UNPLEASANT SURPRISE - The Far Escape - Turn 3 - Battle 2 - Graviteam Tactics Mius Front

Welcome to the Far Escape Campaign in Graviteam Tactics Mius front.
September 1941.
The Armies of the Soviet Southwestern front have been encircled near Kiev.
The Cavalry Mechanized Group Belov is sent to attack Romny and open an escape corridor for the encircled forces.
Can the German Units at Romny stop the Soviet onslaught that is heading their way?
Is this the best WW2 Strategy game? GTMF Features and Gameplay:
• Is this THE BEST WW2 S...
Graviteam Tactics Mius Front Playlist:
• Graviteam Tactics Mius...
Link to my on-map Artillery Tutorial:
• How to use On-Map Arti...
Mods used:
Ruki Soundmod
steamcommunity...
Link to the Steam Store Page for Mius Front:
store.steampow...
Link to the Steam Store Page for Tank Warfare Tunisia:
store.steampow...
What the developer has to say about the game:
"Graviteam Tactics: Mius-Front - tactical battalion level combat simulation. It is a sequel to Graviteam Tactics: Operation Star and Achtung Panzer: Kharkov 1943.
Game is comprised of two modes:
Operational - turn-based mode where you can shift and concentrate forces in the chosen directions, resupply and replace units, repair and refuel vehicles.
Tactical - real-time mode where you are conducting fire combat with the enemy, capturing territory, destroying vehicles and the enemy manpower.
Four large-scale operations for the Red Army and Wehrmacht with realistic organizational structure. The campaign features more than 100 detailed vehicles produced in USSR, Germany, US and UK. Over 140 sq. km of realistic landscapes were reconstructed from topographical maps and photo and video materials.
-New enhanced UI: streamlined interface of various panels, radial orders menu and other enhancements.
-Interface appearance and customization: three variants of appearance are included, customizable unit markers (Red Army, Wehrmacht, NATO).
-High replayability and advanced AI, which selects the best strategy based on behavior, not a predetermined script.
-Advanced management of forces in the operational phase: reinforcement strategies and management of reserves.
-Statistics keeping: performance of each unit is recorded (kills, losses, awards, etc.). After each battle, damages and condition of forces and vehicles are shown in the after battle statistics.
-Battlefield simulation: realistic vision devices, smoke screens and flares, creation of trenches, explosion craters. Remnants of previous battles remain on the battlefield until the end of operation.
-Realistic soldier behavior: each soldier has several essential parameters, such as experience level, stamina and morale, which influence their behavior and effectiveness.
-Detailed weapon modeling and realistic ballistics: bullets and projectiles follow ballistic trajectories, taking wind, temperature and other parameters into account.
-Advanced armor penetration: modeling based on ballistic histograms without simplifications of probabilistic methods, generation of secondary fragmentation fields takes into account many parameters, such as the change of the field shape in space, fragments and armor characteristics, armor thickness and damage conditions.
-Complex vehicle damage system: engine, suspension, sights, weapons and targeting mechanisms can be damaged separately, affecting the combat capabilities.
-Destructible environment: almost everything can be blown up and destroyed, from landscape surface and buildings to vehicles and enemy defensive installations.
-Advanced control of the off-map artillery, featuring various fuse settings and shell types.
-Formation and movement modes: lines and columns, movement by road and covertly, infantry following behind tanks, setting a delay, fire sectors, etc.
-Automatic smoke screen laying: units set up smoke screens when enemy is spotted.
-Dynamic change of the time of day, light sources and weather effects, influence the course of battle, visibility and area passability."

[@arkadiy9321]

BTs rampaging through the positions in the tree line is epic! The game never fails to produce exciting content

[@juhopuhakka2351]

You were saving shells at expence of your men! Shells can be replaced, men never!

