T-34 versus Tiger

[33LIMA 972]

Back to the Russian Front with 'WWII Battle Tanks - T-34 vs Tiger'!

 

 

 

The year 2008 was a promising one for tank simulation enthusiasts, with two new WW2 tank sims released around the same time. One was Steel Fury - Kharkov 1942, which found most favour with players, continues to be modded and played, and has been featured in three recent mission reports here at CombatAce.

 

This time it's the turn of 'the other sim' - the aptly-named T-34 vs Tiger. Strangely, this was released by the same publishers - Lighthouse Interactive - as Steel Fury; my T34 - vs Tiger manual even has a 2-page, centre-fold spread advert for SF! As a fan of the Tiger tank in particular and something of a tanksim nut since discovering Panzer Commander, I was keen to try out the new sim. But with sub-par AI, no interaction with other tanks or vehicles in your unit and a very limited set of heavily-scripted (and questionably realistic) missions, I soon realised why most players seemed to gravitate (sic) to Graviteam's 'Steel Fury', instead. Still, 'TvT' has some really good features and in particular, is in most respects a very good simulation of operating the two featured tanks. And if you like it enough to hanker for more, there's an ongoing payware mod by Zeewolf which adds vehicles and missions.

 

Having fairly recently taken some time off combat flight sims to play Steel Fury and report the results, I thought I'd dust off T-34 vs Tiger and do likewise. Will a fresh crack at the sim after the passage of several years change my first impressions? Let's find out!

 

 

The mission

If you're single-player only like me you won't be too bothered that the sim's apparently promising multi-player capability never seemed to have been realised. But the single-player option also had its issues. There's only six missions for each side. There are no training missions - it's all on-the-job-training, as it were. Together, the missions form a campaign of sorts but they seem to be no more than a loosely-sequenced series of small operations in the same general area in the same timeframe.

 

The area is between Smolensk and Vitebsk in what is now Belarus, in the northern sector of Germany's Army Group Centre. The timeframe is summer 1944, during Operation Bagration, the Soviet summer offensive for that year. This was a major disaster for the Wehrmacht and a great success for the Red Army, with large swathes of Soviet territory being liberated and much destruction being visited on Army Croup Centre.

 

I was tempted to try out the T-34; but for better comparison with both my early efforts with TvT and my recent forays with SF, I decided that I'd let the Tiger off his leash once more. As for my choice of mission, this was limited..to one mission in fact. Irrititatingly, it seems you have to 'unlock' the missions by winning them. There may have been a cheat to unlock missions but if there was I can't find it now. [EDIT - found it! it's here] I don't know if this approach was a crude attempt to make the best of the twelve missions by forcing replays but I find this pretty hateful - and unrealistic, to boot. Unless you get the chop in one sense or another, life goes on, whether or not the powers-that-be deemed your last operation was a success. It doesn't help that mission success in TvT seems tightly-defined in terms of things you must kill, down to the last tank...and I mean 'you must kill' because the AI may be little help. But more of this anon.

 

So - this report deals with the first of the six German missions, because that was all I could get at, readily. Except that there will be two flavours - stock and ZeeWolf. This is because ZeeWolf's TvT project, though subscription-only, includes some freebies. And one of them is a new mission, which seems to replace the original first mission, when you install it (at least it did for me). The package seems to make some other changes, too; it may be a different time of day in each mission is fooling me here but I get the impression that the very harsh lighting is softened, losing the too-dark shadows and warming up the colours. And the Tiger is back to the full set of rubber-tired roadwheels (it started like this but the TvT official patch changed these to the resilient steel-tired roadwheels with the outer row removed). Top pic is stock+patch; bottom is with ZeeWolf's freebies installed:

 

 

 

Kurtenki - the stock mission

I'll keep this one short, not least because if you have ever played TvT, you'll know this one off by heart; there seems to be little-to-no variability in TvT missions, with friends and enemies identically scripted and positioned each time...unfortunately.

