Reddit reviews Red Star Against the Swastika: The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front

Welcome to Stalingrad, comrade. You've stepped into an very mature and difficult game. Luckily the community is very helpful, but not so much on the reddit forums. The game is DX9, which in layman's terms means that it's very CPU dependent game. You have an AMD CPU which the game is not optimized for; hence your fps issues. You can still try to adjust some settings to get better FPS though:
 
My recommendation:
Go to Options->
Camera->
uncheck cinematic view (will get rid of motion blur)
 
Go to Options->
Graphics->
Attempt to keep your resolution at 1080p (Don't go higher, as you won't be able to see targets at distance as well because they're smaller on your screen)
Uncheck SSO
Uncheck HDR
Distant Landscape Detail x1 (Experiment here as it'll allow you to see ground targets farther way, but also gives a hit to FPS at lower altitudes.)
Vync OFF (Unless you have screen tearing)
FPS Limiter NONE (Unless you have screen tearing)
 
This should help you with your FPS issues, ^^hopefully.
 
 
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If you'd like to fly together with others, join the official teamspeak for BoS. That info is here: http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/4802-official-teamspeak-server-bos-mp-now/
 
I also recommend you read Chuck's aircraft guide to help you get familiar with the planes:
https://drive.google.com/a/poteetisd.org/file/d/0B-uSpZROuEd3WV9zRFRwMDJVWGc/view
 
You can also watch Requiem's Air Combat Tutorials here:
https://www.youtube.com/c/TheAirCombatTutorialLibrary?gvnc=1
 
And since you're just starting out (I'm assuming you've never flown before because you just purchased this game, so take the below advice with as much salt as necessary), I recommend the more user friendly German planes... Having said that, the Russians need many more pilots, and I feel it's more rewarding to shoot down a German plane in the less friendly Russian planes. I personally fly the Lagg3, and IL2 the most. Either choice, German or Russian, be prepared to be shot down a lot before you make a "kill". The game is rewarding when you make it home alive after a successful sortie, not how great your KDR is.
 
As you increase in skill, you should join the flight nights. They are missions created by the community. They're much harder to fly because you have to stick with your wingmen, there's no map icons (or icons period), and you're given a task by your commander to complete for the week. You also only have one virtual life (for the week), and a limited number of planes. The cool thing about the Flight Nights is your success or failure determines how the next week's mission will go. Additionally, there are no AI planes, even though you're flying coop with your mates. The enemy planes are other players of various skill levels just like you and me. If I were to compare the Flight Nights with something, it would be similar to poker night with you and your buds, but virtually... and with planes.
Here's Friday Night Bomber Flights:
http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/23544-friday-night-bomber-flight-topic-temporal/
And Saturday Night Bomber Flights:
http://forum.il2sturmovik.com/topic/20918-saturday-night-bombers-flight /
 
 
Good luck out there comrade!
Sketch
 
 
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If you're interested in the history of the Eastern Front here are some reading suggestions -
Various Planes of the Eastern Front:
http://kplanes.tumblr.com/post/141672701850/k-planes-episode-96-barbarossa?is_related_post=1
 
The Yak's History:
http://kplanes.tumblr.com/post/108267224620/k-planes-episode-15-yakkity-yak?is_related_post=1
 
Various counts of the Eastern Front in English:
http://iremember.ru/en/
 
Kolyadin Victor Ivanovich:
http://iremember.ru/en/memoirs/airmen/kolyadin-victor-ivanovich/
 
Red Star Against Swastika (a great book!)
https://www.amazon.com/Red-Star-Against-Swastika-Eastern/dp/1853676497

Seems like it's too long, so I'll split it up in two here:

General accounts:

When Titans Clashed

Russia at War

Thunder in the East

Absolute War

Hitler's War in the East

The Road to Stalingrad

The Road to Berlin

A Writer at War

THE ROLE OF THE SOVIET UNION IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR: A Re-examination

Why Stalin's Soldiers Fought: The Red Army's Military Effectiveness in World War II

If you're interested in memoirs I'd suggest:

Blood on the Shores

Over the Abyss

Sniper on the Eastern Front

GUNS AGAINST THE REICH: Memoirs of an Artillery Officer on the Eastern Front

PANZER DESTROYER: Memoirs of a Red Army Tank Commander

Through the Maelstrom: A Red Army Soldier's War on the Eastern Front, 1942-1945

Red Road From Stalingrad: Recollections Of A Soviet Infantryman

Red Star Against the Swastika: The Story of a Soviet Pilot over the Eastern Front

Penalty Strike: The Memoirs of a Red Army Penal Company Commander, 1943-45

BUT NOT FOR THE FUEHRER

Through Hell for Hitler

A Stranger to Myself: The Inhumanity of War : Russia, 1941-1944

Barbarossa:

War Without Garlands: Barbarossa 1941/42

BARBAROSSA DERAILED: THE BATTLE FOR SMOLENSK 10 JULY-10 SEPTEMBER 1941 VOLUME 1: The German Advance, The Encirclement Battle, and the First and Second Soviet Counteroffensives, 10 July-24 August 1941

Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East

Kiev 1941

Operation Typhoon: Hitler's March on Moscow, October 1941

THE VIAZ'MA CATASTROPHE, 1941: The Red Army's Disastrous Stand against Operation Typhoon

THE DEFENSE OF MOSCOW 1941: The Northern Flank

What Stalin Knew: The Enigma of Barbarossa

War of Annihilation: Combat and Genocide on the Eastern Front, 1941

Germany and the Second World War: Volume IV: The Attack on the Soviet Union