ACES OVER EUROPE 1942

New mid-War aircraft, squadrons, pilots and campaigns for
AOE

This ZIP file, AOE1942.ZIP, provides a new, complete, and
I hope seamless, era patch for Aces over Europe, of the
air campaigns of 1942. It follows on from my earlier AOE
1940, and provides the aircraft available to the
protagonists in Western Europe in the mid-war period, in
4 separate air forces, including the Royal Navy's Fleet
Air Arm.It simulates a period when the Luftwaffe stood on
the defensive, but had not yet been overwhelmed. It
provides completely new aircraft, including classic mid-
war aircraft like the Spitfire Vb, Whirlwind, Typhoon, Bf-
110G, Me-210A, P38E and P39, new squadrons and new
pilots, with more realistic flight models, damage
characteristics and weapon loads, new camapigns, new
historical missions, and new ships including British
aircraft carriers and German surface raiders.

OLD            NEW
Luftwaffe
Me109G         -Messerschmitt Bf-109 F2
Me109K         -Messerschmitt Bf-109 G6
Fw190A         -Focke-Wulf FW-190 A4
Fw190F         -Messerschmitt Bf-110 G4
Fw190D         -Messerschmitt Me-210 A1
Ju88B          -Junkers Ju-88 C6
Me262          -Heinkel He-219 A5 Uhu
Ar234          -Junkers Ju-188 A

RAF
Typhoon        -Hawker Typhoon Mk1
Tempest        -Hawker Hurricane MkIIC
Spitfire IX    -Supermarine Spitfire MkVb
Spitfire XIV   -Westland Whirlwind
Mosquito 18    -De Havilland Mosquito Mk II
Mosquito VI    -Bristol Beaufighter Mk IIF
B24       -Avro Lancaster Mk I

Fleet Air Arm
P47       -Grumman F4F Martlet
B26       -Fairey Fulmar Mk II
B25       -Fairey Barracuda Mk II
B17       -Bristol Beaufort Mk I

USAAF
P51D      -Bell P-39 D Airacobra
P38J      -Lockheed P-38 E Lightning

All aircraft are fully flyable, in single missions and
campaigns.

INSTALLATION
These patches make no permanent changes to your AOE game
files and can be removed as easily as they are installed.
Simply copy all of the files to your AOE game directory.
The new aircraft, squadrons and pilots will be available
to you in place of the old ones, in all single missions
and campaigns. For example, the Me-109G will be replaced
by the Bf-109 F, the Ju88 will be flyable (and changed to
the 1942 C model night-fighter), the Arado 234 will be
replaced by the Ju-188, the Spitfire IX will be replaced
by the mid-War Spitfire MkVb, and the Spitfire XIV by the
Westland Whirlwind.

To remove these patches and restore the default aircraft,
simply delete these files from your AOE directory.

I have included a batch file, 1942UNDO.BAT, which will
automate the job for you, and save your BEST MISSION  and
CAREER information as well. This batch file assumes that
AOE is in a directory C:\DYNAMIX\AOE. If yours is
elsewhere, you will have to make the appropiate amendment
to the batch file. Simply run this batch file, and all
the AOE1942 files will be deleted, and AOE will be
returned to its original state. It is actually a good
idea to run 1942UNDO.BAT before you install AOE1942 for
the first time, just in case you have any patches that
might conflict, which are not overwritten by AOE1942.

ANY OTHER PATCH FILES YOU MAY HAVE INSTALLED PREVIOUSLY
WILL BE DELETED BY EITHER THE INSTALLATION OF AOE1942, OR
BY RUNNING 1942UNDO.BAT. IF YOU HAVE ANY OTHER PATCHES
INSTALLED, BACK THEM UP FIRST.