[@arkadiy9321]

@10:39: cfm stands for "collective farm" (kolkhoz)

[@arkadiy9321]

@22:11: in order for the guns to effectively engage in direct fire, you have to turn off "fire by the commander's designation". The game does not handle this situation gracefully - although the tank is in the direct field of view, the gun still fire on approximate coordinates using exclusively HE (green target lines). Although, for a poor BT, a 105mm HE is more than enough

[@battleshipfreez2344]

@@arkadiy9321 AIFC has a negative influence on direct fire accuracy and effectiveness. However, HE fired somehow helps with ranging if the target is very far off (~1.5km).

[@arkadiy9321]

@@battleshipfreez2344GT's fire correction works in mysterious ways

[@spellcaster39ify]

Fun video as always and full credit for not restarting. By not adding light AT as a support platoon and by not positioning your 88s to take advantage of the distractions to the KVs you ended up taking way more losses than you should have. As a defending commander with that loss ratio you probably would have been court martialled 🤣 It's a very narrow front and you hadn't faced tanks the entire day but you knew you were facing a cavalry regiment plus a tank brigade. Having zero dedicated AT on that flank across all those BGs and having zero mobile reserves (at least 2 x StuG) is suicidal. Ok I'll end my OKW / Panzergruppe role playing. It's great to see you represent the game in its truly challenging form, illustrating the importance of proper Kampfgruppe composition and placement. Looking forward to the next episode. Yours truly, H. Guderian.

[@spellcaster39ify]

Easy for me to Monday morning quarterback your video... In your position I would have immediately placed a smoke screen in front of your "Arrived" units (Zero In + 5 RPG Smoke with a decent spread) and used the Fast Move with Fire At Will OFF to speed up their withdrawal. You continually gave the "Defend here" command to a couple of forward squads, but that also tells the unit to defend itself if it has to, and not prioritize movement. Fast Move / No Formation / FAW OFF is the only way to get that exposed BG behind the ridgeline, and the smoke would have helped them a lot. The L-Shaped defense of the treeline is OK as an overall idea, especially dug in, but it suffers from the reality of not being able to defend against a flanking move while being attacked from both sides, and you have no AT screen at all, just some AT rifles which had poor fields of fire vs the BT tanks. You were relying on your artillery to hit the treeline on your right flank but the gully was (as you said in the beginning) the obvious flanking opportunity for the enemy, which unhinges your L position and allow small arms fire into your 10.5cm gun line, which is always a very bad thing. Furthermore, your MG-34 MMG positions were too far forward and could not utilize their superior range and optics, and you should have had a couple of those protecting the right flank more earnestly, instead of having to employ your 10.5cms in such a short range direct fire role, instead of observed fire on the treeline where they would have shreedded the Soviet infantry. Your MMGs, so far forward, were being deployed in the squad LMG role and were easily defeated even by enemy small arms from the opposite treeline, whereas they should be positioned well to the rear where not even the DP can reach them. As it turned out, they were easy prey for the BTs as well, and by 1941 BTs should only be a minor nuisance unless used en masse at high speed or in overwatch fire support roles out of LOS of your AT. The enemy attacked piecemeal, due to the way the armor was allocated in the BGs. A coordinated attack with the armor advancing as one fist would have been unstoppable. As for the 88s, they are your queens on the chessboard, and it seemed that one of them had LOS to the L-defense area. Both should have been able to cover that axis of advance and mutually support. 88s are no guarantee of anything, and can easily be spotted and neutralized even on the first shot. Often the GTMF battlefields are not big enough for the 88s to play their historical overwatch role, so you have be very careful and creative with how you use them. Overall, I think the battle pretty much played itself due to the BG force composition and the huge disparity in armor vs your very sparse AT, and lack of a light AT screen. If it hadn't been for that final shot of the 88 de-tracking the KV and forcing the other to pull back, and had the KVs spent more time mopping up the treeline, it could have been even worse, as I am sure you know. :) Thanks again for making these and supporting the amazing GTMF!

[@spellcaster39ify]

P.s. Once you had withdrawn your left flank you could have moved much faster to shift a good portion of it to your highly exposed right flank. You had the ridge as cover. One more thing - does the delayed fusing in the off map artillery help vs tanks? I can't imagine how a fuse designed to detonate when below ground would work vs an armor hit. Wouldn't instant fusing work better to use the shock waves for damage? I can't remember seeing an off map shell penetrate, but I have seen blast wave damage to tracks and hatches.

