Having spent the better part of two hours flying over and experiencing the new Kuban map I can only give my very first impressions of it.

It’s big…

This is a huge map covering a lot of territory and ground. I had a chance to fly over only a few small bits but it has incredible variation. You know instantly where you are based on the general terrain that you’re flying over. There are fields, collective farms, Black Sea beaches and piers. There are industrial, urban and rural areas. This map has it all!

And it’s very green

If Battle of Stalingrad’s winter map was accused of being a dreary (yet authentic) snowy white, the dominate colour here then is green. Kuban region is represented here in various shades of green through spring, summer and fall seasons.

The seasonal variations on the maps are a little more subtle for the Kuban region than the others. That’s not a bad thing either but its not as stark a change between the Autumn and Winter maps for Moscow for example.

Here you transition from a bright green springtime scenario…

….to a little more muted green and tan colours for summer.

When you get to the autumn things become a little more brown.

The change is wholly believable and realistic looking to me and knowing the 1CGS team, they actually did some research on the types of fields, crops, and dominant colours as seen from above.

The regions near the water are just stunning. Deeper blues dominate as you get into the black sea but the many rivers and beach areas are a brighter teal.

The water effects need to be experienced to fully appreciate just how good they are. The team has taken the water and wave effects, originally developed for Rise of Flight, and developed them into something even more impressive. What they had before was extremely good – this is better.

There’s more to say and certainly there are issues (like terrain popping) but I think the Kuban map release is both momentous occasion for 1CGS and the IL-2 title as well as a selling feature in and of itself.

I’ve taken more than a few screenshots this evening – so in no particular order, enjoy!

A Bf109 scores a kill in the skies over Krasnodar (IL-2: Battle of Kuban)