Another big update from Gaijin Entertainment for War Thunder giving us the Assault update with a bunch of new vehicles, testing of a new game mode, and plenty more.

Since my post about 1.65 had to be streamlined, I won’t go into detail about each new vehicle, but I do encourage you to look them up online if some spark your interest. The biggest thrust of this update is the PvE mode “Assault”, which was also the reason for the delay, it appears that something went wrong at the last minute and currently only plane Arcade Battle Assault is up, worth trying out, but is limited to certain fighters only.

Two new locations have been added, the Ardennes, which is different from the existing Bastogne map and the Guiana Highlands with some complex terrain issues. A whole host of Flight Model changes and changes to missions, bombing points, and more that will no doubt come up in the Unofficial patch notes, but for some more in-depth, read below.

We have the famous Ju-87 Stuka family, Spitfire Mk IIb, and the Soviet Il-4 and Torpedo variant getting new models, which means new player made skins will have to be made, and speaking of Aircraft, we have a bunch of new ones; The Soviets get DB-3B, a bomber which the Ilyushin Il-4 was a continuation of.

A big shock for the USAAF as they get the A-26B-50, which is a slightly different variant of the previously rare A-26 family and they also get the B-10 bomber, a nice write up is over on the official dev blog. Royal Air Force gets the Lincoln Mk II, a bomber with at max load of 6,000lb but has 2x 20mm Hispano Mk V cannons and 2x twin .50 Browning turrets, so it’s got some good defenses, though historically, it could carry 14,000 lbs (6350 kg) like it’s older brother the Lancaster. The Imperial Japanese Army Airforce gets the Ki-67 Hiryu, well two variants of it and is pretty well covered in the official dev blog.

Next up are the tanks, and there are some good ones in here, starting with the Royal Tank Regiment we have the Centurion Mk I, a post war tank that was designed for the new practices learnt from the war, a detailed dev post gives more information. The second tank is the experimental only one built FV4005, a monster of a not-so-armoured turret vehicle with a powerful 183mm main gun, again Gaijin has written a wonderful dev post.

Also, attached to the British, there has been some changes to the way HESH rounds work, so you may need to re-learn some practices as well. The Wehrmacht also got a new tank, and the Heer(post-war) too, the 15 cm sIG 33 auf Fahrgestell Panzerkampfwagen II (Sf) or simply the Sturmpanzer II and the Spähpanzer Ru 251, which caused some contention with the players as it’s still considered a military secret by the Germans, both have great articles written.

US Army gets the T14, and most confusingly the T34, but not the one you maybe thinking of, both have articles written about them, they also got a variant of the M8 Scott MGC, which is a shorter barreled version of the M8A1 that was a Christmas challenge a couple of years ago.

Russia gets the IS-6, a heavy tank that didn’t make it to war, the 29-K SPAA with a 76mm gun, that may end up being used more as a light Anti-Tank vehicle, and the early SPG the SU-5-1 with a hilariously low amount of shots, only 8. Japan gets the Type 87, which caused a kerfuffle in the community due to it being a “still in active use” vehicle, and the Type 95 Ro-Go, a multi-turreted Heavy Tank and the Type 60 ATGM launcher.

If you have read this far down, I am assuming you have been reading this while the update downloads and installs, so it’s time to check in and head on out, oh and do watch out for the new ATGM’s…they are slow, but pack quite the punch.