"The Intention for this Mod was to make it become the best Mix of Realism / Balance that is possible, its hard for newcommers to get an overview about the new Stuff, but once you get an Idea of the Full Capabilities of the Mod you will be suprised how much Fun it can provide"

by Blub0r2k, GSM Lead Designer


Basically what you get with the German Soldiers Mod is a more realism kind of gameplay, a gameplay that compared to the unmodded game is more hardcore and punitive but once you mastered it you get lot of satisfaction.

Key points of GSM are:

• New factions (Italy,Hungary,Romania,Poland,France)
  
  
• New Vehicles&Weapons
  
  
• New Type of ammunitions
  
  
• Longer ranges
  
  
• Bigger maps
  
  
• Weapons are more deadly
  
  
• Realistic weapon datas
  
  
• New sandbag system
  
  
• Selectable year of battle with rosters based on what was available in that year (1939-45)
  
  
• ...and many more

The mod is in continue evolution so you have to "adapt to win", there will be no fixed Farmland 3vs3 USSR vs Germany here nor perfect balanced factions nor payback or low lethality of weapons helping you...

Get out of your Farmland Comfort Zone and become a GSM player !
you would develop a more dynamic way of thinking and playstyle for sure

- new Nations : France , Romania , Italy, Poland and Hungary
- Yearsettings (39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 39-45) with different options to disable certain groups of Vehicles
- heavy Guns/Howitzers are towed from the point of purchase
- 50m-80m Ingame Range for Sub-Machine Guns & Assault Guns (depending on Caliber & Muzzlespeed)
- 100m Ingame Range for all Rifles & MGs
- 110-120m Ingame Range for all heavy Machine-Guns
- 120m Ingame Range for all Sniper-Rifles
- 150m Ingame Range for all automatic Guns until 40mm
- 200m Ingame Range for all Guns that are not automatic
- 250m Ingame Range for Artillery with Ranges below 9Km
- 270m Ingame Range for Artillery with Ranges between 11 to 15Km
- 300m Ingame Range for Artillery with Ranges above 18Km
- 180-220M Ingame Range for Rocket Artillery depending on the real Range
- fixed Firerates and burstammounts for all avaiable Infantry Weapons to realistic Values
- Increased Artillery & Rocket Artillery spread
- changed all Gun Penetration Data for the most used Projectile in every Yearstage
(f.e: 2pdr. has different Penetration Values from 40-41 to 42-43)
- changed avaiability of Vehicles / infantry Weapons for every Yearsetting
- changed Avaiability of specialized Ammunition for every Yearstage (APCR/APDS/HEAT)
- new Weapon sounds
- added new Voices for Infantry
- new Accuracy-System for Infantry Weapons depending on Stance and Weaponknowlege
- Rare Vehicles are restricted in Amount
- new Vision Management (elite Troops can look farer)
- HeroTree removed (most Hero units are normal units now)
- removed any Restriction in Buymenu for the Testmode
- added Smoke Dischargers for some Tanks that have them on the ingame model
- a few more dead Entities will be shown on the map to make it more realistic
- Dead Tanks have more realistic endurance of Smoking
- Penetration Power Diplay Field can be turned off if the host wants that (default is off)
- added several new Units
- reworked damage System for Damages on all amored vehicles

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Timesetting overview :

1939 : Germany, Russia, Poland
1940 : Germany, United Kingdom, Italy, Japan, France
1941 : Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, Romania, Hungary
1942 : Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, Romania, USA, Hungary
1943 : Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Italy, Japan, Romania, USA, Hungary
1944 : Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Romania, USA, Hungary
1945 : Germany, United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, Romania, USA
1939-45 : all Nations
light vehicles : all Nations
medium vehicles : all Nations
testmode : all Nations
infantry only : all Nations

current version is GERMAN SOLDIERS MOD X


{LINK REMOVED}Mediafire

DepositFiles[dfiles.eu]

Moddb


--------------------------------------------------------------------

Changelog for the X version :

