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#4352756 - 04/22/17 08:35 AM Steel Division Normandy 44  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
- Ice Offline
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- Ice  Offline
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
Philippines / North East UK
I put the blame squarely on GunDoc for getting me into this game. I've enjoyed the Wargame series, but only really played the first one and a little of the second one. Not touched RD at all. But I'm a sucker for WWII stuff, I guess due to all the Discovery Channel shows I've watched and Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan movies. I also have Combat Mission Battle for Normandy but have stopped playing as games there takes HOURS on end even though the actual "action time" is only half an hour or so.

Didn't take long for me to plunk down the dough for the Deluxe edition of this game. Paradox Interactive is currently in my good books as I'm currently enjoying Tyranny and have also lost countless hours on Cities Skylines. It's a beta, there's no tutorial, and there's limited "groups" to choose from. Still, this game rocks! I don't think I'll be playing MP against complete strangers anytime soon, but if any of my friends pick this up, I can see it as a fun game to play versus each other or together against AI.

One thing I really like about this game is the ability to slow things down up to bullet-time speed. Really useful in getting things deployed and also to regain situational awareness of the battlefield. However, I suspect this can be a crutch; I don't think it's useful once I start playing MP. I just hope there'll be a lot of campaigns or scenarios to play... but hey! It's WWII, it's Normandy, and there's a few maps already in the pipeline. I'm sure there'll be more than enough to make this game well worth the money.

Another awesome feature is the replay function... no need to set anything, the game just records every game played. Every nasty defeat is there for me to learn from, every glorious victory is there for me to take screenshots and pretend I'm such an awesome commander biggrin I'm very sure it's going to be an invaluable learning tool!

Here are a few screenshots from my last victory:


Initial setup
[Linked Image]


I debated whether to guard the left flank or just let the AI have it. Ended up being one of the best fights of the scenario
[Linked Image]


Central front
[Linked Image]


Guarding the road
[Linked Image]


Right flank. Again, the AI really pushed on this side. Come to think of it, the AI sent tanks down the flanks and only infantry down the middle
[Linked Image]


It's all about range. Being able to reach out further than the enemy is the key. After that is firepower. Overwhelming firepower. Here, a group of enemy infantry got within range of my MG unit
[Linked Image]


Initially, I did not know that the anti-tank could hide in the bushes/hedgerows. I've noticed my unit's AI would hide themselves if there was a bush nearby. Here, my AT was supposed to be on the road, but it relocated to the hedgerow, which was very lucky as an enemy tank is just about to come out from the opposite hedgerow
[Linked Image]


And it didn't take long for the AT to show them who's boss
[Linked Image]


Another example of winning the range fight. My scouts further down the track spots an enemy unit and this tracked unit opens fire. It didn't have to worry about return fire at all
[Linked Image]


The left flank is nicely protected against infantry by this MG unit
[Linked Image]


However, I wanted that clump of trees just north of our position, so I moved the MG unit closer to get the location in range and "coax" the enemy unit out of it. Turns out to be a great location later on
[Linked Image]


After successfully occupying the new position, the enemy sends two tanks and several infantry units. Uh oh!! My Peat units were nowhere in range! I quickly move them up to the clump of trees as well
[Linked Image]


And they make short work of the tanks
[Linked Image]

[Linked Image]


Moving some of my tracked units closer, I effectively set up a killzone for infantry. I guess the enemy AI could not see my troops effectively due to tree cover and he didn't have any scouts and that's why he had to send his tanks close. Well, with my own scouts in the trees and being protected by MGs and tracked vehicles, he couldn't re-take this area.... luckily, he didn't have much arty set up and what he had was too busy in the center trying to get my units out of cover
[Linked Image]


The AI tries to compensate by sending airborne scouts over my position... I don't know how effective that is. Sure, he may spot my units but I wonder how long the "intel" will last before my units disappear from his view again? Anyway, I soon took some AAA assets to cover the airspace
[Linked Image]


One thing that surprised me was that the AAA gun would shoot at ground units as well. Sure, I read about this, but I was pleasantly surprised to see this in the game. Here, my AAA unit was firing on the enemy units holed up in the building to the north. Didn't take long for them to start falling back. I need to keep this in mind in the future.... if I had moved my AAA unit just a few more meters down the track, he'd get better LOS to a lot more contested areas and could've been A LOT more useful
[Linked Image]


Starting to push back along the middle. Also got bigger arty. Before this, I really couldn't see the point of arty. Sure, it was scary but I thought unless you get a direct hit, all you are really doing is keeping the enemy's head down. Well, in this situation, I learned that arty is a great way to coax enemy infantry out of buildings... by simply destroying said building biggrin
[Linked Image]


And here's the star of the scenario... the humble Humber Mk.3... this guy was the one that initially transported my left flank scout and he just stayed around and got the most number of kills for the scenario. You can plainly see here that he's out of ammo... I sent an ammo truck soon after but it was too late in the scenario for him to get back into the action.
[Linked Image]



A very fun scenario and very interesting. I learned a lot about unit placement and some unit abilities surprised me, such as AAA and arty. I wonder if I can get the same results using more tanks... I want to use more tanks, but I can see some issues. For one, I don't think they can hide or see through the hedgerows unlike AT units. Another issue is that penetration and armor values seem to be quite... interesting. In one fight, I had three tanks taken out by an enemy StuG. They couldn't penetrate the StuG's front armor and the StuG would just take each tank out after 1 or 2 shots. Really cool if I were the German player, but I'll have to re-think my strategy if I stick to the Allies.

Another potential issue is that if I used tanks on my left flank, I'm guessing the enemy will just sit at range and we'll have a shootout between tanks at extreme range. As I have to sit the tank out in the open, there's no ambush possible and since they'll be firing at each other from range, the enemy tanks will probably be out of range for my anti-tank infantry to help. I don't want to sit my tank behind cover then just roll out since all the enemy has to do is stop and aim... my tank would still be moving, then have to stop, then rotate itself... by this time, the other guy would've taken his shot. So unless it's a total mismatch, I don't really like this idea.

I'm having to play this game on windowed mode since it doesn't play nice on 1920x1080 res on my Surround setup and if I were to play at my 5896x1080 resolution, some tooltips get lost under bezel compensation, but like I said, it's a beta and I hope they sort it out... Tyranny does not have this issue at all. I also didn't notice any of my air support turning up... maybe a bug on my end.

Hope you guys enjoyed my small AAR and look forward to discussing tactics for this awesome game!


- Ice
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#4352768 - 04/22/17 12:12 PM Re: Steel Division Normandy 44 [Re: - Ice]  

**DONOTDELETE**
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USSCheyenne
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After seeing some more gameplays i have the feeling that morale system is to delicate. I mean units decide to fall back really fast. Same goes to planes. One AA gun is enough to scare an enemy plane. Would you agree?

#4352804 - 04/22/17 04:47 PM Re: Steel Division Normandy 44 [Re: - Ice]  
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
- Ice Offline
Veteran
- Ice  Offline
Veteran

Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 16,082
Philippines / North East UK
Not played enough to comment with authority, heck, I just figured out how to get my aircraft to attack targets, but I do agree with you a bit here. Then again, those units that fall back (mainly vehicles with MG) tend to survive for another round. Those that don't go KABOOM!

Also, the morale system highlights the need for leader units in the game. I've had a few units surrender and when I replay the scenario with a leader unit, they tend to work out better.


- Ice

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