General Steel Panthers Stuff

Steel Panthers LBM Editing Tips (20 April 2014)

Experience Levels in Steel Panthers and simulating Low Intensity Conflicts (25 April 2016)

The SSI Years

SSI’s Steel Panthers (1995)

The original game that started it all.

Despite severe engine limitations (only 48 units + 1 HQ unit per side) that made scenario designers (and players) go for armor-heavy slugfests, it was pretty fun and was like having a 1/300 miniature wargame on your computer without having to unpack all the miniatures each time you wanted to play. Two campaign disks were sold, adding in total six new campaigns and 75 new scenarios to the game.

(1997 Interview at Gamasutra with Gary Grigsby on SP)

Stock Campaigns
Poland 1939 (6th Panzer Division)
France 1940 (2nd Panzer Division)
Normandy 1944 (US 1st Infantry Division)
Operation Market-Garden 1944 (UK Irish Brigade)
Warsaw 1944 (5th Guards Tank Army)
Battle of the Bulge 1944 (1st SS Panzer Division)
World War III (US vs Soviet Union 1945)
Philippines 1941 (Japanese 48th Infantry Division)
Battle for North Africa (German Afrika Corps vs British 8th Army) (Campaign Disk #1)
Operation Barbarossa (Germany's invasion of Russia) (Campaign Disk #1)
Patton's 3rd Army (Patton battling through France into Germany with possible Berlin Scenario) (Campaign Disk #1)
Panzer Command 1935-1945 (Hans von Luck's Career in 20 linked scenarios) (Campaign Disk #2)
Red Guards (1st Guards from Kursk to Berlin in 17 linked scenarios) (Campaign Disk #2)
Bushido Warriors (Japanese in Asia in the early war years) (Campaign Disk #2)

Steel Panthers I Beta (7/18/95) (15.1 MB ZIP)

This was found thanks to MrFlibble's hard work over at the Beta Archives Forums (LINK).

“It appears that SSI were sending out pre-release versions of some of their games to magazines for preview, and several have ended up on magazine cover disks, mistaken for legitimate demo versions of the respective games. This false impression was probably reinforced by the fact that the betas came with the same type of installer as the regular SSI demo versions.

Steel Panthers Beta

The beta is dated 18 July 1995, the installer files 8 August 1995. The catalogue records four cover-disks with this version: SCORE No. 25 (January 1996), PC Power (March 1996), PC Games (March 1996) and PC Action (March 1996). The main installer file (DATA.A00) is 15 561 910 bytes.

This version appears to be not limited in any way, it contains a large number of scenarios, the campaign mode and mission builder, and several saved games, apparently intended to show gameplay to reviewers. The installer help file contains text in French which suggests that perhaps the beta was originally leaked by a French magazine, but this is not certain.”

Analysis: The installer is titled “Installer for STEEL PANTHERS BETA 7/18/95”.

It installs to the C:\PANTH directory and includes:

AAPLAY.EXE – Autodesk Animator Public Domain Player v1.0 from 1989.

EDITPZ.EXE – Apparently the original SSI editor for SP, used by the dev team.

PZ.EXE – Main program.

To get the demo to run, you have to select NO SOUND.

What's in the Demo:

Four Saves:
US vs Soviet (5/1945)
Jap vs US (12/1941)
Brit vs Ger (9/1944)
Jap v US (12/1941)

(SP 1 Beta Installer Menu Screenshot)
(SP 1 Beta Intro Screen)
(SP 1 Beta Main Menu)
(SP 1 Beta Campaign Screen)
(SP 1 Beta Battle Generator)

Also in the PANTH directory are several LBM files which when viewed reveal “prehistory” about Steel Panthers:

AME.LBM
BRI.LBM
FRE.LBM
GER.LBM
BUT.LBM
RUS.LBM

Hapshott’s Steel Panthers I Scenario Collection (47.3 MB ZIP)

This is an extremely large ZIP file organized into different folders because due to the way SP1 sees scenarios, it can only see up to a certain number of scenarios. Total number of scenarios is approximately 1,300~.

Hapschott's SP1 Scenario Collection Folder Listing:
    WestFront
        Middle (171~ scenarios)
        Late (153~ scenarios)
        Early (38~ scenarios)
        Desert (124~ scenarios)
    Packs2 (118~ scenarios)
    Packs1 (180~ scenarios)
    Japan (117~ scenarios)
    EastFront
        Finland (13~ scenarios)
        1945 (52~ scenarios)
        1944 (94~ scenarios)
        1943 (100~ scenarios)
        1942 (46~ scenarios)
        1941 (69~ scenarios)
    EarlyEuropeOOB (52~ scenarios)
    Cyber (28~ scenarios)
    6thPanzerOOB (31~ scenarios)

SSI’s Steel Panthers II: Modern Battles (1996)

The second game in the series brought it into modern combat with a significantly improved game engine. Instead of the older 50 unit (49 buyable, 1 HQ) limitation, you now had 150 units (149 buyable, 1 HQ). This made it possible to make complex and detailed scenarios that weren't armor-heavy clashes (unlike SP1). A campaign disk was sold, adding three new campaigns and 30 more scenarios.

Stock Campaigns
Germany 1980
Desert Storm 1991
China-War 1997 (Taiwan vs China)
Okinawa 1998 (US vs Japan)
Golan Heights 1973
Korea 1950
Korea 1998 (Second Korean War) (Campaign Disk)
Battle for the Low Countries (British vs a resurgent Germany in Belgium) (Campaign Disk)
Drive into the Rhineland (French vs a resurgent Germany) (Campaign Disk)

Hapshott’s Steel Panthers II Scenario/Campaign Collection (27.4 MB ZIP)

This is an extremely large ZIP file organized into different folders because due to the way SP2 sees scenarios, it can only see up to a certain number of scenarios. Total number of scenarios is approximately 700~.

Hapschott's SP2 Scenario Collection Folder Listing:
    Western (188~ scenarios)
    s_am_africa (52~ scenarios)
    middle_east (165~ scenarios)
    libya_camp (16 linked scenarios in the Libyan campaign v1.0 that replaces the 1998 Okinawa Campaign)
    Europe (101~ scenarios)
    Asia (179~ scenarios)

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

The third game in the series (and the last of the 'original' SSI line) was kind of like the odd cousin in the family that nobody likes to talk about.

