A most interesting period of the war for you

[Mistwalker]

Just curious.
It seems that many people favor the "late war" period, starting from Kursk and further. At first I liked that too, but the more I research the very start of the war, the more I become interested in it. I mean armor battles. Just think about all the exotic vehicles that were in the field out there. On the russian side there could be the situations when a puny BT-2 armed only with MG and a colossal KV-2 with 152-mm gun drove to the battle together. Add the screened T-28 (definitely the better tank than T-34 at the beginning of the war), KV-1E with 105 mm armor around the turret, superior even to IS-2....and the total lack of 76-mm AP rounds.  I even tried to recreate that atmosphere in "Radzehov" mission, included in the latest UU patch.

On the german side they had pretty interesting vehicles too, like 35(t) and 38(t), early production screened PZ-3 and PZ-4 with the short guns. Still the Germans managed to destroy about 80% of the Soviet armor in just 2 months although they didn't have 75-mm AT guns in the infantry divisions and even 50-mm AT guns were a very rare sight. BUT. 105 mm light howitzer can be used as AT gun too and they had over 30 of those in every division. Not counting a large number of 150 mm cannons that could easily vaporize even KV and 88-mm anti-aircraft guns.

[kapulA]

I personally favour the mid war period, 42-43 (let's say from Fall Blau up to the end of the Kursk battle), since the forces were somewhat 'evenly' balanced during that period, with both sides' mainstay tanks being able to take each other out, and the advent of vehicles such as tank-hunters (Marder series, SU-76 & SU-122), self-propelled artillery such as the Wespe and Hummel and even the German heavies. And in addition to all of the, a lot of the earlier war equipment was being used, such as the 45mm and the PaK 36, not to mention the plethora of lend-lease tanks utilised by the Soviets. I guess that what I'm trying to say is that I like the period because of the vast array of interesting battles that occurred and could have occurred. I'm not sure whether I prefer the early or late war period after the mid one, as I like the lighter tanks such as the Pz III and short IV as well as the late war heavies equally.

[Stig]

It's an unfortunate trend that in most simulation circles, players tend to favor what I call the -est examples of whatever the sim is covering. The fastest. The heaviest armed. The thick-est armor.  This usually translates to "late war" examples, of course. And, depending on how the game system is organized, this can create environments where one can't be competitive with anything but an "ueber" vehicle, because the early and mid-war stuff is totally outclassed.

I prefer at the very least a balance: it is fun to duke it out with the ueber-vehicles, sure, but sometimes, it's more interesting to explore the little technological differences in the early war examples.

In this sim, I notice a refreshing tendency for scenario developers to give some love to those early war actions, and to be more representative. Kudos to the designers for that.

[whukid]

Late war, definitely.


I like the pitched struggle and desperation by the Germans. The vicious rear-guard actions with the evacuations to a new defensive line are just cool; I mean, who doesn't like a David and Goliath scenario with tanks?!

It's not just WW2, either. I also am constantly getting stuff on the Yom Kippur war and the 1st Marine Division at Chosin.

[Wörghern]

Personally, I like the "panzers" of the ww2. What is, in your opinion, the period that they are most valued ? The period that you are talking about, Mistwalker, has used the infantry before the "panzers".

[frinik]

For me the most interesting period of the war is 1943.The hinge year I call it.While 1942 was the last year of triumphs for the German-Japanese Axis 1943 was the year when everything changed , the balance was broken and 1944 turned into a year of disaster.Particularly interesting is the period August-December 1943 which has been sparsely documented in the West probably because it cpoincided with the Italian campaign. The battles fought in those 4 months were not only bloody and costly for both sides but basically reversed the course of the war in the East and put the Red Army on the path to victory in the Spring-Summer of 1944.Plus lots of interesting tanks/SPGs were born during that periodincluding the SU-85, KV-85, JS-1, JS-2, Panzer IVH, Panther ausf D, Stug III G Saukopf and the T34/85 .Even the Tiger II  started production in December 1943.

The being said the early years are interesting because of tactics and indeed it's fun to play the smaller tanks available although I personally think the Soviet side had the most interesting ones.The T-26, KV-1s, KV-2 the BTs, T-28, T-35 are fun to play.

Re the heavy German tanks.I can't but feel fascinated to play the Tiger II with it's fanstastic kwk43 that can literally smash everything at ranges( even in SF) of 2 kilometres or more.But in game the feeling is artificial because we don't have to deal with all the inconvenients of using a heavy tank the Germans had to in real life; lack of fuel, constant maintenance, logistical problems, etc....

To me the essence of a game is what people find pleasure in.If for some it's playing the heavy tanks so be it , they paid for the game it's their right to play it the way they want. I personally love playing more modest tanks like the Panzer IVF2 and the H variants.However I mus confess being partial to the Panther which was probably the bets tank of the war in terms of balance of offensive-defensive capabilities.

I am alos fond of the KV-1, which despite all the flaws I read about, was a pretty good tank with solid armour, a good gun and lots of ammo and wide tracks....

But the pleasure of SF , as I see it thanks to the selfless work of Mistwalker, Kyth, Lockie, Donken, Stone 2009, SHYN, Deviator, Whukid, Jochem ,Rends and others is that they have given is so much to play with in terms of models, camos, missions, maps, mods that this game which started as a basic 3 tank sims has turned into an incredible game that allows each and everyone of us to recreate our favourite battles or use our favourite tanks/armour.This is priceless to me.Not to mention the discussions and all the interesting facts we learn about the tanks, vehicles , artillery etc...

[Aces]

Hi folks,

Years ago I used to be more interested in the late-war period Wehrmacht equipment but nowdays it is the early to mid-war equipment that interests me more. I still like the Pathers, Tigers etc. but I'm much more personally interested in the earlier vehicles and equipment. The same is true of other parts of the Wehrmacht such as earlier u-boats like the early type VII Bs or Cs and Luftwaffe aircraft circa 1939/41. Having said that I'm interested in the whole wartime period from a historical and tactical perspective.

Cheers

Aces

[Panzerfaust]

I definatley prefer mid to late war and medium tanks over the super heavy tanks like the IS-2/Tiger I & II. A problem I see with SFK42 is the lack of missions for certain tanks. I'm all for new content in SFK42 but some of the tanks we already have in SFK42 really need some love.