Battlegroup42 1.5 - RELEASE DATE SET! news

The team has shown much of the new content in the previous news releases, that you will see in Battlegroup42 1.5. There are so many new, high quality models done by our hard working 3D artists and coders in the last weeks and months - more than in every previous release of BG42. Additionally there are many more fixes and adjustments "under the hood" such as the small arms damage system (headshots will now kill instantly with any weapon) and explosives (e.g. plane dropped bomblets). Also we picked up critics about the missing coax machine guns of the japanese tanks. Though this is historical correct, it leads to a disadvantage of the japanese in close combat against infantry. Following our rule "gameplay first" we found a solution for this, giving the japanese tanks HE shells. This will make them much more effective against infantry, offering a splash damage comparable with hand grenades.

Speaking of japanese tanks: Bommel has done a modified Shinhoto Chi-Ha by changing the gun barrel, and created a Chi-Ha 120mm SP gun. The tank was a conversion of the japanese Navy, exchanging the weak 47mm gun for a short-barreled 120mm naval gun. A few of these conversions were done in the last months of the war, and there are few reports of its use as well - to say it in an euphemistic way. One can assume, at least some of them were used during the final battles, e.g. on Okinawa.

And that´s where you will find the "Super Chi-Ha" in BG42: Last minute we managed to add two more maps to Battlegroup42 1.5, one of them based on the battle for the Shuri line in April / May 1945. After they met little resistance during the initial landings on Okinawa, the Americans were caught in a bloody stalemate at this defense line across the Okinawa isthmus. It took them two months to achieve a final breakthrough. The map was created by Sarge Surfat and is about a japanese counterattack on May 4th, 1945, which saw one of the rare large scale tank engagements between the Americans and the Japanese of the war.

Sarge Surfat also refurbished a community map about the liberation of St. Mere Eglise in the very first hours of D-Day, when US airborne troops were dropped at the city to secure the important road crossing there. The map became a night map with push mode and features impressing ambient sounds. It is playable with a small amount of players and focused in infantry combat.

On the very last minute also RuppDee came up with an Owen SMG, which will replace the Sten in the arsenal of our Australian troops. This very good weapon was an indigenous design and delivered in large numbers to the Australian army. It proved to be an effective and reliable weapon and was used by the Australians until the late 50-ies.

You will get an overview of all changes in the changelog we will publish together with the client files of Battlegroup42 1.5 on thursday, November 6th, at around 12:00 am (GMT+1). Serveradmins, who want to set up a BG42 server, will get the server files from now on. The client files are also available for the mirrors which will host them. Please contact Sarge31FR via www.battlegroup42.de,, he will provide you with the download links.