Knights of the Sky Server

Alpha 5 Manual (Dynamic Campaign 3)

Updated 10-11-24

Contents

Dynamic Campaign Registration        3

General dynamic campaign info        4

Local sector breakthrough        5

Full frontline breakthrough        5

General mission info        6

How to win a mission?        10

Objectives list        11

Supply Train        14

Frontlines Defences        16

Supply Truck Convoys        17

Artillery Spotting        18

Infantry Assaults        20

Tank Assaults        22

Spy Objective        23

Photo Recon        24

Bridge        26

Ammo Dump        27

Railway Station        28

Fuel Depot        29

Ammo Factory        30

Tank Factory        31

Warehouse        32

Airfields and Planesets        32

Links and other info        37

Dynamic Campaign Registration

To be able to participate in the dynamic campaign you will need to register in the #sign-up channel on our Discord server, just like we did for the Battle of the Channel event. You will get access to your private team channel and briefing voice channel again to be able to communicate with your team. General information and chatter about dynamic campaign 1 will be done in the #lobby channel, you will have to register to be able to write in this channel. Registration on Discord is mandatory if you want to take advantage of all the info about the dynamic campaign and of course for the briefings and team communication to be able to win the campaign. The server will not be password protected during dynamic campaign 1 so casual players can also join in to get to know of the server to be able to get the maximum amount of people to join the fun with the FC community. Later dynamic campaigns might be run with password. After registering you will stay at your side for the full dynamic campaign and switching sides is not allowed. Each dynamic campaign will have its own registration so you're not forever stuck to 1 side. In the screenshot below you can see how the sign-up channel looks like on Discord.

General dynamic campaign info

Mission Generator

The mission generator for our dynamic campaign will generate the next mission depending on the outcome of the previous mission and will also randomise the weather, seasons and mission description like you were used to from before. When a mission has ended you will see a chat message and subtitle that the mission has ended, it will tell you which side has won the mission and that the generation process of the next mission will take around 2 minutes. This green subtitle will keep repeating on your screen until the generation process is completed. (see screenshot below).

When the next mission generation process is completed you will see another chat message and subtitle on your screen telling you that the generation is completed, subsequently the mission will be ended accordingly and roll to the next generated mission. (see the screenshot below).

All objects like frontline MGs, smoke, bunkers, philboxes, observation balloons, objectives and airfields will be moved by the mission generator according to the frontline on the map. So be aware that the mud is not always the frontline anymore!

Dynamic Campaign End

When a side has won the dynamic campaign (by reaching campaign status 2.0 or -2.0), you will see this chat message in the game chat and the server will be shut down automatically in around 20 seconds.

Campaign Status

Campaign status shows you the current state of the dynamic campaign. if a side reaches campaign status 2.0 or -2.0 the dynamic campaign is over. Eventually we want to extend the dynamic campaign so it goes up until campaign status 4.0 or -4.0. Please note: campaign status is something entirely else than victory status, victory status shows you the status about the current mission itself, like you were used to from previous versions (higher victory status wins the individual mission). Campaign status shows you the current status of the whole dynamic campaign. Negative campaign status means the frontline is pushed to the left (Central pushed it to Entente territory), positive campaign status means it is pushed to the right (Entente pushed it to Central territory). As a rule of thumb, always add up 0.5 to the campaign status if Entente wins and subtract 0.5 if Central wins. Each dynamic campaign starts out on campaign status 0.0, this is the neutral position of the frontline in the middle of the map. If the mission ends in a draw, the campaign status will stay at the same number and the next mission will be generated with basically the same frontline position. Of course, airfield locations and objective positions will still be randomised every time.

Note: A mission victory will only be counted if there have been 10 or more people online during the entire mission. This means there have to be at least 10 people online in total for the mission victory to be counted, not 10 people on each side.

The current campaign status is visible on top of the game map as black text in between the victory status counters for both sides (see the screenshot below). It can also be looked up with the !online command from our Discord bot on our Discord server.

Local sector breakthrough

A local sector breakthrough is always a half number in campaign status (like 0.5, -0.5 or 1.5 for example). So you always go from a full frontline breakthrough (more about this in the next section) to a local sector breakthrough and vice versa. There are 3 sectors: north, middle and south (N, M, S). If you want to go from a full campaign status (1.0 or 0.0 for example) to a local sector breakthrough (half number in campaign status) you need to do a couple of things:

1. You need to destroy the backward objective in the particular sector you want to break through in. (each side had 3 backward objectives, each of them is positioned in a different sector.) This means you will have to complete the photo recon first to be able to see the backward objectives.

