The Steel Panthers 
Illustrated 
Strategy & Tactics 
Primer: A Player's 
Guide to Winning 
Tactics

(ASCII version 
0.90)
1/15/96

Work in Progress Copyright 1996 Todd David Brady

(Version Notes : This version not intended for 
general release, however it may be posted so 
long as it is noted that this not considered 
the finished version. At this point, only a few 
sections need to be added or altered, and I 
would like it to be posted if possible to 
incite interest in the finished product. All 
graphics intended to be associated with the 
text have not yet been incorporated by 
reference into the text. Asterisks (*) denote 
sections not yet started, Pound signs (#) 
denote sections under construction. Please give 
your thoughts, feedback, submissions, etc. to 
EMurrow1@aol.com. The ASCII version is a 
reformatted pass of the LWP version. Until the 
writing is completed, the spaces you see in the 
ASCII version may not correspond to a reference 
to a GIF file. Also, the ASCII spacing may not 
be optimal in all cases. This version is not 
distributed with the graphic files, I am in the 
process of discussing copyrights and licenses, 
etc., with SSI. I do not anticipate a problem. 
Novastar has indicated an interest in including 
this Primer as a bonus file with their scenario 
disks).

CONTENTS

Introduction
Section 0 - Using the Primer & *Legal Stuff* 
(notice!)
Section 1 - Getting to the Battlefield
Section 2 - A General Overview of Tactics
Section 3 - Preparing for War : Choosing a Core 
Force
Section 4 - Preparing for Battle: The Mission 
Screens
Section 5 - Campaign Considerations
Section 6 - Deploying For Battle
Section 7 - Infantry Tactics
Section 8 - Tank & Armored Fighting Vehicle 
(AFV) Tactics
Section 9 - Direct Fire Gunnery and other 
Special Units
Section 10 - Combined Arms Doctrine
Section 11 - The Gentle Art of Self-Defense 
with Guns (Defense)
Section 12 - The Art of Attack
Section 13 - The Art of Retreat
Section 14 - The Art of Counter-Attack
Section 15 - Rest & Refit
Section 16 - Breakthroughs and Counter-Attacks
Section 17 - Artillery & Air Power (It's 
raining lead, hallelujah!)
Section 18 - Fortifications & Mines
Section 19 - Combat Engineers
*Section 20 - City Combat
*Section 21 - Desert Rats (Desert Combat)
*Section 22 - Winter War (Combat during Winter 
Months, Russia, etc)
*Section 23 - Bungle in the Jungle (Jungle 
Combat)
*Section 24 - River Crossings and Amphibious 
Landings
Section 25 - The CPU as a Commander
Section 26 - Nationalities
Section 27 - Marines at War
*Section 28 - The Wehrmacht in Europe
Section 29 - The British in North Africa
#Section 30 - The American Army in Europe
*Section 31 - Questions of Morale
#Section 32 - Commander's Log (Testimonials)
#Section 33 - Epilogue
#Section 34 - Tables and Other Data

INTRODUCTION

Steel Panthers, by Strategic Simulations 
Incorporated, is a computer wargame simulating 
tactical engagements between various forces in 
World War II. It seems a rather bland statement 
to describe the game in these terms since, to 
wargamers, Steel Panthers is one of the best 
games of its type to come along in many years. 
It features awesome graphics and sound 
capabilities, as well as a very detailed 
tactical model. Even more important, it is also 
quite fun. Even (or especially) grown-ups, have 
been known to get more than a little excited 
when their troops are able to kill an enemy 
tank or stop an enemy attack in its tracks. 
Steel Panthers 
provides a 
unique blend 
of 
playability, 
detail, and 
graphics, and 
compromises 
almost nothing 
with its truly 
first-class 
simulation 
engine. 

This text, and its accompanying graphics, are 
intended to both entertain and instruct players 
of the game in battlefield tactics as they work 
in Steel Panthers, so that you can win more 
often, suffer fewer casualties in so doing, and 
become a first class battlefield commander 
yourself. We will take an initial pass over 
battlefield tactics; just some general things 
to remember before attempting to duke it out 
with the blue meanies on the other side. Then 
we will move to how the game is actually 
organized, what kinds of forces to select, and 
how to deploy them. Then we will get into some 
really nitty-gritty aspects of combat such as 
how to destroy enemy squads with flamethrowers, 
morale considerations, and so forth. Finally, 
we will put it all together in a comprehensive 
look at several games (a day in the life, if 
you will). Best of all, unlike other text files 
which may be available, this one is accompanied 
either by embedded bitmaps (in the LWP 
version), or by a set of GIF files with which 
you can actually see examples of what we are 
talking about. 

So, just think of this as your Steel Panthers 
Handbook, not unlike the handbooks that many 
armies of the day handed out to their junior 
officers just starting out on their first 
command . . .

Section 0 - Using the Primer & *Legal Stuff* 
(notice!)

This Primer is released in both an LWP version 
(for OS/2 and IBM Works users) and in an ASCII 
text version. The LWP version will have many 
embedded graphics right in the document, so 
everything is right here. The ASCII version 
will have large empty spaces where those 
graphics were intended to be placed in the LWP 
version, but a reference will be made to the 
corresponding GIF file. Each GIF comes with its 
own caption and explanations, so it is not 
necessary to constantly flip back and forth 
between the text and the GIFs, unless you have 
a multitasking system capable of doing this. At 
present, due to bandwidth limitations (both my 
own limited time and the general speeds at 
which data transfers occur in cyberspace 
presently), the manual in the ASCII version 
will have only 10 associated GIF files. The LWP 
version will have a few more, some as just nice 
backgrounders to the text, so if you see an 
empty space in the ASCII version with no 
reference to a GIF, it's just a backgrounder 
that isn't necessary for the meat of the 
Primer. Also, the LWP version will have a few 
boxed "TIP" sections which will not show up in 
the ASCII version. For esthetic reasons, these 
will not be noted in the ASCII version, but if 
you are an experienced player, they won't be 
necessary. They are intended for novice 
players.  

Note : This Primer is intended to be a 
collaborative effort of all Steel Panther's 
players. Future versions will include new 
information, updates, tables, explanation of 
the latest official version of the game, and 
other data. Any reader should feel free to 
EMail his or her suggestions, comments, 
questions, or submissions to EMurrow1@aol.com. 
All submissions become the copyright of Todd 
David Brady, with the limitation that where 
text or other information is substantially 
provided to Todd David Brady by the submitter, 
credit to the submitter will be conspicuously 
noted if used in this Primer. See 
the notice below for further 
details.

Legal Notice : This Primer is not 
endorsed or supported by 
Strategic Simulations, 
Incorporated or any of its 
affiliates, nor any other 
company. The author has received 
no compensation for this work, 
financial or otherwise. Screen 
shots from the game Steel 
Panthers are the sole property of Strategic 
Simulations, Incorporated. No part of this 
manual may be reproduced in any way except for 
viewing and reading the text and graphics for 
entertainment purposes only, with the exception 
that the material may be transmitted and placed 
on an electronic service public download 
facility. No 
part of the text 
or other 
material 
contained herein 
which is the 
copyright of Todd David Brady may be altered, 
edited, abridged, or in any way modified 
without the express permission of the author. 
No part of the screen shots included or 
associated with this Primer may be reproduced, 
copied, edited, manipulated, or distributed in 
any way without the express permission of 
Strategic Simulations, Incorporated. Text 
copyright 1996 by Todd David Brady, except 
where otherwise noted. Screen shots copyright 
Strategic Simulations, Incorporated.   

Section 1 - Getting to the Battlefield

There are a number of ways to get to the 
battlefield. Steel Panthers features a number 
of pre-made scenarios which all purport to 
represent actual historical battles (there are 
also a couple of might-have-beens). There is 
also a Battle Builder which allows you to 
rapidly set up different kinds of engagements, 
from meeting engagements to an assault of one 
side against another's attempt to defend. 
Different from the Battle Builder, there is 
also a Scenario Editor which allows you to 
custom-design scenarios and add your own 
description of them. It takes a little longer 
to set up battles using the Editor, but in the 
Editor you can also define each hex on the map 
with terrain of your choosing, and customize 
many aspects of the forces -- right down to the 
names of the individual squad leaders! The 
Editor is ideal for recreating a historical 
battle, or for setting up particular 
engagements that you just can't find anywhere 
else. The last way to start a battle is by 
starting a Campaign game. In a Campaign game, 
you organize a group of units which stay with 
you throughout the campaign (and gain valuable 
combat experience along the way -- if they 
survive) and fight several separate battles 
against one or more foes. The "Long Campaign" 
allows you to have a core force throughout the 
course of the war, and you can determine your 
own time period to start from. A Long Campaign 
might involve as many as 30 or 40 separate 
engagements throughout the course of World War 
II!

This Primer will spread a lot of 'ink' talking 
about the Long Campaign. This is because for 
many wargamers, and real soldiers, the 
opportunity to organize a force of your own 
choosing and guide it through many battles, 
becoming more experienced and efficient along 
the way, is a very appealing aspect of the 
game, and it also involves a number of special 
considerations which set it 
apart from ordinary scenario 
play. 

Section 2 - A General 
Overview of Tactics

In any given battle, you 
first need to assess what you are supposed to 
accomplish with your force. Second, you need to 
assess what possible forces could be present to 
deny you those goals. Third, you must then make 
a general determination of what it is possible 
to accomplish based on what your forces can do 
versus the relative capability of the enemy. 
Fourth, once you have made these basic 
assessments, you need to evaluate all of these 
factors and come up with a general plan to 
achieve your objectives in the most efficient 
way possible. 

Whew! That was a very broad statement. 
Naturally, making the above calculations will 
require some thought on your part, and some 
basic knowledge of how the game works. This 
primer assumes you have read the manual and 
played a few games already (perhaps, quite a 
few games) so we leave the scoop on the game 
interface and mechanics to those sources.

Unless you are playing one of the ready-made 
scenarios, your force will have one of four 
basic missions to accomplish: Defend, Delay, 
Advance, and Assault. The type of mission you 
are given will have a lot to do with what type 
of tactics you decide to employ and where you 
decide to deploy your forces. Just as 
important, however, is the nature of the 
terrain you'll be fighting on and the nature of 
the enemy you will fight. In Steel Panthers, 
the tactics the enemy uses can be as varied as 
the terrain, and the computer player typically 
adopts tactics that are well suited to the 
nationality and mix of forces. Besides the 
missions mentioned above, two other kinds of 
missions can also occur in a campaign scenario: 
River Crossing and Amphibious Assault. These 
missions are relatively rare and involve some 
very special considerations, so we discuss them 
later. 

When you are given a certain mission, the enemy 
will have a mission and a ratio of force which 
corresponds to the opposite of yours according 
to the following table:

Table 1.0 
Force Ratios by Mission Type
        Player's Mission        Enemy Mission   
Player/Enemy Ratio of Force
                Defend                          Assault         40:100
                Delay                           Advance         50:100
                Advance                 Delay                   100:50
                Assault                 Defend                  100:40

Thus, on defend missions, you will be at a 
greater disadvantage in terms of the amount of 
points available to purchase support points 
versus what the number of points the enemy has 
to purchase units. Following sections will 
discuss in detail many aspects of battlefield 
tactics, but remembering the above statements, 
you should use the mission type as a general 
guide to selecting your support units and 
deploying all your forces. Though your overall 
mission may be of one type or another, you 
should be prepared for any eventuality: 
Sometimes it will be necessary to attack while 
your mission is defensive in nature, and vice 
versa. We will go into this in more detail in 
later sections. Watch out, though, because 
sometimes when you get an Advance mission, the 
enemy will launch a counterattack (before the 
battle starts) and wind up having more total 
points to spend than you! (Remember, we said 
that you have to be prepared for any 
eventuality!).

Whether you are on attack or defense, you 
should remember a few basic rules. First, never 
expose your troops to fire without a good 
reason. If you must expose them to fire, then 
make sure that you have at least as much or, 
preferably, more than the enemy can bring to 
bear at the given points of attack or defense, 
at least during the initial exchanges of fire. 
Infantry units which are moving are much more 
vulnerable to fire than positioned units, so by 
all means if you are exposed to fire move only 
if you have too. Vehicles, on the other hand, 
are harder to hit if moving, but their accuracy 
when firing is also greatly reduced. Finally, 
when you do expend copious amount of firepower, 
 don't waste it firing at targets which are of 
little or no consequence to the overall course 
of the battle. Don't waste 88s firing at Jeeps. 

Second, pay attention to the amount of time the 
scenario will last. On attack or defense, 
players frequently get caught up in the action 
and shed a lot of blood unnecessarily to take 
or hold objectives when a little patience (and 
a well placed artillery barrage) could do a big 
part of the job. If its almost the end of the 
scenario in a Long Campaign and you have very 
little chance of taking the last objective, 
don't rush toward it, sending your troops in 
like lambs to the slaughter.

Finally, be aware of something called "Force 
Morale." This concept can result in all or most 
of enemy force retreating at high speed. This 
happens when you've caused so many casualties 
to the enemy force that even undamaged enemy 
units will begin retreating. It may be that no 
matter how bad things seem for you, destroying 
just a couple more enemy tanks or squads will 
break their Force Morale, and stop their attack 
or clear out the last objective without a 
fight. This has won more than a few games for 
many other daring commanders like yourself. Be 
wary, however, since you as a Human player are 
not immune from these same effects, and you 
could lose control of the battle if you ask 
your force to do too much with too little.  

Now that you are schooled up on some basic 
battle tactics, lets start the process of 
becoming an expert commander by figuring out 
how to gather together that band of brothers 
known in Steel Panthers as the Core Force. 

Section 3 - Preparing for War : Choosing a Core 
Force

The first step of the game, really, is choosing 
a core force. Before you can do that, however, 
you have to decide which nationality you want 
to be. This is important, because each nation 
has different capabilities which actually 
change during the course of the war. If you are 
not playing a Long Campaign, your capabilities 
during the campaign of your choosing should 
remain about the same. Finally, the nationality 
will have a major impact on the force mix that 
will be ideal or optimal for winning battles.

The first thing you should do, after picking a 
nationality and starting time, is decide what 
type of campaign you will be fighting. Will you 
spend most of your time as the Germans on the 
Eastern Front against Russia, or will you be a 
strong company of US Marines fighting your way 
across the Pacific? You need to do this now, 
because the type and composition of your core 
force should be affected by your idea of when 
and where you will be spending most of the war. 
 

After you have chosen your nationality and 
starting time, the next thing you must decide 
is whether your core units will be Foot 
Infantry, Motorized Infantry or Mechanized 
Infantry. Be aware that Motorized and 
Mechanized infantry are more expensive than the 
plain-old ground pounders, with Mechanized 
troops being the most expensive. Also, remember 
that if you are going to be spending a lot of 
time in mosquito-infested jungles with no roads 
and lots of swamps, it might be better to have 
both feet on the ground and select Foot 
Infantry; infantry on foot is much better at 
detecting the presence 
of enemy troops. 
Conversely, if you 
campaign plan involves 
tromping around the wide 
expanses of the Western 
Desert, you might want 
to consider spending the 
extra money for 
mechanized or halftrack 
transport. 

One of the big advantages of Motorized or 
Mechanized infantry is that all of your core 
force infantry units will come automatically 
equipped with the appropriate transport. 
Mechanized troops especially have a big 
advantage this way because each squad will also 
have an affiliated halftrack which is 
invariably mounted with a machine gun. This 
effectively doubles the firepower of your 
troops, and adds a whole lot of extra units on 
the map. The game doesn't count the halftrack 
as part of the 24-unit limit, so when you total 
the infantry squads and the halftracks 
together, you actually can actually come out 
with more than 24 units in your core force! The 
only downside to this is that while you spend 
the extra points for the halftracks, the 
transport element of each squad cannot be 
upgraded later in the game, so far as I know. I 
recommend selecting either Foot infantry or 
Mechanized infantry and skipping over the 
Motorized option: If you're going to pay extra 
for the vehicles, you may as well get vehicles 
that can actually do some damage to the enemy. 

Your next 
choice is 
whether to 
begin at 
Green, 
Average or 
Veteran 
experience 
levels. The 
level of 
experience 
your troops 
have will 
affect a lot 
of things 
that are 
going on in the game, such as the effectiveness 
of their fire and their ability to sight enemy 
units, so the importance of experience cannot 
be underestimated. However, like many choices 
in the game, there are some costs associated 
with selecting a higher experience level. The 
higher the experience level you choose, the 
less points will be available for the purchase 
of your core units. However, higher experience 
units are more efficient and have a better 
chance of surviving longer than the newbies so 
you won't have to replace or rebuild them as 
often. If you're efficient on the battlefield 
and in the refit area, this will leave with 
with more more points to spend on upgrades than 
you would if you were just keeping a shattered 
rookie force in one piece.  

The first thing to know about your core force 
is that it can only contain a total of 24 
individual squads, tanks, or other kinds of 
units, not counting intrinsic infantry 
transport vehicles. There is, however, nothing 
to prevent you from selecting 24 tanks or 24 
anti-tank guns and so forth (not counting 
intrinsic transport), but most military experts 
agree that combined arms is the best choice. 
Your force may be fighting its way through 
Europe in dozens of different situations, so 
your force should be prepared to meet different 
challenges along the way. 
 
There are basically two schools of thought with 
respect to choosing a core force. On one hand, 
there are those who like to fashion a core 
force which more or less corresponds to what a 
company commander would have available in a 
battlefield situation. This "historical" school 
tends to organize infantry companies with some 
extra punch like a tank platoon, a mortar 
section, or an anti-tank section. The other 
school dumps any sentimentality and tries to 
select units which will give them the best 
chance of winning the most battles. This school 
typically has a higher ratio of tanks, 
anti-tank 
guns and 
engineers. 
Neither 
school is 
'correct', it 
is really a 
matter of 
personal 
choice. I 
like to have 
about 4 
infantry 
platoons, 1 
tank platoon, 
and one section of either heavy infantry guns 
or heavy anti-tank guns. The "win-at-all-costs" 
school would probably have just 1 or 2 infantry 
platoons, usually engineers, and instead have 2 
tank platoons and 2 sections of anti-tanks guns 
along with some other units like heavy mortars 
or guns. Just remember that the more expensive 
your units are, the more expensive it will be 
to replace them if they are lost. 

One thing you should NOT do is pick 
non-essential forces for your core force, such 
as that category of militaria known as "prime 
movers" or gun transports. Certain types of 
guns require motorized transport if they are to 
move at all. If you have some of these guns in 
your core force, don't add prime movers to your 
core force also. Each slot in your core force 
is valuable, and should be filled up with units 
that are capable of killing the enemy, not just 
providing an easy target for them. Besides, 
most transport of this type was drawn from a 
divisional or regimental motor pool, and was 
rarely associated with particular weapons and 
crews. If you are worried about how to move 
your guns around, just remember to buy prime 
movers as support units before each battle. 

One thing you definitely should do is fill 
every slot in your core forces with something. 
You won't get a second chance to add core 
forces later, so you have to fill those slots 
now. If you find you don't have enough points 
to get what you want, you may want to select a 
unit type which is cheaper, such as taking a 
Panzer I instead of that Panzer III. If you 
still don't have enough points and simply must 
have a certain mix of forces, then you may need 
to start over and ratchet down the experience 
levels to "average" or "green." This will give 
you more points to purchase the units you think 
you need, but they will be less experienced.  

Section 4 - Preparing for Battle: The Mission 
Screens

After you have selected a core force, you will 
be carried to another screen which is identical 
to the screen in which you chose your forces, 
with one little exception: The Mission Button. 
This button tells you what kind of mission your 
force now has for its first battle (or your 
next battle, if you have already done this and 
been there). Each type of Mission will affect 
how many points will be available to purchase 
support forces (see table 1.0), the placement 
of the objectives (on your side or on their 
side), and the number and type of certain 
support units which might be available. 

One thing about which players frequently 
complain when preparing for a battle is that 
they do not know enough about the terrain 
layout or the enemy forces. About the only 
things you will know about the upcoming battle 
is who you are fighting, where (in a general 
sense) you are going to fight, and the time of 
year. This may not seem like much, but actually 
quite a lot of relevant tactical decisions can 
be made on this basis alone! One really 
critical fact that is unfortunately left out, 
and which can have a huge impact on the battle, 
is the battlefield visibility. Choosing support 
units consisting of several sections of 
long-range anti-tank guns, for example, will be 
cause for regret if and when you discover the 
visibility is only 14 hexes!

While the player complaints are understandable, 
it is equally true that in many real battles 
which the game is capable of simulating, real 
commanders probably had the same problem. 
Visibility could change before the ink was dry 
on the warning orders, and the location of the 
upcoming battle could change rapidly, making 
the neat maps with arrows and notes pretty 
irrelevant. In the Steel Panthers arena, 
actually, there is much that can be gleaned 
from the mission and support force selection 
screen that will be critical to your selection 
of support forces and your overall deployment. 
So let's focus on what we do know. 

First, you know what you have as a core force, 
that's listed in the right hand column. If your 
forces have taken damage from previous battles 
which has not been repaired, there will be 
small text indicators next to each unit 
reporting amount of damage or <gasp> KO status. 
If you've had tanks or other vehicles knocked 
out and the crew survived, but you didn't have 
the points to replace the vehicle during the 
refit phase, you may notice these crews listed 
at the bottom of this part of the screen. 

Next, you should determine what your mission 
actually is by simply clicking on the Mission 
button. The mission button tells you a little, 
and hints at much more. Not only does it tell 
you your mission, but it also tells you where, 
when  and who you are fighting. But if you 
think of this information in context, you can 
actually gain a lot more intelligence on the 
nature of the battle you are about to fight. 

Who you are fighting is probably the single 
most important fact. The nationalities vary a 
great deal in capability. If you are British 
about to engage Italians rather than Germans, 
you can heave a huge sigh of relief, and, ahem, 
alter your support force composition 
accordingly. This will be covered in a separate 
section on The Nationalities.

Next up is when. The time of year that you are 
fighting has more to do with visibility than 
anything else, and this can be important for 
support force selection. If it is in the Fall 
or Winter months, visibility will tend to be 
lower than 45, while summer months typically 
have visibility factors much higher, sometimes 
in the 80s. At the higher visibility ranges, 
tree or forest hexes can actually be seen 
through, and smoke is less effective. The lower 
the visibility, the less effective will be 
long-range guns such as anti-tank guns and 
infantry guns, not to mention the guns mounted 
in your tanks (and those of the enemy). When is 
also very important to determine the 
capabilities of the enemy. Nationalities can 
have better or worse experience levels and 
equipment availability depending on which year 
the battle is taking place (the game manual has 
more information about this). 

Finally, there is the where factor. You already 
know that you are in some Theatre of War, like 
Eastern Europe, where the terrain can alternate 
between flat steppe and hilly knolls. However, 
if you see that the location is at a big city 
such as Warsaw, Paris, Kharkov, Stalingrad or 
Manila, then there is a chance that you will 
fighting your way through city streets, rather 
than peaceful meadows. This is no guarantee 
that you will have an urban combat situation, 
but you might want to think about adding a 
section or platoon of Engineers, whose 
flamethrowers and satchel charges will be 
invaluable for blowing up historical and 
government buildings of all types.

Even though it may seem like there is very 
little information, actually there is quite a 
bit. In many cases, you will probably have more 
information than real historical commanders did 
in most all types of engagements except for 
set-piece attacks characterized by the battle 
of Kursk.   

Now let's look at the mission types one by one.
   
The Defend mission may seem like the easiest, 
because all you have to do is wait for the 
enemy to attack and you have the advantage of 
being on defense. Translated tactically, your 
troops will face abundant opportunities to 
bushwhack the enemy. Actually, however, this is 
one of the hardest types of missions. First, 
you will be heavily outnumbered quantitatively 
if not qualitatively. Second, because you have 
to defend objectives, you will lose some degree 
of tactical mobility. Third, once your forces 
become engaged there is a good chance that they 
will either be destroyed, rout or hold their 
ground, with the latter being somewhat rare 
unless you and your troops are very 
experienced. Fourth, the enemy will most likely 
have plentiful support units in the form of 
murderous artillery fire, air attacks, mortar 
attacks, and special infantry units. Did I 
scare you yet? No? Just wait till you hear the 
sound of Katyusha batteries scoring direct hits 
on your concealed infantry positions. 

You will have some advantages, though, and they 
must be used 
to the 
fullest 
extent 
possible if 
you are to 
win. First, 
you know 
where the 
enemy units 
are going -- 
to the 
objectives of 
course. Once 
you do get to 
see the 
terrain, you 
will have be able to discover likely lines of 
approach and defend them accordingly. Second, 
you don't have to hold all the objectives to 
win, only most of them. Third, you may also 
have artillery and air support available, and 
you may also get those old standbys of 
defensive warfare: Bunkers, pillboxes and 
landmines. Fourth, all of your units will start 
the game in "entrenched" mode, meaning they 
will be harder to kill. This won't matter much 
when you command squad gets hit with four 155mm 
shells in two minutes, but it will provide 
better protection against less violent forms of 
attack. Last, in the initial rounds of combat 
at least, you will be able to pick and choose 
high value targets for destruction with 
long-range gunnery. 

The Delay mission is a variation of Defend. You 
are still asked to hold objective, your ratio 
of force is slightly improved, but you will 
generally get less support points. How does 
that work, you might ask? How can I have a 
better ratio of force and at the same time 
actually get less points to purchase with? 
Well, what's happening is that the enemy gets 
less overall points, improving your ratio. 
Again, this will be of small comfort when one 
of your core infantry platoons is defending a 
"quiet" sector when two platoons of KV-I 
behemoths emerge from the smoke, but generally 
your troops will have a somewhat easier time. 
On the down side, none of your units will begin 
the battle entrenched. This may be because 
while you still have to hold the objectives to 
win, higher command has already decided that 
the sector cannot or should not be held, and 
you have not been given enough time or 
resources to carry out a preparation of the 
defenses. At any rate, your troops will be more 
vulnerable to fire than in the Defend mission. 

To better understand the ratio of force and 
support points question, as well as unit 
availability, I have made the following table :

Table 2.0
Mission Specific Variable Estimates

Mission Type            Defend          Delay           
Advance Assault
Ratio of Force          40%             50%             200%            
240%
Support Points          180             45-80           50-90   
        180
Enemy Total Points      450             160             ?               ?
Fortifications          Yes             No              No              Yes     
Landmines               Yes             No              No              Yes
Air Power               More            Less            Less    
        More
Artillery               More            Less            Less    
        More
Length of Scen. 25              20              20              25

The point totals and turn length estimates are 
only general approximations based on what I 
know of the game. The actual amount of points 
can vary greatly depending on a number of 
factors such as Nationality, time period, other 
variables and some randomization. Note that the 
ratio of force applies only to the point totals 
that the enemy will get for support forces; it 
does not count what the computer allocates for 
a base force. For example, if you are on a 
Defend mission and get 180 support points, this 
means that your force will have a total point 
value of 180 plus the point value of your core 
force, which may be from 120-220 points 
approximately. Thus, the total point value of 
your core force will be in the general range of 
your total point value times the force ratio. 
This does not mean that there will be less 
enemy forces if you buy no support forces; the 
computer assumes that you spend all of your 
points to purchase support forces (and you 
definitely should !)

