Temptation is strong and my resistance is weakening.

I really go for deep sims, and I thrive on the steepest of learning curves, but for tanks...the closest thing to a tank sim I've ever played is Battlezone. I don't know squat about tank tactics and strategy.

Is there any hope for me?

What?, after all the post, screens, and videos...you still haven't got it... you got a stronger will them most here. lol


Listen, best damn "gaming dollars" I ever spent, no kidding.


And you don't need to worry about tactics at first, go through the tank tutorials, hit the range, get good at gunning, do some of the already "planned" missions, where you just sit and shoot or whatever...


then maybe some of the downloadable tactics missions which teaches you tank tactics with good instruction, while you do it... like move to contact drills, flanking, bounding overwatch, retreat from a defense...ect ect...


If everything you wrote above is true about what you go for... then your missing out already.

Stronger will? No. There just wasn't time for a new sim like this but now there is.

Thanks for the tips on getting up to speed, Magnum. You're a bad influence.

Looks like fresh meat inbound.

It is worth every penny (actually only same price as two "standard" games in my part of the world) very nice tutorials and plenty of documentation in the "Docs" folder after installation. I'd recommend you buy it... then again I'm biased I love SB Pro

Cheers
Staffan

The biggest challenge indeed is to make the step from learning how to handle a certain vehicle to managing an entire platoon (or even several maneuver elements) within the context of a combined arms mission.

I concede that Steel Beasts' tutorials only help you to learn how to handle the various vehicles, but that they don't put much of this into the context of actual tactics that should be applied in a given scenario.
This is where the "exploration" starts. Armies are using SB Pro PE only after their junior leaders have been exposed to certain lessons to tactical instruction. Especially you will need to learn which weapon system has what range and is dangerous to what type of target. What are the relative strengthes and weaknesses within the team of combined arms.

Multiplayer sessions may help you to understand how other players think, and which combination of maneuver and gunnery skills makes them successful. Unlike shooter games you can do a step by step analysis of a battle to see who was shooting at you from where and when. There are people who use the AAR tool to learn, and then there are people who are exclusively interested in blowing **** up. Take your pick.

One of my favorite platforms in one of my favorite sims is the 688(I), so "exclusively blowing **** up" isn't where I'm coming from. Although that is what I want to see happen in the end (given that that's the mission), but not without use of actual tactics that allow me success and survival.

So looks like I'll have a lot to learn, but I'm in no hurry. More is better.

And depending on the nature of the particular mission your playing, you can just be the gunner and have a blast. In that sense, it is as deep or as "Blow-S***-up" as you want it to be.

Strange. I feel $125 dollars light all of the sudden.

Question is pertaining to SB1 and AAR. Can this be recorded and re-replayed at the much later time than immediately after the battle? Sometimes I would like to see action again and analyse and learn at the later time.

Eventhough not much discussing things here, or another forum I/we multiplay SB1 religiously nearly daily. Sure that with this unusuall gameplay appeal I should be pulled sonner or later to SBPro, but for the time being learning is with 1st SB. Therefore this question about AAR reply.

No. Once you exit, it's gone. It's not saved.

NTM

I am optimistic however that we will see a solution at least for SB Pro (classroom version) within the next 15 months. Depending on performance considerations we might make it available for SB Pro PE as well but it is impossible to make a promise here.

Maybe we can implement a "mission recorder lite" that doesn't record as many different data as the classroom version so that we can bypass disk access during a mission and use RAM only. But like I wrote, it's too early to make a reliable prediction here.

I thinking of using FRAPS to shoot after video. However the file may be HUGE.

On the positive side, a relatively new thing added was HTML files which give a breakdown of unit loss and kills, weapon used and damage caused. That goes some way to compensate for not having a permament 3d AAR report. Its some way to preserve moments of glory for future generations.

And whats wrong with blowing S@@t up? After a bad day at work I feel it a God given right.

So just buy SB1. It's dirt cheap nowadays and it's not encumbered by marvelous drm usb dongles.

SB1 is technologically obsolete (fixed screen resolution, 8 bit graphics, 100m height variance maximum per map). It offers only two playable vehicles and has quite limited tactical versatility as far as available tools and variables are concerned. Yeah, it's "free" to the extent that it costs virtually nothing (save for packaging and handling and the eBay fee). But I have yet to meet an SB Pro PE customer who would voluntarily go back to SB1.

It's too late anyway. Besides, I'm a sucker for the latest shiny new toys. Now I just have to wait and see if it arrives in time for the long weekend.

And I didn't mean to imply there was anything wrong with blowing stuff up, just that I like that and more in a sim.

Im a fan of GTA San Andreas, who am I to criticise?

Well that was fast. Put in my order last Friday and it arrived Monday.

Installed, upgraded/patched and ready to dive in.

good for you!

I however am engrossed in Dangerous waters for now, which is only around $35 dollars. (no offense to SBPro.) I am going to wait for SB2 because I already have SB1 and a taste of the genre.

Felt the pull too...in the end, the leading-edge tanksim of today, featuring a Danish tank no less, was just too hard to resist. It beckoned to me...

And there goes $ 125,- Oh well, defending the fatherland has never been this cheap anyway! Now if someone would kindly send some Soviet armor my way...