Video Game / Total Tank Simulator

Total Tank Simulator is a strategy game for the PC by Noobz From Poland. While following in the same vein as Totally Accurate Battle Simulator, TTS favors a less wacky, more "actual strategy" approach. The player builds an army of units based off of tanks and other military hardware from World War II, choosing between various forces. As usual for this style of game, the player then lets the AI control them as they do battle with the enemy, though the player additionally has the option of controlling a single unit whenever they wish (added in the fourth demo). Each available faction has their own campaign, and (as is standard) the sandbox mode allows the player to go nuts.

Notable about the game is its attention to detail, despite the colorful models (that still resemble what they represent). Tanks can be immobilized by hard hits (both being tracked and possibly losing turret rotation) and have to repair themselves, shots can deflect off armor and impact other units, units have different types of armor with different weaknesses, and each unit that's actually named after a real-world tank or other machine is modeled after it in terms of stats. Terrain can be bombed out into a cratered hellscape (and as of Demo 4, the player can dig in or build embankments while controlling a unit), buildings and trees can be driven through through, airfields can be captured, etc.

The game was originally only obtained during its pre-alpha phase by signing up for their newsletter. The full game was released in May 2020, with an Italy DLC being released in September of the same year.

Total Tank Simulator provides examples of:

• Ace Custom: Officers can be given unique models of tanks, including the E-100, T-34/85, and even the Sherman Easy-8.
• Action Bomb: Goliath robot mines, which are blisteringly fast and come in infinite waves until their control center is destroyed.
  • On the same note, the Soviets have AT dogs (Aka dogs with anti-tank bombs strapped to them), which can be deployed ad infinum from the Soviet T-42.
• Arbitrary Weapon Range: Artillery can fire on units if they get too close, but their accuracy goes down the drain.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Airplanes need to return to an airfield for fuel and ammo, otherwise they'll simply glide around and fall out of the sky. Mobile artillery must be refilled at a base or via a recovery tractor, while stationary artillery will self-destruct upon running out of ammunition and their operator will take to the field as an SMG unit.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Fighters and light tanks can capture enemy airfields, which can even lead to factions fielding a nuclear bomber that normally wouldn't.
• Alternate History: Ho boy, is there ever.
  • The Soviet, American and British campaigns all end with Operation Unthinkable, most likely to ensure each campaign faces both factions instead of only one enemy. In contrast, the Polish and French campaigns only face the Germans.
  • The Polish and French campaigns have the German invasion stall out, leading to a counterattack in both campaigns' Act II.
  • The Polish campaign doesn't include the Soviet invasion of East Poland.
  • The British and German campaigns include Operation Sea Lion, a German invasion of Great Britain. Though it only takes England before being pushed back by a British counterattack from Scotland.
  • Act IV of the German campaign involves reaching Moscow before winter 1941, which the player can successfully pull off where the real German Army failed and had to spend the next 3 years stuck in a quagmire. Winning the German campaign will in fact see WW2 ending in 1942.
• Anti-Air: All factions have both stationary and mobile anti-air weapons, complete with different approaches to rate of fire, damage, etc.
• Artificial Brilliance: Units are fairly good at avoiding steep drops, getting stuck, etc. Aircraft also tend to be fairly good at targeting enemy airfields and artillery first. However...
• Artificial Stupidity: Units can still sometimes waste time charging up a steep hill (or off a cliff) if it seems like the best route to reach the enemy, they still get stuck on some maps with lots of cliffs and chokepoints, they'll happily fire into a crowded melee, and artillery tends to focus on the closest targets if not given orders on where to attack by the player.
• Artistic License – History:
  • Germany can gain access to a lot of mid-to-late-war tanks, like Panther and Tiger 1, all the way back in 1940.
  • Erwin Rommel is depicted as the man in charge of Operation Barbarossa (and is even credited as the guy who refuses to hand out winter gears to soldiers). In reality, Rommel had little to do with it (and even competed with the guys in charge of Barbarossa for reinforcements) as he was busy leading the Deutsches Afrika Korps in North Africa.
