Jump to content

LATEST NEWS

    Panzer Elite's new Shermans!
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    'We're the D-Day Dodgers, in sunny Ital-ee...'     It's an eloquent testimony to both exceptional design and the skill of its mod community, that Panzer Elite, first released in 1999, is still one of the best tank simulators you can play, sixteen years later. Sims like WW2 Battle Tanks (despite the awful AI) and Steel Fury (the only other WW2 tanksim in the same class as PE) can boast much better graphics and some other points of superiority. But good old PE still beats them all, in some important fields. Not the least of these are decent representation of both radio and intercom traffic; very good platoon command and control facilities; and a superb, linked set of single player campaigns, which enables you to start in Tunisia, move on to Italy and then finish off in Normandy, fighting for either the US Army or the Wehrmacht. And that's before the modders added France 1940, Libya 1941-2 and the Eastern Front, plus new playable nationalities like the British and  Red Armies.   Modder Slomo's Panzer Pack 2x (PP2x) has recently been enhanced by the addition of a vehicle update, which you can get along with the mod itself, via the links here, on the PE Development Group PP2x subforum. The update adds new M4 Shermans, which have 3-d wheels and suspension and better animation, including tank commander figures which can close hatches. There are 75 and 76mm-gunned versions and if you want something that will keep out more of the German weapons, there's a 'Jumbo' M4A3E2 heavy version, too.         The 'x' in 'PP2x' signifies that the mod uses Brit44 Aldo's new PE executable, whose latest version adds smoother movement of vehicles to the other improvements, the most significant of which is probably proper 'time of flight' and ballistic trajectories, so that you can see your tracers arc towards the enemy, and more to the point, see their tracers arecing towards you! It's hard to over-state the improvement this mod brings to PE.   Anyhow, to try out the Shermans, I decided to join 'the D-day Dodgers', as the Allied troops in Italy sardonically referred to themselves. You can start off a PE campaign in any of the three 'sub-campaigns' (as well as playing any individual campaign mission, via the 'Single Mission' option) so you don't have to play all the way through the Tunisia segment, if you want to begin 'in sunny Ital-ee'. As I did.   In fact, the first missions are on Sicily, where the British and Americans first landed. As usual in PE, you start at a nice rendering of your platoon waiting to move up, here set in a typical Italian plaza. PE often starts you with a mix of vehicles for your platoon, but here, I have already replaced an M5 light tank and an M10 tank destroyer with Shermans. I chose a mix of the round-hulled M4A1 and the original M4, which would have been found in the same units as they had the same engine. Seventy-six millimetre-gunned versions didn't arrive until Normandy, so we've all got 75s, as you can see. The little white dog visible between the water trough and the right-hand Sherman is fully-animated! Truly, they don't make sims like this any more.     At this screen you can do things like check out your crew skills and move people around; add any available modifications to your tanks (like in some cases radios, or extra armour) and adjust your ammo supply. When you're ready, you click on the trestle table (behind the two and a half ton truck) and that starts the briefing (or more accurately, your orders) for the mission. So that's waht we'll look at, next.   ...to be continued!

