New player, Battle of Normandy or Battle of Bodenplatte?

[Mastermatta]

I'm thinking of getting the base game and either Battle of Normandy or Battle of Bodenplatte but i cant decide which. I have done some research and I want to play the Pat Wilson Campaign Generator coop with friends as the allies but would like to know if Normandy or Bodenplatte will give me a better experience.

Additionally are there any other dlc that are really good to get as a new player?

[shadowgravy]

Honestly, it comes down to the aircraft set that each map offers. I'm more of a Bodenplatte man myself, for the bubble-topped Allied fighters. I also feel Bodenplatte is a more interesting map. Normandy had to grow on me.

If you get Normandy, I highly recommend the paid P-51B scripted campaign. The first mission or two are standard channel crossings but after that you get some really cool and unique scenarios. Bodenplatte comes with some great scripted campaigns; but I recommend the Hellhawks Over The Bulge paid campaign to get the most out of the P-47 Thunderbolt.

In all candor though, my favorite map and stock career is Battle of Kuban.

[peterk]

If you want to play Pat Wilson, you may want to get them so that there are no holes in the chronology, If PWCG moves you to a map you don't own, your campaign's over...or at the very least you'll be forced to switch squadrons when you may not want to.
If you're getting Stalingrad, then Moscow or Kuban will make more sense for a Pat Wilson game. But he kind of assumes players have all maps, so you might get screwed even if you do do it that way.
PWCG can also reassign you to a fly in a new plane that you don't own as well.

[Mastermatta]

Originally posted by peterk:

If you want to play Pat Wilson, you may want to get them so that there are no holes in the chronology, If PWCG moves you to a map you don't own, your campaign's over...or at the very least you'll be forced to switch squadrons when you may not want to.
If you're getting Stalingrad, then Moscow or Kuban will make more sense for a Pat Wilson game. But he kind of assumes players have all maps, so you might get screwed even if you do do it that way.
PWCG can also reassign you to a fly in a new plane that you don't own as well.

So there is no way to set it to just 1 map? Are there any coop campaigns that will work on just 1 map?

[peterk]

You'll play for a while on one map. One mission every 1-2 days usually. But if you get injured you need to rest 1-8 weeks and that jumps time forward, so it can go quickly.

When I started the Moscow campaign, I was on that map for about 2-3 months.
Then you're between the Moscow/Stalingrad campaigns, so Pat uses other maps as placeholders for what happens between major campaigns.
I played on a little corner of the Stalingrad map for a few weeks and then it changed my squadron's plane type to something I didn't have. I could have transferred to another squadron, but everyone else was on a map that I didn't have yet (Kuban and Normandy were the ones showing up most often).

So. Expect surprises. Expect to be blocked at times if you don't have everything.

====

Then again. You could play on one map until it switches you out and then you just start again on the same map and try to do better than you did the first time.

[Mastermatta]

Originally posted by peterk:

You'll play for a while on one map. One mission every 1-2 days usually. But if you get injured you need to rest 1-8 weeks and that jumps time forward, so it can go quickly.

When I started the Moscow campaign, I was on that map for about 2-3 months.
Then you're between the Moscow/Stalingrad campaigns, so Pat uses other maps as placeholders for what happens between major campaigns.
I played on a little corner of the Stalingrad map for a few weeks and then it changed my squadron's plane type to something I didn't have. I could have transferred to another squadron, but everyone else was on a map that I didn't have yet (Kuban and Normandy were the ones showing up most often).

So. Expect surprises. Expect to be blocked at times if you don't have everything.

====

Then again. You could play on one map until it switches you out and then you just start again on the same map and try to do better than you did the first time.

Out of curiosity are there any other dynamic missions/campaigns i can host for coop besides Pat wilson?

[peterk]

Not sure. Don't think so. The stock career/campaigns you definitely can't.
I would just go with your original plan of picking an expansion that you're keen on and riding the campaign as long as possible. Rather than skipping time if a player gets injured, just create a new pilot for that player and keep going. That'll give you something like 60 missions on one map, which is a ton. Missions are like 30-90 minutes each.

[DetCord12B]

If you like the late-war stuff then BoBp is what you want.