Air power and artillery will not always be 
available, again this varies with a number of 
factors. Generally, there is less chance of 
availability of this kind of support in the 
Delay and Advance missions. Airpower has an 
additional limitation and that is after 
choosing one or more airstrikes, the airstrike 
unit selection button will disappear, meaning 
that you simply cannot get anymore, no matter 
that you have the points to do it.

Now, lets move to the offensive missions. 
First, there is the Advance mission. Here, 
force density will be lower than in the 
Defend/Assault missions, but you will have less 
time to accomplish your objectives. Because of 
the lower overall point totals, the computer 
tends to buy a lot of infantry and cheap guns, 
rather than high value units like tanks. So, 
you may not notice the "force density" is lower 
per se, just that the enemy units are easier to 
deal with. 

Obviously, the character of your tactics are 
entirely different in offensive missions such 
as this. Your troops generally have to move 
more, and they usually move towards the enemy. 
This means that detecting the enemy is critical 
to your success. If you can get Airstrikes, you 
can not only rain death from above on the 
enemy, but your planes can actually spot 
concentrations of enemy forces much in advance 
of your ground troops. Without this nifty bit 
of 20th Century technology, you'll be limited 
to your eyes. Another tactic is that even if 
you can't see the enemy but suspect he is 
there, you can use some of your troops to fire 
into empty hexes with the "Z" key. When you 
fire into a hex this way, you percent chance to 
hit is greatly reduced. However, its much 
better than zero, which is what it would be if 
you didn't fire at all because you don't see 
the stealthy, hidden enemy units. A couple of 
really damaging hits will flush out weaker 
troops. 

The Assault mission is quite difficult for the 
novice player. Many more hazards abound in the 
form of mines and artillery, as well as bunkers 
and pillboxes. Not only do you have to advance 
and take objectives, but you have to do it 
while the enemy calls down artillery fire. The 
pace of your advance will be much slower than 
in the Advance mission, not only because of the 
Artillery and other hazards, but also because 
of the danger of mines. Force densities will be 
high, and the enemy will have more high value 
units with which to surprise you.

The biggest problem players have when on either 
an Advance or Assault mission is dealing with 
an enemy counter-attack from unexpected 
quarters. The computer player frequently hides 
units in out-of-the-way places, and they will 
activate and move toward any objective which 
you have just taken. More often then not, you 
will either not see them coming, or the forces 
you left at one objective, such as an infantry 
platoon, will not be able to handle the 
appearance of fresh, high-value enemy forces. 
Many players take the first objective they can 
and then hold their ground awaiting the 
inevitable enemy counter-attack, deal with it, 
decimate the enemy counter-attacking forces, 
and then easily capture the remaining 
objectives. This doesn't always work, but it is 
one way of dealing with these troublesome 
computer tactics. 

Section 5 - Campaign Considerations

Before we actually set out to engage in our 
first battle of the campaign, there are a few 
things you need to remember. First, remember 
that your performance in the campaign will be 
most affected by how long your core units 
survive before they are destroyed and their 
places taken by replacements, and how much 
experience they have overall. Therefore, when 
involved in a battle, you should try to give 
your core forces experience before letting 
support units get it. Units get experience by 
making kills. A kill is credited when the 
firing unit scores a hit which destroys the 
enemy unit. 

In other words, use your support forces only to 
make kills when absolutely necessary (such as 
eliminating a few of the 12 T-34/85s bearing 
down on your headquarters squad). If an enemy 
infantry unit is reduced to a couple of men, 
let the nearest core unit get the credit for 
the kill. However, don't use the intrinsic 
transport of core units, like halftracks, get 
the kills either. Intrinsic transport does not 
retain kill credits (the drivers aren't really 
keen on becoming known as real soldiers). A 
good tactic here is to use the intrinsic 
transport in a perpetual support role for the 
unit(s) they are assigned to. I like to have my 
halftracks placed behind the associated 
infantry and only rarely use them to fire 
during my fire phase. When enemy infantry pops 
up and starts to fire at friendly infantry, the 
halftrack's machine guns fire back at the 
firing enemy units, suppressing and killing 
them, reducing their accuracy, and saving the 
lives of my core infantry. On most Defend 
missions, however, you'll take about any kill 
you can get so on this mission don't bother too 
much about this policy.

Yet another way to get experience is by 
accepting the opportunity for a breakthrough 
attack, or defeating an enemy counter-attack. 
The manual and the README.TXT file, which is 
part of the standard Steel Panthers install, 
mentions this. When and where you should 
actually accept the challenge of a breakthrough 
will be discussed here later (Note that you 
will not have the option of accepting or 
declining a counter-attack by the enemy, except 
to go back to your last save -- but, hey, 
that's cheating!).

Remember to upgrade your units with the latest 
possible weaponry. This is fairly easy to do 
with respect to tank units, but also keep in 
mind that infantry units of various types can 
also be upgraded. Around 1943, infantry units 
of many nations upgrade their squads to include 
an anti-tank weapon such as the Panzerfaust or 
Bazooka. Your core units will not be upgraded 
automatically! Unless you check to see what is 
available and compare that with what your 
troops actually have, you could lose an 
opportunity to make your infantry much more 
able to deal with enemy tanks. Unfortunately, 
the only way to make this comparison is to 
check your units out during a scenario, and 
then check what is available at the next refit 
opportunity. In addition to the anti-tank 
capability, some types of squads get newer 
weaponry or an additional squad automatic 
weapon.  

Use support units to detect enemy lines of 
advance or defense points. Discovering the 
location of the enemy is a hazardous occupation 
which is best left to men who will be leaving 
when the 
battle is 
over, and not 
to the men 
who will be 
encamped near 
your HQ for 
most of the 
war. It just 
doesn't make 
sense to use 
core units in 
a first line 
or 
reconnaissance
 role when 
you know that there is a much higher likelihood 
that they will not only take heavy casualties, 
but may even get wiped out. Of course, this is 
not a rule, just a policy. Sometimes you have 
to reconnoiter with core units, and sometimes 
you want to bunch up everyone into a powerful 
defense line. Anti-tank guns, in particular, 
whether they are core or support, are best left 
behind infantry anyway. 

If several of your core units are of really 
inferior quality, don't hesitate to kill them 
off. Core units, if they survive, will improve 
over time. With some core units, however, this 
may take most of the war -- assuming they make 
it! Sometimes you get stuck with core units 
that, for lack of a better word, suck. Rather 
than start the whole game over, convert them to 
suicide units and hope for better replacements. 
More than once I have seen even relatively 
efficient core units get wasted, only to find 
that the replacement units have much better 
experience and rally ratings. 

Retreat off the map if things are going badly. 
No matter how good you think you are, there may 
be times when discretion is the better part of 
valor. Even if you are pretty sure you can win, 
it may not be worth the expenditure of life 
(especially in the core units). It's better to 
suffer minor losses and live to fight another 
day, than to lose half your force and win the 
battle. If you've wound up in a position where 
after a battle or two, you can't even replace 
your losses, then your should opt for 
retreating even more readily. At times, I have 
even deployed my entire force along the edge of 
the map and retreated en masse in the first 
turn, just because my core force was depleted 
(you still get rebuild points if you lose). 

Section 6 - Deploying For Battle

In this section, we'll retain a 'mission' 
focus. However, regardless of what you think 
your mission is, it might be different than the 
one reported to you!! The very first thing you 
should do when you get to the deploy screen is 
to check out the location of the objectives. If 
you are on a Defend or Delay mission, the 
objectives will always be on your side of the 
map. If you are supposed to be on an Advance or 
Assault mission, the objectives should be on 
the enemy's side of the map. However, if you 
see that one or more of the objectives is on 
your side of the map, or not where it is 
supposed to be, get ready! The enemy's mission 
has just changed from Defend/Delay to either 
Assault/Advance, and High Command hasn't told 
you yet! This will drastically alter the way 
you deploy your forces. You'll get a nice 
animation screen after you deploy informing you 
of this change of events, but its much more 
useful to have that info when you'll assigning 
platoons to move forward or hold a piece of 
ground.  

You may also see that one objective is not in 
your deployment zone and yet is considered 
under your control. What will happen now is 
that the enemy will set up for attack, and move 
toward the nearest objective that is reported 
as under your control, and that will usually be 
the one that you can't even set up on because 
it is outside your deployment zone. If you are 
on the Advance or Assault mission and one of 
the objectives is on your side of the map, you 
want to consider some defensive deployment 
tactics. This really depends on the quality, 
quantity and relative speed of your forces 
versus those of the enemy. If you think you can 
get to the nearest objective outside your 
deployment zone before the enemy, you might 
want to do that instead of just defending the 
one objective which is on your side.

Another thing that can happen is that the 
objectives, instead of having nice national 
flags, have a funky "V" symbol. This is a 
telegraph to you that this battle will be a 
meeting engagement. Everyone will be moving 
towards objectives and in this case the old 
American Rule of "He who gets there fustest 
with the mostest" will be the order of the day. 
The great thing about this battle is that 
because the enemy will take some of the 
objective hexes before you even see them, 
you'll get to ascertain their main 
concentrations in advance of your preparation 
for firefights.    

The illustration at right (GIF file : SPPILL7a) 
shows what can happen when your mission 
changes. As the caption explains, the British 
player was originally assigned an Advance 
mission, but on the deployment screen he noted 
that one objective was in his deployment zone. 
This indicated that an enemy counter-attack was 
about to occur. Realizing that his slow force, 
consisting primarily of infantry, would be 
unable to get to the nearest hill before the 
German attack arrived in force, the set up was 
for point defense on open ground of the sole 
objective in the British deployment area. 
Though the defense was successful, as shown, it 
not until the they got practically to the 
infantry lines were many Panzers knocked out. 
It could have easily gone the other way, and 
the British position might have collapsed.

When deploying for defense, you'll want to see 
how the terrain relates to the objectives. 
Sometimes, the objectives will be spread out 
from north to south, making defense appear to 
be difficult. Other times, the objectives will 
be in a line from east to west or west to east, 
suggesting that the first target of the enemy 
attack will be the one objective closest to the 
extreme edge of the deployment area. 

Generally, the main rule for defensive 
deployment is to deploy in cover on the higher 
elevations. If LOS is important, as it always 
is for tanks and AT-guns, make sure to check 
the unit's LOS before deciding this is a good 
location. Trees and buildings on lower 
elevations can sometimes block what would 
otherwise be an excellent firing position. Make 
sure that your units are not so close together 
that many of them will get plastered by 
artillery fire (if on a Defend mission 
particularly), but not so far apart as to be 
unable to support each other. Remember that 
Tanks and AT-Guns will almost always need some 
infantry to guard against an infantry assault. 
At the same time, infantry will need some of 
the big boys if a force of enemy tanks show up. 

A good thing to remember about defensive 
deployment is the concept of interlacing fields 
of fire. Rather than have everybody facing in 
one direction and setting up for a linear 
defense, have some groups face obliquely to the 
front. It is ideal for each unit to have 
support from other friendly units capable of 
hitting enemy attacks at an angle. This will 
expose an attacking enemy to fire from two or 
three directions no matter where they come 
from, and sometimes result in a good chance for 
flank shots.

Another thing to concern yourself with is the 
placement of your command unit. Any other unit 
within 5 hexes of the command unit will get an 
additional chance to rally. This can sometimes 
make the difference between whether the 
position holds, or your troops decide to head 
for the rear. Also, whether or not a unit is 
considered "in contact" with a command unit 
will have an effect on things like accuracy of 
fire. Note that units can respond to rally 
attempts from up to three command units, that 
of their immediate squad leader, then their 
section or platoon commander, and finally the 
overall command unit (you!). Placing command 
units nearby gains you, for the most part, the 
best chance of minimizing the hidden negatives 
of low accuracy and suppression vulnerability.

Lastly, on defense don't just deploy in static 
positions all the time and await the enemy. If 
you have a mobile force, you might want to 
think about deploying them away from the main 
line ready to counter-attack. As the enemy 
moves forward, taking objectives and firing at 
the units you throw in front of him, he will 
tend to become disorganized. If you've managed 
to hold a reserve in the rear or on his flanks, 
the enemy may be ripe for a riposte. In fact, 
sometimes the AI will capture an objective and 
move on to the next one, without leaving 
ANYTHING AT ALL TO DEFEND IT! If you other 
positions come under heavy pressure, taking the 
objective back will send his forces into 
confusion! The AI will detach some or all of 
his units back to the objective you reoccupied, 
relieving your other forces. If done well, this 
can result in the attacking enemy being caught 
in a pincers and cut to pieces.

While it would be nice to defend every 
objective, sometimes you just can't do it. 
Sometimes, you don't always receive a number of 
support points which is adequate. Other times, 
you'll actually want to leave an objective 
unoccupied (especially against the AI), because 
this makes the enemy's path of attack more 
predictable. So, don't feel compelled to place 
units around every objective, let your 
judgement and determination control the battle, 
not the AI or the presence of some objective.

The screen shot at right is an illustration of 
a couple of tactics of defensive deployment. 
(GIF file SPPILL2a.GIF). First, note that one 
objective is totally undefended. This makes the 
likely path of the enemy easier to predict. 
Second, on the northern edge of the map, the 
defender has placed a platoon of tanks which 
will either flank a direct attack on the 
northern objective, or which could 
counter-attack and swing down to reoccupy the 
northern objective if it is taken. Third, 
though it may be difficult to see, any direct 
approach on the center objective will result in 
flank shots by AT-guns and one pillbox 
stationed on the northern side of the center 
hill. This is a lesser version of the 
interlacing fields of fire concept discussed 
earlier. Later screen shots of this game will 
show exactly what happened. 

On attack, there are a couple of basic 
deployment methods. First, determine whether 
your forces are capable of operating in groups. 
Ask the question of yourself: Can my forces 
operate in cohesive groups each with a specific 
objective? Each group should have a degree of 
firepower and mobility related to its mission. 
Some groups you may wish to give multiple 
missions or hold in reserve to exploit 
weaknesses in the enemy defenses. Generally, 
only higher morale armies with good equipment 
can form tactical groups in this manner. If 
your core force is inexperienced, and you are 
playing with one of the lesser quality armies 
(such as the early Russians or Americans) you 
may not be able to form cohesive attacking 
groups because your troops will become 
suppressed and rout too easily. In such a case 
it is best to gather your force together in one 
big group and try to take each objective one by 
one.

Next, you need to figure out how to approach 
the task of taking the objectives. Should you 
simply attack them directly, flank them, or, 
instead, concentrate on killing enemy units and 
hope that this causes his force morale to 
break? Direct lines of approach are sure-fire 
ways of detecting the enemy, which is good if 
you are confident that your forces will prevail 
in a firefight. Indirect lines of approach are 
good if your object is to minimize casualties 
and have plenty of time to accomplish the 
mission (relatively speaking). An indirect 
approach will not work, in most cases, if the 
map terrain is predominately flat and 
featureless. The enemy will see you coming and 
start causing losses at a distance. However, 
you may want to nevertheless position your 
forces so that you come in range of as few 
defenders as necessary to take the objective.  

Initial placement of forces on attack consists 
primarily of organizing the attack forces into 
groups and putting them in places that are good 
starting points for the intended line of march, 
keeping all the above factors in mind. In some 
cases, you will be fortunate to have a 
combination of terrain features on your side of 
the map and visibility which allow you an 
excellent view of the possible enemy positions 
before you even move into no man's land. In 
this case, you may want to place some heavy 
guns (if you have them) or your command squad 
at this point, so that you can take advantage 
of your force commander's (you!) usually 
excellent Artillery Command ratings to call 
down artillery barrages on the enemy. 

A typical attack group is a combined arms 
killing machine. First, each group should have 
someone doing reconnaissance. There may be only 
one dedicated reconnaissance force available to 
do this for all the groups, but in some cases 
you may want to provide this capability to the 
individual attack group. If you have armor, 
place your highest frontal armor rated armored 
units ahead of the weaker units, unless those 
weaker units are low value reconnaissance 
units. The enemy will tend to fire at the 
nearest high value unit it can, and there is no 
sense in letting this be one of your weakly 
armored albeit high-value tanks. 

Some armies can get away with having very 
little or no infantry in some of the attack 
groups. The Germans in particular excel in this 
area. However, if your armor is to be moving 
around, even in open terrain, where enemy 
infantry are as numerous as ants, this can be 
very dangerous! Here it might be a good idea to 
dismount some of your infantry from their 
intrinsic carriers and mount them directly on 
the tanks. Beware, however, if the tank comes 
under fire and a hit is scored -- it may not 
damage the 
tank but the 
riders can 
lose men and 
become 
slightly less 
comfortable. 
Mounting your 
infantry on 
tanks is a 
good way to 
protect them 
from infantry 
assaults. 
However, it 
is not a sure 
fire 
guarantee of protection. If a tank comes under 
assault from two different enemy units in a 
single turn, the riders will only 'absorb' the 
first assault (and they may take casualties in 
so doing). The second assault can still damage 
the tank.   

Section 7 - Infantry Tactics

Infantry has often been called the Queen of the 
Battlefield. In Steel Panthers, the infantry 
squad is the one unit that is capable of doing 
everything. Infantry can kill enemy infantry 
and tanks, clear mines, assault fortifications, 
hide in ambush, lay smoke and generally make 
life difficult for the enemy. They are also 
very vulnerable to kinetic energy in the form 
of bullets and explosions. Though the game is 
called Steel Panthers, any force without 
infantry is likely to get ambushed and 
destroyed fairly quickly. 

The main strength of infantry is the ability to 
spot enemy units, as well as remaining hidden 
when they open up with their relatively meager 
weaponry. The ability of units to spot and hide 
is directly related to their experience level. 
Their ability to kill units is based on their 
skill level and that of their commander. 

Infantry have two basic missions in the game : 
killing enemy infantry and crews, and slowing 
attacks by other types of forces (read: tanks) 
until anti-tank forces can be deployed to deal 
with them. 

The single most important factor for your 
infantry's effectiveness is, in my opinion, is 
whether they are moving when they fire or are 
fired at. Infantry is most effective and deadly 
to enemy infantry at ranges between 1-6 hexes 
when they are 'positioned' (not moving). Their 
effectiveness is doubled if the target unit is 
enemy infantry which is classified as 'moving 
fast'. Correspondingly, when your infantry is 
moving, it is much less accurate at hitting the 
enemy, and much more vulnerable to fire. If 
your infantry is classified as 'moving fast' 
and gets hit by fire at close range from 
positioned enemy infantry, most of that squad 
will buy the farm. 

This leads us to a couple of simple rules. 
First, always seek cover. Whether you are 
moving fast or just moving, head for trees, 
holes, and other cover. Second, when cover 
isn't available, move slow. Don't order your 
troops to run around at maximum movement every 
turn, they're bound to get ambushed and laid 
low. Move a maximum of two hexes per turn, 
which classifies them as 'moving', and not 
'moving fast', when enemy infantry or tanks are 
within 10 hexes. 'Moving' units are still 
fairly effective at firing back, and they're 
not quite as likely to get cut up when the 
enemy opens up.  

When moving infantry around, there is also a 
tactic known as bounding overwatch which is 
used by most modern armies today in one form or 
another. If you have a four-squad platoon, move 
only two squads at a time, leaving the other to 
in 'positioned' status. If enemy infantry is 
detected, the positioned troops will be more 
effective at suppressing them than the movers. 
Three-squad platoons use the 1-2-1 bounding 
method (moving first one squad, then two, then 
one again). Even when your moving troops have 
completed their move and you think it is safe 
to now move up the positioned squads, think 
twice about it. If the enemy pops up during 
their turn and starts firing, you may have no 
units in positioned status who can return fire 
with optimal effectiveness. 

When you come up against a position that is too 
strong, either bring up reinforcements or 
support, or lay smoke and back off. If you hang 
around too long, your troops might get pinned 
and you won't be able to get them out unless 
they retreat or rout away (in which case they 
will take heavy casualties). 

The other important factor in infantry 
effectiveness and survivability is their 
ability to detect enemy infantry which is 
moving towards them or waiting for them, and 
their ability to react fire during the enemy's 
phase. These factors are directly related to 
their experience and their commander's skill 
levels. Less experience and skill means the 
enemy will creep up on you undetected, more 
means that you will do that to him. You may 
notice that when you are moving, you will 
sometimes detect enemy infantry and they will 
turn and fire on you. Other times, you may see 
them, and they don't react. Assuming the enemy 
still has units left for react fire, they 
probably didn't see you. This all has to do 
with a comparison of their experience and skill 
versus your experience ratings and skill, and 
whether they or you are moving or not. You may 
need to adjust your tactics slightly depending 
on what you have determined to be the 
relativity of these factors. British versus 
Italian equals no problemo, your troops will 
usually spot first. British versus German 
equals mucho problemo, your troops will get 
spotted first. 

If you are dealing with a situation where your 
infantry are relatively less experienced and 
skilled, then you will have to move slower, and 
even use sacrificial support infantry to detect 
the enemy. Even on a static defense, the enemy 
can creep up to your positions and start firing 
before your greenhorns even know what's 
happening. This is a particular problem when 
fighting the Japanese, who seem to be most 
adept at remaining undetected. Using snipers is 
an excellent detection method, so are mines and 
machine gun teams. Just place a few of these 
low-value units in front of your rookie core 
units and they will at least have some warning. 

Mechanized infantry is much more effective than 
regular foot infantry at just about everything. 
They have that cool half-track vehicle which is 
known as a Bren Carrier to the British, 
Sd-something (for the Germans), Halftrack (for 
the Americans), and several other official and 
unprintable unofficial names in various armies. 
A rose by any other name is just as well-armed. 
The halftracks make it easy to get around 
almost any terrain with ease, and they come 
with that extra added-bonus machine-gun. I like 
to have the halftracks follow the infantry 
during advances in enemy territory and not fire 
them at all, they will tend to react to enemy 
fire and suppress them, enhancing the 
survivability of my guys.

The really big danger of mechanized infantry is 
the temptation to stay mounted and move around 
quickly. Halftracks which get hit by anything 
bigger than a rifle bullet are liable to become 
smoking clods of useless junk, taking out the 
riders in the process. Never, never, never 
mount your infantry in an area where the enemy 
is putting up an active resistance and may have 
any direct-fire gun weapons such as tanks and 
AT-guns. Even small-caliber artillery can 
flatten an infantry carrier and scramble the 
riders inside like an egg yoke. However, if 
enemy resistance is broken and only a few 
routing squads are about, mech inf excels at 
mopping up operations. When they move near a 
unit and dismount to begin firing, they are 
classed as positioned, so their fire is more 
effective than ordinary infantry who had to jog 
up to that position. Again, though, make sure 
that your squads get the credit for the kills, 
not the transport units. This is why I don't 
make a big point about firing the transport 
units; I want my squads to get the experience, 
not the driver and the driver's flunky. 
However, even a routing machinegun crew can 
suddenly turn around and assault the halftrack, 
destroying it and contents, so be cautious even 
when in cleanup mode. 

If you are moving around the battlefield while 
mounted, be sure to dismount at the end of each 
move. Sometimes, this alone will reveal the 
presence of enemy infantry just a few hexes 
away, or even adjacent to you, which would not 
have been otherwise detected. There is a small 
danger in doing this in that when you dismount 
the riders, the halftrack is vulnerable to 
assault and destruction. Also, the act of 
dismounting may cause the enemy to react fire 
on the newly dismounted infantry, who are 
classed as positioned. This is a small price to 
pay in comparison to losing both vehicle and 
rider. The newer versions of SP dismount riders 
from halftracks automatically, but not from 
tanks. This may or may not be what you want to 
happen, so just keep a watch on things. It's 
your job. You are the commander, right?

The last thing you need to do with infantry 
units is pay attention to which squad in each 
platoon is the one with the platoon leader. On 
the Unit Roster, this squad is the one with the 
'H' next to it. This is usually the first unit 
in the platoon, unless your leader bit the dust 
in an earlier scenario, in which case the new 
leader will be assigned to the most experienced 
squad (I think!). This is important because the 
performance of the whole platoon can depend on 
the existence and proximity of the leader. I 
have noticed that when the leader's squad gets 
heavily suppressed or killed, the performance 
of the whole squad tends to degrade. You'll 
want to expose the leader's squad to fire from 
the enemy less frequently than you do the 
others. 

The armies of some nations have excellently 
equipped infantry squads. The better 
nationalities arm them with plenty of 
firepower, usually including a squad automatic 
weapon or two. The wanna-bees of the war 
usually have only rifles for the grunts. In 
addition to your usually better experience and 
morale ratings, your infantry will have a 
distinct firepower advantage. The squad 
automatic weapons are effective even at the 
longer ranges of 6-10 hexes. In fact at those 
ranges, the SAR can be responsible for many 
more casualties among the enemy targets than 
your rifles. In such a case, you may want to 
keep your distance from the lower quality 
enemy, especially if you are trying to keep 
your own casualties to a minimum. At the same 
time, if your are commanding some of the poorly 
equipped squads, you might want to think about 
waiting to fire until the enemy gets really 
close, where your guys at least have a fighting 
chance to hit something with their rifles. 
There's always a risk, however, against good 
troops that your lowlies (who aren't all that 
good at hiding, anyway) will get spotted before 
they can ambush the enemy, so you'll want to 
open up at the 3-4 hex range. Sometimes, they 
won't even detect them! ("Dmitri? Will you stop 
smoking that cigarette? The Germanskii are 
getting close to the barn. Dmitri?"; "Hands up, 
drop your weapons."; "Ah, yes, the great 
comrade Germanskii soldiers have arrived 
already. I've been expecting you.")

Dealing with enemy tanks is very difficult for 
any group of infantry. Even after the infantry 
of the major armies get upgraded to the squad 
anti-tank weaponry, these weapons don't have 
much penetration power, though they can still 
waste the big tanks with a lucky shot. You can 
use these weapons from a one or two hex range. 
From a two hex range, its considered a ranged 
weapon, and fired like the rifles. From a one 
hex range, it may be part and parcel of an 
assault. 

Assaulting tanks is done during your phase by 
selecting the infantry unit you wish to assault 
and then using normal targeting to target the 
tank. After you execute the targeting, several 
things can happen. First, your assault will go 
forward and destroy the enemy hulk. Right. 
Second, your assault will go forward and not 
destroy the enemy tank. Figures. Third, your 
assault will not go forward and instead the 
troops decide to fire their rifles and other 
small arms and muss up the tank's paint job. 
Good move, boys! Fourth, your assault will not 
go forward and nothing will happen. What? 
Fifth, your assault will not go forward and 
your troops will either become pinned (Hey!), 
retreat (Hey, wait!), or rout (Hey, wait for 
me!). What is happening here?

Well, I don't really know. Troops with a 
suppression level of 6 or less will generally 
go forward with the assault. The success of the 
assault appears to have much to do with both 
the kinds of weapons the squad has (if they 
have satchel charges, they are much more 
effective), and the quality of the troops and 
leadership. As for the other results, where the 
troops get pinned or rout, this is probably 
because there is some morale check coded into 
the assault routines. The morale check is 
probably also situationally-based. That is, if 
the enemy tank is a monster, the troops will 
figure that this is a hopeless attempt and 
bail. Or, if their side is really hurting or 
the squad itself has taken casualties and is in 
a bad spot their morale will (of course) fail. 
In any event, the result reflects real world 
considerations in my opinion, and in the real 
world assaulting tanks takes competence and 
leadership. Even if your squad's morale fails 
and you become pinned, you can still attack the 
hex using either the Z key or normal firing 
with the Target Button, and if you have satchel 
charges, flamethrowers, or the squad anti-tank 
weapon (later in the war) this can still result 
in the enemy tank getting destroyed. You might 
want to manually rally the troops first, since 
their accuracy is impacted by suppression. 

