Steel Division 2 Brings Single Player Strategic map campaign similar to totalwar

[Destraex]

The slaughter continues. In this, the 3rd battle of the first campaign turn. The Russian's are still taking their turn, they went first. I am still yet to have a turn. I must face the onslaught with no manoever. Like a man stuck in quicksand.
This time I have no air support but they do. I do however have 4 20 mike mike AA guns. In two separate units of two I deploy them and they fight hard. Eventually I lose one to a "plane train" of sturmoviks. That is when I start losing men. I have in phase B, a regiment of Marder tanks. But do not bring them on as enemy tanks are not seen and they are open topped. Perfect targets for the enemy aircraft.

[Destraex]

This turn attacked on the same ground as last turn. Missing two AA guns really badly in this match. I now have one left out of the original four. You need pairs of two to stop an aircraft before it drops on you. Tried to get my stuka's to intercept the Russian bombers in this match but they were too fast and after the AA guns started dropping, the only thing that could save me was the timer.
I notice that the end of match stats don't seem to mention the AA guns I lost and on the other side show 2 aircraft lost for the enemy but then only shows 1 icon. Are we talking points worth of aircraft in one instance and actual units in the other statistic?

[LoganismyHERO]

I read that you could almost "sim" this game. Is that true? I know that sounds odd to most war gamers, but sometimes I'd like to just sit back and watch the game unfold before my eyes and if things go bad, blame the AI  ;D

[al_infierno]

I read that you could almost "sim" this game. Is that true? I know that sounds odd to most war gamers, but sometimes I'd like to just sit back and watch the game unfold before my eyes and if things go bad, blame the AI  ;D

I'm probably not the best person to listen to since I'm not a fan of the series, but I found it to be super micro-heavy.  If you sit back and watch things unfold, your units will just sit around and do nothing.

[Pete Dero]

I read that you could almost "sim" this game. Is that true? I know that sounds odd to most war gamers, but sometimes I'd like to just sit back and watch the game unfold before my eyes and if things go bad, blame the AI  ;D

Maybe you are referring to the auto or semi-auto resolve feature in the campaign that allows you skip the RTS battles.  (explained in this video after min. 15)

[LoganismyHERO]

Thanks Pete. I really like this feature. Think I'll pick this game up when it's on sale.

[steve58]

^ FYI:  it is on "sale" over at Fanatical as part of a Pick 3 for $9.99 deal.

:-[ Oops, wrong game.  Steel Division Normandy 44 is the one that is part of the 3 for $10. 

[Destraex]

I believe if you want you can let the ai play your tactical battles but will have to try it myself to be sure. Before you load into a tactical battle (instead of choosing autoresolve) you can choose which of the three battalions are controlled by the ai. The default is leaving two playa le by the ai and co trolling one yourself. However I dont see any reason why you could not allocate all to the ai if you just want to watch?

Additionally even if you are forced to co trol at least one of the three battalions you have a tonne of automated commands for grouped or single units that got added recently. In will see when I get home if I can get a run down on how they  work.

[Destraex]

OK I tested it in the campaign. You can defo just let the AI play for you while you watch the tactical battles if you want.



If you do feel like playing yourself just make it really slow and slave some larger formations to orders like the below: These are new:

[LoganismyHERO]

Thanks Destraex 

[Destraex]

We almost had an italian front instead of an Eastern Front SD2:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/919640/discussions/0/2147595624109797718/?ctp=2

"Italy had been considered as the new theater when we started planning SD2.
I had drafted army lists for possible divisions. It could have been fun indeed, especially from the number of different nations on the Allies' side: US, British, Canadian, Indian, Free French & French Colonial, Polish & New-Zealander divisions ... and let's not forget my all-time favorite Allied division: the South-African Armored Division! :)
But although Italy would offer plethora of new infantry units on both sides, vehicles wouldn't have been as numerous.

We went for Soviet Union for several reasons:
* well, no WW2 game can be whome without Soviet Union ... :)
* aside from lend-lease vehicle, a whole array of new vehicles, planes & infantry.
* Italian mountainous terrain would have been difficult to represent ... and maybe restrict the maps too much."

[JasonPratt]

SD3: IT-A-LY!!  O0

Just work on that terrain.

[al_infierno]

An Italian expansion actually sounds promising.  My biggest issue with SD2 was that they went all-out on the "massive maps, waves of units" approach.  Scaling back the opposite way and making a game that uses cozier maps and fewer units would draw me back into the series.  It's a shame that won't be coming to fruition.

[hellfish6]

I regularly play 2v2 skirmishes on maps designed for 1v1 because otherwise you have way too much ground to cover with far too few forces.

[Destraex]

Hellfish I do the same. But it's realistic to have massive spacing between units.

When I asked about units rushing ahead:
"You can click another unit and it will do a follow command."

When I asked about the AI being easier:
"It has nothing to do with the UI pathfind changes.
Some times ago, AI levels were taken down one step: Normal level was given the previous Easy settings, Hard was given Normal settings, ...
So, if you want the same AI as before, just raise the difficulty level one step.

This was done after too many players complained about, and unrecommanded the game based on, "cheating AI".
Yet the Normal AI never cheated, never had a single advantage (income, vision, hit or damage bonus, ...) over a human player, aside from a CPU's ability to managed more actions at once. But some couldn't cope with the idea that their military genius wasn't up to a standard AI.
Hence we came to the conclusion that the Normal AI was too hard for the casual player, and lowered the difficulty levels one step down."