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#4597808 - 04/23/22 09:41 PM Red October Tanker Heroes (SB Pro PE)  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
[Linked Image]

This is my first serious attempt at playing a mission aka scenario in Steel Beasts Pro - Personal Edition. Previous experience ten or more years back in the original Steel Beasts didn't do me much good! But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Having thoroughly enjoyed (and still enjoying!) playing mainly T-72 missions in Iron Warriors - T-72 Tank Command/Balkans on Fire, I was keen to play some missions in SB Pro PE in the same tank, of which the sim features four variations.

There are relatively few T-72 scenarios available, though SB's included Mission Editor can be used to swap vehicles around in many existing scenarios. The one featured here is Kransy Oktybar (Red October) Tanker Heroes, by El-Chacho, available in the downloads section over on the Steel Beasts forums. Here's the intro for the download...

This scenario is a spin off from a previous one in which the player commanded a BMP-2 platoon. Now, command a full company of Soviet T-72B1s in (almost the same mission).

A flanking maneuver by two T-72B1 companies (including yours) will soften up a US Cavalry troop (-) in OBJ Goliath and Achilles. A Soviet rifle company will move in an assault both objectives under the close watch of the T-72B1 tanks ... Expect ENY tanks, and losses.


...here's the briefing...

[Linked Image]

...and the briefing map. In short, I'm commanding a company of ten (?) explosive reactive armour-clad T-72B1s which is to support by fire an attack on objectives Goliath and Achilles, by a company of infantry with BMP-2s (lighter blue rectangular APC symbols, top right).

My tank company is the darker blue tank symbols south of Route 270. Behind is is the second tank company (lighter blue tank symbols). All three companies have their routes pre-programmed/scripted, as shown by the route lines emanating from them. Our tank company - Bravo Company, though I think Soviet & Russian companies are numbered not lettered - is to advance roughly west, then swing north-west and adopt fire positions (ABF Sling) to cover the objectives. The second tank company is to leapfrog beyond us and adopt fire positions facing north towards Objective Achilles (ABF Arrow). Meanwhile the BMPs will be assaulting first Goliath and then Achilles. It's my understanding that I will be able and expected to control only the three T-72 platoons and the one HQ tank in my assigned tank company.

[Linked Image]

There's already some pre-programmed artillery shoots (red rectangles) and all I do before starting the mission is to mark out three Target Reference Points at what seems to me to be likely enemy positions. I don't think this will make ordering fire missions any faster; it's more a case of marking up some visual aid memoires before things get hectic.

Some enemy recce and mechanised infantry elements are spotted immediately the mission kicks off and the closer ones are soon eliminated or chased off. On exiting the map I'm dropped into this tank, which I assume is the company commander's one coming up astern of the others (pic at the top of this post). Behind me is the Second T-72 company, who will soon leapfrog beyond us. At this stage, as our move is scripted, there's nothing for me to do.

[Linked Image]

When things start happening in SB, they can happen so fast there's immediate information overload - it's all there but it will take me a while to re-learn how best to assimilate it. The fact I'm turning off the display of part of that information - the so-called HUD or text display - for better screenshots doesn't help, when my leading tanks hit contact, which is reported as being enemy tanks! A very noisy firefight is soon developing in front of me.

[Linked Image]

Crikey, in Russian! Now what, comrade company commander, I ask myself?

...to be continued!

Attached Files SS_19_51_41.jpgSS_19_40_27.jpgSS_19_44_56.jpgSS_19_52_06.jpgSS_19_54_15.jpg
Last edited by 33lima; 04/23/22 10:12 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

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#4597857 - 04/24/22 11:42 AM Re: Red October Tanker Heroes (SB Pro PE) [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
From my command tank behind the rest of my company, I try quickly to make sense of what's happening. I had a look at my company's assigned route during the briefing or planning phase and saw that we were assigned 'Assault' tactics, which means platoons move in line formation and face and attack identified enemies. I contemplated changing this to 'Engage', which gives wedge instead of line formation and lower speed, but left it alone. Either way, the net result is that my company of T-72s seems do be doing a reasonably effective 'reaction to enemy fire' drill.

[Linked Image]

As for what that fire is, we're engaged from, and returning fire in, two directions - with some AFVs identified as tanks on the skyline to the right of the woods, and others I can't see off to the right. Three T-72s have already been lost; others are firing their smoke grenades or main armament.

About this time, our second tank company is about to leapfrog beyond us, as per the original plan. I have no control over them, or over the motor rifle troops in BMPs who are assaulting over on our right.

