The Road of Life

[LukeFF]

Hey everyone!

The Road of Life is a testament to the heroism, dedication, endurance, and willpower of the Soviet people.

This part of Leningrad's history will appear in future updates to the "Odessa and Leningrad - Defense and Liberation" module, and today we will show some of the iconic sites awaiting you in 1941-1942 and in 1944.

Read more in the article on the official website - https://il2-series.com/en/news/972/the-road-of-life/

[Vendigo]

New "various watercraft" are coming, that will be cool! 

 

[AndreiTomescu]

Awesome! A scripted campaign with a GAZ truck along that road, being attacked by enemy aircraft, that would be awesome! 

Somehow resembling @Vendigo's hunter in the snow campaign.

[sandmarken]

3 hours ago, Vendigo said:

New "various watercraft" are coming, that will be cool! 

 

While i woud really hope for some new watercraft. I coud not see it say new in the article, just watercrafts. 

I really hope for some new assets. Especially maritime! 

[Jaegermeister]

Nice update, thanks for sharing!

[Vendigo]

1 hour ago, sandmarken said:

While i woud really hope for some new watercraft. I coud not see it say new in the article, just watercrafts. 

I really hope for some new assets. Especially maritime! 

I think that must be what they mean. New boats (hopefully including the small ones) shuttling up and down the Ladoga lake. The existing ones are hardly suitable. 

The reason why I note it - I have several half finished missons of Ju-87G hunting down the small boats in Kuban and I used the LCVP's as stand-ins, but the real Russian small boats would really fit those missions!      

[JG123410]

Very nice article. Much appreaciated!

[LuftManu]

Great to see the map expanded!! Can't wait to see how it looks in my machine!
Great work, team!

[JL1]

Very nice my favorite map just keeps getting better!

[Juri_JS]

8 hours ago, Vendigo said:

I think that must be what they mean. New boats (hopefully including the small ones) shuttling up and down the Ladoga lake. The existing ones are hardly suitable. 

The iconic Ladoga tender would be needed. It would also be useful for other scenarios, because it was later often used as landing craft.

 

[sandmarken]

9 hours ago, Vendigo said:

I think that must be what they mean. New boats (hopefully including the small ones) shuttling up and down the Ladoga lake. The existing ones are hardly suitable. 

I do hope you are right! 😄

[Avimimus]

23 hours ago, AndreiTomescu said:

Awesome! A scripted campaign with a GAZ truck along that road, being attacked by enemy aircraft, that would be awesome! 

Somehow resembling @Vendigo's hunter in the snow campaign.

I definitely agree! I'd be quite happy to pay for a non-AA version of the GAZ truck collector vehicle - and it'd probably take only a small amount of work (i.e. removing the gun and gun crew, replacing them with a couple of static loads). It might not sell exceptionally well, but the development costs would be quite low.

9 hours ago, sandmarken said:

I do hope you are right! 😄

Yes, it would be nice to have a handful more ground objects for mission makers. An axis destroyer for Odessa and a PTRD team would also not go amiss. One can dream anyway!

[Avimimus]

I should also add that I really like these historically focussed development updates - they bring a lot of drama. It'd be nice to see something like this brought into video form someday.

[sandmarken]

1 hour ago, Avimimus said:

Yes, it would be nice to have a handful more ground objects for mission makers. An axis destroyer for Odessa and a PTRD team would also not go amiss. One can dream anyway!

Just too much water between the two new maps not to add anything. Agree that a destroyer woud be neat. 

Soviet and german infantry models woud be good too! 

[tattywelshie]

This looks fabulous, just wondering @LukeFF are there plans to integrate ship interdiction missions into career mode? 

[Flashy]

On 5/9/2026 at 5:56 PM, Avimimus said:

I definitely agree! I'd be quite happy to pay for a non-AA version of the GAZ truck collector vehicle - and it'd probably take only a small amount of work (i.e. removing the gun and gun crew, replacing them with a couple of static loads). It might not sell exceptionally well, but the development costs would be quite low.

Yes, it would be nice to have a handful more ground objects for mission makers. An axis destroyer for Odessa and a PTRD team would also not go amiss. One can dream anyway!

Yes! PLEASE give us at least a cargo upfit/option on the Gaz truck (and maybe one with troops or even an empty pickup version) so we can try run the supply route ourselves! I want to try this without that big heavy AA gun crew on the back!

Edited May 12 by Flashy

[Avimimus]

40 minutes ago, Flashy said:

Yes! PLEASE give us at least a cargo upfit/option on the Gaz truck (and maybe one with troops or even an empty pickup version) so we can try run the supply route ourselves! I want to try this without that big heavy AA gun crew on the back!

I do feel rather guilty racing in the GAZ, causing a roll over - and seeing them all spill out!

[Flashy]

8 minutes ago, Avimimus said:

I do feel rather guilty racing in the GAZ, causing a roll over - and seeing them all spill out!

I really wish we got a "staff car pack" or something as collector vehicles with the Gaz-61-73, Kubelwagen and the Jeep. That would have made for some hilarious races in MP! 

[Dash,Polder]

NAZCAR or GAZCAR depending on what side your playing?

[LukeFF]

On 5/11/2026 at 1:37 AM, tattywelshie said:

This looks fabulous, just wondering @LukeFF are there plans to integrate ship interdiction missions into career mode? 

Yes, we hope to have such missions.

[Avimimus]

10 hours ago, Flashy said:

I really wish we got a "staff car pack" or something as collector vehicles with the Gaz-61-73, Kubelwagen and the Jeep. That would have made for some hilarious races in MP! 

It is a lot more work than just removing content from the GAZ and re-releasing it with less functionality... so unlikely to be feasible.

That said - I definitely see where you are coming from - these guys (the developers) are such good engineers, and produce content with really good physics - it makes the idea of them producing all sorts of things very appealing. Interwar experimental gliders, interwar race cars, a G5 torpedo boat - I'd be tempt to pre-order all sorts.

[Flashy]

12 hours ago, Avimimus said:

It is a lot more work than just removing content from the GAZ and re-releasing it with less functionality... so unlikely to be feasible.

That said - I definitely see where you are coming from - these guys (the developers) are such good engineers, and produce content with really good physics - it makes the idea of them producing all sorts of things very appealing. Interwar experimental gliders, interwar race cars, a G5 torpedo boat - I'd be tempt to pre-order all sorts.

Making a non-AA version of the Gaz truck we have already should be pretty easy to do hopefully, it will involve a bit of extra 3d modelling to create a cargo loadout, and the physics will need to be recalculated based on the changed weight/center of gravity etc.. but I would even be happy with a version of the truck with the AA gun and crew removed and a basic canvas top over the bed (like the low-fidelity AI version we have already)

Creating all new vehicles like the  Gaz-M1, Kubelwagen and Jeep would obviously have been a whole different thing and would have to be a paid vehicle pack like tank crew.. still.. would have been cool! 

Edited May 13 by Flashy

[tattywelshie]

16 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Yes, we hope to have such missions.

This is great, been longing to bomb some ships 😁

[plepew]

An expanded map that opens up another aspect of this battle?  Yes please!  Screenshots look gorgeous.  Can't wait to see it in person!

[Flashy]

@LukeFF When can we expect this update to the Odessa and Leningrad module?