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The summer is ending, just like our Battle of Normandy release preparations. Two variations of the Normandy and Southern England map (before and after the invasion) are ready, Career mode is ready, Quick Missions and Advanced Quick Missions are ready - today we're starting the release candidate testing. This time we want to spend more time and resources on the testing and debugging. The beta-testing of the 5.001 update is going for two weeks already and we plan to test the release candidate for two more at least. There's a reason for that - it will include not only the Battle of Normandy, but a number of global improvements as well. The main global change is the long promised revision of the aircraft Damage Model. This time we have attempted to make more fundamental changes and not just "adjust the airframe durability to meet player expectations", but reverse-engineer the system in search of potential issues in many of its parts. During this process we have found a number of calculation passes which could be improved or tuned. These changes are already in the beta and beta-testers have responded that the damage received by aircraft in various combat situations looks significantly more adequate and realistic. We understand that this is a touchy subject, so the final changes will be explained in detail in the release notes of the 5.001 update. Speaking of the finishing of the new map and Career mode, we want to say that for each new project we have set more and more ambitious goals for ourselves, even if it wasn't clear in the beginning how it would work out and what the final answer to these challenges would be. Once again, many parameters have surpassed their previous records in the series. For instance, the length of the coastline is 990 km on the French coast and 1060 km on the English coast. 490 major cities and towns, not counting the minor ones, were recreated while keeping in mind their overall historical boundaries and main layout features. 100 airfields are waiting for your flight - and not one of them is 'default' or cloned, they all have historical layouts reconstructed using documents and air photos. Moreover, a new set of the airfield surface types was created: 1. Grass 2. CON (Concrete) 3. WC (Wood Chippings) - concrete covered by wood chippings and tar 4. TAR (Tarmac) - asphalt 5. ETH (Compressed Earth) 6. PBS (Prefabricated Bituminous Surface) - canvas saturated with tar 7. ST (Sommerfeld Track) - steel wire mesh reinforced with steel bars 8. SMT (Square-Mesh Track) - square mesh 9. PSP (Pierced Steel Planking) - stamped steel plates. As we have mentioned, there are two map variations created - before and after the invasion. Pre-invasion map lacks newly constructed airfields and constructions erected after D-Day on the Normandy shore. Career mode development required detailed information on symbols, tour of duty, bases, armament and assigned tasks for 285 squadrons acting in this project - players can join 102 of them and others are populated by AI pilots. This is another record for the Great Battles series. 9 new mission types were designed for the Normandy Career concentrating on the D-Day events and V-1 intercepts. Pilot's Career in the Battle of Normandy timeframe contains 5 phases and 17 front line states that change along the progression of time. As always, all the scenarios generated in the Career mode are unique even if you fly to the same target again - the generated combat situation will be different, while the weather will correspond to the real weather on that day. All in all, we're hoping that Battle of Normandy will be the most significant release in the IL-2 Great Battles series and all of you who have supported us all these years will enjoy another virtual, but to a great extent historically accurate reconstruction of a major air battle, that was created with love and respect to our common history.

Dear Friends, 1C Game Studios is proud to announce our next combat theater in the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series of products – Battle of Normandy! It was just over 75 years ago that the western Allies launched joint airborne and amphibious landings in the Normandy region of France. Both the preparation and execution of the invasion of Normandy had a large air component and involved many airfields in the UK and in France, especially after the Allies landed and built many Advanced Landing Grounds. Some German-built and occupied airfields were captured, repaired and re-used by the Allies as they advanced. The Allied advance towards Paris and eventually Germany was not easy and air-power was heavily employed to help facilitate a breakout. The Germans had a very difficult time keeping their hold on France and were faced with defending against not only Allied fighters, but also dedicated ground attackers, bombers and even naval units. The history of this battle makes for a lot of interesting gameplay. We hope to bring this period of the war to life like never before, just like we have done with Battle of Bodenplatte and our previous Eastern Front titles. Due to its important location, Battle of Normandy opens up additional mission scenarios and a vast timeline for great aerial warfare action utilizing many aircraft and content from our previous titles. Plus, Battle of Normandy adds a lot of content that can be utilized in our Battle of Bodenplatte environment. Content Battle of Normandy, will continue to offer a wide variety of gameplay options and also push our product forward with additional technology, features and improvements. We will of course, have an awesome plane-set that represents the era in which the title takes place. It will also include all the features that is standard for our WWII titles such as QMB, Pilot Career, Custom SP Missions and Multiplayer support. We also plan to include a Scripted Campaign focusing on a specific part of the battle. See below for additional information. Battle of Normandy Plane-set: P-51 B/C P-47D “Razorback” Typhoon Mk.Ib Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI Spifire Mk.XIV (Collector Plane) C-47 Dakota (AI) B-26 Marauder (AI) Bf-109 G-6 “Late” Fw-190 A-6 Ju-88 C-6a Me-410 Ar-234 (Collector Plane) V-1 Buzz Bomb (AI) This is what we plan to build based on our current research and desires. Of course, if for any reason one of these planes cannot be built to our satisfaction, we will find a suitable replacement. Normandy Map To support this particular Great Battle, we plan to build numerous ground vehicles, tanks, paratroopers, artillery, bunkers, objects, obstacles, buildings, airfields and ships that will bring flying such dangerous missions to life. The map of Battle of Normandy is also planned to be very satisfying in its size, scope and detail. Substantial portions of Southern England, Normandy and Calais regions will be included. We plan to have two versions of the map. There will be both pre-Invasion and post-Invasion versions. This allows us the ability to have our Pilot Career span the period preparing for the invasion and post D-Day events. It also allows us to create scenarios that are even further removed from the invasion itself and explore the 1942-43 period with some assets from our previous titles and certain Collector Planes. The gameplay possibilities are quite exciting to us and we hope to you as well. In addition to the content we plan to create, we will also continue to improve our Digital Warfare Engine and add some ‘in the works’ features that were not ready for BOBP release. This includes such items as, Air Marshal, improved MP Lobby, GUI-based Object Viewer, new rendering techniques and drop-tanks. Of course, this is on top of all the numerous small improvements, tweaks, fixes and enhancements we will continue to work on. We never stop working to improve our products and simulation engine. BON Pre-Order Available! To kick off Battle of Normandy development we have launched the Pre-Order period today! Our Pre-Order discounted price is $10 Off MSRP at $79.99 for the Premium Edition until the Pre-Order/Early Access period ends. The final MSRP at time of release of Battle of Normandy Premium Edition will be $89.99. Pre-Order Battle of Normandy Here We hope you are as excited as we are to build Battle of Normandy. When it comes to WWII, there are many interesting theaters, time periods and events that would make for an awesome product. There are also many fascinating conflicts outside of WWII that could make for a really fun combat simulation. We have considered them all. However, we have chosen Normandy as our next destination so we can explore one of the most famous battles in history and Normandy will allow for a more complete accounting of the air war over Europe (East and West) which gives you the player a more complete experience. Building Battle of Normandy also allows both the developers and the community to utilize some of our existing content to expand your gameplay options even more. We also wish you the absolute best this Holiday Season to you, your family, your friends and our dedicated development partners all over the world. We appreciate all the support and nice words you have said about our products during this most recent development cycle which was a lot of hard work. We will continue to build a better product, grow the team a bit more and listen to you, our loyal customers. We’ll see you on the beach! ….and in the sky! The IL-2 Sturmovik Team