GENERAL
The flight models of all aircraft have been improved. You
will usually need flaps to take off with a full weapons
load, especially in the heavier 2-seater aircraft, and
you will find most aircraft more accurately modelled. The
Bf-110, for example, was heavily armed and fast, but slow
to accelerate. The Hurricane was more rugged, slower, but
more manoeuvrable than either the Bf-109 or the Spitfire,
while the Typhoon was powerful but clumsy. The Bf-109 had
more power than the Spitfire, fuel-injection which gave
it an edge over 20,000 feet, and a tighter turning
circle, but was less robust, causing pilots to be less
keen to push it to the extremes to which the Spitfire
could be put, and the new Fw-190 had the edge on all of
them.  I have undertaken a systematic comparison of
power, weight, wing area, wing loading and drag, and the
new flight models are a result of that, I hope fairly
accurately. Aircraft lose speed and height when turning,
more so than before, and drag at various altitudes has
been more accurately modelled. Rudder turns are now
different for different aircraft - the Hurricane has a
larger and more effective rudder than the Spitfire, for
example. Stalls may come on more quickly than before, and
lazy flying habits may now get you into trouble. Do not,
for example, stall at low altitude.

A lot of work has gone into the aircraft .TBL files.
There are many completely new aircraft, like the Bf-110,
Me-210, He-219, Ju-188, Westland Whirlwind,  Bristol
Beaufort, Bristol Beaufighter and Avro Lancaster, and
Brent "Canuckle" Hanson has provided a Hawker Hurricane,
a Fairey Fulmar, and a brilliantly redrawn Spitfire Vb.
There are also new paint jobs on machines like the Bf-
109, the Martlet, and for the USAAF. The appearances of
all of the aircraft have also been modified to extreme
detail, by changes to the aircraft .TBL files. Shape and
colour will be now be displayed until the aircraft is at
about the limit of visible range. This is a  good visual
effect, and a great aid to early combat identification.
Camouflage and squadron colours will now also show up at
long range, whereas before they were only discernible at
close range. The drawback to these extreme detail changes
is that they are more processor-intensive. Slow PC's may
run very slowly, or even freeze. The new files have been
tested extensively and work fine on a 386 DX 33, and on a
486 DX 66, but if you are having trouble try turning off
the ground detail in combat, or adjusting the time
slider.

I have also made a number of sundry small changes, to
mission screens and the like. For example the Crossbow
mision is now the Intruder mission (V-1's didn't exist in
1942, remember), with enemy barracks or other such sites
as the target. Aircraft are generally referred to as
such, rather than as "airplanes", and in campaigns a
single mission is a "sortie".

There are also a number of ordnance changes. The original
AOE BULLETS.MEC file had some significant errors in
ordnance characteristics (especially for the .50 calibre
MG, which was portrayed as being as powerful as a 20mm
cannon), which I have fixed.  I have also fixed the
exaggerated trajectory on the Gr.21 rockets, with a new
ROCKETS.MEC file, which also allows the Allied 3" rockets
to used as air-to air weapons. Another change is the
availablity of armour-piercing (AP) bombs for anti-ship
work, on the aircraft mostly used for that type of
mission, the Beaufighter, Barracuda, Beaufort and Ju-188,
by some changes to the BOMBS.MEC file. These have a
greater effect on ships than the ordinary high-explosive
general purpose (GP) bombs.

The campaigns are reasonably historically accurate. You
will find that flight formations and numbers vary over
time. The RAF, FAA and USAAF will generally gain in
numbers over time, while the Luftwaffe will generally
decline. I have also introduced a little more
unpredictably and hence realism into campaign missions.
The original AOE had every mission a fight to the finish,
with predictable numbers of enemy aircraft every time you
flew. I have changed that - on some missions you will
have a milk run, while some will be hotly contested. And
intelligence is not perfect - on some missions the train
or convoy you are tasked to attack will not be there.
Look for targets of opportunity.

