Not at all sorry for the epic bump - I finally got round to installing this gem of a game and thought I'd share some experiences with you.
Mind you, I haven't played a lot of tank sims, but I'd venture to say that this has to be one of the better ones around at this time - the tanks look great, they behave realistically and the combat is a joy, even though sometimes you can end up pretty frustrated by unlucky occurrences that all seem to work against you, like when a pea-shooting Pz II somehow manages to kill you driver and or/loader while you're in a T-34 - thankfully, such feats only happen rarely.
Instead of writing a real review, I'd rather write an AAR of the mission I just had.
After restarting a couple of times due to the silly AI Hanomags pushing my Panzer IV around (RO anyone?) and getting me, the commander, killed by shrapnel (most likely 122mm D: ) while I was trying to instruct the driver how to steer the tank and neglecting to button myself up, I finally managed to get the mission going properly.
I instructed my reinforced platoon (1 Pz IV F1, 1 Pz IV F2 and an accompanying PzGren platoon mounted in halftracks) to advance towards a village that lay in a valley through which a river flowed. They were to advance through a field between the river and the road I was going to advance down in my F2 - seemed like a sound enough plan, and there was another halftracked mounted PzGren platoon led by a Pz II attacking the village further down the river.
However, in mere minutes, all hell broke loose. Since we were the spearhead of the assault, we took the brunt of the Russians' artillery for the first few minutes until the other platoon joined in - and that was a lot more than I had expected - previously, we had only encountered light 45mm AT guns and mortars, with some sparse 76mm F-22s, which were the heaviest guns I expected the Russians to have. However, they had significantly more powerful guns than that dug in on the other side of the river - two 122mm M-30 divisional howitzers, along with 2 smaller 76mm regimental howitzers, along with a couple of Maxims and approx. 2 platoons of entrenched infantry. So, in the opening barrage of all that hardware, my troops got completely disorganized and utterly confused, myself included. One halftrack drove straight for the bridge, through the Russian occupied hamlet on our side of the river, and I assume lost control as I later found it in the river, tipped over on its' side next to the bridge. The PzGren platoon leader's halftrack got hit by a 122mm howitzer shell, which was the end of it and of everyone unfortunate enough to still be inside. My other Panzer IV F2 also got hit by the 122 mil howitzers, which killed the entire crew and lit the carcass for the remainder of the mission.
Seeing that everything had gone awry, I ordered the rest of my troops to seek shelter the best they could. The remaining Panzer IV F1 tried backing up behind the burning F2, but got hit and de-tracked in the process, leaving only my tank able to maneuver and fire. The infantry quickly hit the dirt and the two remaining halftracks swiftly maneuvered out of the sight of those damned Russian howitzers.
By this time, the other platoon had started their attack and I managed to clear the hamlet on our side of the river as the defenders shifted fire to those poor Panzergrenadiers that were attacking across open ground downriver. Upon clearing the hamlet, I was informed that, in addition to being pounded into submission by the Russian gunners, a tank counterattack has been spotted approaching the poor PzGrens adjacent to me.
Thinking the situation through, I turned my Panzer IV around and started driving downriver to assist them as much as I could as they had no real tank support, other than the Panzer II that was pretty much torn to shreds in a couple of seconds once it entered the Russians' line of sight.
So, I radioed my remaining PzGrens and halftracks to move with me towards our beleaguered colleagues downriver, to which they complied, having recovered from the shell-shock in the meantime. More precisely, they all complied but one - one halftrack crew refused to drive out of their covered position, which was probably the wisest decision they made that day as the other halftrack crew that was driving alongside my Panzer was hit by the Russians and quickly caught fire.
So, while driving downriver, I unbuttoned myself to try to spot the hidden gun positions from which the Russians were pounding us - and quickly enough, I spotted one of the two 122mm howitzers due to the huge amount of dust it raised after every shot. Luckily, it was pounding the other platoon, so I quickly put them out of action with a couple of Sprenggranaten. Driving further, I also spotted one of the lighter 76mm howitzers and took it out in the same manner as its' bigger brother. Finally arriving in the vicinity of the other platoon, I spotted the other 76 mil and took out as soon as I could.
Having silenced most of their artillery, I found that it wasn't time to relax yet as they tank counterattack had hit our horribly misfortunate sister-platoon. I did, however, grin at the sight of the Russian tanks - they were 3 T-38 tankettes, armed only with a single 7.62mm MG. Needless to say, my gunner dispatched them quickly with a couple of well-placed Panzergranaten, which must have been the luckiest thing that had befallen our accompanying platoon the entire day.
So, having secured a bridgehead on the right flank of the village, my tank, followed by a squad of Panzergrenadiers from my own platoon (the only one that had survived, out of a platoon of 40) and 2 halftracks and the surviving soldiers from the second platoon proceeded to advance upon the village and finally clear it, after a brief exchange of fire with the remaining 122mm howitzer crew.
Phew, talk about an epic mission. I can't even begin to express how glad I am that I finally installed this marvelous game.
tl;dr - best tank sim ever
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