Eugen Systems: Airforces, AP, and Artillery

Eugen Systems:

Eugen Systems: Comparing Steel Division '44 and Wargame: Red Dragon

Eugen Systems: Zones of Control and Weapon Ranges

Eugen Systems: Airforces, AP, and Artillery

I suppose at last it's time to talk a bit about battles. Both Wargame: Red Dragon and Steel Division: Normandy '44 use fog of war, allowing the player only to see units within the optics of their units. Both games use ground and air forces, though Red Dragon also has helicopters (and naval units), which function more like flying ground units. The player places initial units depending on the battle, and tries to control strategic areas. Each level in Steel Division has a different objective, while Red Dragon always requires the player to exhaust the enemy's forces. Players deploy units with the points that filter in, outmaneuver the enemy, and secure victory. Steel Division focuses on moving around groups of different types of infantry, supported by tanks, artillery, anti-tanks, scouts, and planes. Red Dragon has infantry, but the variety of vehicles, helicopters, and planes can be daunting. Infantry less integral, more a piece of the puzzle, than the majority of the battle. Infantry's many weaknesses render it a defensive unit for holding buildings or heavily forested areas.

These differences cause Normandy to feature close, tense battles as units scrap over a few forests. Red Dragon offers open, long range battles where units are destroyed in seconds. The difference in the air force highlights a divide between these two games. The planes of World War II are important to a successful campaign, but they won't win a campaign. The combined arms strategy synergies into an overwhelming force in Red Dragon. Achieving air superiority, with a fighter plane, and then deploying a bomber plane to eliminate ground troops, is a certain method for achieving victory after victory. In both games the air force is an off-map asset. Once purchased, airplanes remain off the battlefield. The player deploys them by selecting them in a menu, and clicking on the map where to go. They only remain on the map for a limited time before retreating for supplies. Airplanes rearm, refuel, and redeploy. While planes can circle on map for a minute or two, I found it best to quickly secure an objective, and then order them to retreat. Hovering planes are likely to wander into enemy AA or encounter enemy fighters. In Red Dragon enemy fighters can appear out of nowhere, shoot down planes, and retreat in seconds. The player doesn't have enough time to react to the swift assault. A plane which finds itself accidentally over anti-aircraft has only seconds to save itself. Use planes for shock and awe, launching them all to fight off the enemy planes or launch a deadly bombing run.

The player will never deploy such devastating air power in Steel Division. Artillery provides fire support from a safe distance. It pins down masses of infantry units, but has limited effectiveness against tanks. Artillery can be ordered to fire on a particular unit, or at a location. Some artillery use an off-map asset. For example, the Ford GPA OP is an artillery observer. Instead of attacking itself, it calls down a bombardment from off-screen elements (naval). This type of unit only has three shots. While artillery is strong, it needs a button to allow it to auto-fire. In Steel Division infantry, tanks, and every other type of unit fires whenever it sees an enemy, but artillery does not. Red Dragon has a more serious problem. If a unit is told to move, it won't stop to shoot an enemy if it sees one, it will just keep moving. If ordered to attack a unit, it will move towards it. If the enemy unit disappears, the unit stops moving immediately. Steel Division has better fire and move orders, though there are flaws too.

Both games use a morale system. Units under heavy fire are pinned down. If it suffers too badly, it breaks. The player can order a pinned unit to fall back. If an enemy unit touches a pinned unit the pinned unit surrenders. A unit that is surrounded (the front line has passed it by and it is trapped in a bubble) with no access to supply, and no leader, will surrender. Airborne units are an exception. They will not surrender if they are cut off from the main army. These morale rules are mostly for Steel Division. Red Dragon's rules are simpler.

If a battle feels too fast, both games allow the player to change the speed. Steel Division has five speeds and an option to pause. Red Dragon doesn't have the pause, but bullet time is so slow, it might as well be. But, if I pause and save a game of Steel Division, why does it load unpaused?

