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.
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.
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.
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?
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!
@@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!
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
@@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?
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
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
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
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
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
“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?
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
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
Can I suggest you make tutorials on: 1 - "Stop enemy breakthroughts and planning counterattacks" and 2 - "Urban Combat"?
Two excellent suggestions let me look into those
@@atkpwrgaming I would still love this! You and Vulcan have made this game much easier for me over the years
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.
Yeah, it’s very easy to just keep throwing troops into a meat grinder of your own creation thinking it’s the only spot to fight
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!
Great point! I talk about this in my division strength and weakness tutorial, but probably should have at least mentioned that here
@@atkpwrgaming I actually think adding this detail would be too overwhelming for players. It's a good idea, but maybe not for such a basic video.
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.
very true! great tip!
new to SD2. all of your how to vids have super helped. Im wrecking Hard AI but too scared to play against players that are not my friends ;P
I really like that you teach tutorials about the idea and thinking behind the action and plans, can't wait for more content about this. Keep it up :]
Thanks a bunch! I’m glad they help!
Your tutorials help improve my gameplay significantly and make the game more competitive and fun, thanks to you ;]
Excelent tutorial as usual! Very helpful!
Thank you!
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.
Thanks a bunch! It is definitely one of the most challenging parts of the game!
Great video! I will be checking out some more as I try to improve my strats.
Thank you for watching!
Very informative video! Learning lots from your series. Many thanks, sir! :)
Thank you for watching, glad to hear it helps!
This has helped my game so much, subscribed!
Super glad to hear it!
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.
With the AI it’s hard to predict. It kinda just does whatever it wants, it often will not even focus specifically on a flag
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?
Funny that you mention that I have it down on my list!
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!
Great vid
Thanks for watching!
"I'm just going to defend" - france, 1940
Yeah sometimes it does turn out that way haha
Excellent points well articulated, are you working in education ?
I do! I am a orchestra/choir teacher by day, hence all the singing haha
@@atkpwrgaming I knew it.
@@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!
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
@@atkpwrgaming I see, thank you for the advice sir.
Hey great video, is there a game or a mod that has a full campaign where you can decide where to attack and manage your troops that you can recommend?
Well the single player army campaigns in this game are exactly that basically
@@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?
@@cobra-johnson1841 I’m a bit confused sorry haha the game already has a single player campaign as you described called army general
@@atkpwrgaming Oh yes i know i meant if we could decide in the whole map (europe) where and when to attack.
Great video! would you recomend this game to someone who are pretty new to this genre?
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
@@atkpwrgaming Thanks, What version is worth to buy? only the base game with some dlcs? which dlcs is worth?
@@fr0sty0ffensive check out my DLCs to buy video for what you get in DLCs and which are most worth it. I can’t even remember anymore ahha
@@atkpwrgaming hahaha okey i will check it out! thanks again.😄
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
@@atkpwrgaming hope one day AI could be improved a lot at RTS games, it is hard for players to control every units
Is it unwise to strive to cut supply routes to the map? Even though that most(if not all the maps ) lack flags that far in to enemy territory
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
its me or is hard to get 1 vs 1 mp games? I don't like 10 vs 10 or even 2 vs 2 games became in the end, the entire game revolves on your lines
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
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
What Div u play this move?
5th Cavalry
“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?
Its not that you cant, its just you are usually going to lose long before you ever get to the 20 arty piece part
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.
@@portman8909 to each their own. I like the scale
at 12:52 I would argue and say YOU DO HAVE TO DEFEND sides with no flags, OR you will get flanked in multiplayer games
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
Tnx for teaching them the correct way to lose to superior strategies 😂
Any time! Hahaha
Just use smoke off map -> rush desantnikis in -> Profit. Sorry my 3ya vdv fan boyism has come through again xD
This is not recommended for new players hahaha
Ahhh yea, after 300 hours of playing this, I’m still watching videos of how to get good. plz send help 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hahaha that feeling doesn’t really go away 😜
Panic Division is my plan.
Hahaha that’s always the back up
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
the falling back thing is bs and not what good man hitler or stalin taught me ok
Ill do my best to make you better :)