We’ve got some news coming in this week about Odessa and Leningrad – Siege and Liberation for IL-2 Great Battles. The add-on has been out for a while but 1CGS are still working on some of the details for it with plans detailed on adding dozens of additional points of interest and seasonal variations to both Leningrad and Odessa maps. Together with those updates are career mode extensions adding more chapters, more playable squadrons and options for more operations over the course of the seasons. Let’s have a look!

Expanded career options

We start with Career mode and the new chapters that the series is adding to the mix. There are now eight chapters in total for Leningrad spanning 1941-1942 and then picking up again in 1944.

Defense of Leningrad, 1941–1942

• Chapter 1. “The Noose Tightens” (06.09.1941 — 25.09.1941)
• Chapter 2. “The Blockade” (26.09.1941 — 06.01.1942)
• Chapter 3. “The Lyuban Offensive” (07.01.1942 — 30.04.1942)

Liberation of Leningrad, 1944

• Chapter 1. “January Thunder” (14.01.1944 — 02.02.1944)
• Chapter 2. “The Narva Bridgehead” (03.02.1944 — 23.04.1944)
• Chapter 3. “Preparations for the Offensive”  (24.04.1944 — 08.06.1944)
• Chapter 4. “The Vyborg Offensive”  (09.06.1944 — 23.07.1944)
• Chapter 5. “The Narva Offensive”  (24.07.1944 — 04.09.1944)

The same treatment is being given to Odessa with seven total chapters.

Defense of Odessa, 1941

• Chapter 1. “The Border Battle” (22.06.1941 — 16.07.1941)
• Chapter 2. “The Front Breaks” (17.07.1941 — 10.08.1941)
• Chapter 3. “The Siege of Odessa” (11.08.1941 — 16.10.1941)

Liberation of Odessa, 1944

• Chapter 1. “Liberation of Odessa” (02.04.1944 — 09.05.1944)
• Chapter 2. “Counterstrikes” (10.05.1944 — 08.06.1944)
• Chapter 3. “The Summer Lull” (09.06.1944 — 19.08.1944)
• Chapter 4. “The Jassy–Kishinev Offensive” (20.08.1944 — 27.08.1944)

In these career mode options, 72 player-accessible squadrons will be available for Leningrad and 73 will be available for Odessa. So there are no shortage of units to fly with.

Early war aircraft added in the update are also coming to career modes for Battle of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kuban.

Karttakompania, the developers of many sections of the Leningrad map, are working to add Finland to the career mode as well.

Map updates

To support all of these chapters are map updates that will give the Leningrad and Finnish Gulf region additional seasons. Winter and summer are already available, however, we’re now getting autumn, spring and a transitional season that bridges the two.

In addition to the seasonal updates, they also report that the work to add more details to the map has extended its size. It is now 35% bigger with the total size growing to 310 km × 270 km.

Autumn and transitional seasonal variations are on display in these images.

And here are just a few of the landmarks and regional updates.

There are also updated visuals for the Leningrad city area and there are new fields that better represent the kind of agriculture in the area.

Odessa also picks up an autumn seasonal variation as well.

There are more details on the various points of interest available through the latest Dev Blog update. Definitely check it out for more information.