2. You need to destroy the frontline defences in the particular sector you want to break through in. Each side has 3 frontline defences, each of them is in a different sector. Note: it doesn't matter if they get resupplied by the supply trucks in the dynamic campaign, you just need to destroy them once, to be able to succeed in a sector breakthrough. You will see a black text in the sector you will break through in the next mission, as confirmation.

3. You need to of course win the individual mission by getting a higher victory status than the enemy team (see ‘How to win a mission?’). Note: If you only win the mission by victory status and don't destroy the frontline defences and backward objective in the sector, you cannot get a sector breakthrough. Just winning on victory status alone is enough though for getting a full frontline breakthrough after a sector breakthrough. More about that below.

If your team has accomplished the 3 steps listed above, you'll see in the next mission that the frontline has moved to a local sector breakthrough in the sector you've completed steps 1 and 2 in. If there is a local sector breakthrough (on a half number in campaign status), there might be a friendly airfield in the sector where the frontline has shifted but this is also randomised. Note: if you've successfully completed steps 1 and 2 in multiple sectors, the mission generator will randomly pick 1 of the sectors you've completed steps 1 and 2 in to be pushed towards, no more than 1 sector can be broken though in during a single mission.

See the screenshots on the next page for some examples of local sector breakthroughs

Full frontline breakthrough

A full frontline breakthrough is always a whole number in campaign status, like 0.0, -1.0 or 1.0 for example. To go from a local sector breakthrough to a full frontline breakthrough, you need to win the individual mission on victory status just like how it was before. You just need to get a higher victory status than the other team at the end of the mission. In the next mission you will see the frontline moved from a local sector breakthrough to a full frontline breakthrough (whole number in campaign status).

Frontline Pushback

If the dynamic campaign is on a local sector breakthrough state, so a half number in campaign status (like -1.5 or 0.5 for example) you can also push the frontline back if you're the defending side in this case. If the campaign status is for example on 1.5 (meaning Entente is the attacking side), Central can push the frontline back to campaign status 1.0 if they win the mission by victory status alone. Of course Entente can get a full sector breakthrough if they win the mission on campaign status 1.5 and advance it to campaign status 2.0 where they will win the full dynamic campaign in this case. If the defending team wins a mission and pushes to a local sector breakthrough, for example Entente wins in campaign status -1.0, they can push it to campaign status -0.5 (add 0.5), meaning the frontline will move in a local sector breakthrough to the right.

See screenshots below for examples on full frontline breakthroughs

General mission info

So first of all some basic info on the mission:

• Mission time: 4 hours
• Map: Western Front Arras
• Season: Randomised (Winter, Autumn, Late Autumn, Spring, Summer)
• Weather: Randomised
• Planeset: mid 1917, late 1917, mid 1918 or late 1918 (depending on the random mission date)

AAA and MG guns

There are quite a lot of MG guns in the trenches along the front. They spawn when a plane is near them and will start attacking you when you get close. There are also some ambient battles going on between certain MG gunners in the trenches when a plane is near. There are also some AAA guns just behind the lines that will shoot at enemy planes near them, so when you see flak puffs over friendly lines there is certainly an enemy plane near them. If you destroy an AAA gun they will respawn after a certain amount of time. Airfields also have AAA guns that work the same way as the frontline AAA guns. Of course there are also MGs and AAA guns around the balloons and other objectives, explained in the individual objective description.

AI Planes

There are a couple of AI planes patrolling the north and south of the frontlines, they are only active when an enemy plane is near and will attack players when they get close to the enemy lines. They’ll also attack bombers attacking ground targets so there is always something to do. There are also 8 AI fighters near the middle of the map that can fight each other as well as players, they often spread out quite a bit. The AI plane types depend on the date of the mission.

All AI planes will be deactivated when there are more than 9 players on the server, and they will be deactivated again when the player count drops below 6 in the same mission. You will see a message in the chat, as well as a subtitle when the AI planes get deactivated or activated.

Here you can see 2 examples of how the base mission of the campaign can mostly look like. One from Entente and one from Central perspective.

Entente:

Central:

How to win a mission?

