.:Back from the dead:.

Yes your eyes do not deceive you, new D-day news post! It's been nearly a year since the last news post, this has mainly been due to a technical problem that blocked me from accessing the D-day website & forums, thus I was unable to post anything for over 10 months! Sadly during this time I was somewhat demotivated to work on D-day, I still made a few random units for fun but I didn't make that much overall progress tho.

Gladly now that the problem has been resolved I'm feeling refreshed, revitalized & ready to work on D-day again. So to kick things back into action I've made a set of generic buildings as well as a generic sidebar & loading screen. These graphics will be used as placeholders for where I have yet to make specific national themed artwork. Which can normally take months to just research & several more to make all the 3D models.

So with this set France will no longer be using those hideous grey boxes with "placeholders" written across them. It also means that the new countries of Poland, China, Sweden & Czechoslovakia that I have been slowing working on will be include as playable (but incomplete) sides in the next release along with Japan. These are of course just placeholders & each of these country will receive unique national artwork in a later release.







I also plan to make a set of generic defensive buildings as well in the near future & of course I still have a backlog of over a 100 units that I still haven't posted/added to the wiki yet too so expect more news to come soon.

Posted March 2, 2018 by Mig Eater

.:Tigers of the World:.

The Panzer VI Tiger is arguably the most famous and recognizable tank in the world, becoming the icon of the German tank forces of World War II. It's use was not limited to the German army though, several other countries used or planed to use Tigers during and after the war. Here are a few of them.

For more information and pictures click of the unit names to visit their D-day Wiki pages.



Type 4 Tiger




In April 1943 the Japanese sent 12 army officers led by Colonel Ishide to Germany to inspect and test their latest tank designs. The Japanese where quite impressed and negotiated to buy four of the tanks and their related documents and blueprints, the PzKfw III Ausf.J, PzKfw III Ausf.N, PzKfw V Panther Ausf.D and PzKfw VI Tiger. They hoped that they could be reverse engineered and the technology incorporated into Japanese designs. One of the PzKfw III's was dissembled and along with the documents transported back to Japan via submarine. February 1944 the Tiger tank was moved to Bordeaux in France so it could be prepared for transport. With the worsening war situation and then the Allied Landings in France it became impossible to transport the tank to Japan. In September 1944 the Japanese decided to give the tank back to the Germans where it was soon destroyed fighting in Belgium.

Note: The Germans charged the Japanese twice the normal price for the tiger. So in keeping with historical accuracy in D-day the price of the Type 4 is double that of the German version.


PzKpfw VI Tiger




In May 1944 the Germans gave 10 PzKpfw VI Tiger tanks to the Hungarians and then a further 3 more as a birthday gift to the Hungarian Inspector of Engineers Laszlo Hollósy kuthy. They served in the Hungarian 3rd Tank Regiment, where in July they took part in the battle for Galizien district in Southern Ukraine. By December 1944 only 4 of them where still active, the fate of the final 4 is unknown but they where presumably destroyed during the Soviet invasion of Hungary.



T-VI-100




During the course of World War II Soviet forces where able to capture many German tanks in various states of disrepair, if at all possible they would be put into services against their former owners. These tanks generally had a short life span due to limited spare parts and ammunition. In an effort to help elevate the later problem several projects where started to refit the German tanks with Soviet weapons. One of these was the T-VI-100 which replaced the PzKfw VI Tiger's 88mm KwK36 L/56 with the 100mm D10 which was used on the SU-100 and later the T-54. As the war progressed the Soviets where able to produce an ample amount of tanks so the need to refit the German tanks diminished and the project was cancelled in 1945.



T-41/75N




After the war a single Tiger tank was recovered from the battlefield and repaired by Skoda for use as a test bed for fitting their prototype 75mm A18 cannon. The A18 was originally built for use in the T-25 medium tank, the T-25 however was never put into production and it wasn't till now that the Skoda team could test it in a suitable vehicle. While the 75mm A18 was less powerful then the original 88mm KwK36 it was fitted with an auto-loader and drum magazine witch greatly increased the tanks rate of fire. Currently there are no known photographs of this unusual modification.

Note: To simulate the auto-loader and drum magazine this unit has a limited ammunition supply that can be fired quickly but then takes some time to reload.