 

I didn't get a screenie of the briefing but...it's brief. Basically, drive down the road/track towards a 'blown' river bridge and destroy any enemies seen massing (or doing anything else, for that matter) on the enemy bank. I don't find it easy to tell the lie of the land from the little briefing and in-game maps in TvT - that they show forests, the 'rides' between them and the roads is their most useful feature - but we're starting between the village of Kurtenki and the river, on a sort of plateau from which the ground falls away steeply to the river, then rises just as steeply on the other side - terrain perhaps more suitable for a mountain lion than a tiger.

 

Anyway, here we go. There's two of us in Tigers, on this job. See what I mean about that harsh lighting? Apart from that, these are mostly very nice renditions of a fairly late-production Tiger 1. Apart from the steel roadwheels, distinguishing features for mid- and/or late-production vehicles include the commander's 'low profile' cupola with episcopes instead of the older 'dustbin' type; the ribbed 'Zimmerit' anti-magnetic mine paste on vertical surfaces; the lack of turret-side triple smoke dischargers; no 'Fiefel' air cleaner filters on the rear plate; and spare track stowage moved from the lower nose to the turret sides.

 

 

Are you the boss on this operation? Or just a 'wing-man'? Search me. But never fear, it doesn't matter. The AI, including your boss (or 'wing-man') pay you no attention, unless the mission designer has built in triggers which provoke them into action when you (or others) do a certain thing. You have no way of controlling your fellow tankers and playing as a platoon/troop commander. It's hard even to co-operate with them, as their actions seem hasty, unpredictable or silly - sometimes all three at once.

 

As is my wont, I switched to the gunner position then turned on the AI driver and AI tank commander (TC). The former I can give driving orders W-A-S-D fashion, from the gunner's station. I can also tell the loader whether to load HE or AP rounds. The AI TC will spot targets for me. Another advantage of playing in the gunner's sattion is that you can orient the turret to cover likely threats, instead of just driving around with the gun at twelve o-clock all the time - with the Tiger's slow traverse, this can help you get onto targets faster. I could equally have stuck to the commander's station and let AI both drive and gun. The AI gunner wil engage what he sees but if you're playing TC you can also mouse-click targets to designate them.

 

In SF the AI crew will open or close hatches as they see fit but not in TvT. As only Soviet TCs fought entirely buttoned up I briefly switched to the TC position, unbuttoned, and then once the TC had popped into position, left him there and went back to the gunner's station. For some reason the TvT Tank Commander insists on standing tall in his cupola, instead of sensibly operating with just his head exposed. But I still prefer this to hatches permanently closed. There are well-rendered tank interiors in TvT but I never use them. External view, TC hatch open, or gunsight/binocular view, that's my style

 

As I passed the other Tiger he sprang into life. After that, he did his own thing. I drove south towards the river, past some grenadiers with an SPW manning a flimsy barricade. The sounds of my Tiger rumbling along and my TC calling out my driving commands were well done; sound effects are one of TvT's strengths, to my ears.

 

 

After I passed this little barricade the other Tiger rumbled past me. The terrain - a wood on one side of our track and a steep slope on the other - seemed designed to funnel us in a certain direction. No Operation Flashpoint-style wide open sandboxes, here. Making the most of it, I was planning to creep up to the crest line - beyond which the terrain looked to dip down into the valley. Scan every inch of terrain as it revealed itself in front of me. Hug the woods on the left and watch what emerged across the river to my right. My fellow tank commander, bless his cotton socks, had no such concerns. He drove right up to the crest, stopped, and started shooting. He then drove on down the other side, out of sight. 'Bloody Hell!', I said to myself. 'There goes Plan A. Now what?'

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

On to the 'two-way firing range'!

 

Having seen the other Tiger tank rashly press on and disappear into the dip in the ground to my front, I decided that I would not be rushed. No need to risk the loss of two precious Tigers rather than one, to whatever Ivans might be waiting hidden over or in the river valley. Instead, I continued with my original plan - I crept up to the crest, pausing to scan for targets. First there came into view a series of what looked like the common Soviet 76.2mm field guns that had such a good anti-tank capability that captured specimens were often used or adapted by the Wehrmacht. Perhaps distracted by the other Tiger, they seemed to ignore me...but I didn't ignore them. As they came into view I hit them with HE rounds, raising my sights and hosing them and some nearby troops with coaxial MG fire, in between reloads.