- fixed overhauled nation : italy
- fixed t29 front turret amor
- fixed ammo bug on "Stuka zu Fuß"
- fixed texture bug on Zis5 Fuel Truck
- fixed minor coop bugs
- fixed Voroshilets icon
- fixed spawn problem on 6x6 ukraine
- fixed minor bugs with textures
- fixed 20mm lathi was undestrucable
- fixed riflegrenade weapons
- fixed r35 damage status icon
- fixed romanian panhard turning abilities
- fixed destroyability of the 37mm FLak36 & 52k
- fixed camera settings on several maps
- fixed Grayhound turret Amor
- fixed ammo settings when attacking without direct control
- fixed su152 hitboxes
- fixed handgrande damage bug
- fixed 20mm HE/FG Damage Bug
- fixed MachineGun Animation Bug on several US Tanks
- reworked weapon reload times and firerates
- reworked italian infantry portraits & icons
- reworked light amored vehicle pricings
- reworked mechanized infantry pricing
- reworked rocket artillery spreading and arc of fire
- reworked rocket artillery damage
- reworked supply truck pricings and limits
- reworked artillery reload times, and pauses between barrage shots
- reworked artillery spreading and damage radius
- reworked rocket artillery reload timesdepending on damage per barrage and count of projectiles per barrage
- reworked tnt damage
- reworked infantry CP Settings
- reworked vehicle / artillery CP Settings
- reworked sandbag building time (infatry) from 15s to 30s
- reworked rpg weapon and mgun spreading
- reworked vehicle pricings slightly
- reworked frontline units and gamemode
- reworked durability of at guns
- reworked HE / FG Damage Scale and Damage radius.
- reworked income system (income flows now for 38min instead of 33min , after that there is refund on for longer lasting matches)
- reworked radio operator power
- reworked HE/FG Ammount on AT Guns / Tank hunters
- replaced lots of infantry weapon sounds
- replaced churchill mk.vii cs with churchill mk.v cs (replaced model, too)
- replaced several existing models with newer ones
- replaced sandbag for infantry with newer one (curved)
- removed singleplayer expansion due several issues.
- added several new 3x3, 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6 maps
- added new ambient sounds (firefights in the background)
- added T26E4, t48 , sdkfz 251/17, morris cs9 , sig33b, stug3e and more
- added recoilless rile men for usa in 1944/1945 setting
- optimized game settings for less crashes
- new Lobby structure (f.e.: testmode for chooseable for every single yearsetting)
- optimalization for the gameplay (not explained in detail)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

though the mod does not provide any support for Singleplayermissions anymore (due various reasons)
you should use the missions made by SirHinkel, DjSatane or Interpulse. They all made an awesome job with new missions.

SirHinkels Skirmish Missions

DjSatanes Skirmish Missions

Interpulse Skirmish Missions

Installation for full versions

Unload all older versions and then delete them, afterwards just run the installer the instructions for install.


Installation for patches versions

just copy the Files from the Archive into your Mod Folder, start the Game unload the mod, restart your game and load the Mod again.



Installation Troubles ?

Question: My game wont start, i got an error after Installing the mod.

Answer: seems like you havent installed the mod correctly , sometimes it happens that the Installer takes the path of the last Installation of GSM (f.e: GSM Burning Steel) and shows up the Burning Steel 3 Installation path to install a newer Version into that, but that ain't work, you have to adjust the correct path before installing then, just read the Installation notes (they show up when you execute the installer) carefully, then it should run ok. The mod name is always the same as the Folder name for the mod, otherwise it won't work properly.

Being a niche mod of an already niche game we all know finding people using your same MP mod can be difficult true ?.... well NO... this is not the case of the German Soldiers Mod ! :)

We created an huge Group on steam for all those players that play the MOW series modded.
In our Group we regularly host GSM games since GSM release on the original Men Of War.
In our Community you can find the best Modders and Players of the MOW universe.

