One of the questions circling around the community has been what order were likely to see new aircraft for Battle of Normandy. Now, thanks to IL-2 Lead Producer Jason Williams, we have a tentative list of what is coming and when. Also thanks to another update, we can also have a look at a slightly adjusted size and dimensions for the Normandy map. Let’s have a look at both!
Aircraft release order
Priority for developing different aircraft for the next installment of the IL-2 series has been revealed with Jason Williams cautioning everyone that the order can change. I point everyone to the proposed list offered up during the Bodenplatte development cycle and how the order changed a few times as priorities shifted and resources needed to be dug up by the team (including a trip by Jason to the UK to get a look at a Tempest first hand in order to make that aircraft happen).
Here’s the proposed order including the three announced Collector Planes:
- Yak-9/ 9T
- P-47D-22
- Hurricane Mk. IIb/c/d
- C-47 (AI)
- Fw-190 A-6
- Spitfire Mk. XIV
- Typhoon Mk.Ib
- P-51B/C
- Bf-109 G-6 (Late)
- Ju-88 C-6a
- B-26 (AI)
- Mosquito FB Mk.VI
- Me-410
- Ar-234
- V-1
It’s an interesting list and one that is dramatically different than the order I had assumed it might all arrive in. The P-47D-22 is surprisingly high up in the list and this, as some have speculated, might mean that the developers are more closely looking at both versions of the Thunderbolt (a few damage model tweaks still required for that iconic aircraft in my opinion).
This list also confirms some interesting information surrounding the Hurricane with confirmation that the B, C, and D variants (including the 40mm Vickers anti-tank guns) are coming. This is fantastic news and suggests to me that we’ll be getting a lot of value out of this collector plane with a representation of quite a few modifications for the Hurricane! Worth waiting for.
The Spitfire XIV is also up fairly high in the list as well which should make fans of this late war variant of the Spitfire happy. I am looking forward to that Typhoon as well.
Adjustments to the map
Ending up a bit taller and a little less wide, the proposed revised version of the Normandy map for IL-2: Battle of Normandy has been revealed by Jason Williams in a post to the forums. This version of the map is slightly smaller with better performance being one of the goals. I’m not surprised by this as the earlier version cut into pieces of the battles that took place in the southern areas of the map post invasion and so ensuing that those could be represented are valuable.
The final size is still being determined and so we’ll be keeping an eye out to see what changes may yet come.
Stormbirds 
I see you retained Jason’s typo ……. BF-190 G6? 😉
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Oh I see. Yeah, I copied and pasted that in a hurry out the door this morning.
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Would have thought that the 109 would be higher given the team’s experience.
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Indeed. Doing another Bf109 will be an easy task comparatively speaking. I would guess that they want to mix things up when it comes to first aircraft being added.
This would be the first time a Bf109 was not among the earliest types added.
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I had also seen this by chance today with the list and the new map.
As far as the planes are concerned, it is surprising that both the 190 and 109 are further down (which can change at any time) but all in all a nice mix. I wouldn’t have minded if the Hurricane was at the top of the release list 😉 But the P-47 is also very welcome as the first BoN aircraft and maybe some aspects of the damage model for this girl will be improved.
The map, on the other hand, looks a little cut together to me. The changes in the north and west don’t bother me much, but the east has been cut down quite a bit. It’s a pity that especially Dunkirk is completely gone and Calais is barely on the map.
It would have been nice if they had simply “enlarged” the map to the south.
Of course it would have been just as, if not a little bit bigger than the BoBP map, but there would still be the English Channel, which takes up a large part of the map.
This is just my opinion, of course.
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Damn… I told myself I wasn’t going to buy another portion of GB that didn’t include Pacific, but my resolve is being tested. It’s good to see that AI planes are creeping in more. We were told from the beginning of RoF that AI apparently required almost as much effort as flyable, which of course limited potential targets. Personally, I don’t care if the flight model of a B-17 is a little off, as long as the damage model is good.
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They do really good work and we are seeing a few more AI types for sure. I do hope we’ll see them become flyables and that these first steps are just part of the effort of making them flyable later.
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Ich finde es Schade das der US Bomber B-24 nicht dabei ist.
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Although many including myself would love to see a heavy bomber like a B-17 or B-24 make it in, there are challenges with building these types. I lay it all out here: https://stormbirds.blog/2019/12/28/how-we-might-see-more-bomber-type-aircraft-for-il-2-great-battles/
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