STEEL PANTHERS III: BRIGADE COMMAND READ ME FILE
V1.0 10/23/96 (c) 1997 Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Steel Panthers III: Brigade Command requires a video display that is
VESA version 1.2 compliant. Most video cards have a version 1.2
compliant VESA driver built onto the bios of the video card. If you
are experiencing video troubles with Steel Panthers II, your video
card may not be VESA 1.2 compliant and will require the proper driver
to be loaded. If this is the case, you should run VINSTALL.
To use VINSTALL to install the VESA drivers provided with your game:
1) Change to the game directory on your hard drive (default is
C:\Steel3).
2) Type in the command VINSTALL (press Enter).
3) The VINSTALL will extract several VESA drivers to multiple
directories.
4) Change to the directory that best corresponds with the brand of
video card you have.
(If you have a Diamond video card you need to change to the
Diamond directory )
Example: type CD DIAMOND (press enter). From within the directory
you will find the drivers provided by the manufacturers.
5) Attempt to run the appropriate driver and then run STEEL2.
You may also attempt to run Steel Panthers II using the command
STEEL2V. This action will load the UNIVESA driver that works with a
wide variety of video cards and then attempt to run the Steel Panthers
III program. UNIVESA does not work on every video card, however.
Note: These drivers may not be the latest VESA drivers for your card.
If you have trouble loading any of these drivers we recommend that you
contact the manufacturer of your video card and request the latest
version 1.2 compliant VESA driver for your card.
_________________________________________________________________________
SuperVGA Test Library, Copyright (C) 1992,1993 Kendall Bennett.
Universal VESA TSR, Copyright (C) 1993 Kendall Bennett.
All Rights Reserved.
The SuperVGA Test Library and the Universal VESA TSR are not public
domain software. They are copyrighted software, Copyright (C) 1992,1993
Kendall Bennett. It is however free software, or what some people term
'Freeware'.
You may use it for whatever you wish, even using it to write public
domain, freeware, shareware and commercial software. You may NOT
however re-distribute modified versions of the source code nor
distribute the source code for a profit. If you make any worthwhile
changes to the source code, you can send them to me for inclusion in
a future release.
Since this software is free, it is supplied WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR
A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. It is supplied as is, in the hope the people
will find it useful, and that it will advance the state of the art of
computer software.
____________________________________________________________________________
Steel Panthers III: Brigade Command
This is a tactical/operational game of combined arms conflict in the
period 1939 to 1999. There is a need in most scenarios for elements
of all the arms: Armor, Infantry, Artillery. The game is turn based
for one or two players.
First note: Many thanks to Joe Fleming, the artist who made the
model used for the box cover.
Changes from Steel Panthers I and II:
The most obvious difference is the scale. Hexes are now 200 yards and
the basic unit has moved from individual tanks and squads to platoons.
The general trend of the series to greater player control and
flexibility continues. One can, for example use the editor to do
something of a simulation of the Steel I and II scale, if you are
willing to play with units and their equipment a bit. See the fun
things in the editor section below.
The new scale has changed some of the game's options as well. The
specific functions that allow relative effectiveness to be scaled are
individually selected by the players. Later in this file is a synopsis
of these functions. In Steel III you can also just 'beef up' the AI
by giving a general instruction (On the Preferences and Start Game
screens) for AI level. This will raise the shooting and command
ratings of the AI.
There is a section of this file detailing indirect fire operations
later. Artillery is a much bigger part of operations at this scale -
and it is more effective. Airplanes are 'smarter' but more
independent.
Addenda and Errata
If you register your software (and we hope you will!) you will get a
bonus scenario. This is from our friend and beta-tester Lt. Trey
Marshall. He modeled a real-life exercise at the National Training
Center at Fort Irwin, Ca. We cannot claim to have the capacity to
model the deeply sneaky and painfully potent skills of the professional
bad guys of the NTC. Find the LT. on the web and play him head to head
- just do not count on a win!
Pop-up text is helpful and really wonderful. But if you disagree,
try these things:
1. Set the 'Hex info' button to off.
2. You can also simply raise the number in 'Live delay'.
Live delay slows down the response to a change in mouse
position and will keep the pop up from displaying until the
mouse is at rest on the screen. At 20 or higher you are
cutting out a good proportion of the messages until you stop
on a hex.