There are 4 “victory states” in a mission, 10 “victory points” for each phase, explained in the table below:

When you complete an objective you get a certain amount of victory points, most objectives give 1 point but there are also some objectives that give 3 or 4 points. (You can find a list with the objectives and the amount of victory points on the next page.) If your team reaches victory status 1 for example (10 victory points) you will win the mission when it ends (after the 4 hours), if the other team hasn’t reached victory status 1 as well after that time. So if both teams are at the same victory status at the end of the mission, the mission ends in a draw. If one team has a higher victory status than the other team, then the team with the higher state wins of course. You can see the current victory state of each side on top of the game map in black letters. So this is a very dynamic victory system where you never know for sure if you’re going to win and you constantly have to check the enemy’s victory status to prevent them from winning. Please note that the mission will always be played the full 4 hours.

Important: You can only get to a victory status when at least one of the following objectives have been completed: railway station, ammo dump, bridge, fuel depot, ammo depot, tank factory.

Here an example of how the in-game “victory status counter” looks like

Objectives list

Each side has exactly the same objectives, if every objective gets completed once you can get 37 victory points (victory status 3) but there are objectives that can be completed multiple times, such as fuel and ammo trains arriving or getting destroyed, infantry or tank assaults breaking through or getting destroyed, tank factory getting repaired and attacked again… So in total you can get a maximum of 40 victory points (victory status 4). All the individual objectives will be explained in detail on the next pages. The mission has “frontline objectives” and “backward objectives”; the frontline targets are always visible on the map from the start of the mission but the backward targets are not visible and active from the start and have to be discovered by a photo recon, more info about this can be found here. Frontline objectives include artillery spotting, frontline strongholds, artillery, infantry assaults and tank assaults. Backward objectives include an ammo factory, a fuel depot, a big tank factory and a supply train. There is also 1 bridge and 1 railway station or ammo dump that don’t belong to the backward objectives under a recon, they can be destroyed at any time. Note that the enemy supply train icons are never visible for the attacker. On the next page you can see a list of all the objectives in the mission and how many mission points they will give.

Observation Balloons

Each side has 6 observation balloons along the front, spread out in 3 sectors (N/M/S), so 2 balloons each sector. Neither side can see these observation balloons on the map, but they are positioned just slightly away from the front and I think you can make out which balloons belong to which sector. When an enemy plane comes close to a balloon they will be taken down to the camp below them by a winch truck. The balloon will stay there for a few minutes and come up again when hopefully the danger is gone. Balloons will also fire yellow flares when attacked, green flares when they’re back up at their spotting altitude again, and red flares when they are destroyed. When attacking balloons you will probably get heavy AAA resistance as well so keep that in mind. After a balloon has been destroyed they’ll respawn after around 20 minutes and start spotting again.

Notes:

1. The winch trucks are indestructible! You can try attacking those to cut the cable but it won’t work.
2. Destroying balloons won’t give victory points, they have some other very important functions though that can be decisive in winning or losing a mission.

The balloons also have some other very important spotting functions:

• Balloons in a certain sector spot infantry or tank assaults and mark them with an icon on the map and report them with a subtitle as well. So for example if you have a tank assault in the middle sector and the defending side has still one of the 2 balloons in that sector up they will spot the tank assault. Of course if both sector balloons are destroyed before the attack wave, the assault won’t be spotted by the defender. So in each mission you have 1 balloon sector spotting an infantry assault and 1 balloon sector spotting a tank assault.
• Balloons determine the accuracy of the AAA in that sector, if both sector balloons have been destroyed the accuracy of the AAA in that sector will be lower, obviously when both balloons are up again their accuracy gets improved again.
• Balloons in a certain sector also spot artillery spotting planes, if an enemy artillery spotting plane flies near the artillery target the balloons in that sector will report the activity with a subtitle for the defender if at least one balloon in that sector is still up, just like the tank and infantry assault spotting.
• NEW from Alpha 5: Observation balloons can now be used in spectator view! Pick a side, click on 'spectate' and you'll be able to access all 4 of the observation balloons on your side by pressing f12. You will get a clear view of the frontline and can switch between the balloons by pressing f12 also.

As you can see the observation balloons have a very important role in the campaign, it’s very important to destroy the balloons in a certain sector or defend yours to prevent the enemy from spotting your attacks and planes along the front.