    Combat Air Patrol 2 preview
    MigBuster
    By MigBuster,
    Mudspike have published a preview of CAP2 which it seems is the follow on to the early 90s sim CAP on the Commodore Amiga which was really good for the time.             Ok, let’s do a quick experiment. We’ll need a measuring rule, a bucket and (optionally) a towel. I’m going to list some things from a new PC flight sim coming out in 2015 (yes you read that right, this is like ‘Bigfoot Found In Walmart’ breaking news) so let’s set up the experiment: Place the towel on the floor. Position the bucket beneath your lower lip. Here’s the features of this new flight sim: AV-8B Harrier II with 3D clickable cockpit using TrackIR and HOTAS support. Single Player emphasis, with Multiplayer Co-op available, including drop-in play. Dynamic Campaign engine. Flight and Naval Strategic fleet battles. Carrier Ops. Wingmen, Helos, Civilian traffic in shipping lanes. Realistic campaign map set in the Straits of Hormuz using 250,000 sq km satellite imagery and modern graphics. Dynamic Campaign engine. Yes, I just said it again. Ok, now let’s use the ruler and see how much drool just entered that bucket. I’m betting a good couple of inches, so feel free to use the towel now and go rehydrate.   We haven’t had the chance to get our hands on this title as yet, but Sim155 reached out to Mudspike and we set up this short Q&A to see what’s up: Q1. What’s the balance between single and multiplayer content in CAP2? Is this primarily a Multiplayer game? I’d say it is 50-50. For single player there’s a collection of training missions, single missions then an open ended dynamic campaign. For multiplayer there’s quick start dogfight, fleet defense/attack and fleet vs fleet. In addition any player in a campaign can invite players to join in a mission and take the place of AI controlled wingmen. Q2. What’s a good comparative title for CAP2, it seems similar to Gaijin’s Apache Air Assault – is that a fair comparison in terms of sim fidelity and gameplay? Fun and action more than hardcore simulation? I’d say we lean more towards a simulation than AAS. CAP2 has a strategic element in campaign mode which I don’t think you’ll find in many titles. Q3. I’m old enough to have played Combat Air Patrol on the Amiga 500 (great game btw), what would be the main advances Ed and the team have been able to feature in CAP2 on today’s more powerful hardware? Glad you liked it! With CAP I developed a 3D engine in 68k assembler as we didn’t have GPU’s. With a CPU running just over 7Mhz you could see the impact of just a few extra polygons. Now we’re pushing millions of polygons per frame we can draw pretty much anything we want. Terrain in CAP was limited to a few blue water polygons, CAP2 has over 250,000sq km of geo accurate terrain. Shaders allow us to render complex atmospheric lighting, water, shadows and post process effects. Reference material is one of the biggest differences between developing CAP2 vs CAP. Back in the 90’s I wrote to the DoD asking for material on CVN-71 and actually received info & pictures a few weeks later. Today you’ve got a thousand images/movies/schematics available in seconds so things have changed massively. Thanks to Ed and the Sim155 team for taking the time to answer our questions. We can’t wait to find out more, especially on the dynamic campaign side. For those that loved the gameplay fun of Strike Fighters and IL-2, this looks like a really nice ‘fidelity middle ground’ with a mix of tactical fleets mixed in. Awesome.   More here http://www.mudspike.com/combat-air-patrol-2-preview-interview/  

    Wittmann at Villers Bocage
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Fighting Steel Fury's version of WW2's most famous tank action!   OK, so maybe Kursk was more famous, but it was a battle with tanks in it, rather than a specific tank action. In the latter category, few can be more well-known that Michael Wittman's (largely) solo action against the spearhead of the British 7th Armoured Division at Villers Bocage in Normandy, on 13 June 1944.   This mission report is based on the first of three new missions by the Steel Tank Addon (STA) team, featuring the equally-new Normandy terrain; my earlier Panzer IV report was based on one of the other missions in this set. This is a very welcome addition to what's been a solidly Eastern Front tanksim, apart from a desert mod and some NW European missions, the latter nearly all based on Soviet maps. The Villers Bocage map isn't an exact replica of the actual terrain: for example, Villers Bocage itself lacks the closely-spaced rows of buildings on some narrow streets, I suspect because SF's AI would have difficulties with these. But it's pretty close, and with its hedgerows and distinctive buildings and structures, it really makes the player feel like he's somewhere different, where lines of sight are short and an A?T gun, a bazooka or a tank could be lurking on the other side of every hedgerow.     As with the terrain, the mission is not an attempt to reproduce exactly the Witmann action, which itself has been the subject of different interpretations over the years. Rather, it captures the spirit of the fighting that morning, fifty-one years ago.   You're playing the role of Michael Wittmann and you are ordered firstly to get to Point 213 a few hundred metres to your north, and ambush the British advance guard from there. Having done that, you are to attack into Villers Bocage itself and destroy the enemy there, too. You have just your own Tiger initially, but a second one is being made ready and will join you at some point. You are also warned to keep out of red zones marked on the map, as these areas are known to be under enemy observation and you will compromise the ambush if you're spotted first. Below is the mission map, showing the first phase. You're starting from Beauvais, marked by the blue oval. On this mission, it's important you follow your orders reasonably closely; for example, your arrival within the oval area around Point 213 will, I believe, trigger the British advance from the town, up the N175, towards you (along with simulated radio traffic warning you of this).     Kicking off the mission, I ordered an AP round loaded and from the external view, had a look around. Below is my Tiger in the hamlet of Beauvais, with the as-yet-unready second Tiger stationary close by; to my front was a radio-equiped Kubelwagen field car.     Wasting no time, I turned north and rattled off, towards Point 213.     You can just about see Point 213 in the screenshot below: it's the rising ground more or less right behind the little house, half left. I was steering slightly right of it, to ensure that I stayed away from those darned red zones.  I was careful not to smash the well or otherwise do more damage than I could avoid, to the nice Norman scenery. The fence in front of me was the exception. It was a shame to mangle that nice ironwork but the shortest distance between two points being a straight line, it just had to go.     Soon, I was rattling as fast as I could go, over the relatively flat, open ground towards my first objective. I say 'open', but the terrain is a good deal less open than the usual SF landscape, criss-crossed with hedgerows and dotted with patches of woodland. Not ideal Tiger country, as I was soon to find out!     ...to be continued!

