Graviteam: Fateful Strike pt2 | Campaign Play-through w/ Strategy, Historical Musings, and Tips 

What I've read is that providing smoke on a strategic scale for the entire beach landing, 5 beaches each with a 2-3 mile front, would have been a logistical impossiblity. Not to mention that the weather in Normandy was often windy, blowing away what little smoke you could provide, but keeping that smoke screen up for the hours it would take for infantry to breakthrough would require an absurd amount of smoke shells. This while every ship available was packed to the gills with trucks, ammo, tanks, rations, clothes, etc, so cargo space was incredibly precious. They did use smoke and smokescreens on D-Day, but it was used on a tactical scale and mostly used by the Navy to cover the landing craft and shore bombardment ships as they made their way to the beaches. There was another mention in the book that commented that the landing force needed landmarks on shore in order to navigate and hit the correct beaches and pre-landing bombardment targets, so even if you somehow did manage to provide enough smoke to cover the beachheads, you would cause confusion among the assaulting divisions, slowing down their progress during a time-sensitive need to get inland before enemy reinforcements arrive.

What you said about close air support was very true! It was not the tanks they killed but the light trucks and supply. And the arty!

I just recently found your channel and immediately fell in love with this format! Playing the game myself on and off and everytime i play it again, i learn something new. The way you play it, is inspiring to get back to it again! I also really like how you put in some historical background knowledge to it - it's just like watching a documentary and it immediately sucked me in! The game and your narration give a really good idea of how battles and skirmishes might have played out during that period - about the forgotten stories, the forgotten heroes. Keep up the good work! I can only imagine how time comsuming it must be to produce that kind of hour long content for one operation! Thank you for your efforts and i'm keen to see more!

Wonderful game, a deep simulation that also captures the horror of war. I wish it would get the popularity it deserves.

Your videos are amazing and I can't stop watching them, please make more graviteam tactics!

Your conclusion that this is more simulation than game is brilliant.

I just discovered Graviteam games and was completely lost when I attempted to play them. Thanks for this content! I learned a lot about the series and watching your videos is like watching a war movie. Great stuff!

one of the best video I have ever seen about any video game on youtube, congrats, these are great ! hope you will continue

Fantastic! I want some more campaign footage like this format :)

2:08:20 Virgin T-34 -can't hit point blank -crew needs to hide behind armor -will run away if things go wrong -will explode on slightest touch of flames -can't play anthem of soviet union . Does not have a radio VS 2:22:40 Chad flamethrower guy -does not need any protection, loves charging out of the trenches like a mad lad -will shrug off any tank shot -roasts enemies while playing Erica at full blast -has a bro who is totally fireproof

Did I really just watch a feature length movie on RU-vid? LOL Thank you very much for putting this together, it was very instructive and entertaining. I didn't realize how cinematic this game can be until now.

Fantastic! I love your style, really helping me to get to grips with the sim

Cool video and the analysis, thanks for that! Hope more will come!

This is some of the best content on RU-vid, absolutely brilliant. (Saying this before I finished the video) What I think really damned you in this campaign was you wasting those two panzer battlegroups on a badly timed counter offensive. I would've kept those units in reserve, rarely if ever using them until the Soviets got to Borki. The Soviets have plenty of tanks to waste, the Germans certainly do not and watching you order them to attack almost made me tear my hair out lol. The ending of this is so so satisfying, just seeing those tanks go up is a good change of pace ;)

Always great vids, very few Graviteam vids on youtube, nice to see people still making some!

Well, I have Mius Front in my Steam cart (again!). This time I'll likely go for it thanks to your vids. It has always seemed too daunting but your instructional vids and instructional elements in your gameplay are golden. Nice analysis at the end.

One of the best battles I have seen. Excellent footage and comments, couldn't have been better, except maybe killing a few more enemy tanks. LOL Love your videos, keep up the great work, PLEASE. Look forward for your war videos.