 

 

 

You can see lower left one of the four available on-screen 'Head Up Display' elements, showing ammo status, from top to bottom: standard Armour Piercing; High Explosive Anti-Tank (hollow charge); conventional HE; and co-ax MG. A green filler indicates that type of round is 'up the spout'. The other 'HUD elements are mini-map; turret direction and tank damage display; crew manning indicator (player or AI); and driver aids display. I tend to turn off the last two immediately after making my initial crew manning selections and to use the others sparingly, turning them off usually, which looks less 'gamey' but can be disorienting at the worst possible moments. But I nailed those field guns!

 

 

 

There were several isolated Soviet soldiers on the hill, who ran around the whole time like headless chickens, and lasted about as long. Giving up on the last of such easy prey I nudged forward a little more, enabling me to see a little deeper into the valley. Two foolish Soviet trucks were rushing uphill away from me across the valley and they, too, were soon despatched.

 

 

I edged forward a little more. This had been a little too easy, so far! There must be a catch, I felt sure.

 

 

There was a catch, and edging forward a bit more, I soon saw what it was.

 

 

It was a T-34-76, whose front end came into view, with his rear end masked behind the bank to the right of the track down which I had been advancing. I cracked off a quick round of HE, which missed - apparently tankers consider it best to fire off what they have loaded, even if it's not the right round, rather than unloading a live round in action. The T-34 backed up, so I quickly nosed forward to bring him back into view. I could have backed up myself, moved out of sight to one side then reappeared at a different point; but I had little elbow room for such tactics and I judged that a rapid second strike was my best bet. But when the enemy came into view again, there were two of them.

 

 

I lost no time in engaging the nearer tank, with the right ammo this time - a Panzergranate 39 AP round, which unlike solid British AP shot, has a small explosive filler fused to detonate after penetration. Gunnery is one of the high points of TvT. The crew voices are generally better done than in SF, and the firing, empty brass and loading sound effects are also very good. The visuals are quite good too, with passable muzzle blast effects and decent visibility of your main gun tracers...and an even better view of incoming tank rounds! I quickly clobbered the first Ivan with three rounds then switched to the more distant one. The Tiger's 88mm is no tin-opener against T-34s, even at this short range, and more than one round seems often needed to be reasonably sure of a kill, unless the enemy 'brews up'.

 

 

 

The second T-34 having received similar treatment I checked my fire. Though neither tank burned brightly, their bent and smoking appearance told the tale. Note that this last set of screenies is in a full screen gunsight view, which is less realistic but offers a wider field of view.

 

 

 

I started edging forward again, feeling that victory was close and keen not to snatch defeat from its jaws at this late juncture. I traversed left and scanned the woods anxiously, lest some cruel mission designer had placed some Ivans there, to kill me at my moment of triumph.

 

 

 

At this point I decided that for an even less restricted view I'd hand over to the AI gunner and play as tank commander. All seemed clear. I edged forward a little more, now scanning the area to my front alternately with and without binoculars. What could go wrong now?

 

 

 

Quite a lot, as it turned out.

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

Ivan's revenge

 

As I was edging towards the crest, I had noticed some fading black smoke curling up from the dead ground in the valley ahead...roughly in the direction in which I had last seen the other Tiger tank disappear. Not good.

 

Back in the gunsight view again and scanning for threats, I got another target indication from my AI tank commander, pointing out an anti-tank gun 500 metres away, bearing 1 o'clock. As well as the audio (crew voices are in German), you can see from the next screenie that you get a text read-out, in green, to the top left. I was caught out here because I had switched off all the 'HUD' displays for the sake of a better appearance in the external view. Back in the gunsight view, I had to glance down and fiddle with the keyboard to re-activate the turret position indicator! I should have either lined up the turret while still in the external view, or turned the turret position indicator back on the instant I switched back to the gunsight view.

 

 

Once I was able to line up the main gun with the commander's line of sight, it was easy enough, having halted to fire, to pick up the target and let him have it. In this I was helped by the A/T gun being on roughly the same level, across the other side of the valley - once the main gun was lined up on the right bearring I didn't have to scan much up or down to pick up the target. And at this close a range, I didn't have to fiddle about with the sight's range settings, before getting the desired result.

