The three games are very hard to compare at this point because they are all pretty early in development, with two being in early access while one is only available as a demo. On top of this, each title is also at fairly different levels of development and completion. Therefore, ranking them or trying to state which is the "best" of the three is pretty arbitrary, subjective and entirely likely to change.
Adding even further difficulty to the task is that each title seems to excel above the others in one or more categories. So, concluding which one is the "best" may be dependent on what any particular player may prioritize. With the above in mind, I am a man of the people, and as such, I will give the people what they want. Based solely on my time playing each of them in their present states, I rank them overall as follows:
1. Tank Squad
2. Panzer Elite
3. Sherman Commander
Tank Squad ("TS")
Summary: Most polished and fully fleshed out of the three (ie. probably the furthest along in development), very immersive environments with impressive combined arms combat, including, troops, towed guns, all kinds of mech vehicles, artillery and air support, fully modeled interiors and nice gun-sights, wide variety of options for play, which includes exiting vehicles and fighting on foot, a lot of content available, including, campaigns, individual scenarios and interactive tutorials, detailed tank repair and customization options, including both during and between missions, very active and responsive developers, and the most "sim-like" of the three titles.
Highlights: Best sandbox combined arms gaming experience to hit "shelves" in a long time. Most sim-like of the three titles.
Panzer Elite ("PE")
Summary: This title is very early along its development road, but the core systems are in there. Panzer Elite is fairly light on content at the moment, particularly as compared to TS, released with just a handful of somewhat scripted scenarios that I do not believe will have much replayability. There is a skirmish mode, but as of this writing I have not tried it. PE excels in graphics and visual effects. Combat and the destruction of enemy vehicles and the terrain is very satisfying. PE is much closer to the action end of the gaming spectrum as opposed to the sim end. Tanks feel somewhat light and move too fast. No tank interiors yet and very basic gun sights. Nice variety of vehicles, but not close to the menu in TS and although there are friendly supporting units, there appears to be no ability to command them yet. Being that this is developed by the same team that gave us Gates of Hell, I have high hopes for this and so I am willing to support it and take a wait and see approach.
Highlights: Very nice looking vehicles, terrain and visual effects. Satisfying combat action.
Sherman Commander ("SC")
Summary: May appeal to some over the others due to being a Western Front title with the ability to command Shermans, nice destructible terrain engine, showcased map located in built-up urban environment, robust and handy UI, particularly for commanding supporting platoons, can be played in a number of ways, including as a sim-lite where orders can only be issued from within the players tank, or more as an action/RTS with the ability to control tanks in the third-person and platoons on a map. This game is presently only available as a demo and as a result is very light on content. Only a single mission and a tutorial available. As such, I cannot fairly rate this title above the other two as they are each fully released in early access.
Highlights: Western Front combat in unique urban environment. Very good and effective UI for controlling supporting platoons and units.
I declare this thread to be the most important for Q4 and the rest of Q3. :RockOn:
Quote from: JasonPratt on September 20, 2025, 10:38:52 AMI declare this thread to be the most important for Q4 and the rest of Q3. :RockOn:
I second that.
I have a more basis question first. Are any of these games use hit points to determine whether something dies as opposed to penetration*probability=kill?
Quote from: Redwolf on September 20, 2025, 02:00:11 PMQuote from: JasonPratt on September 20, 2025, 10:38:52 AMI declare this thread to be the most important for Q4 and the rest of Q3. :RockOn:
I second that.
I have a more basis question first. Are any of these games use hit points to determine whether something dies as opposed to penetration*probability=kill?
That does not seem to be the case. They all appear to factor in some element of ballistics, shell type, penetration and directional or component based damage with TS being the most advanced of the three. In TS, your tanks have many components (ie. wheels, treats, engines, fuel tanks, weapons, etc.) that can all be damaged or destroyed. Parts can also be salvaged, repaired and replaced. Damage can also be repaired in PE, but the system is extremely basic.
I think Tank Squad is early access for all intents and purposes as well. From what I read on the forums it was forced out the door. The dev seems to freely admit this. For an early access game it is rich with features.
"[DeGenerals]Trebor [developer] 13 Sep @ 11:19pm
Wait few weeks, with every patch we're adding something, fixing something and optimizing something. If you want to get this game on bigger sale then at least few more months are needed as we plan to do so when we release the new campaign - but thats next year"
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1498130/discussions/0/686357829243735213/
"[DeGenerals]Trebor [developer] 18 Sep @ 7:52pm
Hey,
it is a long story but has to be said, tldr if you dont want to read it - No more money, the chaos of split between us and our ex-publisher and a big sales event made especially for this premiere.
