First in a series of Steel Division 2 tip videos aiming to give new players a head-start in their Steel Division 2 play! In Beginner Tip #1, we'll examine why you never want to be too defensive in your SD2 opening moves.
It all very much depends on your side and who you're playing with. If you're defending a map with a Rifle Division-you will want to defend on two of your three axes of advance while allowing the Germans to simply have one of them. If you are too thin everywhere a German battlegroup will penetrate somewhere and roll up your whole defense. If you aren't entrenched-you will have to accept losing the battle (just not losing catastrophically) so as not to lose your entire force. If you had time to entrench you only might be able to hold the map but if what's attacking you is a Panzer Divison-plan to give up the map still. Remember with the Red Army-you're always playing "the long game". Losing tactical battles isn't really serious if the Germans dissipate all of their momentum trying to push your Rifle Divisions aside. As Red Army you need to practice force-preservation first, winning tactical battles second. The "YOU LOSE" screen is just words. You can be losing battles left and right but winning the whole operation when you're playing Red Army correctly. German players should be looking to roll up as many Russian troops as possible in their own attacks. Your priority as Germans is to avoid fair fights and even match ups. Do not send Infantry Divisions vs Infantry Divisons. Do not send Panzers vs a Tank Corp. Send your Panzers against Russian Infantry, send the Luftwaffe against Russian armor-but never enter "fair" fights against Russian forces on their terms. They will blunt your forces eventually and win.
Banger video! I've owned SD2 for years, but for some reason I'm just sort of getting into it now. Very happy coincidence finding your videos. I enjoy the perspective and style of what you've got to say. I'm wondering, why do I not see American divisions appearing in tournament coverage? Also why does it seem the only two resource types chosen are maverick and balanced? Is vanguard not allowed, or is it considered too weak? How about Juggernaut? Looking forward to more tutorials and battle recaps!
Thanks for watching and for the comment Hot Dice Miniatures! 2nd Indianhead is a really good 1v1 US Division, as is TF 45 (converted gunners are a scourge), such that most of the time I think they get banned in League matches. The other American divisions just aren't that good. Too little infantry and Shermans have been nerfed into oblivion in SD2. (Points for realism lol.) As far as incomes go, yes the 1v1 meta is definitely either Maverick or Balanced. Vanguard just doesn't give you enough points in A to make it worth it, when compared to the huge amount of points you get in B with Maverick or in C that you get with Balanced. Juggernaut is a decent counter-pick to a Balanced pick, but really suffers against Maverick, where the income difference is just so huge that usually the Maverick player will win before the match ever hits C Phase. I do think that for newer players, Balanced is probably the easier way to go, just because Maverick requires you to win in the first 25 mins, where Balanced just requires you not to lose in the first 25 mins. Once you up your skill level, you can move to Maverick and dial the aggression up to 11! :)
@@oldpetegaming Thanks for the very informative reply! I came to many of the same conclusions over the last week watching sd2 content and playing some compstomp skirmishes. Perhaps we will see eachother on the ladder some day :)
I'm guilty of this as i suck at micromanagement. I usually just place a few A phase starting units behind my flags in and behind the woods and try to hold off until C with 3 easy diff allies so that i don't have to worry too much about spotting and there's enough cannon fodder helping to hold out and prevent the opponent's AI from advancing until then with the Balanced income setting. Cheesy tactic, i know.. Still i'm looking forward to improve and up the difficulty along with it step by step. Whenever i bring anything like an AT-gun (hidden or not)or a tank they just end up being destroyed by an enemy not yet spotted (or arty)so i was thinking about skipping that step entirely and bring infantry only for early game ambushes and scouting, that seems to work out for me. Planes also get destroyed easily but i can semi-efficiently counter that by Evac-ing them and baiting the opponent's planes into my AA usually hidden behind forests, still enemy AA is a PiTA. Still learning to make good use of snipers early game, the idea is to grind down enemy AA and arty but i'm still using them way too defensively to be of much use as of now. I don't need much of them so i just allocate them to A phase along with a few cannon fodder units, anti-armor specialists and scouts (also trying to position radio units too for late game arty)and put most of my AA at B phase. Even flamers can be somewhat effective when the woods are close enough to the roads, it would be funny if rookie flamethrower units would occasionally burn the forests on themselves but i guess it would create issues with balancing.