It spanned sixty years of combat, from World War II to the immediate post-Cold War period, but there was one teeny tiny problem. The minimum basic unit of size was now the platoon (or section of tanks); and the game map scale moved from the familiar 50 meters per hex to 180 meters per hex and the time scale went from “several minutes per turn” to “six to thirty minutes per turn”.

The reception to these dramatic changes was...lukewarm, and as a result, no official campaign disk was produced, unlike with the prior two games. Unofficially, three extra campaigns and 35 more scenarios were produced for the Steel Panthers: Arsenal version of SP3.

Stock Campaigns
North Africa 1941-42 (German Player)
Stalingrad 1942 (German Player)
Market Garden 1944 (British Player)
Vietnam 1965-70 (US Player)
NATO 1988 (West German Player)
Holy War 2000 (Israeli Player vs Egypt and Syria, 1999)
The Bear and Dragon (Russian Player vs China, 1999) (Only in Steel Panthers: Arsenal Version of SP3)
Anvil/Dragoon (US Player, Southern France 1944) (Only in Steel Panthers: Arsenal Version of SP3)
Crossing Suez (Israeli Player, 1973) (Only in Steel Panthers: Arsenal Version of SP3)

Hapshott’s Steel Panthers III Scenario/Campaign Collection (24.2 MB ZIP)

This is an extremely large ZIP file organized into different folders because due to the way SP3 sees scenarios, it can only see up to a certain number of scenarios. Total number of scenarios is approximately 400~ plus 25 campaigns.

Hapschott's SP3 Scenario Collection Folder Listing:
    pzb_WW3 (66~ scenarios)
    pzb_WW2_plt3 (144~ scenarios)
    Original (194~ scenarios + unspecified # of campaigns)
    Campaigns (25 different campaigns)

SPIII: Moderna

This was a mod for SP3 that went through two releases (v1.0 and v1.1) before disappearing from the net; and formed the basis for the abortive Matrix' Games SP: Modern Warfare version (see far below).

(link to post announcing SP3: Moderna v1.1 on 6 June 2000 on the Matrix Games Forum by Ilja Varha)

Thanks to the help of Mike Amos on the Matrix Games Forum, I was able to recover a copy of SP3: Moderna v1.1 from his CDROM archives. It turned out to be a fully installed version of SP3 with the mod applied.

I used my copy of Steel Panthers III to compare file dates to figure out what had been modified for SP3: Moderna, and rebuilt a distributable file for the mod which didn't include the (still) copyrighted SSI Steel Panthers III stock files.

Ilja Varha's SP3: Moderna v1.1 (16.6 MB ZIP)

The new scenarios built for this mod are:

064: THE FIRST OF THE SIX
084: Reuniting Cyprus
088: Blow from the East
160: A HOLY WAR (Wild Bill Wilder)
162: BLOCKADE BUSTERS (Wild Bill Wilder)

The new campaigns built for this mod are:

020: Taking Thousand Lakes 1999 (Russia Player vs Finland, 11 Scenarios)
021: Defending Finland 1999 (Finland Player vs Russia, 5 Scenarios)
022: The Bear and the Wolf 1999 (Russia Player vs Chechnya, 3 Scenarios)

SSI’s Steel Panthers IV (1998-1999)

There's not much information on this; only fragmentary information recovered from a Russian Language SP site (LINK) and an initial game listing on GameZone (Archival Link) which says:

Steel Panthers IV
Publisher: SSI
Description: The famous series clanks on, this time with a completely new game engine done in Windows 95/98.

There was an interview that was published on TGN (http://www.thegamers.net/) sometime in 1998 or so; which has been lost to history; but “Steel Panthers Russia” (LINK) saved it, albeit in Russian. So we're going English → Russian and now Google Translating back to English, so a lot of “data loss” is involved.

The Gamer's Net (TGN) interviewed Joel Billings, back when he was still the Game Department Producer at SSI/Mindscape; and Joel revealed that:

• Work had been carried out during 1998 for “Steel Panthers IV”

• Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors were behind it, with support from SSI/Mindscape for artwork (same as it was for SP1 and SP2).

• It would have been recognizable as “Steel Panthers” – with a scale of single vehicles and single infantry squads/platoons. At maximum zoom, one pixel on the screen would have corresponded to 10 centimeters on the ground.

• Timeframe would have been WW2.

• It would have been hexless, with point to point movement.

• It would not have been turn based, but “event based principle of movement”.

• “There is no turn-by-turn control in the system, however, time will advance continuously even if the remaining units have nowhere to move.” – sounds a lot like real time.

• Units would have had “activity points” which could be used to either move or shoot.

• The editor(s) would have been derived from the Steel Panthers III codebase.

• Campaigns would have a sequence of operations, which in turn would contain scenarios. A hypothetical German campaign in SP4 might have the crossing of the Meuse in 1940, the Battle of Moscow in 1941, the battle of Tobruk in 1942, Kursk (1943) and the Battle of the Ardennes in 1944. During each operation, time will be a condition for the success of the task. Units between scenarios may need to rest and have the opportunity to replenish, however, weapon upgrades will only be possible between operations.

• Because of the new game system design, PBEM play was now impossible; but some sort of internet play would have been supported.

• They were hoping for a Fall 1999 release date.

• In closing, they asked:

TGN - What would you say is the main distinguishing feature of the new SP?

JB - Perhaps this is an event-based game principle with movement points instead of the turn-based principle with movement points and shooting points previously. These changes radically transformed the game. We hope that fans of previous versions of the game will like the new principle of fire control and, above all, the fact that a unit can be assigned several different objects for firing. At the same time, the effectiveness of fire can be controlled: inefficient fire can be stopped in a timely manner.

Post-SSI...in the Beginning...One

Around early to mid 1998, the SPCAMO Workshop was born almost by accident.

At the time, Don Goodbrand was PBEMing Steel Panthers 2 with a chap in Italy named Piero Angeli, and they got to talking about how great it would be to play WW2 in the SP2 engine, with its massively increased per side unit cap (200+ vs 48) and the improved artillery routines.