    Villers Bocage - minus the Tiger!
    33LIMA
    By 33LIMA,
    Fighting the famous WW2 tank battle in a rather less-well-armoured panzer!   At last, Steel Fury has arrived in Normandy! This welcome development with the Steel Tank Add-on (STA) mod for Graviteam's superb WW2 tanksim comes in the form of three new missions, based around a well-known action in June 1944 between elements of several German armoured units and a spearhead of the British 7th Armoured Division, the famous Desert Rats. The best known part of the Battle of Villers Bocage on 13 June is of course the attack on the leading 22nd Armoured Brigade by the Tiger tank of panzer ace Michael Wittmann. The latter is widely credited with destroying the British spearhead single-handed and while the truth is evidently a bit more complicated, there's no doubt that Wittmann and the other German forces involved succeeded in halting a potentially very dangerous penetration that could have had serious consequences for the German's ability to hold the key town of Caen, a lynchpin of their defence of Normandy after D-Day.   Even if you're not new to the story, you'll probably enjoy the recent re-telling of the tale, available as a free online book by Akhill Kadidal, here.   Thanks to the STA team - notably Lockie & Deviator for the missions, Deviator for the map/landscape and Will73 for Bitish AFVs, sorry if I left somebody out! - we now have a small set of missions based on the battle. All (so far) are from the German side; two for the Tiger I and one for the Panzer IV. I think it's fair to say that all are 'inspired by' episodes in the battle, as opposed to exact reproductions of any given action.   I'll save the Wittmann fight for a later mission report, as it's still being worked on, based on feedback. For now, I decided to go with the last mission in the set, playing the late-model Panzer IV. Armed with a long 75mm gun and protected by spaced armour plates around the turret and (until they got knocked off!) either side of the hull, this was in 1944 still the backbone of the Panzerwaffe and in skilled hands, a dangerous enough opponent for Allied tankers. Earlier versions of the Panzer IV, both short- and long-gunned, come with vanilla Steel Fury but the Ausf. H version we'll be fighting in here is courtesy of SF's modders. As in fact is almost everything else in the mission, from the terrain to the buildings and their fittings.     The Villers Bocage map is new for this mission set, and it's not only quite different from SF's stock eastern European terrain, it's also one of the very best seen in the sim so far. For whatever reason, you won't see the close rows of houses that lined the real main street in Villers Bocage, but the lie of the land is close to reality and the general effect is most convincing, for 1944 Normandy...even to the way your tanks will slow down and struggle to crunch noisily through thick hedgerows!       The terrain looks best with the recommended 'scorching summer' terrain mod, for which there's a version specific to the STA mod. All you need is available via the STA forums, here.     The mission This was my first play-through, so while I'd previously tried out the Wittmann mission and seen the terrain, the Panzer IV mission itself was entirely new to me. It's called, rather melodramatically, 'Last Nazi Chance'. Here's the start of the briefing, which, as you can see, is bi-lingual:     You are cast in the role of panzer Hauptmann Helmut Ritgen. I'm not sure which of the participating German units you are supposed to be with - Panzer Lehr, 2nd Panzer or Wittman's unit, SS Schwere Panzer Abteilung 101 - but your tank will carry the 'shield and keys' emblem of 1st SS Panzer, the Leibstandarte, as also carried by the Tigers of the 101st.   