Supply Train

The Supply train brings supplies to the front and back during the whole mission. The supply train can spawn at 2 different locations, in the north or in the south. One of them will be a fuel supply train and the other one will be an ammo supply train. So this means they will also drive two different routes towards the front. Keep in mind that these starting and ending points will differ each mission once we get a full campaign running. Here you can see the starting and ending points that these trains will use in most campaign states:

Entente train:

Central train:

When a supply train reaches its end destination it will stay for 2 minutes there to unload cargo and your side will get one victory point. After that it will return to its departure station and will despawn there, the train can spawn at one of the two departure stations again and will drive towards its destination again to give a victory point. If the train gets destroyed along the way (doesn’t matter if it’s on the way towards its destination or on the way back) it will give 1 mission point for the team that destroyed the train. After the train has been destroyed it will respawn after around 20 minutes on one of the departure stations. The trains can arrive or get destroyed as many times as possible and always give one victory point. The fuel train consists of quite a few fuel tanks and the ammo train consists of some closed carriages containing ammo, both trains do not carry any AAA. An icon on the map will indicate where the train is driving to and also if it’s in the north or in the south, on the starting point and the ending point. (these icons will also be visible for the attacking team if they successfully completed the spy objective)

Here a few examples from the trains in action:

Ammo train:

Fuel train:

Frontlines Defences

Each side had 3 frontline defensive positions or strongholds, in the north, middle and south. (marked on the map with N/M/S). The strongholds consist of some ammo trucks, MG gunners in the trench, infantry, watchtower, tanks, and some barracks; some strongholds also have an AA gun. Everything you see near the stronghold and in the list above is destroyable and counts towards the objective. The gunners will fire 2 red flares when it is under attack. When most stuff is destroyed the objective is completed and the icon will be removed from the map, strongholds can be destroyed up to 2 times a mission (if resupply successful) and give one victory point each time when destroyed. The strongholds also fire some ambient lighting flares every once in a while. When a frontline defence gets destroyed it can be resupplied by a truck convoy, more about that on the next page. If successful, the objective will be active again and can be attacked again by the other team.

Here some examples how most frontline defences look like:

Supply Truck Convoys

When a frontline defence has been destroyed, a truck convoy consisting of 5 trucks will start advancing towards the destroyed frontline defence to resupply it. If the convoy reaches their end destination (the frontline defence) then the objective will be put back into service and can be attacked again. When the convoy arrives, the team where the frontline defence belongs to will get 1 victory point. When the convoy gets destroyed on their way there, the team that attacked them will get 1 victory point. There is 1 supply truck convoy for each frontline defence and a convoy can only spawn once. So this means each frontline defence can be resupplied once by a truck convoy and can be attacked 2 times if they manage to resupply it.

A truck convoy consists of 5 trucks of several types including 1 flak truck. Truck convoys are marked on the map for the side they belong to with an icon on their starting point and ending point at their frontline defences. The attacking team will also see these icons if they’ve successfully completed the spy objective.

Artillery Spotting

Artillery spotting objectives are active in certain local sector breakthroughs in the dynamic campaign, there is one in the north and one in the south. So artillery N on the map corresponds to artillery spotting target N (army camp icon for the defender) obviously and vice versa. Here a little summary on how to do the artillery spotting objective properly:

1. Take the correct plane for the objective; so Arty Spotter N for the northern objective and vice versa.
2. Fly towards the correct artillery target on the other side of the mud, fly close to it and you should see a subtitle that says you've entered the zone and can start communicating with the artillery.
3. Pick the right grid to fire to with the correct chat command, for example if you want the artillery to fire to grid #C3 with the southern central artillery, you send the following command to your respective artillery via the teamchat: “artsc.fire.c3”. And for example if you’re using the northern entente artillery and you want to fire to grid #B1 you should send the following command via the teamchat: “artne.fire.b1”
4. Each artillery barrage will last for about 1 minute, after that you can adjust and fire to a different grid or the same grid. You cannot switch grids during the barrage, always wait for the subtitle where the artillery tells you that the barrage has ended.
5. If both artillery targets are destroyed the objective is completed and the icon will be removed from the map.
6. NEW since Alpha 4: There is no need to make contact with the artillery via flares anymore, you’ll make contact once you fly over the artillery target zone. It can be useful though to check if the artillery is actually up by making a pass over it before you head to the target.

