Next PWCG: Kuban Mountains

[PatrickAWlson]

I have extended the Kuban dates back to July 1942.  That covers the German advance leading up to Stalingrad.  Most important, it lets you fly over the Kuban hills.

 

My first test run went OK.  A dogfight happened and the AI didn't seem to crash any worse than normal (aside: I remember one of the dev diaries talking about improving AI terrain avoidance for Kuban.  Hopefully that carries over to everything).  Further, I looked the the map and most of the elevations are really not that high: < 400 meters.  Last, the highest mountains (approaching 3000 meters) are in the corner of the map and not really near anything.  Looking for feedback as I have very limited experience with this map area.  Anything that needs doing for good missions?

[Wolfram-Harms]

Hey, Pat! Great to hear that you did Kuban. The area is especially great for beginners, as it offers such a good orientation.

You can hardly get totally lost here, like in an inland winter map.

 

Knowing nothing about the real Kuban fighting in WW2, I can only suggest some good targets for ship attacks,

as the Black Sea really offers some good space here. Seems the whole air war in Russia was rather at lower altitude.
That suggests, that it was a lot about destroying supply routes - or sheltering those.

During the German retreat, roads and railway lines must have been targets for the Russians to attack, and for the Germans to cover.

 

German WIKIPEDIA has this for the history of the Kuban area:

The whole area is named after the river Kuban, which flows through it.

The Kuban-Region today is important for it's agriculture. It also was, especially in the mid 20th century, for it's oil resources, for example around Maikop.

For this reason it was one of the primary targets of the German Wehrmacht in the east, in the 2nd World War.

After the Caucasus Offensive was given up on 28 December 1942, a bridge-head was fortified on the Taman pininsula for the German retreat, which could be held until 9 October 1943.

It allowed the retreat of the majority of the troops of Heeresgruppe A from the Caucasus.

 

Perhaps that fortified bridge-head on Taman would be a good addition, if you can build it somehow?

Thank you for making all this, Patrick!

[No105_Swoose]

That's great news!  I'll be looking forward to flying an IL-2 mod 1942 to try to slow down Operation Edelweiss and delay the capture of Novorossisyk.