Big day for the IL-2: Great Battles Series as the World War I based Flying Circus Vol 2 reaches officially released status, Flying Circus Vol 3 and beyond get a confirmation, and the latest update also brings us the Spitfire XIVe with bubble canopy. Oh and Wings over Caen Typhoon campaign for Battle of Normandy also released today. Let’s dig into all of the details.
Volume 2, Volume 3, and beyond
Great Battles has a bit more life left in it than I thought after today’s announcement. First, the part that we knew was coming is the release of Flying Circus Volume 2.
Update 5.101, released today, marks the end of Volume 2 development and it delivers on the last major feature for Flying Circus. Career mode is finally here and it brings Flying Circus up to par with the World War II offerings.
Flying Circus Vol 2 includes ten aircraft, the Western Front 1918 map, and Career mode along with support for Scripted Campaigns and the Quick Mission Builder.
The launch today is accompanied by a launch trailer by Soto Cinematics. Enjoy!
If that was all that we were going to learn today it would have sufficed. But we do have more new information with the announcement of both Volume 3 and future plans.
The announcement today reveals that 1C Game Studios have partnered again with Ugra Media to develop the next release of Flying Circus. This volume will have eight aircraft. They are:
- German Albatros D.II fighter
- German fighter Halberstadt D.II
- French Nieuport 17.C1 fighter
- French Nieuport 11.C1 fighter
- French fighter Nieuport 17.C1 GBR adapted for British service
- French Hanriot HD.1 fighter.
- British two-seat reconnaissance aircraft R.E.8.
- British two-seat medium bomber F.E.2b.
Volume 3 will also bring further improvements to the Western Front map adding more details to the remaining sectors of the map while also adding new industrial sectors, farms, and frontline objects. Five seasons will also be added: Summer, early Autumn, late Autumn / early Spring, and Winter.
Here’s an interesting piece to all of this too. The announcement today says that early access will begin this summer and that release is expected before the end of the year. That’s an aggressive timeline. It seems doable given the similarities between some of the aircraft coming or already introduced such as the two Nieuport 17 variants and the Nieuport 11 or the Albatross II and the already released Albatross D.V.
And that isn’t quite it either as today’s announcement also says that there are plans for follow-up content in 2024 where an additional set of aircraft will be developed with Ugra Media to develop the remaining land-based aircraft.
That pack will include:
- British Sopwith Pup fighter.
- British rear-engine fighter Airco DH.2.
- British two-seat reconnaissance Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter.
- German fighter Albatros D.III.
- German Fokker E.III monoplane fighter.
- German two-seat reconnaissance Roland C.IIa.
The note about land based craft is specific as it appears that the seaplane Felixstowe F.2A and Brandenburg W12 are unlikely to appear along with the Channel map that was added to Rise of Flight.
1CGS did say the following about how the 2024 project would continue to improve the product overall.
We plan to further improve the maps of Flying Circus projects, supplement their development and add the airfields that are located further from the front line. Please note that the Western Front map is available to all players who have purchased at least one of the Flying Circus projects. This map will be further improved and supplemented.
Spitfire XIVe bubble canopy variant released
The next World War II Collector Plane for the series has also released today. The Spitfire XIVe bubble canopy variant represents a very late war version of the Spitfire XIV differing from the Battle of Normandy Premium Spitfire XIV primarily with the bubble canopy design and cut down rear fuselage.
The following modifications are available for the released aircraft:
- 150 grade fuel allowing +21 lb boost. Automatic supercharger gear shifting is disabled, stages should be manually switched at 11000 ft altitude (20 km/h estimated speed increase at sea level).
- Two 250 lb G.P. bombs with racks (250 kg weight increase, 22 km/h speed loss, 11 km/h speed loss after drop).
- 500 lb G.P. bomb with rack (237 kg weight increase, 12 km/h speed loss, 6 km/h speed loss after drop).
- Replacement of MkII Gyro Gunsight with MkII* Reflector Gunsight.
- Clipped Wing.
- Rear view mirror (1 kg weight increase, 1 km/h speed loss).
- F.24 photo camera installation behind the cockpit (28 kg weight increase). Clipped wing only.
- Rounded exhaust pipes.
The Spitfire XIVe can be bought on the IL-2 store or on Steam where the pre-order discount dropping the price to $15.99 USD currently remains in effect. The standard price of $19.99 USD is likely to become the norm starting soon but 1CGS have typically allowed the pre-order discount to go for a short time after release.
Wings over Caen, Normandy single missions released too
A free Scripted Campaign for IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Normandy owners has arrived. Wings over Caen is a 10-mission campaign that puts you into No. 245 Squadron’s Typhoon Mark IB fighter-bombers. I’m looking forward to this campaign as the action is likely to be short and sharp showcasing the effectiveness and the losses of Allied fighter-bomber squadrons immediately after the Operation Overlord invasion.
Single missions for all Battle of Normandy aircraft and the C-47 have also been released today. You can find those in the single missions section.
There are also dozens of fixes and updates in Update 5.101 so be sure to check out the full list of notes here.
Stormbirds 
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