Gunner, HEAT, PC: a simulation game about modern mounted combat, with special attention to authenticity and fun

Well, you know, the world is full of compromises. Is it better to not be able to see in the dark?

The BMP guide is very interesting reading, and I imagine the others are as well (I read the M1 one, which makes that tank seem quite easy to use by comparison, like a video game).

Play the Steam demo as much as you can during June, because the devs said it will be disabled after Steam’s Next Fest ends.

The “Development Team” simply doesn’t have the resources to maintain another public demo/WIP slice. The team is one full-time guy and one part-time guy. Some stuff like art/textures are contracted out, and there are even a few volunteers for small specific things like recording the crew dialog with proper accents (not yet implemented for the Warsaw Pact side, and IIRC they’re redoing the NATO forces as well, especially because the long-term plan is to add West German vehicles).

The limited demo will still be available through their website, and the Patreon supporters will still get roughly monthly updates. But the Steam demo will be gone after Next Fest.

The problem with the old USSR infrared searchlights was the limited view and range. 400m is basically a “Shoot Here” beacon for the very good passive infrared systems used by NATO.

The game doesn’t have the late-80s M1A1 model upgraded with the Rheinmetall 120mm/L44 smoothbore gun, but even the M1IP (and M60A3) in the game with the old L7 105mm rifled gun could easily kill Soviet tanks at 2km once the M833 APFSDS ammo became available. So the infrared searchlights on older Soviet vehicles probably hurt more than they helped, since even the best of them only reached 800-1000m. I think the game does a good job of showing how much it would have sucked to be in a mid-80s Warsaw Pact tank or APC during a night attack by NATO.

To give you an idea of the increasing lethality & vastly greater quality of western tank guns & fire-control systems, the record for a tank-on-tank kill is held by a British Challenger 1, with a confirmed kill of an Iraqi T-72 (a downgraded export version like the East German ones in the game) at 4100m during Desert Storm. The Brits use their own 120mm rifled gun. They also invented the Chobham armor used in the M1 (and pretty much every other NATO tank), and the L7 105mm gun used on the M1IP & M60A3, so they have a pretty good track record for tank & component design. Not surprising a Challenger got a kill at that range.

Rheinmetall recently unveiled a 130mm smoothbore, since tank armor is getting better and France & Germany are trying to co-design a next-generation tank. I can’t imagine how hard that thing will hit. 130mm is slightly larger than a 5" naval gun!

Just grabbed the Patreon build of this, and tooled around in it for a few minutes. The sim definitely has a long way to go to match what we could do in the venerable M1TP2, but the core guts of a good tank sim are certainly there. Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses, and whether or not the creator can walk the accessibility vs. “realism” tightrope between Steel Beasts and WoT.

As a blatant cheerleader and Patreon supporter, I’m glad to see that today they stopped just hinting and released a very broad outline for what will be added prior to the 1.0 release. They have a ton of work to do, but if it all comes together I think we will finally have the spiritual successor to M1TP2:

I got the demo, and while I’m loving it I’m really really bad at driving and fighting and overall situational awareness all at the same time.

i did just read the guide and learned some new tricks.

Don’t feel bad, I’ve been playing it over a year & often still get lost or can’t find my objective until the enemy parks an ATGM or tank round in my turret.

The platoon AI is still a work in progress, so sometimes it works great & you get these awesome battles with 15+ tanks slugging it out. Other times my platoon sits there and lets me be a one-man army, surges forward into obvious doom, or immediately takes off to launch an ambush and they’re scanning for more targets among the burning enemy hulks by the time I catch up.

The big map in the Patreon demo “slice” has been a big improvement & help to my play style. The scenarios have objectives marked & often an order to take them. I like taking my platoon around hills & tree lines where the enemy cannot make visual contact. Then when I hear the shooting start, hit from the flank and have a different line of fire from the main friendly AI force.

I’ve been really surprised how the M2 Bradley is an awesome or frightening fighting machine, depending which side you’re on. The 25mm really tears up APCs and even older tanks from the sides or rear, and having a fast platform with eight TOW missiles zip over to a flank can be complete hell on Warsaw Pact armor attacks.

I had one time where the platoon AI worked perfectly. I was in a M1 and had a 2nd M1 as a wingman. He stayed right with me, fighting by my side until he died.

In another time all the AI ran off and left me. I finally followed the sound of battle and found all the wrecks. Then encountered the remaining 3 OPFOR. Frankly I was more lucky than good in defeating them.

The map in demo is ok. I understand its not supposed to be dynamic, but it really should have more information on your starting position, your line of advance (or retreat), and suspected OPFOR avenues of approach.