 

 

The gun destroyed, I trundled forward again, finally crossing the crest and dipping down into the valley, where lay the destroyed bridge - and a destroyed Tiger.

 

 

At this point I made a big mistake and it all went belly up pretty remorselessly. The gradient down into the valley looked awfully steep; it seemed that I might get down too quickly, and get back up with great difficulty - or not at all. And so it proved.

 

I tried to halt but by this time I was already on the slippery slope. Down I rolled. By the time I had brought my tank back under control and got her to a halt, I had already heard my TC calling out another target. This time it was a T-34 within 300 meters, roughly straight ahead. I scanned desperately through the gunsight but failed to pick him up - there is a fixed zoom on the gunsight, so the only way to get a wider angle is to switch to the full screen version of the gunsight view. I hadn't done this and my options quickly ran out while I searched for that Soviet tank. Armour-piercing rounds slammed into my Tiger (TvT re-inforces this by 'throwing' you momentarily back from the gunner's sight to an interior view of the gunner's station, irritating but perhaps effective!).

 

Finally I acquired the target and shot him. At that range I could hardly miss and I didn't. I would have expected a single square-on 88mm AP hit to kill a T-34 at that range, with no questions asked. But I had an HE round loaded from the previous encounter and that didn't do enough damage. The T-34 promptly shot me again and it was goodnight, Vienna.

 

 

I think that final T-34 was all that lay between me and completing the rather too precise and fixed mission objectives. Oh well, better luck next time! I'll be more careful about turning off HUD displays in future, especially the turret position indicator which is really essential for effective gunnery, when you need to respond quickly to a target indication from the tank commander and lay your gun onto his line of sight. You don't have the little orange edge-of-screen arrows that prompt you in Steel Fury. Another lesson learned.

 

After a TvT battle you can tab around the other vehicles or guns involved in the mission, and here is one of my kills, a 1943 model T-34-76. in TvT, the bent gun is common in killed tanks - T-34s, anyway; not very realistic perhaps but it is a good visual indicator of a dead tank. Behind him, one of the Soviet trucks lies smashed with the driver slumped in the cab. You can't get Steel Fury-style statistics or hit point arrows in the TvT post-mission battlefield tour but it's clearly still nice to have.

 

 

And here's the tank that ended the mission for me!

 

 

 

Next, it's another mission at Kurtenki, but this time, a Zeewolf version.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

The ZeeWolf mission

 

 

This mission comes with the pack of TvT freebies released by modder ZeeWolf. You can find more details of his project here. The mission's called 'Tigers Shake Kurtenki' and is based on a different part of the map to the stock mission. It may be unfamiliarity or an illusion created by different-time-of-day lighting, but the visuals look better - my Tiger no longer has the very deep black shadows and the colours of tanks and landscape appear less washed out. And it's back to the earlier rubber-tired roadwheels.

 

 

After unzipping he package in which it came, the mission appeared alone in my available German single-player missions, instead of the stock one. Here's the briefing. As an operation order, it's in a somewhat military format like the stock briefings, a bit on the light side perhaps but it gives me a passable idea of who I am, what's going on and what I'm supposed to do about it.

 

 

As before, having launched the mission I went to the gunner station and turned on AI driver and commander - if you switch stations without also then activating the AI roles, your tank just sits there quietly, engine off, refusing to budge.

 

The brief had stated that I was 'commander of a Tiger unit' so I looked around for the others - five tanks would have been full strength for a platoon, but there were just three of us (the usual strength of a Soviet tank platoon). My first problem was that it took a while for me to orient myself and decide where to go, as my map was set with my tank marker stuck bottom left, pointing 'off screen' and I didn't know how to change this without opening the manual. One of the other Tigers moved off rapidly and with the third Tiger to my right, I followed, hoping that at least one of the others knew where he was going!

 

 

The failure of TvT to enable you to command the other tanks in your platoon really is a big negative. Next best would have been making you the 'wing-man' of an AI platoon-leader, but it doesn't do this either. The nearest you can come to playing as a 'wing-man' is decide for yourself who your boss is and try to conform to his movements and actions, in the complete absence of any commands or similar assistance from him.

 

By the time I had discovered that the F5 key centered the mini-map on my tank and oriented myself, I was well behind the Tiger I had decided to follow. A few hundred meters ahead, he turned right, away from Kurtenki, and headed towards a wide gap or ride between some tracts of woodland.

