Battlegroup42 1.6 - New Maps and some Sad News

The incomprehensible death of our colleague is the reason for us to honor his tireless and committed work for the team in this news. He was unable to finish his last map - Sarge Surfat took over the sad duty of finishing the map, just as Moeder would have wanted it. We´ll present you this map first. Its name is Merderet Bridge, a typical Moeder Theresa map with focus on infantry combat. It´s based on the famous battle in the fictive town of Ramelle which is the highlight and end of the movie "Saving Private Ryan" and portraits a battle which could have happened in this way in June 1944, shortly after the invasion in Normandy. The American troops have to conquer the bridge first and then continue their fight into town. The German troops have to counter this attack, supported by tanks and drive the American forces back across the bridge.

The presentation of the other new maps, which have all been created by Sarge Surfat, will be in chronological order. Let´s start on the Western Front of 1940. In May of this year the German troops were en-route to the English Channel coast. In order to stop them two columns of the British Expeditionary Force attacked them with infantry and tanks near the town of Arras. The British Matilda tanks proved to be almost invulnerable to the German anti tank guns and tank guns and therefore the British could advance well at first. But massive Stuka attacks and the first use of the famous 88mm AA guns as an anti tank gun stopped the British who retreated after heavy losses, especially among the infantry. This map resembles this battle in the woods of Arras.

Our next map is also based on an event in May 1940, only this time it happened in the Netherlands. There the Dutch forces had built the Peel-Raamline, a fortification line consisting of bunkers and trenches designed to stop the Germans from advancing further inland. The Germans planned to break through this line in a swift action using four trains, just a few minutes after the attack on the Netherlands began. One of those trains crossed the river Rhine at Gennep, passed the train station at the town of Mill and actually got behind the Peel-Raamlinie, according to plan. But it left the radio range so that the troops on-board couldn´t tell the main force about their success. As the train moved backwards a bit in order to come back within radio range the Dutch managed to derail the train. The developing battle delayed the German advance for one day and caused a high number of casualties for the attackers.

The next map switches the theatre and shines a light on the events on the Eastern Front shortly after the German attack on the Soviet Union. There, in June of 1941, a big tank battle took place near Kiev which got down in history as the "Battle of Brody". It was the biggest tank battle in history before Prokhorovka two years later. In a desperate attempt to stop the German advance the Soviets threw more than 1000 tanks into battle. The four days of battle that followed caused horrid casualties on both sides, finally resulting in a Russian defeat when the Luftwaffe managed to cut off Russian supply lines. The map was originally created by =MAD= but was completely reworked by Sarge Surfat.

Anysailors out there should keep the next map in mind, because on "Channel Patrol" you´re fighting for supremacy over the dangerous waters of the English Channel. Mostly unnoticed by the public, motor boats and minelayers fought a desperate sea battle throughout the war to disrupt the enemy´s shipping lanes as well as to secure their own shipping lanes. This action-packed map is based on the BG42 map "Intruder Mission" but plays during daylight in a dense, typical "channel mist". Goal of the map is to conquer and hold three sea based flags. During testing we had a lot of fun playing this map, and it also has a little surprise for you - if you look at the screenshots carefully you might find it.

A whole different scenario is our next map "Battle for Lae". In September of 1943 Australian and American troops were in the process of completely removing Japanese forces from the island of New Guinea. One of those campaigns had the goal of conquering the Huan peninsula with its important Japanese bases in Finschhaven and Lae. The Australian landed with tanks and infantry east of Lae without encountering any resistance and attacked the Japanese in their flank. Here in the tropics it was proven that the Matilda tank, although no longer the "Queen of the desert" still was the "Queen of the jungle". This map with its nice ambient sounds also features the new Tribal class destroyer.

Our last new map for today brings us back to Europe´s Western Front, to one of the few decisive tank battles which happened there. In November of 1944 US tank spearheads attacked in the area between Geilenkirchen and Linnich to allow the US Army to cross the river Roer. But the Germans wanted to prevent them from doing that at all costs - as they were in the midst of preparing the Ardennes offensive. They concentrated their heaviest and most modern tanks on the Roer plains in order to stop the Americans, who didn´t know anything about this hornet´s nest. The US tanks took heavy casualties while trying to defend the village of Puffendorf and advancing on Gereonsweiler - the bad weather and the resulting mud robbed the Shermans of their mobility, having only narrow tracks, and fighter planes couldn´t intervene in the battle. Finally, massive usage of tank hunters and artillery cleared the way.

That´s all for today. Next time we´ll show you more new vehicles and weapons which we are preparing for Battlegroup42 1.6. So stay tuned and don´t forget to visit us at www.battlegroup42.de