Notes:

1. You cannot destroy the artillery target with bombs, if you do so the objective won’t be counted as completed.
2. The altitude for the artillery spotting doesn’t matter, just make sure you’re close to the targets.
3. If you haven’t completed the objective after 15 minutes, you will have to enter the spotting zone again to regain contact with the artillery and you can continue the objective.
4. See this tutorial video to get a better idea of how this objective works: Artillery Spotting | Knights of the Sky Alpha 4 | IL-2 Flying Circus

Artillery

The artillery of course is an objective on its own, there are 5 artillery batteries and their ammo carriages. All the artillery pieces themselves are active from the start of the mission, this means the destroy artillery objective can also be completed before the enemy starts the artillery spot. The artillery themselves respawn after 10 minutes if the arty spot hasn't been done yet, If you destroy the 5 artillery batteries they will get repaired after 10 minutes. You will also get a subtitle that you have to destroy a few more objects to complete the “destroy artillery objective” fully; that can be the watchtower and some of the artillery ammo carriages. When you do that, the objective is fully completed and the artillery icon will be removed from the map, this “destroy artillery” objective gives one mission point. NEW from Alpha 5: Static artillery bombing objectives are active when the local artillery spotting objective is inactive.

Infantry Assaults

Each side has two infantry assaults, consisting of 5 infantry squads of 5 men each. Entente uses normal British infantry but Central uses US infantry, because there is no German infantry in the game yet. To get the assault going you first have to start a contact patrol with the infantry, search for the “infantry contact patrol” icon, you should see barracks and trucks near friendly trenches and a watchtower, fly towards it and fire a flare. You will see the infantry spawning in, you will also get a subtitle as confirmation. Please note that any aircraft can do the contact patrol, so fighters as well.

The infantry will now advance to the first enemy trenchline, they will probably get heavy resistance from enemy MG fire. When they reach the first enemy trenchline they’re stuck there until a friendly plane re-establishes contact and they will advance further past enemy lines. While they are stuck at the first enemy trenchline they will also set up two defensive MG positions to cover the hiding infantry. When the infantry reaches a certain point behind enemy lines they will report this with a subtitle and the objective is completed for 1 mission point. Also marked on the map with an icon when it is completed.

After an assault has been completed or an infantry wave has been destroyed by the enemy, a new contact patrol will be available after around 30 minutes. You will see the contact patrol icon coming back again, near the infantry camp. So you can just do the same thing for the second wave as well.

There are 2 infantry waves for now but can add more if that proves to be too few, each successful assault gives 2 points for the attacker, destroying the infantry gives 1 point to the defender.

Keep in mind that the enemy will know if there are any enemy infantry assaults on the map and gets a subtitle if both balloons in that particular sector are still up and spotting. Infantry assaults are not included in the objectives from campaign status 1.0 (-1.0) and higher.

Here are some more examples from an infantry assault.

Tank Assaults

Each tank assault has the same contact patrol system as the infantry assault, near a tank camp and a watchtower. The icon is called “tank assault contact patrol”, establish contact the same way as the infantry assault and you will see the smoke disappearing and 3 tanks spawning. (the altitude for this contact patrol also doesn’t matter) The tanks will start driving to a random position just behind the enemy lines. The tanks only need one contact patrol and will not get stuck at the enemy trenches. The advancing tanks will get resistance from enemy MG positions and defensive tanks though, so it’s important to keep track of them. When the tanks reach their ending point somewhere behind enemy lines the assault has been completed and they give 3 victory points to the attacking team! When all 5 tanks get destroyed by the defender along the way, there will be a new contact patrol available after around 20 minutes, just like the infantry assault. For the tank assaults there are 2 possible waves as well. The defender will get 1 point for each destroyed tank wave as well.

Keep in mind that the defender will know there is an enemy tank assault on the map and gets a subtitle if the balloons in that particular sector are active and spotting.

Spy Objective

To do the spy objective you have to deliver a spy to a random location in enemy territory (marked with blue icon), you have to land here and wait for the spy to get out, and you’ll get 1 guaranteed victory point. The spy drop off location is often on a non active airfield with a French chateau, make sure to be rather close to this when delivering the spy. After around 30 minutes the spy will try to return home by himself, if he makes it home he will uncover the enemy train and truck movements on the map with dynamic icons in real time! There is also a possibility that the spy will be caught by the enemy on the way back, when this happens, you will not get the enemy train and truck movement icons but you will still get the victory point.

You have 2 planes to do this objective, in case you lose one on the way there. These planes are alway 2 seaters and the type depends on the planeset.

Note: there is no need to bring your plane home for this objective, it’s just the delivery of the spy and he will try to return by himself!

