It’s another substantial update from the folks at 1C Game Studios and this one packs in the content with three new aircraft for Flying Circus Vol 2, the release of the Sd.Kfz.10/5 collector vehicle and there’s a ton of other fixes and new features. Let’s have a look at the highlights.

Three new aircraft added to the circus

Flying Circus Vol 2 is rapidly picking up new aircraft with the total now at five of the ten planned aircraft released. Today’s patch brings the Spad 7 150hp, Pfalz D.XII and Airco DH.4 to the series. The DH.4 can function as a bomber with a considerable bomb load and sight to facilitate altitude drops. The other two are fighters with the Spad 7 having the unique feature of rockets for anti-balloon and bomber operations.

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Sd.Kfz.10/5 collector vehicle

Also out in this patch is the Sd.Kfz. 10/5. This Collector Vehicle is a mobile AAA halftrack that complements the GAZ-AA giving both Russian and German sides a ground based AAA vehicle. The details on this vehicle, going by the screenshots, are at Digital Forms usual level while 1CGS did their homework to make sure that the operations in the sim are at a top notch.

I haven’t done a proper review of the GAZ so look for these two to have some sort of article soon.

Other key changes

There are a bunch of changes in this update that you may want to pay close attention to. First, single player career mode received some updates as the team have put in eight new ground attack types. They are: artillery position, fortified area, troop concentration, airfield, river crossing, railway junction, warehouse, and bridge. This should make the ground attack mission types more engaging.

Meanwhile, the AI are seeing a few updates. Mission logic should prevent so many fighter-bombers from flying away without having attacked the target and AI dive-bombers including the Me262 will do more realistic dive bomb attacks. Check out this video by LukeFF who helped with the upgrades.

Meanwhile, the Typhoon flight model has seen some tweaks. Some suggested that the turn rate was a bit optimistic and have provided data and discussion points that have caused the team to make some tweaks. The result appears to be that turn times are a bit lower at 23 seconds instead of the former 20 seconds.

Graphical effects are also seeing some updates including ship wake trails, new ship an explosion effects, new aircraft fuel tank explosions, and optimizations to some other effects too. Will have to check these out.

Oyster_KAI upgraded the cockpits for all Flying Circus Vol 1 and 2 aircraft while Martin =ICDP= Catney put together new 4K skins for the Hs129B-2.

One thing that didn’t make this patch is the new detailed fuel model. It was hoped for but not quite ready to go so look for that in some other update.

Steel Birds is out too!

BlackSix’s next scripted campaign is also out. The campaign is available separately for $9.99 (with a $2 discount still on) and features 15 missions for the Fw190A-5. These aircraft were used in the fighter-bomber role dropping bombs, strafing vehicle convoys, and facing down swarms of fighters over the Kuban in 1943.

I’m also pleased to be able to show off the latest campaign trailer. I worked with BlackSix and a near finished version of the campaign to put together a cinematic that I hope entertains and maybe entices people to check out the latest campaign. It’s a cinematic campaign with large numbers of aircraft, dramatic explosions and low level attack runs, and relatively quick missions. I’ll have a full review out later but in the meantime check out the trailer and visit the store if you’re interested.

So, clearly a lot of cool content on display here. If you want to see the full changelog, visit this thread on the IL-2 forum.