Sometimes, too, an assault will expend all of 
the squad's remaining firepower, while at other 
times the assault will be astoundingly 
successful and expend only one unit of fire, 
leaving you with the ability to assault other 
tanks nearby or move around. Again, this is 
probably based on morale, experience and 
leadership factors. Regardless of the outcome 
of the assault, in most cases the squad will 
have more suppression than it did before -- 
much more if the assault failed and a humongous 
amount if the assault failed and the tank 
returned fire on the assaulters.  

Your troops will also assault enemy vehicles 
which move adjacent to them if their 
suppression levels are low. If you see a group 
of enemy tanks moving towards an infantry 
position which has not been spotted by the 
enemy, or which will not be spotted by the tank 
before it pulls up alongside, make sure that, 
before you end your turn, the unit's 
suppression levels are as low as can be. If 
there is a risk of the infantry becoming 
spotted, lay some smoke in front of them. (Be 
careful, though, because laying smoke is 
considered firing and can actually result in 
your infantry unit becoming spotted. This is an 
especial risk if visibility is high and one 
lousy smoke grenade does not actually totally 
block visibility through the hex. To check 
this, at some point during the scenario, you 
should attempt to check your LOS through a 
smoked hex yourself and determine if a newly 
smoked hex does in fact totally block 
visibility. Generally, visibility ranges of 60 
or greater mean that one smoke hex will not 
block visibility). 

One tactic that your infantry will greatly 
appreciate if you order them to assault a 
vehicle is to direct fire against the target 
tank with other units before going forward with 
the assault. This will cause suppression on the 
target tank. The target may fire back at the 
units causing the suppression, but this will 
only help your infantry when they go into 
assault mode because the tank will have 
expended all of its defensive fire against 
those other units, leaving your infantry 
unhindered in the assault, and negating the 
risk of casualties from the tank's return fire 
on the assaulting squad. On very rare 
occasions, the assaulting unit can provide the 
suppression 
fire itself. 
If your unit 
is unspotted, 
you will get 
to fire at 
least once 
before being 
spotted. So, 
you could 
fire with the 
assaulting 
unit first, 
move adjacent 
and then 
assault. I 
don't 
recommend this as a standard tactic, however, 
since your movement will usually result in the 
tank seeing you and opening fire. However, if 
the battle has already been going on for some 
time and the target tank has fired and been 
fired on a great deal already, this one last 
bit of suppression may be all that is needed to 
completely suppress the crewman and save you 
from their return fire.

The illustration at right (GIF file 
SPPILL5b.gif) shows one example of how infantry 
assaults can work. A platoon of Tiger Is was 
spotted approaching across a flat expanse of 
desert in Tunisia. Fortunately, they were 
heading directly towards a river line position 
occupied by experienced and 
satchel-charge-armed British Commandos. Prior 
to arriving at the position, the Tigers had 
fired on some British tanks about 1000 meters 
to the rear of the Commando's positions. Also, 
a platoon of Valentines had fired on the 
approaching Tigers from the flank, immobilizing 
one. Finally, the Commandos laid smoke to their 
front, to insure that they would not be seen by 
the Tiger crews until they were adjacent. Sure 
enough, the three remaining Tigers attempted to 
cross the stream and were instantly assaulted 
by several Commando squads at once. Two were 
destroyed immediately, the third was hit by the 
Commandos again during the British phase. The 
Commandos sustained no casualties in this 
engagement.  

Section 8 - Tank & Armored Fighting Vehicle 
(AFV) Tactics

Infantry may be the Queen of the Battlefield, 
but Armor is King, at least, so say most tank 
crewmen. Most of us grunts looking down the 
Long 88 barrel of a King Tiger would agree. 
Most of the major armies have tanks, but only 
two armies really have the best: The Germans 
(of course) and the Russians. The Allies are in 
the second category, with everyone else falling 
behind them. The Japanese are in a category all 
by themselves with respect to tanks, and this 
is known as "bad," but then, they don't really 
need them. 

Tanks come in a number of different 
configurations to numerous to detail here. For 
the moment, lets just categorize them according 
to their mission. The hard part is figuring out 
just which tank is the right tank for the right 
job. In most cases, the tanks in Steel Panthers 
are armed and armored with what they actually 
had in the real war. The design, planning and 
General Staffs could get just as confused about 
what role a particular AFV was to play as you 
will be. 

To clear up some of the confusion, there is a 
table that comes with the game called 
README.txt, which generally denotes the role of 
all the major tanks in the game. There is also 
a penetration table, available in SSI's 
software library on America Online and 
elsewhere, called SPWPNS.DOC which provides 
further detail on this subject. 

One helpful item of historical and military 
knowledge which may help you in this task is 
knowing what things like 75L31 and 88L51 mean. 
Most players are aware that the first set of 
numbers refer to the diameter of the gun tube, 
and that the second number generally stands for 
the length of the tube. The "L" number stands 
for calibers. The figure after the L is 
determined (by engineers and designers and so 
forth) by dividing the total length of the 
barrel by the diameter of the tube. So a 75L31 
means that it is a 75mm gun, which is the 
length of 31 diameters of that tube. Generally 
speaking, any gun in which the calibers are at 
least one-half of the diameter is probably will 
have excellent muzzle velocity and penetration 
values. Note the difference between the German 
50L42, max penetration 8, and and the 50L60, 
max penetration 9. Same diameter, better 
penetration. Even more enlightening, the German 
20L55, with a penetration of 6, versus the 
Soviet 152L32, penetration only 3! The Soviet 
gun is over 7 times the diameter of the small 
20mm, but it's poor length to diameter ratio 
means that it cannot reliably penetrate much 
more than a reconnaissance vehicle, while the 
20mm can penetrate even medium-class tanks on a 
daily basis! Calibers do not explain 
everything, like they cannot account for 
special rounds (like tungsten-carbide cores), 
the general efficiency of the crews, or blind 
luck, but it is at least one way to determine 
the tank's role.  

The number one role of the tank is to kill 
other tanks, but some types of weapons mixes 
are better than others. If a tank has a large 
gun with AP rounds, that's a tank-killer. If a 
tank has a large gun with both AP and HE 
rounds, that's more of a multi-purpose tank. If 
a tank has a gun with only HE rounds, that's a 
support tank. If a tank has very heavy armor, 
it will be able to stand up to other tanks 
better, making it more on the order of a 
tank-killer. Thinner armor means it might be 
better suited to infantry support or 
reconnaissance roles. It's really a matter of 
judgement. Be guided by but not ruled by what 
the armies of the day called their tanks. 
Sometimes the Combat Support tanks (so-called) 
were the only thing that could really stand up 
to enemy tank forces! Sometimes the "Pursuit", 
"Cruiser", or "Crusader" tanks were better at 
scouting than their intended role of engaging 
enemy tanks. Check out how much firepower the 
tank can throw at enemy infantry, too. Some 
tanks are very light in this category, some 
have no anti-infantry capability at all!

If you have one of those tanks with two large 
guns, like the Lee tank with a 37mm turret gun 
and a 75mm hull mounted gun, to get maximum 
effect you should re-align the whole tank 
towards the enemy if it isn't already. I've 
seen the percentage chance to hit rise 
significantly after I've done this but before 
firing my first round. That's because the 
computer calculates the basic percentage based 
the likelihood that a hit will be obtained if 
all weapons capable of firing and hitting the 
target actually fire. If you have 2 guns firing 
as opposed to 1, you percent chance to hit will 
rise accordingly. 

These same issues apply to Assault Guns. This 
species of the Armored Fighting Vehicle is 
basically a tank with no turret, and the gun 
mounted in the hull. Usually, these guns had 
the capability to traverse several degrees in 
either direction so that the hull didn't always 
have to point directly at the enemy to get off 
a shot, and some target-tracking could be done. 
Some assault guns are excellent tank killers, 
such as the JagdPanther and JagdTiger, while 
some are relegated to infantry support such as 
the Brumbar or SU-152. The advantage of assault 
guns is that they may be harder to hit and have 
excellent armor. The negative is that they tend 
to have low rates of fire (less times to shoot 
per turn) and appear to be vulnerable to losing 
the main gun to a non-penetrating enemy hit on 
the front hull. For assaults, assault guns are 
the right choice. They are fairly cheap and 
have good armor, and can withstand a fair 
number of hits without shirking. They are ideal 
for leading other troops into the teeth of 
heavy resistance, because of their relatively 
cheap expense combined with good armor and 
relatively good firepower. Don't expect them to 
stand up to a strong tank force, however.   

Whatever type of tank force you have, a prime 
method of increasing it's effectiveness is to 
shoot at the enemy from higher elevations. This 
is because, if the firing tank is at a higher 
elevation than the target tank, there is a 
chance that the round will hit the top of the 
turret or hull area, resulting in what the game 
calls a "top hit". Top hits are much more 
likely to penetrate and kill the target. Even 
the heaviest tanks in the game, like the Tiger 
or the Panther, can be vulnerable to 
destruction via top hit. This is one reason why 
elevations are so critical. If you find 
yourself at a disadvantageous elevation, try to 
prioritize those enemy units at the higher 
elevations which might be able to get a top hit 
against you, unless you could easily kill off 
the lower creatures and cause some morale 
effects among the enemy commands.

There are some mistakes that players can make 
in both their play and conceptualization of the 
game with respect to tanks and their weaponry. 
One is believing that, since your tank has the 
best gun and the best armor on the map that you 
are basically invulnerable. No tank, no matter 
how well armed and armored, can traverse the 
battleground like a King. On the one hand, 
every tank is vulnerable to infantry assaults, 
and, take it from a tanker, its almost 
impossible to see all infantry threats from 
inside a tank. Even infantry units walk into 
ambushes all the time in the real world, and 
sometimes they still can't figure out where the 
enemy is even after they've been shot at for 
several minutes. A tank crew has only about 
1/10th the degree of visibility that regular 
ground soldiers have. On the other hand, even 
if the enemy's guns can't even theoretically 
penetrate your rear armor, in the real world 
tanks are full of weaknesses and flaws that 
even small guns can exploit. Don't be surprised 
if some lowly 37mm was able to hit your Tiger 
tank and immobilize or even kill it. It's very 
unlikely, but in the real world as well as 
Steel Panthers, it can happen.  

Section 9 - Direct Fire Gunnery and other 
Special Units

Occasionally, you will have the fortune to have 
some crew-served or self-propelled artillery 
with your force. Crew-served guns come in two 
flavors : anti-tank guns and infantry guns. 

Using anti-tank guns effectively is an 
essential component of winning. Often, the 
anti-tank guns are the same type as those 
mounted in your tanks, sometimes they are much 
better than what is available in your tanks 
(like the German 88, which was available 
throughout the war years, but only mounted in 
tanks in late 1942, when the war was more than 
half over). 

The important thing to remember about anti-tank 
guns is that they are support forces. They can 
rarely hold a position all by themselves. They 
are vulnerable to infantry, artillery and other 
tanks. In fact, anti-tank guns, while thought 
of as a defensive weapon, actually have little 
or no inherent defensive capability (except by 
firing their guns and destroying the units that 
are within range). 

Because they are so vulnerable, it is usually 
best to deploy them behind a line of friendly 
infantry or tanks. Their survivability will 
also be enhanced by minefields which can stop 
or slow enemy tanks and infantry at some 
distance from their position (remember that 
most infantry ranges are 10 or less hexes). 

When anti-tank guns fire for the first time, 
their accuracy is good, but usually not good 
enough to insure clean kills of all the enemy 
in range. Within one or two turns, any 
artillery that the enemy has available will 
come raining down on their position and tear 
them asunder. At best, then, anti-tank guns 
have only a few turns of effectiveness, unless 
the enemy can be killed, retreat or the guns 
can be moved to new positions rapidly (which 
requires a Prime Mover). Even if the enemy 
retreats out of sight, the artillery will still 
fall in their area, but with less accuracy. 

Because of all of the above factors, anti-tank 
guns are best used in something akin to an 
ambush mode. You should use the Set Range 
button to cause them to hold fire, and only 
open up when your guns and any other forces in 
the area can cause maximum damage to the enemy 
in the shortest period of time. The enemy will 
either be killed completely (rare) or retreat 
out of LOS of the guns (less rare), and you 
will then have time to get out of the way of an 
impeding barrage if you have the requisite 
transport (actually more common than rare). Of 
course, if you don't really care about whether 
the gunners survive, this makes the calculation 
quite simple. Just wait till your guns have the 
best chance of hitting them without being 
killed by the immediate return fire, open up 
and hope for the best. In any event, if the 
enemy gets to within 6-10 hexes, your guns 
won't last more than a couple of minutes 
without some really good luck.

Another useful tactic with AT-guns is what I 
call oblique positioning. Here, you place the 
guns behind a hill facing in an oblique 
direction (northwest, southwest, northeast, 
southeast). The trick is to have each gun cover 
the front of the other like a lattice-work. It 
is kind of like interlacing fields, but in this 
case your guns are placed not on the crest, 
where they have a wide view, but on the reverse 
slope where their effective LOS is angular to 
the front. Done properly, this will have 
several effects. First, any enemy tanks moving 
laterally across the map will come into range 
of at least two anti-tanks positions, and both 
of them will usually have a flank shot. Second, 
because the enemy will not see the guns until 
he enters the fields of fire, your guns are 
better protected. In the desert, I have seen 
oblique positioning of 88s wipe out attacks by 
British tanks all by themselves, with most of 
the fire occurring during the enemy's phase 
(the 88s were merely reacting). Ideal positions 
for oblique placement are out of the likely 
enemy path of advance, behind a heavy line of 
infantry who will give warning in case the hill 
itself is in danger of being occupied. 

Anti-tank guns can also be used during attack 
missions. They will need transport to get into 
position in most cases, but in some scenarios 
it may be the only way to do some serious 
damage to enemy tanks. They can also be 
somewhat effective against enemy bunkers and 
pillboxes. Again, the same principles apply: 
Keep them out of sight until needed, open up at 
an optimal range (10-25 hexes, tending towards 
the long end of this scale), and then get out 
of Dodge. 

Infantry guns are a different breed designed 
specifically to kill enemy infantry. They are 
very good at it. It is not uncommon to see the 
heavier caliber guns kill half or more of an 
approaching enemy squad with one hit. Moreover, 
though their chance to hit appears quite low, 
they actually cause damage much more 
frequently. In my experience, if there is less 
than a 10% chance to hit, there is actually 
about a 50% chance of inflicting at least one 
casualty. These gun types are also the ideal 
weapon to deal with bunkers and pillboxes. 
Against these targets, you don't actually have 
to hit to cause damage. Most bunker and pillbox 
crews will bail out if they start to get shot 
at by heavy caliber infantry guns (sooner if 
they've already lost a couple of guys to the 
'concussion' effect). 

The big tubes can also be used against enemy 
armor. While they can get a kill with a top hit 
(or any kind of hit against lightly armored 
units) their prime effectiveness against armor 
is in suppression and immobilization. Any 
tanker will tell you that in a world of clangs, 
dings, pings and bings, a large KA-BOOM coupled 
with massive vibration and uncontrolled 
movement is really disconcerting. ("What was 
that!?!?!", "What did you say? I can't hear 
you, my ears are bleeding", "My arm is 
broken!", "What?!?!?!").

Section 10 - Combined Arms Doctrine

While every army has units of different types 
in different categories, putting them all 
together into a coherent combined arms force is 
more of a necessity than an interesting 
challenge. Moreover, at times the AI does not 
pay enough attention to the combined arms 
concept so, if you're playing against the 
computer and you can master the tactics of 
combined arms combat, you will have yet another 
advantage. 

You may be asking yourself (and me): What is 
combined arms? Combined arms is the art of 
utilizing the individual strengths of each type 
of unit in such as way as to provide your force 
with the best possible methods of dealing with 
enemy threats at all times. To put it another 
way, you don't want your tanks rolling through 
forests without infantry protection, and you 
don't want your infantry crossing that 
2-mile-wide meadowland without some armor 
support.

Let me give you an example. Let's say your 
mission is to attack, and the main enemy 
position has tanks, anti-tank guns, entrenched 
infantry and some bunkers and pillboxes. Would 
you just roll up with a platoon of tanks? Or 
run towards the position with a company of 
infantry alone? Of course, you wouldn't. The 
strength of infantry is to deal with other 
infantry, right? So you'll want to have some 
infantry to go in. There are better infantry 
killers out there, like direct-fire infantry 
guns, but they are naked and defenseless by 
themselves. If the infantry units can get close 
to the hill, they can allow a section of 
infantry guns to pound away at the more 
resilient defenders, like the bunkers. But what 
about the enemy tanks up there? Neither my 
infantry or the guns can adequately deal with 
the tanks. So, naturally, you'll decide that 
you've got to have some anti-tank capability in 
your attack force. Because you're attacking, 
tanks would be the best choice, but if you 
don't have any you may be able to transport 
some AT-guns within range to deal with this 
threat. If you have some other, general purpose 
firepower like artillery and airstrikes to keep 
all the threats suppressed, this will make your 
attacking force's job that much easier. 

In the combined arms equation, infantry and 
armor are the two most important factors. Tanks 
can usually deal with most hard targets, while 
the infantry has some degree of capability 
against unarmored or soft targets. Exceptions 
are fortifications and mines, which only 
artillery, big direct fire guns and Engineers 
can deal with adequately. Other problems 
include small, fast-moving armored vehicles 
which tanks can't hit too easily and which your 
infantry can't deal with at all unless they get 
close enough. 

Does this mean that your tactical group(s) 
always have to have a mix of forces? No. It 
means that whatever threat you encounter, you 
will be able to bring up the best capability 
you possess to deal with it in the shortest 
period of time if it is necessary for your 
mission. Armor, for example, frequently 
operates independent of any infantry, but they 
can move in and out of situations rapidly. If 
your armored force stumbles on a strong 
anti-tank position, you could just scamper away 
and bring in some infantry support. If your 
infantry are facing an armored threat, your 
tanks should be able to come to the rescue in 
time to avert disaster. There are cases where 
you'll want these elements to work closely 
together, but there are also cases where you'll 
want them to be operating as separate teams in 
your combined arms attack or defense plan. What 
you want to avoid is the frustration of having 
your force capabilities so widely separated 
that each cannot support one another or deal 
with a truly combined arms threat they may 
encounter. 

In the game, the easiest way to insure that you 
have some combined arms capability is to have 
some infantry elements operating near your 
armored forces, or to just mount infantry on 
the tanks directly (if you are on the 
offensive). This will keep your tanks protected 
to a large extent from the unexpected assault 
from hidden enemy infantry, and keep your tanks 
free to deal with enemy tank forces, instead of 
expending most of their firepower fighting off 
infantry. 

At close ranges, infantry are a deadly threat 
to armor, especially in the later war years 
when many of them are carrying anti-tank 
rocketry of one form or another. Even if they 
don't kill the tank, enough rifle and machine 
gun fire can suppress even the most experienced 
crew in the best tank and leave them wide open 
to an attack by enemy tank and anti-tank 
forces. In fact, this is a useful tactic for 
your infantry forces if a few enemy tanks are 
rolling up. Tanks are vulnerable to suppression 
from all kinds of fire, even fire that can't 
but once in a million times do any damage. Your 
infantry can suppress them simply by expending 
an enormous amount of rifle and machinegun fire 
against the hull, suppressing them to oblivion, 
and then, if you have some anti-tank forces, 
they will be able to fire without so much as a 
whisper of bad language from the enemy. This 
tactic can only work against a limited number 
of enemy tanks at at time, simply because, in 
most cases, it requires so much firepower to 
suppress a tank. Some players have complained 
that this aspect of the game is unrealistic, 
but I disagree. As a tanker I can tell you that 
there is no way to determine where all this 
fire is coming from, and you get mighty nervous 
about the possibility that it may be from a 
gaggle of angry young men just a few yards 
away. If anything, this is a weakness of the 
AI, since frequently tanks controlled by the 
CPU do come a-rolling up on your combined arms 
positions without infantry support, and the AI 
tends not to shoot at enemy tanks with their 
infantry squads unless there is some 
probability of a kill. If you're playing 
against a human who won't make these kind of 
mistakes (after they've read this Primer) 
you'll have only yourself to blame if you've 
forgotten the Combined Arms Doctrine in the 
heat of battle.

A Combined Arms force consists of a dedicated 
source of reconnaissance information, an 
infantry capability, an anti-tank capability, a 
mobile offense or counter-attack capability, 
and a general source of support suppression 
firepower such as artillery, airstrikes or 
heavy direct-fire guns, as well as a command 
infrastructure. A threat which includes mines 
or fortifications or both will also benefit 
greatly from an Engineer capability. Defensive 
operations are less complex, so reconnaissance 
and offensive capability is not as important 
but still valuable. Sometimes, certain elements 
of the Combined Arms force may have multiple 
missions so that each part of the Combined Arms 
Doctrine has some degree of resources committed 
to it (just not dedicated all the time). You 
may, for example, frequently have some lead 
infantry elements performing the reconnaissance 
duty as well as the infantry capability. 
Dedicated reconnaissance forces may also have 
to provide reconnaissance capability to several 
different tactical groups, and may at some 
point be converted to a support role once the 
enemy's main positions are located.

What does all of this mean in game terms? I 
really hate to give hard and fast rules here, 
because everyone has their own ideas about what 
works best, and many of them are the right idea 
for the particular situation. However, since 
you insist, here are a few pointers and 
suggestions:

        1. Keep your armor within 1 or 2 turns of 
movement from a substantial (platoon-sized) 
force of infantry. On defense, position the 
armor in such a way as to insure that friendly 
infantry will be able to detect advancing 
infantry and protect your tanks from infantry 
assaults, or such that your armor can move 
rapidly to an enclave or line protected by 
infantry. 

        2. Anti-Tank guns are excellent supports of 
both infantry-based and armor-based forces. 
However, because they are so vulnerable to 
fire, they should be kept behind other forces 
most of the time unless there is an excellent 
flanking position away from expected direct 
lines of enemy approach. 

        3. Consider purchasing dedicated 
reconnaissance elements, or assigning some core 
forces to this mission. Even on defense, these 
will be invaluable in determining the enemy's 
choice of routes to the objectives. 

        4. Consider also allocating some resources 
to the general support and suppression 
category. This may be as easy as buying 
artillery, but when resources are scarce small 
infantry guns, mortars and even machinegun 
sections can fulfill this role. Machinegun 
teams on defense are useful either ahead of 
your infantry, partially providing some 
reconnaissance, or behind where their weapons 
can easily suppress enemy units which get close 
to your main line. 

        5. Don't lose sight of your goals. Remember 
the goal is to win, and this is done primarily 
by taking the objectives. When you are moving 
or firing a unit, ask yourself if it 
contributes to the mission goals. This applies 
both to your mission as commander and that of 
winning the scenario, but also to the combined 
arms elements of your forces. Don't start using 
your reconnaissance forces as infantry killers 
just because you can, relate the use of your 
forces to the overall goals and the unit's 
assigned part of the overall goals.     

Section 11 - The Gentle Art of Self-Defense 
with Guns (Defense)

Regardless of how much like Patton or Rommel 
you think you are, there are occasions when a 
good grounding in defensive tactics will be a 
lifesaver. Patton has been credited with saying 
that "the only good defense is a good offense," 
and he was absolutely correct. It is the 
interpretation of that statement by the rest of 
us that causes confusion about the value of 
defensive tactics. If you think of "offense" as 
having more than enough firepower to defeat any 
threat if that firepower is properly and 
efficiently applied, you'll have no trouble 
absorbing and folding defensive tactics into 
your approaches to tactical problems. 

Deploying for defense is a little different 
than that of attack. Since your forces will not 
be moving around as much, you do not need to 
group them into teams as much. Instead, you'll 
want to cover the obvious approaches to your 
positions with fields of observation and fire 
that will allow you to detect the enemy, engage 
the enemy, and ultimately defeat the enemy. 
Also, don't deploy units in heavy concentration 
in areas where the enemy will likely plaster 
with artillery, this will only cause you the 
aggravation of casualties and having to move 
out of your wonderful defensive positions if 
your troops are to be at all effective. The 
illustration at right (GIF file: SPPILL3a.gif) 
shows how to place units to defend an objective 
and nevertheless avoid initial barrages. This 
is the second graphic from a single game (the 
first was GIF file SPPILL2a.gif, above), with 
the finale appearing in the section entitled 
"Art of the Counter-Attack." Note that the 
British suffered only one casualty from the 
enemy's initial (heavy!) barrage. 

Detecting enemy attacks can be more difficult 
than you think. Unless the enemy army is very 
poor in experience, even moving troops and 
tanks will not always be seen. The first thing 
you need to do is make sure that you have the 
widest possible view of the battlefield. 
Infantry and snipers are the best spotters. 
You'll need to carefully look over the terrain 
and select positions which give these spotting 
units excellent fields of vision. A spotter is 
no good if they get killed before accomplishing 
their mission, so placing spotting units along 
direct lines of march is not advised. Also, you 
may want to use the "Set Range" button to set 
their range to 3 or less, so they don't give 
themselves away. 

When playing against the computer, be aware 
that the AI tends to send its forces along 
general paths of approach to the target. If a 
road is 5 hexes south of this approach, they 
will not automatically go on the road to move. 
They will follow their line of approach, but 
within a few hexes in either direction, they 
will take the easiest route in terms of 
movement points. Rough terrain, in this game, 
is a real stopper-upper. Tanks can only move 
one or two hexes through rough terrain, so 
movement paths tend to swing around it. Heavily 
forested areas sometimes have long lines of 
cleared areas, which will also be used by the 
enemy to move rapidly through
these bush. Its these areas that you'll want to 
have covered with spotters. 

Frequently, the enemy will use smoke to mask 
their approach. In which case your cleverly 
placed spotters who are not on the line of 
march will have a difficult time seeing them. 
Defeating this tactic is a matter of having 
several key observation points which can see 
all of the possible or major lines of approach 
from several different angles. You'll also want 
to consider deploying some very low value units 
very forward and very much in the way of the 
advancing enemy, to insure that even if they 
are completely cocooned in smoke, these brave 
lads will still be able to keep tabs on them. 