Photo Recon

There are 2 photo recons for both sides, both of them unlock all backward targets so you can choose 1 of them to do and the enemy will never know which one you’re doing. The photo recon is one of the most important objectives in the campaign, it uncovers the big bombing targets deeper in enemy territory and marks them with an icon on the map. The recon will also unlock 1 heavy bomber airstart at 3000m for 4 planes, even in mid 1917. Here you can see the steps how to do the recon properly:

1. Take the plane labeled as “Photo Recon”.
2. Take off and fly towards one of the photo recon zones as marked on the map with the photo recon icon at any altitude you like, preferably above 1000 meters. This way you can always adjust the recon altitude depending on the weather and clouds. The recon spawns randomly on 2 out of 6 possible locations each mission, always above a city, airfield or an objective.
3. Enter the recon zone (you will see a subtitle with further instructions), and you can start taking pictures inside of the zone with the “.pic” chat command in the teamchat. You need to add for example “ne” (north entente) for the northern Entente recon zone and for example “sc” (south central) when you’re doing the southern Central recon. So that way you have .picne, .picse, .picnc and .picsc.
4. After you have taken a photo there will be a subtitle on the bottom of your screen telling you that you have taken a picture and the observer will replace the photo frame in around 10 seconds. You can take a new picture when this subtitle is gone.
5. When you leave the photo zone you will get a subtitle that you won’t be able to take photos here and you can just return to the recon zone to take the remaining photos.
6. When you’ve successfully taken all 6 pictures you’ll get a subtitle and can return home. The map icons (on the place of the recon zone and on the landing place), will tell you where you have to land. One of them is the airfield you took off from but the other recon zone has a return airfield to an airfield closer to the zone, so look at the map icons after taking the photos so you know for sure where you have to land.
7. Land at the return airfield somewhat near the hangars and shut off the engine, wait till you see subtitles that you’ve completed the recon. You will see the backward objective icons on the map to attack and you’ll get 3 victory points for the recon itself as well. The recon will also unlock one heavy bomber airspawn, even in mid 1917.
8. You can kill a searchlight (needs an explosion) in one of the hangars at this airfield to get 50 personal points on the stats site if you want to.

Notes:

1. If the recon plane doesn’t make it home in around 45 minutes after the pictures have been taken, the objective will be reset and you can try it again with a new recon plane.
2. The recon plane gets renewed after 45 minutes as well so you can try the objective multiple times if you fail it in the first place; just make sure the icon for the recon zones are back up and the landing icon is gone before you start a new recon!
3. The backward objectives cannot be completed before the recon is done. Yes, they can be destroyed if you find them but they’ll never give victory points then, so the only side you help is the enemy if you try to destroy them before the recon is done.
4. Rule of thumb: if the (!ti) time chat command doesn’t work, then you know the recon script is not running and the photos cannot be taken, please contact the server admin as soon as possible.
5. Demo video: [NEW] Flying Circus photo recon | Knights of the Sky Server

   ---

Trench Recon

NEW from Alpha 5: Trench recons are active on a full frontline breakthrough phase in 2 of the 3 sectors. There is one trench recon N and one trench recon S, they’re flown with the same plane as the artillery spotting objective. A trench recon is inactive in a local sector breakthrough, where the artillery spotting objective will become available in that sector. Here you can see the steps how to do the trench recon properly:

1. Take the plane labeled as “Trench Recon/Artillery Spotter (N or S)”.
2. Take off and fly towards one of the photo recon zones as marked on the map with the trench recon icon at any altitude you like, preferably above 1000 meters. This way you can always adjust the recon altitude depending on the weather and clouds. The trench recon is always over the enemy frontline.
3. Enter the recon zone (you will see a subtitle with further instructions), and you can start taking pictures inside of the zone with the “.pic” chat command in the teamchat. You need to add for example “tne” (trench north entente) for the northern Entente recon zone and for example “tsc” (trench south central) when you’re doing the southern Central recon. So that way you have .pictne, .pictse, .pictnc and .pictsc.
4. After you have taken a photo there will be a subtitle on the bottom of your screen telling you that you have taken a picture and the observer will replace the photo frame in around 10 seconds. You can take a new picture when this subtitle is gone.
5. When you leave the photo zone you will get a subtitle that you won’t be able to take photos here and you can just return to the recon zone to take the remaining photos.
6. When you’ve successfully taken all 6 pictures you’ll get a subtitle and can return home. The map icons (on the place of the recon zone and on the landing place), will tell you where you have to land. You will basically always be asked to return to the airfield you took off from.
7. Land at the return airfield somewhat near the hangars and shut off the engine, wait till you see subtitles that you’ve completed the recon. Your team will get 2 victory points for a successfully completed trench recon.
8. You can kill a searchlight (needs an explosion) in one of the hangars at this airfield to get 50 personal points on the stats site if you want to.

