33LIMA

Hmm, sounds like I got lucky! Or perhaps the more cautious approach paid off. In the previous mission, a campaign one, getting impatient, I just rattled off hunting for the advancing enemy, instead of planning my tank platoon's moves one tactical bound at a time, from fire position to fire position. Result - enemy advance stopped and tanks destroyed but with heavy losses on my side. One thing I have found about both SABOW and SF is that it can be wise not to rush in, just for the sake of either trying to keep up with the onrushing AI in the advance or get directly to grips with the enemy, in defence. Sometimes I will just plough on but I would always recommend making a Combat Appreciation and coming up with a plan, all from from the map, before kicking off the mission. 'Aim-Enemy-Ground-Plan' is a simplified form I adopted in preference to the longer version, since I was taught it back about 1980 and it works equally well in sims. From the SABOW map, or now the 3d delopyment option, breaking the ground down into left, centre and right is helpful, just as the infantry section commander does from 10:50 in this clip from an early 1970s training film: Yes there's a lot of depth and potential to this sim. Even now, choosing to concentrate on tactical handling of a tank platoon and finding I can do that, I have not yet experienced air or artillery support or explored the facilities for re-inforcements or repair - for example trying to recover damaged tanks from the battlefield, rather than just writing them off. Or tried out organising some tank-infantry co-operation, ideally with results like these: ...oh for a playable Chieftain, some FV432s and a central European map...maybe one from GT:OS! Hopefully there will be some add-ons, developer or user-made. I'll start getting into some of SABOWs other features soon but for now and even with just two tanks playable, there is plenty to do and savour, just fighting my own tank and running my own platoon.

In the words of the RAF motto, Per ardua ad astra!

The tedious bit is the many downloads - the ones for the maps, then the ones for the WW2 module (WAW) with WW1 and jets being optional. Even if you use the torrent option, you also need to grab one of the waw files (#8 IIRC) separately as it has a fix which I THINK isn't incorporated in the torrent. Once you've got them, it's just a matter of unzipping them...in the correct order, which is where it can go wrong. I got it right first time...but I still got a lock-up, loading the sim, at 70%. As recommended I enabled the (included) QMB Pro option via the (included) JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler which quickly sorted that (plus it gave me many more options in the IL-2 QM builder so it was a must-have mod anyway). A few people report installation probs but they all seem to get sorted; some may be due to enabling sub-mods (like DBW, CUP includes a lot of these, emabled via JSGME) or other mods which conflict. It's no more hassle than installing Dark Blue World. I had a lot more trouble setting up Iron Front Liberation '44 the other day, assumed the Gamersgate version was current but no, had to download and install 3 patches (out of 5 available, eeeny meeny miny moe...) in sequence then the D-Day DLC. Worked fine till the last step, then CTD, re-install and start over...finally turned out that I was using the wrong key, of which there are three for different purposes...not THAT was a merry dance! I see one of my favourite campaigns has now been updated to CUP standard so I'm going to give that a try-out next! http://www.sas1946.com/main/index.php/topic,45262.msg511950.html#msg511950

Let battle begin! So...I had got my platoon safely into my chosen battle position, from which I could either shoot up or move to envelop the expected enemy attack from the north. At this stage, I could - and probably should - have fine-tuned the positions of my other two tanks. SABOW offers you different ways of getting your tanks into cover. This includes a command to adopt defensive positions, but I have little experience of using that and was concerned it might have unpredictable and possibly bad results. Besides, I wanted to keep us tight, in the patch of close country where we’d set up. I could have jumped into each tank in turn and tested and adjusted their lines of sight and cover from within the tank itself, much as an infantryman should do when individually siting his slit trenches. But I am well used in tanksims to driving the whole platoon into my chosen battle position – I get us into line, well closed in, and then orient my final approach to my chosen cover so we all end up in a decent final position. Sometimes this works well, sometimes not so well. But this time, I was happy enough with the results. We had a lot of dead ground to our right but that’s how I wanted it. The other platoon of T-62s had ‘eyes on’ that area and I planned to stay in cover until either I had a contact, or they did. I was quite hoping they would hit contact first so that I could flank a preoccupied enemy. At the same time, I didn’t want to conceal my platoon so well that the enemy might be upon us before we saw them, if they moved up on the left flank, where we sat... ...which of course is what happened. I was scanning from the commander’s sight, as this is higher up and has a greater magnification than the gunner’s