Matrix Games

Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe are invading Panzer Corps 2! In the first of four Dev Dairies for the upcoming Axis Operations 1946, we’re going to have an in-depth preview on some of the new aircraft and new aircraft mechanics being added to Panzer Corps 2.

German Aircraft

The first aircraft we want to highlight today is the Focke-Wulf TA 183 Huckebein.

When adding new units for Axis Operations 1946, we wanted to attempt a different design philosophy. Rather than continue to just to power inflate, we instead wanted to create more interesting alternative options, and the Huckebein is a great example of this. Let’s compare its stats to the current best German jet fighter, the Gotha 229:

As you can see, it’s actually inferior in almost every stat and costs more than twice the prestige, but
this is actually quite deceptive on first glance. The two st cost. Compared to a 5 slot FW-190D-9, the Huckebein stats completely outclasses the FW-190 D-9.

So the end result is that we aren’t out to replace the Gotha, but we’d like to see the Huckebein coexist alongside the Gotha or Me-262 as a valuable low slot cost alternative, as fleets of just Gothas and Me-262s will very rapidly fill up a scenario’s slot limit very quickly! Next up, we have the Ju-187, or ‘Super Stuka‘

While the Huckebein would like to co-exist alongside existing German fighters, the Super Stuka is absolutely meant to be the ultimate German Tactical Bomber. The venerable Stuka has been in every Axis Operation campaign since Spanish Civil War, and lately it has absolutely shown its age and vulnerability to interception. It’s long past time for it to get a major upgrade, and we have that now with the Super Stuka. Note that very crazy looking inverted tail, which was actually designed to rotate mid flight into this position for better control during dive bombing!

The last German aircraft we’ll look at is a flying wing. But it’s not just any flying wing, it’s a proper Amerika bomber, the 6 jet engine Horten XVIII.

We don’t want to spoil too much about this incredible machine, but I’m sure some of you have seen that gif of that other very special variant of the Horten Amerika Bomber with a rather unique payload that will also be available in Axis Operations 1946...
 

Japanese Aircraft

Two of the new Japanese aircraft we want to highlight today are a fighter and a strategic bomber.

First off, we have a very unique fighter aircraft design in the Shinryu II. Basically, think of this design as someone who looked at the Me-163 and said ‘more rockets please’. This thing is just made of rockets, rockets, and just rockets. It’s rocket powered, and armed exclusively with anti-air rockets designed to shoot down American bombers such as the B-29. There’s not a machine gun or cannon to be found anywhere in this aircraft’s armaments.

To bring this unique design to life in Panzer Corps 2, it has a stat page completely unique from all other fighters. An insane 25 air attack value combined with an integrated Rapid Fire trait will make mincemeat of any American bombers, but its pitiful 5 initiative leaves it incredibly vulnerable to enemy dog fighter aircraft. In addition, it has a paltry 2 ammo count, meaning that if it takes a shot at an American B-29, it has a mere 1 shot left to defend itself from enemy fighters with, before all
following fighter attacks on the Shinryu II attack it without any fear of return fire.

Next up, we don’t just have the infamous 6 engine Fugaku, but we also have a very special variant of the Fugaku coming to Panzer Corps 2.

This special variant is borne as a result of the direct cooperation between the Axis Powers. This special Fugaku has been armed with German wire guided Fritz X missiles, making it the first, and only, aircraft in Panzer Corps 2 that has a ranged attack!

The American Pacific Fleet is going to be in for a very nasty surprise! They’re about to discover its CAP of Hellcats and Corsairs protecting its Essex Class Fleet Carriers from torpedo and dive bomber attacks can’t reach these Fugaku bombers that are raining down guided missiles on the American fleet from a most unexpected distance.
 

American Aircraft

Last but certainly not least, we’ll look at just some of the new American aircraft being pressed into service to challenge the joint German-Japanese invasion of the United States. First off, we have a wooden conscript aircraft, the XP-77.

Pressed into service in the face of invasion, the XP-77 is not a high performance aircraft in the slightest. Out performed by the venerable P-51, the XP-77 was instead meant to effectively be a conscript aircraft, something that could be produced cheaply and in mass quantities very rapidly. So while the XP-77 might not seem to be a major new threat, the numbers this aircraft will appear in could be a challenge of its own kind to overcome. Next up we have the XP-55 Ascender, or the aircraft that was seemingly ‘built backwards’:

We’ve stat-ed this new fighter fairly conservatively, looking to make it a nice new adversary for players to encounter that is about on the power level of the P-51H. Testing is still ongoing, however, so watch out for this aircraft might get a new trick up its very unusual sleeves sometime between now and the launch of 1946! Design of the Me-163 seems to be popular today, because next we have another aircraft with a very similar visual profile, the XP-56 Black Bullet.

Unlike the Me-163 and its pilot melting rocket fuel engines, however, the Black Bullet was power by an aft mounted prop engine, similar to the rear mounted prop of the Do-335 Pfeil. Historically, this diminutive fighter wasn’t exactly designed for an Me-163 performance profile, it’s small and unique designs were actually to test the concept of using Magnesium instead of Aluminium to build the aircraft with.

We better wrap up this Dev Diary though, because we’re definitely getting hungry, and the shape of the Vought XF5U is only making us think of one thing... pancakes!

Historically, the hope for the very strangely shaped ‘Flying Flapjack’ would be to potentially usher in the next generation of pistol engine aircraft. Whatever improvements these designs may have provided to piston engine aircraft were however moot, as the emergence of jet aircraft superseded propeller driven aircraft. But in Panzer Corps 2’s alternate history of 1946, we’ll be seeing this aircraft pushed into service in the defense of the United States against the joint German-Axis invasion!
 

Conclusion

We hope you all enjoyed this first reveal on just some of the new aircraft being added to Panzer Corps 2 for its upcoming 1946 Axis Operations campaign. Just remember these are just a few of the new designs being added to Panzer Corps 2, and there are even more coming that we have not covered today!

So be ready for even more new aircraft to be included and don’t forget to add Axis Operations 1946 to your wishlists