There are 28 new historical missions as well, suitably
modified for the period. These are either completely new
or have been carefully modified, and should give you some
exciting flights. There are also new training missions
for the Fleet Air Arm. The presence of the Fleet Air Arm
has enabled the introduction of a number of naval
missions, which are quite interesting, and you can land
on the carriers. The mission dates and parameters are
right, although some of the airfields and other locations
are not perfect, but that was a compromise (avoiding a
lot more work for little extra reward). The ordnance load
does not always show up correctly on the pre-mission
screen here, for some reason I cannot fathom. There is
generally a reference to the ordnance load in the mission
briefing, but you can assume that there are bombs or
rockets loaded if you have a strike mission, otherwise
just guns.Watch your flight performance here, by the way,
because the aircraft are sometimes loaded with non-
typical ordinance, and take-offs, especially, can be
difficult.

AMMUNITION LOADS
One of the major drawbacks of AOE, unfortunately, is that
it cheats, by increasing the ammunition loads of your
computer-controlled opponents, by a factor of about
three. I have included 3 zip files to enable this to be
overcome, by reducing the ammunition loads of the
aircraft by a factor of three. These 3 zip files are:
a) AMMO_ORG.ZIP
The files in AMMO_ORG.ZIP are the 21 original AOE 1942
*.GL files. Unzip this file into your AOE directory to
return to the original ammunition loads of AOE 1942 after
using AMMO_GER.ZIP or AMMO_ALL.ZIP.

b) AMMO_GER.ZIP
The files in AMMO_GER.ZIP are the 8 *.GL files for the 8
German aircraft. Unzip this zip file and use these 8
files if you are flying for the ALLIES.

c) AMMO_ALL.ZIP
The files in AMMO_ALL.ZIP are the 13 *.GL files for the
Allied aircraft. Unzip this zip file and use these 13
files if you are flying for the GERMANS.

THE AIRCRAFT

Messerschmitt Bf-109 F2
The Friedrich (from its "F" designation), the longer, re-
engined and aerodynamically re-designed Bf-109F, entered
service in early 1941, replacing the E model (the Emil)
which had spearheaded the Blitzkriegs of 1939 and 1940.
The Friedrich was the last pure fighter in the Bf-109
line. It partly regained the ascendancy from the newer
RAF machines then entering service. Significantly faster
than the Emil, the F model abandoned wing guns for a 15mm
MG 151 cannon firing through the propellor hub, the
engine vibration problem which had plagued the Emil
having been solved. The 15mm cannon, the personal
preference of Molders (who was a crack shot with it) was
not a success, and was replaced in the F-4 model by the
heavier 20mm  MG 151 cannon. The F model also mounted
2x7.9mm MG in the fuselage.

Messerschmitt Bf-109 G6
The Gustav (from its "G" designation) was the definitive
main production variant of Willi Messerscmitt's versatile
single-seat fighter. It served the Luftwaffe from 1942
until 1945, principally as interceptor. It was fast and
fairly manoeuvrable, and superior to all other fighters
of the 1942-1943 period, with the exception of the
Spitfire Vb and the new FW-190, but suffered from the
tendency to add extra weapons, which degraded its
performance. Its finish is  green splinter camouflage,
with a light blue underside.The squadron colours look
good. The Gustav has 2x13mm MG in the fuselage, 2x20mm
cannon in the wings, and can carry 2x20mm extra cannon or
a modest bombload.

Focke-Wulf FW-190 A4
The best mass-produced German fighter of the War, the Fw-
190 shocked the Allies when it first appeared in late
1941, being clearly superior to any of its opponents such
as the Spitfire V or the Hurricane. Powered by a bulky
BMW radial engine, it was fast, manoeuvrable, tough and
heavily armed, with 2x7.9mm MG in the fuselage, 4x20mm
cannon in the wings, and can carry a variety of extra
weapons.. The Fw-190 is a dangerous opponent for any
Allied pilot of this period.