equivalent, lower down. The first sign of trouble was an AFV which crossed a distant skyline, pausing then disappearing again. No way was I going to give away our position by chancing a long-range shot. So I let that one pass. ‘Whites of their eyes’ and all that...well if not that close, at least within good first round hit probability range. I don’t know how they did it, but the enemy managed to get rather dangerously close before we spotted them again. A radio message reported an enemy tank – I can’t recall whether from my own platoon or the other one. IIRC, SABOW identifies these messages, when displayed as text on-screen, with the name of the platoon or tank commander, rather than using their callsigns for some reason, which they also have. Scanning in the direction indicated, I saw nothing. I decided to call up the tactical map, which is no ‘God’s eye view’ but still displays all kinds of useful information, like a message log and spotted enemies. Before I could do this, the party kicked off, good and proper. Tank cannon fire erupted on my right and tracers flashed past. One of the shooters was a platoon-mate over there but I couldn’t see any bad guys. The tracers I saw seemed to be outgoing fire but there was likely some incoming, too. In a cautious effort to get ‘eyes on’ I slowly rolled forward, but halted abruptly when I got a rather sudden shock. An Iranian tank, a Chieftain no less, came into view just a few hundred meters away, in a patch of open ground to my half-right. He was rolling left to right across my line of sight, just about visible to me from the TC’s position and not yet visible to my gunner, lower down. Fortunately the Chieftain seemed to be engaged with our friends to his front. I edged forward but only succeeded in worsening my view of him, so uneven was the ground. Much to my relief, by the time I finally got my gun onto him, someone else’s rounds had slammed into him and he started to burn. I knew fine well he wouldn’t be on his own and rolled slowly forward again. Sure enough, this brought a second Chieftain into view and I put two rounds into his exposed sides. His hatches popped open and the crew bailed out. There was still some firing going on over to the right but I could see nothing more and looking back, I could see that my other two T-62s also seemed to have run out of targets. I considered edging further forward from the position we were now in, but conventional tank wisdom favours reversing out before moving forward again – so that you don’t re-appear from a position the enemy may now be concentrating on. In Steel Fury’s fast and furious little actions, this will often mean the battle moves away without you. But this being SABOW and a defensive operation, I decided I would play it by the book and disengage, before popping up somewhere else. So I gave the command to back up. In SABOW, your orders are treated as platoon orders unless you consciously first limit them to your own vehicle. Knowing that AI-driven tanks in other tanksims will often turn around rather than reversing when following a platoon leader’s move – exposing thinner armour to the enemy – I was pleased to see that the other T-62s reversed with me. Ahead of me in the pic below, you can see the empty cases from the two main gun rounds I had fired, lying where they fell after being ejected out of that little flap in the top rear of my T-62's turret. Had such a system been adopted in the cost-conscious British Army, I expect we would have been sent out after the battle, to 'pick up our brass' for refilling or recycling :) Backing over the broken ground, my tank rolled and pitched like a ship at sea but I kept going until I was confident that we had ‘broken trail’ and were now well out of sight. Still moving back, I turned right until I faced west then stopped and moved off, ahead this time, in that direction. I called the others into column formation. My plan now was to take a wide left hook and come up on the enemy’s flank again, not only from a different position but putting a bit more space between us. My platoon was soon in a neat column and we swung west and around the hillock which had been our first battle position. We were in more open country now but with the hillock to our right front, hiding us from the enemy in that direction. As we came around towards where I expected the enemy might start appearing, I got us back into line and circled on around the hillock, hugging its cover on our right but gradually bringing into sight more and more of the battlefield. Things seemed to have settled down so I used the opportunity to call up the tactical map. Mousing over the reports in the message log – mainly of contacts - I could check who had made which reports. This confirmed that the stay-behind T-62 platoon had indeed been in action. My own platoon had narrowly escaped the enemy coming upon us at close range in our first battle position but despite that, things had panned out reasonably well. The enemy advance seemed to have been halted, with no losses on our side. The terrain to the north seemed clear of the enemy and with my left flank seemingly safe enough, I continued my circling movement, intending to mop up the battlefield and destroy any enemy forces remaining in that area, perhaps gone to ground or pinned there by the other T-62 platoon. As we advanced, first one then the other of the two