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Evil Sister
Posted by Korona on Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:56 PM

The Heavy Gustav and the Dora were long range cannons designed by Krupp and intended for assisting a direct assault against the Maginot Line

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwerer_Gustav


These colossal 800mm guns dwarfed even the heavest naval guns of the period (around 400mm), and were capable of firing their vast projectiles for miles. A logistics nightmare, the Gustav and its counterpart the Dora required specially built rails and had to be built into their own earthworks to absorb the immense recoil before they could fire. Even after prepairations were finished, the rate of fire was only around one round every 30 minutes.

Nevertheless, the fortress city of Sevastapol was considered a worthy target and in the Barbarossa offensive the Russian defenders found themselves under seige by Krupp's demonic artillery.

Later in the war, the city of Stalingrad almost suffered a simmilar fate, the Dora was moved into position outside the city to assist the assault, but was withdrawn when it became apparent the Russians were going to mount a counter-offensive.

In Blitz we have our own Dora, and since Stalingrad is an epic city, it seemed fitting to give the Dora her moment in the spotlight. The devastating weapon is one of the most powerful weapons in the game, equivalent to the V2 and Tallboy bombs and beaten only by the Allies' nuke.
Of course a weapon like this is impractical for the skirmish game but it will be featured on the Stalingrad mission, and since this city will be a part of both the Soviet and German campaigns, you can feel what its like to have the Dora assist you, and to be in her sights.



To help show off just how devastating this artillery is, I have put together a quick video showing some Russian strongpoints trying to repell an 800mm shell...

Hi everyone,
The Japaneese Zero is the newest addition to the Blitz 2 roster, yes despite insisting it's "done" I keep finding "just one more" unit to add.

No we aren't going to be adding Japan as a playable faction, but we will have a mission on Guadalcanal courtesy of Neo. It will be featuring these planes in both the ground attack and fighter roles.

Questions?

I love the Heinkel 162, and eventually temptation got the better of me so I made one.

By 1944 the Nazi leadership knew they had their back to the wall, and that their strength would only diminish with time. The one area they did have a significant lead was in technology, and the hunt was on for "wonder weapons" which could reverse the downfall.

Originally concieved as a "People's Fighter" the He162 was supposed to be cheap, use non-essential materials, be easy to build even by unskilled labour, and be easy to fly. While it was cheap, it was also rushed into production and key defects in the design led to it being hazardous to fly.
However it boasted a number of advances including an ejector seat. It's top speed was over 100km/h in excess of the fastest allied fighter - the supercharged P51.

In Blitz it will take over from the Me262 as the Reich's primary jet fighter, for air to air combat. The Me262 is re-equipped to fire R4M missiles able to massacre bomber formations.

Like all jets, the key weakness of the He162 was it's poor endurance. This is represented by a very small clip size, and when it returns to base it is slow and an easy target. Yet it is far cheaper than the Me262 and with adequate cover from the Fw190 it lets the Reich dominate the air with their high tech toys.

Hi everyone,

I decided to overhaul a lot of stuff that was working, but looked janky. The Allies get to take advantage of airborne assaults as an optional tech later in the game. The Germans can also use Fallschirmjager, but they are fairly limited, basically advanced SMG infantry. The Allied airborne are different, and represented by SAS commandos (cos they had cooler stuff than the US airborne). The infantry all drop as veterans, equipped with sten guns, grenades and explosives, they can clear buildings, climb steep terrain, kill other infantry and blow up enemy buildings (and tanks if they feel brave). Backing them up they can land with the US devised M22 Locust deployed via the Hamilcar glider.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M22_Locust
The Allies were much more aggressive with their airborne raids than the Germans, and it is possible to stack a number of these attacks, to deploy a really substantial force anywhere on the battlefield. If they are used well they can divert enemy troops from a main attack, or knock out enemy superweapons such as their V1 rails.




Because it looks cool, I put together a video showing an airborne force land, and then attack a group of Germans.

Sadly Youtube has mangled the quality really badly, so it isn't really possible to see the detail, but you can get the sense of how the combat works with these guys:

Firstly a screenshot, because news posts look lame without them, this shows the Allies defending a fixed position against a German attack:




Down to buisiness - Things are going well here, and we are entering a good place with our beta testing and overall progress.

There are some reccuring questions on the forums, so to give a better idea of what 2.7 will and will not be, here is how things are shaping up:


Will there be AI?
Yes! We will have full AI for all sides, however AI can never be as good as another player. Learn the ropes then play online - else you are only getting half a game!

Will there be Missions?
Yes! Neo has been hard at work and it is looking like we will have lots of cool missions to play with a variety of gameplay styles.

When will there be a release?
We don't 'do' release dates at DS because, things can change. I would rather see Blitz back in development for a few more months rather than release something half-assed. Atm things should be wound up before June, but anything can happen between now and then.

Will there be more releases post R 2.7?
Things have been changed radically in this build. Thus it will be dubbed "R 3". Also ZH is an old engine. Significantly developing the mod beyond R3 seems fairly pointless. This is actually a good thing, because pretty much everything we wanted to add (except Japan and Naval) will be in. That means a ton more content, updated UI and so on...

Will there be machineguns in multiplayer?
NO!



If you want to know something else, feel free to post and I'll do my best to answer.

Thanks to Phoib sucking at poker, DS is now in the hands of Bastep. This is a great oppertunity for us to try something different with the newly renamed "WubKrieg"

Gone are the angry grey Panzers, In are the new bright, Pink panthers. Gone is the old muted texture pallete and scenary set, In is a nice new terrain set, full of saturated colours and cherry blossom trees.

Here are the first screenshots of our new style. I hope to post up a video of some tank on tank combat later. The bubbles and sparkles are really awesome. Of course "combat" is a poor term to use now since no-one actually dies. It's more like a big happy dance. Build your base! Build your army of love! No-one can stop you when everyone is this happy!

For the full version of Blitzkrieg 2: The Finest Hour Release 2.6.21 we are looking for websites to mirror it. The complete file is 205 Mb.

If you have a mirror location, please email emiel.suilen[at]gmail[dot]com

For a future project, we are also looking for modellers and texture artists. If you want to be part of the crew that made Blitzkrieg 2 and An Act of War, please email me with a link to your portfolio at emiel.suilen[at]gmail[dot]com