Usually, the first significant firefights occur 
with long-range gunnery from tanks, AT-guns and 
infantry guns. Frequently, he who can make this 
first exchange of fire decisive will come out 
ahead when the scenario is tallied. You'll want 
to be the first one to fire, thus choosing the 
time and place of the initial engagement, 
rather than letting the enemy decide. The key 
to gaining a decisive advantage during this 
initial round is to insure that the enemy is 
hit from as many sides as possible with as much 
firepower as possible, and loses as many 
vehicles and men as possible in the shortest 
amount of time. To do this, you need to 
determine an optimal engagement range for you 
defenses, and use the "Set Range" button to 
control the time at which everyone opens fire. 
You might have your AT and infantry guns set to 
open up at 16 hexes, your tanks at 12, your MGs 
at 6, your infantry AT-teams at 4, and your 
infantry at 1 or 2. Done properly, before 
everyone is spotted, the enemy will be 
overwhelmed with firepower the minute they come 
within the engagement range. Most likely, your 
units will open fire during the enemy phase. If 
you are uncomfortable with this, you can set 
the ranges down even lower so that when the 
shooting starts, its during your phase. You 
need to caution yourself against setting the 
ranges too low, however, against highly 
experienced troops who will spot your forward 
positions at a 3 or 4 hex range, and start 
firing on them before your troops have orders 
to react. You may also need to play with the 
range buttons since, after 9 hexes, you can 
only set to 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and maximum. Note 
that the maximum key is just to re-set the unit 
after it has been toggled down. 

If you can get good at setting engagement 
ranges to match the capabilities of your force 
and get many kills in just one or two turns, 
you'll see the effects of morale in spades. If 
a platoon loses five of its three vehicles in 
one turn, the rest will frequently rout. If 
those three kills are spread out over the 
course of five turns, instead of happening all 
at once, there is less likelihood of morale 
effects (though the probability is still good). 
When you are setting up for the initial 
exchanges of fire, try to keep in mind that the 
first turn will not always be the decisive 
turn. The next couple of turns, after your 
units have acquired their targets and have good 
hit probabilities, will be the time that the 
majority of kills occur. And, you should strive 
for this to happen.

I can't confirm whether the following tactic 
improves the hit probability or not, but you 
can also use the Target button to acquire a 
target, and then re-set the range back down to 
a lower value. Even if the enemy still does not 
enter the engagement range, your targeting unit 
will still have the same enemy unit targeted. 
Whether or not it improves the hit probability, 
it is also useful in keeping track of the 
relative hit probabilities for your units, and 
may help you in determining the optimal 
engagement range. 

Setting range is important if the enemy has 
superior long-range engagement capabilities. 
You may want to artificially lower the 
engagement range in order to overcome some 
deficiency of this character. If your units 
don't stand a ghost of a chance at 25 hexes, 
but at 12 hexes they have not only a good hit 
probability but a good penetration value, while 
at the same time the enemy's long range 
capability is decent at the 25 hex distance, 
then obviously you should choose to keep your 
unit's ranges set lower so that the engagement 
begins at a range where your relative 
capabilities are more evenly matched. 

With respect to targeting, keep in mind that 
your units will frequently target enemy units 
on their own initiative and fire at them. When 
you begin your turn, it may be that several of 
your own units have already acquired and fired 
at target, and now have very good hit 
probabilities against this acquired target. If 
you change the target, you'll be throwing away 
a good chance to hit. Use the targeting arrow 
selector to see the best probabilities you have 
and take the best chance to hit that shows up. 
Also keep in mind that the best chance to hit 
is not the best chance to kill. It is better to 
take a 25% to hit probability with a 50% chance 
to kill if the round hits, than a 50% chance to 
hit probability with only a 5% chance to kill.  

If the enemy is superior to you in a number of 
categories, or you are outnumbered too heavily, 
another useful tactic for the defense is what I 
call "wearing". No, not the "wierding way," 
from Dune, but "wearing." Wearing is effective 
because it is based on the built in 
game-concept of "shots available." Let me 
explain. An ordinary unit has between 4-6 shots 
available at the start of any scenario. The 
more shots you take in one turn, even if you 
aren't fired upon by the enemy, the less shots 
you'll have the next. If you start with 6 shots 
available and fire 4 shots in one turn, you'll 
have two less the next. Fire 4 again, and next 
turn you'll start out with only 2 or 3 
available. Fire your maximum shots available 
each turn, and your unit will have only 1 or 2 
shots available for several turns. Wearing 
consists of causing the enemy to expend maximum 
shots each turn, as they continue to advance. 
The goal is to have them reach your main line 
in a state of complete exhaustion, so they 
won't be able to react to your now-overwhelming 
firepower. Wearing can be effected in a number 
of ways, but usually putting infantry sections 
or platoons supported by a couple of tanks, all 
way out in front of your main position, holding 
up the enemy's advance, is the best way to do 
it. Each turn you fire at his lead elements a 
few times, cause them to react fire and then 
retreat to the next good firing position down 
the road. 

Using little tactical groups like this for 
wearing, can also be used for the tactic I call 
"leading." The AI (and some humans) will tend 
to pursue sighted enemy units. You can use the 
ambush and retreat tactic to draw them away 
from critical ground, or right into a kill 
zone. If you draw the enemy away from your 
objectives, they can usually be caught in the 
middle of nowhere, pinned down by fire from the 
objective and from your "leading" defenders.

Speaking of "kill zones" what are they? I've 
mentioned them a few times, but perhaps we need 
to have a clearer idea of what they are. Kill 
zones are areas where the enemy comes in, but 
doesn't come out. They can be difficult to 
create because you've got to concentrate a lot 
of your critical firepower into a small area, 
and concentrating is the one thing that is 
difficult for the defense. If you have a fair 
idea of the routes the enemy might take, you 
might chance to roll the dice and set up a kill 
zone. A typical kill zone has clean fields of 
fire covered by several high-powered anti-tank 
guns, are painted with mines, and have 
entrenched or hidden infantry and machineguns 
at the edges, and sometimes by tanks on the 
surrounding elevations. Any enemy entering the 
kill zone will come under fire from the front 
and both flanks. You may also have an infantry 
platoon, a tank section, or a recon section 
capable of moving into the rear of the enemy 
advancers and cutting off their retreat. 
"Leading" tactics can be used to draw the enemy 
in, and mines (covered below) can also channel 
the enemy attack into one of these areas.   

On defense, it is critical to remember two 
things. The enemy has to come to the objectives 
in order to win, and you only need hold the 
majority of objective hexes to win. You don't 
need to defend every objective to win, and even 
if the enemy has captured one and you've 
stopped the attack, you do not need to suddenly 
go over to the attack and retake the objectives 
the enemy managed to occupy. Even an objective 
are which is partially occupied can be left as 
is if it is too dangerous to try to recover the 
lost hexes, so long as you hold, in total, the 
majority of objective hexes on the map. 

One final word about the tactics of defense, 
which is particularly valuable if you are 
playing against a human opponent. One or two 
squad infantry ambushes are really annoying to 
the attacker, especially if they result in a 
tank exploding or a fast-moving infantry unit 
cut to pieces. If you are on the attack and 
this happens to you a couple of times, you'll 
start getting real cautious about moving 
around. There may be some places you just won't 
want to go because you don't want to have to 
deal with the stupid little infantry guys 
lurking about. As the defender, at times you'll 
gain immensely if you can induce caution into 
the enemy's ways. Setting up a couple of cheap, 
expendable infantry units in hexes where they 
can only be seen from adjacent hexes is a 
tactic that will cause any attacker to be much 
more cautious. This could buy you valuable 
time. If you do this, I recommend setting up at 
least two 1 or 2 squad ambushes like this, 
along likely lines of march. Write these boys 
off, though, if they radio back "We've got 15 
tanks coming down the road and . . . "

Section 12 - The Art of Attack

We've already covered how to deploy your forces 
for the attack, and how to group them into 
combined arms teams with a specific mission and 
objective. Now, what do we do when we actually 
start to move out?

Good question. A lot depends on the composition 
of your force and the availability of 
resources. If you have artillery, you should 
have plotted some bombardments or smoke screens 
during the deploy phase. Airpower, if you have 
it, can also be very useful in the prelim phase 
since it can detect some enemy units (depending 
on how well they are hidden), and give your 
attacking forces some idea of what to expect. 
Moreover, after you've spotted the enemy in 
this way, you can now call down some artillery 
(again, if you have it) and cause those 
unfortunates even more grief. 

As you start to move forward, remember that 
probably no enemy infantry will be detected in 
the first 10 hexes beyond the limit of your 
deployment area. Most campaign scenarios that I 
know of usually have a "no-man's land" where no 
one can deploy. However, this is not an excuse 
to go gallivanting around. If the visibility is 
high, your troops can still come under long 
range fire from guns and tanks, which will be 
quite effective against infantry units classed 
as 'moving fast'. 

The big issue here is how do you plan to win. 
Obviously, taking the objectives is paramount 
to the score, but there are a number of ways to 
do this. If the enemy has weak morale levels, 
concentrating on killing everything you see 
will reap the benefits of negative morale 
effects on the enemy. In such a case, you might 
actually want to detect large concentrations of 
easy-to-destroy units and, well, destroy them. 
Done enough times, this will later cause the 
undamaged enemy units to rout, in some cases 
leaving the objectives poorly defended or 
unoccupied. Against most first-class armies, 
however, the search-and-destroy method won't 
work very well. It'll just wear out your 
attacking forces before they even get to the 
objectives.

One of the first choices you'll make is whether 
to try to take more than one objective at the 
same time, or to focus on one objective at a 
time. Usually, your forces won't be strong 
enough to advance against more than 2 of the 3 
objective areas in any one scenario. If one 
objective area is widely separated from two 
others, that might present an opportunity for 
you to concentrate your forces and drive off 
the defenders with ease. Remember the basic 
battle tactic of trying to have as much or more 
firepower than the enemy at the given points of 
attack or defense? Concentrating your forces 
against one objective at a time will insure 
that you will. Heavy artillery from the defense 
(which is likely on Defend missions) will make 
this proposition problematic, but the general 
rule still applies. One reason you might want 
to go after 2 objectives at once isn't actually 
to take both of them at the same time, but to 
pin down the units on the other objectives that 
could provide long range support to their 
compadres at the target objective.

Once you've decided on a battle plan and method 
for carrying it out, you need, above all, to 
examine the terrain features and determine how 
they will either help you or hurt you. If your 
forces have superior equipment, you might want 
to get into view as soon as possible in order 
to start dukeing it out. If your equipment is 
more or less the equal of the enemy, you'll 
want to occupy some advantageous ground and 
position some units with long range capability 
to hold the attention of the defenders, while 
other units continue to move closer. If your 
forces lack something on the equipment side, 
you may want to use intervening terrain to hide 
your troops from the enemy until you can get 
close enough to do some real damage. 

If you are short on time or mobility and you 
need to get to the objective areas quickly, 
you'll need to concentrate on clearing paths 
which give you the highest probability of 
getting to the objective in the shortest period 
of time with the least amount of casualties.   
 
Whether you are heading in one big group for 
the nearest objective, or in several tactical 
teams for a couple, there are a few tactics of 
moving forward which may aid you. First, you 
don't always have to complete the move of the 
currently selected unit. Many players move one 
unit its full movement (or as much of it as 
they envision using this turn) and then just go 
on to the next one. This may be convenient, but 
its not very safe. You can, and in many cases 
should, move only one hex at a time, select 
another unit and move it one hex, and so forth. 
This gives you the least risk of walking into a 
buzzsaw, and insures that in the event the 
enemy is detected, you will have plenty of 
units to pin the enemy down. 

Another mistake that can be made in all the 
excitement is that when the enemy is detected, 
players will use the detecting unit to fire at 
the newly-discovered unit. If the enemy's 
positions are relatively untouched, this can be 
very dicey for the attacking unit. Use units 
that have the best probability to suppress or 
kill detected enemies, not just the nearest one 
or the detecting one. When firing, remember 
that every time you fire, this is one less unit 
of fire that you will have available to react 
with. I like to expend my fire in groups of 
twos; from 6 to 4, and from 4 to 2. Try to keep 
as many units as possible with the ability to 
react fire. Don't just grab the nearest really 
neato unit and get happy until the shots left 
indicator reads zero. Use your forces as a 
team, cover each other, and reserve a powerful 
ability to react during the enemy's phase, when 
you aren't in control. This is not to say that 
there aren't times when killing the enemy now 
with that one handy unit will be necessary, 
just don't make it your default setting. 

On the attack, your units will frequently have 
superior fire capabilities to whatever enemies 
are detected. Your units are concentrated, the 
enemy is dispersed and defending a long line. 
On occasion, the "swarming" technique can 
result in an utter rout. Let's say you've got a 
tactical team together moving across the fields 
and you encounter an infantry platoon in a 
woods line. If you use several of your units to 
pin the enemy down, they may run out of react 
fire. You'll notice this if you fire at one 
unit a couple of times and the enemy doesn't 
react when they clearly could have. Now, direct 
your fire (with some other of your units) 
against the enemy positions which you suspect 
could still react. After you've gone through 
this drill a couple of times, the enemy will be 
completely exhausted. Now you can roll up that 
fresh Engineer section, or recon element, and 
grind them to dust. Mech inf, with their extra 
halftrack, also excel in the swarming tactic 
since their vehicles can usually suppress the 
enemy, and then they just mount up the squad, 
take a jaunt over to the enemy positions, 
dismount and proceed to accept the enemy's 
surrender. Swarming consists of using your 
forces efficiently to wear out their react 
capability, and then just roll in with 
everything you've got. This has its risks, of 
course, but it can also greatly speed up the 
pace of an attack. Swarming also works well 
against fortifications and heavy tanks, but 
there is always the danger that what you've 
accomplished during the all the firing is 
suppressed only those enemy units you could 
see. There may be others waiting who are 
totally unsuppressed and will have a nice 
reception for your over-exuberant troops.

If your tactics are good and even-handed, 
you'll have little trouble getting close to the 
first objective. Now, you need to be aware of 
the AI's tendency to counter-attack. In many 
cases, the AI will send almost everyone to 
attack the very first objective that you take. 
All those enemy units that you didn't spot will 
now be easy to spot heading for the objective 
you took. The only problem is, now you're 
outnumbered! Seriously, the counter-attack 
tendency of the AI is easy to deal with if 
you're just aware of it to begin with. As I 
said before, many players utilize this tendency 
to their advantage and bypass a lot of enemy 
forces on their way to the objective, just so 
they will have an easier time killing them 
during the AI's counter-attack. When you reach 
the first objective, but before you actually 
occupy the hexes, start thinking about how 
you'll need to position your forces to defeat 
the counterattack. When you do occupy the 
hexes, take them all at once, don't just take 
one and then the rest on the next turn, the AI 
will start moving into the attack when you take 
the first hex. 

If you have a couple of groups rather than just 
one, you may have one group which has taken an 
objective while the other is still in reserve 
or fighting it out somewhere else on the map. 
Once an objective is taken the group which is 
still in the rear or fighting it out on the 
front line will start finding itself with fewer 
and fewer enemies. Some players, again, use 
this tactic against the enemy in this way: They 
assemble one strong group to take the first 
objective and hold it. Then they have one or 
more other groups which remain uncommitted. 
After the objective is taken, the uncommitted 
or slowly moving groups are in an excellent 
position to make a mad dash for the other 
objectives, or slaughter the now moving enemy 
forces in open ground.

An important tactic of attack is masking off 
those enemy defenses that can harass your line 
of march. Frequently, masking is the only way 
to approach a position with some degree of 
cohesion, or to preserve a force which is 
having a tough time fighting forward. Masking 
is most commonly done with smoke, a combination 
of smoke and terrain, or just terrain. Masking 
allows you to deal with only a section of enemy 
defenses at a time, rather than everyone who 
can get you in their sights. In addition to the 
standard methods of artillery smokescreens and 
smoke grenades thrown by your infantry, don't 
forget that a lot of tanks come with smoke 
rounds. If your crew is lucky or good, you may 
be able to dish up a serving of smoke to the 
direct front of that pesky AT crew.  Masking is 
useful even if you don't know the enemy's 
position and do not need to know exactly at 
that particular moment. Of course, if you can 
kill the enemy position without a big scene 
then do that; masking is an alternative mode to 
killing outright. However, masking may be 
preferable to killing if the enemy has lots of 
artillery and lots of spotters. In that case, 
your masks will be close to your forces so that 
they will be unspotted, rather than sealing off 
only portions of the enemy forces from view.  

The battle will end when you capture all 
objectives and the enemy's morale is broken, or 
when the maximum number of turns is reached, or 
when all of your own forces have been destroyed 
(which should never happen, by the way). When 
you are on an assault mission, you will usually 
have to deal with enemy artillery, sometimes in 
very heavy doses. In cases where you've already 
broken the enemy's back and have only a few 
remaining objectives to take, you might want to 
hustle it up a little and take some risks that 
you wouldn't normally. These risks are 
preferable to a more cautious approach which 
will take many more turns longer, turns in 
which your troops will continue to suffer the 
bombardments. You may lose actually fewer men 
by taking more risks on the ground and getting 
the scenario overwith sooner. Again, however, 
this is only advisable on a good assessment on 
the balance between the risks to your forces 
and the amount of enemy artillery coming down. 

Section 13 - The Art of Retreat

"We like to think we can get out of situations 
quicker than we get into 'em"
                Oddball,
                from the movie "Kelly's Heroes,"
                referring to the fact that his tanks
                go faster in reverse than forward.

Oddball is one commander who has his head on 
straight when it comes to the Art of Retreat. 
Thinking about backing out of a battle 
gracefully may be distasteful, but it must 
always be on your mind as a competent 
commander. Because Steel Panthers uses "fog of 
war" to a greater extent than many games in the 
past, you really don't know a whole lot about 
what is happening on the "other side of the 
hill" unless your forces are simply dominating 
the whole flow of the battle. For this reason, 
the situation as you know it can rapidly change 
from being one in which you think you are 
winning, to one in which you wonder what hit 
you so fast, and who it was that slapped you 
upside the head in the last five minutes. 

The Art of Retreat consists of having some idea 
that your forces will be unable to continue to 
fight effectively under current or 
soon-to-be-developed situations, and engaging 
in withdrawal operations with a minimum of 
loss. This concept applies to individual 
elements of your force as well as your entire 
force. Just because you've won the last six 
battles does not mean that this is the one 
where the enemy will ultimately triumph to the 
utter devastation of the men who were depending 
on your good judgment. And, if you think that 
you can just end the game and go back to your 
last save with some foreknowledge of what to 
expect, go right ahead and do it. That will not 
teach you the Art of Retreat, though. If you 
are playing the game just to win, then this 
section isn't for you. If you love Steel 
Panthers because you know that the decisions 
you make will have long-term consequences that 
you have to live with in your campaign game, 
then you're the kind of player that will find 
this section of some value. You'll probably 
enjoy the game a lot more than the "other 
guys." 

There are basically two levels to retreating. 
The lower level involves a retreat of part of 
your force to better positions, or just getting 
away from a bad situation. The higher level is 
more serious, and that is extricating your 
whole force from a battle which you have 
ascertained that you either cannot win at all, 
or cannot win without prohibitive cost. The Art 
lies in making these determinations before you 
lose complete control of the situation. If you 
can get out of a losing battle before suffering 
prohibitive casualties, then you have won. If 
you fail to make the judgment call on time, you 
will not only lose the battle, but your core 
force will be seriously compromised for some 
time to come. 

At the tactical level, parts of your forces may 
get into firefights which are untenable. You'll 
start noticing this when you units become 
suppressed and pinned, or retreating and 
routing. One thing you can do to unsuppress 
them is blind the enemy, usually with smoke. 
This will give your troops a turn or two's 
respite from the constant fire. Note that even 
pinned units can fire, and in the case of a 
necessary retreat, you can still lay smoke if 
they have smoke grenades. If you have support 
units nearby capable of firing HE rounds, fire 
a few into buildings and woods hexes the enemy 
is located in, these can catch fire and reduce 
the enemy's effectiveness. If some of your 
units can move move them into positions which 
can cover the retreat of the units which are 
routing or retreating. Engineers are excellent 
in aiding retreats, since they can easily set 
fire to adjacent hexes with their 
flamethrowers. Any unit which remains in a hex 
which is on fire will become progressively 
suppressed, making their fire inaccurate and, 
if they stay, cause them to retreat or rout. 

Tactical retreats of parts of your forces are 
essentially a bounding overwatch in reverse. 
When you need to retreat, its usually because 
you've lost or are about to lose control of the 
battle (at least in that area). This means that 
all your guys just can't up and run the other 
way, because the enemy will have the 
opportunity to cut them down, like shooting 
fish in a barrel. Instead, if some of your 
still active units remain positioned or move 
only slowly backwards, they'll be in a position 
to return fire during the enemy's turn, greatly 
reducing the enemy's accuracy and 
effectiveness. Positioned and firing units will 
bear the brunt of the enemy's pressure, 
allowing your other crumbling, routing units 
time to get away. Support forces, naturlich, 
are best for this purpose since they aren't 
part of your core force! After most of your 
routing and retreating forces have gotten out 
of range, then its time to start taking the 
remaining guys out, sort of reducing the 
bounding teams until there everyone is out. 
Another reason it seems to work better if you 
think of it this way is because bounding teams 
will not surrender or collapse as quickly as, 
say, the lone support rifle platoon you left 
behind. The purpose is to delay the enemy, and 
this won't happen if the rear guard collapses 
in one turn. 

There may come what is known as the point of 
crisis in the battle. This is where your entire 
force and it's position is compromised. Perhaps 
the enemy has already broken into the rear, or 
has gotten strong forces into a flanking 
position. Actually, though, the crisis of 
command occurs just before the time when it is 
already obvious that you've lost. You must, 
repeat must, always be aware of the possibility 
that things aren't developing in such as way as 
to permit a draw or a victory, and keep open 
your lines of possible retreat. If you can 
detect the crisis point a few turns in advance 
and begin the retreat before it is well-neigh 
impossible, then you've learned the Art, and 
saved many lives in your core forces in the 
process. 

If you've determined that you can no longer 
maintain a viable position because you've 
spotted several force groupings that cannot be 
dealt with by any combination of your available 
forces, then the crisis of command has been 
reached and you need to consider whether to 
retreat or fight it out. If the former, then 
you need to select teams of units which can be 
easily positioned to intercept the enemy 
advance and buy the rest of your men time to 
get away. Once you've made the decision to 
abandon your positions, you need to consider 
this your over-arching goal. Every movement 
should be directed to either delaying the enemy 
or moving to the appropriate mapedge. I usually 
divide my rearguards up into two basic teams, 
the forward element and the sheepherder 
element. The forward element engages those 
enemy forces for the purpose of delay, while 
the sheepherder element usually provides a last 
bit of protection for the retreating main 
forces. The sheepherders usually lay a lot of 
smoke, to keep the retreating units out of 
sight. 

Section 14 - The Art of Counter-Attack

A well-timed and placed counter-attack can make 
the difference between winning and losing. You 
can get into situations where you have a 
counter-attack chance whether you are on attack 
or defense. However, the Art of Counter-Attack, 
in Steel Panthers, is most common when your 
mission is defensive in nature. 

The Art of Counter-Attack consists primarily of 
holding a mobile force in reserve, and using it 
at a time when the enemy has exposed themselves 
to attack by exhausting their own units, or 
moving them into bad positions, or are just so 
disorganized that they cannot provide adequate 
support to each other. The appearance of your 
fresh, coordinated counter-attack force will 
eliminate their weaker units, strip their 
strong units of support, and restore a position 
of yours which may have been threatened. 
Counter-attack reserves should be centrally 
placed if you are unsure of the enemy's line of 
advance, or placed in positions out of view on 
their flanks if your have some degree of 
certainty that they will come from a certain 
direction. 

It takes discipline to pull a mobile force off 
the frontline and put them in some area where 
they won't be able to add their firepower to a 
kill zone you want to set up, or to a main 
defense line. But they can be more effective 
than these other methods for two reasons: You 
may enter the fray from an unexpected angle, 
giving you flank or rear shots against their 
vehicles, and you will arrive fresh and fit 
while the enemy has already expended themselves 
against a different defending force. Let me put 
it to you this way: Would you rather have 4 
Tigers with only 2 shots available each against 
a position held by some infantry squads and a 
couple of anti-tank guns, or would you rather 
have 4 Shermans with 6 shots available each 
firing on the flank and rear of those same 
worn-out Tigers. I know its a tough call (after 
all, we're talking about Tigers, here), but in 
most cases the Shermans will probably prevail. 
If you had left the Shermans up on the hill 
with your main force, some of them would 
already be bar-b-queued, and those remaining, 
if they weren't routing, would be in sorry 
shape. 

It is not uncommon to place tanks and other 
vehicles behind crests, so that they will be 
fresh at the proper time. Doing things like 
this are all well and good, but it won't matter 
if the enemy hasn't been engaged at all at the 
time you counter-attack. Essential to a good 
counter-attack is that the enemy has already 
been engaged against another group of 
defenders, become somewhat worn down, and 
possibly maneuvered to expose their vehicles to 
flank, rear or top hits. 

The illustration at right shows the effects of 
a successful counter attack, and is the last 
installment of the series of three GIF files 
from one game (current GIF file : SPILL4a -- 
previous files were SPILL2a.gif and 
SPILL3a.gif). In this game, the Lee tanks 
deployed in the extreme north eventually 
launched a counter-attack after the German 
attack of Panzer IVs and Engineers had passed 
through the objective area on the northern 
hill. As the northern German force engaged the 
defending British on the north face of the 
center hill, the Lees appeared on the northern 
hill, virtually surrounding the German force. 
The illustration shows all the Panzer IVs 
knocked out and the enemy infantry nowhere to 
be seen at this point. This counter-attack 
allowed the southern part of the defending 
British force to deal with the main German 
attack, as shown. 

The tactics of counter-attack can even be taken 
to an extreme and yet be successful. I've 
witnessed defenses with NO objectives defended, 
not even the most remote one. In such a case, 
the entire defending force becomes a 
counter-attack force, and they set up a kill 
zone completely covering the most remote 
objective hexes. When the enemy enters, 
especially the AI enemy, they'll take all the 
objectives and basically stop moving. This 
means that only a small portion of their total 
force is at the final objective, while you, 
secretly, have massed your entire force within 
just a few hexes of the area. Suddenly, the 
trap springs and your whole force moves into 
counter-attack, retaking objective after 
objective. The enemy is usually too 
disorganized and your forces moving too fast 
for him to react with a cohesive defense. 

Section 15 - Rest & Refit

When you get to the end of the battle, you'll 
usually be carried to the Refit screen (unless 
the enemy has a counter-attack or you accept a 
chance for a breakthrough -- see below). Refit 
is for the most part pretty straightforward, 
and most times you just click on the "Fix All" 
button. 

If you are thinking about upgrading, however, 
note that you do not have to "fix" a unit 
before you can simply change it into a better 
one. Before you fix anyone, if you want to 
upgrade, you should change the selection tool 
to "fix" and pick the unit that you want to 
upgrade. This will save you many points over 
the course of the campaign. 

Problems can crop up if you don't have enough 
points to rebuild your entire force. Hitting 
the "fix all" button will fix your units from 
the top of the roster towards the bottom, which 
may not be the order of priority that you need 
units repaired. Infantry squads will still do 
fine if they are missing a couple of guys, so 
you can save a couple of points there. Your 
tanks, even the cheap ones, should be fixed, 
unless you have enough support points to 
upgrade one and want to upgrade instead of just 
fixing it. 

When you upgrade a unit, it loses some 
experience. This is no problem with infantry 
units, who rarely need to be upgraded or 
changed. However, new models of tanks are 
always coming out. You'll need to refrain from 
the temptation to always equip your tanks with 
the very latest technology, because actually 
you can wind up hurting their experience levels 
so much that they actually perform worse with 
better equipment. 