 

A few seconds later my tank commander indidated an APC target. This was a lend-lease US half-track, which fairly whizzed out of the same gap in the trees, crossing my front from right to left. He must have driven right past the other Tiger! I had an AP round 'up the spout' and cracked off a couple of these at him, missing him both times as he disappeared behind some low buildings on the edge of the village. A second later he went up in smoke - I think the third Tiger, which was still near me, got him.

 

 

At this point, it kicked off again. A swarm of Soviet infantry emerged from the gap in the trees, also heading for Kurtenki and more or less straight for the leading Tiger. I recovered from my surprise and opened up with the co-ax, hosing the enemy troops as they doubled across my front.

 

 

 

My MG fire bowled over the Ivans like pins in a bowling alley. I got the last of them just as they reached the leading Tiger.

 

 

 

Yet another enemy half-track then appeared from the right and drove hard for Kurtenki, straight past the leading Tiger, who was shooting at something in the direction from which the enemy vehicle had come. My tank commander belted out a fire order and I got my sights onto the Ivan, who was either foolishly courageous, completely mad, or blind drunk.

 

 

 

Again the half-track made it into cover on the outskirts of Kurtenki, but again, one of the others got him. Or perhaps there were German troops in the village, who had clobbered him. Either way, he was done. I turned my attention back to the right, were the skies were darkened by the smoke from several burning vehicles, likely more Ivans of some sort which the first Tiger had shot up.

 

 

With the other Tiger still to my right, I rolled forward at full tilt, ignoring the burning half-tracks at Kurtenki, over to my left. As I got closer I saw that the leading Tiger was smoking. What had got him, I was not sure, but I suspected it was enemy armour, still hidden around the corner of the woods on my right.

 

 

 

I came up to the edge of the woods, slowing down as I edged towards the corner. The third Tiger had no such qualms and roared on ahead, past what I could now see to be the wrecks of miscellaneous Soviet AFVs, some still burning. By this time the lead Tiger, to my left, had also begun to burn fiercely.

 

 

 

 

I edged cautiously around the corner, towards the cluster of destroyed enemy vehicles, which were a mix of T-34-85 tanks, half-tracks and SU-85 self-propelled guns. The other Tiger showed no such caution and despite being nominally his platoon comamnder, TvT being what it is, I could excerise no control over him as he rattled off down the track and out of sight.

 

 

My continued caution, despite my comrade's confident performance, was soon to be proved wise!

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

The ZeeWolf mission, part 2

 

As I trundled cautiously around the corner of the woods, I wasn't really expecting to bump into any nastiness, since the remaining Tiger in my 3-tank platoon had already just driven on ahead that way. You can imagine my surprise and general consternation when my AI tank commander called out a fire order for a T-34-85 which was racing towards us down the gap between the woods, a mere two hundred metres away. I hastily lined up my turret with the commander's line of sight as indicated on the turret position indicator graphic. As I was playing as gunner, I had already swung my turret towards the danger zone so I was able to pick up the target quickly. Fortunately, perhaps because he was preoccupied with the other Tiger, the T-34's turret was turned away from us.

 

 

He was crossing fast from right to left and before I could get off my first round he disappeared behind a wrecked tank. I let him have it as he came out the other side. Evidently caught by suprise, he pulled back behind a killed T-34 but not tightly enough and urged on by my tank commander, I put two more rounds into him, and that was that.

 

 

 

On I went, past the sad little clutch of wrecked AFVs. As I went, I was followed by a half-tracked SPW (Shutzenpanzerwagen or armoured personnel carrier) which seemed to represent some infantry support.

 

 

 

It was an impressive scene of armoured destruction, even if my crew could only claim one of the victims for ourselves.

 

 

 

 

The SPW's driver had evidently either been trained in a fairground, or he had rather overdone the Schnapps for at one point, he seemed to be playing dodgems with the enemy wrecks. But he then moved back in behind me and off we went, down the widening gap between the woods, in the wake of the other Tiger.

 

 

...to be continued!

