Having taken the plunge, I'm now trying out one of the T-72 variants in the 'Russian Recon' user mission. There seem to be relatively few missions available for the Soviet armour, and while it seems easy to use the Mission Editor to change units, some scenarios use old maps not included in the current release which it seems difficult to get working. Early days yet.

Some pics from the T-72 tutorial mission, featuring the Finnish Army T72M1...







I'd forgotten how ear-splittingly good the SB tank main gun sounds are, in particular!

Welcome to the real armor simulator. Great sim, community, some could be left out for sure.

Lima, how complicated are these vehicles to operate? I'd like to take up a tank sim, but worry the learning curve for this sim would be too steep in terms of the limited time I can commit to it

A tankSIM that can be picked up quickly is a bit of a contradiction in terms, methinks!

If you're after a good one that can be learned fairly quickly, I'd recommend a WW2 one like Steel Fury with either the JCM or ITM mods. The tanks are *relatively* simple to master and the map interface, likewise (if only because you can't do much from the map!). The missions/scenarios tend to be straightforward attacks with no planning or command and control required, beyond your own tank and your own (typically three tank) platoon. There's still a fair number of keyboard commands to learn and some skills to acquire, particularly gunnery.





There's just more to learn with sims which cover the more complicated modern tanks, ie SABOW and SB. Not only do the tanks have more complex fire control systems, they tend to differ more between tanks. And both SABOW and SB have much more sophisticated map interfaces, since as well as controlling your own tank, these sims put you in the role of controlling all the platoons on your own side (beyond what scripting a mission designer may have built in) - which includes keeping track of, making plans for and giving orders to not just to your own tank and your own platoon, but other sub-units including mech infantry and managing artillery and drones (and even some close air support). In short while obviously not the whole gamut, you need to master similar skills and knowledge to the officers and men who use SB for actual training. Playing simpler scenarios with less complex situations and fewer assets to manage can help and of course there are many tutorial missions in both sims.

The SB map interface with its drop-down menus I'm finding a LOT easier to (re-)learn than SABOW's icon-based approach. And of course SB has many more playable AFVs and includes better theatres for tanking.



SABOW scores in having much prettier environments and fully animated crews (despite less demanding system requirements) and it includes several dynamic campaigns. It's also relatively inexpensive. SABOW is a very good tanksim indeed, in the SB class IMHO, but I'd rate it as taking the most time to master.





In between SF and SB/SABOW, in terms of learning curve, there are some options, like Iron Warriors - T-72 Tank Command/Balkans on Fire. This has just three playable tanks, T-34-85, T-55 and T-72 (just the last two in the Gastello mod), a very basic map interface (an early version of the SF version) and very small-scale missions - often you have just your own tank to worry about, friend and foe being otherwise scripted. It's very cheap, eg on Steam.



The playable tanks themselves are modded in quite good detail and like any sim, both keyboard commands and relevant skills need to be learned. It's also very cheap and I'd definitely recommend it, with the Gastello mod (put up with the second-level menu being stuck in Russian).

A short, time-based licence for SB might be a good way to find out if you have the time and patience. Otherwise, I'd recommend SF or IW.

PS it's a long way from being fully fledged but you might want to try the free public demo for Gunner, HEAT, PC which is making an effort to strike a good balance between realism and relatively easy playability.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and thoughts Lima, I really appreciate it. As mentioned in my original post, I was looking at how complex this sim is. I am not necessarily looking for a tank sim that is easy to pick up and play.

It has relatively simple switchology - the panels are (for some vehicles) fairly completely modelled, but this is often as a 'benefit' from a specific customisation for a military, with the switchology being of interest for internal training and bringing a vehicle online from a cold-start, rather than what is needed in the PE version, which starts most missions with warmed up, deployed platoons. Driving is 'faster/slower' 'left/right', or 'move in formation' or 'go there'.

As far as keyboard (or controller) assignments go, there are 2-3 main variations on the theme of FCS and usage - with cosmetic differences to the UI even in the prototype vehicles. Learn one or two, and the main sequence of operations (and who is responsible for following commander's orders for ammunition status - on the M1, this is the gunner, on the Leopard and most others this is the loader (so the gunner has no ability to send APFSDS into orbit using an HE indexing), or autoloaded/belt fed with the selected ammunition matching the selection (though maybe 1-2 rounds after the switch for some types).

Challenge in play is remaining tactically aware and not dying to unseen ambushes again and again - especially vs human opponents in online MP.
Challenge can be increased by taking older ammunition, older tanks, with no TIS system (or a relatively old, low res, noisy one). It can be eased by taking newer ammunition, newer tanks, especially those with the later generation TIS systems with much higher sensitivity/resolution and clarity).

CV90s can be a bit more complex than some others - as they have multi-mode ammunition and can be used to 'autotrack' (in air mode), and can be extremely effective if well employed. Most FCS works out to - point the lasing spot at the target, track it for a moment, lase and reject if a multi-return which looks abnormal, or wait for in-coincidence following the re-lay and fire while continuing to track.

Earlier FCS offset the aiming mark, requiring lead to be applied by placing the aiming point onto the target. Newer ones retain a stable aimpoint and lead the gun tube continuously once lead is applied, according to range and instantaneous tracking rate. I *sometimes* found the M1A1 and Leopard 1 aiming to be easier than the Leopard 2 and M1A2 - as the applied lead is more explicitly shown, and if obviously *bad* because of ranging error or tracking quality error can be dumped before wasting a shot... it is also easier to transition to manual aiming with the reversionary sights because you are 'aiming off' in the same way as normal, just without the FCS giving the displaced reticle... while the 2 axis stab doesn't help with learning the lead being applied.

There are a lot of different vehicles and each has a few 'wrinkles' in how it does things - but a single vehicle is easy to learn, and you can refresh the details of the FCS usage and ammunition handling (size and proportion of ready ammunition, turret angle and time required to cross load/supply from external supply and how vulnerable you are while doing so) within a few minutes (some notes taken can be useful for your planning purposes).

Mission design is not the most trivial, but a simple test can be thrown together in less than a minute. Modifying existing scenarios is relatively easy (especially for equipment and ammunition exchange).

I haven't got any DCS stuff, Bisher, so can't compare. As Lieste has indicated, a decent tanksim is about as complex as the real-world systems it simulates, which can be learned! All I would re-iterate is that the control of any individual vehicle, which is an art in itself, is but a part of playing SB (or SABOW), as in real life. In that respect will be interesting to see how GHPC turns out, as they seem to plan on striking a particular balance between realism and playability.

PPS this looks like a good series of intro videos which give a feel as to how it works in practice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qk4qKSoeeI4&list=PL7wwWTcJj9bsxzVeiyHyEgQpGvSetaR9h&t=1s

Thanks Lieste nice overview

Thanks for responding to my ever changing post Llima, I will have a look at the video you linked

Just working my through the numerous T-72 tutorials, in the wrong order - these are from the TC and driving (external view only) ones. Unfortunately they seem to be quite time limited, I could have tootled around the map longer, being in no great rush to face sudden and violent death

Fantastic pics and info 33lima! Thank-you sir!

-V