Tips for new players on the series:
*Deploy/move your troops close to the dividing line at the start of the game. Don't do too much of a conservative deployment because you will, at least, lose a lot of points. Fight for objectives and tactical positions from the start.
*Since the Deck manager is different, check out transports. You want your initial wave of troops (inf., flame inf., leaders) to reach the objectives first before your enemy does. Fast transports are a very important for that. You might think that you have a slight advantage if you roll into the objective with a transport that can support your push, but that will be quickly negated if enemy AT or high quality infantry is already in position. Best is to mix transports in the sense of troops that occupy the initial objective and others with better transports that can take some time to reinforce the position.
*Air superiority. I can't stress it enough. It's better to have an all fighter deck and just strafe enemy AT guns and troops while retaining air superiority than having uberbombers which you can't use. Your AA tab is important for this as well since the AA is much more effective than it was in SD 44.
*SD 2 is much more forgiving when it comes to high value units. Don't be afraid to push your Tigers/Panthers/T-34/85s into the fire if there is an advantage to be gained. You can, for the most part, recover from medium losses. SD44 was much in the sense of - lose a tiger, lose the game.
*Use leaders with your infantry. It gives them vet and they are especially crucial in forest fighting where flamethrower squads can surrender a lot of your stuff if a leader isn't nearby.
*Recon, Recon, Recon.
*Your enemy can't be everywhere. If he has 2-3 tanks and infantry squads pushing on one side, you can be pretty sure his defense is squishy elsewhere.
*You can issue orders while deploying.
*Don't get frustrated, SD is a niche game and I see it staying that way. That means that the player base is smaller and that the people that stick around are usually players that liked the game enough to get decently good at it. Losing is normal.
*Combined arms. Never send infantry ahead without something nearby covering them, unless the frontline has a massive bulge and you're pretty certain there's nothing between you and that copse of trees. Learning to coordinate artillery, airstrikes, and pushes is an art in itself that requires timing and patience. Never send your units piecemeal at the enemy, or they'll end up in pieces. Decide on an objective, mass troops and support (tanks, at guns, assault guns, whatever) back from the frontline, preferably behind some trees where they can't be seen, get recon into advantageous positions to identify units returning fire, and prep the area with artillery before sending in your assault.
*Smoke. Smoke. Smoke! And I'm not talking about the green stuff, although that's good too. It's almost more important that the artillery that goes boom, and sometimes is. Proper use of smoke is integral to making that assault work in your favor, especially as the russians. They have devastating ppsh squads if they can close the gap, but that won't happen without a wall of smoke. Smoke off obvious approaches where reinforcements might be brought in to deal with your support units, stands of trees where you've seen at guns, or even the whole town you're trying to get into. You can even create a smoke bridge for your units to waltz into town. Always have at least one card of arti that can produce smoke; mortars are often the most efficient for this.
*Air superiority is good, but don't sacrifice too many points for boots on the ground. Players will see 1 bomber and panic-buy their whole card of fighters, when they just need one and an aa piece or two. 1 fighter and some well placed aa can make a mess of the enemy's airforce if used correctly to bait and switch, at a cost that won't leave your frontline devoid of reinforcements. Over-investing in air will lose you the game very quickly.
*Complementary units in deck-building and deployment; this is especially true for infantry. In at least phase A and B, try to have at least 1 card of short-range specialists and 1 card of long-range specialists in decent numbers, preferably with one of them being anti-tank capable (panzerfaust preferably, although the soviet anti-tank rifles with their crits are fairly effective), one in fast transports, and one (if possible) in a fire-support capable transport. Or take some panzerschrecks with you from the anti-tank tab. Deploy them together in pairs (or threes), so they can shore up each others' deficiencies.
*While playing, make a habit of zooming out constantly after issuing orders. I'm guilty all the time of getting bogged down micro'ing one section of the front line while forgetting about the other half, and suddenly looking over to see my whole frontline on the other side has collapsed. Shift-queue a few orders for one section (you can queue orders holding shift to set up a chain of movements/attacks), zoom out, move your cursor over the next part you need to work on, and zoom back in. WASD is a trap! Seeing the whole battlefield is invaluable, especially in team games where coordination in the form of markers (F1-F4) can mean the difference between a win and a loss.
*Shoot and scoot! Especially for artillery, but this goes for most units. Did your flakverling rip a new one in their airforce? Zoom out, quickly select each of your AA units, and attack-move them away from their last position to avoid the inevitable arti-rage. Your zis-2 put a donut-sized hole in the front of their Tiger tank? Move it back from the edge of the trees. This is also where shift-queuing orders is invaluable for artillery. Fire on a position, shift-queue your arti to move somewhere else, rinse, repeat. Doing this makes the mortar halftracks/motorbikes/wespes/su-76's/etc pretty much uncounterable. Be aware of aerial recon though. They can spot your arti from far away.
*Last but not least, hotkeys (ctrl #, then hit said # to recall units)! Especially for artillery. You can hit the hotkey, then select individual units in order to choose multiple fire missions over an area, or just have them mass fire on a tank to panic it. Hotkey other time-critical units like your fighter swarm so you can call it out as soon as the klaxon sounds. I generally only use them for these three; arti, fighters, and bombers. The first two are obvious, but the reason for the bombers is that over a significant AA net, you want your bombers coming in all at once so at least one or two get through, and they can cover each other against fighters on the evac. You can also turn off evac winchester (auto-evac after a bomber drops its load) in the options, so your bomber can linger and strafe things or perhaps do double duty if it's a figher-bomber, as well as the threshold for efficient shot (not a bad idea, considering the default is about 40% acc/pen). Keep in mind that the former is increasing your micro load, which you may want to avoid being new.
Don't forget to use recon units. You can't shoot what you can't see!
This is not a traditional "rock paper scissors" RTS, obviously some weapons systems defeat others so in that sense it is but there are multiple ways to overcome enemies. For example, a tank force can be countered with superior armor of your own, a good anti tank gun, some hidden infantry with AT weapons (panzershrek), or anti armor aircraft.
Sideshots are important - out maneuvering the enemy is important.
Assaulting cities and fortified locations is difficult, defenders advantage is real. Remember - stage your combined arms force, smoke the approach then regular artillery as you're coming up before smoke goes away, get your dudes out of their transports close to the action and move them into the fray.
Artillery is important, so is counter battery to try to take our enemies.
Veterancy bonuses are good, get commanders.
Support units (artillery and planes namely) are very important but they can't capture flags.
If you are getting hammered by enemy arty they're probably weak on the ground somewhere. Find a place to attack. Also don't be afraid to pull your guys back some and let them waste arty on an empty area then move back in when the arty let's up and their dudes start coming.
Try to advance everywhere until you hit enemy contact. Sometimes you'll just roll up a whole flank with a small force if the enemy is out of position.
It's a game, have fun and don't stress! Above all else enjoy yourself, this is our recreation not a job :-)
https://www.reddit.com/r/Steel_Division/comments/bva6wu/are_there_any_guides_for_sd2/ |
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