Hi Coot
Cool picture. I get a little confused with the different entries. I have one of them on Steam. I used to own T34 Vs Tiger before selling it to someone here on SimHQ. GOG.com just released Tank Warfare: Tunisia 1943. How does that one compare with the others as it seems to be a newer release?
Hi Coot!
I'd say TW:T1943 can't be compared to Steel Fury (or Panzer Elite or T34-v-T for that matter) because it's a PC wargame - not a tank simulator, like SF. I don't have TW:T1943 but I do have its earlier iteration, Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star (plus all the DLCs, bought as a bundle in a sale).
The Graviteam wargames are much the best WW2 PC wargames I've played, as they simulate war not wargaming. Notably, in GT:OS you operate by giving orders to your units, playing the company commander role (depending on the size of your force). Not by moving individual 'pieces' around on a 'table' like the Combat Mission series or to an extent, Theatre of War. The latest iteration (Mius Front) to which TW:T1943 belongs improved mainly the command interface, which was comprehensive but took time to learn.
Steel Armour: Blaze of War was Graviteam's last tanksim (following on from Steel Fury). It much improved platoon command and control and AI, but mod-ability was limited; the devs concentrated on their wargames and while SABOW got a very worthwhile update and one DLC, it remained limited in terms of playable tanks and theatres. Strangely, SABOW is actually a tanksim wrapped inside a Graviteam-style wargame (the update enabled the tanksimming to he accessed without having to get much into the wargame side) and is actually an excellent Cold War-era tanksim, in the Steel Beasts Class in my experience.
Steel Fury would have had limited appeal due to its limited scope, except that it is very mod-able and in fact comes with the necessary tools. While Panzer Elite is still better at Western tanking and has some superior features, SF with any of the current major mods (one of them, the Japanese Community mod is free, the later STA 3.X and ITM are for a modest donation) is a fantastic WW2 tanksim, with dozens of playable AFVs (plus some guns and softskins) and missions, now including Western, North African and Far Eastern fronts, as well as the original Eastern Front.