knocked out Chieftains came back into clear view. A little further on, I suddenly spotted an M60, stationary and hull down some distance away, facing south, away from us. Taking no chances, I put a couple of rounds into the side of his turret. Getting no reaction, I left it at that. ‘Keep shooting till it changes shape or catches fire’ is fine and dandy as motto for tank-vs-tank combat, but T-62s carry rather less ammo than Western tanks and this particular Western tank was quite possibly dead before I shot him. Finally, the battlefield lay exposed before us. Nothing left, but burning or abandoned tank hulks. The Iranian attack had been well and truly blunted, with no losses on our side. Not a bad day’s work! All in all, for a small-scale, no-frills, ‘instant action’ mission, this one had been a pleasant surprise. No mad enemy rush, let alone one concentrating on the player, just a steady advance. A tactical problem was presented, with time, space and opportunity for the player to consider, decide on and execute a tactical solution. The action when it came was intense enough; but in between, there was time to practice and savour other important aspects of handling a virtual tank platoon in a combat environment. Things like planning platoon-level operations; obstacle crossing; managing formations; moving into and out of battle positions; not to mention a spot of commanding, gunning from and driving my own tank. Friendly and enemy AI had been believable and efficient. All this, in convincing terrain, with well-animated tanks whose appearance and functions are modelled with an attention to detail which seems to be second to none. And with an interface which – once you’ve got past the initial unfamiliarity of it all – puts so much at your fingertips. I’ve said it before on CombatAce and I’ll say it again – I’m finding that SABOW is a rather excellent tanksim and quite a package! PS as of 25 April, SABOW is on sale at Gamersgate; definitely recommended, if you're serious about your tanksimming and have any interest in Cold War era armour: http://www.gamersgate.com/DD-SABW/steel-armor-blaze-of-war

A small but satisfying battle of manoeuvre, in Steel Armor - Blaze of War! Many sims give us a way of jumping straight into virtual battle with the minimum of preliminaries and Graviteam’s wargame-based tanksim is now no exception. The original release featured what the new version of SABOW has accurately re-labelled a ‘Battle Editor’. This provides a fast way of choosing multiple parameters to set up platoon-to-company level armoured battles. To this, the new release has added some ‘instant action’ options – a firing range for the US M-60, driver training for the Soviet T-62 and – one for each tank – the ability to set up both sides instantly for a smaller-scale battle you can drop straight into. You can still get the best from SABOW by learning the wargame element, which gives you control over multiple tank and infantry platoons and other units. But if you want to get straight to the tanksimming, it’s now much easier, with these instant battles putting you right onto the battlefield as a tank platoon commander. This short mission report describes one such encounter, which came as a pleasant surprise. I suppose I was expecting to face waves of enemies, advancing upon me as if in a Space Invaders arcade game; an opportunity for little more than some gunnery practice, but with targets that would shoot back. Fun and good practice but nothing special. If I was lucky, I might be able to squeeze in some platoon application of fire and maybe some ‘jockeying’ as the British Army calls the movement of tanks in defence, when moving between fire positions. The advancing enemies did appear, but they weren’t overdone and this, along with sufficient time and the initial disposition of friendly forces, gave me the opportunity to think as well as shoot, to plan and execute movement and generally practice the tactical handling of my platoon. For an instant action scenario, it was actually rather more ‘tactical’ than with most such sim options I’ve seen. And this was the way of it. SABOW models its two tanks – functionally, as well as visually - in such detail that I had decided to concentrate on playing and mastering one, rather than dividing my time more equally between them. Because its systems are simpler to learn – no stereoscopic rangefinder, for instance – I decided to focus on the sleek T-62. So, in the mood for a quick tanksimming fix, I decided to fire up a battle for that tank, clicking its icon on the main menu (the other T-62 icon, with the steering levers graphic, is for the driving course). This took me straight to a map of the battlefield, with my own side’s forces laid out. The briefing consisted of just a warning that enemy tanks were approaching , reinforced visually by some threatening red arrows directed at our positions (SABOW’s default is’ friendly red, enemy blue’ but I have reversed this in ‘options’ so we are the blue side). Sorry, no pics of this - I wasn't planning this to be a mission report, just some harmless, tank-bashing fun :) The map was from the Iran-Iraq war, which is the best ‘tank country’ of SABOW’s three theatres, Angola and Afghanistan being the other two. The main headache with this terrain is the frequent presence of irrigation channels which block movement or channel it (sic!) over