Steel Fury...Still the King

[Jarhead0331]

Every few years I go back to this game and it never ceases to amaze me how immersive it is. To this day, there is still no tactical combined arms World War II game that comes close to capturing the chaos of this kind of warfare. I'm hoping Tank Squad will eventually come close.

Its old, its janky, it requires hard to find mods, but its totally worth it.

[Skoop]

I agree steel fury is pretty good, I just can't be bothered with the mods in the era of steam workshop.  If the dev put the mods on steam work shop, I'd probably play it.

Tank squad is pretty close, I'd say the AI needs more work.  They are adding new vehicles and a dynamic campaign engine along with an editor, but they are lacking the other theaters that Steel Fury has. 

Biggest thing for me is being able to coop all the content in tank squad with my son, which isn't even a possibility with Steel Fury. 

[Destraex]

Yeah. Tank Squad out of all the recent tank sim\games is the one for me even though it is janky. Tank Squad just has everything I want.
* Multiplayer - I have played multiplayer with a few friends.
 - Multiplayer control a squad of tanks each
 - Multiplayer be in the same tank and co-operate inside
 - Multiplayer control a tank each in a squad

* Interior modelling of the tanks including hatch and top mounted MGs
* Infantry, artillery and aircraft call ins. Including infantry order control.
* Salvage and between mission unit management like painting and repairing
* Good terrain that actually undulaters properly. Panzer Elite seems like glass terrain in comparison.
* All the tanks you would expect in one game with no unlocking stuff. Tigers, Panthers, T-34s, KV-1's, Stug's etc. Plus an expansion with the ferdinand coming. Eastern front only so far though.
* Working gun sights - The German reticle for example spins around to set range depending on shell or weapon type.
* Working block sights and the ability to peer around.
* Battle repairs of things such as broken tracks by the crew or yourself
* Repair rearm and refuel trucks
* A Russian and German campaign.

Negatives:
* Some of the controls are clunky. But I guess you can change them manually.
* Some people do not like the graphics.
* Some crashes although updates are regular.
* No western front stuff yet
* The A.I. can see through brush, although they were working on this.
* I don't think it has PVP??

I appreciate your liking steel fury still. I just cannot be bothered with mods and a game that old these days. Glad you are enjoying it though.

[Redwolf]

Can you play Tank Squad from the Soviet side?

Why is it "squad", anyway. Isn't platoon the accepted term for the smallest formation of tankies?

[Pete Dero]

Can you play Tank Squad from the Soviet side?

Yes :

2 campaigns (both single player and in coop)

    German vs Soviet Union - Kursk (Operation Citadel) in 1943

    Soviet Union vs German - Kursk (Operation Citadel) in 1943

38 missions (both single player and in coop) including:

    20 German skirmish scenarios

    6 Soviet skirmish missions

    12 procedural missions

[Pete Dero]

Its old, its janky, it requires hard to find mods, but its totally worth it.

STA3.4/SPM2.3 Repack Mod- Full Version (includes base game !) : https://www.moddb.com/games/steel-fury-kharkov-1942/addons/sta34spm23-repack-full-version

[Jarhead0331]

Its old, its janky, it requires hard to find mods, but its totally worth it.

STA3.4/SPM2.3 Repack Mod- Full Version (includes base game !) : https://www.moddb.com/games/steel-fury-kharkov-1942/addons/sta34spm23-repack-full-version

That is outdated. ITM/ITA is the latest version and it's locked behind a paywall that you need to pay in bitcoin for. Weird.

[JasonPratt]

I can't tell from the description how exhaustive the author's combined modpack is, but other mods by the same author "Sovietmann" include (small) campaigns in North Africa and France.

[JasonPratt]

Meanwhile, for even older but still respected jank, how about Panzer Elite (sold by GoG) with mods?

[Father Ted]

I had some fun playing the tank "sim" add-on for IL2 Great Battles.  More of a proof of concept than an actual game, it nevertheless had bags of atmosphere when played on a server with people flying around as well.  Shooting down a player-flown Bf110 with the commander's 50 cal on a Sherman stands out in the memory.

[Jarhead0331]

I had some fun playing the tank "sim" add-on for IL2 Great Battles.  More of a proof of concept than an actual game, it nevertheless had bags of atmosphere when played on a server with people flying around as well.  Shooting down a player-flown Bf110 with the commander's 50 cal on a Sherman stands out in the memory.

Agreed. It had great potential. Just wished they had added infantry. Then it could have been a real competitor for best in class.

[Destraex]

I had some fun playing the tank "sim" add-on for IL2 Great Battles.  More of a proof of concept than an actual game, it nevertheless had bags of atmosphere when played on a server with people flying around as well.  Shooting down a player-flown Bf110 with the commander's 50 cal on a Sherman stands out in the memory.

I did enjoy il2 tank crew as well. It has some really cool simulation elements. For example the ventelation fans after firing the main gun, which could also be damaged suffocating the crew if you turned them off iirc?
However compared to Tank Squad it is night and day, especially since il2 tank crew was so limited and static while offering prey for the main element of il2, the aircraft players. Il2 Tank Crew also had pretty bland and flat terrain without any infantry to speak of that did anything other than stand there.

Incidentally, I think Tank Squad has half track\armoured personel carrier mounted troops as well.

Looks like the Tank Squad devs are heading to gamescon right now.

I had no idea they had a ballistic lab in the main menu