• Awesome, but Impractical:
  • Large amounts of heavy tanks are extremely hard to kill with a comparable mixed set of tanks, but their cost means you'll likely be overwhelmed if you try. In addition they're still vulnerable to rockets, bombs, and artillery.
  • Die Glocke will knock planes out of the sky and kill an effectively infinite amount of light tanks, but enough heavy units will swamp them. One on one a T-42 will easily trash a Glocke, though the situation reverses if you pit multiple of each against each other.
  • Die Ratte does indeed earn its designation of Landkreuzer, complete with a naval artillery as its main weapon, capable of trashing most targets with a near miss. However, like all heavy-hitting units it's slow to move and reload, while still being highly vulnerable to bombs and heavy artillery.
  • The B-29 nuclear bomber. Getting it to drop is effectively an "I win" button, and the plane itself is impressively tough. But the bomber has to take a massive amount of time to arm the weapon, and enough anti-air can take it down. More importantly, by the time it's armed the battle might well be over, one way or another.
  • Project Pegasus: It costs a lot to deploy, has no way of defending itself, and takes up a massive amount of space. But the fact that it spawns Abrams, F-16s, and LA Vs absolutely makes up for this, so long as you can keep enemies away from it.
• Border Patrol: Added along with the ability to control units in demo 4, trying to exit the map will provoke a "Get back or die" warning, followed shortly by a countdown. Planes don't seem to be affected (so they can maneuver unimpeded), even able to land out of bounds if they run out of fuel. Though this does sometimes result in the game thinking a depleted aircraft is still active, which may result in the game being soft-locked and forcing the player to eat a defeat.
• Boring, but Practical: A good combined-arms strategy using artillery, some anti-air and/or fighters (in moderation) as needed, and enough of a balanced tank group isn't the most flashy way to win, but if planned out properly it will carry the day most of the time.
• Bullet Time: As expected, and added rather early in the demo series. With Demo 4 allowing individual units to be controlled, this can be practical if used properly.
• Cannon Fodder: Light tanks are pretty much expected to attack in droves and die horribly, barring their careful use to get in and take out artillery, or capture airfields.
  • On the same note, infantry tend to be relatively easy to kill, though they make up for this with being the cheapest units in the game. That's not to say they're useless though.
• Color-Coded Armies: Red for Soviets, Blue for Germans, Green for Americans, Tan for British, Orange for Polish, and Blueish-green for French. The Italians come in yellow.
• Death of a Thousand Cuts: It may take a while, but enough light tanks and infantry can whittle down much heavier units. Expect to take absurd losses without exploiting unit control.
• Easy Logistics: Fuel is only a concern for aircraft, while ammo likewise only affects aircraft and two out of three rocket units.
• Friendly Fireproof: As usual, not even remotely. Artillery are the worst offenders as they'll fire into a crowded battle without a care in the world, but tanks can and will accidentally shoot each other in the back despite waiting for a clear shot when possible.
• Glass Cannon: Artillery, anti-tank guns, rocket units are all rather light on armor but able to put the hurt on heavy tanks. Bombers likewise are incredibly powerful but (with the exception of the B-29) very frail. Finally, the flame tank can inflict massive damage but has rather light armor. Failing to eliminate artillery and heavier units in a timely manner may also result in static defenses (yes, even pillboxes and bunkers) falling into this trope.
  • Infantry are extremely squishy and will struggle against a tank, but Anti-tank and assault troops tend to fare a little better with the use of anti-tank rifles, AT grenades, and the occasional Molotov cocktail or rocket launcher.
• Hit-and-Run Tactics: With demo 4 adding the ability to control an individual unit, the player can use this to take on massive amounts of enemies with a single unit, if they can play keep-away well enough and their targets aren't faster. Taking out enemy artillery and aircraft first remains a good idea.
• "Instant Death" Radius: Most classes of tank have different effective ranges, and bigger guns tend have longer ranges. Just getting close enough to fire on something big, like the Ratte, can be a death sentence, especially for foot soldiers.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Most units are actually fairly good shots, but the artillery, especially light artillery, tends to wobble about drunkenly while aiming. Rockets aren't much better, but make up for it with just how many shots they can put down range.