[ED NOTE: PBEM means 'Play By Email', a early form of 'network head to head' in the pre-modern era of computing. Instead of being connected directly, players instead emailed modified save game files to each other to continue their games.]

So they started working on a SP2 to WW2 conversion, because...why not?

Several other people (Nick Papp and Maik Ehrhardt) joined in and they started the arduous task of translating over the SP1 OOB data to the SP2 OOB format and drawing new icons for pretty much everything. After a brief interruption during June and July 1998 brought on by the FIFA 1998 World Cup (a vital necessity, don't you understand?) work resumed. In August 1998, Andrew Gailey – who had created the MOBHack game editor – joined in to help them with the OOB editing tasks.

At the time, they all thought it would last just six months and they'd be done. (TM)

As a teaser to the gaming public, the initial SPCAMO repaints were released (1.18 MB ZIP) which contained the following content:

At some point, Wild Bill Wilder's Raiders joined in on the project, and they picked up The Gamers Net as a distributor/website hoster.

After nine months of work, the first “official” release – SP2WW2 (Steel Panthers 2 for World War II) – was released to the world on 3 December 1998.

Original SP2WW2 Installer (8.29 MB ZIP)

This was found on a internet archive of CDROM images of discs that were included with an old French magazine called Cyberstrategie.

For those of you who aren't fluent in the use of Virtual Machines to safely install old antique EXE installers from the internet without messing up your modern system, here a ZIP archive of it's contents.

Zipped up Archive of files contained in the SP2WW2 installer (unzip over an installed copy of SP2) (5.56 MB ZIP)

You'll have to manually delete everything in your \SCEN folder though.

Remember to use the hacked/edited SP2 executable included with this (SP2WW2.EXE) to get the icons, etc to show up correctly!

As this is a DOS-era game, the use of DOSBox is mandatory.

(Note use of 1989 as 1939 and 1995 as 1945 to get around hard-coded game executable limitations)

Built-In Game Encyclopedia Showing Panther G

The opening of the “Raiders Ride To Work” Scenario.

There's no campaigns or scenarios at all – just the “Raiders ride to work” demo scenario and a near complete conversion of all the OOB data from SP1 to SP2 format.

Today, this doesn't sound like much, but back in Christmas 1998, it was awesome – you could now play WW2 in Steel Panthers and not be limited to just 48 units per side, and you now could use the SP2/SP3 enhanced artillery routines for more realistic control of artillery.

Rent Asunder Into Two

Sometime in early 1999, the team managed to acquire from SSI the SP2/SP3 source code, following the success of SP2WW2, with the proviso that all future releases based upon the source(s) be available as free downloads.

Unfortunately, during the work on the follow on to SP2WW2, creative differences arose in the team over the direction of future development (and which code base to use) and the development team split into two groups, each using a different codebase:

• The SPCAMO group and the SP2 codebase, which led to Steel Panthers: WW2 (SPWW2) and Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank (SPBMT).

• The TheGamers.Net group (which later became the initial core of Matrix Games) and the SP3 codebase, which led to Steel Panthers: World at War (SPWAW).

(How Did the SSI to The Camo Workshop Come to Be? – Shrapnel Forums – Link to Site – Link to PDF Copy)
(Why doesn't SP Camo Workshop and Matrix work together? – Matrix Forums – Link to Site – Link to PDF Copy)

Matrix Games' Steel Panthers World at War

(Follow the history of SPWAW via recovered archival Matrix Games' Press Releases)

Developed from the SP3 codebase, the first release was on 8 May 2000 as a native Windows program using DirectDraw and DirectSound, with screen resolution raised from the DOS-era's 640x480 to 800x600. Additionally, instead of being limited to 14 campaigns and 200 scenarios (SP3 hard limit), the new limitation was 32 campaigns and 1,000 scenarios. Over 60 new buildings, stone, wood and multihex, were added to the engine.

A period of rapid development was undertaken from about 2000 to 2002 (versions 1 to 4 were released in 2000 alone, with version 7.1 coming out in March 2002); after which future patches (the 8.x series) concentrated on minor OOB/Sound fixes and minor bug smashing. Known release windows were:

1.00 – 8 May 2000
2.00 – 26 June 2000
2.10 – 28 June 2000
2.20 – 30 June 2000
2.30 – 10 July 2000

3.0 Beta 23 – (between 30 July 2000 [Beta 20] and 4 August 2000 [Beta 24]). Was included on the PC Gamer October 2000 CD-ROM #2 and “got into the wild”.
(Original Installer – 294 MB ZIP)

4.0 – on 2 September 2000, Matrix Games announced that due to the release of 3.0 beta 23, they were renaming the final 3.0 to 4.0 to avoid confusing people. Version 4.0 was released about 9 September 2000.

4.2 – 2 October 2000
4.3 Beta – 7 October 2000 – so that players could test PBEM/VCR issues.
4.4 – 20 October 2000
4.5 – 21 December 2000
[in between 4.5 and 8.0 – TBD]
8.00 – December 2003
8.01 – January 2004
8.20 – July 2004
8.30 – October 2004
8.40 – June 2005
8.403 – January 2006 – Final official Matrix Version

Currently, SPWAW is dormant, with fans running yearly unofficial OOB Enhancements to fix bugs that are found throughout the years. (LINK to current 2016 Enhancement on the Matrix Games Forum)

Current campaigns in the final v8.403 version of the game:
    Preparing the Way
    Heroes of the Motherland
    From Utah to the Rhine
    A Long, Long Road to Victory
    Watchword Freedom
    Tulagi – The First Offensive
    Guadalcanal 1942
    Normandy Gold
    Stalingrad Campaign
    The Victors – USA vs USSR (two slots)
    Rommel to the Rescue (Easy and Hard versions)
    Raiders of the Sahara
    Balkan Crisis
    The Hated Hurtgen (Wild Bill Wilder)
    Operation Weserubung
    The Chosin Few
    Italians at War
    Flesh and Steel
    Yangtze River Patrol
    Dien Bien Phu
    A Moment of Hope

Falcon’s SPWAW Vanilla Campaign Compilation (41.2 MB ZIP) (Forum Link)