Messerschmitt Bf-110 G4
This 2 seater heavy fighter was the pride of the
Luftwaffe at the start of the war until it encountered
the fast 8-gun fighters of the RAF.  It was of sound
design, and did sterling service throughout the War. The
mid-war Bf-110 G is heavily armed with 4x7.9mm MG, 2x20mm
cannon and a rear flexible 13mm MG, and can also carry
extra guns. It has its merits, but is not meant to
dogfight single-seat fighters. A high speed diving attack
is the best tactic in this, to some extent an under-
rated, fighter aircraft.

Messerschmitt Me-210 A1
This Me-210 Hornisse (Hornet) heavy fighter was intended
to replace the Bf-110.  It was of sound design, and
performed well when re-engined as the Me-410, but was a
failure, being sluggish and un-manoeuvrable. It is well-
enough armed for intereption duties, with 2x7.9mm MG,
2x20mm cannon and two rear flexible barbette-mounted 13mm
MG, and can also carry a good bomb load, but is not an
aircraft in which to dogfight single-seat fighters.

Junkers Ju-88 C6
This was the first specific night-fighter version of the
versatile Ju-88 line. It is fully flyable in single
missions and campaigns The Ju-88 is in a green/dusk blue
splinter finish, with a black underside, and takes
squadron colours. A fast and tough aircraft, it was
heavily armed with 3x7.9mm MG and 3x20mm cannon in the
nose, and a rear flexible 7.9mm MG.

Heinkel He-219 A5
The He-219 Uhu (Owl) was Germany's first purpose-built
night fighter, and its best. It was the only machine
really capable of catching the Mosquito, acoounting for
some 60% of all Mosquitos lost in night operations. On
its combat debut, one machine claimed 5 RAF Lancasters
destroyed in 30 minutes. Its service career was plagued
by political arguments, and it was only continued in
production by Heinkel privately. From Spring 1943 it flew
alonside the Bf-110, and from 1944, the Me-410. Fast,
manoeuvrable and heavily armed, the He-219 was a powerful
threat to the Allied bomber streams over Germany. Total
production was 294 (compared to some  275 Arado 234, 215
Ta-152, and 1100 Me262). The He-219A5 was well armed with
2x20mm cannon in the wing roots, and 2x30mm cannon in the
nose, and can carry 2x30mm extra cannnon. Some models
also had another 2x30mm cannon in an oblique "Schrage
Musik" fitting, and some (such as the later A7 model) had
no less than 4x30mm and 2x20mm cannon in the nose, with a
further 2x20mm cannon in a "Schrage Musik" fitting.

Junkers Ju-188
A development of the versatile Ju-88, the Ju-188 was
introduced as an interim aircraft pending the development
of more advanced bombers. Faster and heavier than the Ju-
88, the Ju-188 had a redesigned nose, distinctive longer
pointed wings, and a broad-chord tail fin. It was better
armed than its predecessor, with 1x7.92mm Mg and 1x20mm
cannon firing forward, as well as 2 rear flexible 13mm
MGs. It could carry a 3000lb bombload over a good
distance, and served in both an intruder and a
reconnaissance role from the middle of the war until the
last days.

Hawker Typhoon
Designed as a replacement for the Hurricane, the Typhoon
was a disappointment as an interceptor, but excelled as a
ground support machine. Rugged, powerful and fast, and as
heavy empty as a fully loaded Hurricane, the big Typhoon
was a handful to fly. Pierre Closterman, the French ace,
who had flown with the Armee de l'Air in 1940 and who
became famous in the RAF in a Typhoon,  wrote that on his
first flight in one it terrified him with its brute power
on take-off, and he had to fly for half an hour before
plucking up the courage to land. The Typhoon was well-
armed with 4x20mm cannon, and could carry a good load of
bombs or rockets.