• Mook Maker: The Goliath unit doesn't merely control Goliath tracked mines, it produces a steady stream of them.
  • Die Ratte produces Goliath mines. The T-42 produces AT dogs. Project Pegasus produces modern-day American tanks, fighters and armored cars!
  • Bases also qualify, as they can crank out an endless supply of units while also resupplying old ones until you destroy them.
• Nintendo Hard: The campaigns tend to be extremely difficult without a good grasp on how best to use each unit, along with how to set up an effective army and give them a useful strategy.
• No Campaign for the Wicked: Averted. Every faction that shows up currently has their own campaign. Notably, the German campaign was the first added.
• No Swastikas: The German flag in the campaign menu, and character art of commanders, makes use of the iron cross in place of swastikas.
• Selective Historical Armoury: There are several hiccups in units throughout the tech tree.
  • Many factions use the same anti-air guns, namely the British, Polish, Americans and French.
  • American riflemen use the M1 Carbine instead of the M1 Garand, with the latter not appearing at all. At the same time, their anti-tank infantry uses anti-tank rifles, and shotguns are nowhere to be seen.
  • The default riflemen of the other factions use semi-auto rifles instead of bolt-actions, meaning German infantry can face Polish infantry using Gewehr 43 rifles in 1939. The only aversion to this is the British with the Lee-Enfield.
  • The French ARL-44 is noticeably absent from their tech tree.
  • The British Submachine gunner uses the Sten SMG, even in pre-1942 missions instead of the Thompson or Lancaster submachine guns. Their tech tree also lacks the Centurion tank.
• Stupid Jetpack Hitler: The game's most notable break from realism is one of the available German special units, Die Glocke. In-game it's essentially a UFO with an area-of-effect energy pulse, it's virtually worthless against heavy armor but can flatten scores of lighter units. In real life it was complete fiction. The Germans can also field the P. 1000 Ratte, which was a real design but never yielded any prototypes, and the E-100, which only got a single chassis prototype.
  • On the other sides, the Soviets have the T-42 tank (never made it to the prototype stage), while the Americans have the T-28 tank destroyers (2 prototypes) and the B-29 bomber (produced). The French have the Char 2C (A World War I design that only had 10 units produced), the British have the Tortoise (only 6 prototypes), and the Polish have the 9 and 10TP (Both only had a few prototypes before the fall of Poland).
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: Every unit is useful for some role on the battlefield. Heavier units tend to be vulnerable to rockets, bombs, and artillery. Lighter units are best used for overrunning airfields and artillery, while aircraft have to deal with enemy fighters and anti-air, etc. Artillery can strike from far away, but are extremely vulnerable if caught up close, and will automatically self-destruct once out of ammunition.
• Tanks, but No Tanks: Aside from the artillery, bunkers, and aircraft rather obviously not being tanks, there are quite a few tank destroyers to go around. A few of the American ones even have a turret (albeit open-topped), as their namesakes did.
• Tank Goodness
• The Points Mean Nothing: In demo 4 you gain Experience Points for hitting the enemy while controlling a unit, and lose them for friendly fire. This has no effect except as an indicator of how well you're controlling your units, and how much damage you're doling out.
  • The final game's experience system levels you depending on how many missions you completed, taking you from a Lieutenant (or the equivalent of one in other armies) all the way up to a high-ranking General! That is, if you're willing to give up the bonuses for finishing an act quickly when you're on the offense.
• Video Game Flame Throwers Suck: The flame tank does indeed have a decent listed range, but in-game this range is dangerously close for a fairly light unit.
  • Infantry flamethrowers by contrast can be a complete terror given they can deal damage over time, which can be stacked even faster if they get close enough to release a steady stream into your face.
• Zerg Rush: It's quite possible to spam light or medium tanks, even on harder difficulties. In older demos this was surprisingly effective, but now it's a good way to throw away over a hundred units if the enemy force is well put-together.
  • The Soviets rely entirely on this to win, fielding weaker albeit cheaper units.
  • Poland focuses mainly on superior infantry capable of holding their own better than other countries.

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