Contains (Bold Red indicated STOCK campaigns from an unknown version of the game)
    Preparing the Way
    Heroes of the Motherland
    From Utah to the Rhine
    A Long, Long Road to Victory
    Watchword Freedom
    Tulagi – The First Offensive
    Guadalcanal 1942
    Normandy Gold
    Stalingrad Campaign
    The Victors – USA vs USSR (two slots)
    Rommel to the Rescue (Easy and Hard versions)
    Raiders of the Sahara
    Balkan Crisis
    The Hated Hurtgen
    Operation Weserubung
    The Chosin Few
    Italians at War
    Flesh and Steel
    Guadalcanal 1942 (Duplicate?)
    Dien Bien Phu
    3rd Reich
    Operation 25: Yugoslavia
    Crisis at Fraiture
    Kursk Mini-Campaign
    The Battle for Moscow
    Peiper
    Black Brigade
    Prelude to a World War
    Russian Steel v1.6
    Rising Sun
    Finland-USSR 1939
    Suursaari Island v1.2
    The Black Knight Campaign
    Sea Lion
    Sea Lion Chapter Two
    Das Reich
    A Deadly Diversion
    Yangtze River Patrol
    Fight along the Merdet River
    Slaughter at Chenuex
    Here comes the Hoss! – 1945
    1938 – The Czechs Say “No”
    Prague, the first step
    A Hospital on the Front Line
    Death in the Factory
    Operation Downfall
    Hill 112 – DCLI
    The Commandos
    72 Bridge at Remagen
    The Battered Bastards
    A Moment of Hope
    American Crusaders
    Panzergrenadiere
    Normandy Nightmare
    Drive to Tunisia
    Kowel Counterattack
    39 Pz.Abt. 013 Moshing

Falcon’s SPWAW Vanilla Scenario Compilation v2.1 (47.1 MB ZIP) (Forum Link)

Riitaoja2's SPWAW 1960-1979 Mod (Version January 2017) (3.29~ MB ZIP) (Forum Link)
(Update to bring it to Final Version as of 31 JAN 2017) (691~ kb ZIP)
(Scenario Pack for SPWAW 1960-79) (745 kb ZIP)

Description:

(Main Menu Screenshot)
(Purchase Menu Screenshot)
(European Battle Screenshot)
(Vietnam Battle Screenshot)

I am putting in the finishing touches to a mod for SPWAW that converts the units to use the graphics and OOB data from Steel Panthers 2/3. This will cover the time time period from 1960 - 1979. Currently the mod has 19 nations to play with.

I have modified the original SP2 OOB files to work with SPWAW and also made sure the AI knows what to buy. So it is possible to play random battles and randomly generated campaigns against the computer.

No scenarios or campaigns are included but of course those can be created with the editor.

All pick-lists are documented in the "SPWAW6079 AI Pick lists" folder that comes with the mod.

The following year convention is used in this mod:

1930 = 1960
1949 = 1979

Due to SPWAW being based on SP3 code which handled both WW2 and Modern Battles, the unit/weapons classes for most modern stuff is already in the game, making ATGMs and such possible.

(ATGM Screenshot)

Graphically, the mod comes with the original blue/green/brown unit icon graphics from the SP2/ SP3 days.

However this mod is also compatible with the old SPCAMO repainted icons that were released for SP2 and SP3 games.

(Screenshot of Mod with SPCAMO Repainted Icons)
(LINK to SPCAMO Repaint Files)

If you use the SPCAMO icons with the mod you may see an issue with some of the US (green) landing barge graphics. You may avoid this issue by not replacing the following icons with the SPCAMO ones:

Icon0035.shp
Icon0036.shp

Installation:

The installation of the mod is completely manual. You will need to make backups of your original files first as the mod files will override them permanently.

Make backup copies of the "PIC", "SHP" and "SND" -folders and also backup your original OOB files. You may also make a copy of the whole SPWAW folder and use it for the mod instead.

When you have made sure to backup your files just extract the mod files into your SPWAW directory overwriting all the original files.

Forum Post for the FINAL Update:

Final update! (the mod should be complete now). All 27 nations (and 28 OOB files) have been converted to the 1960-1979 time period. This update adds the final 8 nations into the mod.

Some minor fixes here and there in the OOB files. Also added Cargo aircraft to some OOB's (SP2 did not have this unit type at all). The Cargo aircraft graphics are in the icon0215 & icon0315.shp files. The aircraft are C-47, C-123 and Noratlas.

Matrix Games' Steel Panthers Modern Warfare

A long time ago, there was a mod for Steel Panthers III called SP:Moderna, and around September 2000, Matrix Games started to work with the people who did it to make a modern (1950-2000) version of SP:WAW and launched a section of their website about it.

Unfortunately, around maybe 2001-ish; the project quietly died.

(Promo for SP:MW in the SPWAW 3.0 beta 23 installer file – 60 kb PNG)
(Link to Archival Matrix Games Press Releases)
(Link to USENET post by Paul Vebber)

Matrix Games' Steel Panthers: The Nam

Around 2000, there was some chatter on the Matrix' Games forums from Wild Bill Wilder which mentioned this project by name. Little else is known about it.

SPCAMO’s Steel Panthers: World War II

Version History:

• DOS-WW2 1.0 [NOT USED] – This version number was reserved for the SP2WW2 release and not recycled for the new SPWW2 project.