Hawker Hurricane IIC
The Hurricane constituted some 60% of the strength of
Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain, and it was
still in widespread use in 1942 and 1943. It was an
excellent bomber interceptor, although not as fast as the
Spitfire, FW-190 or Bf-109. Not generally regarded as
being as glamorous as the Spitfire, the more rugged and
reliable Hurricane was in fact the preferred aircraft of
many successful British aces in the early years of the
War. The Mark IIC was identical to the Mk I except for
the armament, with 4x20mm Hispano cannon instead of the
8x .303 cal Browning machine guns of the Mk I. The Mark
II also had an improved bomb capacity, which made it a
useful fighter bomber, a role in which it saw extensive
service in the desert campaigns.

Supermarine Spitfire MkVb
 The Spitfire was a versatile and successful aircraft,
which served in successive Marks throughout the war. The
Mark Vb was the third major Spitfire mark (after the
original Mark I and the Mark II), which entered service
in 1941. It was the first Spitfire Mark released in any
numbers for overseas service, and was widely used, from
the Arctic Circle to the Western Desert, Burma and
Darwin.  It was superior to the Bf-109 Es and Fs of the
period, but was outclassed by the FW-190 when that
machine  first appeared. It was armed with 2x20mm Hispano
cannon and 4x 0.303 cal Browning machine guns instead of
the 8x .303 cal Browning machine guns of the Mk I, and
could carry a modest bombload.

Westland Whirlwind
In its day one of the fastest and most heavily-armed
fighters in service, the single-seat, twin-engined
Whirlwind entered service in 1940. An unusual design for
a British fighter, it was intended to be a long-range
escort fighter. Its main feature was its heavy
concentration of firepower, with 4x20mm cannon in the
nose (although with a limited ammunition supply), and it
could also carry up to 1000 lbs of bombs. There were
problems with its unreliable Rolls Royce Peregrine
engines, and it was not produced in large numbers, being
supplanted by better single-engine fighters like the
Spitfire Vb and IX, and more heavily armed fighter-
bombers like the Typhoon. Light, manoeuvrable and fast,
and a delight to fly, the Whirlwind saw extensive service
in cross-Channel raids between 1941 and 1943, until
replaced in that role by the more heavily armed Typhoon.

De Havilland Mosquito II
An aircraft designed privately in 1938, and constructed
largely of plywood to save scarce strategic materials,
the outstanding Mosquito entered service in 1941. Made in
three principal types (unarmed bomber, night fighter and
fighter -bomber), the Mosquito was fast and versatile.
The Mark II was the night fighter version of the "Wooden
Wonder", and was armed with 4x.303 cal MG and 4x20mm
cannon, all in the nose. In the original AOE, the
Mosquito flew like a brick, and I have corrected this.
The Mosquito is an aircraft that you may have written off
as a dud - give it another try now, and see why it was so
respected.

Bristol Beaufighter II
The versatile and powerful Beaufighter came into service
in July 1940 as a night fighter, combatting German
bombers, and continued in use throughout the war, being
used variously as a strike fighter, anti-submarine
aircraft and torpedo bomber. It had adequate speed, was
powerfully armed with 6x 0.303 cal MG and 4x20mm cannon,
and could carry a 2000lb torpedo, a 500 lb bombload, or
rockets. The Beaufighter saw extensive service in all
theatres of war (being instrumental, for example, in the
decisive Allied victory in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea
in 1943). It was known by the Japanese as the "Whispering
Death". This is a late model Mark II, fitted with Rolls
Royce Merlin XX in-line engines of the Mark II, and with
the dihedral tail made standard on the Mark VI.

Grumman F4F Martlet
The standard USN carrier-borne fighter at the time of
Pearl Harbour, the F4F Wildcat had seen extensive ship-
board service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in the
Atlantic and Mediterrannean for a good year before that.
Well-liked by pilots, it served for several years, being
gradually replaced by the Seafire or F4U Corsair in 1943
and 1944. It was known as the Martlet in British service
until 1943, when it was renamed Wildcat in line with US
nomenclature. A sturdy and reliable aircraft, the Martlet
was a stable gun-platform, manoeuvrable, well armed with
6x0.50 cal MGs, and had a good range, although it was not
as fast as its mid-war German contemporaries.

