"IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles" is a set of standalone video games and the third generation game in the IL-2 Sturmovik series of combat flight simulators made by Russian game publisher, 1C. The primary focus was to bring WW2 into the new era of combat flight simulators with updated graphics and advanced game mechanic for an immersive flight experience.



As much as that may give us a gist into what the game is, you as a consumer should know that this game is as expensive as a AAA game and you have no setup for an immersive flight experience. Just imagine, you have no joystick or a setup to make up that experience and are stuck with only a mouse and a keyboard as your only controls, what must you do? Well, this guide will help you get up to speed onto how to have a simple setup without the need to spend for an actual flight sim setup.

The main menu is pretty basic for most of its existence, but to configure your controls, you have to go "Settings" where you will find many ways to configure your game into your play style or recommended settings.



What to keep in mind is the "Key Mapping" and "Input Devices" sub-settings.



This is where you will focus most your time to reconfigure the mouse into a joystick and what input should be in place on your keyboard.

As a way to diversify the game for different players, Il-2 Sturmovik: Great Battle introduced the "Mouse Control" mechanic which essentially turns it into War Thunder. So, I nicknamed this the "War Thunder Controls" and I'm not really fond of this control setup.

Now, the Pros and Cons for both setups are as follows:

Mouse Control (or "War Thunder Controls"):
Here's a video of it...

Pros:
1. Great for Beginners and for those who cannot afford a HOTAS control stick...
2. Relatively easy to use It brings a different level of experience...
3. It auto-corrects your flight path during level flight...
4. Point and shoot is the name of the game...
5. Often reliable in Third Person View...

Cons:
1. Sometimes janky during maneuvering dogfights...
2. Sometimes hard to shoot enemy aircraft without proper gunnery skills...
3. Not good in first person view due to the white reticle obscuring the gunsight...
4. Your aircraft is not often hitting the right speed during dives for ground attack...


Joystick Controls:
Here's a video of someone providing tutorial on how configure joystick and keyboard...

Pros:
1. Great for Expert players and flight sim enthusiasts...
2. The white reticle is not visible on the gunsight...
3. Smooth controls during maneuvering fights...
4. A very immersive experience and feel...
5. Very good in first person view...

Cons:
1. Hard to afford a flight simulator setup...
2. Too many key binds to memorize and master...
3. Requires good levels of mastery or you'll crash...

Once you learned about the different types controller preferences, you'll be able to start learning the basics of mouse joystick controls.

Now, if you have played "Aces High" (or "Aces High II") by HiTech Creations, this where the inspiration for this control setup was taken. It's a simple game mechanic that allows your typical computer mouse to become a pseudo joystick. Not like a typical HOTAS, but still has that ability to provide inputs to control your aircraft in some way or another.

This video also showed it to be possible...

In the actual gameplay, this may require some level of mastery to avoid mistakes on the inputs and damaging your aircraft in the process.

With that said, we will now start first with "Input Devices" where will focus on control preferences and input sensitivity.

This tab focuses on control sensitivities and preferred control setups.

Now, depending on what devices you have currently in your possession, you have to setup which will give you an easier or relatively good experience during gameplay and what sensitive input are being induced in your controls as feedback. In this tab, you'll find which setup is best for you or what can be considered your comfortable playstyle. The mouse joystick configuration will require you do the following instructions below.

What you would be doing in the "Input Devices" settings is:
1. Select "Joystick" in the "Control Mode" tab...
2. "Sensitivity" is lower as "1" or "2" to avoid a snappy camera mechanic...
3. Do not invert the Y Axis...
4. Keep everything at default...



Once that was done, we'll move to "Key Mapping" where we will focus to binding your mouse and keyboard to fit specific inputs.

This tab now focuses on binding controls and configurations.

Among the hardest to master and keep in mind, but the most essential settings in this game. Knowing the controls is somewhat easy, but re-configuring them can take time since you're going to be doing a lot of testing to get it to where you want. Also, I tried this with Rise Of Flight, but the controls tends to recenter the stick every time try to move the mouse. Not my favorite, but Il-2 Great Battles allows for it.

This is what you usually see in this menu tab...

Most of the controls are usually set in "global" in the "Current Profile" selection tab just above the "Commands" column. This is usually in the "default settings" for most of the key binds as you play the game, but the game also allows you to create your own configurations based on your preference. Since we have set the inputs to joystick, we'll go on to re-configuring the mouse into a pseudo joystick.



But before that, we'll have talk to be wary of the "X and Y Axes". In your usual joystick setup, pulling your stick forward and backwards makes your plane go up and down in its lateral axis while left and right rolls the aircraft in its longitudinal axis.



Pretty easy to learn if you are experienced in aviation, but in the game, learning the X and Y axes is where you would usually apply the correct input for the control surfaces of your aircraft and your pilot's head control as these will be your primary focus.

In most cases, seeing where you are and your surroundings is far more important to maintain your situational awareness.

In Layman's terms, "camera controls" are keyboard or mouse control inputs that directs the camera view of an object in certain angles either up, down, left and right. Most camera controls will control where you want to view certain objects, either a plane, vehicle, or artillery piece, in various angles just get that wonderful screenshot or to just analyze a scene.