[Linked Image]

The firefight seems to have been won before I get the chance to decide if we should be doing anything different. This the point at which I should have reviewed the situation, remembering that my company's task was to support by fire from battle position Sling both the BMPs and the leapfrogging tank company. Instead I instinctively start playing the way i've become used to, from Steel Fury and Iron Warriors, where you have little control over at most a platoon of tanks or troops, need to spend as little as possible of your time looking at a map, and operate basically by driving your tank towards the enemy while relying on the other couple of tanks you might have with you, to follow. So at this moment I forget I'm a company commander and behave like a platoon leader (without a platoon, as Soviet tank Company HQs consist of just the OC's tank).

The targets have been killed or driven off and I'm drawn as if by a magnet to to haring off after the tanks in front, which happen to be from the second company, not my own. We rattle past our casualties...

[Linked Image]

...and out into the open.

[Linked Image]

Our right flank feels especially exposed, but I can see that over there, the BMP company is attacking.

[Linked Image]

Up ahead, the company I'm following is racing ahead to its own battle position, south of the two objectives.

[Linked Image]

Behind us, my own three platoons - what's left of them - will be halting to provide covering fire. And wondering what the heck their Company Commander is doing, charging on ahead, behind the other tank company!


...to be continued

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Last edited by 33lima; 04/24/22 12:07 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4597884 - 04/24/22 07:18 PM Re: Red October Tanker Heroes (SB Pro PE) [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
The tank company I'm following is soon in action again, firing at unseen targets...

[Linked Image]

...then we're advancing again. By this time, someone has called in one or more of the pre-planned artillery shoots, and whether from direct or indirect fire, there are several fires blazing on what is probably Objective Goliath.

[Linked Image]

Over on our right flank, the BMPs I'd glimpsed advancing are now out of sight again.

[Linked Image]

A look at the map shows the T-72 company I'm following - three platoons - is about to turn southt-west before turning north-west then north, to reach their support-by-fire position, Arrow. My own tank is the darker blue circle behind them, callsign 66 (we're using US Army ones, and I believe that's the one for a company commander). The survivors of the company I should have been with, as their OC, have reached our pre-planned fire position, Sling - just one platoon and a single tank - the others are knocked out or immobilised along the route, further east.

[Linked Image]

There's a wood up ahead, towards whose northern edges the other company is wheeling left. I race after them at full speed, again keeping an anxious eye on my open right flank. Half right, I can see the knocked out enemy tanks which savaged my own company. They didn't have long to celebrate their little triumph.

[Linked Image]

Into the woods we go, on the heels of some of the lead company. I feel a little safer momentarily...

[Linked Image]

....but I know I'll be back out in the open, very soon.

...to be continued!


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Last edited by 33lima; 04/24/22 07:21 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4597892 - 04/24/22 10:15 PM Re: Red October Tanker Heroes (SB Pro PE) [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
Before emerging from the woods, I call in a fire mission onto reported APCs on Objective Achilles. The battery has Improved Conventional Munitions which are effective against armour, so I ask for that. I move out when the strike falls and observe the results. seeing what appears to be a muzzle flash amidst the explosions, I lase and fire my first rounds at the source of the flash. But it might just have been a result of the artillery fire. It's all very confusing and by now, I'm very confused and struggling to un-confuse myself.

[Linked Image]

Moving on again, we begin to pass some of our own victims - knocked-out Abrams tanks, the ones that hit us in the first fire fight.

[Linked Image]

Things seemed to have settled somewhat so from the TC's position, I swing the rotating cupola to the left, for a better look ahead, past the open hatch.

[Linked Image]

It stays quiet, so I stand up in the hatch as we race across the open ground to Objective Goliath. In the pic below, the gunner is scanning to the right, in the direction of Objective Goliath.

[Linked Image]

By now, I've pretty well lost the plot completely. Having left my own company far behind at fire position Sling, I'm now also moving ahead and to the right of the other T-72 company, which will have halted to shoot the BMPs onto the objectives from fire position Arrow. Too long playing other tanksims, is my only excuse.

A look through my binos shows Objective Goliath looking rather the worse for wear, but no sign of friend or foe.

[Linked Image]

No time for sight-seeing! There's tank gunfire up ahead in the area of Objective Achilles so we race towards it, looking for targets. There's some T-72s from the second company slightly left, having probably assaulted from fire position Arrow. Somebody is reporting taking fire on the battalion net.

