Great content. The only minor thing I would add is it is super common for players to tunnel vision. You did point out the value in attacking across a variety of areas, but I would emphasise how easy it is to get caught up in a fight on your 'preferred axis of advance' and miss out on easy flags.
The one thing that I might add (this video focuses a lot on the minutia of deployment which is super beginner friendly, and great advice in general), and this is a comment from my own experience and what helped me figure out how to deploy and formulate a strategy is often I look at the division I'm fighting against and take note of their unique units and strengths. Especially on a map like this, if I'm facing someone like the 26th Guards, I'm might want to try and draw them into the open where their Shturmoviki ROKS can't be as effective (I like to think of the 26th as a CQC division, and rules the forest). Or if they choose the 6th South African who will probably want to favour armoured swings through the open, I'm going to want to try and force engagements in a city, or ensure that the forests are under my control so I can pop AT assets in and out of cover. Granted, that comes with experience and probably not beginner friendly advice. But it's something that helped me figure out how to deploy, and often how to counter the gameplay favoured by certain divisions. Awesome content, Atk!
On most army general campaigns, and by this i mean all but baltics and karelia, you can encircle the entire front of your enemy. This doesnt work in maps with lots of units and bottlenecks, which is what the above are. But, in for example, Orsha, once you break through on a small part of the flanks, you can rush in and cheese the campaign in 6-7 turns with very few battles. And encircling is very good in this game - after 3 turns they are considered routed and disorganized + they gain very few action points. In vistula, I reached warsaw in turn 4 with a full-fledged force.
Atk, what are your thoughts on encirclements? I remember back in Normandy 44 you had airborne troops and in SD2 you have marauder troops which have the special ability to basically BE encircled but still operate normally, hinting at the fact that encirclement is a common strategy when it really isn't in my experience. I VERY rarely see encirclements. My question is, do you think a macro strategy focused around encircling your enemy is viable? And if so, what would that look like? I've always wondered if it was cause the maps are too thin, meaning if an encirclement is about to happen, the enemy player can simply call in more units to help and have plenty of time time to get into range of the encircling unit and take them out.
Encirclements are rarely worth it in SD2. The benefit of encirclement is minimal, most of the time if you are able to encircle you had significantly more forces anyways so it would have helped. The only significant benefit is they have nowhere to fall back. But that’s rarely worth the effort and half the time your own units end up encircled instead
@@atkpwrgaming Yeah that's a good point. Going for encirclements can be a very risky strategy. Requires a lot of game sense and a little bit of a gamble. I don't know, I kinda love the IDEA of encirclements, but in practice they don't pan out. The idea of a platoon of raiders or paras breaking out of an encirclement sounds cool af, but never happens. Almost wish we could call in a paradrop or something and drop marauder/para troops behind lines mid-game. That would be cool lol. Thanks for your reply!
“Don’t just say I’m going to defend” So your telling me I can’t play like it’s ww1 and make an impenetrable line on my front, wait to C Phase, and spend all my saved up points on 20 pieces of artillery to obliterate everything they have?
@@atkpwrgaming we demand even more singing! And some epic choir (ex: Carmina Burana) sang by you and your students when the battle is reaching its climax!
Hi, I'm still learning the game and I've only played the AI. On this map the AI dumps a lot of troops on the right side of the map. I understand what you're saying about flags but in my experience (so far) the AI swarms units from that side more than any other. However, I do enjoy your video and have subscribed. Thanks for your ensight.
It can be depending on your location. The multiplayer was kinda killed by men of steel, hopefully when they finally release an update it will pick back up
Thanks for your content its great. What I would like is tutorial regarding Eugen's hidden criteria for the game such as units having 10 health or affects of veterancy. I know you have already covered these but what else is there?
8:01 I dont get it. In real life this would be a brilliant strategy, allowing your troops to circumvent the enemy main front line and flank them from the side, even maybe encircling them. Why is that not viable here?
Cause your troops just get cut off and you dont actually capture any flags, so pushing into empty areas is not that helpful and can end up burning troops on useless areas
@@atkpwrgaming I really hope they make something like that where you can decide and manage resources and troops. Do you recommend any game like that? Is there something like it? Like a total war or hoiIV but with steel division battles?
Great video, thanks for the help. I just finished the generals campaigns and now I will take these into MP. I would also like to ask, is this game overall, or specifically these tactics worthwhile for single player (as i say, skirmish and the historical battles)?
Not as much. The AI is easily exploitable and its usually better to let them just throw units into the jaws of your defenses. These are more for multiplayer
Against the AI it is fine. Against human players it’s generally a bad idea cause you are easily cut off and it takes way to long to get reinforcements in. It also doesn’t help you win meaning you are wasting precious resources for essentially nothing
if u keep making fun of me personally with all these videos ur getting a defamation trial buddy ok im not playin around i get im poo poo head at the game
How effective are the smart orders? If I want an area I usually get a ton of forces and tell them to seize whatever area while focusing on other aspects.
Honestly the smart orders are pretty awful. Just think about what the AI does when it attacks you or defends. That’s the smart orders do. You will take significantly more damage doing the smart orders
Great tutorial. I really appreciate you describing your thought processes as you assess the situation. Too many 'how to play...' guides skip this part so you just rote learn what to do but not why.
Oh absolutely. Its hard and the learning curve is steep, but if you are going to spend time on a game this one is definitely worth it. infinite replayability
The problem with making maps so large and being able to zoom out so much is it quickly turns into Icon simulator. Much prefer the scale and zoom in of Gates of Hell Osfront.
It’s definitely a point for sure. I would say you only need to post up some recon and stuff to make sure you aren’t getting flanked. You don’t need to full on defend