[@arkadiy9321]

@@spellcaster39ify that's a good point. delayed fuse bounces off - i experimented with 203mm concrete-busting shell, and even those won't just penetrate. Instantaneous fuse helps, but it's tough to get a shell to actually hit a single tank, way more than 15-20 shells are needed.

[@arkadiy9321]

@Peppabotthere is likely a bit of exaggeration: they effectively claim to have managed to pull off a precision fire mission from inside a barn, while it’s unlikely they had portable radios in 1941. But yes, a 105 shell hitting in the immediate vicinity is unpleasant even for someone behind armor (we have to keep in mind though - shockwave is a cubic decay function, so an extra few meters make for a ton of difference)

[@idbestshutup4424]

we were ambushed, those weren’t the final positions! 😂

[@jamesfrench7394]

(2/3) TACTICALLY: 1) This is the second time your field guns have been out-of-the-fight, Herr Major. You need to get right down to ground level for line-of-sight, because when dug-in that will be their situation. And they need to SEE. They ARE their own SPOTTERS! Yes they will be shot at, but they are dug-in and will probably fire first, so… 2) Guns are important on the battlefield. 3) You can position your guns for optimal firing and a clear view when dug-in; then in the early stages, before the enemy arrives, roll the guns back so they cannot be seen. When you need them, roll them forward. I would suggest that a close look at the terrain would be of assistance for you in this back-and-forth movement, since backward will put them out of the dug-in position and on higher ground. 3) However, if your dug-in position has any backward area that is still dug-in, you may be able to roll back a meter or two and achieve your goal of having the gun ‘disappear’. You will have to play with this. 4) Against tanks, you want your infantry spread out in small groups. 5) Infantry Anti-tank is marginal. POSITIONAL: In this last battle, you asked us what we would have done. Assuming that all three of your units are companies, thus you have 3 x companies and 6 x platoons, here is my deployment: 1) Platoon from the company on the right is distributed down the drainage ditch, protecting the right flank and the field guns in the rear. If not needed, then it would be a reserve to be moved out and re-deployed later. (continued below)

[@battleshipfreez2344]

1:14:00 The concequence of "take position". Units will find cover randomly, most likely leaving their own trenches. In AT role, 105 howitzer shoule be positioned 300-700m from enemy tanks. And... remeber to turn off AIFC when it's in AT role.

[@ДушманКакдела]

Yes I've brought this to the developers attention countless times, similar to trying to converse with a brickwall.

[@arkadiy9321]

@@ДушманКакделаall things considered, this is not a particularly impactful flaw. If one wants the units to remain in their own trenches, it’s as simple as not clicking “take positions”.

[@ДушманКакдела]

@@arkadiy9321 sorry, that's incorrect. It's incredibly impactful, we're talking about fundamental unit behavior that effects the core simulation. This entire game hinges on its authentic simulation. If an element of the simulation is flawed, it impacts the entire experience of the game. There is a reason why it's almost impossible to achieve historical outcomes, and it's because the individual unit AI and behavior modifiers are inherently flawed Also "take positions" is not a behavior modifier, it is a starting condition. It's different from what we're talking about.

[@arkadiy9321]

@@ДушманКакдела “take position” is in fact one of the two things in the original comment :) But I do agree with the second point though: the game does not handle “fire by external designation” + “visible targets” gracefully.

[@ДушманКакдела]

@arkadiy9321 @arkadiy9321 yes I suppose in the instance of the gun that would be a fault of the take position condition, I should've watched the tagged clip more carefully. However, both seek cover modifier and the take position are faulty, regardless. The 88mm should not spawn outside of its dug trench unless the player designates it to do so, this is clearly a bug. One that I've also brought to the devs attention multiple times. It began happening after the spawn zone update. My real gripe however lies with the infantry AI, which was the motivation for my comment.