[Linked Image]

Hearing autocannon fire from the objective, I scan for targets from the gunner's sight. All I can see are some BMPs assaulting from right to left.

[Linked Image]

There's some more autocannon fire, and I have the impression the BMPs have dealt with the enemy.

[Linked Image]

But we're not done here yet, comrades!

...to be continued!

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Last edited by 33lima; 04/24/22 10:46 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)

#4597931 - 04/25/22 12:44 PM Re: Red October Tanker Heroes (SB Pro PE) [Re: 33lima]  
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
33lima Offline
Senior Member
33lima  Offline
Senior Member

Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 2,712
Belfast, NI
Investigating a fresh outbreak of what sounds like tank gun fire, I suddenly spot in the gunner's sight an Abrams, partly hidden behind a building just a few yards in front. I let him have a couple of rounds of AFPSDS.

[Linked Image]

All I seem to do is slow him down. He ends up facing me, by which time I've got a bit more than his thick turret front to aim at - but only a few 'fin' rounds left in my carousel. And transferring rounds to that isn't something I can sensibly do in the middle of a knife fight like this..

[Linked Image]

I fire them off then switch to HEAT, hitting the building. The Abrams finally returns fire, but doesn't kill us either. He turns as if to run for cover, but I hit him repeatedly, aiming for his lower hull. There's no obvious sign of it, but he finally appears to be dead.

[Linked Image]

In return, I'm lucky to have got away with a damaged radio and a broken track.

[Linked Image]

For good measure, I pepper the stricken enemy tank with the co-ax. It makes me feel better.

[Linked Image]

Faced with an immobilised tank, I finally remember that I'm actually responsible as well for three platoons. At this stage, what's left is two tanks in one platoon and a survivor from another, in fire position Sling - there's also an immoblised T-72 back in the original killing ground we ran into.

So I switch to the command tank in the two-tank platoon and advance towards objective Goliath.

[Linked Image]

We head for the southern edge of Goliath.

[Linked Image]

I halt when an enemy APC is spotted. My other tank takes care of the target...

[Linked Image]

...then off we go again. Closing in, I can see the company commander's immobilised tank, half right, and closer in, a knocked out Abrams, slightly right.

[Linked Image]

On we go cautiously, into town.

[Linked Image]

Unlike other tanksims, there's no magic 'Mission completed' message. When designing a mission myself, I would generally incorporate a 'Well done chaps!' radio message from the boss, triggered by completion of the victory conditions. In this case I'm not sure of the situation. The map seems to show the BMPs have reached both objectives but just to be sure, I lead my other tank in a tour of Objective Goliath.

[Linked Image]

There's a lot of damage, to both armour and infrastructure.

[Linked Image]

All the enemy vehicles I encounter seem to be dead and no fire comes our way. Apart from the noise of our own tanks, the only sound is the roar of the flames, as we pass the many burning buildings.

[Linked Image]

That's that, then. The BMPs are evidently in full control.

[Linked Image]

I'm not quite sure yet how to make the most of running the After Action Report I saved, but it seems to confirm we completed the mission successfully.

[Linked Image]

I should probably have started with a smaller scale mission which gave me only a platoon, if necessary using the Mission Editor to swap vehicles so I could stick with the T-72 - as Avtomat did here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ye68dPvn-ik&list=LL&index=3 That would have been less of a wrench from the one-platoon-based tanksims I'm used to. However, Krasny Oktybar Tank Heroes (and the BMP version) is probably the sort of scale of SB mission I aspire to, and it's set in the right period and location - Cold War in Western Europe. The pre-scripting of the tanks in my company was a good design feature as I didn't need to organise everything from the get go - I just forgot my role through unfamiliarity. I'm sure I'll enjoy replaying this scenario!

First impressions with SB Pro PE after playing the original SB? Visually, SB's terrain, roads, building placement, animations and limitations on ground cover and shadow draw distance make for a somewhat 'primitive but functional' look. But the AFVs are great, the gameplay immersive, challenging and fun, and the extent and depth of the simulation impressive. And number of playable and AI AFVs dwarfs the original sim. I'll not argue over the pricing but it is unfortunate that VAT problems in the wake of Brexit mean the Codemeter version (not ideal in itself as DRM, from a user perspective) isn't for sale in the UK anymore, so I've had to go for a yearly licence. I expect I'll be getting plenty of use from it!


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Last edited by 33lima; 04/25/22 01:06 PM.

SimHQ Battle of Britain II screenshots thread
CombatAce Mission Reports
"Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth." (attributed to Marcus Aurelius)


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