By default, your mouse is usually the primary input that controls camera viewing and this is common in a lot of flight sims that tells you to just get a HOTAS control setup. Thankfully, that's usually not the case with Il-2 Great Battles since this flight sim is friendly to mouse controls.

So, there are two sections in the "Key Mapping" menu that we have to keep track off:
1. Camera Controls
2. Pilot Head Controls

1. Camera Controls
In the "Camera Controls" section, the key binds will focus primarily on the external view of the object. If we remember our X and Y axes from the previous section, your mouse will be the primary control for this.
Accordingly, the key bind is "Right Click + Mouse X and Y" to view your aircraft or any in-game objects in various angles and "Left Shift + Scroll Wheel" for the zoom in and out functions.

You might notice that right mouse button was clicked and the cursor remains stationary as the mouse is being moved around for a better angle.

2. Pilot Head Controls
In the "Pilot Head Controls" section, the key binds will focus primarily on the cockpit view of any plane you're flying. Your mouse again will be the primary control for this.


Same as the camera controls, the key bind is "Right Click + Mouse X and Y" to let your pilot's head move around the cockpit to check your surroundings in various angles and "Left Shift + Scroll Wheel" for the zoom in and out functions.

Before I forget, I also decided to add some new camera controls for the pilot's which allows to shift your head around the cockpit using the number pad. Press "5" on the number pad to reset the view to your last saved view.
Below is a demonstration of the new controls which I haven't included since the publication of this guide.

You might notice that the camera panning might look janky because this setup doesn't use IR Tracking or VR Headset for that natural feel but it makes up for it with the simple control bind. My focus was to land on that runway.

Once our camera setup is done, we'll be moving on to aircraft controls which should be easy to understand if we remember everything about the X and Y axes and aircraft directional controls based on the diagram below from the "Key Mapping" section of this guide. It should noted that controls for this will be entirely different from the camera and pilot head controls due to them causing issues on the input controls.

This section will focus entirely on control surfaces, engines and weapons of the aircraft you currently have in your inventory and all are universal. To effectively fly and dogfight will depend entirely on the pilot as they are the deciding factor in most scenarios.

1. Control Surfaces
The control surfaces will be the primary focus here, the rest of the key binds are mostly set to default as standard. It should be noted that both yaw and roll controls use the same control inputs which is "Mouse X" while the pitch control uses "Mouse Y". Keep in mind that the camera controls as told from the previous section will cancel out the aircraft controls when clicking the "Right Mouse Button" and moving the mouse around.

The video demonstrates the mouse movement in conjunction with the control surfaces.

Also, kindly keep in mind that the control surfaces will hold its position when not moving the mouse. If you wish to maintain level-flight, press "Left Shift + A" to properly level your wings, and if you want to maneuver, just move your mouse across the desk and direct your aircraft to your desired location.


2. Engines
Engine controls will be mostly in the default settings in terms of keyboard key binds and the throttle controls will the same as the default mouse controls which is the "Scroll Button". Memorization is required in this section, but you have less to worry about since in the "Quick Mission" menu, gameplay settings can be customized to an easy control setup to your liking and not fiddle around with buttons on your keyboard.


3. Weapons
Weapon controls will also be mostly in the default settings in terms of keyboard key binds and the weapon controls will the same as the default mouse controls which is the "Left Button". You will be treating the gameplay like it is a first-person shooter game but with extra steps.

Once everything has been setup, you would able to go on your first flight.

The following videos will show the setup works well with proper mastery of the controls.

1. Take Off -
During the take off, kindly keep wary of the torque effect that may cause your plane to turn slightly away from the runway into the dirt. Make sure to keep watch on the speed indicator to see you are in the proper take off speed.

2. Landing -
During the landing procedures, kindly be wary of the stall during the approach and proper application of brakes once the plane touched down. Also, follow the instructions that usually appear at the left if you're running your missions in the easy mode.

3. Dogfighting -
This part can get a bit dangerous due to the risk of stalls and flat spins, so kindly be wary of maneuvers that can get you to crash. Always be wary of your speed indicator to see you are hitting the right speed during maneuvers.

To conclude this segment, this is an effective setup to get that realistic feel of a simulation while being somehow cheap and having that arcade-like feel. Il-2 Sturmovik Great Battles is a fairly expensive game to own along with its DLCs, almost comparable to that of AAA titles and their game pass, but getting a HOTAS joystick or flight sim setup is even more expensive. I never liked the War Thunder mouse controls because of how janky it is and it's particularly perfect for inexperienced players who would treat this game like an arcade game and fly in third-person view, then, there's me who preferred both having both options.

Of course, I played a few FPS games like Call of Duty, Delta Force and Ravenfield and two arcade simulation games like Aces High III and Tiny Combat Arena. I'm already used to mouse and keyboard control and I do like playing Il-2 Sturmovik. Somehow, I'm glad that the game allows me to use my mouse as a pseudo joystick, but I dislike its price tag along with its other DLCs. All in all, this guide give some player an opportunity to feel the realistic flight model while treating it like an FPS game. Hope this guide may guarantee some good experience to players who are not keen on owning a joystick, but also feeling the realism of the game.

So, good luck and be on your way to victory...