Finally, note that some units can be switched 
from Armor to Infantry and back and forth. 
You'll almost never do this, but there might be 
some case where a really experienced infantry 
unit actually has better Armor Command ratings 
than the latest batch of Panzertruppen. 
Sometimes players do switch the command unit to 
a tank, but if so you better make it a really 
well armored tank or a recon vehicle which can 
move very fast. It is rather useful to have a 
command unit which can move at the speed of 
lightening, and it is very comforting to know, 
on the other hand, that your commander is 
protected by 80mm of armor. The middle ground 
of a medium tank is to be avoided unless there 
is no other choice. 

Its possible to accumulate points to expend at 
a later time. On the other hand, its possible 
to be in a point "crunch" where at each refit 
screen there doesn't seem to be enough to go 
around to fix everybody, much less upgrade. To 
remedy this situation, when times are good, try 
to maintain a reserve. Don't spend all your 
points to outfit everybody with Flame-Tanks. If 
the good times are over, then you may have to 
be extremely cautious about casualties and 
retreat off the map if things get too hot, even 
if you know you could win! When you are down 
like this, your first priority should be 
getting your core force into tip-top shape, not 
trying to win every battle like it's your last. 
 

Section 16 - Breakthroughs and Counter-Attacks

One of the neat tricks of the game which keeps 
us campaigners on our toes is the 
counter-attack and breakthrough mechanism. This 
happens when, at the end of a hard-fought 
scenario, a special "message from headquarters" 
arrives informing you of either and enemy 
counter-attack or an opportunity for a 
breakthrough. 

An enemy counter-attack can also occur at the 
beginning of a scenario, after you've deployed 
but before the shooting starts. This type of 
counter-attack is really just letting you know 
that the enemy had more points to spend that 
usual, and their mission has changed from 
defensive to offensive. We discussed that 
before. In any event, whether before or after a 
scenario, a counter-attack will mean the enemy 
will be tougher than usual, and you won't have 
a choice either way to accept or decline. If it 
happens at the end of a scenario, you might get 
a chance to buy support units or you might not. 
If you do, you'll notice that you have about 
half the number of support points that you 
would normally have on a defense or delay 
mission. This will make your job even harder.

The breakthrough is an optional mission, 
leading to either an assault or advance 
mission. If you get to buy support units at 
all, again, you'll get fewer points to do it. 
If your force has been badly scrapped out by 
the previous battle, then you should probably 
decline the breakthrough. In fact, you may be 
asking yourself why take it at all? The manual 
states that both breakthroughs and 
counter-attacks will result in higher 
experience for your units, but there is some 
debate among the players as to whether the net 
result means that your troops actually get more 
experience for participating in a breakthrough 
than they would if they just fought two normal 
battles. Because of this uncertainty at this 
point, I tend to decline the breakthrough 
unless my core force is virtually unhurt from 
the previous engagement. In future versions, 
the Primer will investigate the veracity of the 
player's concerns in this area. 

One other caution about breakthroughs. It has 
happened that after accepting and winning a 
breakthrough, the enemy can counter attack. 
This means that you fought one normal battle, 
didn't refit, accepted a breakthrough, didn't 
refit and were counterattacked! That would be 
entering your third consecutive battle without 
a refit. The enemy can also launch into 
counter-attack mode during the breakthrough 
scenario.  These are scary thoughts and one 
more thing to be aware of then faced with that 
breakthrough option.

Section 17 - Artillery & Air Power (It's 
raining lead, hallelujah!)

Death from above can win battles and save you 
long casualty lists, if your side is dropping 
it. It can also stop you dead in your tracks, 
pin down your men, and give you and extree long 
list of KOs and -9s if you're receiving it. 

The only problem with artillery is that you can 
never have enough of it on your team. Artillery 
is expensive, and most players are comfortable 
with only one battery during campaign 
scenarios. Occasionally, your confidence in 
your core force is such that you can spring for 
two, but that's about it. Even a lowly 75 
battery (which doesn't even make pretty holes 
in the ground) can cost around 60 points! When 
choosing artillery, you'll want to tailor the 
tubes for your mission and likely enemies. If 
you expect a lot of tanks in positions that you 
need to take, remember the larger calibers are 
better at causing damaging hits. Rocket 
artillery is not as effective at hitting 
armored targets. If you're short on time in the 
upcoming scenario (or expect to be) Rockets and 
the larger calibers are good because you'll 
have a limited amount of ammo anyway. 

The process of using artillery involves 
selecting a spotting unit, and hitting the B 
key. You'll go to the artillery screen, and the 
LOS of the spotting unit will be highlighted. 
You can select any hex on the map for the 
barrage, but artillery that is plotted to a 
spotted hex will be more accurate (the spread 
pattern will be low). Preliminary bombardments, 
those that occur before the start of the 
scenario, are always as accurate as spotted 
attacks (representing planned strikes against 
known coordinates). Remember that the spotting 
unit can move, but whether the strike is 
accurate is determined by whether the spotting 
unit can see the target hex when the shells 
start to impact (the turn that the barrage 
begins). Your spotter's artillery command 
rating will also impact accuracy. 

On the attack, you'll want to use artillery to 
hit enemy positions that you can't reach 
effectively with your ground forces, to hit 
areas in advance of your ground forces where 
the enemy may be laying in ambush, deal with 
those nasty anti-tank positions and to lay 
smoke to cover your advance. The biggest 
problem with artillery when on an attack 
mission is spotting the enemy, otherwise your 
shells may hit nothing except the ground. You 
at least know that the computer will have some 
units in and around the objective hexes, so 
this is an obvious target. As for other 
targets, well, do we have any volunteers for 
spotting? Private Brady? -but- Pack up your 
gear and get out in the field pronto. Don't 
forget the radio. 

Seriously, you'll have to reconnoiter the enemy 
to find out where they are. If you don't have 
any "volunteers" or aren't willing to sacrifice 
a necessary support unit to do the job, buy a 
platoon of reconnaissance vehicles along with 
the artillery battery, and dedicate them to 
spotting. Alternatively, you can plot 
airstrikes over suspected enemy positions. 
These will also spot enemy concentrations, but 
the artillery strikes will still be less 
effective unless a ground unit is in LOS of the 
barrage area. Note that spotting does not have 
to be a sacrifice, its just more often than not 
the spotting unit will themselves be spotted 
and suffer the vengeance of guys that he's 
raining death upon. Also, there is a difference 
between spotting the enemy, and spotting for 
the artillery. One unit can reveal the presence 
of an enemy unit that you'd like to paste with 
artillery shells, while another one actually 
calls down the artillery. So long as the one 
calling down the artillery has an LOS to the 
newly-revealed enemy position, your artillery 
fire will be (insert musical tune here) all 
that it can be.  

Don't forget that artillery comes down in two 
consecutive turns. Sometimes players, including 
myself, are just outside the barrage area when 
the shells start to impact and see that the 
enemy is decimated by the first blast. Then, 
you forget that one more turn of hell is on the 
way and move in to mop up without calling off 
the guns. Then it's your guys who suffer the 
shrapnel and concussions. When you plan 
artillery, make sure you check it every turn to 
make sure your troops aren't the victims of 
friendly fire. You can always cancel a barrage 
in progress. In fact, sometimes this is a good 
idea if the enemy has moved and your guns need 
to save ammo.

Even if you don't move into the impact zone, 
the impact zone may come to you. Artillery can 
miss, sometimes by as much as 5-10 hexes. When 
you have troops this close to the impact area, 
you need to be extra cautious to make sure that 
your spotter can see the target hex, and that 
the spotter has the best artillery rating 
available.   

On the defense, artillery placement is a little 
more difficult, since the enemy will be moving. 
However, the fact that they are moving makes 
them very easy to see. If you can stop them 
from moving or slow them down, this will make 
your artillery that much more effective. Mines 
and lots of direct fire are good for this. 
Airstrikes are also good at spotting the enemy 
before they move into sight. This might be 
handy if visibility is low and you want to 
breakup enemy concentrations before they come 
into view. However, there is a risk your planes 
won't see anything because, after all, you are 
just guessing yourself when you plot the 
airstrike.

Yet another defensive use for artillery which 
few players take advantage of is using the 
bombardments to rip holes along the roads that 
the enemy could use to move rapidly towards 
your positions. Artillery which is larger than 
around 75mm will make pretty holes in the 
ground. A hole in a road hex immediately 
reduces the class of that road hex to a hole 
hex, meaning that enemy units will not be able 
to zip along at the road movement rate. Along a 
long enough stretch of road, this can actually 
slow the enemy down by more than a few turns. 
Road intersections and bridges are ideal 
targets for this kind of bombardment, but just 
about any area which is going to be used as a 
path is also a possibility. Just don't do it 
too close to your own forces for the obvious 
reasons, and also because holes constitute a 
form of cover (which I presume you do not want 
the enemy to have, correct?). In military 
lingo, this is known as "interdiction fire". 
You could also use artillery to convert an 
otherwise flat, pancake-like surface to one as 
full of holes as Swiss cheese, if your forces 
are going to need some cover at the base of the 
hill they need to assault. 

If you're on the receiving end of a barrage, 
there are only two and a half things you can 
do. One, get out of the area. Send your troops 
into as wide a dispersal pattern as possible 
away from the impact zone. Note that the 
computer centers the map when a barrage begins 
over the targeted hex, but the rounds don't 
always land near that hex. It's that targeted 
hex you'll want to get away from. Two, sit 
tight and ride out the storm. If you're 
entrenched or in good cover, this isn't such a 
bad idea because your troops will probably take 
a lot more casualties getting outside the 
impact zone than they would if they just 
hunkered down. If  you're in the open, on the 
other hand, it's probably a bad idea. In any 
case, when you're under a barrage your troops 
will still suffer more casualties if they are 
classed as moving, so if you have to move, do 
so only to make some necessary attack or get 
out of the area. The last half thing you can do 
is try to kill or blind the spotter. You have 
no way of knowing who's doing the spotting 
(sometimes, you cannot even see the spotter), 
so killing the spotter is not a solution likely 
to be effected in time to make any difference. 
Blinding the spotter is a lot easier. Just have 
your troops lay smoke all around themselves and 
hope that this will work. If it works, of 
course, the barrage will still come down, it 
just won't be as accurate. 

If the enemy has plenty of bothersome artillery 
that is starting to really impact your ability 
to get the job done, you'll have to take the 
objectives or leave the map. Nothing is quite 
so frustrating as spending turn after turn 
under a murderous barrage. The only way to 
really stop it is to win the scenario as 
quickly as possible. Artillery is the AI's way 
of saying "I'm just not going to let you sit 
there and concentrate your forces for an attack 
that I can't hope to stop." You'll have to keep 
moving forward, ever forward, and, if you just 
can't take the objectives, backward, ever 
backward. The only good news is that the larger 
calibers tend to run out of ammo around turn 
20, and the Rocket Batteries even sooner. So if 
its later in the scenario and you think you 
just can't stand one more barrage, be hopeful, 
you may get the answer to your prayers.

One huge player gripe (sort of) about artillery 
is that it is not effective enough against 
infantry "in the open". I realize that if I am 
on an airbase tarmac somewhere getting hit with 
155s I probably won't survive a whole lot of 
direct hits. However, it is my feeling that 
what we see on the screen as 'clear' terrain is 
really just normal terrain without any 
outstanding or salient covering features. That 
doesn't mean that there isn't a pile of big 
logs there, or a small gulch, or a declivity 
low enough to hide my hide from the whizzers. 
Really flat, featureless, pancake-like terrain 
is actually something of a rarity. Go out 
yourself and drive a couple hundred miles to 
the nearest undeveloped area that's marked on a 
map as being 'clear terrain.' Find a few places 
where you can hide from an imaginary artillery 
barrage. See what I mean? OK, now you can come 
back. 

Airpower is an altogether different breed of 
the same species. It's called down much the 
same way, but the effect can be varied. Some 
aircraft are good at attacking infantry and 
powerless against tanks and vice versa. 
Generally, only aircraft with 20mm or larger 
cannons, or 250lb or larger bombs are adequate 
to deal with medium to heavy tanks. 
Wing-mounted rockets are not as effective tank 
killers as are the well-placed bomb. 

Just as artillery can miss and hit your own 
men, aircraft can mistake your men for those of 
the enemy, and unload with everything they've 
got. This usually causes a re-evaluation of 
your immediate tactical situation. In fact, 
aircraft generally hit the first thing they see 
that is within about 5-6 hexes of the radioed 
target hex, and they appear to have a limited 
prioritizing mechanism. Anyone who thinks 
friendly fire from aircraft is unrealistic 
ought to check out the history of the Army Air 
Corps in World War II. In Sicily, nervous 
American AA gunners killed almost 500 of our 
own paratroopers by shooting down the transport 
aircraft. One year later, in Normandy, the Air 
Corps as part of Operation Cobra dropped a 
small percentage of the total bombload about 
1500 yards short and hit assembly areas of the 
Cobra attack forces, killing a similar number. 
Just imagine what it was like for the intended 
targets: the German forces. In Steel Panthers, 
a friendly air unit which misidentifies can 
sometimes, but not always, actually strike 
friendly forces and then correct itself and go 
after the real enemies. This, in my opinion, is 
a very nice touch on the programming side. 

One other danger of aircraft is that they can 
get themselves shot down. This is no big deal 
if they already hit the target, unless they are 
on a glide path right into your own troops. 
Generally the climb-away path should be towards 
the enemy side of the map, but you can't 
control that -- it's up to the pilot. Once a 
plane is in the crash phase of 'crash and burn' 
and heading for your troops, there's nothing 
you can do. It's just one more thing to be 
aware of when plotting the strike.

A single plane can come back for another 
strike. What appears to be happening in the 
game is that if a plane conducts a strike an 
sustains no damage from ground fire, the plane 
may hang around and wait for additional strike 
requests. If the plane has already dropped 
whatever bombs it has, it won't have any more, 
but things like rockets, cannons and ordinary 
machine guns seem to have a fairly unlimited 
supply. Don't hesitate to keep bringing the 
flyboys back to do some more work for you. 

If your pilots have to brave an area where 
there is a lot of AA (which is almost always 
true against the German, British or American 
forces), you'll want to bring your strikes down 
in big waves. The reason for this is that the 
AA will tend to shoot it's bolt against the 
first or second aircraft that swoops down, 
leaving the subsequent strikes to come in, 
choose their target and unload without too much 
harassment from the poor, dumb enemy troops on 
the ground. This is true even against human 
players! Some players don't like this fact, but 
I challenge you to be a ground commander and 
tell your troops not to shoot at the first 
plane that comes streaking in from above! 
Sometimes, it may even be worth your while to 
consider using your own ground forces to 
suppress or destroy heavy enemy AA positions, 
so that your planes have an even easier time. 
Artillery is ideal for this. A simple rule of 
thumb is if enemy AA is dense, overload the 
defense. 

By the way, if you've plotted several strikes 
with airplanes or artillery and you need to 
cancel the mission, clicking on the unit name 
of the artillery or air unit in the indirect 
fire screen will center the map on the target 
hex which is associated with the unit. This 
way, you'll only cancel the strikes you don't 
need anymore, not the ones that you still want 
to go forward.    

Section 18 - Fortifications & Mines

Fortifications, in their Steel Panthers form of 
Bunkers and Pillboxes, are as old as war 
itself. Most military theoreticians in this 
century discount fixed fortifications as 
outmoded relics of the past. However, most of 
them have never been pinned down in the middle 
of a valley by a few guys in a big strong 
cement box firing rifles and guns at them. 

Placing fortifications on defense is not 
exactly easy, though. Unlike most other units 
in the game, these babys have a fixed  facing. 
Once you place them and face them in a 
direction, they can't swing around to hit that 
Tiger tank 50 meters to their rear. Again, 
you'll want to examine likely avenues of attack 
and place them to defeat that attack. 
Sometimes, this means putting them on line 
oblique to the objective, sometimes this means 
placing them all around the objective for 
direct defense. If you get more than one, make 
it so they have interlocking fields of fire and 
can cover each other's butt. Also, keep in mind 
that not only are they vulnerable to assault by 
enemy infantry, they aren't very good at 
detecting enemy infantry even if they are 
advancing in the line of fire. Your infantry 
may need to help out with this task. 

Dealing with pillboxes and bunkers is 
difficult, but its supposed to be. If it were 
too easy, we'd mistake them for outhouses or 
really cool tents with guns. Number one 
solution is to plaster the position with all 
kinds of fire, basically everything that can 
possibly hit it, from rifle and machinegun 
fire, to Rocket Artillery and Battleship guns. 
If you hit it enough times, the crew will get 
nervous and bail out, at which point the 
incoming fire will make their remains 
unrecognizable and lead us to believe that the 
guys inside were kind of dumb. Even if they 
don't head for the nearest exit point, remember 
that just because it's a pillbox doesn't mean 
the guys inside cannot take casualties. Even 
pithy little rifles and 37mm guns have been 
known to cause "1 man killed." On the other 
hand, an occasional direct hit from something 
like a 155mm shell or a tank gun has been known 
to destroy them in a half-second. 

A second way of dealing with fortifications is 
to just avoid them. They can't turn to face 
you, so when you see one, get out of the line 
of fire. Another method is to drop smoke right 
in front of the little observation holes, 
rendering them totally blind. Just don't forget 
to do it again when the smoke starts thinning 
out. 

The last method is the terror of pillbox and 
bunker crews : The direct assault. When all 
else fails, placing a satchel charge or two on, 
near, around or at the door of a pillbox is 
likely to make it difficult for the guys inside 
to listen to Mozart. Engineers and Commandos 
are best at this. The simple way is to just 
blind the strongpoint with smoke and creep up 
from behind and assault. Assaults of this type 
frequently fail, after all you're dealing with 
a couple of feet of cement or sandbags here, 
but they succeed about 25% of the time. The 
experience and infantry command ratings of your 
troops can vary this percentage, as can their 
level of suppression. But, there is another way 
which takes a little longer, but is guaranteed 
to cause the guys inside to come out. When you 
get next to the bunker with Engineers, hit the 
Z key and attack the hex! If the satchel charge 
doesn't reduce it to rubble, the flamethrower 
might, and even if the bunker isn't ruined, the 
fire raging all over the place is sure to 
suppress the crew to the point of irrelevance 
within a few turns. Keep in mind that any 
infantry can assault a bunker, and some are 
better than others (like the Japanese, for some 
reason).

Even more frightening for the static 
strongpoint crews is the sight of an 
approaching Flame Tank. Unlike Engineers, these 
tanks are almost immune to the strongpoint's 
weapons, so they don't waste time zig-zagging 
around and laying smoke to approach with 
caution. They just come right up and proceed to 
instant pyromania from a 2-hex range. This is 
why it's a good idea to support your 
strongpoints with some anti-tank weapons, tanks 
and infantry.      

Mines are a dirt cheap but powerful element of 
your arsenal. They are only available to you on 
Defend missions, and you can only buy a limited 
number of them (130 is the maximum I have 
seen). Moreover, there is an undocumented but 
nevertheless present limit on the number of 
hexes which can contain mines on the map, 
around 80. If you have a lot of mines and while 
placing them you notice that the mine you 
placed just previously jumps to the current 
placement hex, you've maxed out. From now on, 
you have to place mines in hexes already 
containing mines (doubling up) or remove some. 
Thoughtful placement of mines can make the 
difference between winning and losing more 
often than not. Roads are an obvious place for 
them, but the AI has been known to completely 
avoid roads during Assault missions (presumably 
because it was so obvious to the programmers). 
You can place as many mines in one hex as you 
want, but beyond three or four you don't gain 
any additional destructive power. It will take 
engineers longer to remove them, though. Beyond 
that, the AI (in version 1.1 and up) will try 
to avoid mine hexes once discovered. This nice 
bit of coding can also work against the 
computer, since you can use the mines to 
'channel' the attack right into a kill zone. 

The key to good placement of mines (and your 
defending troops!) is examine the map and look 
for likely lines of approach. Road 
intersections are always a good idea, 
regardless of whether they are on a line of 
approach. Typical employment is to place them 
at the forward edge of your optimal engagement 
range, and also about 3-4 hexes away from your 
defending troops. The goals here can be to 
either channel the attack into a kill zone, 
force the enemy to stop movement at a distance 
from your troops where they (the enemy!) can be 
easily destroyed, or simply to protect your own 
positions. 

If you have anti-tank guns and expect an armor 
attack, place some lines of mines about 10-12 
hexes away from them along the expected path of 
attack. This will cause enemy tanks to either 
blow up on the mine, or get stuck at a range 
where their machine guns can't hit the gunners 
or a broad side of a barn. 

If you have both mines and fortifications, 
another good tactic is to place mines right 
next to the bunkers or pillboxes which are out 
of the line of fire of the fort. This will 
cause any brave engineer or infantry unit that 
decides to assault the bunker to either move 
into the line of fire, or trod over dangerously 
mined ground. A chain of bunkers, pillboxes and 
interspersed mines can be death to all who 
enter there. 

Another nasty tactic is to place mines on 
objective hexes. This may seem kinda 
counterproductive at first, after all, if an 
enemy moves onto the objective and doesn't get 
clobbered by the mine, that means at some point 
if you want to take it back, you've got to 
scrounge around for a mine-happy unit to do it. 
On second glance, however, this can be a 
powerful tactic. You know the AI (and possibly 
human opponents) will move there so what better 
place? If the objective doesn't get taken, 
you've got nothing to worry about anyway. If 
the enemy, however, sends a large force to take 
the objective (and they find a curious lack of 
resistance on your part there, ahem) they'll 
probably never go anywhere else ever again! If 
you wind up having to take it back, just bring 
along some engineers and/or some really cheap 
units like trucks or AT-teams to recapture this 
killing field. 

As British, I once place three successive lines 
of mines about 15 hexes in length in front of a 
hilltop position containing three tanks, a 
platoon of infantry, one pillbox and one 
bunker. The position was attacked by about 20 
tanks and 2 platoons of combat engineers. More 
than half of the German vehicles were destroyed 
or immobilized on the mines, the rest were 
(slowly) picked off by the pillbox and the 
tanks. Crews from the leading tanks bailed out, 
headed for the rear and blew up on the mines 
they had already passed up in their vehicles. 
In a word, the entire attack was completely 
broken up. Only some of the engineers and one 
Panzer were able to make it on to the hill. The 
Panzer was destroyed immediately, and though my 
infantry had trouble dealing with the 
engineers, even they eventually were forced 
back.

While the above scenario is an example of how 
mines can be really effective, at bottom mines 
are basically a gamble. No amount of mines can 
cover the entire front enough to stop an 
attack. However you decide to place your mines, 
remember the enemy can always avoid them 
entirely. You should too. When on the attack, 
you should try to clear or avoid mines in your 
path, and completely avoid dealing with mines 
which will not hamper your optimal attack 
paths.  

Section 19 - Combat Engineers

When it comes to down and dirty, hand-to-hand, 
in-your-face firepower, no one is better than 
Combat Engineers. Against regular infantry at 
point blank range, the technicals will cream 
the grunts first with satchel charges, then 
with flamethrowers (if you use the Z key).  In 
many cases, its actually better to use the Z 
key against enemy infantry because they have a 
tendency to run away from Engineers at the 
first burst from their rifles. The Z key hits 
them with everything before they can scamper 
away. A new version due out from SSI (currently 
under construction as version 1.1x, to become 
version 1.2) has a selective fire feature which 
is ideal for Engineers since their main problem 
is not in getting good body counts, but having 
enough satchel charges and flamethrower fuel to 
keep going. The Z key in the older versions is 
wasteful because you used everything in one 
attack: Rifles, satchel charges and the 
flamethrower. With selective fire, you can 
choose just to Shake 'em (use the satchel 
charge) or Bake 'em (use the flamethrower), or 
just revert to the old method of Shake and Bake 
by hitting Z. It's nice to see just how many 
kills you can get with just the flamethrower, 
and its only possible to see this effect using 
selective fire. Remember also that sometimes 
you don't want to use up your precious Shake 
and Bake supply, even at close range, so just 
use normal targeting when you deem that 
adequate to the situation. However good your 
Engineers may be at point blank range, it may 
be pertinant to note here that at longer 
ranges, they will usually be at a distinct 
firepower disadvantage.  

Not only do Engineers excel at smearing 
infantry and fortifications all over the 
ground, they are also pretty effective 
tank-killers. For many armies in the early 
years, Combat Engineers are the only relatively 
effective way for infantry to deal with the 
heavier tanks. Later, when the grunts get 
bazookas, Piats, and Panzerfausts, even they 
can stand up to tanks for a little while, so 
Engineers become less popular for this purpose. 
But in those Blitzkrieg years, Engineers are 
the infantrymen's answer to the tank. However, 
the big limitation is range. It is one hex. 
Your engineers are just regular guys in the 
sights of the nearest enemy tank -- unless they 
get too close. 

Everyone has seen tanks get blown up by satchel 
charges, what is less well known is that the 
flamethrower can also destroy tanks. Of course, 
unless you have the new version with selective 
fire, you have to waste a satchel charge to get 
this effect (which you may never see anyway, 
thankfully, if the satchel charge sends the 
tank's turret spinning into the air).

Another neat tactic with Combat Engineers is to 
mount them onto a Flame Tank. Yes, that's 
right, this awesome combination will hit any 
approaching infantry with all the fire the tank 
can muster, plus the tank's flamethrower (which 
has a range of 2 hexes), plus the Engineer's 
rifle fire, satchel charge and, you guessed it, 
the Engineer's flamethrower (if you are 
attacking). If you plan to send your tanks 
rumbling through enemy infested cities, woods 
or jungles, mounting an Engineer section on a 
Flame Tank is a great way to lead your troops 
to the fight. I have never seen an enemy 
infantry survive this combination, though I 
have seen the Flame Tank get destroyed by the 
assault of a second enemy squad after the 
Engineers have dismounted to deal with the 
first. Of course, the second squad didn't 
survive either, but I was pretty angry about 
the loss of my expensive Flame Tank. Another 
risk, particularly in cities, is that your tank 
will get hit with anti-tank fire and cause 
casualties among the riders. Sometimes the 
Engineer squad just disappears leaving you 
wondering if you need to write their families. 
Check the unit list to see if they indeed, got 
wasted. 

Yet another particularly effective tactic at 
which Engineers excel is that of 
bridge-blowing. While any large shell can do 
the job, an Engineer attacking a bridge hex 
with the Z key will almost certainly result in 
the collapse of the bridge. If there happens to 
be an enemy tank or squad on the bridge, 
they'll be sent plummeting down to the river or 
stream, resulting in an instant (and pretty 
darn cool) kill. If you're on defense and there 
is a bridge hex where enemy vehicles are likely 
to use to head to your objectives, placing an 
Engineer unit or two adjacent to the bridge is 
a great way to defend it and bloody the nose of 
an overzealous enemy. This works especially 
well if there is covering terrain next to the 
bridge, since your Engineer will have less 
likelihood of being spotted. 

Finally, lets not forget that Engineer's main 
job: Finding mines. Engineers can detect mines 
better than anything. Preceding an advance into 
mine country is a sure way to minimize 
casualties, at least among your regular troops. 
Engineers will nearly always see a minefield 
before it does them any damage, and immediately 
commence to clearing it. Engineers can either 
be on or adjacent to a hex to clear the mines. 
Regular infantry can also clear mines, but 
they're much worse at it, and they usually find 
the minefield by stepping on a couple of them 
first. 

