Armored Brigade

[Skybird]

A year ago, somebody pointed my attention towards Armored Brigade, a title under developement with the Betas being free. In the past weeks I have dug it out again and took increasing joy from it. However, their main site and the download section only lists an old Beta, and this since two years.

This is just to tell you that the latest version was released yesterday, and is available not in the download section, but from here:

http://www.armoredbrigade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=116&sid=ef271f73a366a2fe7645af02a9f11edd

Unzip and run the exe, it does not install but directly load the game, you can get a very fast impression on the views and sights that way.

forum overview:
http://www.armoredbrigade.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=2&sid=ef271f73a366a2fe7645af02a9f11edd

Read some comments here:
http://www.armoredbrigade.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=58&sid=ef271f73a366a2fe7645af02a9f11edd

screenshots (old Beta) here:
http://www.armoredbrigade.com/screenshots.html


I have this one under very tight observation now. The potential is immense and already visible.

And again: so far it is FREE...!

[Oberon]

Excellant, I was mulling over this the other day whilst skimming the forums, and the recent update on top of the era, has sealed the deal.
A quick first blast shows a lot of depth in here, the graphics are nice too, not flash but to the point and they get the information across, no 3D majiggery here, which is nice as it conveys information easier from the top down perspective.
It's also nice for the unit sprites to be replaced by the NATO ID icons when you zoom right out.
Also nice to be able to have a landscape generator, you tell it what you want and it'll set it up, like I said, I haven't had the chance to have a major play of it yet, so this is just first impressions.
Naturally, I got my arse handed to me by the AI, a couple of Hinds showed up and I forgot to pack my Stingers :damn: They chewed through my Bradleys like an Alsatian puppy through a sofa.
Once I sit down and play this properly, I can foresee this keeping me occupied for some time.

Thanks for the heads up Sky. :up:

[Skybird]

I've done nothing - thanks goes to Crenius who have posted first about the title in the tanksim forum, one year ago or so. Else we probably would not know about it.

[Castout]

Appreciate it very much for letting us know. Be trying it out :)

Edit: WOW it looks pretty much done to me. It's great! Thanks!

I just want to add that if the devs made this into a cellphone game or an iphone game they would probably make big bucks! I for one would love to have this game available to me anytime when I'm traveling. Imagine playing this on the bus on long trip or in long distance train or in long flight plane. Just a thought.

[Castout]

After playing it several times I'm really enjoying this game. :up:

And in the last battle I decided to go for almost exclusively all tanks for a defense mission with dug in position.
I know the army I chose to go to battle with is probably not realistic but had a huge success with the all tanks force.
The single tank loss was from an infantry AT attack in the woods, the other platoon members returned the favor of course.
One Leo2A4 was heavily damaged while another took light damage. Another M48A2 was also heavily damaged.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/roh_kudus/ArmoredBrigade.jpg

A slice of the map showing enemy devastation
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/roh_kudus/Armoredbrigade2.jpg

Hero of the day the Leopard2A4(in the picture) and M48A2
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/roh_kudus/AB3.jpg

Enemy devastation, tanks burning(sorry my AV was scanning and it got in the way
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v319/roh_kudus/AB4.jpg

[Skybird]

AB reminds me of SBP's map view, without the explicit cockpit tank simulation part. the tanking part SBP does better, the map view part AB does better, visually.

If you like this kind of strategy play, try Conquest of the Aegean. Icons always represent whole units, but the statistics part is many times more complex, and the unit management is much more detailed. The movement is not square but vector-controlled (no "fields"), and the AI is mean and evil. Gameplay is from map view only. The successor title Battle from the Bulge is being released soon.

AB in hex-field design is Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank, available for free. Sticky with links in the tanksim forum.

[Castout]

Thanks SkyBird I'll check them out. I've stopped playing SBPro since somehow I was getting quite poor performance no matter what my PC configuration was :hmmm:

[Castout]

AB in hex-field design is Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank, available for free. Sticky with links in the tanksim forum.

Steel panther is quite amazing too though more gamey than Armored Brigade due to turn and hex based gameplay I can't help but be mesmerized by the sheer numbers of countries and unique military units available even the super modern or brand new units such as the Korean K2 or the Russian Black Eagle :yeah:.



After tweaking some in game option values and setting to disable desktop composition I can run Steel Panther flawlessly on Vista despite the many complaints running Steel Panther on Vista on their forum.