How to Get Good at Steel Division 2- Division Strengths and Weaknesses 

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Absolutely thanks for watching!!

Figured you would like the upgrade :)

@@atkpwrgaming the new thumbnails are super nice

5th panzer is definitely not one of the best divisions. Panthers are some of the least efficient tanks in the game and their infantry don’t have a ton of depth. They are probably solid in 10v10, but not in 1v1

@@atkpwrgaming You do not rely on the individual skills of the inf (much to complex and you always need the right skill at the right place that way) but on the combination of stunning with mortars such as 120 mm ( which can be used over the whole line due to range, make good smoke screens and you do not have to babysit many mortars with short range which are easily killed because of short range, try a battery of 3x 120 mm mortars to support your inf, you will love them ( but put them in a forrest to cover against counter battery fire ) and infantry. 120 mm mortars have also the range for counter battery if necessary, even if that is not their strength. In defence you can use them to over the whole line due to range, which does not work with 80 mm due to limited range. This high flexibility in abilites makes 120 mm quite great. Then individual infantry skills are not so much important. Important is good morale and anti tank ability to be flexible. Panzergrenadiers of 5th Panzer are very good in that and 5th Panzer provides a lot of them. Their only weakness is very close combat in forrests but in combination with 120 mm mortars, recon planes and Sturmpioniere you can clean forrests easily. Send recon plane, find enemy concentrations, bring your inf close, shell the heck out of the enemy with 3 x 120 mm mortar battery or airforce and mop up immediately with your infantry. Repeat. It is really about the combination of arms, recon artillery support, infantry. You do not want your infantry do the heavy lifting of breaking the enemy and fight too much without artillery preparation, because it takes long and results in own losses ( and own losses means you need to wait for reinforcements which slows the attack and a breakthrough cannot be exploited immediately when the enemy is weakest and pressed on into the deep rear of the enemies position, resulting in a stalemate) but to weaken the enemy infantry with support weapons so that your infantry just slices through them easily ( granates fly much faster than own reinforcements can be transported to the front line) . Ideally you want your infantry surrendering the stunned enemy without firing a shot. In attack, infantry should break the enemy quickly and penetrate quickly into the rear lines of the enemy. I like Panter G , because you have enough of them in 5th Panzer and they kill also IS2 fairly well, often in one shot, if you swith off the kinetic ammo and let the Panzer G use APCR (HEAT) ammo only. Panther G are quite strong but not irreplaceable like Tiger 2. I like reliable tanks which can win duels not such throw away tanks like most allied tanks. I do not like to play soviets or even worse allies. I prefer 10vs10

@@mrx2062 there are so many divisions that do the exact same thing just way better. more efficiently, more powerfully, and more flexibly.

@@atkpwrgaming No, other divisions lack tanks with suffient armor penetrating guns. Kinetic energy ammo just has a very hard time to penetrate the armor of the IS2. They weakened the 5th Panzer by increasing the price of Panther G and reduced the number of the one close air support bomber, but nonetheless, the Division stays quite strong. The HEAT ammo of the Panther G and the gun of the Tiger 2, not the 88 mm flak of the Tiger 1 (I think Tiger 1s are not great in the anti tank role and mostly useless compared to Panter G) are the only ones which can reliably deal with IS2, often on medium distance with one shot. German medium tanks lack the APCR HEAT ammo of the Panther G and you have to come very close to have a chance to penetrate IS2 armor. You have then to rely on planes to kill superior soviet tanks. However, airforce can be countered quite easily. Then you have a real issue with IS2s. Tiger 2 are too valuable to use them really aggressively because you only get them in small numbers. You get many Panther G with 5. Panzer Division, which makes them more expendable which allows to use them aggressively, which are all capable to deal with IS2 on low to medium distance quite well. Use smoke from your 120 mm mortar battery to bring IS2 in medium range or to blind a larger group of soviet tanks. Then use Panter G to kill them one by one. All other soviet tanks are anyway inferior to Panther G on a one on one basis at least and even in superior numbers. 5. Panzer Division is quite balanced in its capabilities. Lots of IS2 killing tanks and also much very good all purpose infantry (Panzergrenadiere) with efficient anti armor weapons (very important !, in particular in combination with smoke). Applying and using many different infantry types is very messy and has high micromanaging requitrements. And then you have to have the required infantry capabilities in each situation at the right place. Quite messy. Panzergrenadiere with anti tank weapons supported with 120 mm mortars will do the job in pretty much every situation, if needed send some Sturmpioniere or the other close combat engineers.

True story - I watched lots of guides suggesting to play 20th Panzer for newer players and it just felt underwhelming. Then once I clicked 5th by mistake - deck I only played couple of times vs AI long time ago - and it instantly felt so much better. Most of good stuff from 20th was still there, but now as a bonus I had actual tanks not losing 3 vs 1 t-34-85 firefights.