I think it's time we start an official thread for Il-2 BoX discussions here at A&A.

Let me begin with this Spitfire video posted by the developers.




From the comments on the official BoX forum it seems it is the most eagerly anticipated plane so far. I hope the Spitfire fans won't be too disappointed when they fly the Mk. Vb against 1943 Bf-109s and Fw-190s. In the old Il-2 it didn't stand a chance in 1943 Kuban missions, but maybe that's different with the FM in BoX.

Yes, there sure is a lot of excitement surrounding the release of the Vb and if I'm honest I've probably posted more on the official forum in the last few days than I have since I joined it

I suspect some of the fans will be disappointed with its performance against the 109 and 190 in a dogfight but probably because they let their enthusiasm get the better of their judgement. But I feel most will know that the Vb is essentially early 1941 technology on a 1943 battlefield and is probably more comparable to the 109E-7 than the other Luftwaffe fighters. I don't play MP but as I understand it a lot of the action takes place at fairly low altitudes so I suspect the Yak and La will still be the weapons of choice for the red side as the Merlin won't be in it's element at those altitudes.
I should point out that I am a Spitfire fan but in a historical context rather than in the game. In 1946 I hardly ever flew the Spit but I do recall a few instances where, on HyperLobby, I did give the occasional 109/190 driver a good fight while in the Vb if he/she wasn't focused and lost their E advantage or got into a turning fight with me.

What could cause controversy is if the Spit's FM is a dog. Historically the Spit was known as a fighter that, like the Yak, was pleasant to fly and was fairly easy for an average pilot to extract most of its potential performance. If, and I stress the word "if", it proves to be tricky to fly in-game I bet the shit will hit the fan on the official forum!

But I suspect the FM will be fine due to this aerobatics vid Han posted. It seems to fly just fine and the fuel flow restrictor for the Merlin appears to work very well, no audible cut out of the engine with negative G. I must admit I'm one of those who doesn't think the external audio sounds like a Merlin at all, although the internal audio sounds pretty good.

Embarrassingly, I never noticed, that the Spitfire had an adjustable collimator gunsight, before the devs mentioned it in the latest developer diary. Was the gunsight also adjustable in Il-2 1946?

I don't know if it was in any of the mod packs, but it isn't adjustable in the stock game.

Here is something I've discovered on the Russian forum:


https://forum.il2sturmovik.ru/topic/5925-kampaniya-dlya-tanka-t-34/

It's a T-34 tank campaign by DED-Olaff, that deals with the Kalinin tank raid in October 1941. Of course the game is not a real tank sim, so don't expect much tactical depth, but the missions are surprisingly well done and show what's possible in the game by making clever use of the mission editor. Unfortunately the campaign is only available in Russian.

I must admit I've never tried the tanks, whenever I think of it I do my goldfish impression and forget about within 5 minutes
Pity it's only in Russian, here's hoping someone translates it into English.

The Kuban map has finally arrived.

Oh man, I really need to get a new PC.

Are these screenshots from a developer update or is the BOKuban available?

The map is available but BoK is not released yet.