We make multiple Mod events every day plus announcements to inform you about the last MOW mod news.

What are you waiting for ?

Join our group now to partecipate in our events and find other GSM players! all Welcome

-->CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR COMMUNITY<--

you may one day become an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ moderator of this awesome community

I personally made a youtube channel specialized in showing GSM matches.
In my videos I add notes and tips to help people in improving their skills and I try to explain what we do to achieve a victory.
In fact this guide is a complementary project which combined with my Youtube Channel try to complete the sharing of knowledge and help I offer to other GSM players.
I want them to improve their skills and to reach the same satisfaction I'am personally having in this fantastic WWII RTS.
I really want to see the level of GSM players to rise and take part of massive challenging battles.

This Guide is about the theory while my Youtube channel is Theory applied to real matches played on high level.





-->Hazzard's Youtube Channel<--




PS: if you are a youtuber specialized in GSM matches let me know it with a comment and I'll add your channel link to this page

When playing the German Soldiers Mod you must keep in mind that this mod push this engine to the limit.

For several reasons this mod is a lot more heavier compared to the unmodded game so you are kindly invited to:

! LOWER YOUR VIDEOSETTINGS TO AVOID CRASHES !


Below an example of my settings having an intel 2500k OC to 4.5Ghz and a Nvidia 670 4GB Vram

Antialiasing > 2x
Texture detail > Medium
Shadows > Medium
Texture filtering > Anisotropic 8x
Model quality > High
Effects quality > Medium
Water shader > Normal

The admins of our community Host most of the GSM matches you can find in Lobby so you usually don't have to learn how to host a good game and what are the best settings.

For the times you will need to host your own game, here some suggestions about best Host Settings we found in our community after several battles with the GSM X.
You can of course play with your own custom settings but then you may face unpleasant side effects like fighting frontal on tiny maps or face spam etc.


Example of good host settings:
.


- in Faction selection you can chose the factions that will fight each other, remember to check what years are available for each faction, in this case for USSR and Germany all years are available from 1939 to 1945.
For Poland for example only the year 1939 would be available and selecting 1940 there will be no way to play because you can buy no units in that year as Poland

-Game mode: here for regular matches you usually chose all units, in this GSM version all weapons are balanced so no need to fight without arty or other settings if not in particular occasions for testing purpose.
Very usefull is for example hosting an infantry only to improving infantry skills or test mode to test each vehicle or weapons in duels one vs one with a friend.

-Yearsettings: we suggest to choose a year and not to leave this 39-45 because the GSM mod is made for fight per year, otherwise you may face side effects and you would not benefit of one of the most unique features of this mod.

-Number Of Troops: this put a limit on the quantity of units you can field on the battlefield. We play with 200 because in our opinion this mod give its best when played on big maps and on big maps you of course you need more units. We also saw that lower values of the number of troops may penalize the infantry usage, not enough inf for the quantity of vehicles fielded.
Other negative aspects of low number of troops are that the game become more static because you often don't have enough inf to defend and attack at the same time so you tend to risk less and it's harder to make combined attack of inf+vehicles.

-Resource Income: these are the moneys you are going to receive during the whole match. We put 6000 as best compromise to being able to afford the expense of making combined attacks of inf+vehicles and at the same time avoid too much spam.

-Game Duration: we usually put 30 min, max 40 min. This because we think is better to do more matches and be sure to end them. 40 min or more is a risky setting because there are higher probability to end a match with some players less in your team due to crashes and quits or even the host crashing not finishing the game at all.

-Score to win: score which once reached give a team the victory. The more flags you hold the faster yuo get points. Between 100 and 150 it's ok, however the most important thing is the game duration you see above.

-Fog Of War: this simulate the view of the soldiers on the battlefield. Playing without Fog Of War turn the game in a total arcade, cutting out a big strategic component of the game so Fog Of War must be put on realistic.
You may turn the fog of war off just when testing vehicles in test mode with friends.