3. Unit numbers are configurable. If using the small icons
the infantry only can be turned on, for example.
Note that not all listings in the game give complete ammo listings.
The two best places are the encyclopaedia - actually click the button
for the unit type, and the unit screen accessed during game play by
right clicking the selected unit.
Be slow and careful about loading and unloading things from vehicles.
If you think you have a 'bug' in this routine - no offense, but it is
unlikely. The most common thing that causes apparent failures is that
the loader was not properly selected. The developers of the game still
do this when hurrying! The second most common is that you have a
retreating loader or loadee. Note that retreats happen at the same
time as auto-rally and artillery attacks, so a unit may have a bunch
of suppression, but not yet have retreated; they are still too
'shook up' to load. Third, right click on the carrying unit and look
toward the lower left. Just above the icon with the armor numbers is
a line that tells what the unit type can carry - often just infantry.
That means that mortars, for example, could not use this to ride.
Added after the manual: a switch in the unit screen that allows you
to turn off the mine removing capacity for your engineers. Now they
can wait until you want them to remove mines, wire etc. Note: when
this is on, they will remove <any> mines, wire etc. they are pointed
at. Otherwise, counterattacks could get ugly...
Artillery is a big help in mine removal. Pounding a hex can pull some
of those pesky varmints out.
Waypoints are useful for moving rear echelon formations forward where
they will not see enemy or come under fire. You can use them for other
things, but when you turn on the computer control, the units are going
to act like the AI units always do. Forewarned and all that...
Following are three oddities that got finalized after the manual went
to the printer:
1. When playing the U.S. in Vietnam, the equipment availability dates
are somewhat modified. Mr. Grigsby and his researchers needed to alter
this to more accurately represent real orders of battle during this
unusual period.
2. The same as #1 above holds true when Russians are involved in
Afghanistan.
3. Two notes about aircraft attacks: the formula is different than
the rulebook: the actual formula is:
(Warhead + HE penetration > year / 11,
and only the first bomb in a bombing run uses the direct fire targeting
method and displayed hit chance. All following bombs use the indirect
fire routines. This is not true for MG's, cannon, rockets.
You may notice that there seems to be more smoke in this game. Because
the scale is different, smoke that did not previously get displayed is
now being shown. Here's why: because each hex is larger, small
amounts of smoke where LOS is being traced through two or more such
hexes can now cumulatively block LOS. This resulted in some confusion
when it was not displayed, so it is now shown on-screen.
This just in: When a targeted opponent has considerable suppression,
the target lock may be dissolved. Reason? this unit is less of a
threat and should not be a priority for Op fire, plus is likely to
retreat, increasing the distance and lowering the accuracy of shots
on that unit.
When a unit has retreated or has a great deal of suppression on it,
it ceases performing opportunity fire unless, at each chance, it can
pass a random test. If that test is passed, the condition of the unit
immediately goes to pinned, and the unit can fire. This is the signal
that you cannot close with that unit without risk of fire. Even a unit
that has actually retreated this turn might op fire - but it is very
rare.
Units that are retreating will not surrender if they can move onto a
friendly unit. They may not be able to trace a path onto an adjacent
friend depending on what angle they are fired on, and what path is
chosen by the computer. This excepts the description in the manual.
When units are retreating or if units are on a landing craft which is
itself destroyed, and in a shallow water hex, survivors will deploy
into the hex. They may not be able to <move> afterwards, but will
still fire.
Save sizes now change with the amount of potential playback info in
them. They will be in general smaller.
If you are an editor user, and remember Steel 1 and Steel 2 with
fondness, it is possible to reduce the number of vehicles, weapons,
men, etc. in units to the old sizes. Can't really change the scale,
but they are still interesting fights.
Another non-obvious editor function: when changing unit data in the
editor enter a (-1) to put no weapon of any kind in that slot.
If you are interested in more complicated Battle Generator fights, you
can set the fight as an assault, then change the 'water' to a river or
beach setting and then switch back to meeting engagement. If you do
not change the selection on the 'water' button, you can play a meeting
river crossing. Make sure you realize the need for barge carriers -
use the view map function.
For those interested in using the map in a sort of north/south way,
look at the map in the first NATO '88 campaign scenario in the editor.
The use of the flags is interesting. (Thanks, Mr. Donnelly!)
