THE LAST CRUSADER

Hello and welcome back to another update of Forgotten Hope. First of all a few words for everyone who is new to our mod. There might have been a little confusion about the latest updates, including news about the fan mappack. For that reason we would like to give a brief remedial explanation. The Forgotten Hope Developer Team started Forgotten Hope for Battlefield 1942™ a long time ago. More recently, with Battlefield 2™ available we decided to concentrate on developing Forgotten Hope 2 for Battlefield 2™.

Nonetheless we are still supporting our latest release, Forgotten Hope 0.7 for Battlefield 1942™, through the Fan Mappack. This means that not all content we preview in the mappack updates is part of Forgotten Hope 2. Everything concerning the Forgotten Hope Fan Mappack #6 will only be available for Forgotten Hope 0.7 for Battlefield 1942™.

And now for the update! First of all we would like to welcome Major Hartmann and Master Minder back to the team. Both felt it was time to get back to work instead of enjoying their boring retirement and we are really happy to have four more capable hands helping with the development of Forgotten Hope 2. Welcome back boys!

Today we have the first skin created for FH2 by our newest member Jimbob. We hope you enjoy his work as much as we do and that you will give him a warm welcome! Jimbob's project is the British Cruiser Tank VI Crusader Mk III.

The Crusader is sometimes referred to as the most important British tank used during the Africa campaign, because of the large numbers fielded. Unfortunately, earlier versions were armed with the 2-pounder cannon, which proved inadequate for dealing with all but the lightest German tanks. The Mark III, introduced in time for the final El Alamein battles in late 1942, mounted a 6-pounder, the first British tank to carry this gun. The 57mm ROQF (Royal Ordnance Quick-Firing) 6-pounder gave the Crusader Mark III enough power to penetrate the most well-armoured German vehicles then in the field. Like earlier versions of the Crusader, the Mark III was fast, but not well armoured. The Crusader Mk III was modelled by OMNI and skinned by Jimbob.

FAN MAPPACK NEWS

After our little progress report on Forgotten Hope 2 here is the final installment in our map preview series for the upcoming Forgotten Hope Fan Mappack for Battlefield 1942™. Both of today's maps come with extra goodies.

To start with we have A Day of Zitadelle, which was created by Battlegroup 2 developer Benseras. As a special bonus, this map comes its own SU-152, which provided the Red Army with the badly needed punch to deal with the heavy new German armor which saw action at Kursk. The model and skin were originally created by the Operation Anubis mod team and later donated to the Battlegroup 42 mod. The SU-152 was exported by BG42 leader Panzaman and then code tweaked by FH's ctz and FH beta tester Knoffhoff for greater FH compatibility. The Forgotten Hope developer team would like to say thank you to everyone who was involved in the creation of this vehicle, especially the Battlegroup 42 team for their generosity in allowing Benseras to use their model in a Forgotten Hope fan map.

Special mention should also be made of a nice atmospheric goody for the map-- the bees modelled, skinned and coded by Golem_Moja, who is also the creator of many useful modding tools.

Operation Zitadelle, the code name for the German plan that led to the battle more commonly known today as the Battle of Kursk, was a huge tank battle on the Eastern Front, in mid 1943. This map features the intense tank, large scale armored combat suitable to a map representing part of the largest armored engagement of all time, with more than 2700 tanks and assault guns alone on the German side. In addition to Benseras's work, as well as all the others mentioned earlier, the map was given a final tweaking by Real-BadSeed.

The second and last map for today, as well as for our Fan Mappack preview series, Spurning Fate, has never before been released in an official Mappack. It takes place in eastern Germany, April 1945. At this time Allied air superiority made large tank movements during daylight almost impossible for the Wehrmacht. The only reliable way to avoid enemy air power was to fight and move at night. Spurning Fate is a paranoia-inducing game of heavily armed cat and mouse.

Making a virtue of necessity, Axis scientists developed the "Vampir" IR-technology to give their troops an edge in darkness. Starting in late 1944, special units for night fighting entered the field consisting of five PzKpfw V "Panther" Ausf. G, equipped with "Vampir" rigs, as well as one SdKfz 251/20 "Uhu"(on the right) and one escorting SdKfz 251/1 "Falke" (at left)manned with infantry using the Sturmgewehr 44 with an infrared telescopic sight. Although the technology was ready for mass production only a few were employed as the war was close to an end. But let's have a look on the new euipment now.

Before the history watchdogs start to bark please not that a little historical license was taken, as the team involved in producing Spurning Fate's night-fighting Panthers wished to include both the earlier "Solution A" version of the Vampir technology(at left) as well as the later "Solution B" version(on the right). "Solution B" did not fit well onto the FH Panther G without extensive modification(this version of the Panther G lacked a drivers viewport hatch), so the Panther A was conscripted to fill the gap.

To show you how the IR works in Spurning Fate we have 3 ingame shots for you demonstrating the effect. You can have a look at the map screenshots below them for comparison. On top are the Panther's gunsight, on the bottom left the MG34 and MG42, sight, and last but not least on the right is that of the StG 44.

Sir Fluffy modelled the nightfighting euipment, which was skinned by Lobo and the final coding was done by Knoffhoff and CamelNele, member of the Norwegian Resistance minimod. Furthermore the beautiful new skin for the SdKfz 251/20 "Uhu" and SdKfz 251/1 "Falke" was made by Mr. Cheese, the new uniforms are from Hanley and the map itself as well as the concept is by Lili Marlene.

That's all for today, but be sure to come back next week for another Forgotten Hope update. Until then, feel free to visit our public forums to discuss this update or other news.