• DOS-WW2 2.0 – 6 June 1999 – First stand-alone version based upon the SP2 source code. Over 50,000 downloads of the game were made.
  (Intro Slide #1 – 82~ kb PNG)
  (Intro Slide #2 – 210~ kb PNG)
  (Intro Slide #3 – 310~ kb PNG)
      (Original installer for 2.0b – 29.5~ MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version for 2.0b – 28.1~ MB ZIP)

• DOS-WW2 2.07 – About 28 June 1999 – This patch focused mainly on PBEM crash bugfixing, there were a few small OOB corrections, plus some bugs smushed, such as M3 Lee/Grant tanks not having their hull 75mm gun firing in the direction the hull was facing.
      (Original installer – 29.6 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 32.7 MB ZIP)

• DOS-WW2 2.2 – About 4 December 1999 – This patch added SPCAMO style victory hexes, changed the artillery code further to more represent WW2 artillery than the original post-WW2 artillery code of SP2. The maximum formation count was raised to 60 (up from 52), and preliminary testing was underway for development of a version with 400 units and 160 formations per side, but this was not executed in the version 2.0 codebase due to problems with already existing scenarios and PBEM security. Over 120 new batlocs were added to the game.
      (Original Patch Installer – 5.6 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 30.1 MB ZIP) – Patch applied over installed 2.07 and then the whole thing is zipped up.
      (SPWW2 v2.2 Intro Graphic – 70 kb PNG)

• DOS-WW2 2.2b – About 28 January 2000 – This was meant to be a minor bugfix release for 2.2, but mission creep set in. You can now purchase “Allies”. The number of save slots was increased to 1,000.
      (Original Patch Installer – 920 kb ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 30.1 MB ZIP) – Patch applied over installed 2.2 and then the whole thing is zipped up.

• DOS-WW2 3.0 – July 2000 – This version was a major update to the game engine, allowing map sizes up to 200x100 hexes (50km2). Unit count rose to 500 units and 200 formations per side. Generated maps now use up to 24 variables in making a map (as opposed to 6 variables before). 20 new terrain types (Snowdrifts, Light snow, Rice paddies, Mud, Orchards, Impassable Terrain, Hedgerows, Trenches, etc) added. Total batloc count is now 237. 100 new unit classes added (prior versions only had 69 classes). Modifiers were added to the OOB, allowing formations to be created with increased/decreased morale or experience.

• DOS-WW2 4.0 – January 2001 – GREEN, YELLOW, BLUE, and RED user nations added. New generated long campaigns for Poland, USMC, Japan, India and ANZAC. The PTO is now available in generated long campaigns for some nations (US, ANZAC, UK) allowing you to switch to that theatre. Iwo Jima campaign added along with Black Volcanic sand for Iwo Jima maps. Vehicle dust trails added. Many illegal memory address / out of range values have been squashed, vastly improving game stability.
      (Original installer – 36.9 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 35.9 MB ZIP)

• DOS-WW2 5.0 – November 2001 – 200+ new/revised unit icons. 31 new scenarios and 1 new campaign. OOB's completely overhauled. AP penetration formula revised and updated. Air parity can now occur. Artillery routines completely revised. Railway terrain added for scenario designers.

• DOS-WW2 5.5 – June 2002 – Largely a bugfix release, the waypoint count was raised from 10 to 125 per formation and 63 new scenarios and 3 additional campaigns were added.

• DOS-WW2 5.6 – December 2002 – Maps can now go from 20x40 to 160x200. New infantry color was added for China, Czechoslovakia, Belgium and RED. Area fire can be targeted through smoke. Direct HE fire will now inflict splash damage on all units in the target hex.

• DOS-WW2 6.0 – July 2003 – 375+ new/revised icons. 30 new scenarios and 2 new campaigns (Langemarck at Narva and Stug Brigade 276). Many OOB/picklist upgrades (all AI picklists, some 14,991 lines of code, were checked).
      (Original installer – 62.0 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 60.4 MB ZIP)

• DOS 6.01 – August 2003 – a/k/a V6 Supplement. 27 new/revised icons. 24 new scenarios.

• DOS 7.0 – 20 June 2004 – 933 new/revised icons. 27 new scenarios and 1 new campaign (Paratroopers in the Pacific). Introduced a completely new OOB format, being able to support 999 units and 999 formations. 13 new terrain features added. 55 new unit classes added. Map Generator added. Game now supports multiple icons per unit (Summer/Winter/Desert).
      (Original installer – 85.4 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 82.7 MB ZIP)
      (Shrapnel Games Press Release on DOS 7.0 release)

• DOS-WW2 7.01 Supplement – 10 September 2004 – Supplemental upgrade patch. Various bug fixes, and contained a near complete rework of the buildings (The original 40 single hex houses were replaced with 80 new single hex houses and 12 each of the wooden and stone multi-hex buildings were reworked
      (Sample 1 of new buildings)
      (Sample 2 of new buildings)
      (Sample 3 of new buildings)

At this point, development of the DOS codebase terminated, so that work could be concentrated on a game engine that would work natively in Microsoft Windows, rather than requiring MS-DOS.

• Win-WW2 1.0 – 9 June 2006 – [CDs shipping] – Major upgrade from DOS to Windows engine. Graphics no longer limited to 640x480, a new zoom level added, 10 new terrain types, 500 new/revised icons and 63 new scenarios added, plus six nations (Slovak Republic, Manchukuo, Italian Social Republic, Vichy France, Polish Communists (LWP), Chinese Communists). Long campaigns added for France, Chinese Nationalists and Chinese Communists.

• Win-WW2 1.1 – 14 July 2006 – Bugfix release. 3 new/revised icons. 13 new scenarios.

• Win-WW2 2.0 – 12 March 2007 – 75 new/revised icons. 13 new scenarios. Opfire filtering added for CD owners. Maximum game points raised to 65,000 points. Nationalist/Communist Chinese Long Campaign scripting fixed.

• Win-WW2 2.5 – 8 May 2007 – Bugfix release.

• Win-WW2 3.0 – 1 May 2008 – 27 new/revised icons. 14 new scenarios. Passenger Capacity now represented in game by [LOADED: 10 ( of 13 )], eliminating guesswork.. Various bug fixes.

• Win-WW2 3.5 – 18 December 2008 – 2 new/revised icons. 9 new scenarios. More East Front batlocs added. European Long Campaign now ends May 1945 instead of April 1945. "Tank Rider" passengers now have a greater chance of more casualties if caught on the tank when they are fired on.

• Win-WW2 4.0 – 17 December 2009 – 29 new/revised icons. 22 new scenarios and 1 new campaign (ANZAC). Explosives unit class added, representing command detonated stuff. APCalc and ArmorCalc added. Passenger dismount code revised to check for mines in dismount hex. Game end date changed to 1946? More batlocs added for Canadians in Normandy.

• Win-WW2 4.25 – 20 April 2010 – 1 new icon. Mini upgrade to fix PBEM errors, plus minor OOB changes etc. New infantry flame graphics added.