Tiger 131




Tiger 131 is the only working PzKfw VI Tiger tank in the world, it currently resides in Bovington Tank Museum and features as the main star in the museum's yearly tank festival. Tiger 131 was constructed in February 1943 at the Henschel factory at Kassel and was then sent to Tunisia in North Africa. On 20th April 1943 it took part in the battle for Djebel Djaffa hill, during witch it received several hits form British Churchill tanks that jammed the turret and gun, as well as injuring the driver and gunner. The crew then bailed out leaving their disabled but still intact tank for British forces to capture. The tank was repaired using parts from other knocked-out tigers and sent back to Britain where it was displayed as a war trophy in various locations around the country for the rest of the war. In 1951 it was then donated to Bovington Tank Museum who put it on static display for the next 40 years. In 1990 it was then removed for restoration which involved a complete disassembly and reassembly of all it's parts. As well as fitting it with a new engine from a Tiger II, as the original had been cut in half for display at the museum. The restoration of Tiger 131 was finally finished in 2003, becoming the only tiger tank in the world to be restored to working condition.

Note: Because of the uniqueness of this tank and in homage of the fact it is the only working Tiger in the world, only one Tiger 131 can be built at a time.

Posted March 13, 2017 by Mig Eater

.:Fields of Battle:.

It's June 6th, D-day! This day also marks the 14th anniversary of the D-day mod. To celebrate I've created map sized screenshots of five new maps that will be included in D-day's next release, along with information about other maps in development.



Axis:

Click to enlarge: 19mb

A four player tournament style map set in an urban harbour shaped like a swastika. This map served as a test bed for the new sets of urban cliffs & features multi-levelled areas & tunnels. Note: The use of a swastika layout might be somewhat controversial, however the shape creates a balanced yet interesting design & is currently my favourite map to play on.       
 

Allied:

Click to enlarge: 30mb

A five player map in the shape of the Allied star & circle.

Mountain Guns: 6 player

Click to enlarge: 29mb

Mountain Guns is a remake of my favourite C&C Generals map of the same name. This map served as a test bed for the new sets of rock cliffs & features multi-layers cliff faces. Note: The road & bridge graphics will be replaced in the near future.


River Valley: 6 player

Click to enlarge: 30mb

A long six player map featuring a winding river through a valley. It also features a train line weaving in and out of the mountains along the edge of the map.


Island Roulette: 8 player

Click to enlarge: 55mb

An extremely large eight player map of a circular island with separate areas for each player connected to a central mountain.  


I have several other maps in various stages of Development for D-day...

No Man's Land:
A World War 1 themed map with a large network of trenches, that players can occupy & fight over.

Train Duel: (wip name)
A two player map featuring buildable armoured trains & two loops of track that run parallel to each other in the center of the map.

World War:
A large map based on the world map.

Corregidor:
A large island map based on the US base on Corregidor in the Philippines.

Paris:
A large map of the French capitol, featuring the Eiffel tower at the center.

Washington DC:
Large map of the US capitol, featuring many famous landmarks & monuments.

Soviet:
Counterpart to the Axis & Allied maps. I haven't decided on an exact layout yet, but this will be the first snow map in D-day.


Lastly I would like to point out that all of these maps are subject to change. Some of the graphics will be replaced in the near future & new terrain that is currently in development will be added. So you can expect the maps to have more details when they are included in the next release.

Posted June 6, 2016 by Mig Eater

.:JSDF defences:.

D-day once again returns to Japan but this time for their post-war sub-faction the JSDF and their new defensive structures.

To see more information and photos of these guns click on the images to go to their Wiki pages.

M40 106mm




In 1944 the US Army developed their first recoilless rifle the M18 57mm, impressed with the design work started on larger 75mm and 105mm versions. The M20 75mm was deployed in the closing days of the war but the T19 105mm was still in development when the war ended and was soon after cancelled. With the outbreak of the Korean War the M18 57mm and M20 75mm recoilless rifles struggled to penetrate the armour of the North-Korean T-34/85 tanks, so work on the larger 105mm version was restarted and the T19 was rushed into production as the M27 105mm in 1950. Once deployed into the field it was found that that the M27 suffered from reliability problems and several other issues, so work on an improved version was started. By 1952 all the problems had be resolved and the M40 106mm was put into production. The M40 was called an 106mm weapon but it was really 105mm, this was because the ammunition for the M27 & M40 looked nearly identical but was not interchangeable between the two, so to help differentiate them the M40 and it's ammunition was classified as 106mm. The M40 went on to became the standard anti-tank weapon of America and it's allies, the M40 has also been mounted on many different vehicles ranging from Jeeps to tanks.