Let me explain this in few points:
1. In January we've met with our publisher and came to following agreement - the game must release this year, on May 8th for which we're preparing a Steam sale called WW2 Games sale. His condition was that this date is no longer pushed and we NOT releasing the game in EA state. In his opinion the EA is a promise of further work, even if the game is not profitable. We agreed to this plan as we were sure we can deliver the game on that date.
2. 2-3 weeks before the premiere the publisher came to us and proposed new offer - he's taking our previous game, Tank Mechanic Sim and he's leaving us. We agreed to this.
3.
a) The paper work, communication to proceed the split
b) manage the WW2 game sale (which we could not at this stage postpone or change the date)
c) crunching to fix the game as best we can
d) struggling with Steam support to even allow us to have the game premiered on May 8th as they constantly rejected our reviews (you have to pass a review with Steam support in order to be able to push release button). The rejection reasons were very simple that we fixed within few minutes up to an hour, but their next review or check came in 4-5 days later - we started the process 1,5 month before the premiere and we only got the final green light 2 days before the release
4. All of above was so mind boggling that we only remembered about the EA toggle 2 days before premiere. And toggling that EA toggle on would again start a review process - something that could take at least a week - which we simply did not had as we could not postpone the sale.
5. Also we had no more money at that stage, our split left us without our previous game earning $$ to cover our current expenses so it's now or never.
So here it is - of course now I know I could just say f it, the WW2 sale is not so important and the bigger reach it generates is not worth the - no EA - mark but I am smarter now. 4 months later and 15? 16 patches later this knowledge can be useful for next game. We are reaping what we sow.
If you're not yet convinced just wait few more months, maybe for first DLC next year as we are slowly but steadily reaching stable game and optimized fps state. Content will come - we are building an engine that we want to use for years to come."
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1498130/discussions/0/597412189643602725/
(https://i.imgur.com/2CuK2Ps.png)
Thanks for the comparison write up Jarhead. Really appreciate your thoughts on these three games. Tank Squad kinda makes me regret buying tank modules in il2 battle for stalingrad. Because that was a developmental dead end for il2. But it was all their was at the time. The tank models at least were fun and very realistic. But their was not too much to do in the game but shoot other tanks and get blown up by aircraft. As we all know. Tanks are only a small part of a huge team for fighting ground battles.
War Thunder getting infantry may be the same. I don't think that will work out well. Unless they do a super detailed campaign.
I did not realise their was a sherman commander demo. Downloading now.
As for Men of war panzer elite. It looks like I might give this one a miss for now. Too arcade for me. Of course it's ww2 ground combat so I will prolly get it on sale. It looks nice but might be a little boring looking at it to be honest.
Quote from: Destraex on September 20, 2025, 11:07:46 PMI think Tank Squad is early access for all intents and purposes as well. From what I read on the forums it was forced out the door. The dev seems to freely admit this. For an early access game it is rich with features.
"[DeGenerals]Trebor [developer] 13 Sep @ 11:19pm
Wait few weeks, with every patch we're adding something, fixing something and optimizing something. If you want to get this game on bigger sale then at least few more months are needed as we plan to do so when we release the new campaign - but thats next year"
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1498130/discussions/0/686357829243735213/
"[DeGenerals]Trebor [developer] 18 Sep @ 7:52pm
Hey,
it is a long story but has to be said, tldr if you dont want to read it - No more money, the chaos of split between us and our ex-publisher and a big sales event made especially for this premiere.
Refreshingly honest. Makes me more likely to buy their game.
To be fair, PE is built on an RTS engine, so anything simmy it accomplishes is kind of a miracle!
Tbh, I think I will own all three of these at some point in the next few years. They seem to all offer some different things to where you might want to just play all 3. Plus time is on our side, let them mature, then steam sale hits and get them at 50% off.
Quote from: Skoop on September 22, 2025, 07:39:45 PMTbh, I think I will own all three of these at some point in the next few years. They seem to all offer some different things to where you might want to just play all 3. Plus time is on our side, let them mature, then steam sale hits and get them at 50% off.
That's my problem as well. I want to convince myself to stay with only one. At this stage it might be panzer elite as well as tank squad. Because a friend just showed interest in panzer elite. Possibly because it is more casual and related to men of war. Plus it's shinier than tank squad. Easier to play by the looks of it as well. Tank Squad is more your traditional sim medium. Panzer Elite seems Arcade with some sim features.