[33LIMA 972]

The ZeeWolf mission, part 3

 

Either side of me, the gap between the woods widened out as I pressed on, scanning anxiously ahead and on either side. The ground dipped away towards the far end of the ride and what lay there, I could not see. Elsewhere it was pretty level, with little or no visible folds or hummocks to offer me any cover.

 

 

 

As I rolled on, trying not to be distracted by the SPW's antics, I noticed a smoke column in the centre of the long clearing. Its source was in dead ground, so I could not tell if it was my remaining companion.

 

 

They say that the Hoplites in an Ancient Greek battle-line tended to edge instinctively to the right as each man sought to gain some protection by tightening up against the shield of the man on that side. In a similar way, I crept up close to the right-hand edge of the woods, rather than stay exposed in the centre of the ride. If it really kicked off again I would at least be able to crunch into the trees quickly...and hope that reports that TvT's AI gunners could see through such cover were inaccurate or exaggerated.

 

 

 

As I nudged forward, I came to a point where - having shifted to the commander's higher viewpoint to get a better view into the dead ground ahead and using the binoculars - I could see that the source of the smoke plume to my front was a turret-less T-34, likely another victim of the remaining Tiger, wherever he was

 

 

 

I rolled on, with the dodgem driver in the SPW sometimes behind, sometimes looping out in front. Then, a little further on, scanning between a group of trees at the right-hand edge of the ride, I saw the Tiger, sitting stationary and possibly immobilised but otherwise intact, not far beyond the killed T-34. Had the turret-less T-34 hit him? Were there more enemies ahead? Or was the Tiger fine and just waiting for me to catch up?

 

 

 

I pressed on even more cautiously, pausing at intervals to scan the ground ahead of me. Finally, I came to the point were I could see more of the dead ground to my front. This suddenly opened out into a wide expanse of clear ground.

 

 

I switched back to the gunner's station and started scanning through my gunsight, working left to right, and back again, near to far. Sure enough, just in front of what looked like a couple of wrecked trucks, stood two T-34-76s, sitting stationary and right out in the open. Where they in action or knocked out? Taking no chances, I quickly engaged them. In the second pic, you can see one of my tracers just above my tartget, arcing down and about to hit, even though I have somewhat under-set the range and compensated by aiming high. As the sight is mounted to the left of the Tiger's main gun, you need to place your aiming mark slightly left of your intended point of impact. Note also that TvT does quite a good job of simulating 'obscuration', the smoke and dust produced on firing, which you can see somewhat dimming the view in the second screenshot below.

 

 

 

Fairly sure that both the inactive T-34s were now thoroughly knocked out, I rolled forward slightly further, so as to ensure there was no danger lurking in the remaining dead ground nearby. Meanwhile the SPW, which was still with me, continued to give a rather out-of-place but nevertheless impressive display of dodgem driving.

 

 

 

At this point, halted and scanning, I turned on the mini-map, and confusion began to set in. I had forgotten to turn off the AWACS-style display and the map showed a live enemy tank (green) to my front. Where was he?

 

 

I could see nothing, except the two dead T-34s. I put another round into each of these, just in case. As continued to scan, I could see that though its commander still stood unconcernedly in his cupola, the Tiger ahead of me had taken what might have been a penetrating hit in the near side of his turret.

 

 

 

At this point the dodgem SPW did another loop in front of me, this time taking on one of the trees, which he succeeded in knocking down in front of me. Perhaps it was a clever attempt to give me some cover but it rather hampered the view throught my optics, so I drove over it and halted again.

 

 

 

At this point things started happening fast. I began to take fire, anti-tank or tank rounds whipping past or into my tank from an enemy to my front whom I just could not see. I put a round into a suspect shack slightly left, which collapsed to reveal another T-34, which I promptly clobbered. But by this time my own tank had taken bad hull damage, indicated by the red in the 'HUD' graphic. I tried to back up but wasn't going anywhere. In TvT, you can't pop smoke, so I was now committed to simply slugging it out with an enemy who was even now putting rounds into me but whom I still could not see.

 

 

 

My commander called in a T-34 target straight ahead at close range but though I lined up my gun and scanned slightly left and right of twelve o'clock, I saw nothing but the T-34s I had already engaged. In something approaching desperation, I put another round into one of these and he brewed up.