Something like what a platoon commander might hastily sketch out on a map, like this

or

Maps like that would be nice, and the target audience for the game would likely grok them. Step 8 of their roadmap, the “Expanded Campaign” sounds like it may have higher-level command structure, but I don’t know. I’d like better control over the supporting units (like "Hold this ridgeline until you take 50% casualties or come under artillery fire, then fall back to here), but I’m not sure how far they are going with that.

They announced in the Developer Stream last week that the game will go into Early Access release on Steam the afternoon of September 6. Price will be $30, with a 10% discount if you buy in the first week ($3, wow, thanks). Patreon supporters who have given a lifetime total of $25 or more will get it for free.

Since it is Early Access, they pointed out that the game is not complete & has flaws, they know that. The Steam version will have all vehicles unlocked and all stable features. They are at least a year from the 1.0 release.

The monthly “Patreon slice” version will change to releases of less stable builds & new features, on a new Patreon tier, price to be announced. They also said the Steam version will get more expensive when as it nears completion & 1.0 release, but not how much more, if this would be in steps, or the amount of the final release price. Being a huge tank sim nerd, I’ve already thrown in enough Patreon money to get the free copy, but if you are not a huge tank sim nerd then I’d say apply your usual Early Release rule (mine is: I’ll let other people be the beta testers & wait for the retail release while I play complete games instead).

nice, thanks! I’ll probably get in on that.

Finally in early access on Steam…

If it’s to the latest Patreon demo lots of good stuff in there now to iterate from.

Game is slowly becoming a game. I just given it another go and with the xbox controller, it’s eminently playable. Fun! Blasting fools and watching those famous T-72 cookoff turret launches is awesome. Game is hard though. No crutches in spotting or map views or anything.

Will this end up being M1TP3? I hope so. It does have the makings of it.

Here’s a long ass interview with the devs on the game design philosophies:

Watched that yesterday. Excited to hear they want to work on multi-crew co-op.

Fantastic!

April Fool’s update is live, and they added in a warsaw pact “april fools” mission series where your goal is to destroy NATO’s party. It is built to show of the new warsaw pact IFV as well as CAS.

NATO uses both F4 Phantoms to melt your tanks, but also A1-HZ vipers to attack you. Super satisfying to pepper a NATO chopper with the 7.62 and watch it make a crater in the ground.

It also welcomes the extremely capable bradley-equivalent BMP2 for the warsaw pact side, as well as german voice-over for the warsaw pact forces, as well as an improved map/waypoint system.

Holy shit, the warsaw pact side campaigns won’t be a complete shitshow with the BMP-2 on your side, stabilized gun? Auto-cannon? Anti-tank missiles? Leaps and bounds more useful than the BMP-1

It is a HUGE update to the game, and worth checking out if you haven’t played in a while.

Welp, probably time for me to hop on.

Any word of this game will be coming to consoles eventually? I tried the demo a while back on PC and I think it would work well with a controller.

Well I learned something new. I had no idea what a A1-HZ viper was, so looked it up. The Viper is the last of the lines of the Bell Cobras. I thought the Cobras ended once the Apache’s reached service, but apparently no Bell created this super-duper Cobra and sold a few to the Marines and a few other countries while US Army and most other countries went with the Apache.

That said, while possible to take down an attach helo with 7.62, the helo should be engaging from way outside of 7.62 range. So I bet is very satisfying, but maybe the AI is a bit overzealous with the helos?

Also what are Phantoms doing chasing tanks. Doesn’t seem their forte as they are too fast to target acquire IFV well (unless its to bomb the neighborhood with HE or cluster). Where are the A-10s?

The game is set in 1985, and is only using vehicles/arms from that time period.

As for the helicopters and other CAS, this is the first time they have been in the game, and it was for an april fool’s mission. The april fool’s mission is very tongue and cheek and “call of duty” like where waves of enemies throw themselves at you, so I am sure the tactics are not realistic for that mission.

The helicopters are probably just regular AH-1 helos, as the AH1-Z seems to be way newer, I just googled something after I finished the missions to look up the AH-1, and the AH1-Z was the first page to come up.

The A4 phantoms are being used, because the dev does not have A-10’s in the game yet. Those are on the roadmap. They wanted something to show off the possibility of CAS. They drop cluster bombs, and absolutely wreck you in that mission. I think they are meant to feel unbeatable.

I mean, your T-72’s end up wasting ammo firing APFSDS rounds at the helicopters in the mission, it is all just for fun, I don’t think they spent any time tuning the AI for the april fools update.

But it is exciting, because the game is supposed to have both CAS (that you can order) as well as helicopters and other non-tank vehicles and this is the first time they have ever been in the game. The other thing it has introduced is the ability for tanks to be placed in defensive sand-bag bunkers, making them much harder to hit.

As for a console port, they said it isn’t impossible, but not currently on the roadmap, as they are focusing development solely on content right now.