Steel Panthers Appreciation Thread

McPlusle · Feb 10, 2019

I just discovered this trilogy of turn-based strategy games and started playing it in DOSBox only to figure out that it has since branched off in several strange directions. It's kinda fascinating. I'm still figuring out how to play these games and I completely blow ass at them at the moment but they are painstakingly detailed and a lot of fun to play. Let me try to run it down from a complete newbie's perspective:

Steel Panthers I & II (1995/96)

The first game in set in World War II and the second picks up from 1946-1999. They're roughly the same game, with a big focus on detailed turn-based armored combat. It's on a small "tactical" scale, with individual units representing single vehicles and small infantry squads.

Steel Panthers III: Brigade Command 1939-1999 (1997)

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It looks very similar but the scale is expanded. The sq. meter scale of each hex is increased, and units are increased in size from infantry squads single vehicles to 30-50 man platoons and 4-8 vehicle formations taking up single hexes. Because of this, the combat "feels" more abstract but not to an absurd extent in my opinion. This is allegedly the black sheep of the series but I think it's fun so far. Maybe once I really work out all the mechanics and nuances I'll be able to decide which one is the best.

Since the release of these three, the IP rights seem to have split in multiple directions with Matrix Games having their own Steel Panthers and another studio having the WinSP series. I haven't played these yet but I have them downloaded. There is also allegedly a spiritual successor called Steel Tigers in the works, but it has been in development so long I worry it may be in dev-hell, even with Matrix putting out a testing call last fall.

Have you played these games? Thoughts? Opinions? Favorite games/scenarios/etc?

Nutria · Feb 11, 2019

I used to like these but I haven't played in years. When you're looking for scenarios I would suggest avoiding any with a lot of infantry. Those can be really tedious.

Commissar Draco · Feb 11, 2019

Small scenarios (company sized) and those with lot of armor and in desert/flat terrain are fun those with lot infantry in rough terrain are not so. Bought both games from Matrix they're fun but hard to make work without glitches under Windows past the XP but they are dozens of users made campaigns and scores of scenarios including only once instance where you can fight against ITZrael leading Egyptian Spearhead in Ramadan War... You can even win this campaign despite how shity Arab armies are when it comes to comand and control and training and that ITZraeli tanks have superior fire control using a lot of ATGMs and SAMs.

Nutria · Feb 11, 2019

The one Ramadan War scenario I remember trying, I had to quit before the first turn ended just because that massive artillery and rocket barrage took so long to get through. The #1 weakness of Steel Panthers as I remember it is that it can just take forever to get through a turn because of watching each artillery shell land, each machine gun fire that probably doesn't hit anyone, each infantry squad fire and probably not anyone, etc.

And btw I don't buy that Israelis were better than Arabs in combat in 1973. They might have been better at repairing their tanks and technical stuff like that, but when it came to actual fighting, the Israelis were mostly just relying on their interior lines. They could quickly shift their army between Egypt and Syria so they had superior numbers in the important battles.