Three Good Habits of Effective Steel Armor Blaze of War Players

Steel Armor is a realistic tank simulation with tons of virtual hulls in insanely immersive battlefields.

Despite widespread coverage in grognardy hubs across the world, Steel Armor didn't catch fire. Yet (?!).

The language barrier, the obscure conflicts featured in the sim and possibly the war in Ukraine (the developer is based in that country) may be holding back Steel Armor. But who knows.

Let me share with you these habits that I took from players very well versed in Steel Armor.

• Deployment in 3D

• The ease of use of Steel Armor's battle generator is well known. With the recent release of the Basra DLC, there is a fan base for desert battles. The desert's vision we have in mind is a featureless expanse with no cover or fold in the terrain. Well that is not the case in the Iran-Iraq war maps in Steel Armor. A small rise or depression may be the difference between life and death. And you know that your own death is featured with almost gory detail in Steel Armor.

See that small rise in front of my tank? That saved my virtual hull. To deploy your units in 3D just click the globe at the top left corner of the screen. You can even put your units in dug-out defensive positions.

• There is no substitute for a virtual reconnaissance of the area of operations so you can develop an attack or defense tactical vision.

• Can you see me now? Zoom Your View


• The capabilities of the human eye are difficult to represent in a computer simulation. Monitors just don't have the resolution of the eye. So, zoom in your view and make that gunnery vision port as big as you can.

Press the Ctrl key and with the resultant cursor click on the zoom lens at the button. Select zoom and scale.

• Go There! (and Don't Ditch my Tank)
• When it hits the fan, everything goes south really fast. When you want to get into or out of trouble as a tank commander, the least you want is to be driving by voice (left, left, forward, left) to avoid those enemy trenches or natural tank traps. So use the "go to" function: press the Ctrl key and with the cursor you just enabled, right click into a piece of terrain you are looking at. A little flag will appear. That flag indicates your destination. If you are commanding a platoon, that's a move order for all the platoon. The drivers will avoid obstacles and drive you there.

Let's move!

• Debrief Like a Champion

• Under the odd name of "statistics", the end of battle screen can show you what, from how far away and what damage was inflicted by each round that landed on a target.

This Iranian Patton tank was caught pulling out. Look at the ricocheting of a 115 mm round that went into the engine after ricocheting from the lower part of the gun tube. Mobility kill.

• Spend a good time learning what worked and what not. There is no silver bullet in Steel Armor, that's for sure. But if the right angle and the right spot of an enemy tank is hit ...

Cheers,