include the Battle of Britain for either the RAF or
Luftwaffe and campaigns spanning spring of 1943 to the end of the war
for all three airforces. The career mode is very good, allowing a virtual
pilot to start as a lowly Warrant Officer, Flight Officer or Stadsfeldwebel
and earn promotions and medals as he fights his way through the War.
You can also choose to start as any rank, thereby allowing the player
to take on as much or as little responsibility as desired.
I tend to
view the campaigns in EAW as "fluid", not dynamic. How well the player
and his squadron perform will have a direct affect on the war. Do well
as an Allied pilot, and you may be able to end the war in early '45.
A successful German career may see the war last well in to the fall of
'45. However, the player has no control over what mission or target he/she
is assigned to. Players looking for such dynamic staples as persistent
damage, real-time ground war or the possibility of an Axis victory will
be dissapointed. But what EAW does, it does well. There are intercept
and escort missions with huge formations of medium and heavy bombers.
Fighter sweeps, shipping strikes and interdiction. Even the occasional
V-1 intercept. The variety of mission types and airplanes to choose from
makes EAW a heavyweight in the replayability department. And for the
truely skilled and determined pilot there is the promise of winning the
Congressional Medal of Honor, the Victoria's Cross or the Knight's Cross
in Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamond flavors.
The game was not without it's problems however. Microprose has released
a series of patches to address some of these shortcomings. AI has been
improved. Multiplayer has become more stable. Bailouts have been modeled
more accurately and a host of other things have been improved as well.
Microprose did it's part to make EAW a better game. But what has truely
made EAW the king of WWII prop sims is the community of players. It is
amazing what has been created by the dedicated and talented players determined
to make EAW the best of it's kind. The intention of this article is to
introduce you to many of these improvements. A year after it's release,
European Air War has been transformed into a whole new experience.
Resolution
One of the things that originally plagued EAW was the limited resolution.
The boxed, un-patched version is limited to 640x480. With their first
patch, however, Microprose made it possible for players to edit the EAW.ini
file to run the sim in any resolution their hardware will handle. And
what a difference it makes! To change resolution, be sure to install
the latest patch, EAW version 1.2. Open your EAW directory and navigate
to a text file named "eaw". This is the ini. file. Open it and look for
two lines under the heading [Graphics]. Here you will see entries for
both height and width. Simply change these values to any resolution you
wish. Remember to limit your choices to resolutions supported by your
hardware. I tend to fly in 800x600. While not as sharp as higher resolutions,
I find the wider field of view helpful. The field of view tends to narrow
a bit at 1024x768. Some players run EAW in 1600x1200, but with my current
hardware that's a bit optimistic for me. Experiment with different resolutions
to find the best balance between image sharpness and framerate. Since
I do most of my flying in the cramped cockpit of a Me-109, the sky tends
to become filled with smoking American heavy bombers, and all that smoke
can cause the framerates to suffer a bit. But, if you have a fast machine,
you will be able to run EAW at the highest resolutions. Officially, this
is an unsupported feature.
Skins
The EAW community is fortunate to count many talented artists among it's
ranks. These guys are cranking out beautiful new skins at an incredible
rate. Are you tired of flying that olive drab Thunderbolt? Having trouble
spotting those B-17's from above? Have you always wanted to zip around
in a Mustang with a checkerboard tail? There are literally hundreds of
new skins to choose from. Just download a few and change them. It's easy.
Here's how. The skins come in zipped form. So, you will need an unzipping
utility to open them. Double click on the zip file and unzip them. I
have a directory named "Skins" just for this purpose. After unzipping,
you will see several files with the .tpc extension. These are the only
files you will need. Simply drag and drop all .tpc files into your EAW
directory, and that's it! Please note, there can only be one skin in
use for any aircraft type at one time. Therefore it is not possible to
have one squadron of 109's with one paint scheme, and another squadron
with a different scheme. To change to a new skin simply repeat the process.
Most skin downloads are less than 100k, so it doesn't take long to do.
I happen to be a big fan of Luftwaffe ace Erich "Bubi" Hartmann, the
highest scoring ace of all time. The Me-109G I spend so much time in
sports the colors of his famous ride, Karaya One. (Special thanks to
EAW "skinner" Mikko "Migge" Kosonen for this beautiful plane)
There
are now skins available for virtually all of the the squadrons involved
in the European Theater of Operations. There are also Russian, Japanese,
Finnish, Italian and even Condor Legion skins from the Spanish Civil
War (Now you can be that virtual Moelders you've always wanted to be!)
Here are some links to a few of my favorite skin sites. When visiting,
please take a moment to tell these guys how much you appreciate their
hard work. They deserve our thanks for the time and effort involved to
produce such beautiful artwork.
It's amazing how much new life changing the skins on the planes injects
into EAW. Try it and you'll be a believer. I promise.
Terrain
The EAW community did not stop there. They have also been hard at work
creating new terrain textures for EAW. If you wish, you can now fly and
fight over a snow-covered Europe. There are Mediteranean textures. Even
the textures from Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator have been converted
for use in EAW thanks to Jay.
I like the original terrain, so I don't use these others. But they are
very nice and certainly worth a look.
Aircraft and Variants
OK, so we can make EAW look better. But we all know there is more to
flight sims than the eye candy. What about the planes we will fly into
battle? Glad you asked! One man in particular has done more to extend
the life of EAW than any other, in my opinion. His name his Charles Gunst.