Only Just found your channel mate, i really love your work. I also love your debrief where you go over your possible mistakes. It was a very long campaign! I watched it all and loved it, i hope you continue to publish more vids, in what is for me the best war sim to date 🙂👍🏻

I watched both parts like a good war movie and learned a lot about this game. Very good job Mate.

A year late, but awesome video man. I love the format where you show only the highlights of the battles. Cheers!

Amazing campaign, it has great scenes of the brutality of war and very insightful comments about the situation and the historical situation; I'm getting back to GT after some hiatus because I found your channel, I looked some of the videos and it's really something this simulation of the eastern front. The scenes of the flammethrower and the 88 vs hordes of tanks were excellent.

Hey WarSimmer! I love your Graviteam vids and I hope you can do some more! You are very fun to listen to and watch! Please keep up the good content.

Fantastic videos! Would love to see more of this sort of video series

Seeing that 88 finally get some at the end was so satisfying, we all know what a beast that round is, it’s so good to see this game gives the gun its fair dues.

I found your channel by looking for a tutorial for graviteam tactics! And I am so happy I found it! I would love to tutored lolol it seems you are leaps and bounds better lol

Absolutely gorgeous video and work done to produce it! And I'm saying this as a random guy who knows nothing of this game, but still I'm finding plenty of entertainment to watch it. Actually, I'm watching you entire playlist, and also caught myself spending some hours on the graviteam forum after watching your tutorial video even if I have no intentions to get the game. They are just so good.

Well done, and quite entertaining and educational. Now I have to try myself...

Thanks for doing these videos, I've been playing Graviteam for a while and it's really helpful to see you explain your tactics. Not sure if you had realised this by the end, but the indirect order system does not mean that your units and the enemy units move simultaneously on the operational map - it's still a matter of all your units moving first, and then the enemy moving. To clarify the rules of the indirect order system, you can move units one square only using the 'advance' order and they will (usually) not be in the arrived state if they are directly attacked. So yes, you are never completely safe unless you do nothing, but the 'advance' order is safe more often than not. The 'march' order is never safe. The default is 'march' when you move a unit to friendly/neutral territory, but you can right-click again to change to 'advance'.

2:22:40 what a revenge, amazing to watch!

You absolutely got the best videos on Graviteam. Very informative instead of purely just playing the game but explaining your reasoning and moves. I think your videos are more likely to make people pick up a copy of Mius front, etc. to try it out. I hope you keep posting more videos :) BTW, did you play black snow? Is Fateful strike better?

Loved the video and am glad you post so much commentary. For the last part about concentrating AT, you also didn't use keyholes very often. In addition to having your AT dispersed, it was out in the open where it usually was a 3 v 1 fight. The second to last battle with the 88 firing at about a km range is a great example; the terrain was too open and the 88 had to engage multiples at the same time. In the last battle, in addition to having concentrated AT, there was also a very slight ridge in the field. Because the AI didn't send the tanks in a perfect line formation, most of the armor ended up coming into view 1 at a time (you had a "keyhole" that limited multiple engagements even if it wasn't the traditional defilade on two side and 1 tank width FOV). Had the field been perfectly flat and the tanks engaged the AT simultaneously, I don't think the concentration by itself would have made a difference.

Love your vids hope you make more

legendary 2 part series, hope to see more.

excellent work very nice presentation of this game

we need more Graviteam please, every week be fine : ]

I like your historical tips they are really interesting

I love your videos. You are clear concise and explain your strategy and add tips. Awesome campaign play through and pseudo tutorial as well. Keep it up. What hardware are you running.Specs please. Looks so professional. GT should be paying you to post these videos. I had downloaded it a year ago and deleted it after a few hours of playing. It's back on PC because of you.

1:11 Even the locals can't pronounce my name properly so I don't mind lol. The reserve is actually from me. Well good job keep it up.

Your point about stacking counters has killed me in every game! There are ways to make it possible and run clean. I hope this will change in this game as well as spread to others.