[@Edelwolf783]

1. Analysis of the Current Battle: The infantry in the L-shaped defensive line was exposed to the main attack and received no support from the heavy weapons. Neither the howitzers nor the 8.8 cm Flak were able to support the infantry in this line. Consequently, the infantry was almost entirely alone in facing the attacks, except for the support from the artillery spotters. Infantry is the queen of the battlefield. Similar to pawns in chess, they are relatively weak on their own and cannot achieve much. When isolated, they are lost. However, when they appear in a strong defensive line with the support of heavy units, they can be decisive. 2. Identified Problems: The 8.8 cm Flak was mispositioned and could not effectively engage in the battle. When it finally did engage, it was isolated and stood alone against two heavy tanks.The howitzers were dug in but unprotected. An automatic telephone connection between the units was present, allowing the howitzers to be placed in a protected area. The commander, who spotted the targets, could have directed the fire from a key position. Instead, the howitzers were too exposed and could not effectively engage in the main defensive line. And additionally, they had to fight their own battle against the enemy advancing from the south. 3. Improvement Suggestions: A. Optimal Positioning of the 8.8 cm Flak: Position the Flak so that it can cover the main line while being protected by infantry and other units. Ensure that the Flak is not isolated but always supported by other units and can support other units. B: Protection of the Howitzers: Place the howitzers in a protected area, ideally behind a natural obstacle. Use the existing cable communication to ensure that the commander can effectively direct the howitzers from the beginning. C. Stronger Integration of Units: Avoid leaving the infantry isolated in the defensive line. Ensure they are always covered by heavy weapons and support units. Build a defensive line where the units mutually compensate for their weaknesses and appear strong together. D. Strategic Placement: Anticipate the enemy's attack and position your units for optimal protection and effectiveness. Particularly, avoid exposed positions when it is clear from which direction the enemy is attacking.

[@MEYanZav]

How would you anticipate the enemy's attack location? I would've expected the tanks to attack through the field on the left rather than the treelines.

[@Tonci87]

Good points, I didn‘t pay enough attention to the gentle slope of the hill, leaving the infantry with too little support. I think I did a better job in EP6

[@tippedduke]

This episode had high drama. That 88 vs KV duel was outstanding!

[@jameslanz2117]

I mean every single video you do is an excellent opportunity for a tutorial.

[@jamesfrench7394]

(1/3) I have played RTS games where experienced units had 2-3 times the combat effectiveness of ordinary units. I can see now that it is not just the troops, but the command as well! I really like this for the realism, and grittiness it brings. Makes it more real than most. Adds insight as to what it was really like on the battlefield in 1941! NOW, you said you wanted comments, so here goes (there will be some 20/20 hindsight): STRATEGICALLY: 1) I believe these German units are closing the pincers on the biggest encirclement of all time. This means that the Russians HAVE to attack. Also, I believe your victory conditions are about conserving your troops. Conclusion is obvious. 2) From studying WWII, it is clear that Russian Army overstates its units' strength. If you look at Stalingrad, for example, you have Sixth Army German Corps facing a slew of Russian Armies. Essentially, you can look at whatever Russia calls a unit, and mark it down to the next lower. So a Russian Division = Brigade, Russian Brigade = Regiment. Russian Regiment = Battalion. Russian Battalion = Reinforced Company. Company = Platoon. OPERATIONALLY: 1) The attacking 'Arrows' are clearly not definitive. It gives general 'direction', that is all. Fog of war, and limited intel, etc. 2) This means that setting up a balanced defensive 'box' is important. You can move units not engaged later. In this case, your left flank was secure, you needed to handle the front and the entire right flank.

[@NeoIvan17]

Thank you for this series and I look forward to the next episode. It's reignited my desire to play this game and learn its mechanics.

[@biohita]

That BT driver played Carmaggedon.

[@jeetjewatspannend]

quite a battle! amazing presentation on your part. Always happy when graviteam pops up :)

[@blackedelweiss601]

"I did not expect tanks from here" "I did not expect artillery here" "That's a bunch of Russians" many such cases on the ost front lol

[@Tonci87]

Lol yeah, I think those words were quite common on the front

[@spiraling69]

Wow, that was awesome! As far as I can remember, this is the 1st time to see you take a walloping! I'm thinking it would have been better to have kept the bulk of your infantry further back along with any anti-tank assets you have. You couldn't support your men up front. This game is unforgiving if you don't have your own tanks to fight enemy tanks. You almost have to hide away until your own tank and other anti-armor units show up. That was exciting though. Things are getting really heated up!