In short, as you'll see when you scroll down the briefing, your mission is in two phases - first, attack and destroy the British advance guard on Point 213, the high ground on the N175 road overlooking Villers Bocage to its east. Then, you are to attack and clear Villers Bocage itself, finishing with the Hotel de Ville. You're told that - prompted by a radio message you'll issue (this is actually triggered automatically, when the time is right) - some panzer grenadiers will join in and help you clear the built-up area.   The bad news is that you've only got two Panzer IVs in your platoon and a glance at the map shows there's only a single SPW (Schutzenpanzerwagen, armoured half-tracked APC) of grenadiers. The better news is that there are two other pairs of tanks which seemed to be lined up for a concentric attack. The even better news is that you will discover that the other four tanks are Tigers. My impression is that the briefing could be a little clearer on the composition and tasks of your force. In real life, orders are given by your commander, at the same sitting, to you and all the other participating platoon leaders, so that everyone knows what everyone else's part in the battle is to be. For this operation, we seem to have an under-strength and hastily-assembled force thrown into battle with little time for preparation or even thorough orders.   I know enough about Normandy 1944 not to expect any help from the Luftwaffe on this mission but I'd have hoped that the divisional artillery would have put in some shooting, or at least our ever-present German mortars would have softened up the enemy for us. But perhaps the idea is to take the English by surprise. As to how that turns out, we'll see soon.   I took a last look at the map, before moving off. It showed Point 213 to be the wooded area we will be able to see to our front, when we leave the briefing phase and start the mission itself. You can clearly see the distinctive contours in the pic below, with the text briefing panel suppressed. My two tanks are the blue diamonds, top right; below and behind them are the grenadiers in their single SPW. Below that are two more friendly tanks: Tigers, as they will turn out to be. Off to the left (west - north is blue, in the SF compass indicator, top left) are two more Tigers, in a hedgerow. It looks like we're nicely set for a concentric attack on Point 213, with the Tigers to the west, closest to the objective and therefore likely to go in first. Not a bad idea, from the standpoint of a Panzer IV commander.     I kicked off the mission and as I usually do, immediately ordered the loading of a suitable round - AP seemed best, for this party. Switching to the external view for a good look around, I unbuttoned my tank commander. I then switched to the gunner position and started swinging my gun left and right, scanning for targets. Shooting started almost immediately, tank cannon fire by the sound of it, but both shooters and targets so far 'not seen'.     Hastily, I switched back to the map, gave my platoon - sorry, my other tank - the order to conform to my movements and stay close, then back in the external view, ordered my driver to move off. On we went, speeding up as we crossed the open ground towards Point 213, our first phase objective.   ...to be continued!

    Mudspike: DCS WORLD 2 PREVIEW – WWII AIR COMBAT
    Dave
    By Dave,
    Mudspike has a great preview of the WWII module for DCS World 2. Thanks to Migbuster for finding the article.    http://www.mudspike.com/dcs-world-2-preview-wwii-air-combat/  

    Mudspike: DCS WORLD 2.0 – THE ENEMY WITHIN
    Dave
    By Dave,
    A great read with good pics too. Thanks to SilverDragon for pointing it out.    http://www.mudspike.com/dcs-world2-the-enemy-within/  

Portal by DevFuse · Based on IP.Board Portal by IPS


×

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue..

  I accept