IL2 Great Battles: Odessa and Leningrad

[LukeFF]

Hey everyone! Viktor Sechnoy is back to discuss with Daniel Tuseev our upcoming Siege and Liberation module: the aircraft, the maps, and a hint at what comes next.  

 

 

[FeuerFliegen]

Any timeline on pre-order, early access, final release, etc.?

[LukeFF]

You'll know soon! 🙂

[sevenless]

Awesome news and great content on Siege and Liberation!

[JG4_Moltke1871]

Please give the Stukas oil cooler shutter the right labelling from the beginning 😉

[BlitzPig_EL]

Love that title art.  a biplane smoking a 109.  

[AEthelraedUnraed]

Great news, sign me up for the early access!

I have one small question, maybe I just missed it, but are any G-2 versions planned for the Stuka? I.e. a D-5 with 3.7cm cannons?

 

(@Aapje what did I say 2 weeks ago about a big announcement in 2 weeks? )

[l_commando]

I would've been interested to play the Siege of Leningrad in it's entirety through 1942-43, but I'm very pleasantly surprised at the career lengths!

[Humbre79]

New airplanes will be announced later. That's  very good news!

The Ju87b2 would be a great addition, it played an important role in both maps and could also be useful in the Moscow map. 

 

[Avimimus]

58 minutes ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Great news, sign me up for the early access!

I have one small question, maybe I just missed it, but are any G-2 versions planned for the Stuka? I.e. a D-5 with 3.7cm cannons?

 

(@Aapje what did I say 2 weeks ago about a big announcement in 2 weeks? )

 

LukeFF mentioned in a previous thread that the G-2 is one of the modifications that are planned.

[jg123410]

This is so cool!!!!!!!

[sevenless]

2 hours ago, AEthelraedUnraed said:

Great news, sign me up for the early access!

I have one small question, maybe I just missed it, but are any G-2 versions planned for the Stuka? I.e. a D-5 with 3.7cm cannons?

 

(@Aapje what did I say 2 weeks ago about a big announcement in 2 weeks? )

 

Victor mentioned it in the vid. Yes the G2 will be in.

[Jackfraser24]

3 hours ago, Humbre79 said:

The Ju87b2 would be a great addition, it played an important role in both maps and could also be useful in the Moscow map. 

 

Agreed. The Ju-87 B-2 would be a fabulous addition to Great Battles, especially for Battle of Moscow pilot career and AQMB. 

3 hours ago, Humbre79 said:

New airplanes will be announced later. That's  very good news!

Indeed it is. But what is most likely if it were down to only eight more planes? I’ll have a guess:

 

Finns

• Blenheim Mk.IV
• B-239 
• D.XXI Sarja 
• G.50Bis
• Hawk 75A

Soviets

• Pe-3Bis
• Tomahawk Mk.IIa/b
• SB-2

Just a harmless guess, right or no? At the end of the day we’ll have to wait and see what they bring us. I’ll be happy with anything.

 

Edited May 22 by Jackfraser24

[Juri_JS]

Any info if we will also get new late war AI vehicles? T-34-85 and IS-2 for example.

[Avimimus]

3 hours ago, Juri_JS said:

Any info if we will also get new late war AI vehicles? T-34-85 and IS-2 for example.

 

...or infantry? It'd be neat to have PTRD and Panzerfaust teams!

 

Also, there is potential for an Axis destroyer... of course, this all probably comes down to third parties.

 

 

5 hours ago, Jackfraser24 said:

But what is most likely if it were down to only eight more planes?

 

I'm pretty sure that any further aircraft will be released as Collector Planes (or possibly as a micro-DLC plane back with three or four planes). I don't see any reason for them to release eight planes, especially as the Finland map is being included with Odessa.

[Sandmarken]

39 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

or infantry? It'd be neat to have PTRD and Panzerfaust teams!

 

Also, there is potential for an Axis destroyer... of course, this all probably comes down to third parties.