-Show armour penetration: this show on your cursor,when in direct control, a value that is how much mm of armour your gun is able to penetrate at that distance. We usually keep this option unchecked because it make the gameplay more hardcore. It's usefull to check this option when testing armours in testmode.

-Bandwidth: Bandwidth on Minimum help players with high ping in playing on a fair level against lower ping ones. Being our community international we prefer to keep this on Minimum or Optimal to help those players living far from the host.

Last but not least, with the above settings it's strongly recommended to start a game with 2 or 4 empty slots. Starting a match on bigger maps help in balancing "minor" factions, weakens the tanks domination and offer to you more tactical possibilities like flanking.

There are 3 kinds of new Ammo included in this mod called APCR , APDS and HEAT .

APCR (Armor Piercing Composit Rigid) consists of a small sub-caliber projectile (its diameter is smaller than the barrell diameter its been shot from) made of an hard material like tungsten or very hard Steel. this shot is filled in a Pakage of very light Material and has no explosive Filler like many normal AP or APCBC Rounds.Cause this Composit Shot is very light it weight it has a higher Speed when leaving the barrel compared to other Ammunition Types. If the Ammunition hits the Target, the light mantlet Material will be barked of the hard core and only the core will provide Penetration to the Target.The High Speed gives APCR a better Penetration Power on smaller Ranges but it looses its Power very quick so its not very handy when fighting on longer Ranges cause its maybe even worse than normal Rounds and its less accurate than normal AP Rounds due its lighter weight.Its even not that good in killing a Tank finally cause it lacks of an explosive Filler. The Tank breaks down relative good but its mostly not wrecked after a hit.APCR was used by nearly all Warnations (even the British used small Stocks of APCR). the Germans had Problems after 1943 cause they were cut off the Supplys with Tungsten which was also need for production Tools.

APDS (Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot) is sub-caliber Projectile (its diameter is smaller than the barrell diameter its been shot from) which has no fixed mantlet be embedded it like APCR Shots. it has Mantlet consisting of 2 Part that only help to fix the Shell in the Barrel and fills the Space around the Shell.Theese 2 Parts are discarded in flight after firing when leaving the Barrel , leaving the small Subcaliber Shot flying alone to the Target and do the Penetration Job.That give the Projectile a very good Speed and good Balistic Behavior and very good Penetration Values, even over great Distances. Its Negative Spread over Distance and its low destroying capabilities are byproduct of the small size of the Shot. only British troops used this Type of Shell , the Germans had some expiriments to the end of the War but no Results in greater Ammounts to be delivered to the Troops. British APDS Rounds had the Problem of scattering on the Target when hitting in low impact Angles, sometimes even on less than 1000m where they expirienced better Penetration behavior with the normal APCBC or APC Rounds.APDS Rounds where delivered from 1944 on in greater Numbers to the British Troops, they where used in the 6 and 17pdr. Guns mostly.


HEAT (High Explosive Anti Tank) Sometimes called a hollow charge projectile. The explosive is shaped as an inverted cone with the base of the cone at the front of the projectile. At detonation the shape focuses the explosive creating a narrow, high speed jet of plasma which penetrates the armour. The penetration capability of a HEAT projectile is the same regardless of range.HEAT Projectiles where used by nearly all Nations trough the War, Germany was forced to used them on the Eastern Front excessivly cause it was the best Ammunition for the Short Barrelled Pz IV Variants to fight against the Russian KV and T34 Variants.HEAT has the Great Disadvantage that is shape is very bulky and it has a very bad aerodynamic shape so it has a great Spread even on smaller Ranges than normal AP Ammuntion , cause it never looses its Penetration Capability over the Range its good for Killing Tanks on longer Ranges, even when you have to shoot several Rounds on the Target. The Penetration Power of an HEAT Shell is not determined by its Speed , the most important Part is the Diameter of the Rounds, the bigger the better. Most 75mm HEAT Shells have ~70mm Penetration Power, 88-105mm Shells have ~90-130mm and 122mm Shells have arounds 150mm. Heat has the Big Advantage that it brings much heat into the Hull where the Shell hits which causes fire or leads to the explosion of the Ammunition.

