Quote:
Originally Posted by Rodolphe
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@Foo'bar
Will "Leopold" be part and operational in SoW game ? 
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Interesting question, indeed...I have asked Oleg and his answer was non-committal...I guess that it will be ultimately related to the time left before release and two bottlenecks:
1) Foo'bar's model is I believe not yet complete (but close); everything related to firing platforms is still to be done (but FB will hopefully state his opinion)
2) The dedicated tracks and various firing platform locations have to be transferred to Oleg (I have the data, still need to make a kml file out of this). Note that these special tracks were apparently not used in Dunkerque and Ostende (never found any trace or mention), so because these two towns were important harbors with lot of properly curved industrial railway sidings the guns probably fired directly from the existing tracks and did not use firing platforms (educated guess only, unfortunately).
3) The Dom bunkers and tunnels sheltering the guns have to be located (this is part of the .kml) and modelized, for the bunkers (three of them, all identical).
4) Said tracks and locations must be integrated in the map and because they are not independent from the existing railway system, the latter has to be closely looked-after...and there, things become complicated, because they are marked differences between what is visible on Google earth in 2010 and what was there in 1940....VERY marked differences!
I also have the data, and I am working on the related .kml file as well...but the end result is a maze of tracks on the SoW area which would need to be integrated properly and I do not know what Oleg will do with that.
It is obvious that a proper transportation network (including large landmark steam depots, stations and the very much used - by Germans and population alike - 1 m narrow track network) will bring enormous additional quality to the map, but it would take time, and I suspect there is not a lot of it left! Oleg's call in any case...
Almost all of the BoB German bases were close and often connected to a part of the railway standard and narrow gauge network (in the case of Abbeville, the tracks run across one of the dispersal areas after the base was built in 1941).
Concerning Leopold, the K5 batteries (and more anecdotally the K12) have been a big concern for the RAF which has sent many bombers during BoB and after to try getting them out of use but succeeded (with US help) for two of them only in 1944 at Anzio! Even then the guns themselves were not really damaged but trapped in their hiding place by destroying utterly the tracks leading to them...
One gun was reconstituted in the US out of the two in Italy (sabotaged by the evacuating troops) and still visible in Aberdeen, Maryland. The Germans were later forced to abandon other K5 guns in France of which one is now at the TODT battery museum in northern France very close to their operational positions of 1940...
JV