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[Mender]

I'm very confused about my role when flying with AIs.
Let me explain with an actual case: I start one of the new Operation Sealion campaings: "1940 Target England".
Initial briefing tells to choose a rank, depending if you wish to be the flight leader or a subordinate.
1st mission is to escort 2 Dornier bombers, and there are in total 10 BF109, mine included.
My question is: how can I know what's my flight position? who's my wingman? who's the flight leader?

Thanks in advance.

[Bigmug]

Hello Mender,

the easiest way - if you don't like to be the leader - is: Start the mission, press the F2 key, so you are in the external view now, and have a look at your marking. In case you are wearing the "1", you are the leader of the squadron / Staffel (which will happen, in case you choose the highest rank in the beginning), - this means, you are also the leader of Rotte 1 and Schwarm 1. So the command button will give you a wide spread of possible commands to lead the AI planes in the fight (Don't forget to give the "break operation" command before using a new one).
"2" is the wingman of the leader,
"3" is the leader of Rotte 2
"4" is the wingman of "3"
"5" is the leader of Rotte 3 and Schwarm 2
"6" is his wingman
"7" is the leader of Rotte 4
"8" is the wingman of "7"
"9" is the leader of Rotte 5 and Schwarm 3
"10" is his wingman
"11" is the leader of Rotte 6
and so on.
This is for fighters only; German bombers are coded with letters.

Rotte is a pair of planes; two Rotten are one Schwarm (swarm - better known as four finger formation). Four swarms (Schwärme) are one Staffel (squadron), three to four Staffeln are a Gruppe (wing) and three to four Gruppen are a Jagdgeschwader (Group). German fighter pilots, esp. Werner Mölders, found the WWI fighter formations of three resp. 12 planes as units obsolete due to the changed velocity and tactical behavior during the Spanish Civil War. They developed the Rotte/Schwarm formation. The leaders of the Rotte (Rottenführer) are the attackers, while the wingman (Rottenflieger or Kaczmarek) give the backup and clear the six of the attacker. That way they learn by watching the manoevers. Very effective, as you can combine the firepower of the formation with learning by doing in very small and very manoeverable units.
After the Battle of Britain the Allies adopted those fighting tactics. They are still in use. 

You could change your plane roughley also via the FMB - open the mission with it, choose your flight, open it and tick the player box on the bird you want to fly. Save it and it's done but won't work each time, as the seat depends on rank (see link below). You can also do it by editing the .mis-file with Notepad, look for the entry "player I_SAGr12500". This means, you are the leader of first squadron, first swarm of I.Gruppe SAGr. 125 (in code: I_SAGr125  (<- this is the unit chosen) 0 (<- 1. Squadron/Staffel) 0 (<- 1.Schwarm)).
More details on ranks and planes you can find here:
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base&op=show&kid=325
and here:
http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?name=Knowledge_Base
This knowledge base is a good place to start.

Good luck!

BigMug.
 

[Mender]

Dear Bigmug,
thank you very much for your exaustive and very detailed answer, I appreciate it a lot.
I think some of my confusion arise from the fact that my plane has a white 4 on it in the above stated mission, while my Schwarm comrades have a red 2, 3 and 4.
In stock missions usually all have white numbers, 1 to 4.
Anyway, with your informations I found out 2 working methods to understand who's who:

- enable plane identification with "Toggle Icon Types" keys, so my wing mates are named White 1, 2 and 3 (when I'm number 4)
- pause, open Mission Menu and check under View -> View Friendly Planes

[Bigmug]

Hi Mender,

thank you for your kind response. So here's another one from the wise guy  :

In case you are interested in correct markings visit this page: https://rhorta.home.xs4all.nl/jgmark.htm

I haven't played that mission yet, just had a look at the .mis-file code. I read that the Messerschmitts consisting out of two swarms from III./SAGr125 and one of I./SAGr125. All planes belong to the first squadron (Staffel) of the wing (Gruppe) and for this reason should wear white numbers, even though the mission code points each plane to its own skin showing markings of the second squadron of JG 26, where the red number is already given. It seems, that the game overrides the skin for your (the players) plane, so it turns out to be white, even though the skin of your plane should be "Red 6", as coded by the mission maker.

If you like to play with a red number, edit the mission file (Missions\Single\DE\1940_BoB1_TARGET_ENGLAND\TE01.mis) with Notepad and search for the entry "player I_SAGr12500" and change it to "player I_JG2610". This makes you become a member of the second squadron of JG 26 and therefore changes the color from white to red.
As the entry  "playerNum 3" makes you the owner of plane 4 (= wingman to leader of Rotte 2 or "Red 4"). You can change this to 0 (= leader of the Schwarm or "Red 1"), 1 (= his wingman or "Red 2"), or 2 (leader of Rotte 2 or "Red 3")
Then scroll down to the [wing] section and change I_SAGr12500 to I_JG2610 as well.
Another scroll down brings you to the entries [I_SAGr12500] and [I_SAGr12500_way]. Change them to [I_JG2610] and [I_JG2610_way] 
Now your plane should wear a red number and JG 26 markings.
Changing the entries to I_JG2611 will show up "Red 5-8"; changing 1 to 2 "Red 9-12" and to 3 "Red 13-16".

You can do accordingly with the other missions in the a.m. folder, as long as there is no I_JG2610 entry already in the [wing] section of a mission.

Anyway, in the end this is a game. As long as you have fun, everything is allright, even with a white number among those red ones.....will make you someone special! 

Always a clear six,
Bigmug

[Mender]

Thanks a lot, again. Very interesting explanation, both from historical and game/technical point of view.

Anyway, in the end this is a game. As long as you have fun, everything is allright, even with a white number among those red ones.....will make you someone special! 

Agree, I guess I'll keep my white number 

Cheers.