Fairey Fulmar II
Introduced in 1940, the Fairey Fulmar was the Royal
Navy's first monoplane fighter. A two-seater, it was
slower and less manoeuvrable than contemporary single-
seat machines, but capable of dealing with German bombers
and floatplanes. It had a long range, and saw widespread
action both carrier-borne and land-based, in Europe and
the Pacific. The Fulmar could  carry a 500lb bombload,
and had 8x0.303 cal MG mounted in the wings, with a
generous ammunition load.

Fairey Barracuda
Introduced in 1942, the ungainly Fairey Barracuda was
designed as the Royal Navy's principal monoplane dive-
bomber and torpedo-bomber. A three-seater, it was slower
and less manoeuvrable than most contemporary machines,
but sturdy. It had a long range, and saw widespread
action both carrier-borne and land-based, in Europe and
the Pacific. The high point of the Barracuda's career in
Europe was the successful strike on the battleship
Tirpitz in April 1944. The Barracuda could  carry a
1500lb bombload, and had 2x0.303 cal rear flex MGs.  I
have also given the pilot 2x0.303 cal MGs firing forward.
The Barracuda has dive brakes, which are linked to and
controlled by the flaps lever. These will enable quite
steep dives without reaching uncontrollable speeds.

Bristol Beaufort
The standard Coastal Command strike bomber from 1939
until 1942, the Beaufort had adequate speed (for a
bomber), and was well-enough armed with 6x 0.303 cal MG,
including a 2-gun rear power turret, and a 1500lb
bombload. It gave good service, being gradually replaced
by the Beaufighter from 1942 onwards. Although this
replaces the B-17, it is fully flyable, in single
missions and campiagns.

Avro Lancaster
The finest night-bomber of the war, the Avro Lancaster
was the mainstay of Bomber Command's night offensive
against Germany  between 1942 and 1945. Armed with 8x.303
cal MG in 3 power turrets, and able to carry a 18,000lb
bombload (more than any other aircraft of the war), it
operated in a variety of roles, but principally area-
bombing. Although this replaces the B-24, it is fully
flyable, in single missions and campiagns. A notch of
flaps is useful if flying low and slow in this quite
large aircraft.

Bell P39 D Airaacobra
A unusual design for single-engined fighter, being built
around a hub-mounted 37mm cannon, with the engine behind
the pilot, the Airacobra was fast, with a good rate of
climb, and heavily armed, but lacking in manoeuvrability,
especially above 15,000 feet. Pilots called it the "Iron
Dog". Its inferior performance against the Bf-109 and FW-
190 in Europe resulted in losses, but it was used with
success by the RAF and USAAF in North Africa, and in
great numbers via lend-lease by the Russian Air Force,
mostly in a ground support role. The Airacobra was armed
with a 37mm cannon firing through the propellor hub, and
a variety of MGs, typically 4x.30 cal MG in the wings and
2x.50 or .30 cal MG in the nose. It could also carry 500
lbs of bombs.

Lockheed P38 E Lightning
Lockheed's first military aircraft, the P38 Lightning was
a distinctive twin-boom single-seat fighter. The E-model
was the first deployed in Europe by the USAAF, and had
problems with its engines and aerodynamics (especially
aileron lock), which were later solved in the J model.
Richard Bong, America's top scoring ace of the War,
gained most of his victories in a P38. The E model was
armed with a 20mm cannon and 4x.50 cal MG in the nose,
and could carry a heavy bomb load..

THE PILOTS
The original AOE had pilots of phenomenal skill, who
could fly their aircraft well outside the real
performance envelope, and who were all crack shots. This
has been changed, to make the aces good, but not super-
human, and the rookies suitable windy, and prone to waste
ammunition. You will now often see tracer flying past
you, especially when flying through a formation of novice
bombers. There are new aces as well, including the
highest scoring ace in history, Erich Hartmann (352
victories), and Fleet Air Arm aces.