Mine-clearing is a hard job, but its much 
harder when there are other guys with rifles 
and guns trying to kill you at the same time. 
Engineers and other units engaged in 
mine-clearing will do so much more quickly if 
they aren't under fire, suppressed, or firing 
back at the harassers.. Therefore, when you 
find a minefield and decide you need to clear 
it, lay some smoke first so you can do your job 
without the hindrance of someone sending a 
hailstorm of aimed fire into your area. If 
you're on the defense, keep those Engineers 
pinned down with fire.

At right is an illustration of a typical 
mine-clearing operation, this one in the 
relatively open expanses of the desert (GIF 
File SPILL6a.gif). The engineers have moved two 
hexes a turn, and laid smoke three hexes to 
their front for about 4 turns at the time of 
this screen shot. Suddenly, all four detect a 
minefield (without suffering any casualties), 
and the most northern Engineer unit has also 
detected a repositioned British infantry squad 
without been seen by them. This is another 
example of how sometimes smoke hexes are not 
total blocks to LOS. Note that following 
closely behind the Engineers are a platoon of 
Assault Guns, and the Engineer's intrinsic 
halftrack transport. If the British infantry 
squad had detected the Engineers and attempted 
to fire, they would have suffered the wrath of 
all of these supporting units, and probably not 
survived. In any event, now, the minefield line 
has been detected and will be cleared, allowing 
the main assault force, following directly 
behind this team off the screen, to continue to 
move into position to attack the main British 
positions to the northeast and southeast of 
this area. For insurance, the main forces to 
the rear have also laid smoke to screen those 
main positions, the edge of the smokescreen 
being just visible in the top right-hand side 
of the graphic.      

Section 20 - City Combat

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 21 - Desert Rats (Desert Combat)

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 22 - Winter War (Combat during Winter 
Months, Russia, etc)

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 23 - Bungle in the Jungle (Jungle 
Combat)

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 24 - River Crossings and Amphibious 
Landings

At this writing, there is still a problem with 
the SP engine and the set-up of Amphibious 
Landing and River Crossing scenarios. Though 
you can still get a valid scenario of this type 
in a pre-made scenario (or one of your own 
making) we'll hold off to a future version the 
discussion of these types of operations.

Section 25 - The CPU as a Commander

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Steel 
Panthers is generally agreed to be the one of 
the best, if not the best, ever put together 
for a commercially available wargame. The 
computer is capable of flank attacks, frontal 
attacks, oblique attacks, zig-zags, and reserve 
placement, movement and commitment. 

Those of us who have been playing computer 
wargames for, oh, a few months now have learned 
to disdain the AI. This is a mistake in Steel 
Panthers. The programmers appear to have coded 
in a very good general logic engine with some 
specific situational templates. I have observed 
entire tank companies and platoons placed along 
the edge of the map where they would likely 
remain undetected until my troops captured one 
objective. Then the go hell on wheels to the 
place and wreak havoc. I have seen crews rout 
halfway across the map, only to come back and 
re-man the Tiger tank that I thought I had 
destroyed. I have seen the computer call down 
artillery barrages on it's own positions which 
were being attacked by my troops, but only when 
there really wasn't any other way to defend the 
position. I have seen combined arms attacks by 
the computer against what I thought were 
impregnable positions succeed and cause my own 
personal morale to fail. I have seen stars on 
fire off the shoulders of Orion . . . no, no, 
wait, that's a different manual, er, game, er,  
movie. 

The point is if you are accustomed to winning 
all the time against AI once you 'get to know 
the interface' you won't be nearly as 
successful this time. Unlike many other games, 
defeating the AI requires time-tested real 
world tactics, rather than planning for the 
expected. 

I have seen some players complain that the AI's 
strategy on Attack or Advance missions to be 
"hey-diddle-diddle, straight up the middle." I 
couldn't disagree more. The center of the map, 
say the ten hexes to either north or south of 
dead center, will nearly always have some enemy 
units assaulting through it. However, the AI is 
capable of strengthening the flanks and 
sustaining pincer movements. If you are finding 
the enemy's tactics predictable, its probably 
you've been fighting the same enemy too long. 
Attack planning is factored for national 
characteristics and force mixes. The Russians, 
now they do come right up the middle. The 
Germans, well, they tend to organize combat 
teams to head for all the objectives 
simultaneously, with some teams stronger than 
others. The Japanese tend to assault in waves: 
the first wave dies, but reveals your 
positions; the second wave dies but weakens 
you; the third wave, if it doesn't die, kills 
you instead. 

One major weakness of the AI is the placement 
of units on defend or delay missions. There 
will almost always be some units placed 
directly on or near the objective hexes. This 
knowledge gives human players and advantage 
when planning pre-battle bombardments and air 
strikes. On one occasion, in Poland, my 
pre-battle bombardment and Heinkel air strikes 
were so effective that two objectives were 
completely abandoned by enemy forces on the 
first turn of the scenario. Don't hesitate to 
use this knowledge to your advantage.

Correspondingly, the AI tends to allocate 
preparation bombardments either around the 
objective hexes, or to lay smoke along the 
intended lines of advance. In the former case, 
you will have the advantage of taking 
relatively few casualties from the preparatory 
bombardment because you had the wisdom not to 
concentrate your forces around the objective 
hexes. In the latter, the smoke screens signal 
the course that advancing enemy forces will 
take, allowing you to do some repositioning, 
range-setting or other adjustments to cause 
maximum damage to the enemy. 

A last glaring weakness of the AI  has to do 
with the movement of forces vis-a-vis the 
objectives. Enemy groups which take objectives 
nearly always head for the next nearest 
objective. Once a given objective is taken, all 
units which were heading for it immediately 
turn and head for the next nearest one. This 
makes it somewhat easy to plan an ambush for 
them. This is also why the tactic of leaving 
one objective undefended can be so effective. 
However, it doesn't always work as planned. If 
a group is dispersed and heading for an 
objective from an indirect path (that is, 
oblique to the objective), the objective hexes 
may be occupied by some fast moving elements 
before the rest get there. At the instant all 
objective hexes targeted by the moving group 
are occupied, they will all turn and head for 
the next one. If the leading elements are 10 or 
20 hexes ahead of the main force, the path they 
take to the next one may be unpredictable from 
a planning standpoint. Of course, you can 
always place some units there to slow up the 
lead elements so everyone arrives at more or 
less the same time, so your pre-positioned 
ambushers will still have a purpose in life. 

Section 26 - Nationalities

The Germans are the dominant army in the game. 
By and large, the Germans can accomplish more 
with less resources than any other army. The 
reason for this is simple, moderate to 
excellent equipment combined with the best 
overall experience, reaction and leadership 
ratings of any army. 

Playing the Germans, however, is no cakewalk 
(at least most of the time). Assuming you are 
playing a long campaign, in the early stages of 
the war you have two handicaps : 1) you need to 
take as little casualties as possible and 2) 
their tanks are relatively inferior to those 
fielded by their enemies. The Germans 
compensated for their inferior tanks with their 
excellent tactics and efficiency, but this is 
largely a matter of tactical command ability. 
That is, it's up to you to use what you have 
wisely and effectively. 

In the later stages of the war, the Germans had 
much better equipment, but by that time they 
were badly outnumbered most of the time. You 
will have the same problem. You will begin to 
notice two things, the amount of points you get 
for support starts to drop in 1943 and the 
quality of replacements will start to fall 
also, though not as dramatically until 1944. 
This is when all the lives you saved in the 
early years will make the difference. Arriving 
in the late years with a highly experienced 
force will make the later battles a little 
easier. 

One final word about the Germans: 
Eighty-eights. These awesome weapons can kill 
tanks at long ranges better than any other 
crew-served weapon in the game. Just a section 
or two can make a huge difference in the 
outcome of a battle. Actually, they kill 
infantry better than anything else too 
(including artillery) because of their range 
and accuracy. 

The British are a good match for any army. 
There is no lack of support points for the 
British in all but the very early stages of the 
war, and their quality ratings are first-class. 
Their equipment is generally good, but tactics 
need to be reflective it's strength and 
limitations.

In the early stages of the war, playing the 
British is harder than you might expect. The 
main reason for this is the lack of any 
dominating anti-tank weaponry. While there 
doesn't appear to be a problem dealing with the 
Italians, their 2-Pounder gun can penetrate 
German tanks only at relatively close ranges. 
Moreover, the British have a problem defeating 
anti-tank elements of enemy armies, because 
most of their tanks have to close within 4 
hexes in order to fire their machine guns. 
Their main gun, the 2-Pounder, can't even fire 
at infantry units at all (they have no HE 
rounds). Thus, whether on attack or defense, 
British tanks will often operate with infantry 
close by, to deal with other infantry and 
crew-served weapons. When they become 
available, always buy 1 or 2 sections of the 
Close Support tanks, the Crusader-CS and 
Matilda-CS, to alleviate the problem of dealing 
with enemy troops at long range. 

In the later stages of the war, the British 
finally get some good tanks from the Americans, 
and the guns on British-made tanks get upgraded 
to the 6-Pounder, which can fire at both 
infantry and tanks at longer ranges. Support 
point totals continue to rise, and airpower is 
available frequently. The only thing to watch 
out for at this point are, of course, heavy 
German tanks, and the low quality of your 
replacements. You will not be able to suffer 
heavy casualties battle after battle and expect 
your replacement troops to perform up to 
standard. So, be careful with your loss rates 
(as you should always be, anyway). 

The Russians start off the war pretty badly, 
but they finish off with a big bang. By the end 
of the war, it's the Russians with the great 
tanks and massive artillery, and it's the 
Russians who will be attacking most of the 
time. In the early years, the Russians suffer 
from extremely poor quality equipment and 
general leadership and experience ratings. 
Often, just a few key losses will send their 
whole force reeling in retreat. Interestingly, 
though they rout fairly easily, routing Russian 
infantry is more apt to turn around, fire 
and/or assault if you move next to them than 
most other nationalities. In the newer versions 
of the game, each Russian infantry squad has 13 
men, not 10 as in most other armies, making 
them just a little harder to kill off.

After you plough through hundreds of BT-5's and 
T-26's, the Russians start getting some really 
good armor. If you're Russian, the biggest 
threat to your predominate armor in the late 
1941-late 1942 period is German infantry and 
the unexpected anti-tank gun. If you're German, 
about the only way to stop a Russian attack is 
with the venerable 88s or by some really 
desperate maneuvering with your tanks. Airpower 
can help too, but the larger Russian tanks can 
take a direct hit even from a 500lb bomb 
without so much as a mussed 'do. For the 
German, combined arms is a necessity during 
this period. The T-34's are vulnerable to rear 
hits at close range, and of course to top hits 
if you have the courage to stand on a crest and 
hit shoot at them long enough for a top hit to 
happen. The hardest nut to crack are the KV 
class tanks, named after Klimenti Voroshilov, 
the top Soviet General who, ironically, was 
completely discredited by Stalin for the poor 
performance of the Red Army in Finland in 
1939-40, before the Germans launched 
Barbarossa. The KV tanks are much better than 
their namesake. Even 88s have a problem with 
them. The best you can do is hope for an 
immobilization hit. If you can afford it, 
another way of dealing with these huge hunks of 
Russian metal is to buy an Engineer platoon and 
place them in spots where you think the enemy 
will go. In fact, 88s work best in combination 
with the Engineer tactics since the Russian 
tanks will spend most of their shots dealing 
with the nearby infantry threat rather than 
sending your gun chassis spiralling into the 
air. You'll need to time your gun's entry into 
the fray for about the same turn as the enemy 
hits your Engineer line.

Later in the war, the Russians will have plenty 
of support in the form of devastating airpower, 
plentiful artillery and rocket batteries, and 
excellent tanks. Though lack of good experience 
and leadership ratings continue to be a problem 
even to 1943, the declining quality of the 
Germans more than makes up for this deficiency. 

The Russians tend to attack in giant waves. 
Even if you are playing the Russians, this is a 
fairly good tactic since it will compensate to 
some extent for your relatively weak leadership 
and morale factors. Russian equipment, while 
good, is still not as good as the Tiger or 
Panther tank for example, but chances are 
you'll have many more tanks than the enemy. 
You'll be able to afford to lose a few to get 
close enough to blast the Germans all the way 
to France if you have to.  
 
Section 27 - Marines at War

To anyone who has played the Marines in the 
Pacific in this game, you know what I mean when 
I say that those Japanese are vicious, 
tenacious, well, er, you know what I mean. I'll 
never forget my first encounter with the 
Japanese. I'd already wiped out about a dozen 
squads and thought the rest of the battle would 
just be dealing with some isolated attack by 
some guys who hadn't quite 'gotten the word.' 
My chain of bunkers was still intact and 
everything! But they just kept coming and 
coming, right into the center of my position. 
It was all I could do just to get out!

Dealing with the Japanese requires no subtlety 
whatsoever, just lots and lots of heavy 
firepower. These guys just don't give up. Right 
up until you eliminate the last platoon, you'll 
think you are under heavy attack from all 
directions. If you have to attack their 
positions, which I dread, lots of tanks with 
infantry squads riding are essential. 

The main difference in this theatre is that the 
Japanese are extremely hard to detect, and they 
do not suffer from morale effects hardly at 
all. Even if they do, you can be sure that 
they'll turn around and continue to give you a 
problem to the last man. Though they do not 
surrender, they are vulnerable to suppression 
and this is a key point in your tactics. Your 
forces will wind up being in more concentrated 
groups than in other theatres because once you 
encounter the enemy, you will need every ounce 
of gunpowder you can muster, in whatever form 
you can throw at them, just to stay alive. Your 
core forces will probably greatly benefit from 
Flame Tanks, since these marshmallow roasters 
can put whole squads to the infernal reaches 
with one or two shots. On the attack, having 
some snipers or Rangers out in front will get 
the Japanese to give up the ghost, and if you 
have a couple of Sherman Flames with Engineer 
riders right behind, you can just blow(torch) 
your way right past them. 

In nearly every scenario, the Japanese will 
have their full complement of 48 units, so be 
prepared for long battles. Though it is usually 
difficult, avoiding their infantry means that 
your men can make it to the objectives that 
much quicker, but since they don't consider 
force morale, be prepared for a massive counter 
attack lasting almost to the last turn. The 
good news is that the Japanese have very poor 
anti-tank capability and a very poor tank 
force. But, with infantry like this, who needs 
tanks?

Section 28 - The Wehrmacht in Europe

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 29 - The British in North Africa 

This is a popular subject for campaign since, 
basically, it was the only front for the forces 
of Britain and, later, the Allies for about two 
and a half years. The exploits of Rommel are 
well known, and to some, the process of 
stopping the Deutschland Afrika Korps holds a 
mystifying fascination. After all, who knows 
how the war may have turned out if German 
troops had managed to reach the Suez Canal?

The British face some particular problems on 
this front. Here, even the Italian forces can 
be troublesome. The lack of a good, long-range 
anti-tank capability is especially exposed on 
these flat, sandy expanses. The 2-Pounder gun 
is the main anti-tank armament until mid-1942, 
and this weapon is very ineffective against 
German tanks unless they are less than 500 
yards away. On the other hand, you cannot let 
the Panzers get too close, lest they spot you 
and shoot to kill. Only by using higher 
elevations and/or flank shots do the British 
troops have any hope of stopping the German 
Panzers. Finally, the British will often be 
grossly outnumbered in tanks and support units, 
again until about mid-1942. 

Many a player has found themselves in 1941 
suffering defeat after defeat against German 
forces, and usually, but not always, getting a 
victory against the Italians only at some cost. 
There are a few things you can do to rectify 
this situation.

First, know your limits. Don't position your 
forces to duke it out with the Germans at long 
ranges. They will win. If you are firing at the 
Panzers at ranges of greater than 500 yards, 
chances are slim that you will even hit them, 
much less penetrate. On defense, position your 
forces instead for flank shots, and let the 
enemy take one or two objectives so that you 
will know where they will generally go on the 
map (they have to take objectives).

Attacking German positions is a nearly 
insoluble problem, especially if the Germans 
have 88s. You simply will not be able to attack 
frontally unless you have plenty of artillery 
and plenty of smoke (which you usually won't). 
Even British airpower is woefully ineffective 
in the early years, since there is not much of 
it and the Hurricane IIs carry only one 500lb 
bomb. Instead, try for flank attacks using any 
intervening terrain you can for cover 
(especially from those dreaded 88s). Use smoke 
to cover your flank.   

Another problem with the British tanks in the 
early years is lack of any anti-infantry shell 
for their guns. If you are approaching a 
position bristling with anti-tank guns, you 
will be sorely disappointed to discover that 
your tanks have to close within 4 or 5 hexes to 
use their machine gun, instead of simply 
popping off a few main gun rounds. This is even 
more frustrating if you have already defended 
against the Germans, who do have an HE round, 
and who most likely were able to deal with your 
anti-tank guns rather easily. Most of the time, 
your tanks will never get close enough to such 
a position. The solution is to have infantry in 
front of the tanks, dropping smoke and 
approaching the positions in bounds. When they 
get to within 10 hexes, you can start hitting 
them with the Squad LMG, 2 inch mortar (if they 
are Heavy Weapons squads), and your rifles. 
Even if you don't kill anybody, remember that 
the gunners are becoming progressively 
suppressed and will be less accurate. When you 
get Combat support tanks (CS-tanks), buy a 
section or two. These babys can fire HE at 
anti-tank positions, and they can also fire 
smoke rounds at a distance, which is very handy 
for blinding that 88 position which has already 
capped a couple of your tanks. The AI, though, 
treats CS-tanks as a priority target (now there 
is some good programming!), so try not to get 
too close and stay out of sight as much as 
possible.

Later in the war, the Grant and Churchill tanks 
appear, and you will immediately notice a 
difference if you get some. These tanks have a 
built-in, hull-mounted anti-infantry gun on the 
order of 75mm, which has also been known to 
kill as many or more tanks than the main, 
turret-mounted gun! Upgrade some of the tanks 
in your core force to one or the other of these 
types as soon as possible. A few months after 
you get this upgrade, you might notice that the 
German tanks also seem harder to kill and are 
more effective at killing your tanks. This is 
because they get the Panzer IIIh and IIIj 
models. The J mounts a 50L60 gun, which is 
quite deadly against your more thinly armored 
tanks, and also very good at killing the 
heavier armored tanks like the Churchill. Keep 
them at least 10 or more hexes away from your 
front or you'll start to see your tanks explode 
like Roman candles on the Fourth of July. In 
1943 they get Tigers and Panthers, which no 
Allied tank was able to deal with reliably to 
the end of the war. By then however, you should 
be 'Out of Africa' and supported by plenty of 
airpower and new-fangled tank destroyers.  

One final word about the Italians in North 
Africa. When playing the British, one tends to 
discount them for obvious historical reasons. 
Don't. Their tanks aren't all that good but 
they will have more than you do. One 
particularly annoying little vehicle in the 
early years is the CV-33, which is a tiny 
tankette mouting machine guns. These 
insect-like excuses for a real tank will roam 
all over the battlefield, usually in front of 
the main Italian force. The blood-boiling 
aspect of these things is that at something 
like 4 hexes (200 yards!), you get an 
astounding sure-to-kill hit probability of 
about 6 percent! The small size of these 
mosquitos makes it hard to hit them, and your 
infantry is very vulnerable to their fire. I 
like to concentrate about half my anti-tank 
fire on these guys, just to protect my 
infantry, while the other half hits their 
tanks. (By the way, the size factor is a 
relevant consideration when you are upgrading 
your own tanks. All things being equal, choose 
the smaller size tank -- it will survive 
longer).  

Yet another Italian gem is the Semovente 90. To 
the British player, these vehicles are about as 
hard to kill as the CV-33, except that they 
mount a 90 millimeter AA gun. That's right, I 
said a NINTEY MILLIMETER!!! If they hit your 
tanks, your tanks start a-smokin'. If they hit 
your infantry, they start a-fallin'. And all at 
long ranges! I classify these as the highest 
priority target when I see them. They are at 
least vulnerable to any type of gun and to 
artillery, but most kills come from direct 
fire. Fortunately, you won't have to deal with 
the Semovente until early 1942 (the year before 
the year the Italians surrender <g> ). 

Section 30 - The American Army in Europe

"We're not the American Army, we're just a 
private enterprise operation"
                Kelly,
                From the movie "Kelly's Heroes"
                when challenged by the local 
                German / SS bad guy.

And that pretty much sums up the whole American 
strategy. The Americans spent about five times 
as much money on the war effort than any of 
their opponents, and wound up with fewer 
casualties and the most heavily-laden supply 
train of any major army in the world up to that 
time. The Germans referred to the American 
tactics as the tactics of "materielschlagt" or 
material battle, in which the Americans relied 
on prodigious amounts of indirect fire from 
artillery and airplanes to cause casualties 
among them, rather than old-fashioned military 
ardor, elan, leadership and raw courage. This 
is of course not to say that the Americans were 
lacking in these things, just that they for the 
most part, and wisely, wished to spare the 
lives of their soldiers and would much prefer 
to kill the enemy with low-risk and 
low-casualty methods rather than, say the 
German or Russian way, of disregarding the cost 
of life in attaining tactical military goals.

Steel Panthers reflects this aspect of the real 
war. The Americans are supposed to have the 
highest number of support points of any army 
for each mission, and artillery and aircraft 
are usually in good supply. On the other hand, 
particularly in the early war, the Americans 
are very easy to suppress and cause to rout. 
However, if you start out as the Americans in a 
Long Campaign early in the war, say in 
December, 1941, you might find that the going 
is pretty tough at first. Departing from my 
ordinary style here, I let you hear what some 
other players have had to say on this subject :

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>Subj:  Re:AI overbias
Date:  96-01-16 01:12:03 EST
From:  WBKOly          

I haven't read all the following messages on 
this subject yet, so forgive me if someone else 
has already made this point, but i also suffer 
from frustration when playing an American 
campaign.

>Subj:  G.I. hotshots sought
Date:  96-01-16 15:45:31 EST
From:  AlKharizm       

So, who has been winning with the Amis in the 
long campaign? We the suffering would like to 
hear from you, and this should be included in 
the upcoming FAQ release. I've read the other 
posts on the subject here--some nice pointers. 
But we'd all like to hear of the best US vs. 
German record in a long campaign on the "hard" 
setting, and then hear how it was done. It's 
much more challenging than playing as German or 
Russian.

See, i came out of two long campaigns with all 
decisive victories on the Eastern Front with 
green troops on "hard" setting. i've played 
Panzerblitz and ASL since nine years old. But i 
am GETTING THRASHED as the U.S. player in the 
long campaign vs. krauts. My engineers (green) 
and Stuarts were blown to bits, rolled over, 
and spat upon by the Afrika Korps near Fondouk. 
ok, fine...they had Tigers and plenty of arty. 
best thing to do was run. I've managed draws at 
Syracuse and Salerno. But at Salerno, the 
krauts had more than two dozen tanks, and 
plenty of infantry. they're getting better buys 
for their construction points by quite a 
margin. Well, i love a good challenge, and this 
is it. Time to upgrade my skills. Help!

>Subj:  Re:Getting crushed!!!
Date:  96-01-16 19:42:31 EST
From:  RAGNAR8224

I'm a far cry from a hot shot but I'm finally 
starting to see some moderate success with my 
Americans against Germans in the long campaign. 
(Of course I've lost 5 battles because 
everything I do is an amphi assault and I 
started out in the water without landing craft 
- didn't take casualities anyway).These are 
some general things that have work for me.

From a game standpoint I've had to run to the 
Pacific theatre to win easier victories (the 
Japanese have nasty infantry but no armor 
usually) to rebuild before returning to Europe. 
I also buy mechanized infantry so I can 
sacrifice the half tracks to get close or team 
up 8 of them to machine gun a german tank into 
retreating. In the desert I still get my butt 
kicked, but in other terrain if I run my tanks 
in to basically point blank range I score 
kills. The tricky part is getting that close. 
This usually involves running around the map to 
attack from the least likely direction. The AI 
germans will often sit still elsewhere while I 
overrun one victory area. Wolverines are a bit 
fragile but in the first half of the war they 
are the only thing I could hurt Panthers with. 
The AA halftrack is actually handy to have 
around for running off infantry but if a tank 
gets it sighted it's history. Lately I've been 
able to take advantage of the fact that the 
German AI units will attack to retake a victory 
area near the last 5 turns or so. Then the 
engineers can hide and try to jump them. 
(Engineers are the only infantry unit I bother 
with these days). I'll have to check on my 
current long campaign attempt, I might still be 
on the moderate difficulty setting.8 in guns 
from cruisers are really cool when available. 
They have scored the only indirect arty kills 
on enemy tanks that I have had.

Bottom line is I take heavy casualties, many of 
them coming right at the end of the scenario in 
the German counter attacks. I'd like to hear 
what works (or not) for others so I can send a 
few more boys home walking rather than laying 
down.

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Other players have made similar "complaints." 
While I haven't played the Americans in a Long 
Campaign myself (in Europe), it would seem from 
the above that unless the American forces have 
tremendous numerical superiority early on, they 
will have a difficult time prevailing against 
German forces which include heavy armor. This 
is about right, as I read the historical 
situation. Every time the Americans were faced 
with superior numbers of German troops, even 
into 1944, they had a very hard time and had to 
rely on airpower and artillery to even the 
score. Remove airpower from the equation, and 
you had things like Kasserine. It wasn't until 
the Bulge campaign that the Americans could 
engage the Germans in situations of numerical 
inferiority without air support and 
nevertheless prevail. 

If you want to play the Americans and plan to 
start in the earlier phases of the war, just 
being aware of the inability of your forces to 
deal with the Germans may save you some lives 
and frustration. Instead of relying on tanks, 
artillery and airpower, or other weapons of 
offense, you may want to invest heavily in a 
whole bunch of defensive weaponry such as 
AT-guns, mines, pillboxes and bunkers for 
support when on defense. If you are on the 
attack, you'll need plenty of tanks, artillery 
and airpower, but if you don't have enough keep 
your goals limited and above all be prepared 
for the German counterattacks.

Section 31 - Questions of Morale

[to be completed in a future version]

Section 32 - Commander's Log (Testimonials)

Introduction

There is no substitute for combat experience. 
Since Steel Panthers is just a game, that is 
something SSI doesn't include in the box. 
However, what we can do in this Primer is give 
you a little taste of how some real battles (in 
Steel Panthers) went from the perspective of 
the guys that had to do the job on the ground 
which, to you, look like cool little green, 
brown or gray graphics representing a single 
soldier. Future versions will include screen 
shots of a turn of the game the subject of the 
testimonials. If you would like to submit a 
testimonial, please do so in ASCII format, and 
include either a screen shot or a save game 
file of the turn you want made into a screen 
shot, with a description of the events 
happening during that turn and how they relate 
to the testimonial. 

