Air Support: very limited: armed Hinds, unarmed Griffons, no dedicated AA ground vehicles. Air operations are no focus of attention.
SBP focusses on vehicle, platoon level, but also allows to control several companies and even complete batallions. You have functional mechanics, mine-sweepers, medics, fuel and ammo transports, FOVs, artillery, mines, obstacles, bridging.
I don't want to show off, but I have written a thorough review of SBP a year ago - those 28 pages should answer all questions you can imagine. Get it at
http://www.tanksim.com/review.htm , look for reviews on the left, find The Beauty and the Beast.
A separate interview with the developer here:
http://www.tanksim.com/topic15_sbp_interview.htm
SB2: you may wait long - their director said not before late 2008, I say (judging by long-year experience with their time tables
) not before 2009. Current SBP is a high-quality product for the professional market, if tanks are your thing, you will not be dissapointed to get SBP PE now. Promised!
There is a sticky on top of the forum list. It's not actual anymore, I will talk to Neal to get it changed (I locked myself out of it - clever
). There is also a screenshot thread with plenty of shots I've taken.