Notes:

1. If the recon plane doesn’t make it home in around 45 minutes after the pictures have been taken, the objective will be reset and you can try it again with a new recon plane.
2. The recon plane gets renewed after 45 minutes as well so you can try the objective multiple times if you fail it in the first place; just make sure the icon for the recon zones are back up and the landing icon is gone before you start a new recon!
3. Pay close attention to the location of the trench recon on the map, when the frontline has shifted it’s no longer over the mud anymore!

Rule of thumb: if the (!ti) time chat command doesn’t work, then you know the recon script is not running and the photos cannot be taken, please contact the server admin as soon as possible.

Bridge

There also is a bridge objective for both sides, the bridge is a backward objective that is unlocked from the start of the mission, no need to do the recon first to be able to attack it. Furthermore, it has a randomised location from the start of the mission. Make sure the bombs hit the bridge itself but other than that it is really easy to destroy. When destroyed it gives 1 victory point. The bridge is guarded by 2 MG gunners when enemies are near and they fire a red flare when the bridge is under attack. It might be wise to destroy both MG gunners before you bomb the bridge (or let escort fighters do it).

Ammo Dump

The ammo dump is a backward objective but it’s attackable from the beginning of the mission, no need to complete the photo recon first. It’s randomised with the railway station, so you’ll either get this objective or the railway station. It’s a bombing target and requires most buildings to be destroyed, every object counts, also the ammo trucks! You may blow up some ammo if you hit the right spot in a spectacular fashion, so be warned ;) The station is also covered by an AA gun and a machine gun that will spawn when attacked, they also fire a red flare to indicate that the station is under attack. After the objective has been destroyed the icon will be removed from the map and you will get 2 victory points. Please note that these points will not be awarded if it gets destroyed before the recon is done.

Railway Station

The railway station is a backward objective but it’s attackable from the beginning of the mission, no need to complete the photo recon first. It’s randomised with the ammo depot, so you’ll either get this objective or the ammo depot. It’s a bombing target and requires the main station building (encircled below), and some other buildings to be destroyed, every object counts! The station is also covered by an AA gun and a machine gun that will spawn when attacked, they also fire a red flare to indicate that the station is under attack. After the station has been destroyed the icon will be removed from the map and you will get 2 victory points. Please note that these points will not be awarded if it gets destroyed before the recon is done.

Fuel Depot

The fuel depot is also one of the “backward objectives”, it requires most fuel tanks and nets to be destroyed to complete the objective, it will give 2 victory points when completed. Just like the railway station it’s defended by an AA gun and an MG and will fire a flare when attacked. It also cannot be attacked before the recon is completed.

Ammo Factory

The ammo depot is also one of the “backward objectives”, it requires most buildings and ammo trucks to be destroyed to complete the objective, it will give 3 victory points when completed. It’s active in certain campaign states. Just like the other backward targets it’s defended by an AA gun and an MG and will fire a flare when attacked. It also cannot be attacked before the recon is completed.

Tank Factory

The tank factory is also one of the “backward objectives”, it requires most buildings to be destroyed in order to complete the objective, it will give 3 victory points when completed and is one of the most valuable objectives in the campaign. It’s defended by 2 AA guns and 2 MGs when attacked so it’s advisable to level bomb this target or bring some escort, the AA guns also fire red flares when attacked. This objective also cannot be attacked before the recon is completed.

This objective has some other special features that have important impact on the mission:

• After the objective has been destroyed it will be repaired in around 45 minutes, the side where the factory belongs to will get notified with a subtitle when the factory has been repaired. So you can attack the factory multiple times and each time you’ll get the 3 victory points as well and stop tank production (explained below).
• When the tank factory has been destroyed the tank production for the enemy will be stopped, this means the enemy cannot start new tank contact patrols. When the tank factory gets repaired after around 45 minutes contact patrols will of course be possible again.

Warehouse

NEW from Alpha 5: The Warehouse is also one of the “backward objectives”, it requires most buildings to be destroyed in order to complete the objective (trucks count as well), it will give 3 victory points when completed and is one of the most valuable objectives (the biggest one) in the campaign. It’s active in certain campaign states. It’s defended by 2 AA guns and 2 MGs when attacked so it’s advisable to level bomb this target or bring some escort, the AA guns also fire red flares when attacked. This objective also cannot be attacked before the recon is completed.