Sergeant Mickey Anderson's log. 323 Combat 
Engineers.
                        by Frank Radoslovich 
[FrankRado@aol.com]

        Lieutenant Morgan deployed our squad 
behind a small rise, and the whole platoon dug 
in side-by-side.  The sand was hard and the 
ground was rocky, so it was tough going for a 
while. However, the weather was crisp and cool, 
and I could have sworn there was an ocean 
breeze, although we were miles from the ocean.
       The guys had all grown used to the idea 
that it would be hot all the time, like some 
French Legionnaire movie, and it had been hot 
sometimes, but not today.
       We looked out over the rise. About a 
mile away, across flat desert, was a small 
hill, and we had a strong hunch that the 
Germans were on it, although we hadn't been 
told that yet. Division wanted the hill, and 
two others nearby, to sight artillery. Most of 
the squad was really pissed off at the idea 
that we'd have to walk across that flat desert, 
but we were 
Engineers, and we knew when the assault came we 
had to go in front to look for mines. We 
couldn't see many places to hide, just a few 
scrubs and some small dips in the ground. The 
rest of the company was a couple hundred yards 
to the rear with some tanks, and would follow 
us in once we jumped off.
       I could hear the tanks moving around 
back where the company was, and they were 
kicking lots of dust into the air. I knew the 
Germans could see that, and were probably 
sighting their 88s right on us. The Lieutenant 
had told me that Division had given us a lot of 
artillery, so we were going to plaster that 
hill for awhile before we went over. While 
waiting around, I ate. I wasn't brave or 
anything, and my stomach was nervous and upset 
like the other guys, but I still felt like 
eating. It was crazy. So I had some chocolate 
and hoped my hole was big enough. The Germans 
probably had artillery, too. This was probably 
the tenth damn hole I had dug in 3 days, and I 
hadn't been shot at yet. None of us had, if you 
don't count the few potshots the French took at 
us on the beaches. Cripes, their resistance was 
a rumor.
       The Artillery was set to go in a few 
minutes, and I told the guys to hunker down in 
case some of the rounds were too short or in 
case the Krauts threw something back at us. 
Most of these guys hadn't even heard a lot of 
artillery going off at once before. They'd get 
a show. I was on the landing ships, and I 
remember how loud the battle wagons were. I 
remember thinking that I probably wouldn't hear 
the guns, because they were far in our rear. I 
crapped my pants just hearing the whining of 
the rounds.
       The basic plan, near as I could figure, 
was to plaster the hell out of the little hill 
with artillery, and run like hell. We were 
supposed to stop about a thousand yards from 
their lines and search for mines, and cut a 
path through for the Rifle Company bringing up 
the rear.  Its at that point I knew I would get 
real scared, because we were pretty and bare at 
that time, mostly bare, and the Germans could 
cut us up pretty bad.
Hopefully, the artillery would do what it was 
told and fire a lot of smoke rounds so the 
Germans would not see us.
       [more on plan]
       At about 0700 our guns opened up, mostly 
155s and mortars. Our objective disappeared in 
a cloud of smoke. Round after round hit the 
hill. Some of the guys looked out of their 
holes, fascinated by the sight. I told them to 
keep their heads down. One of the shells must 
have hit some ammo, because a small ball of 
orange flame flashed for an instant on the 
hill. I borrowed the LT's glasses, but I 
couldn't see much. But at least I knew they 
were up there waiting for us.
       Suddenly about a hundred guys screamed 
Incoming! and with a tremendous screech we were 
clobbered by an enemy barrage. Most of the 
rounds landed to our rear where the Rifle 
Company was dug in.  Although we were most 
exposed, the rounds didn't hit us. About a 
hundred yards to our left there was a chorus of 
screams followed one of the shell crashes. I 
found out later that Sergeant Leonard from 
North Carolina and his gun crew took a direct 
hit, wiping them out to the man.
       The artillery duel lasted about ten or 
fifteen minutes. The German shells kept landing 
behind us, and we kept clobbering their hill. 
They were not really doing much to us, and we 
just rode it out. A thought crossed my mind 
that we probably were not doing much to the 
Germans either, and they would just be sitting 
there waiting for us when our shelling stopped.
       Through all the shelling I heard the 
loud drone of aircraft engines and looked up to 
see a couple of our B-26s fly over my hole. 
They dropped several bombs on the enemy hill. 
The lieutenant looked over the hole and told me 
he thought he saw German bunkers on the western 
face, which means the bunkers would pointing 
right at us. 
       Our artillery let up for a couple of 
minutes. I knew this meant that we were getting 
ready to move out. Lt. Morgan told me to get 
ready, and I passed it down the men.
As I was standing and barking at the men, the 
Germans got our range. One shell came down 
about twenty yards from me, into the hole 
occupied by Private Wright and Private Means. 
Means began screaming and shouting and I ran 
over them to shut him up. When I got there, I 
saw that Private Wright had no head and no 
right arm. I don't know how Means survived, but 
I grabbed his arm and dragged him over to my 
hole. I had to carry his weapons because he was 
blubbering all over the place. When we got back 
to the hole, the rest of the platoon had 
already went over, and we had to sprint a few 
yards to catch up. Major Navarro had come down 
to our position, and was cursing a blue storm 
to get us moving.  Means seemed to pull himself 
together fine, but he looked all gray and 
stupid, which is not a good state to be in when 
you got to look for mines.
       While pulling Means along I saw the rest 
of the company about two hundred yards behind 
us coming out of their holes and stepping over 
our hill, with about a half a dozen tanks and 
tank destroyers. At that moment, I saw the 
German shells come down on what I later found 
out was Third Platoon. I saw one round hit and 
about five guys disappear
in a cloud of smoke and body parts. Most of the 
shells were landing harmlessly to the left 
flank of the company line, but Third Platoon 
probably lost about eight men. I saw a couple 
other guys stay to tend the wounded. I turned 
around and pressed on.  We had a fine view
of our own shells landing on the German 
position, but we had no idea if they were 
hitting anything. The Lieutenant was straining 
his eyes through his glasses, and saying over 
and over, "Get that damn bunker, get that damn 
bunker".
       The mortars and tanks began to pump 
smoke rounds around the enemy hill. The 
Lieutenant was shouting at everyone to spread 
out, and we began moving off to the left to 
move ourselves away from second and third 
squad, who were bunching up too much. The 
Lieutenant went over there and screamed at the 
squad leaders, who began to spread out.
We were string out in an irregular line about 
two hundred yards wide, about thirty of us. We 
would have to clear and mark paths for the 
tanks through any mines we saw. The tanks, who 
were now only about fifty yards or so behind 
us, were to follow us slowly and were going to 
give us cover fire. I felt better knowing they 
were there. I looked back
at one of the Shermans, and the commander must 
have read my mind, because he gave me a "thumbs 
up" sign, which I returned. As I looked, I 
could see a couple of shells hit Major 
Navarro's position, and the company HQ went to 
ground. One of our SP howitzers also got hit, 
and I could see the crew getting out and what 
must have been the Commander staring at his 
treads. He appeared to be cursing a blue storm, 
too. In fact, everyone seemed to be cursing 
everything.
        We had advanced about 500 yards. The 
Germans shells kept coming, and kept landing to 
the rear. The German guns were working over the 
Rifle Company, and I got worried that they 
might pin them all down on this plain and pick 
them off one by one, and leave us Engineers 
without support. The HQ got hit again, and 1st 
Platoon looked like they were taking losses, 
too. I could see bodies falling or blowing 
apart, and medics running among the wounded. 
The shells
weren't hitting our platoon or the other 
engineers. They just kept falling behind us and 
hitting the Rifle Company.
        There was a small ridge ahead which would 
afford us some cover if we needed it. The 
objective was still obscured by clouds and 
about 800 yards to our front. The tanks had 
must have been spotted because they rapidly 
began firing towards another hill about a 
thousand yards to our left. I saw a white flash 
which  appeared to be return fire from
a German position, but I couldn't tell what was 
firing. The tanks were very concerned and 
firing rapidly and moving ahead in fits and 
starts. An M-10 must have suffered a close call 
because it started to move back and forth and 
twisting rapidly, as if to present a difficult 
target. Meanwhile, another B-26 showed up and 
dropped its bombs on our objective, which 
caused a massive explosion which shot debris a 
hundred feet in the air, followed by an orange 
plume of flame.
        We still had not seen any mines.
        We got to the ridge and we all paused to 
regroup. Most of the Rifle Company had slipped 
though the German artillery, and the shells 
were falling behind them. Our tanks kept 
exchanging fire with some unknown enemy 
position, and I heard a large WHANG! of a 
German round hitting one of the Shermans, which 
stopped suddenly, kicking up a great volume of 
dust as it did so. Our smoke rounds were 
landing everywhere, and there was a thick 
curtain of smoke to our front, about 150 yards 
away. The Lieutenant screamed at everyone to 
keep moving.
         We got up and sprinted over the ridge. 
The German artillery got our range again, and a 
few rounds landed right along our line, but no 
one was injured. However, I learned later that 
3rd Platon, 2nd squad was all but wiped out by 
this barrage.  We ran into the smoke cover, and 
I knew we were only a few hundred yards from 
our objective. Again, no mines. But we couldn't 
see too far in the smoke. We knew the Germans 
were there, however.
         We went forward for about fifty more 
yards when Merski in 3d Squad off to our right 
screamed "Mines!" At that moment Means also 
noticed mines, and the whole platoon froze. The 
Germans had laid strong barrier mines along our 
front. We immediately began clearing
them away, while the tanks crawled up behind 
us. I was scared that the tanks would just roll 
right over us in the smoke, but I dispatched 
Corporal Algini and Pvt Blanchard to slow them 
up. The rest of the Rifle Company bunched up 
behind us, and their officers were yelling at 
the riflemen, telling them to stay down and 
keep their intervals. The German artillery had 
found us, and I knew a rain of shells would 
come down on us and probably kill us all. I saw 
Major Navarro and what was left of Company HQ 
crammed on a jeep, and the Major began to walk 
up and down the line shouting obscenities at 
the greenhorns and commanding them to sit tight 
and ride it out while we cleared the mines.
Seconds later, the jeep was blown to 
smithereens by a German gun position, but I 
couldn't see where it came from.
        We worked fast in clearing the mines. 
Second squad managed to cut a path pretty 
quick, but shells began falling all around my 
squad, so we were having difficulty.
I knew a few more guys got hit, because I heard 
their screams behind me.  Our Medic, Ramirez, 
went to the rear to the help with the wounded, 
and he told me he'd come right back, but I 
barely heard it.   An M-10 was idling behind 
us, and the commander was shouting at us to 
hurry up, or we all be killed on this spot.  I 
flipped him the bird.
        The Lieutenant said "We gotta get 
moving sergeant. 2d Squad's already through. 
Lets move it". I glanced over to my right, and 
I saw second squad move forward, waiving the 
infantry to follow.  We were slower going 
because of the artillery. The tanks and 
riflemen behind us were yelling at us at the 
top of their lungs. 
        A long burst of machine gun fire 
erupted about a 100 yards to our right, and 
slashes of tracer fire began to come from the 
hill. It looked as though 2d squad was taking 
fire, and the riflemen following behind them 
all went to the ground, and it seemed like none 
of them were firing their weapons.  A small 
sergeant was bravely standing up
and barking orders at the terrified men, 
telling them to "shoot your <expletive deleted> 
weapons and get those <familial structure 
descriptive expletive deleted>." but most of 
the men were hugging their weapons and not 
firing a shot. The sergeant began to open up 
with his Thompson, and a few took his lead and 
began shooting at the tracer fire. Through the 
smoke it looked like several men were hit, and 
the tracer fire kept coming, kicking up sand 
wisps and causing a few guys to bury themselves 
in the sand like a bunch of halibuts.
       We finally cut a path through, and 
frantically I waived a Sherman forward, and it 
picked up speed and drove right through our 
position, nearly clobbering Blanchard. The M-10 
also sped by, followed by an M7 Priest, the 
latter of which went off the path we cleared, 
and immediately hit a mine, blowing pieces of 
its track up into the air and
lurching to a noisy halt. A burst of machine 
gun fire opened up from an enemy bunker, and I 
could hear the bullets smack a against the 
armor of the Sherman. The commander hastily 
dropped back in the turret, closing his hatch 
with a loud clang.
        An German anti-tank gun opened up from 
somewhere, and there was a loud WHANG sound 
again as a round bounced off the Sherman.. Had 
we lead the way, we would have been creamed. 
Tracer fire began to zip through our squad, and 
we crawled forward towards the tank.  A rifle 
platoon followed close to our rear, and a few 
men began firing their rifles, although I still 
could not see anything to shoot at.
        The Sherman fired a round, but I now 
saw that there were a line of German bunkers 
about 100 yards in front of us, and it looked 
like about three machine guns and three 
anti-tank guns all opened up at the Sherman, 
and two anti-tank shells hit it. The Sherman 
stopped dead in its tracks, but it didn't look 
damaged. I yelled "SMOKE!"  and a couple
of our squad began to pop smoke grenades to 
screen us from the bunkers. Then there was a 
tremendous explosion, and another tank to our 
right blew up, its turret doing spins in mid 
air. By some miracle, I saw a tanker climb out 
of the hole where the turret was, and he begin 
running wildly toward the rear, his left boot 
on fire. However, three
other tanks and a halftrack drove right past 
the wreck and roared up the hill and around the 
left flank of the German bunker line. The tanks 
began to slam rounds into the German bunkers at 
point blank range, and the halftrack let them 
have it with its quad-mounted 50-cals.  Fire 
from the bunkers ceased. Another quad-50 pulled 
up about 30 yards way from me, and began raking 
the enemy positions ahead of our squad with
heavy machine gun fire.  The M-10 also began 
firing rounds at the German bunkers. Through 
the wild noise the Lieutenant was ordering us 
to prep our demo charges and get ready to move. 
 The German artillery then hit us with 
vengeance, falling all along the base of the 
hill where most of the Company and us Engineers 
were pinned down.
Several rounds fell among third squad -- and no 
one survived. The whole squad just evaporated. 
Second squad also got hit severely, and it 
looked like they only had about three men who 
could stand.  There were now probably about a 
dozen effectives left in our platoon:
The rest were obliterated or maimed by the 
artillery.
        Through the smoke ahead and I saw a about 
twenty Germans fleeing from the tank onslaught. 
They were outflanked by the tankers, and were 
running away right along the front of our 
position along the crest of the hill, and could 
be seen like silhouettes or ducks at a carnival 
shooting gallery. The tanks let them have it 
with their machineguns
and enemy bodies fell like like shirts blown 
from a clothesline. A few put there hands up 
and one of the tankers gestured to them to walk 
to the rear, and the prisoners walked right 
past me, looking like sheepish schoolboys with 
their hands on their helmets. Means yelled 
"Look!" and pointed to my left, and I saw two 
more Germans fleeing down
the hill about 80 yards away.  We opened up 
with our rifles and one fell hard, never to get 
up.  The other made it a few more yards, but 
one of the tanks got him with a long stream of 
50 caliber fire.
        When the rest of the company saw that the 
Germans were running, they gave a tremendous 
shout and charged up the hill. Our tanks were 
already there waiting for us, exchanging fire 
with a German gun position to the North. The 
hill was ours, at the cost of most of my 
platoon, and about 80 other men who made that 
deadly walk in Farouk. 
        However, this particular hill was now ours. 

Postscript :

The log ends here. However, reports indicated 
that just after occupying the hill, Anderson 
and the other Americans came under a heavy 
counter-attack by a platoon of Stug-IIIs and 
other German forces. The Americans were forced 
off the hill with heavy casualties, including 
the loss of many of the remaining American 
tanks. Sgt Anderson is missing and presumed 
dead. (Frank Radoslovich)         

        Log of Sgt James Thatcher Sparks,
        1st Coldstream Guards Battalion
        by Todd David Brady (EMurrow1@aol.com)

Cassino, May, 1944

Cassino. We'd all grown to dislike the place. 
In fact, none of us cared too much for all of 
Italy at this point. At least the weather was 
improving, indeed, it was a bit hot for some of
the lads who'd joined up since we'd come over 
to Macaroni Land from the Island in September. 

The word had come down that we were to attack 
once again. Attack again that place which had 
become synonymous with fortress, with immovable 
object, with impregnable. The German 
propagandists were alive with tawdry criticisms 
of our inability to break their line. What the 
jolly rogers back home in England and Scotland 
didn't know was that things were much worse 
than that. Only a month ago, one of our own 
Guards battalions had been given an attack 
order, but the jerrys launched an immediate 
counter-attack and surrounded them. I'd heard 
some of them, those that had survived, talk 
about how they'd started out along a tree-lined 
road, and within minutes half a dozen Panthers 
on each side had them pinned down, while their 
infantrymen kept pushing on down the road 
against them. The Panthers crossed a stream and 
took the village they'd started from. It was 
only with some difficulty that other elements 
of the Regiment had gotten them out. Most of 
the poor boys needed a bit of rest after that.

So today came another attack order. We wondered 
amongst ourselves what the jerrys had in store 
for us this time. Colonel FitzGibbon, however, 
exuded confidence in the days before. Our 
battalion would not get stuck on some pitiful 
Italian road, he said. We would go forward in 
the grand style, and drive them once and for 
all away from that dreadful monastery. Indeed, 
he said, our whole force would be attacking all 
along the line, and we were to play a critical 
part in the whole operation. Not only our own 
countrymen, but all the Allied armies in Italy 
would be depending on how our battalion 
performed today. 

We marvelled too at the equipment which seemed 
to be ready for us. Our two engineer sections 
were given the new Kangaroo, which was an 
infantry carrier like our Bren Carrier but 
which was really just a Sherman without a 
turret, and therefore very well armored. 
Division, per course, allotted the attack force 
our usual, dedicated heavy tank platoon and 
infantry-tank support platoon (Churchill IVs 
and Valentine XIs, respectively). They added 
this time a Sherman platoon, which we in the 
ranks could not but appreciate. With the 
weather clearing, we were also promised several 
airstrikes, though we'd learned not to depend 
on this sort of thing too heavily.

My task was the command of my tank, a Valentine 
XI, part of the dedicated infantry-support tank 
platoon for A Company. With all due modesty, I 
had only previously been given the Battalion 
Expert Badge, having received credit for over 
50 kills with my vehicle. I'd been with the 
Battalion since France, when the jerrys overran 
the place, but that time and place was now only 
a distant memory.

Colonel FitzGibbon, we called him Fitz for 
short, divided our attack force into three 
teams. The Northern Group would attempt to work 
around the extreme northern edge of the enemy's 
defenses, through rough terrain but devoid of 
cover for the last 1000 meters. This group 
would consist of the Commando platoon supported 
by one section of Engineers in their new 'Roos. 
The Centre group would consist of One Platoon, 
a section of Engineers in 'Roos, and the Heavy 
Tank platoon, and their job was to support the 
Northern group and tie down any German fire 
from the centre. The Southern Group, where I 
was assigned, was strongest. In addition to my 
tank platoon, we had the Shermans, and 2nd 
Platoon mounted in BC's. We were to work our 
way around the edge of the enemy's line and 
then proceed along their flank to the centre, 
where we would be aided and perhaps joined by 
Centre Group. Then, whomever could continue 
would aid and assist Northern Group if needed 
to take the northern positions. Fitz wanted all 
of our force active and engaging the enemy from 
the start. 

We moved into position just before dawn, every 
Group behind some hill or treeline, out of 
sight. At first light, we heard the sound of 
planes, and to the surprise of some of us, it 
turned out to be the air support we had been 
promised! 4 Beaufighters came down to attack 
the jerrys. We couldn't see what happened. We 
heard a good deal of jerry AA fire, but we also 
heard the distinctive blast of bombs. On the 
radio, I heard the pilots chattering away with 
Fitz, and he sounded a bit disappointed by 
their reports. I kept this bit of news to 
myself. Wouldn't want to upset the lads. 
Eventually, the ADC radioed to my platoon, and 
to me, that a bunker had been spotted on the 
southern position. He continued by telling us 
the pilots had spotted a couple of 20mm AA 
positions in the centre (of no concern to us at 
the moment), but that a good deal of MG fire 
had been reported from approximately 1000 
metres to our side of the jerry line. Not good 
news at all. The ADC also told us that we were 
to move out in a few minutes, as would everyone 
else. 

Number 2 platoon mounted the BC's and started 
to roll out, just behind the Humbers, which I 
of course forgot to mention earlier. Anyway, we 
were very pleased indeed to have the 
reconnaissance troop with us, since that would 
lessen the possibilty that the nasty jerry
panzerfausts would be able to get close enough 
for a shot or two. We moved out in bounds, each 
platoon keeping close to whatever cover would 
hide us from the main jerry line some 1800 
metres to the west. Just ahead was a large hill 
with, in typical Italian style, a sorrowful 
village on the crest probably left over from 
Roman times. The BC's went just south of the 
hamlet while the
Shermans went directly in. There were no Itais 
there anymore, they'd long since left for more 
peaceable climes, also in typical Italian 
style. 

While we were enroute, we heard another wave of 
our planes come in. This time it was a pair of 
Typhoons. Above all the clatter our tin boxes 
were making, we could still hear the whoosh of 
their rockets firing. I didn't have the time to 
hear Fitz conversing with the pilots at just 
this moment, but I certainly didn't hear him 
say "jolly good" as he was wont when one of our 
RAF boys hit something of interest on the 
ground. Nevertheless, I certainly hoped that 
they were keeping the jerry's tea boiling hot. 

Suddenly, the lads in the Shermans lost a 
little composure on the radio. Some half-baked 
jerrys had started firing at them, fortunately 
with little effect. The silly buggers had just 
started shooting at the first thing they saw 
with the first weapon they could get their 
slimy Hun hands on, which happened to be some 
MG-34s. Number 2 platoon also came under light 
MG fire from another position, but no one was 
hurt, thank God. Leftenant Vincent was the 
commander of our 
Group, and he reacted to this news with the 
calm determination of most of the officers of 
our Regiment. He immediately ordered the 
Shermans to continue firing and gain the 
village, whilst 2 platoon was to dismount and 
move from south to north into the village to 
provide infantry support. 

Within just a few minutes, we had spotted the 
enemy positions, two of them, on the reverse 
side of the slope. Sergeant Keyworth, of the 
Sherman platoon, swung around one of the larger 
buildings in the village to gain a better 
firing position and ran straight into a squad 
of jerry infantry. The Huns reacted quickly and 
got off a panzerfaust shot, and Keyworth could 
be heard yelling "bloody hell" for probably a 
mile when the shot blew off his portside track. 
The jerrys were quite sorry after that, of 
course, since Keyworth is one man no one in the 
Regiment likes to anger. He destroyed the 
German half-track and sent a few Hun souls to 
their ultimate destination, more out of his bad 
disposition at that point than any sense of 
duty. His mates in the other Shermans did the 
same to another jerry position on the northern 
side of the little hill.
2 platoon, the tommys coming up from the south, 
had no trouble at all with the Germans nearby, 
doing much the same as Keyworth's platoon. In 
the end, three half-tracks were blown up and 
the jerrys sent reeling. Other than Keyworth's 
bad luck, no one had been hurt. 

As for myself, I saw none of this good show. My 
Valentine platoon was still clambering up the 
eastern face of the hill, out of sight. The 
terrain was very broken up and full of huge 
boulders, making our passage a bit slow. By the 
time we'd reached the village, the show was  
nearly over, though we knew the jerry infantry 
was just the otherside of some smoke grenades 
they had thrown. Most probably, they didn't 
want to invite us down for a chat. Leftenant 
Vincent ordered
our group to extend an invitation to them.

Yet another jerry position opened up on 
Keyworth's vehicle, changing his face from 
bright red to lavender, as his crew swung the 
turret around and poured fire into their 
position. Actually, Keyworth couldn't see very 
much, none of us could, but we had the jerry's 
bearing, and that was enough. Vincent and I got 
to the top of the hill, and he ordered my 
vehicle to swing around to the north so as to 
support Keyworth, while he ordered 2 platoon to 
mount up and come up round the west face of the 
hill with godspeed. While my gunner kept the 
jerrys heads down, 2 platoon worked a marvel of 
efficiency, riding in to the midst of the 
Germans in their Brens, cutting them
down. A Humber or two came along for the ride, 
lending their 15mm machinegun to the symphony. 

Overhead now, we could hear another section of 
Typhoons dive down, this time directly 
attacking the AA positions in the jerry centre. 
I heard Fitz over the radio say "jolly good 
show" as both of the pilots reported direct 
hits. And above all that came down our four and 
a half inchers. Fitz was pounding the jerry 
southern position for us, so that when we 
finally swept up
these ragamuffins and proceeded thence, we'd 
have an easier time of it. I overheard him 
talking to Leftenant McEwen of Centre group, 
apparently they'd found a jerry infantry 
platoon north of
the road which was putting up a good fight in 
which a few of our lads wouldn't see much more 
of the war if it went on too long. 

Vincent and I had a good view of the two-step 
proceeding to our front, but it wasn't long 
before we had a dozen German prisoners, and the 
firing died down. Whether he knew it or not, 
and of course he wouldn't tell, Vincent had 
done an excellent job in this first little 
brush with the jerrys, as we had suffered no 
casualties and had only Keyworth's vehicle 
corked up. We proceeded to reorganize ourselves 
for the next big push. Vincent reported the 
situation to Fitz, who said we'd done "a fine 
bit."

Fitz said everything was going well, but that 
Centre Group had been  held up a bit by an 
infantry platoon in a strong position. Just as 
he was giving us a report, we heard yet more MG 
fire to our
north. Vincent said that he had to investigate 
the situation and would get back to the Colonel 
presently. Sure enough another jerry platoon 
was directly north of the Huns we had just 
bagged. The jerrys had been watching Sgt 
Ricketts squad, and had opened up from 100 
metres. fortunately, only one man was injured.

Lt. Vincent asked me over to his tank to 
discuss the situation. I dashed over, and he 
quickly explained that it appeared that the 
Germans had lined virtually the whole front of 
our battalion
attack zone with infantry platoons in good 
positions, but thatour boys would have no 
trouble dealing with them, provided the tanks 
closely supported the infantry. The problem was 
that
Southern Group didn't have the time to waste 
clearing the front, we had to get to the first 
objective posthaste. I told him that we ought 
to get Ricketts out of the spot he was in, and 
that at any rate the next up jerry platoon 
would give us something to think about if we 
moved against the southern objective without 
taking their accounts.

Vincent then ordered half the remaining 
Shermans to move into position on the western 
face of the hill and start firing on the bunker 
which was some 1200 meters out. He then told me 
to take the rest of the Shermans and most of my 
platoon, and one squad from number 2 platoon to 
direct our efforts north and get Ricketts out 
of the jam. I dashed back to my tank, climbed 
aboard and immediately informed the others of 
our task. We moved out, and while I lent cover 
fire to Sgt. Astin's Sherman, he took a direct 
hit from another Panzerfaust shot, though his 
tin can didn't seem to be affected. At any 
rate, my little group destroyed all four 
halftracks, while Ricketts got his men out of 
the mess without further adieu. 

Meanwhile, Fitz had ordered some reconnaissance 
by our Humbers even further north, as Centre 
group was taking still taking fire from the 
south and could not get a view of the 
redoubtable jerrys there. I listened to the 
radio and sure enough, just like Lt Vincent had 
thought, the Humber
ran straightaway into another German platoon 
midway between Southern and Centre groups. They 
got out of that situation without delay, though 
we didn't hear much from them the rest of the 
day. 