Don't let the controls take over you, Take full control of the game!

I know lot of players that start with MOW, they take a superficial look at the controls page and then they skip it forever.
Same with the UI, they look at the UI one time in a superficial way without ever thinking at what tools and aids the UI can offer to them.

Spending time reading and trying the controls with no real combat action can be boring but don't be lazy or you will pay this laziness with several defeats and frustration.

You actually should spend quite some time with both UI and controls before even thinking to join a Multiplayer Game.
Then after several Multiplayer games you should go back again and exercise with those controls that you failed to master during a match.

My guide is specialized in the German Soldiers Mod so I'am not going to full cover the very basics of this game because other players already made guides on it and the basic controls of GSM are in common with the ones of the unmodded vanilla game.




Below some guides I suggest you to see where you can find usefull basic tips.
From these guides read just the part about controls and micro, skip Tactics and Strategies because in GSM most of them differ and I'am personally going to cover them.

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=119384684

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=172750384


So what you Must do if you are new or even an average player of this game is familiarize with ALL the options available.

You can host your own game in LAN or in MP with password and there you try every action you see under Options ---> Controls.

You should simulate the various battlefield situations,Try to direct control units, to throw grenades to move your inf with rapid clicks, to resupply ammo, fuel etc etc.

Just like the video below show you, play around and test all controls available and those you find in the basic guides (which are more than what you can see under the in game options)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvV1iNM1x_E


Once you learned all controls you can think to bind the most important ones on different keys of your keyboard or on your mouse.
I personally left all controls as by default on keyboard but I binded some of them on my mouse.

Below you can see my mouse and the actions I binded on it, those are also the actions that I think need a more rapid micro.
Keep in mind that a mouse with extra keys is absolutely not needed and those are the actions I personally think are most important in micro but this can change from player to player.
If you don't own a mouse with extra keys just be sure that those actions you think are important are easy and quick accessible on your keyboard or on whatever you have.




Stand / Prone : order the selected soldiers to stand up or enter a prone position

Fire Mode : Toggle between "Hold fire , "Return Fire", and "Fire at will" modes.

Throw Frag grenade : Order the selected squad or unit to throw a fragmentation grenade. (Only active if frag grenades are available.)

Throw Frag grenade + Direct Control ON/OFF : this is a macro I made, when I click this key I basically have my soldier in Direct Control ON with a Frag Grenade ready in his hand. With coltrols as default the macro is made with F1 + E.

Throw Anti Tank grenade : Order the selected squad or unit to throw an AT grenade. (Only active if AT grenades are available.)

Smoke Grenade : Order selected squad or soldier to throw a smoke grenade (Only available if they are carrying smoke grenades. )

Heal : Use medical kits to patch wounds




All we said for the Controls applies to the UI, check every single option and tool the UI offers to you, click and read EVERYTHING you find on your screen.
Keep in mind that the UI icons change from time to time according to the selected unit so from unit to unit keep an eye on the UI and see what change and what those new icons are for.

You can drag(right click) the most important icons from the right box to the main bar just in front of you so that you can reach them in a more rapid way.
click on the pic below to see my UI and what Icons I keep on the main bar.



Very important is what you see in the yellow square indicated by a yellow arrow, that option must always be kept activated because it highlights poorly visible enemy units in red and friendly in blue.
Specially if there is lot of vegetation and you have that option unchecked then is really hard to see enemy units or even friendly ones.




All this playing around with units, using the Inventory, Direct-Control etc is called micro.

The basic micro is fundamental to play this game, then there are some micro things that are just details that can make the difference just on matches played on high levels.