THE SQUADRONS
I have made a number of small changes to the squadrons,
including to the level of pilot quality, to make them
more variable.

SOME SMALL DISCONTINUITIES
1. Some of the "out of cockpit" views are not perfect,
and I have not changed any of the ground vehicles, so you
will still see late-war tanks and so on. They are small
problems, but I can't help them at the moment.
2. There is a small problem with AOE's implementation of
flyable aircraft with rear guns that I could not fix.
When you start to line up a shot with your forward guns,
you will find that they sometimes fire on their own!  A
sort of auto-firing gun sight, or maybe a jumpy co-pilot
with an itchy trigger finger. Quite accurate, too. I have
scored several victories due to this "feature". I think
the benefits outweigh the problem, but it's up to you!
3. Carriers cannot be used as bases for campaigns, which
is a pity, but you can land on them at the end of any
mission.
4. The sim may occasionally generate bogus single
missions, usually Interdiction for the Germans
(particularly those targeting trains) or Scramble for the
Allies. These may be set up against no target, or a
friendly one, from an odd airbase. I think it was caused
by a bug in the rewritten SQUAD0.DAT file, or perhaps
TARGET.1, and I think I have solved it by a rewrite of
these files, but if it happens just ignore it, decline
the mision, and select another.

SOME WARNINGS
1. Do not use Jaybird's .BAT files or any other file that
modifies the ORDANCE0.DAT file and or the SQUAD0.DAT
file, because files these have been rewritten. Doing so
will cause your PC to crash.
2. VCR plaback may be affected. Prior to playback the AOE
VCR scans the tape and loads all the relevant data
(*.FMD, *.GL,*.DMG & BXL's etc.) for each aircraft that
is in the VCR. If this data is different then you will
get a different play back of the VCR. There is nothing
permanent in this - removing AOE 1942 will fix the
problem. There is, incidentally, no problem in playing
back a VCR using modified data files that merely change
an aircraft's "appearance" or "ordnance load" via a
modified  *.TBL file or the modified ORDNCE0.DAT file.
3. There is an occasional system freeze problem, which
occurs during flight or at the end of missions, which I
cannot systematically replicate, or eliminate. There is
also a very occasional colour palette problem, which I
think arises from the use of differing .TTM and .PAL
files in some of the new aircraft, and which first
manifests itself by a "disappearing" gunsight in the
forward cockpit view, and/or by the side or rear cockpit
views going "multi-coloured", pink, green, yellow and
other weird colours, or by a system freeze. These
problems are only very occasional, and will cause no harm
to your files. They are not a permanent problem, but do
require a system reset, so any mission you are flying
will be lost. I think this problem has been solved by Bob
Church's new AOEDYN and AOECLEAN utilities (available on
Compuserve's FSCOMBAT Forum), which I recomend for use
with AOE 1942. They make the whole thing much neater.
4. The introduction of the Fleet Air Arm has created a
couple of idiosyncracies, like an occasionally multi-
coloured map. I think the variety offered by the extra
air force is worth it, though.

