Thanks for a good campaign vpmedia! I've currently completed 5 missions, have 8 kills, running on Full Real and haven't died...yet (did have to bail over base once and a very angry CO because I never keep station in suicidal attacks).

Now some comments ( please understand I'm not used to offline campaigns these days, these are meant as constructive criticism from someone incapable of writing a campaign!):

Briefs: More extensive and historical style briefs would add a lot to the game. The battles over Malta were largely radar guided, so a brief along the lies of : "Plot of 3+ heading for Zonquor {St Paul's Bay if I remember correctly}, fly xxx degrees and climb to yyyy feet" would add some realism.

Planeset: EXCELLENT use of IJN planes to fill-in for the Italian missing bombers (SM 79, SM84, Z1007 bis)and the "Bloodwagon" seaplane/floatplane use to rescue Axis pilots. Chasing a DB3 I really thought it was a 3 engine Savoia!

Minor quibble - the Seafire was never used to defend a convoy, I think. RAF lendlease FM-2s were.

Hurricanes were extensively used in Malta right until the end.

109G2s arrived in Sicily and went on ops on 10 October 42.

Weather: The summer in Malta is generally completely cloudless most days, but also fairly hazy. "No rain until after Santa Maria (15th August)", says my wife who was brought-up there (Ian Boys, if you read this we must meet there sometime on one of our frequent visits).

Play: Excellent chaos: good move away from the sterile "one encounter per sortie" model.

Calendar: There was a period after Spits arrived (10 March 42 on ops) when the Luftwaffe largely went away (N Africa?) August & September 42 when Italian fighters largely escorted German Ju88s. Again, most of the German fighters left for N Africa in November 42.

Airfields: I would have put Hal Far near the Kalafrana bay because in Malta it was the airfield furthest from the Grand Harbour.

Finally, I would highly recommend the books "Hurricanes over Malta" and "Spitfires over Malta" by Brian Cull and Frederick Galea.

smoker1963=phoenix1963

Can't wait to give this campaign my best effort... RAF74 currently has a Scorched Earth version of the Malta campaign underway, and it's whetted my appetite for more Malta action.

Istvan, I 'borrowed' (hot-linked) one of your images to use with a link back to this thread, in the WW forum (here). Hope you don't mind. If required, I can copy the image over to the WW domain.

vpmedia - Bug Report: in mission file 8 (maybe 7??), if left to their own devices at least 3 spits fly into the mountains near Hal Far.

smoker1963

Guys, thanks for the feedback!

WWSandMan: thanks for the recommendation of my campaign, no need to duplicate the image.

About the bug: I need to know in which mission this happened - what did the mission briefing say or what was your enemy/task in that particular mission?

vpmedia - the problem is in malta_07.mis , the other (non-player) flight of Vcs fly into the mountains late into the mission.

The briefing read: July42, time 1500, Blind, Cloud alt 1500m, Flight alt 2000m, Plane MkVc, Fuel 75%: Scamble to intercept another incoming Italian raid.

smoker1963

Already flew the first missions. Great work as always mate!

Thanks for your hard work!

Just played the first mission and had a blast skidding across the skies and countryside of Malta fighting the damned CR42's. Managed to get one kill, totally missed my shot at all the bombers due to good escort work by the Italian fighters. The map is stunning, isn't it? I must say that having recently watched FH&C I get more of a feeling of fighting over an inhabited island with the citizens all cheering me on. Huzzah! This one will be popular I can see.
So pleased to see all the pilots have appropriate skins. I like to pop outside the cockpit an d take in the sights while playing so seeing the dreadful default pilot in a beautifully skinned plane always breaks the spell a little for me.

A few more missions under my belt now and still having a great time. I like the flightpaths of the enemy - those fighters appear at nasty times but can be distracted by RAF interceptors leaving me to chase the bombers out to sea. Those SM79's burn so prettily!
It's interesting for me trying to take off in a Seafire - I have pranged the prop four times in a row now. Guess I should start out at a lower throttle setting to avoid lurching forward and downwards.

FlatSpinMan - No, like all Spits you need to pull back the stick a bit more at early times than other 'planes to avoid digging-in.

When you need to take off with near all fuel and some ordinance on a stationary carrier (DF server) then you'll have to learn to initially push the stick forward to lift the tail to reduce drag, then shove it back rapidly to avoid digging-in, then drop the flaps at the end of the deck.... all that just to get off. Boy, it's a relief when it works!

It's bad luck to post how well you're doing (as I did), 2 sorties later and a Ju88 pked me with a lucky shot.

smoker1963

Thanks for the pointer, smoker. I rarely fly the Spit variants so even with that tip I found it took me a few attempts to get off the deck without bending the prop.
I got a bit lost on this mission, went chasing a dot in the distance which turned out to be an RAF seaplane and consequently came to the main party a bit late. Still had a good duel with some lesser encountered planes and that was fun. Landing was almost very good but things didn't quite work as I'd hoped. Still, one lost plane isn't too bad I suppose.