This looks amazing but so complex. I worry I just wouldn't have the time to learn it.

"Looks like our machinegunners are doing well though." *An HMG team gets instantly annihilated* good timing lol

I can't believe that guy took a shot to the face and then git up and murdered the tank later on.

Regarding smoke on Normandy beaches I saw one film clip with what appeared to be a smoke round (dunno which beach) . The wind was blowing so hard--east to west IIRC--the smoke was a thin trail with precious little veiling effect. Maybe that's why it was hardly used, if at all. As for pinpoint accuracy of Stukas how come the Miracle of Dunkirk was pulled off? Sure the boats and ships were usually moving but some were large targets, yet even against these most bombs missed. The RAF might've had something to do with it but it's doubtful that once on its dive the bomber was distracted by fighters. Just my two centavos, no authority here. Great videos, keep up the great work.

Thanks for recording these. I don't know much about the different tanks and equipment, so it's nice to hear why they were made. Have you ever played Decisive Campaigns: Barbarossa?

Around 22:19 you I believe you were mostly correct, I think the tank in front was a Valentine, but I'm certain the one behind was a Matilda. (Also I think the transport truck was actually a Bren Carrier, lots of British Lend-Lease on the field!)

Hey I know tutorials aren't your specialty but could you make a video on the more obscure elements of gtmf? Like for example demning, what the different orders do, what order modifiers do, how to use smoke effectively and how to make units fire smoke at positions etc

WOW lovin it!!! btw not trying to be a butt however those valentines had some matlidas mixed in ! ;0

Also can you show after battle reports so we can see what kind of damage has been done to our or their tanks?

The Sherman thing was a myth, no more likely to brew up than any other tank. It was just something that the tank crews believed but was not backed up by the data.

Hi WarSimmer! The new DLC called Pivot Point just dropped and m getting back into the game. After watching many of your vids I thought Id check in on you. Noticed you havent been around for a while. Hope all is well! Just let your fans know you are ok - ok!

Love all your detailed videos and strategies about that awesome game. Best channel about those games hands down. Wish he'd make more videos more often. I have a question. Where do i find that nice screen @4:16 to see guns and armor penetration charts??? Can't find it. Or is it custom made for the video and i'm just being silly?

Excellent quality I want to give you money for this content

Amazing game, never played it.

Enjoying this playthrough so far. I'm playing the same campaign right now. Had an excellent session as the Germans and managed to knock out a KV-1 with a 5cm PaK and a second when it tried to overrun my pioneer platoon. Stukas knocked out 2 T-34s and I don't know how many T-60s and 76mm arty pieces. My initial arty stonks were perfect and absolutely nailed their infantry formations. The AI offered a ceasefire 35 minutes in but I wanted to grind it out. There was almost no fire at the 45 minute mark and I am sure I routed the Soviets. Then the damned game froze up on me and I had to re-fight the battle. Didn't go nearly as well the 2nd time. BTW, Do you have a link to any of the mods? Most of the links in Steam and GT forums are dead.

I'm in about turn 9 or so and the soviets where on the doorsteps of Borki pretty early and even took it once. Recaptured it on night time and had some cat and mouse games there aswell. My troops are badly beaten but still holding out strong and manage to hold of their tanks with mainly just infantry in guerilla tactics. I hope to keep it up until the end. This game is just too brutally epic

Do you play with 30 FPS locked? If so, why? Great videos by the way! I hope you continue to create these kind of videos!