 

And do not forget some static planes! For the Odessa front, a static IAR 80 model and a Romanian 109E-4. A static C-47 could double as a Li-2.

 

 

And will we finally have Romania as a separate nation? It would be good if they were, and also had their own tactical codes, as they differed from the Luftwaffe's!

[No105_Swoose]

Great, informative update video! Wonderful to see that World War Two flight sims are alive and thriving thanks to the developers and 1C Games.  Can’t wait for Odessa and Leningrad pre-order.

[IckyATLAS]

Excellent. This will be a major kind of GB Revival.

 

I must say that I was doubtful about any effort on GB after Korea was announced. 

I have been proven wrong. Odessa, Leningrad and later Karelia. Did not expect so much.

Multiple careers new planes and variants.

Large maps, a lot of new buildings representative of the regions, and so on and so forth. 

 

The dev teem deserves an applause, but now that you made us drooling, it is time to deliver.

We will watch carefully this space for announcements!

 

I have a small question. The new Junker variant will have landing legs detachable.

Doing that effort why than not to have drop tanks on one or two, or even just one fighter model.

Without having a too complex fuel management system with all the dials precisely simulating everything, just for the fun of it a simple implementation could be done.

When you have a drop tank you just consume the fuel in it and once empty or if you drop it it will switch automatically to the inner tanks and from there the simulation is as it is know.

 

Edited May 22 by IckyATLAS

[BladeMeister]

A good video, very informative. Just waiting for the early access and especially the "seagull" as the Ruskies love to call it.

The Chaika is going to be fun to knife fight some of the foolish early 109 pilots in. Now if we only had the Fiat CR.42 Falco, we could have knife fights in  phone booths. I am really looking forward to Odessa and Leningrad. I am also interested in the future addon planes in the works. Did I see an early war 2 engine Russian bomber in one of the pics toward the end of the vid? Maybe AI only? DB 3, TU2? Maybe I was seeing things?    Good work Gents!

 

S!Blade<><

[Avimimus]

50 minutes ago, BladeMeister said:

Did I see an early war 2 engine Russian bomber in one of the pics toward the end of the vid? Maybe AI only? DB 3, TU2? Maybe I was seeing things?    Good work Gents!

 

S!Blade<><

 

Timestamp?

 

They did say that twin engine types were unlikely - but I do wonder what types might exist in these theatres if they did twin engined types?

[Vendigo]

2 hours ago, IckyATLAS said:

Odessa, Leningrad and later Karelia. Did not expect so much.

 

 

But Leningrad IS Karelia, isn't it? 

[Aapje]

They just called it Leningrad because way more people know that name than Karelia.

[Vishnu]

I'm sooo looking forward to this.....Can't wait for Karelia and all the aircraft!

[Trooper117]

Very interesting stuff...

[Avimimus]

It'll be neat to try the 'alternate history' 3xUB version of the La-7 (i.e. if both entered service a bit sooner).

This flexibility on the part of the devs would also seemingly make a He-162 Collector Aircraft possible (if a 3rd party proposed it).

[Sonko]

very good, looking forwards to the release!

[=MERCS=JenkemJunkie]

4 hours ago, Avimimus said:

It'll be neat to try the 'alternate history' 3xUB version of the La-7 (i.e. if both entered service a bit sooner).

This flexibility on the part of the devs would also seemingly make a He-162 Collector Aircraft possible (if a 3rd party proposed it).

BDE genius level decision making. Every plane should follow this example.

[ZPA_Malan]

On 5/21/2025 at 5:26 PM, Humbre79 said:

New airplanes will be announced later. That's  very good news!

It may be the brewster and g.50 we've already seen hinted here - but if others are on the table, I'm hoping for a late p39. Totally fits the 44 timeline for both maps. Minimal exterior changes needed, could even be another engine mod to the existing plane? would require wing gun removal, that's mostly how the late ones were delivered - along with a 4-bladed prop on a few variants. But regardless the later engine would keep it competitive, including better performance at medium altitudes

[Avimimus]

The question of the Ju-87D-5 is interesting:

- I'd heard that the D-7/D-8 were just D-5 aircraft that were based on rebuild D models? If this is true than they only differ in minor details and we're basically getting them as well (still a gap in the B-2/R-2 though).

