Two new aircraft and the Gulf of Finland map arrive today with the official launch of IL-2 Sturmovik: Odessa and Leningrad – Siege and Liberation and version 7.001. The update is a big one for the ongoing development of the Great Battles series though the story is also clearly not quite over yet. Let’s have a look.

New map, new aircraft, a few things still to come

The primary content of IL-2 Sturmovik: Odessa and Leningrad – Siege and Liberation has now all arrived with the arrival of the long in development Gulf of Finland map, the La-7 and IL-2 Model 1944. The update also comes with the initial Career offering for both Odessa and Finland maps. That’s a big update and enough, according to 1CGS, to warrant the version change to 7.001.

Two timelines for Odessa (1941 and 1944) and one for Leningrad (1941) have been implemented so far, however, one additional one will be added for Leningrad. This will comprise a total of 15 chapters (which further segment the career mode).

For the Gulf of Finland, summer and winter seasons have been added and spring, autumn and a transitional pre-winter and post-winter season will be added as well bringing the total to five.

These additional add-ons to the product are planned to arrive in Q2 – that’s April to June.

In addition to all new content, just over a dozen updates have arrived including fixes to calculating coolant leakage, career mode updates (including added night intruder and combat patrol missions for the 110), and bug fixes.

Additional development reveals are coming for IL-2 Great Battles with the following news:

Work on the “Siege and Liberation” module is not the only thing we plan to do this year for Great Battles. Soon, we plan to make an important announcement about something new and long-awaited that will be coming to you in the near future. Stay tuned for news and stay in touch!

We’ve heard previously that five, previously unannounced, aircraft are in development. It sounds like we’ll find out what these are soon and how they fit into the current mix of aircraft for the series. My best guess continues to be some Finnish front specific types but we’ll have to see!

Ram Squadron campaign arrives

Campaign maker Alexander =BlackSix= Timoshkov has released his latest creation: Ram Squadron! This is a campaign based around the exploits of RCAF 401st squadron actions during the summer of 1944. You’ll be flying the Spitfire IXc over the Normandy map in this campaign.

The description says that the campaign will feature both large scale aerial combat and ground attacks and the campaign will culminate in missions to destroy the encircled Falaise Pocket. According to the store information, the campaign is 15 missions long and average playtime is 10 hours.

The campaign is a paid add-on coming in at $9.99 USD regularly and with a slight launch discount for $8.99 USD. It’s on the official store and on Steam.

Read all of these updates here!