Steel Panthers


[Image:SPWAW shot 01.jpg|thumb|Steel Panthers: World at War!]
Steel Panthers is a series of computer wargames, developed and published by several different companies, with various games simulating war battles from 1930 to 2025. The first Steel Panthers game was released in 1995, and the most recent update was released in 2018 and is still updated regularly.
Players control individual tanks and vehicles from a top-down perspective, on a map with a hexagonal overlay. Infantry are mostly in squad/section sized units, but some units, like snipers, can be controlled individually. The whole force under a player's control would typically be Battalion sized, but may be as small as a Platoon or Company, or as large as a Regiment/Brigade.
The games are turn-based and are played against the AI or other humans via email or hotseat.

Gameplay

As with other tactical turn-based wargames, the game features realistic military control, with the smallest common units being squads, up to a brigade sized force. The player takes control of nearly every aspects of warfare around his soldiers, from simple ammunition usage, to the morale, disposition, and command-chain of his troops.
The game features: packed single-battle scenarios and campaigns, single battle generator, campaign generator, and long campaign generator.
All of the games in the series are quite similar in features and appearance. However, the third part in the original series is clearly distinct in that it offers platoon-size formations instead of the scale of individual tanks and squads of the other installments.
The games offer various modes of play: human vs. human, human vs. AI and PBEM. The players receive historical military units at the beginning of a scenario and have the option to buy reinforcements with points earned in different ways. The units are then moved on a hexagon grid map similar to a large number of board and computerized wargames. In addition to ready-made battles and campaigns, players can customize single scenarios or create their own campaigns.

Series history

The Steel Panthers series includes the following titles:
Rights to the game and source code were acquired by both Matrix Games and the Camo Workshop.
Matrix Games developed and released as a freeware a remake based on the Steel Panthers III engine, ''Steel Panthers: World at War!''

Reception

In 1998, Jim Cobb of Computer Gaming World referred to the Steel Panthers series as a "cash cow". Author Rusel DeMaria later summarized the situation: "about 18 months in marketing time after Panzer Generals phenomenal success, another series did extremely well for SSI." The original Steel Panthers proved highly popular, and Steel Panthers II became a "major" hit, according to DeMaria.
Steel Panthers was named the best wargame of 1995 by Computer Gaming World, PC Gamer US and Computer Games Strategy Plus. The editors of PC Gamer US called it "easily one of the best tactical simulations ever developed for the PC."
Steel Panthers and Steel Panthers II were named, collectively, the 62nd best computer game ever by PC Gamer UK in 1997.

Literature

Walker M. H. Games That Sell!. — Wordware Publishing, 2003. — 550 p. —. —. —.Black M., Kurlander E. Revisiting the «Nazi Occult»: Histories, Realities, Legacies. — Boydell & Brewer, 2015. — 297 p. —. —. —.