- The aircraft had increased a lot in weight (compared to the B or even the early D). I suspect the enlarged wing would help with safe flying (especially at night and from short airstrips) with the heavier bombloads from the later war.

The thing I've always wondered about is the SC-50/SD-70 bombs under the wings... Wouldn't it have made sense to just enlarge the central bomb (e.g. carry an SC500) rather than an SC250 and four SC-50?  I suppose it makes sense if one is diving at a shallower angle (so the bombs can bracket the target... even then - wouldn't it make sense to drop one pair of SC-50 first, than the SC-250 and then the last pair of SC-50? Also one would need to disable the automatic dive recovery system if one was doing that.

 

Anyway, the only way the SC-50 make sense to me is if one is planning on making multiple passes (or carrying them as an alternative to the SC-250... e.g. for shallower/lower attack profiles).

 

I'd be very interested if anyway knows more about this!

[LukeFF]

Yes, VikS mentions in the video that with the flame damper mod you're essentially turning the D-5 into a D-7 or D-8.

[Juri_JS]

1 hour ago, Avimimus said:

Anyway, the only way the SC-50 make sense to me is if one is planning on making multiple passes (or carrying them as an alternative to the SC-250... e.g. for shallower/lower attack profiles).

The Luftwaffe discovered early in the war that against soft targets it was more effective to drop several smaller bombs instead of one large bomb with the same amount of explosives, because the dispersal of the smaller bombs would create a larger area of destruction.

[IckyATLAS]

On 5/22/2025 at 3:04 PM, Vendigo said:

 

But Leningrad IS Karelia, isn't it? 

Correct, error from my side. That region was in part the oblast of Leningrad today Saint Petersbourg.

Will the city of Leningrad be on the Karelia map?

 

[sevenless]

50 minutes ago, IckyATLAS said:

Will the city of Leningrad be on the Karelia map?

 

 

Yep. See here:

 

[IckyATLAS]

Wow! Excellent. So It will not not be like Moscow where we just see it from afar.

We can fly over the whole city. Right?

[kraut1]

2 minutes ago, IckyATLAS said:

Wow! Excellent. So It will not not be like Moscow where we just see it from afar.

We can fly over the whole city. Right?

 

[IckyATLAS]

When there are walls, always someone will find the way to go through. So you quantum tunneled through the fly zone limit. Excellent.

But besides some central buildings the rest seem an unfinished work, with small grey boxes. 

I understand that doing a nice replica of the city would have been a very large task and time consuming.

 

Let's hope that Leningrad is more polished.

Edited May 27 by IckyATLAS

[Vendigo]

Moscow was never indended to be flyalbe, hence so very low level of details here. On the contrary, Leningrad is supposed to be, also it has airfields just on the city's edge. The devs have shown images of separate buildings developed specifically for this map, rather detailed models. So yes, we have a reason for hoping it will be more polished. Similar to Odesa.   

[Jackfraser24]

On 5/27/2025 at 11:10 PM, Vendigo said:

Moscow was never indended to be flyalbe, hence so very low level of details here. On the contrary, Leningrad is supposed to be, also it has airfields just on the city's edge. The devs have shown images of separate buildings developed specifically for this map, rather detailed models. So yes, we have a reason for hoping it will be more polished. Similar to Odesa.   

If Leningrad is to be included in the Karelia map the could cities like London or Paris on the Normandy map be added in at a later date for Normandy? 

[BlitzPig_EL]

Doubtful with all their efforts focused on Korea, then the Pacific in the new engine.

[BraveSirRobin]

35 minutes ago, Jackfraser24 said:

If Leningrad is to be included in the Karelia map the could cities like London or Paris on the Normandy map be added in at a later date for Normandy? 

If you want to do it, then it’s definitely possible.