What's important to understand is that being good in micro alone don't make you win games and wasting too much time in microing in fact make you lose because when you micro you enter in a "tunnel vision" (narrow or restricted vision limited to seeing only what is in front) which is one of the thing that make people lose games.
The problem is that when you focus in microing a certain thing then you temporarily lose control over the whole tactical situation.
So Mastering the micro means knowing all possible actions available in this game, making good use of them and being able to micro in a blink of and eye without losing too much time in it.


Good luck with the training on Micro and Basics of this game : )

The normal role of a tank is shock action. They can destroy the enemy who hold ground, but the infantry need to actually physically seize and hold the ground. A tank can't "hold" ground. They support each other, in the sense that tanks can advance under fire, infantry cannot (without massive losses). And the Inf can then be fighting force that fills and holds the void that the tank creates. A tank can't hold ground the same way Inf can.


A lot of on how the tank was used depended on just what attack was going in. If it was a rapid advance over open ground then the tanks raced on ahead followed by motorised infantry. If it was work in a built up area then they would be together supporting one another. If was a fixed defence then often the infantry and sappers would go in and clear the minefields for the tanks to break through the lines. A lot always depend on just what you expect to happen every little Battle is different in it's own way.



the picture above was taken during the battle of Kursk, Operation Citadel, The Greatest Tank Battle of All Time

INTRODUCTION

Infantry are inseparable from tanks, both in the assault and in an integrated anti-tank defence.
An effective Anti-Tank defence have to be a combined arms effort.

"Tanks unaccompanied by infantry cannot achieve decisive success; they must be supported by infantry, who alone can clear and hold ground gained...if [enemy] tanks succeed in penetrating the line, the [friendly] infantry must hold out and concentrate all their efforts on stopping the advance of the enemy's infantry, while the hostile tanks are dealt with by our AT-guns/artyllery. The defeat of the enemy's infantry must therefore be the first consideration in all plans for anti-tank defence"

US Army's instructions for Anti-Tank Defence


PROTECTION & VULNERABILITIES

The armour on a tank was not consistently thick; typically, the thickest was found on the gun mantlet (the shield protecting the opening where the gun emerges from the turret) and other frontal parts of the turret, and on the front of the hull.This too varied: the upper glacis - the down sloping portion of the hull front - was thicker than the lower glacis on the bottom of the nose. Next in Thickness were the turret sides, folowed by the forward and central portions of the hull sides, specially above the tracks, the lower hull "inside" or "behind" the tracks was thinner: being lower, it was difficult to hit, and was also protected to some extent by the tracks, road wheels and return rollers.The rear portions of the hull sides, the back of the hull, and the top surfaces of both hull and turret were relatively thin; so was the turret rear; though this was thicker than much of the hull side armour. The belly, except for the most forward portion, was realtively thin. Heavy armoured gratings protected the top of the engine compartment, but were vulnerable to demolition charges, AT-grenades and incendiaries.
The construction of a tank's armour was also a factor.The use of sloped armour increased during the war in order to deflect the strikes of AT projectiles; this greatly increased amour effectiveness, allowing thinnerarmour and thus reducing weight.

The greates tactical weakness of a tank is the crew's very limited field of vision.

Field artillery and mortars are often said to be ineffective against armour. While its true that long range indirect fire had little effect on tanks (a direct hit being rare) , it did have the bennefit of separating the infantry from tanks and forcing the unit to deploy into disperesed formations early in an action.

to be continued... on my next guide for GSM on AS2, see you there guys ; )

in the picture above: 5 B.A.R. Team ; 4 Smoke&AP grenades ; 6 Rifleman for rear security ; 7 Squad Leader ; 1 Bazooka ; 2/3 Grenadier with rifle propelled grenades (HEAT&Smoke)

With Gamespy shut down end also the support for GSM on AS1.

You can still use this guide for training yourself for GSM on AS2 as the mod will remain the same.

Thank you all, this have been a fantastic season with you guys, hope to see you all on the GSM for AS2 battlefields and to see many more new players too

My guide will continue on AS2, see you there

Cheers


HaZZarD