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Battle of Iwo Jima - Volcano Islands Campaign (WW2) [EA28+]

Solitude…

Recommended Settings
Number of Bots: 120 or More
Game Mode: Point Match or Battle
Game Length: Long-Epic (Point Match) or Normal (Battle)
Respawn Time: 30-40 Seconds
Adjust Balance Slider if Necessary!
Items Seen in Screenshots and Tested for this Map:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3531309369

Performance Improvement Mutators

Render distance decreaser by Hijong Park
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2796715882
More Visual Config by Aya
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2799415310

*Optional* Gameplay Improvement Mutators
Drowning Mutator by Panchuet: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3358930007
NoParachutes by FilterUnfiltered: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2913053239
Vehicle Burn Corpse Vanish by Aya:
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2972475835
Limit bot respawn by Gangrenas: https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2923976190
Flight altitude changer by Hijong Park
https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2819996034

Japan is home to over 100 volcanoes found throughout the mainland and islands in the southern archipelago. One such island is Iwo Jima, which sits on an active volcano that continually sees small eruptions.

Before World War 2, permanent civilian settlements had been established to exploit Iwo Jima’s abundance of Sulfur. However, as the war grew closer to the Japanese homeland, it was decided that the island would need to be prepared for an impending invasion. By mid-1944, all civilians would be evacuated, and the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy began reinforcing Iwo Jima, with more than 20,000 troops being stationed by February 1945.

Unlike previous battles, the defensive strategy for Iwo Jima called for limited defence of the beaches. Instead, emplacements would be installed in and around the hills with the island’s highest point, Mount Suribachi, being transformed into a fortress. Additionally, a vast tunnel network would be excavated throughout Iwo Jima, ensuring protection from bombs and the ease of setting up ambushes. The goal was to prolong the battle and whittle away American morale, with the expectation that the defenders would fight to the last man.

To Allied commanders, because of its proximity to Japan (750 miles/1,200 km from the mainland), as well as accommodating the space for escort aircraft in support of B-29 bombers, Iwo Jima would become a target for capture. An invasion force of more than 70,000 US Marines would be allocated for the battle, with months of aerial raids and a three-day consecutive naval bombardment having softened up the island's defences.

Initially, when Marines made landfall on February 19, 1945, no resistance was met. However, as the beaches became congested with personnel and equipment, the Japanese would open fire, inflicting heavy casualties. Despite this, by the end of the first day, the Marines would advance to the western end of Iwo Jima. Then, on February 23, Mount Suribachi would be captured, with an American flag raised at its peak.

The push towards the northern end of the island would see the most brutal fighting, with areas such as Hill 382 being nicknamed the “Meatgrinder” due to the high number of Marines who died trying to claim it.

After five weeks of fighting, Iwo Jima would be deemed secured on March 26, following the defeat of a final banzai charge of over 100 Japanese soldiers. However, holdouts would continue to be discovered, with the final IJN soldiers not surrendering until 1949.

Following subsequent clean-up operations, only around 1,000 Japanese troops would survive and be captured. Casualty figures for the United States would list over 6,800 killed and 19,200 wounded.

Upon reflection, the battle has gained a lot of controversy. Disputes prevail over its importance to the air war against Japan, as well as the actions that could have been taken to prevent such a high number of casualties.

The Battle of Iwo Jima would serve as a bloody foreshadowing of what was to come as the war had now moved to Japan’s doorstep.

Hi again, everyone! Hope y’all are doing well! :)

The idea of making an Iwo Jima map has existed in my mind since I first compiled a list of future map ideas back when I released my rendition of Attu. However, it had never been a high-priority project, because there are already a lot of renditions of this battle on the RF workshop.

What made me want to make Iwo my next map was a waning interest in other mapping projects that I have been working on. In the description for Roi-Namur, I said that my next goal was to release two maps based on battles set in the Marshall Islands, and although I had made some substantial progress, I felt bored working on them. I thought they were just more of the same as my previous maps, with no elements that makes them interesting or special. It’s why Iwo Jima stood out to me as a map I would have a lot of fun making, as it would include a different aesthetic and have features that have not been seen on any of my previous maps, namely tunnels, caves, and dug-in trenches.

This map technically started development not that long after work on Roi-Namur wrapped up. Though at the time, it was merely a “proof of concept” map to see if it would even be feasible to the degree I wanted. Active work started around the beginning of July, with steady progress being made almost everyday. This means that this is probably the longest I’ve spent developing a map so far, as previous projects have generally taken me 1.5-3 weeks to make (post-release updates included).

The biggest problem was probably the positioning of the flags and the scaling of the terrain, as this map had to feel large, while simultaneously being a condensed version of the real Iwo Jima. If the in-game editor offered no limit to how big a map could be, I probably would have expanded the northern end of the island and added more space between Mount Suribachi and Airfield No. 1. Not to mention if the game had a better way of making tunnels, then I probably would have gone crazy creating a huge network of them (check out BF1942: FHSW’s Iwo Jima and the tunnels for that map).

Also I know the optimization is a bit crap with maybe too much rock spam. But I felt this map would be very barren without it and have too long of sightlines with very little cover. Future updates will likely be to try and improve the performance, though considering that this map occupies almost the entirety of the maximum playable space offered by the editor, it’s bound to remain in this state.

Nevertheless, I’m very happy with the way things turned out, and I felt I had brought a lot of new things to the table when it comes to representing this famous battle!

I don’t really know when new maps will come out, as college has taken away most of my free time (and my soul :’[ ). Though I do hope to eventually finish those Marshall Island maps. I also started doing a bit of preliminary work for a few battles set throughout 1944 and even battles set in other theatres of WWII, but I won’t disclose/guarantee anything. I prefer speaking ambiguously in case my life gets super busy and I fall off the face of the RF workshop. Even if I’m not able to make all of my ideas come true, I can at least say I’m satisfied with what I’ve been able to provide already and that I’ve managed to contribute to the community of one of my favorite games!

Stay safe and enjoy this map! ;)