Airfields and Planesets

The current planesets for the campaign can be found here.

Both sides have 5 or 6 active airfields in each mission. Both sides have basically the same types of airfields, explained in the table below:

NEW from Alpha 5: Each mission in the campaign has a random choice of 4 planesets depending on the date of the mission: Early 1917, Late 1917, Early 1918 and Late 1918. Each mission will represent a month in-game. This dynamic campaign will start in January 1917, so the next mission will be in February and so on in a chronological order. It will run all the way till December 1918 where it will return to January 1917 again. The planeset and season will be generated depending on the month. The early 1917 planeset will run between January 1917 and June 1917, Late 1917 will run between July and December 1917, Early 1918 will run between January and June 1918 and Late 1918 will run between July and December 1918. This also means the historical planesets will correspond to the correct map season, clouds, sky, weather and of course temperature. The particular in-game day of the month will be randomised each time. With the ‘!wnow’ and ‘!wnext’ commands from our Discord bot you can see the weather reports for the current and next mission in the campaign, these also contain the mission date, so you can determine the planeset in advance by using these commands so you can make strategies.

Of course, you can also view the planeset of the current mission by using the ‘!online’ Discord command

This dynamic campaign is located in the Arras sector so all the Entente airfields will be British and equipped with RFC aircraft. A few important notes on the planesets:

1. The renew time for fighters is 20 minutes, 25 minutes for bombers, 30 minutes for heavy bombers and 45 minutes for the recon and arty spotting planes.
2. If you land your aircraft at the airfield you took off from and despawn there your plane will be returned to the airfield’s inventory and it won’t be subtracted from the list.
3. Some Entente Bristol F2bs are fighters and aren’t able to carry bombs - they use a pure fighter loadout. These fighter 2-seater also aren’t labeled as “bomber”
4. SE5as are not allowed to carry bombs on any airfield; Camels, Dolphins and Snipes can carry bombs at all airfields except the fighter airfield close to the front.
5. The heavy bombers (Gotha and HP400) will be available from the start of the mission at one airfield in all planesets except early 1917.
6. Artillery Spotter and photo recon planes obviously can’t carry bombs and have their camera/radio equipped.
7. The upperwing Lewis gun on the Albatros is locked on all airfields and all planesets.
8. After the recon has been completed a heavy bomber airstart will be unlocked, 4 heavy bombers at 3000m with a 30 minute renew time.

Destructible Airfields

NEW from Alpha 5: Now you can attack certain enemy active airfields and knock them out for around 20 minutes before they get back into action. You can take out these airfields in a completely new way, if you drop enough bombs on the airstrip and on the airfield buildings you can take out the airfield. 1 bomber on 1 bombing run will probably not be enough to take out an airfield, you will need at least 2 bombers or multiple runs. Not all airfields can be taken out, airfields with a blue circle on the map (2 of them) cannot be taken out (also called protected airfields), these airfields contain heavy bombers or the photo recon aircraft. See the images below.

Airfield layout

All airfields have the same layout:

Windsock, AA gun, MG gun, RRR truck (Repair, Rearm, Refuel)

To do the RRR you have to get quite close to the medical truck (picture on the next page), shut your engine off  and you should see some little icons in the bottom left corner of your screen that repairs are going on, as well as in the technochat on the right of your screen. Refueling and Repairing require keybinds, you can find them under the “keymapping” menu. If you want to know more about this, don’t hesitate to ask in our Discord. NEW from Alpha 5: ‘Protected’, indestructible airfields are marked on the map with a blue circle (2 of them).

RRR truck

Active airfield layout

Links and other info

We hope you will enjoy flying in the dynamic campaign and this manual will be of good help in understanding the campaign and its objectives. The current Alpha 5 is the first fully integrated (test) WW1 dynamic campaign on Knights of the Sky. You can see a roadmap in our server announcement thread as well as on our Discord server. Enjoy!

• Discord server (registration and comms): https://discord.gg/ewJE6N4t6D
• Forum thread with change logs: https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/85227-knights-of-the-sky-campaign-server/ 
• Events thread:https://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/85319-saturday-squadron-fly-in-knights-of-the-sky-weekly-event/ 
• Server stats site: http://no10j18.duckdns.org:8000/ 

See you in the skies!