The A-20B is the subject matter of the most recent 1CGS developer update showing off the model fully textured and rendered in the game engine for the very first time. We also get a look at a Soviet submarine!

Fast attack A-20B

The A-20B “Boston” was a twin engined high speed attack bomber used by several nations during World War II.

The A-20B variant comes with a good variety of options including 2000kg worth of bombs stored in a bomb-bay and on weapons pylons on the wings as well as a pair of .50cal machine guns in the nose (for strafing primarily) and a single .50cal in the dorsal and .30cal in the ventral gunner positions.

The 2000kg bomb configuration can include up to 16 100kg bombs in the internal bomb bay and on the wings. Surely, other bomb options will be included as well.

All of this adds up to a fairly effective bomber with a maximum speed of 350mph (563km/h) at 12,000 feet (3657 meters) which wasn’t much slower than many fighters of the time.

This aircraft aTdds significantly to the Allied planeset. The aircraft’s American origins will surely delight some while many will appreciate its flexibility both in the low level attack as well as medium and high level bombing options. It’s also a good weapon to be able to take it to shipping targets.

This aircraft is slated to be released in November so it may be a while before we see it finished and in-game. At present the gunner stations and even the pilot model appear to be missing so this is an early look at this aircraft in engine.

It looks beautiful already!

A submarine!

The “Type Sch” or Shchuka-class submarine was the second most numerous submarine in the Soviet Navy during World War II. Eighty-eight of these submarines were completed with 16 serving as part of the Black Sea Fleet. Many of these were lost during operations against the Romanian fleet.

This is our first look at a submarine for the series and the second significant warship type that we’ve seen after the Type 7 that we’ve seen in previous updates.

I’m extremely curious to see how submarines will be featured in the series. Will they be able to submerge? How much damage modeling will there be for bombs, torpedoes, or from shells to impact on the submarine while submerged (as appropriate).

I’ll be curious to see what Axis ships make the cut. We’ve been told that everything from destroyers to transport and coastal vessels will be a part of the release and each type should add some flavour to anti-ship operations.

New airfield technology

The update, and the A-20B screen shots in particular, also are showing off some new techniques for creating airfield textures for Battle of Moscow and Battle of Kuban. While Stalingrad uses an earlier technology, Moscow upped the ante but also caused some performance issues for some players around airfields. Further upping the ante, the dev team has created a new process which should lessen or remove the performance hit while also making for some beautiful looking airfields.

These changes to the Moscow map will be introduced in Patch 2.011 and will be used on all Battle of Kuban airfields as well.