BG42 announces a bright light on the horizon! After weeks of taunting you with pictures and forum posts, we have great news! The release of Version 1.35 is nearly here! Bigger, better, MORE stable online!
After months of debugging map code, we have uncovered and repaired the instabilities in our last releases! Even now, our coders are putting the finishing touches on the few remaining maps that are not 100% stable. In the meantime, we have some mouthwatering stuff for you to drool over! We have screenshots from our Secret Development Section, revealing new features and units! Lets have a look together!
BG42 now brings you the authentic Japanese stationary and vehicle mounted weapons you've been "dying" for! No more german equipment in the pacific theatre, an yes, we now have a proper anti-aircraft gun for the Japanese army. It is the 25mm Model 96 gun, derived from French/Romanian designed Hotchkiss 25mm AA/AT Heavy Machine Gun. This gun was the standard medium antiaircraft weapon of the Imperial Japanese Navy. It was used on vessels (usually in triple mounts) as well as in land bases and along the combat front.
For stationary defenses we now have the Type92 Heavy Machine gun, called the "Woodpecker" by allied soldiers because of its characteristic sound (which we have ripped for the mod from an original source!) The Type92 has a weight of 55 kilos including a tripod mount and a caliber of 7,7mm. Ammo was fed by metallic trays with 30 rounds each. It was the standard heavy machine gun of the Japanese army from 1932 on and regulary operated by a crew of four men.
All vehicle mounted machine guns were replaced by the lighter Type 99 machine gun, which is well known as a infantry weapon, but was also widely used as a weapon for self and air defense on vehicles. It weighed 11,4 kilos and uses the same 7,7mm ammo as the Woodpecker. It has less muzzle velocity than the Type 92, but a higher rate of fire.
Speaking of machine guns, we also have the new MG15, which replaces the self-defense MG42 in all German bombers. The MG15 was especially developed for this use by Rheinmetal in 1934. It has a caliber of 7,92mm and a rate of fire of 1000 rounds per minute. It was used in single mounts on german airplanes, especially in the early stage of the war. The second new german airplane weapon we have is the MG81. It began to replace the MG15 from the beginning of the war. It was belt fed and had a much higher rate of fire: 1600 rounds per minute! On several planes, like the He111, it was used in a twin mount with a combined rate of fire of 3000 rpm! And our soviet troops now will get a mobile heavy machine gun, the watercooled Maxim M1910. The red army used this gun in World war I as well as in World War II, where it was replaced by more modern successors from 1943 on. It had a wheeled mount which could be towed by Jeeps and fired the standard soviet 7,62mm round.
But back to the Japanese! There is another piece of new equipment we added - a tiny toy to play with called the Type 94 Te-Ke tankette. This small, thinly armored vehicle was very common within the Japanese army and served as a gun tractor, for reconnaissance and infantry support. It has a crew of two men and was armed with a single 7,7mm machine gun in a rotating turret. We recovered this nice model from the Battlegroup42 mod for Battlefield Vietnam (BGV).
We also have the T-30 by Koricus (coded and modded by DaCrapper), an upgunned and nonamphibious variant of the T-40. This version mounted a 20mm autocannon instead of the 12,7mm DSHK machine gun - making it an ideal counterpart for the German Panzer II. It was fast and highly manouverable, but thin skinned. The T-30 was used from the beginning of Operation Barbarossa for reconaissance purposes. The vehicle will have its debut on the map "Kalinin Front," where it replaces the BT-7 for balancing reasons.
Another new light vehicle is the Sdkfz. 231, a German eight wheeled armored car armed with a 20mm gun and coaxial MG34 in a rotating turret. It was the predecessor of the later Sdkfz.234 series (e.g. Puma) and saw fighting in decent numbers from the beginning of the war in Europe and Africa. It was used mainly for reconnaissance and artillery spotting. The model was donated to Battlegroup42 by Nimrod6, who created it originally for Battlegroup:Frontlines.
Now for something more heavy! Finally, we have a decent piece of armor for the red army on the mid war maps to counter the new heavy german tanks. It is the SU-152, an assault gun based on the KV-1 chassis. It mounts a 152mm howitzer with devastating firepower, and first saw action during the battle of Kursk in summer 1943, where it proved successful by destroying a number of heavy German Tiger and Ferdinand tanks.
The next new vehicle is a conversion of our Sturmgeschütz III G. We replaced its 75mm gun with a 105mm howitzer, added a machine gun on the roof top and our new wire mesh side skirts! The resulting vehicle was called the Sturmhaubitze 42. It was developed for infantry support, since the regular StuG IIIG were more and more used as tank destroyers. The StuH 42 was armed with a 105mm leFH18 howitzer and used for close fire support and bunker-busting. Some of our Co-op maps will sport a two-seater (gunner/driver) version for Bot use! Our Bots now excel at providing artillery support upon demand!
In order to continually improve existing BG42 content, we reworked our Hetzer tank destroyer. It now sports correct wheel textures and new tracks, along with a remodelled gun and gun manlet. We also now have brand new M4 Sherman, M4A4 "Sherman III", and Sherman Firefly models! These will replace our older models (of the same name) in all maps. The new 1.35 build of BG42 will also include some new winter skins for several vehicles, such like the SU-100 tank destroyer.
Another new feature comes with the submarines. In BG42 now every kind of ship has some anti-aircraft equipment. This includes the submarines and the LCT, which now are all fitted with a single 20mm Oerlikon gun for self defense.
And now for something unique, born from one of DaCrapper's Secret Projects, our new Harley Davidson motorcycle! Yes, it's a one-seater! It drives like the real thing and even leans into the turns! Harleys were widely used by the allies for scouting, communications, and military police duties. Bots love it, so be prepared for a few "early" Hell's Angels coming to your Theater of War, soon!
And last but not least, we have two new members who joined our modding team: Bommel will strengthen our coding division from now on, with a focus on getting new airplanes ingame. The second one is Cabrio, who will do some new and unique statics for our mod. So expect some surprises in our next big build, BG42 1.4! And if you also want to join our cause, just drop a not in our recruitment forums. We especially looking for skinners and unwrappers.
For those wishing to play online the [MOB] server holds games every Wednesday and Sunday from 8pm GMT+1. The IP of the server is 81.169.151.27:14568 and it is in Germany. The server is currently running v1.33 but will update to v1.35 upon release.