17:10 Best thing to do in that situation would have been to directly advance each of your Tank-BGs onto the two points in the enemy square you want to attack (not both on the same point as this might block movements) This way you would have had the ability to deploy the tanks properly in dep. phase and would have had the chance of both of them participating in the battle. So it’s actually possible to move 2 squares with the advance order if you manage to initiate an attack on a adjacent square. Also because I sometimes see you reposition on-map artillery spotters (mortars,field guns,etc.) for marginal discrepancies in your LOS: I always set my mortars or whatever I have off the AI-fire control at the beginning of the battle and then do a mark for on-map fire as far out in the LOS of my spotter as possible. This way you can adjust it at a later point quite some hundred meters outwards of your LOS and just lose some accuracy on your sector (that’s why you want it to be at 100% beforehand, gives you a greater buffer) This is great for pumping down on defilades/enfilades and into forests, on-map arty is really a flexible gift of the game. This way your spotters are way safer and you’re really able to shoot down range well behind your LOS, just sacrificing some accuracy but that’s not the name of the game for indirect fire weapons.

I have one question : historically, Germans used molotovs, bundle - grenades and espacilly a lot of mines, in the (as far as i can tell) game the only thing the German infantry uses are grenades against tanks. They also lack anti - tank rifles, which could be damaging to t-34 and KV1 tracks or overall good against weaker tanks. So Is there somthing like mines or mine-fields aswell as antitank rifles and close quater anti tanks weapons (perhabs even panzerfists from 44 on) in the game?

20:38 Is the enemy able to see those tanks if they are moved? Like from dust clouds or engine noise etc?

57:20 A glorious moment for Soviet tankmen, though overall Second Battle of Kharkov was a disaster for Soviets. Well, they will get their revenge in 5 month :) And you are right, there are not much primary historical sources for the battle, especially for Soviet units that were encircled and destroyed along with their operational documents. Most prisoners couldn't survive the war and even a few survivors who broke out the pocket were quickly reassigned to other units, making hard for them to leave records. Even for Germans, it is difficult to find an English book about small-scale engagements in the battle. The only relevant source that I could find was a divisional history and even that was mostly focused on Stalingrad. For a book, I would recommend Kharkov 1942: Anatomy of a Military Disaster by famous David Glantz. I know the writer doesn't know as well about Wehrmacht as he knows about Red Army, and he is particularly harsh about the operational failures of Soviets during that year. Still, it's a good book to read and contains some official records from front line armies. The focus of the book is operational-level, though.

Hey Warsimmer, just wanted to drop another comment of thanks and commendation on this epic AAR - really enjoyed watching it and even as an experienced Graviteam player I learnt a lot. Great example of the folly of spreading out AT too thin too (which is a mistake most Wargamers make initially myself included!). Just curious if you are still actively playing Mius Front, and if you are still planning on making future content? I think the game has never played better now, with the new mechanics like retreating. I know the last year has been a distracting rollercoaster with real life often getting in the way of hobbies. Wishing you all the best.

I remember now what partly put me off this game; The 88s not being historically dangerous at all in comparison to what they faced.

12:36 rip that guy

This is an old video but just in case you haven't found out yet. At the 20 min mark when you "marched" your tank counter attack and then were unable to place them on the battle map... If you had "advanced" instead of "marched" by left clicking twice instead of once on the strategy map, you would have been free to place them as you wish before the battle.

That's why you couldn't engage those British tanks properly. They were not Valentines LT, but Maltildas HT. Great video BTW. Only remark, the bullet drop sfx is clunky.

I haven't completed this video yet but I would love to see you do a video on offensive engagements from start to finish. In the previous you spent pretty much the whole time on the delay, planning to counterattack in this video, and I was hoping to see you develop a full counterattack from deployment to the end of battle.

Seems the gun shield of that 88 doesn't protect against explosion fragments from the front? Several gunners were taken out by shells hitting well in front of the gun...

Is there Panthers & Tigers too ? Is there elits units like SS & Russian guards please ?

35:17 They do have bundle grenade(anti tank grenade) here. Basically 6 grenades tied together. Look for 6xM24 written on the loadout. Not the best type to destroy tanks, might need a lucky hit. And I do question the AI ability to throw, they always missed and sometimes overthrow the grenade, and I think one of your soldier got killed by a friendly bundle grenade there..

was watching the battel while making slender man outta polymer clay lol was a good fight

Are you ever coming back with more campaigns?