He is the creator of an add-on titled Enemy Coast Ahead (ECA). The latest
version is ECA 1.4. ECA modifies many of the files in EAW to add more
realistic flight models, armor values and ballistics. This program is
essential to get the most out of the sim, in my opinion. The latest official
Microprose patch reduced the armor values of all planes. One burst of
.50 caliber or 20mm cannon fire is all it takes to claim a victory. ECA
increases the armor values to more acceptable levels.
Flight models,
while subjective, just feel right with the ECA add-on. ECA also allows
the player to fly some previously unflyable planes, such as the Martin
B-26" Marauder", De Havilland "Mosquito", Junkers Ju-88"Wonder Bomber"
and the sinister Junkers Ju-87 "Stuka". But be warned, the Stuka is NO
match for any Allied fighter. If you can complete a career in a Stuka,
you have certainly earned your wings! ECA also introduces some new weapons.
You may now choose to employ the Henschel HS-293 anti-ship rocket bomb.
Panzerschreck anti-tank rockets. The famous Fritz-X. Napalm, and the
SD-2 "Butterfly bomb", an early fragmentation weapon.
In addition, Mr. Gunst has created a companion program to ECA 1.4 titled
ECA Panel. This nifty windows based utility allows the player to choose
from nearly 100 different planes, variants and sub-variants. For instance,
let's say, like me, you enjoy flying the workhorse of the Luftwaffe,
the Me-109. But you find that the standard armament of one 20mm MG151
cannon and two 13mm MG131 machine guns of the stock 109G6 is not heavy
enough to tackle the relentless waves of American daylight bombers. ECA
Panel offers the ability to simply replace the G6 with, say, a 109G6/R6
with two extra 20mm cannon slung under the wings. Still not enough firepower
for you? How about the 109G6/R4 with two extra MK 108 30mm cannon? It's
only a mouse click away. The extra armament is not without it's price.
Flight models reflect the extra drag and weight of these "gundolas" under
the wings.
The following aircraft can replace the standard 109G6 alone:
109F4, 109F4/R1,109G2, 109G6/R4, 109G6/R6,the very fast 109G10 and the
109G10/R4. Lest I forget players partial to Allied ships, there are 6
variants of the fabled Mustang and an unbelievable 12 different marks
of the world famous Spitfire! In addition, the latest version of ECA
Panel, ECA Panel 2.0, also allows the player to fly Russian planes like
the MiG-3, Yak-3, Yak-9 and La-7. Japanese planes include the ultra-maneuverable
A6M5" Zero", D3A2 "Val" and the G4M2 "Betty". Even Italian ships are
there, among them the Fiat G.55 and the Macchi C.200. Unfortunately,
Microprose has not released the 3D code for EAW, so any of these variants
will retain the shape of the plane it replaces. For instance, the Zero
will appear as a FW-190. Add a Japanese skin, however, and it's not too
hard to "see" it as a Zero. ECA Panel also includes a squadron editor
that lets the player edit the morale and fatigue levels of the pilots
in his squadron. You can also choose to deploy your squadron at any airbase
in the game or change the type of plane you were assigned at the beginning
of your career. So many options! Who could ask for more?
ExtraSquads
If you find yourself wishing for larger aerial battles, wish no more!
Microprose was nice enough to include a new feature in the patched version
of EAW. While officially unsupported, players can edit the eaw.ini file
to increase the number of planes, both friendly and enemy, in the game.
Here's how. Be sure you have the 1.2 patch version installed. Open your
EAW folder and open the text file called "eaw". Again, this is the ini.
file. Under the heading [EAW] add the following line at the bottom:
ExtraSquads=x
"x" can be a value from 1 to 5. Try settings of 2 or 3 for balanced battles.
Settings of 4 or 5 tend to put more friendly planes in the air than enemy.
This causes the enemy to turn for home rather early. Using this feature
it is possible to have hundreds of planes in the air at one time. You
will see bombers in waves, and the fighter sweeps, with multiple squadrons
of different planes, turn into intense furballs with planes everywhere!
Be sure to add a space between the ExtraSquads entry and the next heading.
Sounds
Many of you have heard of a fellow named Meatwater. He has lent his audio
talents to many of our favorite sims, and EAW is no different. He has
created new sounds for virtually all of the stock sounds in EAW. New
radial and inline engine sounds. These radials really rumble! I hope
you have a subwoofer. Crank it up and feel your ship come to life. New
.50 caliber machine guns that are excellent. Cannons, explosions, even
the touch-down sounds have been improved upon. Get his programs to breath
new life into EAW.
Where to get 'em
Many of the above mentioned add-ons and utilities can be found in one
place. Combatsim.com has a section devoted to EAW. Here you will find
numerous skins, Meatwater's sound packs, new terrains, ECA 1.4 and ECA
panel 2.0, new, sharper cockpits and more.
Gunsights
One of the things I just did not like about the original EAW was the
huge gunsight filling the windscreen. Thankfully, there are some new,
less obtrusive sights available. To get them, visit the LLv34 webpage
at:
EAW Control Panel 1.6
This nice windows based utility allows the player to change things like
ExtraSquads, resolution, multiplayer settings and more without having
to edit the ini. file. Get it here
at Frugal's World in the "Files" section.
Well, that's it for now. Dust off that old copy of EAW and give it another
go. With all of these wonderful add-ons and more on the way, European
Air War keeps getting better and better. I hope you will discover the
"new" EAW and find it as enjoyable as I do. As always, feel free to ask
any questions you may have in Frugal's EAW forum. KC23, Frugal and myself
will be happy to help. If you look over your shoulder and see a Me-109
with the black tulip pattern nose, give me a wave and we'll give it a
go. See you over the Channel.