 

 

But I still continued to be fired at. To my rear, another Tiger had showed up - one I had not seen until then! - and started firing past me. I tried to pick up his target by watching for his tracers, which seemed to be aimed in the direction of another target beyond the now-burning T-34 behind the shack.

 

 

 

 

To no avail. Another AP round slammed into my tank and knocked us out. Game over! I neglected to tab around the battlefield afterwards so I never found out who our killer was (though you can see what might be another T-34 just left of the burning one, partly hidden by the branches of an intervening tree). I think I need a bit more practice in using the TvT view and gunnery systems and help features. Turning off some of these features for better external-view screenshots (or even taking them in the middle of a firefight) is not conducive to either success or survival in TvT! However, playing 'live' missions is the only way to practice.

 

Once you get the hang of the important keystrokes and how to make the best use of its capabilities and features, TvT comes across to me as a rather good simulator of operating a tank. However, it is badly let down by a tiny number of heavily-scripted missions, in which I often feel like I'm playing a first person shooter 'on rails', being channelled down fixed paths and then having equally fixed 'bots' presented to or thrown at me. The AI seems notably poor. The failure to provide for platoon control is another big negative. Had this been implemented the game would have been more realistic and more tactical. And player control could have partly compensated for the the poor AI, at least for your own platoon. It may be that through better mission design, and by providing more open maps with less 'chanelling', ZeeWolf's add-ons deliver some improvements here, as well as more vehicles and some more missions. The ZeeWolf mission I played for this report was a big improvement on the stock mission although it, too, had erratic AI, including platoon-mates. I don't know if it is possible to improve or mask this by somehow chaining platoon-mates to the player, so that they at least give the illusion of being under your control, instead of rattling off on their own scripted paths.

 

Overall, my own assessment is that while the vanilla game falls short in some key respects, in others it is a decent tanksim - well worth a crack, if money is no major object or if you can obtain a bargain copy.

 

PS a video of 'Tigers shake Kurtenki' with the full ZeeWolf mod installed has recently been posted on Youtube by Kempet, here.

[Dave63 13]

You are right on the money with everything you've said. So much potential wasted. I've had it uninstalled for quite a while now. I remember having a mod that corrected the armor and penetration values based on actual tests conducted during the war. No more getting it in the neck from a T34/76 from the front. 85s must be pretty close. BTW, if I remeber correctly, there's one more T34 and an AT gun as well out there.

[33LIMA 972]

Yes I see what you mean Dave; I got those two on the next attempt, including this lot:

 

 

Letting the first effort at the mission play on after my Tiger's demise, I noticed that the agressively-handled Panzer IVs did quite a good job flanking the Ivans, even though their tactics were a bit erratic eg driving right up over skylines. Staying on the move seemed to keep them alive, though, and they certainly gave better than they got, although at lest one got stuck in the woods.

 

 

 

So this time I stayed closer to the Panzer IVs and slowed down my move to let them get into action too. Worked a treat. It helped that I mostly kept the turret position indicator turned on, to h*ll with the screenshots.

 

 

The third German mission was a bit of a pain - the one where you're defending the village and it's the Soviet's turn to come over the skyline. Main problem is that you start in the open and by the time you've taken over the gunner station and turned on the auto driver (who seems inclined to forget he's working and take a nap, usually at critical moments) and the auto-commander and started to move into cover, they're coming at you. Plus another bunch then sneak into the village behind you. By the time one of the others had got this one, it was too late for me.

 

 

 

Managed it on the third attempt, by driving immediately into the village and shooting from defilade, dividing my fire between the skyline merchants and the sneaky-beakies.

 

 

The other defenders got most of the former, and some of the latter too.

 

 

The mission didn't end though and guessing that one of the Ivans was either lurking unseen or needed finishing off, I had to make a fairly scary solo drive up the hill to the skyline, hugging the treeline.

 

 

After establishing that there was nobody lurking in the dead ground over the crest I put a round into a couple of the less battered-looking Soviets and that seemed to do the trick - mission completed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The gunnery and general sense of tanking is very good. Despite the frustrations with the AI, lack of platoon control and some aspects of mission and map design, I must admit I'm enjoying T-34 -v- Tiger...while the missions last...