The Italians Have Invaded War Thunder

The Italians come in force today for War Thunder, get ready for some of the oddest jokes…

Gaijin Entertainment teased us years ago, and when it was announced we were all overjoyed, and now the Italians are here as their own tree, bringing the number of Axis nations to 3, the same as the Allied nations. Firstly, anyone who is a player of War Thunder and have already unlocked aircraft on the German tree, those will remain, any you haven’t unlocked, or if you are a new player, they will not be researchable.

Side lining to the German’s for a bit, since Luciano Marcolin’s CR.42CN has been removed from the German tree for the new Italian one, the replacement Tier 1 premium is the Bf-109 A, the first of the famous series of fighters. Trying to keep this news light, I will not highlight all of the new Italian aircraft, but will touch up on the other nations in the official news below, and with my previous news on this update, you can see the full list, ranging from CR.32 to the P.108, and finally the Fiat G.91.

As mentioned, the German’s have the Bf-109 A-1 added as a new introductory premium aircraft, this is armed with only 2x 7.92mm MG 17’s, though historically there was not an A-1 variant, and the A series was not uniform as of testing out different engine and propeller configurations, and the Wehrmacht gets the Sd. Kfz. 234/2 Puma. The US gets the PB4Y-2 Privateer naval bomber, an F3F-2 flown by Robert E. Galer as a premium, and the grounder’s get the T95E1 Medium Tank and the somewhat odd M60A2 armed with the same gun as the M551 Sheridan.

The British get some new tanks, now Gaijin posted it as “Vickers Mk 1” which is a bit odd, as that there are technically 2 tanks with that name, and in this case it’s the Vickers MBT which became the Indian Vijayanta, they also get the Mk I variant of the Churchill and the cold war era Chieftain Mk.5 MBT, which has a much better engine. Russia gets the T-55A cold war tank and the Object 268 SPG and Japan gets an improved version of the Chi-To medium tank, however since the vehicle was in prototype stage at the end of the war, I do not have much historical information to go off.

In the “background” stuff, a long list of tanks have had either smoke shells or smoke grenades added, several maps have been modified to improve gameplay, and a whole raft of Flight Model changes. Also, as a final note, if you are playing on a Mac (no flame wars in the comments people, or I will come round and replace your PC’s with a Rasberry Pi) Gaijin have changed War Thunder to use the Metal graphical API to give improved fidelity.

So, time to get on a flight helmet, and go forth for Italy, and just hope your team mates are more sensible than the World War 1 General Luigi Cadorna.

Official Press Release

War Thunder: ‘Regia Aeronautica’ released! Update 1.69 adds Italy as new major nation and introduces new vehicles, locations and features including support for PlayStation 4 Pro

May 25th, 2017 — Gaijin Entertainment today announced the release of Update 1.69 ‘Regia Aeronautica’ for its vehicular combat MMOG War Thunder. “Regia Aeronautica” unlocks Italy as War Thunder’s sixth nation, initially offering a formidable line-up of 35 of the most historically accurate representations of their famous Air Force in any computer game ever. Other features include new aircraft and tanks for four other nations, the long-awaited ability to launch smoke shells and smokescreens from tanks, new realistic recreations of battlefields, and support for PlayStation 4 Pro.

The Regia Aeronautica

The new Italian aircraft tree stretches from Italy’s famous biplanes of the 1930’s to its powerful jet fighters of the 1960s. Among the latter is the Fiat G.91, a light, fast and agile fighter-bomber that is highly versatile in combat, thanks to its rapid-firing, heavy Browning machine guns, bombs and 38 rockets. Italian bombers include highlights such as the heavy four-engined Piaggio P.108B, which can carry a staggering 3.5 tons of bombs or three torpedoes. Its sister model, the ship hunter P.108A, comes equipped with a massive 102mm anti-ship cannon with 50 rounds of ammunition, which is now the largest aviation weapon in the game by far. All players will get gradual access to the new nation’s aircraft, with new models being unlocked for research every few days. More information will follow in the Developer’s Blog.

New ground vehicles

The United States gets access to a new top-rank vehicle, the M60A2 “Starship”, which can fire both conventional shells and guided-missiles from its 152mm cannon. For the Soviet Union, the T-55A is introduced as a worthy successor to the T-54, sporting excellent close combat and flanking capabilities. The German tree sees its first armored car, the Sd.Kfz. 234/2 “Puma” with a rapid-firing 50mm cannon.

Smoke shells and smokescreen launchers

Two completely new features in War Thunder are smoke shells and smokescreen launchers. The former, will allow tankers to deploy protective smoke over large distances, while the latter is an effective method to hide from enemy fire while repairing on the battlefield or defending a capture point.

Three new locations

The ground battles location ‘Kuban’ has been greatly revamped, which will make tank combat on the new location much more tactical and varied. For pilots, the hot sands of ‘Tunisia’ await, while naval captains can now assault the Black Sea on the new ‘Port of Novorossiysk’ map.

PlayStation 4 Pro support

Now, thanks to the improved performance of the PlayStation 4 Pro console, owners can play War Thunder in native 4K resolution.