It seemed to me we had a good book on the whole 
of the jerry position now, at any rate of the 
jerry front. Aside from the bunkers and AA 
positions which our RAF boys had seen from the 
air, though, the jerry main position was 
something of a mystery to us. At least, I 
thought, we hadn't run into anything serious 
like a Panther or a Tiger. And, our Group, 
despite everything, had dished out a large 
dollop of punishment to the Germans without so 
much as a scratch (except, of 
course, for Ricketts' men).  

Vincent radioed me and said that he'd chatted 
with Fitz about things, and that they'd decided 
to ignore all remaining enemy positions and get 
Southern Group moving towards the first 
objective.
I told him I thought this was a good idea, 
since Ricketts was out of trouble and the 
jerrys further north wouldn't be of much 
account to our impending advance. However, even 
if it was only that one bunker at the 
objective, we'd still have to cross about a 
kilometer of open terrain. Vincent said he'd 
like me to accompany the whole of the advance, 
and to bring the rest of my lads along too. He 
said the Shermans would stay on the western 
face of this hill and provide cover fire 
against the bunker position. 

Just then, we heard another section of our RAF 
come down, this time in the twin-engined 
Mosquitos. I was a little let down that they 
didn't come in against the southern objective, 
but 
Fitz had his own ideas. They went in against 
the German centre, and the pilot reported 
they'd spotted a German tank up there, but most 
likely just tank-destroyer. Fitz didn't seem too
concerned about it. I found out why a few 
minutes later when Sgt Murray, of the heavies, 
calmly reported : "Colonel, one Marder II 
destroyed." Apparently, Fitz had already had 
the sardine can under the gun. 

We all felt a lot better after Murray's report. 
Even better news came in as Vincent radioed 
that the jerrys in the bunker appeared to be 
making it for Dutchland. They'd had a little 
too much of
four and a half inches and our Shermans taking 
potshots at them.  He said he was sending the 
Shermans and two Humbers to gallop across the 
valley, so that I could use my group to attack 
the
northern German platoon, although, he said I 
had to "be quick about it." Fitz was already 
informed and had approved. Centre Group was 
engaging the last remaining jerry platoon on 
the front, so it looked like we would clear 
them out after all. 

Gardner's squad and my three Valentines XI's 
(one was helping out the Shermans) maneuvered 
around into excellent firing positions, and we 
were able to send a third German platoon 
reeling back, without their halftracks. Another 
Marder opened up on the Shermans as they 
started out across the valley, but we didn't 
have to wait long until Murray gave yet another 
monotone report to Fitz on the radio : "Second 
Marder II destroyed, Colonel." If Murray kept 
at it, I'd have to do some extra duty to keep 
my Battalion Expert Badge (he had over 30 kill 
to his credit since Egypt). 

Fitz was in a jolly mood thereafter. He felt 
that we'd really broken the German back, and he 
ordered everyone to start making it for their 
objectives without further delay. He said he'd 
be joining Centre Group in a few minutes, since 
there wasn't much left to spot for the redlegs 
and the airmen. My little group spent a few 
more minutes dodging in and out of burning 
German positions, just to make sure they were 
clear. By this time, Southern Group had 
probably taken
upwards of 20 prisoners.

When my group emerged from the smoke, we found 
that we were actually closer to Centre Group 
than the bulk of Southern Group, so I radioed 
the Colonel myself and asked him if he wanted 
me up there, or back down with Vincent. I could 
see some of Centre group's boys advancing here 
and there in fits. Just as the Colonel was 
responding, his truck came under long range 
fire from a pillbox far to the north - one the 
Commandos were supposed to have been 
assaulting. Gads! I'd forgotten all about those 
men! They hadn't used the radio for 
communication (something about using "dash" and 
"speed" to accomplish their objectives). Fitz 
was able to hop out of his truck, along with 
the radio man, and asked Lt Peirse, the 
Commando leader, for a report. He said that his 
platoon had "encountered and destroyed" three 
pillboxes already, and were under fire from at 
least two others and two bunkers, in addition 
to those AA crews. "Several of our boys have 
suffered gravely, I'm afraid, sir," was the 
last sentence. I later learned that the 
Commandos destroyed 5 fortified enemy 
positions, mostly while under heavy fire, and 
both of their 'Roos were KO'd. It was almost as 
if, Peirse said later, the jerrys had known 
they were coming. When Fitz did not order 
Peirse to take out the pillbox that had just 
upset his truck, I knew that the Commando men 
must have been under very heavy pressure. 
Finally, he rang back to me and said that 
Centre Group had just cleared out a minefield 
along the road, so that it would be a good 
route for my platoon to take to follow them in. 

I started moving out the platoon northwards to 
the road to join up with Fitz. Within a minute 
or so, Sgt Thompson's Valentine hit a mine and 
was stuck for good. With my two remaining tanks 
and the one squad from number 2 platoon, I 
tried an alternate route, but then both tanks 
hit mines almost simultaneously. What a rut!!! 
I told Gardner, the squad leader of the 
infantry unit with us, to take known routes 
back south to join up with Vincent, as the 
route north was obviously unmarked and 
hazardous. My whole platoon was rotted out on 
mines! The only good bit was that we had very 
good fields of view from where we were. I could 
see the pillbox that had fired on Fitz, and at 
the other end I could see the boys in Southern 
group, who were already at the southern 
objective. 

My view of this magnificent panorama was 
interrupted by a gypsy German squad in a 
halftrack barrelling out of the smoke behind us 
a full speed! He obviously didn't expect us to 
be there. Some of my platoon had already 
started to send some long range shells to hit 
the pillboxes and bunkers we could see, so I 
swung the turret around and brought the sardine 
can to a no doubt unexpected stop. The jerrys 
bailed out and continued moving west as fast as 
their legs could carry them. They also didn't 
see Gardner, who was directly in their path. 
Without putting out his cigarette, he kept a 
steady fire on them from the BC, and kept 
moving south to join Vincent. 

I spent the rest of the time directing the fire 
of my platoon, and some of the boys began 
referring to themselves as the "localized 
artillery battery" in the radio chatter. I 
heard and partially saw events as Centre Group 
crept up to the centre objective area, 
discovering a bunker which they dispatched. 
Some of the Centre men had come under fire from 
pillboxes on the main centre ridge, but slowly 
and surely I could see the men who did get 
through, along with the heavies, take them out 
one by one. Even Fitz's command squad, led by 
the redoubtable Sgt Spears, who had been with 
Fitz since 1940, participated in a pillbox 
assault. All of Centre Group could be heard 
giving three cheers!

Postscript : The battalion's attack of that day 
was mentioned in 5th Allied Army dispatches. 
Sgt Murray was later given a field commission 
and promoted to command the Heavy Tank Platoon. 
Sgt J.T. Sparks, VC, was later killed during an 
attack near Eindhoven, Holland, during 
Operation Market-Garden. His Valentine was 
spotted and fired on by two Panthers at long 
range. Though he was able to destroy one, his 
vehicle was first immobilized and then killed 
when the remaining Panther scored a direct hit. 

Section 33 - Epilogue

While I have tried my best to give a good 
introduction to some winning tactics, it will 
be inevitable that not only have I missed some 
essential components, but that I made outright 
mistakes. This Primer will be upgraded about 
every 2-3 months, or sooner if players send me 
boatloads of data. If you have some thoughtful 
criticisms or insight, or would like to add a 
testimonial, a table of useful data, some 
graphics, give a scenario evaluation and tips, 
or write an entire section on tactics that you 
think would be of value to other Players, 
please contact the author. Ideas I have for 
expansion include the following :

        A dedicated FAQ section
        Inclusion of various forms which players 
could use to track their forces
        A word on the standardization of methods 
for comparing campaign scores
        A Q & A with the designers
        A side-by-side blow-by-blow description of 
a battle fought between two humans.
        A listing of Opponents Wanted
        More testimonials
        A known Bug listing
        A dedicated Steel Panthers Web Page, with 
the Primer in HTML-hyperlinked format,
                with links to other sites and resources, 
including historical resources.

If you want to contact me in the more 
traditional fashion, my current address is
        
        Todd David Brady
        5800 Fair Oaks Blvd., #8
        Carmichael, CA 95608
        (916) 971-3023   

Section 34 - Tables and Other Data

Experience Table, 
Uploaded by Arnaud Bouis :
Here are the morale and experience tables of 
Steel Panthers for each nationality and year of 
the war. Courtesy of Jim Wirth.
They require a few explanations:
This is the _base_ experience/morale. To this 
base is added a random number 
between 0 and 20 for each unit. 10 is then 
added if the force is elite,
and substracted if green. This yields your 
final experience and morale.


EXPERIENCE TABLE

NATIONALITY     1939   1940   1941   1942   
1943   1944   1945

GERMAN            65     70     75     70     
65     60     50

FINNISH           70     70     70     65     
65     60     55

ITALIAN           35     35     40     40     
30     30     30

RUMANIAN          35     35     35     35     
30     25     25

HUNGARIAN         35     35     35     35     
30     30     30

JAPANESE          70     70     70     70     
65     65     60

FRENCH            45     45     50     55     
50     55     55

BRITISH           50     50     50     55     
55     55     55

GREEK             45     45     45     50     
55     55     55

BELGIAN           45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

DUTCH             45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

NORWEGIAN         45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

POLISH            45     45     50     55     
55     55     55

YUGO-SLAV         45     45     45     40     
45     50     55

SOVIET            35     40     45     50     
55     60     55

US ARMY           40     40     45     45     
50     55     60

US MARINE         55     55     55     60     
65     70     70

CHINESE           30     30     30     35     
40     40     40


MORALE TABLE

NATIONALITY     1939   1940   1941   1942   
1943   1944   1945

GERMAN            70     70     70     70     
70     65     55

FINNISH           70     70     70     65     
65     60     55

ITALIAN           30     30     30     30     
25     25     25

RUMANIAN          25     25     25     25     
25     25     25

HUNGARIAN         30     30     30     30     
25     25     25

JAPANESE          70     70     70     70     
70     70     70

FRENCH            45     45     55     60     
55     60     55

BRITISH           60     60     60     60     
60     60     55

GREEK             60     60     60     60     
60     60     60

BELGIAN           45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

DUTCH             45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

NORWEGIAN         45     45     45     45     
45     45     45

POLISH            60     55     60     60     
60     65     60

YUGO-SLAV         45     45     45     50     
55     60     65

SOVIET            35     40     45     50     
55     60     65

US ARMY           40     40     45     50     
55     55     60

US MARINE         65     65     65     70     
70     70     70

CHINESE           35     35     35     40     
40     40     40
-------------------------------------This was 
posted by Arnaud 
Bouis---------------------------------------

Steel Panthers Tank Chart,
From the Steel Panthers Readme.TXT file
Copyright 1995, Strategic Simulations, 
Incorporated.

Ratings Key:
A= Excellent tank with very good armor and 
weapons. Keep this tank.
B= Good tank with above average armor and 
weapons. Ok for now.
C= Average tank with average to below average 
armor and weapons.
        May want to consider upgrading the tank.
D= Poor tank with poor armor and under gunned.
Should replace tank with newer model otherwise 
crew will have short
and violent lives.
- = Tank not available at this time.
Max Pen = Max unmodified AP round penetration 
for this weapon.
Rang = Max range in hexes for this weapon.

Roles:

Inf Support= This means that the tank is design 
to kill soft targets only.
Not very useful against tanks.

Anti-tank=  This means that the tank is 
designed to kill tanks or hard
targets. It has limited use against infantry or 
soft targets.

SPA= This tank is a self propelled artillery 
tank. Mobile artillery,
useful against soft targets only.

AA= This tank is designed to shoot at aircraft.

Recon= This tank or vehicle is design to scout 
and look around the
battlefield. Not intended to shoot it out with 
the enemy.

German Tanks           
Year Ratings
Name:      39  40  41  42  43  44  45  Gun   
MaxPen  Rng   Role         Cost

Pz-Ib      C   D                       MG's    
0      10   Inf Support  3
Pz-IIc     B   C   D                   20L55   
6      20   Anti-tank    5
Pz-IIL     -   C   C   D               20L55   
6      20   Recon        6
Pz-IIIE    A   B   C   D               37L46   
7      30   Anti-tank    9
Pz-IIIG    -   A   B   D               50L42   
8      30   Anti-tank    10
Pz-IIIH    -   A   B   C   D           50L42   
8      30   Anti-tank    11
Pz-IIIJ    -   -   A   B   D           50L60   
9      30   Anti-tank    12
Pz-IIIM    -   -   -   B   C           50L60   
9      30   Anti-tank    13
Pz-IIIN    -   -   -   B   C           75L24   
6      30   Inf Support  10
Pz-38t     B   B   C   D               37L46   
7      30   Anti-tank    7
Pz-35(t)   B   C   D                   37L40   
5      30   Anti-tank    7
Pz-IVc     B   B   C   C               75L24   
6      30   Inf Support  8
Pz-IVe     -   B   B   C               75L24   
6      30   Inf Support  9
Pz-IVf2    -   -   -   B   C           75L43   
13     50   Anti-tank    14
Pz-IVg     -   -   -   -   B   B   C   75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    13
Pz-IVh     -   -   -   -   -   B   B   75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    15
Panther    -   -   -   -   A   A   B   75L70   
19     60   Anti-tank    25
Tiger      -   -   -   A   A   A   B   88L56   
17     60   Anti-tank    30
King Tiger -   -   -   -   -   A   A   88L71   
22     60   Anti-tank    50
Brumbar    -   -   -   -   A   A   A   150L10  
0      50   Inf Support  15
Stug-IIIb  B   B   C   D               75L24   
6      30   Inf Support  8
Stug-H42   -   -   -   A   B   B   B   105L30  
0      40   Inf Support  13
Stug-IIIg  -   -   -   -   B   B   C   75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    11
Stug-IV    -   -   -   -   B   B   C   75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    12
Jpz-I      -   C   D                   47L43   
8      30   Anti-tank    7
PzJagd-38  -   -   -   C   C           76L51   
13     50   Anti-tank    11
Marder     -   -   -   B   C   D       76L51   
13     50   Anti-tank    10
Marder II  -   -   -   B   B   D       75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    11
Maeder III -   -   -   -   C   D       75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    9
Nashorn    -   -   -   -   B   B   B   88L71   
22     60   Anti-tank    16
Hetzer     -   -   -   -   A   B   B   75L48   
14     50   Anti-tank    10
JPZ-IV/70  -   -   -   -   -   A   B   75L70   
19     60   Anti-tank    15
Jagdpanther    -   -   -   -   A   A   88L71   
22     60   Anti-tank    35
Elefant    -   -   -   -   B   B       88L71   
22     60   Anti-tank    40
Jagdtiger  -   -   -   -   -   -   A   128L58  
22     80   Anti-tank    60
Sig33      -   -   -   C   C   C       150L10  
3      50   Inf Support  9
Wespe      -   -   B   B   C   C   C   105mm   
0      40   SPA          12
Hummel     -   -   -   B   B   B   B   150mm   
2      50   SPA          15
Lorraine   -   B   B   C   C   C   C   150mm   
3      130  SPA          15
Wirblewind -   -   -   -   -   A   A   20mm    
3      30   AA           11
Ostwind    -   -   -   -   -   B   B   37mm    
6      40   AA           12
Gw-38t     -   B   B   C               150L10  
3      50   Inf Support  10
Sdk-221    C   C   D                   MG's    
0      10   Recon        3
Sdk-222    B   C   D                   20L55   
6      20   Recon        5
Sdk-231    B   B   C   C   -   -   -   20L55   
6      20   Recon        5
Sdk-234    -   -   B   B   C   C       20L55   
6      20   Recon        6
Puma       -   -   -   -   B   C   D   50L60   
9      30   Recon        9
Sdk-234/3  -   -   B   C   C   C       75L24   
6      30   Recon        10
Sdk-234/4  -   -   -   -   -   C   C   75L48   
14     50   Recon        12

Russian Tanks           
                  Year Ratings
Name:      39  40  41  42  43  44  45  Gun    
Max Pen  Rng  Role        Cost

BT-5       C   C   D                   45L46    
 7     25   Anti-tank   5
BT-7       B   C   C   D               45L46    
 7     25   Anti-tank   6
BT-7A      B   B   C   D               76L26    
 5     30   Anti-tank   7
T-26S      B   C   D   D               45L46    
 7     25   Anti-tank   5
T-60       -   -   C   D   D           20L55    
 6     20   Recon       6
T-70       -   -   -   C   C   D   D   45L46    
 7     25   Recon       8
T-28C      B   B   C   D               76L26    
 5     30   Anti-tank   12
T-35       B   B   B   C               76L16    
 6     30   Anti-tank   25
KV-1       A   A   B   C               76L35    
 8     30   Anti-tank   15
KV-1C      -   A   A   B               76L41    
 9     40   Anti-tank   18
KV-85      -   -   -   -   B   B       85L53    
 13    50   Anti-tank   20
KV-IIA     A   A   B                   152L20   
 0     50   Inf Support 20
JS-II      -   -   -   -   -   A    B  122L43   
 20    60   Anti-tank   25
JS-III     -   -   -   -   -   -    A  122L43   
 20    60   Anti-tank   30
T-34/76A   -   A   A   B   C           76L35    
 8     30   Anti-tank   12
T-34/76B   -   -   A   B   C           76L41    
 9     40   Anti-tank   12
T-34/76C   -   -   A   B   C   D       76L41    
 9     40   Anti-tank   11
T-34/85    -   -   -   -   B   B   C   85L53    
 13    50   Anti-tank   14
SU-45      C   C   D                   45L46    
 7     25   Anti-tank   6
SU-76      -   B   C   D               76L41    
 9     40   Anti-tank   8
SU-85      -   -   -   -   B   B       85L53    
 13    50   Anti-tank   12
SU-100     -   -   -   -   -   A   B   100L60   
 21    60   Anti-tank   20
JSU-122    -   -   -   -   -   A   B   122L43   
 20    60   Anti-tank   20
SU-122     -   -   -   -   A   A   B   122L22   
 6     40   Inf Support 13
SU-152     -   -   -   -   A   A   B   152L32   
 3     50   Inf Support 15
JSU-152    -   -   -   -   -   A   A   152L32   
 3     50   Inf Support 16
BA-10      C   C   D                   45L46    
 7     25   Recon       8
BA-64      -   C   C   C   D   D   D   20L55    
 6     20   Recon       6

American Tanks           
                  Year Ratings
Name:      39  40  41  42  43  44  45  Gun    
Max Pen  Rng  Role        Cost

M2A4       -   C   C   D               37L53    
 9     30   Recon       8
M3 Stuart  -   -   B   C   D           37L53    
 9     30   Recon       9
M5 Stuart  -   -   -   B   B    C   D  37L53    
 9     30   Recon       9
M24        -   -   -   -   -    B   C  75L38    
 10    40   Recon       10
M3A1 Lee   -   -   -   B   C           37L53    
 9     30   Anti-tank   11
M4A1 Sher  -   -   -   B   C    D      75L38    
 10    40   Anti-tank   11
M4A3 Sher  -   -   -   B   C    D   D  75L38    
 10    40   Anti-tank   11
M4A3E8     -   -   -   -   -    B   C  76L54    
 12    50   Anti-tank   12
Jumbo      -   -   -   -   -    B   B  75L38    
 10    40   Anti-tank   18
T26 Persh  -   -   -   -   -    -   A  90L50    
 16    60   Anti-tank   24
M10 Wolv   -   -   -   B   C    C   D  76L54    
 12    50   Anti-tank   12
M18 Hell   -   -   -   -   B    C   D  76L54    
 12    50   Anti-tank   11
M36 Jack   -   -   -   -   -    B   B  90L50    
 16    60   Anti-tank   14
Sherman FLame  -   -   B   B    C   C  Flame    
 0     2    Inf Support 20
Sherman 105    -   -   B   B    C   C  105L30   
 0     50   Inf Support 13
M7 Preist  -   -   -   B   B    C   C  105mm    
 0     130  SPA         9
M12 GMC    -   -   -   -   B    B   B  155mm    
 3     130  SPA         15
M8 Grayhnd -   -   -   B   B    C   D  37L53    
 9     30   Recon       7
M20        -   -   C   C   D    D      .50 MG   
 3     20   Recon       5

Steel Panthers Weapons List
From the Steel Panthers Readme.txt file
Copyright 1995, Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Note: This is not a full comphrehensive list of 
all weapons in Steel
Panthers. This list covers most of the weapons 
used in the game.

Key:

HE= High Explosive value, used to determine HE 
attacks against
soft targets like infantry. 

AP Pen.= Max unmodified penetration for the AP 
round.
HVAP Pen.= Max unmodified penetration for the 
HVAP round.
HEAT=  Max unmodified High Explosive Anti-tank 
penetration. 
Range= Max range for the weapon, in hexes.
Accuracy= Number of hexes the weapon will have 
an unmodified 50% chance to
hit its target. Example= Accuracy is 8, this 
means the weapon will have 
from 1 to 8 hexes, a unmodified base hit chance 
of 50%. Note this number
can go up or down due to various modifiers in 
the game.

SMG= Sub machine gun
LMG= Light machine gun
MMG= Medium machine gun
HMG= Heavy machine gun
FH= Field howitzer
AA= Anti-aircraft
AT= Anti-tank
BAR= Browning Automatic Rifle
Rkt= Rocket
Mtr= Mortar

Infantry Weapons:

Name        HE    AP Pen.  HVAP Pen.    HEAT    
Range  Accuracy

Rifle       1     0        0            0       
 10     4          
Semi Rifle  2     0        0            0       
 10     5
BAR         4     0        0            0       
 10     8
Carbine     3     0        0            0       
 6      3
Pistol      2     0        0            0       
 2      1
SMG         4     0        0            0       
 2      4
MG-34 LMG   8     0        0            0       
 10     8
MG-34 MMG   14    0        0            0       
 18     12
MG-42 MMG   16    0        0            0       
 18     12
Breda LMG   4     0        0            0       
 10     6
Breda HMG   9     0        0            0       
 16     10
FM LMG      6     0        0            0       
 10     8
Lahti LMG   6     0        0            0       
 10     8
Bren LMG    6     0        0            0       
 10     9
DP LMG      6     0        0            0       
 10     8
HotchkissMG 10    0        0            0       
 16     10
.30 CAL MMG 12    0        0            0       
 16     10
.30 CAL HMG 16    0        0            0       
 18     12
.50 CAL HMG 14    3        0            0       
 20     15
Maxim HMG   14    0        0            0       
 18     12
Maxim AAMG  14    0        0            0       
 14     8
Dshk HMG    14    3        0            0       
 20     15
Vickers HMG 14    0        0            0       
 18     12
Tashio LMG  5     0        0            0       
 10     6
Type 96 LMG 6     0        0            0       
 10     7
Type 92 HMG 10    0        0            0       
 16     10
Flamethrwr  10    0        0            14      
 1      0
Satchel Ch  12    2        0            15      
 1      0
Molotov     0     0        0            9       
 1      0
Anti-tank   0     0        0            20      
 1      0
Hnd Grend   4     0        0            0       
 1      0
AT Rifle    0     3        0            13      
 10     4
PzFaust     0     0        0            20      
 2      1
PIAT        0     0        0            11      
 2      1
Bazooka     4     0        0            14      
 6      2
PzSchreck   0     0        0            15      
 4      2
Rifle Grnd  0     0        0            7       
 3      2


Artillery & Mortars:
Name        HE    AP Pen.  HVAP Pen.    HEAT    
Range  Accuracy

60mm Mtr    5     0        0            0       
 40     5
75mm FH     6     1        0            0       
 130    5
76mm FH     6     1        0            0       
 130    5
2IN Mtr     4     0        0            0       
 10     4
3IN How     6     0        0            0       
 30     4
3IN Mtr     6     0        0            0       
 50     5
4.2IN Mtr   9     0        0            0       
 70     5
4.5IN FH    10    2        0            0       
 130    5
8IN How     18    10       0            0       
 130    5
49mm Mtr    4     0        0            0       
 10     5
50mm Mtr    4     0        0            0       
 10     4
81mm Mtr    7     0        0            0       
 55     5
82mm Mtr    7     0        0            0       
 50     5
100mm FH    9     0        0            0       
 130    5
105mm FH    9     0        0            12      
 130    5
120mm Mtr   10    0        0            0       
 130    5
122mm FH    10    7        0            0       
 130    5
149mm FH    11    2        0            0       
 130    5
150mm FH    12    3        0            0       
 130    5
152mm FH    12    2        0            0       
 130    5
155mm Gun   13    4        0            0       
 130    5
155mm FH    12    3        0            0       
 130    5
132mm Rkt   13    0        0            0       
 130    5
150mm Rkt   15    0        0            0       
 130    5
4.6IN Rkt   10    1        0            0       
 130    5
290mm Spig  25    0        0            0       
 2      0

Main guns & anti-tank guns:
Name        HE    AP Pen.  HVAP Pen.    HEAT    
Range  Accuracy

20mm Quad   18    3        0            0       
30      10
20L55       2     6        0            0       
20      5
25L72       0     5        0            0       
25      6
28L61       0     9        0            0       
15      5
37mm Flak   10    6        0            0       
40      9
37L21       2     5        0            0       
20      3
37L33       2     5        0            0       
25      5
37L40       2     5        0            0       
30      6
37L46       2     7        0            0       
30      7
37L53       4     9        0            0       
30      9
40mm Flak   11    7        0            0       
50      10
45L46       3     7        0            0       
25      6
45L66       3     8        0            0       
30      9
2Lb         0     8        0            0       
30      8
47L32       3     5        0            0       
30      5
47L34       3     6        0            0       
30      7
47L40       3     7        0            0       
30      8
47L43       3     8        0            0       
30      9
50L42       3     8        0            0       
30      8
50L60       3     9        13           0       
30      10
57L52       0     11       0            0       
40      11
57L73       4     12       0            0       
40      12
6Lb         0     11       0            0       
40      11
75L12       6     0        0            0       
30      3
17Lb        6     17       22           0       
50      14
75L24       6     6        0            9       
30      4
75L31       6     9        0            0       
40      8
75L34       6     10       0            0       
40      8
75L38       6     10       0            0       
40      9
75L43       6     13       19           0       
50      11
75L48       6     14       0            0       
50      14
75L52       6     10       0            0       
40      10
75L70       6     19       0            0       
60      19
76L26       6     5        0            0       
30      4
76L35       6     8        0            0       
30      8
76L41       6     9        12           0       
40      10
76L51       6     13       19           0       
50      11
76L54       6     12       18           0       
50      12
77L49       6     14       17           0       
50      13
75L36       6     8        0            0       
30      8
85L53       7     13       17           0       
50      12
88MM FLAK   7     15       0            0       
80      20
88L56       7     17       0            0       
60      15
88L71       7     22       0            0       
60      20
25LB        8     6        0            0       
130     5
90L50       8     16       25           0       
60      15
90L53       8     15       0            0       
60      12
152L20      12    4        0            0       
30      4
95L22       8     3        0            11      
40      5
105L30      9     3        0            12      
40      5
100L60      9     21       0            0       
60      13
122L43      10    20       0            0       
60      8
122L22      10    6        0            0       
40      4
128L58      10    22       0            0       
80      15
150L10      12    2        0            0       
80      15
152L32      12    3        0            0       
50      5