Bofors 40mm L/70




During WW2 the Bofors 40mm L/60 was the standard anti-aircraft gun of the Allies, being used on land, sea and air. With the advent of the jet age at the end of the war the venerable Bofors started to struggled with the increase of aircraft speeds. To combat this Bofors designed a new version with a longer 70 caliber barrel, an electrically powered carriage and a new lighter and more powerful ammunition. These changes nearly doubled the range and rate of fire of the weapon and in 1953 replaced the L/60 model as the standard Allies/NATO weapon system. The Bofors 40mm L/70 was also bought by many different countries around the world and is still in widespread use today.


M1A1 155mm




At the outbreak of the war in Europe the standard American 155mm artillery weapon was the ageing M1918 155mm which was built during WW1, with the threat of war looming a replacement was desperately needed. Work on the new 155mm weapon was completed in 1941 along with a 4.7-inch gun which used the same carriage design. In 1942 it was accepted at the M1 155mm and fought throughout WW2 on all fronts. It continued to serve with the American army in the Korean war and then the Vietnam War, eventually being replaced in 1978 by the M198. Over 10,000 M1, M1A1 and M1A2 where built during its 12 year production run and was sold to 35 different countries around the world, some of which are still using them today.

Posted March 15, 2016 by Mig Eater

.:Armoured Trains:.

It's now been a month since I started clearing the backlog of D-day units and in that time I've managed to post roughly a quarter of them, so at this rate I should be done by February! Spending the next three months doing nothing but posting units is a daunting thought tho. So I'm going to to cutback and focus on the remaining Japanese units, I'll post some other sides units sporadically as my mood changes but most will have to wait until after the release of v3.8. Now with the bad news over with lets move on to some fun stuff

Trains have been a part of D-day since the beginning of the mod, train tracks being the first new terrain ever made for D-day. Over the years the graphics have been improved several times but they have always been used as simple map decorations. With the latest evolution of D-day's trains though you can now build and control your own armoured train units!   



Click to enlarge


Click of the unit names to visit their D-day wiki page for more information & pictures.


Train Yard



The Train yard is a Tech building that is only available on specific maps, once captured it gives the player the ability to build armoured trains.



Tatra T18



The Tatra T18 was a Czech armoured draisine built in 1925 for the Polish army. Based on the T14 cargo draisine, it was fitted with an armoured body and a turret equipped with two 7.92mm machine guns. The Polish were unhappy with the design owing to it's weak engine and slow acceleration, changing the engine would however require a complete redesign of the chassis. Nevertheless a further nine unarmoured chassis where ordered in April 1927 with the intention of building the armoured bodies in Poland, but it is unknown if this was accomplished. During the annexation of Czechoslovakia and Poland the Germans captured several T18s, they were then incorporated into the Wehrmacht and used until they were worn out.



Heavy Infantry Armored Car S.Sp



The Schwerer Schienenpanzer (Heavy Rail Tank) class of armoured train cars were built by Steyer in 1944 for the Deutsche Reichsbahnin. Although designed to operate in a train with up to 20 other S.Sp cars, they were also capable of operating independently. They were mainly deployed to the Balkans to patrol for partisans attempting to sabotage the rail network. This is the Infantry variant of the S.Sp design, equipped with a long range radio and heavy machine guns.



Heavy Artillery Armored Car S.Sp



This artillery variant of the Schwerer Schienenpanzer (Heavy Rail Tank) was fitted with the turret from the Panzer III Ausf.N and equipped with a 75mm KwK 37 L/24. It was designed to provide high explosive fire support for a S.Sp train but it could also operate independently.



Heavy Anti-Aircraft Armored Car S.Sp



By 1945 the Allied air forces had gained air superiority over Europe, with the loss of air cover it became extremely difficult for Germany to move any troops and supplies without gaining the attention of the Allied air force who where attacking every truck and train they could find. In an attempt to combat this threat a project was started to fit the Schwerer Schienenpanzer with a 20mm Flakvierling 38 Anti-Aircraft gun. No photographs of this variant have been found and it is unknown if any were completed before the end of the war.

Posted December 5, 2015 by Mig Eater