Steel Armour - Blaze of War revamped and relaunched

[33LIMA 972]

 

See here, coming soon:

 

http://graviteam.com/forum/index.php?topic=11793.0

 

There's a nice user-made intro video here, for those like me who have been slow to make the effort to get into SABOW, from an experienced Steel Beasts Pro PE player who also rates SABOW very highly as a tanksim (thanks to Murkz for posting a link on the Graviteam SABOW forum):

 

 

Worth checking out!

 

[Dave63 13]

I've got it. Barley touched it.

[33LIMA 972]

I've got it. Barley touched it.

 

Same here but I'm finally making a start. As with Rowan's 'Battle of Britain' & BoB2 I don't much like the idea of a 'sim inside a wargame' but I'm going to find out for myself how good a tanksim it is.

 

If nothing else it has Chieftain, even though AI-only.

 

 

Nicely-modeled M60, too, which is playable of course and comes with full 3-d interior and animated crew.

 

[dsawan 624]

can't wait/

[33LIMA 972]

I'm ready and waiting, for it to appear...

 

[33LIMA 972]

Well, it's here:

 

http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SABW/steel-armor-blaze-of-war

 

Having previously purchased from Gamersgate, re-downloading SABOW from my account got me the updated version.

 

The loader in my M60A1 seems relieved, that the wait is over...

 

 

...while the one in my T-62 seemed quite relaxed about the whole thing and perferred to relax in his newly-issued camouflaged uniform...

 

 

The tanks seem more shiny than before, depending on the angle of the lighting...

 

 

 

 

 

I used to be able to wade the irrigation ditches in the default quick battle map, but now, it's no longer such a good idea to try...

 

 

The new user manual's a big improvement:

 

http://graviteam.com/AP-STAR/TOOLS/tank_manual_%28eng%29.pdf

 

And perhaps thanks to that I can now get more control over my tank and the platoon, including formation changes and buttoning up as necessary...

 

 

So far, so good.

[Do335 382]

Any chance of an AAR, 33Lima :)

[33LIMA 972]

Any chance of an AAR, 33Lima :)

Defintiely, that's the plan, a campaign mission report or two,, but there's a lot I need to learn first (in Quick Battles) about the workings of both playable tanks, and the pre-combat setup phase, before I chance my virtual a** on campaign. The 'sim within a wargame' element means there's more to learn than a pure tanksim, perhaps even more so than Steel Beasts, but the new manual will help. Maybe a 'first impressions' effort based on a Quick Battle, first.

 

[Do335 382]

Looking forward to it 33Lima. I'm on the fence with this one...

[33LIMA 972]

Beginning to get the hang of it.

 

Once you know the basics it becomes very easy to set up a 'Quick Battle' and do some virtual tanking.

 

 

I have yet to find out if there is a similar 'fast track' way to get tanking in one of the sim's campaign missions - whether you can choose to have an AI force commander set up all your side's 'pieces on the table' and get them moving...or whether you the player have to do this for each campaign mission, playing the force commander role yourself, before you can jump in as a tank platoon commander, once fighting starts.

 

Playing quick battles purely in the tank platoon commander role, my main first impression is that gunnery is something you have to spend more time learning (unless you want to let the AI gunner do his stuff). Gunnery in the era before laser rangefinders and thermal imagers seems much more of an art, than either in WW2 where effective ranges were mostly shorter and later, when you just 'put the pipper' on the target, lased it and let the Fire Control System do the rest. Especially so in the T-62 (top pic), where the Cryllic lettering makes reading the range scales for the different types of ammo trickier and the sight elevates with the gun, every time you reload, often breaking your line of sight to the target. Simpler in the M60A1 (bottom pic).

 

 

 

The tanks are the stars though, inside and out, and while even a handful more 'playables' would be a big step forward for SABOW, it's hard not to like a sim that lets you fight battles with and amongst kit like this:

 

 

 

 

[Do335 382]

33Lima what do u think of the UI? Uncomfortable to use, or can be gotten used to after spending some time with it?

[33LIMA 972]

I'm like the Chinese premier reportedly asked by a US diplomat what he thought of the French Revolution and replied, 'Too soon to say'.

 

I have only tried Quick Battles so far. Before watching Sim Deck's intro video (link in 1st post) I found it tedious and non-intuitive. Now I find it quite simple, as easy as starting an instant/quick mission in any other sim. Granted I'm not using the options in the deployment/orders screen (appears after you kick off your quick battle but before the sim goes into 3d).

 

Campaign missions may be as easy to get into. But if you are compelled to play the wargamer role first, then it'll be necessary to learn what all those buttons in the deployment and ordsers screens do, before you can satrt the actual battle. In which case the ease of use or otherwise of the UI will become rather more important. I was once into wargaming with 1/300 miniatures but never interested in board wargaming so I'm hoping I can mostly skip that element in SABOW. If not, well it's all down to that U

 

 

 

So far, still so good, but early days yet.