[@fulgrimventris8506]

Graviteam is the perfect game for your style of presentation, I think

[@spiraling69]

I agree! So happy to see him back at it. It was quite some time since his last Graviteam series. I feel he should always have a series playing along with the other games.

[@lastcartridge]

That rampaging tank felt very first-world-war-y

[@marcusaureliusantoninusaug2161]

I was thinking 'drone attack' all the time when that KV-1 just sat there in the open. Wrong time line though :) German AT capabilities were very limited and poor at this stage of the war. Not even your own tanks (early Pz. III's and IV's) would have helped too much against those KV-1s.

[@AdmiralPrestonJColeTheGigaChad]

Never heard of this game before.Looks really cool and has similar vibes to "World in Conflict"....another classic yet underrated RTS game.

[@Tonci87]

WiC was an amazing game. A shame they never made a sequel….

[@AdmiralPrestonJColeTheGigaChad]

@@Tonci87 A shame indeed.

[@joekrebs964]

Great show, thanks!!!!👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@tioopuh]

Can you please make an updated tutorial

[@Tonci87]

About what?

[@cobrageneral556]

28:37 this moment should have been on preview.

[@thisherehandleIdospout]

55:08 Everyone needs telephone and cable, sir 😐

[@jamesfrench7394]

(3/3) Positional (continued): 2) Second platoon from the company on the right stays in the same treeline, moves to the right. 3) Platoon from the company ‘up’ the tree line moves down to cover the empty trenches in the lower treeline which were vacated by the platoon moving to its right. 4) Second platoon drops down and covers the lower section of the vertical treeline trenches. 5) SS company out in the open: One platoon sprints for the tree line, and takes up the upper half of the trenches. 6) The Second SS platoon drops back in front of the 8.8 cm guns (which are further forward), and spreads out in small groups. This allows them to engage infantry at a distance and protect the 8.8cm guns, while the First SS platoon will be able to take any infantry in enfilade from the upper part of the vertical treeline as they approach. FINAL POINT: Good News! If I understood the last page of your battlefield “Report”, it said: Vehicles Destroyed (Captured). Well, you had NO vehicles at the start of the battle. However, the Report said for the Germans: 6(5). If I read this correctly, then you destroyed one tank/armored car, and captured 5!!! As you noted when you cursor-ed over them, they will be repaired in ‘X’ hours. And since you, the Germans, held onto the ‘field’ after the battle, then YOU, the German, should have these tanks in your inventory the next time you take to the field in this part of the battlefield, I’m guessing! (At least we will get to see what it means!) I hope this does NOT mean that your depleted infantry companies from the first battle occupying the town are now prisoners! ON to VICTORY!!!

[@arkadiy9321]

Captured tanks can only be used if one has tank units of their own, and those units have lost their organic tanks. So no beutepanzers for Tonci :)

[@Tonci87]

Thank you for the interesting insights. You are right that I need to position my guns better, screened by infantry in front. I‘ll have to pay more attention to that in the future. I think I have done a better job during the next fight in the south (EP6)

[@sqike001ton]

didnt the KV1 have open vision slots so a rifleman could in theroy get a supper lucky crew kill

[@jameslanz2117]

Why wouldn't you show us the footage of you giving the pre battle orders? That is the part that would help the new players the most! If some people don't want to see it they can fast forward. Please!

[@Tonci87]

Because the process of making plans for so many units and setting them up in the correct positions, checking sightings, etc. Takes a really really long time. I‘ll do it when I fight a battle with fewer forces

[@herrhav0k]

@@Tonci87We’re all strategy nerds and amateur tacticians here, Tonci! A series where you show everything, positioning, planning, messing with the companies on the main map screen, etc would be cool to see. Though I assume it would also be exhausting for you to produce.