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Questions from a Newbie


Simcoe

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Hi All,

 

Trying to figure out if this is the game for me. I purchased the 1 month subscription and have been enjoying the tutorials (coming from Combat Mission this is a god send)

 

  • The tank simulation is interesting to me but I'm more interested in commanding a company/battalion. Is the command aspect fleshed out enough?
  • I am more interested in IFV's and the combined arms nature of infantry and their fighting vehicles. Is infantry modelled well enough? I am not as interested in straight tank v tank shootouts.
  • I am most interested in playing Soviet AFV's (I have no sympathies for the politics then or now I just find their doctrine and vehicles more interesting/challenging) is there enough content for soviet combined arms scenarios?
  • Does artillery change depending on which faction you play? If you play the Soviets would your artillery take longer to call/be more focused on preplanned bombardments?

 

Any answers are greatly appreciated.

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39 minutes ago, Simcoe said:
  • The tank simulation is interesting to me but I'm more interested in commanding a company/battalion. Is the command aspect fleshed out enough?
  • I am more interested in IFV's and the combined arms nature of infantry and their fighting vehicles. Is infantry modelled well enough? I am not as interested in straight tank v tank shootouts.
  • I am most interested in playing Soviet AFV's (I have no sympathies for the politics then or now I just find their doctrine and vehicles more interesting/challenging) is there enough content for soviet combined arms scenarios?
  • Does artillery change depending on which faction you play? If you play the Soviets would your artillery take longer to call/be more focused on preplanned bombardments?

#1, I think this works best in multiplayer battles. Try 'em.

Steel Beasts being a real-time simulation (yes, I know, Combat Mission went that route as well, to my regret) and the user interface tailored to support the platoon level best, single player reinforced company is still "doable" but dangerously close to cross the threshold from "fun" to "work", YMMV. Battalion level, it's being done routinely by our military customers but they have larger classrooms/more players available. Single player? Theoretically (with disproportionate amount of time spent in the planning phase), but definitely not my recommendation.

 

#2, you decide.

At heart, Steel Beasts is a vehicle-centric simulation, and the smallest tactical level is the team/half squad. Steel Beasts is not an infantry combat simulation. But I think that the user interface changes that we made since 2015 have at least substantially expanded the overall utility value of infantry units in simulated battle.

 

#3, "enough" content is highly subjective term.

Not sure how to define a metric by which an objective assessment could be made. There's a playable T-72 and BMP-1, BTRs, T-55, T-62 for starters. That gives aou something to work with, particularly in the 1960s...early 1980s time frame. And version 4.3 will bring some more stuff, as to be revealed in the coming weeks on our Youtube channel (https://www.YouTube.com/c/eSimGamesDtl). 

 

#4, depends on scenario design, and your difficulty settings.

There is no inherent nation-specific modifier for command delays. Steel Beasts attempts to be largely agnostic of military culture if it cannot be justified and quantified by objective metrics (and/or if no hard data are available). I at least haven't found any data, just hearsay and opinion about how well (or not so much) the Russian army will perform in certain tasks. I do notice that some people in multiplayer games start a stopwatch whenever they enter a battleposition, to be sure that they won't be greeted by artillery barrage. That's an awesome example of players adapting to the battlefield conditions as simulated by Steel Beasts without us telling anyone what and how to do.

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10 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

#3, "enough" content is highly subjective term.

Not sure how to define a metric by which an objective assessment could be made. There's a playable T-72 and BMP-1, BTRs, T-55, T-62 for starters. That gives aou something to work with, particularly in the 1960s...early 1980s time frame. And version 4.3 will bring some more stuff, as to be revealed in the coming weeks on our Youtube channel (https://www.YouTube.com/c/eSimGamesDtl). 

*BMP-2

 

@Simcoe you might want to check out the wiki too; very well done to learn how to play soviet (and other) equipment

https://www.steelbeasts.com/sbwiki/index.php?title=T-72B1_(m.1984)

Edited by BlackDeath
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12 minutes ago, Ssnake said:

#1, I think this works best in multiplayer battles. Try 'em.

Steel Beasts being a real-time simulation (yes, I know, Combat Mission went that route as well, to my regret) and the user interface tailored to support the platoon level best, single player reinforced company is still "doable" but dangerously close to cross the threshold from "fun" to "work", YMMV. Battalion level, it's being done routinely by our military customers but they have larger classrooms/more players available. Single player? Theoretically (with disproportionate amount of time spent in the planning phase), but definitely not my recommendation.

 

#2, you decide.

At heart, Steel Beasts is a vehicle-centric simulation, and the smallest tactical level is the team/half squad. Steel Beasts is not an infantry combat simulation. But I think that the user interface changes that we made since 2015 have at least substantially expanded the overall utility value of infantry units in simulated battle.

 

#3, "enough" content is highly subjective term.

Not sure how to define a metric by which an objective assessment could be made. There's a playable T-72 and BMP-1, BTRs, T-55, T-62 for starters. That gives aou something to work with, particularly in the 1960s...early 1980s time frame. And version 4.3 will bring some more stuff, as to be revealed in the coming weeks on our Youtube channel (https://www.YouTube.com/c/eSimGamesDtl). 