Is there a way to use captured equipment? I remember you capturing two T-34s last video.

"Fish-hook shape with good interior lines..." someone watched Gettysbuuuuurrrrggg lol

@2:43:10 T-60's just casually shrugging off 5cm or even 8.8cm APHE, I feel like you got robbed. I've not played much of this game yet, but I don't think I've ever had luck as bad as yours lol. I'm sure I'll get mine sooner or later, though

I read/heard somewhere they did fire a bunch of smoke from battleships during D-day, but that the landing vessels took to long to reach the coast so all the smoke had dissipated.

when and where can i entrench my units in operation star? i have never figured out where i can do this

This game looks absolutely fascinating, but knowing how to play it requires half a lifetime apparently

Bit late to the barbie here, but what resolution are you playing on?

Shermans burned gasoline instead of diesel, that's why they called the Sherman a Ronson lighter. (cigarette lighter) One hit and they went up in flames.

It was a common myth that shermans were more liable to burn or explode, believed by both sides. Studies by the British armed forces showed this to be untrue. In fact crew survival from knocked out sherman tanks was quite high.

Anyone know what happened to this guy? She he is not making videos any more. His mius front series is the best ive seen on youtube. Hope hes ok, where ever he is. Would be good to see a comeback.

I think one can get a general idea of how obnoxious it was for the commander of early war t34 by playing steel fury kharkov which i think runs on the same engine as grav. tactics

Well, Molotow Cocktails can disable WWII tanks, when you throw them on the engine. I see no reason why flamethrower couldn't disable tank engines too. Also, the Shermans weren't that prone to ammo detonations, because the ammo storage was on the floor and later models had ammo sitting in a water. Sherman was pretty darn good & safe tank at the time, because it had large hatches and a lot of space. Germans used to shoot at enemy armor until it caught fire, so probably that is why people think that Russian and American tanks are prone to caught fire. (Panthers had a extremely bad quality sealing on their engines, because Allies bombed the factories that made the seals. Panther was prone to spontaneous combustion, because fuel/oil leaks in the engine compartment.)

Where'd you go :^(

gosh that 2:22:00 flamethrower moment

I dont know if its my imagination but the AT guns and 88's feel finnicky about firing in this game Haha i made that comment before seeing 2:33:00

More then half them engagement s are between those soldiers and God man. I hear all the time how the U.S. kicked Germany's ass. I'm just shake my head. The cream of the crop went to Russia. The battles there made the ones in the west look like child's play. I love my country n all I just know millions died on the eastern front. Oh and Soviet storm is an awesome documentary to listen to while playing this and hearts of iron 5. Nice vid

and btw that was not a valentine but a matilda. close guess tho

Not true Soviet tanks had radios in 42 or 43 until then down to company commander.

also, looks like tanks on the move are way too effective in seeing, targetting, and then successfully hitting a hidden/entrenched AT guns edit: am no experten, but there is no way a soviet tank without binoculars, and even buttoned up because of regulations, would be able to spot, target and take out an AT gun at 1km range.

nice battle videos! Not played this game...yet?... But seems to me playing germans is hard mode and russians easy mode??

Been attempting to play this sim. Man its definately not starcraft 2 or gates of hell osfront. had to learn to let my army do what it do.

You can tell who made the game.

1:38:00

You should have gotten those troops out of the forest!

2:00:00

59:57 I think it is not due to bad luck, but because of the cheating AI. I have replayed same battles over and over, each time with troops deployed on different locations and it seems that AI is always aware of where you initially deploy your troops (AI always deploys troops after the player). I think It tends to avoid strongest concentration of your force.

First A little too early 360p

Russians are too strong need to factor in intangibles Leadership communication logistics maintenance. These work key in. 41 42 and even

It's dumb. I love watching other people play this game but I absolutely hate playing it myself. It's just far too complicated.