Graviteam: Fateful Strike | Campaign Play-through w/ Strategy, Historical Musings, and Tips 

Weird seeing you here S'Aarum. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

Appreciate it

Dude I had no idea you could do that and it absolutely killed me remembering and scrolling through. Thanks for the tip. Will use for sure.

thank you

Agreed

Happened to be on yt right when you commented. Appreciate it bud. And yeah, was definitely a bit of a disaster😁. Tough campaign but it's winnable. A few people have managed to come out ontop playing the Wehrmacht.

Appreciate it

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jxf3RU7lHwY.html This StuG III B is short-barreled, yes, but it carried HEAT rounds and performed extremely well in an AT role. It has a very low silhouette and should be placed in ambush spots between houses, etc, where the enemy is likely to present a side shot. It should not be on fire at will when facing enemy tanks - use only the fire arc to increase the chances of a kill on the first shot. I set the fire arc to 200m and I’ve racked up several T-34 kills and a couple of disabled KV-1s this way. In this campaign, I use the StuGs to clear trees and bushes from in front of my 88s, so I can put those 88s back a bit in the woods and then drive the StuGs past them in tight formation to clear their field of fire. Micromanagement, but effective. Also I place dug-in trucks just in front of their positions so enemy shells don’t get a clean impact. 2/

Thanks man. I'm going to finish cruel star after this one. This campaign absolutely kills you from the impossible difficulty and scale so Cruel Star will be a welcome return.

Thanks for the heads up. E M B A R R A S S E D

it's a lot of fun, appreciate it man

Glad you are enjoying it. The 2nd part encompasses the remainder of the operation and will be uploaded in a couple days!

I am using High settings on everything except for smoke, which I keep on moderate. I don't use any sharpening, however. Just play in 4k so AA isn't really needed imo.

The WarSimmer oh nice, thanks for your quick answer!

They really are. If it wasn't for the fuel, ammunition problems and leadership/lack of radios on the tanks, the Wehrmacht would have for sure been in trouble during Barbarossa. You should check out the book I mentioned- Tank Warfare on the Eastern Front. Great read.

@@TheWarSimmer I definitively will, as soon as I'm done with Tigers in the mud.

I definitely forgot with Cruel Star- was too focused on recording. And I didn't know about the blue bar tooltip. Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to use it.

You want to use artillery whenever possible, and be sure to use smoke. Make sure that any time you attack you have a 2:1 ratio or higher of troops in the local area vs the enemy. You want to also make sure that you dismount your infantry from their half-tracks, and you can even separate them and then hotkey each group to control them individually (i.e. CTRL+1 for infantry, and whenever you press 1 you will have that infantry selected). Here is a good guide: www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=3137363&mpage=1&key=&#3137363

Appreciate it and thanks for alerting me to the pronunciation. I'm going to try to work on it but I've pronounced it that way for so long it may be tough to change!

@@TheWarSimmer Don't worry about it, most people know what you mean.

No sir, no importance at all. It's simply a graphical representation on the strategic map that the battlegroup is entrenched. Keep in mind, however, that if you move them outisde of their local square in the deployment phase they will no longer be entrenched.

Appreciate it man. Sometimes I hold back a little on certain support, especially if it's a longer game, but thought it was best to bring the 88s with the StuGGs asap. Wasn't aware you could pick the specific calibre on off-map arty though. Awesome tip and I'll be sure to apply it in the next vid. There's already been a couple things brought to my attention that I can do in the next one that I wasn't aware of. There's so many knowledgeable people such as yourself in these comments that I've learned a ton recently.

@@TheWarSimmer Thanks bud. Also at ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Jxf3RU7lHwY.html you do not need to place the spotter in a position to see the fall of shells because it's pre-planned support only. That is indicated by the white "checklist" icon on the support icon. Your spotter can just plot and time the barrages, which are called in to the battery as soon as you move to the combat phase. You cannot adjust nor cancel nor add any fire missions after that.

I have a GTX 1080 and I7 CPU. I have reduced smoke on moderate because full is way too much imo and moderate is plenty. I think playing in 4k has the best impact on visuals because you can see way more details in the distance. With the devs would allow the option to extend the draw distance on vegetation however.

@@TheWarSimmer Thanks for your answer! I also have an i7, but an old 2600k. Even when It is running @4.4 Ghz: GT is a "slideshow" in most operations. Graviteam should release smaller OPs, the old ones from GTOS were the right size; a lot more manageable for the CPU (and the player) than GTMF. And yes, the devs should not only allow the option to extend the draw distance on vegetation, they should also allow to increase (or deactivate) the heavy level of detail switching on vegetation. Modern GPUs have no problem with GTs graphical assets, the game is CPU limited. BTW: I am still amazed how good your "Graviteam Combat Tutorial" is. The best I have ever seen! Do you have the same in-depth knowledge when it comes to the "Operational Phase"? Most people (me included) have problems with that part of GT.

Almost everything I play is CPU intensive rather than GPU so I know the pain! Glad you liked the tutorial- I may do another one in the future because Gravi constantly updates and they get outdated (I was actually unaware of some updates in the first part of this vid). For now the schedule is: finish Fateful Strike, finish Cruel Star, and then Steel Division 2 single player review when it releases.

You can't schedule air support- it comes when it comes.

Well sure, if they're close enough to aim directly at the periscopes, the gun barrel, view-ports, drive wheel, etc.

@@talknight2 the modern systems have direct fire systems built into the sighting equipment and software. It happened some time around the introduction of the copperhead rounds. Shortly before the Excalibur program.

I think it's more of a close combat replacement. It's like if we got close combat III in the 90s and finally this came out in the 2010s

@@TheWarSimmer Really. That is a bit disappointing but I have only seen a couple of these videos and skimmed them as well. It looked like there was greater depth. So it seems that I should just stick with Combat Mission.

@@peterclas4024 Gravi has a ton of depth, it's just different. Tbh I'd say this is probably the deeper game. You should check it out

@@TheWarSimmer I am up to my eyeballs in War in the East 2 but I will give this one a go once I am in need for some tactical action. I noticed that it has a battalion sized campaign (or am I mistaken) which I would very much like. Combat Mission can do similar but this one seemed to be very true to historical recreation. Anyway, I have subscribed and you and this game are on my list. There seems to be an abundance of very good wargames now tactical/operation & strategic. Even retired there is not enough time in the day...

@@peterclas4024 Very true, there are tons of good wargames today. Enjoy!

1 hr for convenience. The AI will try more flanking maneuvers if you do two hrs

ctrl+backspace

I'm using a modified version of VAPASOM where I tried to give the effects more punch in audacity. I am modifying it further after the cruel star and fateful strike campaign to change the MGs and small arms.

​@@TheWarSimmer ah ok. That was one I used to use. I am rocking the small arms plus one (nice explosions and incoming arty sounds) but with the RO2 sound mod on top to give the small arms a nice sound... but yeah it's always annoying because every mod has strengths and weakness... there is always something that drives me nuts or isn't logical.

Now that you mention it, I may be using it in combo with the RO2 as well but can't remember. There were some good sfx in that one.

Could be wrong, but I don't think any of them have heat rounds in this operation. Imo, this is the most difficult campaign since some of the old operation star content. Btw, I watched some of your cruel star content and it was nice stuff. You going to do another campaign in the future?

@@TheWarSimmer I think the knocked out one in the third battle actually has a HEAT round loaded. I might do another campaign but I am kinda waiting for the next Combat Mission DLC to come out.