fords. Elsewhere, though basically level, there are low mounds or hills and smaller dips and folds in the ground, interspersed with clumps or rows of trees or bushes, all of which provides some cover from view and/or fire. The map was clear of enemy sightings at this stage, but I could see that our side consisted of two tank platoons, facing north, marked as diamonds (you can cycle through alternative unit markers, including one which shows which way individual vehicles are pointing). Both platoons had the playable T62 so while I was started off with the left-hand platoon, I could have opted to play with either one, or indeed, swap platoons during the fighting. I tend not to do this as – when I’m in tanksimming mode – I prefer to role-play as a single platoon commander. From the map, I could have spent a little while playing the overall commander role, setting up deployment and initial orders for one or both of our two platoons. I could have done this from with new 3-D deployment option, instead of the map. This being a defensive action with our platoons pre-deployed pretty well so as to block the enemy axis of advance, I decided I would just jump straight into my assigned command tank, and take it from there! And there I was, sitting in my T-62 with the other two tanks of my 3-tank platoon (Soviet-style, but also common British Army practice). Seeing that we were all lined up facing the enemy somewhere up north and that my tank had a sabot round ‘up the spout’, my first task was to scan ahead for the foe-man, just in case they were about to hit us. This I did using the gunner’s sight, the better to be ready to let fly quickly, if need be. All seemed quiet, so I decided I would now take stock and get as organised as circumstances – notably, the enemy - would allow. Back to the map I went. Offensive action – even in defence – is one of the most important of the Principles of War. So I decided that my objective should be not merely to hold ground, but to destroy the advancing enemy forces. Now then...how best might this be achieved? ‘By taking them in the flank, with fire from a covered position’ seemed the obvious answer. The more I thought about it, the better I liked this idea, compared to simply sitting tight or making minor adjustments to my current position. I could have paused the battle while I thought, but I didn’t need long. Scanning the map from left to right, my eyes were soon drawn to an area of what - from the contours - looked like a sort of rough, low hillock, just ahead and on the left flank. I quickly decided that my platoon would move there, leaving the other three T-62s where they were, on our right. Between us, we would catch the enemy advance in a crossfire. The fact that this scenario had not immediately thrown the enemy straight at us gave me hope I might be able to complete my move in time. Even if the opposition appeared sooner rather than later, I reasoned that the slightly higher ground we would be moving towards would screen us, enabling me to get onto the enemy’s flank while the other platoon kept them occupied, frontally. Plan made! Even before a round had been fired, this little scenario was making me feel like I was right there, on the ground, in the boots of a tank platoon commander, being presented with a realistic tactical situation and the opportunity to make my plans, dispositions and decisions accordingly. I got my tanks into column formation and ordered my driver to advance and turn slightly left, headed for a ford over the nearest irrigation channel. This would have to be crossed, as it lay on the route to my chosen battle position. One of the neat things about SABOW is that the AI drivers behave somewhat as if they have minds of their own. In other sims, it’s like you are just clicking up or down a notch in a throttle setting, when (playing as commander, or as gunner but the commander’s ability to give orders) you order a change of speed or direction. It can be frustrating sometimes, but now I’m used to SABOW, it feels more realistic that my driver will sometimes hesitate or slow down and needs more regular instructions. It's like your AI driver in SABOW is a human being seeing the world only through a couple of fixed periscopes set a few feet above ground level, rather than an unthinking robot. Another nice touch is that the driver doesn’t just turn a fixed number of degrees for each key-press – the longer you hold down the ‘turn’ key (‘A’ or’ D’) to give a driving command, the greater the turn, with an icon displaying the turn angle so you can judge when to release the key. If your driver stops at an obstacle, you can either issue a stock command which starts him attempting an avoiding manoeuvre, or you take over his role and drive the tank as you wish. And that’s what I did when I reached my first challenge on this mission, fording that irrigation channel. The ford was at what looked to be a wrecked bridge and as we came to this I took over the driver position myself, knowing that this is one sort of obstacle they will often be most resuctant to cross, left to their own devices. From there, while I can still use W-A-S-D keys to change direction and speed, I’m beginning to appreciate the additional mouse control option. It’s really rather neat, in the driver’s compartment view, to drag back left or right mouse buttons and watch the animated driver figure pull back on