 

#4, depends on scenario design, and your difficulty settings.

There is no inherent nation-specific modifier for command delays. Steel Beasts attempts to be largely agnostic of military culture if it cannot be justified and quantified by objective metrics (and/or if no hard data are available). I at least haven't found any data, just hearsay and opinion about how well (or not so much) the Russian army will perform in certain tasks. I do notice that some people in multiplayer games start a stopwatch whenever they enter a battleposition, to be sure that they won't be greeted by artillery barrage. That's an awesome example of players adapting to the battlefield conditions as simulated by Steel Beasts without us telling anyone what and how to do.

Thank you for your reply!

 

#2: Maybe a better question is how big of a role does infantry play in most scenarios? My favorite type of unit to command in Combat Mission is a western combined arms mechanized infantry unit or Soviet/Russian motorized rifle BTG. Or are most of these platoons of tanks duking it out?

 

#4: so a scenario featuring a soviet attack could require greater use of preplanned fires compared to western doctrine? From what I've read the artillery simulation is so much better than Combat Mission.

 

Finally, Combat Mission does not focus on real time. It is still primarily focused on We-Go. Thank god.

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1 hour ago, Simcoe said:

Thank you for your reply!

 

#2: Maybe a better question is how big of a role does infantry play in most scenarios? My favorite type of unit to command in Combat Mission is a western combined arms mechanized infantry unit or Soviet/Russian motorized rifle BTG. Or are most of these platoons of tanks duking it out?

 

#4: so a scenario featuring a soviet attack could require greater use of preplanned fires compared to western doctrine? From what I've read the artillery simulation is so much better than Combat Mission.

 

Finally, Combat Mission does not focus on real time. It is still primarily focused on We-Go. Thank god.

 

For #2, you can absolutely have a Mech Infantry force be the center point of a scenario. All depends on the scenario designer. What I will say is that the infantry model is somewhat limited in specific terrain... namely MOUT style operations. You won't find the level of fidelity there as compared to Shock Force 2, etc. Dismounted ATGMs though are very dangerous, and I've used them countless times to absolutely wreck OPFOR.  

 

#4 can be done by adjusting the number of Batteries in the scenario editor. Each Battery allows the processing of one fire mission due to the presence of a Fire Direction Center IRL. You can also edit number of rounds by type, etc. 

 

To chime in for #1, Company can be done with less micromanagement with appropriate use of routes, waypoints, and triggers during the planning phase in Single Player. I demonstrate that some in this video, where you can activate a trigger to cause specific elements to move along a route to a new point, etc. I would *highly* encourage learning to use task forces when managing infantry; it'll save you significant time.

 

 

With that being said, Kanium (and other virtual units) have been doing Company-sized to Battalion-sized multiplayer missions for years, depending on player count. 

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40 minutes ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

Please consider joining the Sunday MP games. There is always a need for commanders. Both CO and BN.

Just read the upcoming Sunday game. Sounds amazing. What would you recommend I do to train up for one of these?

 

  • Which vehicles should I learn first?(would I be safe to start with IFV's since that's my main interest? And I assume I should start with western ones?)
  • Any videos I should watch in particular? (I have been running through  the Revenant tutorial series).
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12 minutes ago, Simcoe said:

Just read the upcoming Sunday game. Sounds amazing. What would you recommend I do to train up for one of these?

 

  • Which vehicles should I learn first?(would I be safe to start with IFV's since that's my main interest? And I assume I should start with western ones?)
  • Any videos I should watch in particular? (I have been running through  the Revenant tutorial series).

If you'd like to command CO and BN then I wouldn't worry about learning a vehicle 

 

I'd more focus on developing a plan, briefing that plan, and then adjusting that plan when the environment changes.

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17 minutes ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

If you'd like to command CO and BN then I wouldn't worry about learning a vehicle 

 

I'd more focus on developing a plan, briefing that plan, and then adjusting that plan when the environment changes.

Understood, would I need to man a vehicle for the first few games to get a feel for it?

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14 minutes ago, Apocalypse 31 said:

I'd recommend playing as an XO to get a general feel for how commanding ingame works. 

I messaged you on Discord so I'm not clogging up the thread. Thank you for your help.

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7 hours ago, Mirzayev said:

For #2, you can absolutely have a Mech Infantry force be the center point of a scenario. All depends on the scenario designer.

...which could be you, Simcoe.

Try out the Mission Editor. It's very easy to do the first steps (certain things can get time-consuming and complex, though; start with a couple of platoon level scenarios to stave off the phase where you want to go big and then run into the complexity trap). For some, developing and testing scenarios are the heart of the product. And if experimentation is your thing, they are probably right.

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10 hours ago, Grenny said:

Cool!! People willing to step up for the command team are always most welcome...

 

Absolutely 100% true.

@Simcoe We are always in need of those and have plenty of people who can give you input and hints, including some of the world class people above !

 

As for Soviet/Russian kit, then they are not for everyone. I do them most Sundays, to the best of my lacking abilities and limited intellect and skills.

But I try to make everyone happy, and we can if nothing else always make a scenario for you and find a group of people that wants to do the other side.

Edited by Nike-Ajax
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