• Win-WW2 4.5 – 4 March 2011 – 28 new/revised icons. 12 new scenarios. Widescreen support added for CD owners. Game code adjusted to make it more friendly in regards to CPU usage when not actively “thinking”. Romanian v Russian batlocs added, as well as Spanish vs Russian batlocs. Italian long campaign start/end date bug regarding the 1943 Surrender date fixed.

• Win-WW2 5.0 – 26 March 2012 – 9 new/revised icons. 10 new scenarios and 2 new campaigns. Snipers can now target/destroy IEDs, etc. Thorough comb-through of OOBs for all sides for infantry characteristics to standardize infantry in the game.

• Win-WW2 6.0 – 11 April 2013 – 76 new/revised icons. 7 new scenarios and 1 new campaign. Artillery Overload concept added. Windows 8 support changes. Movement class for snowmobiles added. Map vision algorithm changes. For CD owners; the concept of General/Direct Support artillery was introduced. They are cheaper than regular “full command” artillery, but at the price of slower response times, etc. Timed objectives also added for CD owners, where the value of a victory hex is variable according to the current turn number.

• Win-WW2 7.0 – 25 March 2014 – 67 new/revised icons. 12 new scenarios and 2 new campaigns. All 15 levels of terrain are now represented by different colors on the mini map. Previously only the first 10 levels were with level 11-15 the same color as level 10. CD owners now have the programmed barrage option for artillery – CD owners can plot programmed barrages, while free game owners can cancel programmed barrages, since they may be playing scenarios made by CD owners. The Italian Long Campaign end date has been extended to 9/43 with Germany added as a possible opponent in that last month. The Balkans option [in the Italian LC] now runs from 10/40 to 4/41. During the time period 10/40-3/41 the "Balkan" opponent is Greece and in 4/41 it is Yugoslavia. Eastern Front is now available only from 9/41 to 5/43.

• Win-WW2 8.0 – April 2015 – 92 new/revised icons. 10 new scenarios. Shallow water code changes. Long campaign set up screen revamped.

• Win-WW2 8.1 – May 2015 – 2 new/revised icons. Bugfix release, fixing a “bailout” bug for destroyed units – they wouldn't bail unless they were on a lake hex. Japanese leader names revised.

• Win-WW2 9.0 – April 2016 – 407 new/revised icons. 6 new scenarios and 3 new campaigns. OOB changes, ScenHack has SQL sorting added.

• Win-WW2 10.1 – March 2017 – 73 new/revised icons. 20 new scenarios. Map sizes now increment/decrements by 5 hex increments, not 10 as before giving players more control over map size. New terrains added to the game (only CD owners can edit them in), and older terrains have had their artwork revised.

• Win-WW2 11.0 – March 2018

• Win-WW2 12.0 – March 2019

• Win-WW2 13.0 – April 2020

• Win-WW2 14.0 – April 2021

• Win-WW2 15.0 – April 2022

• Win-WW2 16.0 – April 2023

Russo-German War Mod for Steel Panthers: WW2 version 2.2
by Dr. Klaus Mueller-Buschbaum (Germany) and Oleg Bazhenov (Russia)

NOTE: Due to this being in the v2.2 OOB format; the mod designers split up the OOBs into two different sets; you have to run a BATCH file to select the era that you want:

Early_War.bat
Late_War.bat

(Original Files – 3.91 MB ZIP)
(Installed onto SPWW2 v2.2 for ease of use – 30.8 MB ZIP)

SPCAMO’s Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank

“SPMBT was supposed to be a simple extension to SPWW2 that would only take 3 or 6 months work.” (TM)

The original SPMBT Website circa 2002 was at (http://www.wargamer.com/spcammo/page4.asp) and as of June 1, 2002 had this message:

Steel Panthers - Main Battle Tank (SPMBT)
(Due Late Spring 2002)

[Updated 30/03/2002]

SPMBT will return to the original theme of SSI's Steel Panthers II - Modern Battles.

Date range covered by the game is 1946 to 2020.

SPMBT is a re-coding of the SPWW2 Version 5.0 code to address modern combat.

New code features that should be in the released product include multiple charge and top attack ATGM, Kontakt advanced ERA, Drozd/Arena active ATGM defences and Visual and Infra-Red Screening Smoke (VIRSS) anti-ATGM countermeasures.

There are about 90 countries in SPMBT. The current list is: Egypt, Poland, Syria, Israel, Japan, France, Great Britain, PLO, Jordan, Iran, Russia, USA, USMC, China, Australia, Gulf States, Iraq, India, N Korea, S Korea, Taiwan, Mujahadeen, NVA, ARVN, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Canada, Greece, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Denmark, E Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Libya, Yugoslavia, Green, Red, W Germany, Argentina, Austria, Cyprus, Brazil, Cuba, Pathet Lao, Slovakia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Albania, Angola, Bosnia-Herzogovina, Cambodia, Chile, Croatia, East Timor, Myramar, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia, Finland, Sweden, Laos, Lebanon, Macedonia, Chechnya, Indonesia, Viet Cong, Portugal, Slovenia, Zimbabwe, South Yemen, North Yemen, Eritrea, Ukraine, UN, Mozambique, Ecuador, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Peru, Rhodesia, Bulgaria, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda. Note that national flags will change as time goes by - Afghanistan has about 14 flag changes in the game time frame!. (Some minor adjustments and/or additions may be made to this list).

The usual modern stuff removed from WW2 is back - cluster artillery, SAMS, artillery minelets, SEAD planes, ERA armour etc.

The World War 2 Long Campaign has gone, but we may be able to replace this with post WW2 historical Long Campaigns, however these may not make version 1. The normal campaign Generator is in of course, and some battle locations are scripted for this use, for example the USSR vs. Afghanistan follows a set of locations taken from the progress of that conflict. NATO Central Front nations versus the Warsaw Pact will fight in appropriate areas - e.g. Gelnhausen or Steinau for USA vs Warpact, Koenigslutter or Hameln for BAOR vs WP. Therefore, NATO vs WP campaigns using the generator are fine - just pick 3 valid opponents for your area to play a Big Mistake III 'what if' campaign at any start date you like.

