A new free campaign for IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Normandy is on the way. Titled ‘Wings over Caen,’ this historically-based scripted campaign is intended to give us a thrilling experience with the Typhoon over the Normandy map during the heyday of its use as a close air support aircraft. Let’s have a look!
Typhoon triumphant
A key weapon in the Allied arsenal were the fighter-bombers of the RAF 2nd Tactical Air Force and USAAF 9th Air Force with a considerable number of them being made up of the infamous Hawker Typhoon. The fighter experienced a second life as a fighter-bomber and its successes in the skies of Normandy were well known.
Although Allied fighter-bombers were, in post war counting, only able to knock out a few tanks, their affect on softer targets and the overall psychological impact of the constant bombardment of these fighters had a notable mark on the course of the Normandy invasion. Constant support of Allied troops in the Caen area during the invasion was necessary to crack the embattled city just inland from the invasion beaches. This is the story that 1CGS is going to tell with ‘Wings over Caen.’
The campaign is going to put pilots in RAF No. 245 (Northern Rhodesia) Squadron and covers the period between June 27 and July 27, 1944 during some of the most intense fighting in the area. The notes released today by 1CGS suggest that anti-aircraft, artillery, and anti-tank weapon suppression, destruction of enemy transports and armored vehicles, and free hunt missions are among some of the types of scenarios that the campaign will cover.
The campaign appears to have been done by in-house mission developer BlackSix who has done several excellent campaigns in the past including Steel Birds and Ice Ring. If past campaigns are any indication, missions will be short and action packed.
No other updates
I am personally excited about the release of a scripted campaign featuring the Typhoon. This is an aircraft that has been somewhat underserved by WWII flight sims over the last couple of decades and so getting this fighter in the sim was a huge triumph on its own. Featuring it in a detailed scripted campaign is great.
That all said, the reaction from the community has been muted somewhat by the lack of news on other items and with a shortage of recent updates there has been a buildup in questions from all over the community.
In the short run, we know that there is still new content coming such as the already announced IAR80/81, Spitfire XIV bubble canopy variant, and the Bf109G-6A/S. Other content has been alluded to, however, it seems likely that we won’t see any significant news for quite some time from the 1CGS team about the bigger projects.
Although the 1CGS Q&A back in the fall left us with more questions than answers, it does seem increasingly likely that the Great Battles Series is moving to a kind of legacy updating status while the team builds something new. I’ve speculated on what that might be right here.
We may not get news on that for a while. In the meantime, Great Battles content continues to come out including this new campaign coming for free to all Battle of Normandy owners.
Stormbirds 
That is a nice project and hope it goes well. I had given up flying GB and doubt this will bring me back, but I do appreciate the intention and effort.
I remain mystified by their approach to comms. If nature abhors a vacuum, then internet fora will bend it over, tear it a new one and then descend into an orgy of blood and conspiracy theories.
That does not encourage sales.
Say something cheerful – even vague – but say something. Between DCS and MSFS they are only going to lose revenue and market share.
But…Russians. Learning nothing since 1917.
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Putting my comms manager hat on, a vacuum can really be a problem for reputation. Here I think it’s been tarnished a bit.
They don’t have to give away the whole thing but some sort of update would probably be good. It doesn’t take much.
I have heard but not been able to corroborate that FC Vol 3 was confirmed by one of the developers on the Russian language forum. That’d be a good one to mention.
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I don’t mean to trod anybody or anything through mud here, I feel they should do FC3 after Drop Tanks and reworked fuel systems are in the game and there’s an AI B-17 or at the very least is halfway done. The game has been going downhill for a while, FC and its development is not how everyone hoped it would be and some time has been diverted to fix problems with it.
I would say, focus on the main product, fix issues like the pilot is killed too often, make it so you are warned if an enemy is on your 6, you are able to ask for help, the gunner(s) or Radio Man is able to spot enemy planes for you, give us radio comms and commands like in IL-2 1946 and CloD, give us a heavy bomber, reworked fuel systems, and tweak FC where necessary.
Once all of the above is done, then do FC3.
As I said, I’m not scapegoating FC or anyone here, what I want to see is more attention on the main game as the devs are making a WW2 game, not a WW1 or arcade game like WT, and imo, adding WW1 planes to a high-fidelity WW2 game is something you do when there’s not much left to do.
Cheers
Novice
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Stepping away from what should or should not happen, I suspect that only Flying Circus Vol 3 is on the table right now. And only then because they said it.
It sounds like fuel systems has been dropped and that aside from some more minor content upgrades to the Great Battles Series they are no longer working on it. That was what their Q&A more or less said but in a very vague way.
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Yeah, living in a country where expressing honest opinions or thoughts can literally get you thrown in jail is probably not conducive to good communication skills or openness. The poor guy on the recent youtube update looked terrified.
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That’s a good point. No doubt hurts more open and honest communication styles.
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Yeah, maybe I’m just disillusioned, but it not that hard. Just say:
“Project x and y in progress – sorry cannot be more specific but our neighbour’s cat died and it had thrown our schedule.
Meanwhile, we have some kickass ideas and concepts for this year but owing to a / b / c we cannot yet be quite specific. Hopefully by March we can lay out a rough roadmap.”
There ya go: hope and goodwill restored. Some info, but caveated. Can always mess around subsequently with an apology that things did not quite work out.
But at least say something before goodwill levels start to plummet from their already diminishing levels…
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Honestly, the fact that the guy who was modeling fuel systems and drop tanks as, well, fuel systems and drop tanks has left the company (and the country), and the guy now running the show is not only the guy who wanted drop tank implementation to be ‘like bombs, but add some fuel’ but also the guy behind the idiotic unlock modification system back before Jason took over bodes pretty terribly.
I love flying Great Battles with my buddies, but the new management, the lack of communication or any kind, and the, frankly, sinister way they run the forums will ensure no further business from me..
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Expending the members in the development team, while still silence on the real improvements. Why not publish the future plans like DCS did. I still suspect they’re going to do a massive game engine overhaul, that is not compatible to the actual IL2 series. Similar like we did see earlier on ROF to BOS. Who knows there going to use the FS2020 game engine to develop an CFS3/IL2 game only now for Microsoft.
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Exactly. If you want to sell stuff and make money look how people do it. DCS has a mixed reputation but I think they have come a long way recently. GB is going backwards rapidly. I wonder how many deleted posts / bans etc. have occurred as the mood turns against them. I got banned and I have not bothered to post since.
It’s, it’s almost like there is some kind of pattern here…
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There seems an increasing sense that GB is on the way out, but the developers lack the social skills or business sense to manage it. Paint me utterly not surprised.
Rock on, Jason, whatever happier place where you are at.
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Running a business which is based on pre-ordering and early-access requires consumer faith. I guess the last 3 months serve as an prime example how not-to-do this kind of business.
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