The latest installment of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series is dedicated to late war aerial engagements between the U.S. Army Air Force, Royal Air Force and the Luftwaffe in the skies over the Normandy and Calais regions of France before and after the Allied invasion of Jun 6th, 1944. Both the preparation and execution of the invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord) 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. Battle of Normandy will explore and recreate the drama as the Allies try to use airpower to secure the invasion beachhead and force a breakout to march to liberate France and attack Germany itself. Airpower played a crucial role in this battle and the Luftwaffe’s increasingly desperate struggle to stem the Allied air offensive of fighters, attackers and bombers will pose an entertaining challenge for any seasoned virtual pilot.
Battle of Normandy contains nine famous aircraft you can take into virtual combat alone or with friends and comes with a map of the Normandy theater that includes a portion of southern England and northwest France. The topography is taken from satellite data and painstakingly reproduced to accurately reflect the battleground as it was in mid-1944 both pre and post invasion.
Realistic Environment and Physics
Battle of Normandy, just as in all our Great Battles titles, features a realistically modeled combat and flight environment with an advanced physics engine. Aircraft have realistic aerodynamics and are modeled to fly like their real-life counterparts. A detailed damage model along with beautiful cockpits and physiological modelling of pilot's fatigue accumulation after active maneuvering in a dogfight complete the picture. Real pilots tell us that the feeling of flight in the Great Battles series is amazingly accurate.Several Ways to Play
You can choose several ways to play Battle of Normandy in either single-player or multiplayer modes. Just like all of our other Great Battles titles, Battle of Normandy takes full advantage of our mission design logic and multiplayer capabilities of the IL-2 Sturmovik simulation engine.Quick Mission Builder
If you just want to jump into the cockpit and start shooting, we have several dogfights, duels and free flights available in the Quick Mission Builder (QMB). These quick missions are a great way to hone your flying and aerial combat skills before you tackle objective-based single-player missions or intense multiplayer missions. And if you own any other Great Battles title, you can also play quick missions with the Normandy aircraft on other maps, not just the Normandy map.Advanced Quick Mission Generator
Once you’ve mastered quick mission combat, and you want to fly a more challenging and detailed objective-based mission, but don’t want to learn our Mission Editor, then the Advanced Quick Mission Generator (AQMG) is for you. Simply pick an airfield, aircraft and mission type and a few other parameters and a fully detailed mission will be generated for you. No two missions will be identical guaranteeing hours upon hours of great sorties to fly!Pilot's Career
Another step forward in complexity is the Career mode: here you can join one of more than 100 historical American, British or German squadrons and complete missions day by day, earning awards and rising in rank - after becoming a commanding officer you can direct your subordinates and alter the mission plan. Mission types change and represent the real missions this squadron was performing on this day. The frontline shifts and the weather changes according to history, ground forces capture or lose airfields and squadrons fly rebase missions. You can even can ask to be transferred to another unit or read a newspaper with news articles of the time.Multiplayer
As with all our Great Battles titles, Battle of Normandy supports both Dogfight and Co-operative multiplayer missions. These can be created with our Mission Editor or you can download multiplayer missions created by the community. You can host multiplayer missions from the in-game menus or utilize our Dedicated Server (Dserver) application that is included. We do recommend the Dserver for advanced users. Multiplayer is a great challenge for IL-2 Sturmovik pilots and many great friendships have started in our multiplayer community. There are even virtual squadrons you can join!Community Content Support
As with all IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series titles, Battle of Normandy supports content created by the community such as skins, missions and campaigns. Battle of Normandy fans are already creating additional skins and missions for you to download and enjoy. You can download our Photoshop templates and create your own paintjobs.Battle of Normandy includes support for Scenario Missions that are custom designed single-player missions built by the team or by members of the community using our powerful Mission Editor. These can be one-offs or several missions not necessarily designed to be a campaign. There are lots of Scenario Missions available for download or create your own using our Mission Editor or a community supplied mission builder application.
Battle of Normandy includes support for what we call Scripted Campaigns. These are sets of missions that are created either by the Sturmovik team or by members of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles community using our powerful Mission Editor application. They are scripted in the sense that they are specifically designed and linked together to tell a story or portray a unique period during the war. All of our Great Battles titles, like Battle of Normandy include support for Scripted Campaigns. There are many of these campaigns available for all of our Great Battles titles and there will surely be Scripted Campaigns made for Normandy.
Part of a Larger War
Battle of Normandy is part of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles series, which means that Battle of Normandy is compatible with all the other Great Battles series titles such as Battle of Stalingrad, Battle of Moscow, Battle of Kuban and Battle of Bodenplatte. If you have these other titles, you can use your Battle of Normandy aircraft in any mission or server that is designed to include aircraft from Battle of Normandy, or continue the story of your Normandy pilot in Bodenplatte.Additional Details
- 9 legendary WWII aircraft to fly - P-51B/C, Spitfire Mk.IXc, P-47D-22 “Razorback”, Typhoon Mk.Ib, Mosquito F.B. Mk.VI, Bf 109 G-6 “Late”, FW 190 A-6, Ju 88 C-6a and MA 410 A-1 “Hornisse”.
- B-26B-55 medium bomber (AI controlled).
- 107,924 Sq. km map of southern England northwest France with 100 accurately portrayed historical airfields.
- 102 Squadrons to fly for and 135 AI controlled squadrons to fly with and against.
- Numerous types of buildings, hangars, ground vehicles and scenery objects to enhance mission environment.
- Detailed and precise exterior models of aircraft with 4K skins.
- Virtual Reality ready with support for major VR headset brands.
- Full-scale 3D interior of each aircraft that looks amazing in VR.
- Ability for friends to join you and play online as an observer/gunner in properly equipped aircraft.
- Quick Mission Builder to get you flying and fighting in minutes.
- Advanced Quick Mission Generator with easy-to-use interface.
- Pilot Career where you can earn medals and move up in rank.
- Custom Single-Player Missions support.
- Scripted Campaign support.
- Co-Op and Dogfight Multiplayer Modes plus a Dedicated Server option.
- Realistic ballistics modeling.
- Realistic gunsight and bombsight visuals and operation.
- Challenging AI that obey the same physics limitations as you.
- Detailed physics model and performance of aircraft.
- Detailed damage model.
- Realistic G-force effects with blackouts and redouts and pilot fatigue.
- Custom Input Profiles and Keymaps that are assignable to each aircraft.
- Customizable graphics options.
- Track recordings of your missions.
- Custom skins support.
- Motion-sim platform support.
- Sim-shaker audio effects support.
- Tacview compatible.
- TrackIR support.
- Powerful Mission Editor (Recommended for Intermediate and Advanced Users).
- Large, Friendly and Helpful Community!
