Saturday, January 24, 2015

Tank-Infantry Teams - Steel Beasts ProPE

You can complain all day that the infantry is under-developed, but at the end of the day the war tales of tanks and dismounts working together in Steel Beasts are pretty much what a tanker should take home.



In this custom-made, single player scenario, I am in command of two platoons of Bradley IFVs and one section of M1A2 Abrams tanks (US Army). The objective is to secure the river crossings along a South Korean town. The ENY forces are a mix of dismounted and BMP infantry, a missile team and one or two tanks.


A lone ENY tank, dug in near a church quickly immobilized one of my Abrams (left track). The remainder Abrams dispatched the threat with ease and left me only with one main gun to advance.

Even when the NK infantry hides within the buildings, they are visible through our thermals.
A HEAT round from our tank is about to land in the steeple. Instant death.

Another HEAT round disintegrates the ENY-occupied building.
The situation heats up as I close on the village with just one tank. With ENY rockets buzzing on the top of my vehicle, I pop smoke to my right, just to slow down the pace of battle.
The tiniest hole in the smoke screen reveals an ENY missile team. I almost fell down from my chair in the rush to take it out.
On the opposite side of the town, the BMPs take some shots at my tank. Even at this short range, the ENY fire is no match for our main gun. 

This is the closest I will get to that town. I pause so the infantry and their IFVs can catch up.

The single icon in dark blue is my tank. Quite a death box to be in! Note the infantry approaching the town from both the north and south flank.

The woods surrounding the village are the perfect hideout for NK troops pulling out from the town.

The wait for the infantry is unbearable. Under the mistaken assumption that I can handle it with my tank crew, I inch towards the built-up area. A quick death follows.

Thanks to the magic of the digital battlefield I can jump onto one of the Bradleys and continue to fight from it. Here I am taking care of ENY dismounts in the south edge of the town.
After thirty minutes, the tank I left behind with a shot out track is ready to enter the fight again.

Approaching the town (yet again, now with a new tank). Note the Bradleys stopping a bit shy off the built up area. 
Our infantry pouring down from the heights onto the low area where the crossings are located.

The tactical situation near the scenario ending. Our infantry is quickly closing in. A few ENY infantry teams remain, but fortunately the lack of rocketry is conspicuous. 
A US infantry man moving through our sights. Sitting up in a tank among buildings is quite dangerous for the tank crew. In this case we just cleaned up the ENY positions nearby so we are not in immediate danger. But every time something moves on our sights, the danger of friendly fire is enormous. At this point, it would have been better to pull back and support the infantry from the distance because my tactical disorientation is quite high at this point.

One of the crossings. Note the Bradleys moving towards them.

Cheers,









5 comments:

Gibsonm said...

Good stuff!

Standby for 3.025. :-)

Gibsonm said...

Release Notes for Ver 3.025 now published:

http://www.steelbeasts.com/sbforums/showpost.php?p=268386&postcount=8

Gibsonm said...

Version 3.025 now available from:

http://www.esimgames.com/?page_id=1390

BitTorrent or direct download

One big installer or five parts.

NW said...

I'm glad this update can be installed over an existing 3.0 version as a massively sized patch, instead of necessitating the uninstall/reinstall rigamarole.

Mike said...

If only the SB infantry behaved like Combat Mission infantry. Maybe one day.