VIEWING AND PRINTING THIS FILE
This file is saved in Word for Windows 2.0 format as
1942AOE.DOC, and in ASCII text format as 1942AOE.TXT.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This patch is the result of a lot of hard work, which has
built on a lot of detective work, hacking, editing, and
creation from those who have gone before. I have never
met, but especially want to thank:
Damon Slye, for creating AOE in the first place, and not
encrypting the code.
James "Jaybird" Johnson, for his pioneering work on the
code, especially the GL and GLT files.
Grant "Tagert" Senn, for his extensive work, especially
on the ORDNANCE.DAT file, and for his flyable bombers in
AEBMR.ZIP.
Nicholas Bell, for his major work, especially on the
SQUAD0.DAT, PLT, FMD and DAT files, his AOEREAL files,
his text file UP2NOW.TXT; and his utilities AOEDIT.EXE
and PILOT.EXE
Tim Kilgore, for his essential ACE-OUT utility.
Uwe Serf,  for his work on aircraft colours, and his new
aircraft in AOENEW.
Erik Pilawskii and Timoleon Ravazoulas, for their "Aces
Pages" on the Internet, with their great new aircraft,
and their work on the flight models of WWII aircraft.
August Horvath, for his amazing work on the aircraft TBL
files and his text description of how to modify them; and
for his new aircraft.
Bob Church, for his comprehensive work on the TARGET.1
file and on the Historic Mission codes, and his new
AOEDYN and AOECLEAN utilities.
Steve "CrackerTex" Cook for his help on many of the small
files like AIR0.DAT, PITCH0.DAT and ACE0.DAT.
Brent "Canuckle" Hanson, for his regular suggestions,
encouragement and help on many of the aircraft, and
especially for his new Hurricane, Fulmar and Spitfire.
And all of those other AOE fans, who have downloaded my
earlier efforts, AOE 1945 and AOE 1940, and sent messages
of praise and encouragement.

FINAL WARNING
DYNAMIX DOES NOT OFFICIALLY SUPPORT THE HEX EDITING OF
ITS SOFTWARE. IF YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE WITH AOE USING
THIS PATCH, DO NOT CONTACT DYNAMIX. DELETE ALL FILES
WHICH CAME WITH THIS PATCH AND SEE IF THE PROBLEM IS
STILL THERE. CONTACT DYNAMIX IF IT IS. IF THE PROBLEM IS
ONLY THERE WHEN YOU ARE USING THIS PATCH, PLEASE CONTACT
ME.

LAST WORDS
In 1996 I started a small project for my own amusement,
to see if I could create some new aces, and devise some
way to utilise some of the great aircraft patches that
are around, in a seamless way - putting in my personal
favourite aircraft, with mission screens that match the
in-flight weapon load, and so on. The project got bigger
as it went along, adding in my favourite aircraft from
AOTP, and new ones. At some stage I realized that what I
wanted was a whole new set-up; pilots, squadrons and
aircraft. As well as new weapons like the 75mm cannon,
and better flight models. Not to be better than the
original AOE, but just to be different. In the end, the
whole thing took about 3 months, and became AOE 1945. In
doing AOE 1945, I began to realize that, for example,
while it is great fun to fly an F4U Corsair or Hs-129, it
is no fun to do it against an Me-262 or P-80. And no real
challenge doing it vice-versa. So I decided that what was
really needed was a complete patch with only the correct
contemporary aircraft flying against one another. Hence
my second and more historical era patch, AOE 1940. AOE
1940 has been very well received, and so I thought that
the war should move on a couple of years, to 1942, with
classic mid-war aircraft like the Spitfire Vb, Whirlwind,
Typhoon, Bf-109G, Bf-110G, Me-210A, and the early USAAF
machines like the P39.

The middle period of the war was an obvious one, which
has not been simulated before, with incremental changes
to some aircraft, some new machines, and the arrival of
the first of the USAAF aircraft, to help turn the tide.
The real decision was whether to set it in the desert or
in Europe, but in the end the size and difficulty of the
task of changing the map made it Europe., and the fact
that the Whilwind (for example) did not serve in the
desert. There were one or two design liberties, such as
the use of P39, which did not serve in North-Western
Europe to any great extent, although it saw extensive
service in the Mediterranean, but I wanted the USAAF, and
bringing in the P51B and P47C would have meant a 1943
setting. I wanted to do the more balanced and therefore
interesting 1942, a period before the Luftwaffe was
overwhelmed by hordes of advanced Allied fighters and
tough four-engined daylight bombers.

The files in AOE1942.ZIP are freeware, and can be freely
distributed.
I hope you enjoy them. Any comments, suggestions or
complaints, let me know.

Charles Gunst  CIS 100240,2204  (11 November 1997)