The User campaign Editor is available of course - we may be able to bring you a couple of user Campaigns by release date, but no promises.

Currently (End March 2002) the OOB data is being finalised - once this is done, scenario and User Campaign Work can be started in earnest. We are working to try to get the first release of the game out to you by about the end of April or May, but this is only a target - as SP Camo is focussed on quality rather than throwing buggy trash out the door to meet some artificial deadline date, we will only be releasing it when we feel it is good enough to be played. Version 1 will be an initial release - version 2 will have an OOB work-over with input from the player community - we will be setting up a new Yahoo EGroup specifically for MBT discussion.

Sometime in 2003, the “official” SPCAMO website changed to (http://linetap.com/www/drg/SPCamo.htm), away from The Wargamer.

Many of these downloaded install files were “rescued” from oblivion through the Internet Archive, and game demo CD-ROM archives from now extinct magazines such as Cyberstrategie and PC4WAR.

Version History:

• DOS-MBT 1.0 Preview – 14 June 2002 -- Essentially a “Public Beta” version with about 70 nations. Was originally intended to release on 7 June 2002, but the SPCAMO team felt they needed an extra week to correct various little details that came up at the last minute.
      (Original Installer – 45.7~ MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 45.7~ MB ZIP)
      (Install Screen Image – 260 kb PNG)

• DOS-MBT 1.01 – 3 July 2002 – Upgrade Patch. Major number of OOB corrections and various bug fixes, including one for a Y2K style bug in the campaign generator, among others.

• DOS-MBT 1.5 – 4 December 2003 – Upgrade Patch. Adds four new nations (Nigeria, Eritrea, Tanzania and Uganda). 300 new icons; maps can now go up to 160x200 hexes. A new infantry color has been added to the game. Six new scenarios and one campaign.
      (Original installer – 7.5~ MB ZIP)
      (Files from Installer – 7.5~ MB ZIP) – place into your MBT 1.0 directory and overwrite all files.

• DOS-MBT 2.0 – 6 June 2003 – First “full” version. 16 nations (Japan, Australia, Canada, Algeria, Thailand, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Chad, Ethiopia, Sudan, Lebanon , Kenya, Indonesia, Malaysia and Somalia) added, 400 new icons; 40 new scenarios and one campaign added.
      (Original installer – 56 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 55.4 MB ZIP)

• DOS-MBT 2.01 – 4 August 2003 – Supplemental upgrade patch. Fixed various minor bugs found. 2 new scenarios and 120 new/revised icons.
      (Original installer – 4.9~ MB ZIP)

• DOS-MBT 3.0 – 18 July 2004 – Now has the large format OOB system (999 units and 999 formations). 420 new icons. Map Generator added. 13 new terrain types (Ice, Frozen Streams, Marsh, Ploughed Field, Red Sand, Red Sand Rough, Grey Sand, Grey Sand Rough, Arid/Fall Grass, Arid/Fall High Grass, Winter Crop Field, Mid-Winter Snow Field, and Bare Winter/Late Fall Trees). 28 new scenarios.
      (Original installer – 77.5 MB ZIP)
      (Installed Version – 75.8 MB ZIP)

• DOS-MBT 3.01 – September 2004 – Supplemental upgrade patch. Various bug fixes, and contained a near complete rework of the buildings (The original 40 single hex houses were replaced with 80 new single hex houses and 12 each of the wooden and stone multi-hex buildings were reworked
      (Sample 1 of new buildings)
      (Sample 2 of new buildings)
      (Sample 3 of new buildings)
      (Original installer – 6.6~ MB ZIP)

At this point, development of the DOS codebase terminated, so that work could be concentrated on a game engine that would work natively in Microsoft Windows, rather than requiring MS-DOS.

• WinMBT 1.0 – 28 July 2005 [when CDs began shipping] – Major upgrade from DOS to Windows engine. Graphics no longer limited to 640x480, a new zoom level added, 10 new terrain types, 66 new icons and three new scenarios and one new campaign.

• WinMBT 2.0 – September 2005 – Continuing bug fixes; 34 new scenarios and Artillery/Bomb routines modified – Pushing R or Z will show the blast radius now. White circles show the maximum blast radius of the weapon, and if you know that an enemy unit is at that location, a yellow circle will show if it is damaged or not by the blast effects.

• WinMBT 3.0 – January 2007 – Continuing bug fixes. 400+ new/revised icons. FO now can use GPS/Laser rangefinders to reduce artillery dispersion when calling fire in. Retreat/Rally hexes added. Opfire filtering added (for paid version). Multi charge HEAT added as weapon class. Artillery code regarding armor adjusted to reduce lethality. Maximum game points raised from 50,000 to 65,000 points. Iran/Iraq War battle locations added.

• WinMBT 3.5 – April 2007 – Hovercraft class added to game. 153 new/revised icons. Various bug fixes.

• WinMBT 4.0 – 1 May 2008 – Major OOB work done and bug fixes. 210 new/revised icons. All units in the game [at this time] now have a photo assigned to them. New top attack HEAT weapon class. Passenger Capacity now represented in game by [LOADED: 10 ( of 13 )], eliminating guesswork.

• WinMBT 4.5 – March 2009 – Some more OOB work, mainly on Russia. 99 new/revised icons. 25 new scenarios. New weapon class: Top attack inertial guidance weapon. Cluster munitions will occasionally leave unexploded bomblets, which are treated in-game as mines. 3,686 icon slots added to the core game engine.

• WinMBT 5.0 – March 2010 – 159 new/revised icons. 19 new scenarios. New demolition class added to game, allowing command detonated IEDs. Building collapse code revised to have stone buildings be more dangerous in a collapse. Dismounting passengers into a hex will trigger a mine check. ArmourCalc and APCalc tools now included with game.

• WinMBT 5.5 – March 2011 – 40 new/revised icons. 15 new scenarios. Widescreen support added for CD Owners. Game code adjusted to make it more friendly in regards to CPU usage when not actively “thinking”. Georgia and South Ossetia added as battle locations.

• WinMBT 6.0 – March 2012 – 194 new/revised icons. 21 new scenarios. Thorough comb-through of OOBs for all sides for infantry characteristics to standardize infantry in the game. On-Map towed artillery over 155mm removed from game as part of OOB comb-through; over 25,000~ individual data changes were made.

