FM is a _strong_ suit for EAW, as we would expect from the developers of PAW and Falcon3.0 and now 4.0. The flyable planes within EAW are: the P38-H,J Lightning; P47-C,D Thunderbolt; P51-B,D Mustang; Hawker Hurricane; Hawker Tempest-V; Hawker Typhoon Mk-1B; Supermarine Spitfire-IA,IXC,XIVE; FW190-A8,D9; Bf/Me109-E4,G6,K4; Me110-C,G; and the Me262-A1 Swallow. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, and if properly exploited, each can be great fun to fly and fight with.

This ejecting Luftwaffe pilot lived to see another day.

As you probably can guess, we transformed this Me109 into a MakeEject109. The AI when set to EXPERT is very good. Not great, like I’ve seen in Su27 Flanker or Jane’s F15-E, but much better than what I saw in MS-CFS and WarBirds (offline of coarse). I’ve seen elements bracket me, and even use the vertical while in a B&Z attack.

Note that if you use the TAB key, you have a healthy set of wingman, flight and squadron commands to motivate your AI forces to do something other than to look pretty. If you don’t use them in time, don’t be surprised if they just loiter around.

Click to continue . . .

But for me, there’s nothing like real human pilots. EAW supports multiplayer very well, as we expect from an MPS product!

However, it does seem to be hit or miss with connections. Some have reported to me of having near perfect connections over TCP/IP and KALI/IPX; while others were threatening to take the software back. My experiences were mostly good. A few hangs due to the mismatch I believe in packet sizes and connection rates between servers and clients.

But if you do get online, and you do connect up, you’re in for a REAL treat. EAW is the only boxed-sim-online, to date, that offers a truly immersive feel to it - like really being in the Battle of Britain or the Battle over Europe. By this I mean truly cooperative game play. The only other place to experience WW2 coop action is to go to the pay-per-hour online-sims like WB or AW.

To sum it up, I really like EAW. It has many warts and holes, but there’s a jewel to be had beneath the crudeness that covers it. Until Jane’s WW2 or SDOE or CK come out with a better online coop offering, this is where I’ll be spending my time. One last word, many of the voodoo2 problems can be answered either by calling Microprose’s hotline - or by going to this web based support site.

EAW’s weakness in its graphics could very well be its strength when it comes to being able to field scores of AI and human (HI) planes in what becomes a very immersive aerial battlefield.

Till we meet in the skies, Check Six…. or else end up like the Luftwaffe pilot. 8^D

AV8R