TUTORIAL 3 | Defensive structures - Steel Division 2 tutorial 

A few thoughts on defenses: Trenches Most infantry squads will fit in a 30m long trench. No need to waste your allocation by building 100m+ trenches that will only be occupied by a single squad. This is especially useful when you take into account my next idea. Communication trenches When the Hungarian divisions first became available I tried them out on Orsha north vs 3rd Guards Armoured & kept getting my ass kicked. I was struggling to hold onto my forward defensive positions (ambush point on reverse slopes of the hill with the woods/road running through & several of the wooded positions). The idea came to me to use the shorter trenches mentioned above for the ambush positions and use the freed-up allocation construct several long communication trenches running from the towns out to the wooded positions. This allowed me to funnel infantry reinforcements in to replace my losses without them being exposed to enemy fire in the open. It was very effective & turned a seemingly impossible situation into a winning strategy. Barbed wire Again on Orsha I used barbed wire in conjunction with AT bunkers & other AT guns in defilade position to hit Russian tanks as they were crossing the obstacle. This meant that the enemy could not target my bunkers until they had crossed the wire & when they attempted to cross the wire the bunkers had ample time to take side shots. I also found the enemy often tried to penetrate the wire near to my forward wooded positions, so I was able to take some out with ATR & thrown AT munitions before they even got into the LOS of my guns. I also used barbed wire either side of the road into the right-hand town to create a funnel down which they must travel with ambushing units and AT guns to hit them from either flank if they attempted this move., This wire extended to the wooded positions so the enemy would have to try & cross it one way or the other. The main threat to my units was the long-range direct fire of the enemy tanks. By keeping my units out of sight behind woods or towns & funneling the enemy with barbed wire into killing zones I was able to even the odds. Combining the barrier of woods & wire you can do wonders. Just keep enough close-range infantry in the woods to deal with enemy infantry pushes, with some trenches behind the woods to shelter from artillery fire in. In battles where the enemy is mostly infantry, you are better off putting your trenches in the open where they can engage the enemy infantry at range. If you put your barbed wire at a distance in front of trenches where your squad MGs can hit the enemy but their rifles are out of range that seems optimal (6-700m).

Personally when it comes to defending on Breakthrough I use the 12th Tartalek and I do alot of this. Because it's a predominantly infantry focused Battlegroup that doesnt rely on Heavy armour or armour in general for that matter, sure you get some STUGs but they dont do nearly half as much as your Anti-tank emplacements, Mobile Anti tank guns, MGs, MAA and Artillery. Keeping a strong line whilst also retaining a lot of area denial and suppression to counter shock tactics is super effective and this tutorial highlights that pretty well.

I wished you had also shown some footage of attackers running into these defensive lines. Would be very illustrative for new players.

Thanks for your extremely useful videos, especially for total beginners in this game genre like me...

Looking forward to more tutorial videos, keep em coming. There is so much to cover.

it might sounds stupid but do u know how to fall back effectively ?. When you in artillery fire and enemy are strooming your positon ,falling back either make them dead or surrender

Absolutely beautiful.

That's cool it reminds me of that cool mode from as2 nobody plays Frontline :) Loved that mode

was useful thanks.

I just won my first game because of this tutorial, and it was a total victory, compare this to my previous battles where the enemy army would just smash through my defenses. Hope you make a tutorial on how to assault a heavily defended enemy position.

These battles are a perfect example of how well positioned trenches can hold back an entire army and also simulates how to cover those forward positions - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GWbdcTQnvzg.html - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0HZFgnBbPAc.html

One thing SD2 lacks is mines. Both AT and anti-infantry. It would be nice to see a limited amount of these available in breakthrough defense to block off key areas. There could be some kind of indication of the presence of these mines so that you're not just losing tanks randomly as you advance. I guess barbed wire kind of serves a similar purpose. I'm not sure how they would represent mine clearance or if this would improve the gameplay or make it too defensive but it's certainly a historical reality that has been completely ignored.

Can you put artillery (mortars howitzers etc) in a gun pit?

Basically just use mobile Defense. Acting like a sponge, if getting punched through: you fall back, but you always maintain tension and maintain your body of defense

In 2022 Gun Pits still don't feel like they add much of anything worth taking them over an additional AT Bunker or MG Bunker because all they do is essentially allow you to create a shittier version of one of those preplaced defensive bunkers that costs more points and goes down easier. Gun Pit + AT Gun or MG is literally just a worse version of the bunker versions.. there's no point at all in picking them over cards for more bunkers.

Choke points, and defence in depth and OP position I never played this game but lmao ;)

put barbed wire and trenches onto objectives themselves while heavy mg bunkers and at are behind, say to 1500m. by that you dont have to spend points to man your backline with men but to hold on objectives themselves, if enemy will breaktrough, you can always counter-push so you can man defensive structures again.

This video will definetly help When I get the game! Getting later this month😁

Hello! Excelente tutorial I really need it, how do you move the sight while holding “c”, when i press it, stays static and i cant move it :( i dont know if it have something to do with settings or because i play with the pad of the laptop

Nice! :)

I'd find out the max range of the AT infantry and dig the trenches back just so that they can fire just before the enemy hits the wire.

I wish I could order my Gren to “ambush”, IE let armor get close without being seen then attack. Is that a thing?

Thanks buddy, very interesting and useful tutorial. My brief personal experience of this game in beta was frankly off putting to the point of deletion. Not the look of it, I mean that’s simply stunning. But just The way I wasn’t able to learn basic game elements without being rushed into extinction within minutes of pressing start. To my mind, early game experience and good tutorials are crucial elements if the player is to achieve anything at all. And therefore stay interested. From my experience of war gaming, I find recon and intel gathering makes for good planning and ultimately brings more to he gaming experience, Than simply pick o load of random units based on nothing. Rush forward and occupy areas I think might be important to the opfor. Whilst Knowing only that opfor is probably thinking the same thing. With this in mind, if I don’t mass and rush, I’ll lose out early on and therefore be at an early disadvantage. I’m sure there’s more too it than that, but a high percentage of games I’ve played in previous series, mostly result in this kind of game style. I very much hope that this game matures into something much much more than that. the new army commander looks really very interesting indeed. And appears to be a step in that direction. I’m looking forward to seeing more of that. 🙏

what are the best dlcs on sd2?

The way I remember the attacker gets more in A AND B and the defender gets more only in C ... but I could be wrong. Can someone clarify? Did not play Breakthrough much.

just got the game during the sale and loving it. what did you mean by holding down left c at 4:50 min?

Anyone know when the next beta is?

How do you play breakthrough

The mode dosent show up for me. Where/on what map is it?

Put barbed wire and trenches across the key roads. Oh, ya, game won’t let you.

if only they implement this in regular modes....

Probably won’t work well against the AI