Red Dragon is an older game so it is bound to look inferior. The campaign cinematic looks fantastic with live footage mixed with ingame images. Its battlefields look modern, lifeless, dead, clinical, and sparse, yet also clear and functional. Its weapon information screen (which is the second most important screen after the battlefield itself), has too many numbers, and the colors, though informative, look ugly. Steel Division's battlefield is lively, colorful, varied, but also confusing. Little clumps of different colors may be important terrain features, or just texture. It's impossible to tell until you're trying to maneuver around them, shoot through them, or take cover in them. The extra button to view ranges is better than anything in Red Dragon, the weapon information is simpler, and still easy to understand in plain black.

The dialogue of the units in both are boring, but in different ways. Units in Red Dragon reply simply to orders in neutral tones with a hint of static. Sometimes they say nothing. Steel Division's writers composed some strange replies, like “This machine kills fascists,” or “Let's liberate some ladies.” They combine a creative idea with an element of cringe that increases with the hundredth iteration.

In battle the skills needed for victory are similar across both games, but with variations of a theme. With large battlefields (and the battles in Normandy are larger and the terrain is more complicated), coordination is key. The player needs units to make multiple simultaneous attacks, or to attack in one location, allowing a retreat in another. They need to pay attention to many minute details all at once. Are my artillery firing? Where did the enemy attack? I need to inch forward four infantry groups one at a time, while ensuring the enemy counter attack on the other side of the map is rebuffed. Steel Division is partly a memory game. The player needs to remember where the enemy units have retreated out of vision.

The maps of Red Dragon are smaller, with units funneled into narrow battle. There are fewer objectives and less avenues of approach. Armies both run at each other along roads and erupt in massive but quick fire fights. Reinforcing units in Steel Division requires careful thought as to where they will move onto the board. In Red Dragon reinforcements arrive in the same location, because it doesn't matter as much, because they will go directly to the single point of conflict.

The air combat of Red Dragon is seven times swifter than Steel Division. There is no skill more important than identifying an incoming bomber run, and a twitchy trigger finger to counter attack with your own fighter planes. And then another twitch to deploy additional fighter planes to counterattack the enemy fighter planes.

Red Dragon relies more on match-ups than Steel Division. The player needs to review the units in the deployment options. Victory in Steel Division requires a well rounded army, but it's possible to win in Red Dragon with an unbalanced army as long as it takes advantage of the opponent's weaknesses. It can be difficult to identify opponent units in Red Dragon because of poor visuals. Even identifying your own isn't easy. Steel Division makes it easy to know the key details about any enemy unit. All the player needs to know with vehicles is their armor and AP attacks. The only information the player needs regarding infantry is their primary weapon. These details are readily available with a quick glance. In Red Dragon the player needs to remember the range of their units. In Steel Division the player only needs to click a button to see the range and the vision of any unit.

The battles in Steel Division are created so the player fights almost by feel, aided by quickly accessible information. It's easy to execute because most units only do one thing well. Battle is conducted along an extended line, with complicated terrain. Skirmishes are drawn out, because most units don't die instantly. These factors make the battle complex and enjoyable.

Red Dragon requires the player to constantly refer to the numbers, but it doesn't offer these as readily as Steel Division. The player needs the information because most units do one thing well, a second thing with proficiency, and third with inferiority. The visuals deny the player information they need to conduct battles efficiently. Battles are mostly fought at a narrow point, with units destroyed instantly. It requires a quicker reaction time, but the lack of detail on the map means they are more straightforward.

In conclusion, each game serves different players. While I prefer Steel Division, I appreciate the nuances of Red Dragon. They are both complex, detailed, and tactical in their own way, but the implementation and the mechanics of Steel Division offer the player a more diverse and enjoyable experience. The campaigns of Red Dragon (of which I tried two), offer variety because the player makes their own choices, with battles connected from to the next, but each battle, especially when they occur again and again on the same map with similar units and outcomes become a repetitive bore.

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