• WinMBT 7.0 – April 2013 – 106 new/revised icons. 13 new scenarios. Artillery Overload concept added. Windows 8 support changes. New weapon class for HESH firing weapons. France vs Mujahideen batlocs added to reflect ongoing French operations in Africa. Chile vs Argentina batlocs added to represent the 1978 war that almost happened. Movement class for snowmobiles added. Map vision algorithm changes. For CD owners; the concept of General/Direct Support artillery was introduced. They are cheaper than regular “full command” artillery, but at the price of slower response times, etc. Timed objectives also added for CD owners, where the value of a victory hex is variable according to the current turn number.

• WinMBT 8.0 – March 2014 – 66 new/revised icons. 21 new scenarios. 2 new campaigns. USMC OOB/picklist completely redone and scenarios/campaigns involving the USMC rebuilt to the new OOB standard. All 15 levels of terrain are now represented by different colors on the mini map. Previously only the first 10 levels were with level 11-15 the same color as level 10. CD owners now have the programmed barrage option for artillery – CD owners can plot programmed barrages, while free game owners can cancel programmed barrages, since they may be playing scenarios made by CD owners.

• WinMBT 9.0 – April 2015 – 36 new/revised icons. 19 new scenarios and 3 new campaigns. Batlocs involving the current Syria/Iraq war against ISIS (Mujihadeen) have been added into the game. CD owners get Georgia as a new in game nation starting May 1991. Changes involving shallow water and units in the game code. HTML manual/game guide(s) merged into a single file to simplify CTRL-F-ing information.

• WinMBT 9.1 – May 2015 – Bugfix release, fixing a “bailout” bug for destroyed units – they wouldn't bail unless they were on a lake hex. Additionally, units with more than 13 men weren't showing on the map. They will now show with 13 men.

• WinMBT 10.0 – April 2016 – 16 new/revised icons. 22 new scenarios. Game end date is now 2025, because we are approaching 2020 rather rapidly. Setting unit survivability to 7 now gives that unit the same crew survivability as the MRAP unitclass – the vehicle is just as vulnerable, it's just that the crew has a better chance to live! New batlocs for Turkey vs ISIS/ISIL, generalized middle east batlocs also added for almost everyone in the middle east to fight ISIS/ISIL. Mujahadeen vs Mujahadeen batlocs for Syria also added to represent the nastier sides of the Syrian Civil War. New NLOS missile weapon class added for CD owners representing non-line of sight guided weapons guided in by FOs. Scenhack now has SQL sorting.

• WinMBT 11.0 – March 2017 – 138 new/revised icons. 15 new scenarios. Map sizes now increment/decrements by 5 hex increments, not 10 as before giving players more control over map size. Batlocs added for post-2014 battles for NATO vs Russia in the Baltics. Any nation that signed the Ottawa land mine treaty will no longer be able to purchase and place mines in defense after 1999. Additionally, any nation that signed the Convention on Cluster Munitions will no longer have cluster munition weapons in their game OOB's after the date that nation put the convention ban into effect. New terrains added to the game (only CD owners can edit them in), and older terrains have had their artwork revised.

• WinMBT 12.0 – March 2018

• WinMBT 13.0 – March 2019

• WinMBT 14.0 – April 2020

• WinMBT 15.0 – April 2021

• WinMBT 16.0 – April 2022 – The Afghan flag changes once again.

• WinMBT 17.0 – April 2023 – All Nations can now lay mines again but Nations that signed the Ottawa Treaty will only generate Anti-vehicle mines. Size 0 Drones cannot be targeted by SAMS with warhead > 8.

Warhammer 40K Imperial Guard Mod (for SPMBT) (528~ kb ZIP)

This was done by Donovan Borman many years ago (circa 2007). It adds a functional 40k Imperial Guard (with many Icons) to OBAT080 (United Nations).

Warhammer 40K Mod (Version 3.0 for SPMBT V3.01) (85 kb ZIP)

NOTE: This was designed for SPMBT Version 3.01 (DOS), but works (somewhat) in the latest WinMBT.

The following countries have been changed to the following armies.

Egypt to Eldar
Poland to Tyranids
Israel to Necrons
Syria to Dark Eldar
Japan to Orks
France to Tau
UK to Imperial Space Marines
PLO to Chaos Space Marines
Belgium to Imperial Guard

To Play: Just select the Nations flags as normal and buy as normal.

Under the Preferences button you should set the following depending on who you're playing.

Rally/Rout preference:

Tyranid (Poland): 250%
Imperial Marines (GB): 200%
Chaos marines (PLO): 170%

Notes:

1. These are not complete army lists, So don't expect everything, like Titans, etc. The Necron, Dark Eldar and Tyranid OOBs are extremely sparse.

2. I've had to use motorcycle and bicycle infantry to deal with some units, this produces oddities in movement, But these don't seem too overwhelming.

3. Being unable to hack into the game code I've had to use the basic infantry Icon for many different unit's even those that wouldn't use them, for example all Tyranid small creatures use the same Infantry Icons.

4.IMPORTANT: Weapon's in this game have turned up a lot more deadly than you may be used to in SPMBT, with lots of big explosions. This is entirely accidental as I worked out a basic set of weapons then worked up using the game stat's. If you compare the stats to the game they mostly are accurate, however in game it seems not to work as smoothly.

Changes to this Mod over previous versions

1. 2 new Races
2. New units for most existing races
3. Smoothed EW values on Aircraft and AA units, to correct mistakes (for example the Space marine whirlwind had a EW value of 0 and the Ork flakwagon had EW 50...)
4. Reworked several weapon fits (mostly aircraft).

Das Reich Mod (Official Discussion Thread)

(Version 1.0P for WinSPMBT v9.1) (120~ MB ZIP)

(Version 1.1P for WinSPMBT v10~) (122~ MB ZIP)

(Version 1.1.6P for WinSPBMT v10~) (106.2~ MB ZIP) (February 2017 Update)

Cold War 2020 Mod (version 0.80 for WinSPMBT v5.0) (37.2 MB ZIP) (Official Discussion Thread)