left or right steering levers, as your tank changes direction! As I descended towards the bottom of the channel, my tank swayed and bucked, negotiating the broken concrete slabs that lined the way down, presumably all that was left of the bridge. Nearing the water’s edge, I cast caution to the winds and gave her full throttle, both to get up the other side and to minimise our immersion, in case the water level swamped us and killed our engine. A quick glance over my virtual shoulder showed that my other two T-62s were bunched up at the start of the descent, seemingly hesitant. I’d worry about them later, i decided. That is, if I didn't drown my tank, trying to cross this b****y great ditch full of water. But all went well. Over we went then up and out the other side, jerking and swaying once again over the concrete slabs, as we hauled ouselves back up to ground level. I quickly switched to the tank commander’s station and we hurried off to find some nearby cover, from which I could scan the area before sorting out the others. I should probably have used standard obstacle crossing drill to get over the channel – say, stopping the other two to provide cover, before I crossed - but I had been in a hurry. Now, was time enough to be more cautious. I gave the order to close hatches. Halting behind a small hummock, I scanned ahead and to the right, from the tank commander’s magnified sight. All clear! And just as happily, looking back, I could see that my platoon-mates had sorted themselves out and were now making their own crossing. Soon they were close up behind me again and I rattled off towards the hillock where I planned we’d make our stand. As we stepped off I called my platoon into line formation, the better to concentrate our fire to the front, where the greatest threat must now lie. Making for the nearer, right-hand edge of this hillock, I could see that the lie of the land there would give me some cover straight ahead, but would leave me exposed to the right, where the enemy might well appear. I began to edge more to the left, avoiding the exposed flank and steering for the centre of the area of higher ground. I was encouraged to see that - as prior study of the map had suggested - this was not so much a continuous hill, but more a low cluster of smaller terrain features. The ground was broken, with lots of folds and dips of different sizes, like you might expect to see from some long-abandoned small town whose uneven heaps of ruins had long ago begun to merge with the surrounding terrain. I led the platoon into this, keeping us in closely-spaced line formation. We rolled over the uneven ground, amongst clumps of scattered vegetation. I began to swing around to the right, so that we would acquire lines of sight and fire out over the expected enemy lines of advance. We approached the northern limits of the area of broken ground and I slowed down, halting in a defiladed position with higher ground covering us to both flanks. This gave us only narrow, intermittent arcs of fire, ahead to the north-east, but good protection from east and west. Although the shrubbery scattered around us further inhibited our view, I hoped it would also make us harder to spot. SABOW seems to handle cover quite well, to the extent that the planning map – I think at deployment stage – has tools which give you a visual indication of the level of cover provided in any given area. I hadn’t used this facility on this mission, as it is my habit to assess these things from the map’s conventional symbols. In this case, things seemed to have worked out tolerably well, leaving us hull or turret down to any bad guys able to see us. So far, so good! ...to be continued!

It was after all Goering who is reported to have said, complaining about the Mosquito '...There is nothing the British do not have. They have the geniuses and we have the nincompoops. After the war is over I'm going to buy a British radio set - then at least I'll own something that has always worked.' So it's not to be wondered at, that the WOFF clock is MoD (then War Department?) property, marked with the ever-present crowsfoot. Either the WOFF Huns - sorry, Germans - purchased it, in line with Der Dicke's later sentiments...or perhaps it was 'liberated' as war booty.

I think I prefer the SABOW weather in Angola, nothing like getting paid to do a spot of sunbathing for doing your 'International duty', while you wait for UNITA and their South African allies to turn up... In SABOW's Iran, in sad contrast, it seems to rain a lot. Still, you can often rely on somebody starting a nice fire to help warm you up... Of course, one kind turn deserves another... The latest patch has definitely added exhaust smoke emitters to T-62 and M-60, plus there is now another training mission, accessible from a fourth icon on the main menu. The previous addition was a firing range for the M-60; now, we also have a free driving lesson, in the T-62. To adapt what the Romans reportedly said about Egypt, 'From Graviteam, always something new.' It's good to see SABOW getting all this attention from the devs and in return I hope it gets the attention it deserves from the market. Now that I've got the hang if it, I'm finding SABOW rather excellent, a tanksimmer's tanksim and a wargamer's wargame...if that makes any sense at all. Doing this to SABOW's great Chieftains, though, it doesn't come easy...