Battlegroup42 1.6 - Soviets Strike Back! news

We will tell you of course what those projects are about. To start with, there´s Dusty Miller´s "Global Strategic Map" project which is still in the process of being built. In this project you can see on a world map where the original battlefields were which are resembled in our maps, accompanied with the loadscreens and ingame maps. You can find the link to this project in our links section on www.battlegroup42.de or here.

The second project we´re introducing today is from Scottsman. You might already know his teaser videos in which he shows the battleship USS Washington and the T-26 tank. Scotty has created his own BG42 video channel on Youtube where you can watch all of his video creations. The most current video is presenting the new Crusader Mk. II tank. Curious ? Then visit Youtube.com

Now let´s pay attention to our new models which are awaiting you in Battlegroup42 1.6. Again we have managed to convert some of the fantastic vehicles from BGF and to replace and retire older, low quality models from BG42. For example, our old BT-7 tank was replaced by a new BGF model which was made by Koricus. The BT-7 was the last model of the BT series which had been produced in the Soviet Union since 1933 and formed the base of the develpoment of the famous T-34 tank. The light BT tanks were the fastest tracked vehicles in this time. For longer road trips the tracks could even be removed. But in order to reduce weight its armor was only suited to protect from infantry weapons and grenade fragments. The BT-7 was armed with a 45mm cannon which was first used in the border skirmishes with Japan in 1939. Along with the T-26 it formed the main part of the soviet armored forces in summer of 1941 when Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Thousands of BT tanks were literally used as cannon fodder until enough of the new T-34 tanks were available.

The KV-2, our next new model, is another typical tank from the first phase of the war on the Eastern Front. 334 of those behemoths were built between 1939 and 1941, used as heavy assault tanks in the war against Finland where their 152mm howitzers proved to be very successfull as bunker busters. The armor of the KV-2 was impenetrable for the anti tank weapons of this time, only heavy artillery and direct bomb hits were able to knock it out. Tactical errors, mechanical problems und lack of fuel in the first few months of Operation Barbarossa hindered the KV-2 to unfold its full fighting capability against the Wehrmacht. But when used in the proper way it literally caused panic among the german troops. There are reports after which single, strategically wise placed KV-2s hindered the advance of german units for almost two days. This model was also done by Koricus.

We were also able to replace or old BA-64 model with the one from BGF, modeled by Koricus and skinned by Tha Godfather. The BA-64 was a lightly armored scout car which was armed with a 7,62mm DT machinegun in an open turret and could be found at the front since mid of 1942. It was based on the chassis of the GAZ-64 (later GAZ-67) jeep and proved to be highly efficient in its role because of its mobility. It was also used as combat vehicle in urban battles and as anti aircraft vehicle.

Let´s come to the last point for today, this time something completely new which has never been before in Battlegroup42. We´re talking about the MiG-3, a soviet fighter plane which was built from autumn of 1940 on. Although inferior to the BF109 below 5000 meters, above 5000 meters the MiG-3 made up for it's weaker armament with it's agilty at high altitude, making it an excellent interceptor. The MiG-3 proved its worthiness in the defense of Moscow where it shot down many german bombers as well as escorting fighters. Like all models in this news it was converted and coded by Sarge31FR.

That´s it for today. We have released a second test build of BG42 1.6 to our testers and a public release in spring is likely. Until then there´ll be more news - we still have some surprises in the sleeve !