Some will no doubt wish to share their user-generated campaigns. Our
current system is a tad unfriendly to doing this. We are looking at
the feasibility of doing this differently, but here is a work around
drill for the present:
Send all the scenarios you have constructed, along with a listing of
the order, connections and victory levels to proceed. Let the
recipient construct the campaign with those instructions. A more
elegant system may be constructed, but will be likely a larger upload...
Below is a list of scenarios that have a victory point multiplier for
the units on that side.
As an example, if you are playing the Russians in Counter at Grodno
you get 6 times the adjusted value of German units you destroy.
Adjusted values are the value from the encyclopaedia, which can be
raised if the unit has exceptionally good experience, or lowered if
experience is below average. In either case, average is defined as 70.
Counterstrike at Kutno - German x3
Eagles Above - Germans x5
Counter at Grodno - German x6
Meeting at Bir Gafa - Israeli x7
Ismailia Road Encounter - Israeli x7
Botzer - Israeli x6
Chinese Farm - Israeli x4
Wake Island - Japanese x4
Battle of Ap Bac - South Vietnam x2
Beda Fomm - British x5
Task Force Smith - North Korea x3
Kinshasa - USMC x3
Maknassy - German x1.5
Chechnya - Red x2
Corinth Canal - German x9
Bushwhacked - US x4
Dien Bien Phu - North Vietnam x6
Kasserine Pass - German x3
Sidi Rezegh - German x2.5
Bir El Gub - British x2
4th Panzer - German x2
Kursk Salient - German x2
Madina - US x8
Donetz - German x3
Knightsbridge - German x2
Guam - US x3
Abu Aghelia - Israel x1.5
Kampfgruppe Eberbach - German x4
Vehicles fired on by ATGM's and helicopters fired on by either ATGM's
or SAM's will sometimes evade - remaining in the same hex. A text
message appears on the pop-ups when this happens. If aircraft are
damaged they may leave without dropping their loads.
Preplanned bombardments that arrive during player #1's turn will not
replay for player #2's turn when playing an e-mail game.
Wire guided missiles that fire at vehicles will occasionally be
suppressed by return fire before the missile hits. The fire displays
normally, but in between the fire designation and launch graphics.
Tanks will not fire AP, sabot or HEAT rounds at infantry. They will
use them against mortars of about 81mm and larger, AT guns and such.
Infantry in the same hex may well take collateral casualties.
Indirect Fire
The sequence for indirect fire is important. Click the indirect fire
button. Scroll the map to the desired impact hex. Click on that hex
with the left mouse button. If the artillery asset you wish to use is
currently firing a mission (the smoke, HE, or cluster buttons are
'depressed') you will need to cancel the mission. Then select the
type of mission you want. If the picture on the button is grayed out,
that action cannot currently be performed. Note that cluster is mostly
NOT available. If the current munitions type is OK, and you only want
to move the impact hex a short distance, use the shift fire button.
Click shift fire and then scroll the map to the impact hex area. You
will see the impact hex and a red circle. Click any hex that is
entirely contained within the red circle and the impact hex will shift
there.
When you click on the big bar with the unit type on it, the screen
view will shift to the currently selected impact hex, if one exists.
When setting bombardment hexes, if you click on a hex that has a
mission planned for it, all weapons you have targeted on that hex
will have the big bars depressed.
NOTE: Aircraft munitions are fixed when purchased. No matter what
they carry, only the HE button will select a target hex initially. The
cluster button will be grayed out.
Direct Fire
Using direct fire also requires a strict sequence of steps. Select the
unit with which you wish to fire. Scroll the map until the desired
target area is in the center of the map window. Place the cursor over
the target hex - a target reticule (crosshairs) will indicate eligible
target hexes. Left click to bombard that hex. Repeated shots can be
made by right clicking the fire button.
Loading and unloading units
When loading units select the 'loadee' (the soon-to-be-passenger) first
and then the 'loader' (the soon-to-be-carrier). It is possible to
reverse this and have it work if the loader is empty and picking up
only one loadee, but this will not work for barges, boats and for
loading more than one small unit onto a carrier.
Player Control
The Preferences control panel allows a great deal of control over the
game environment. Try the different options as you can set this game
to the desired level and type of difficulty. Where the AI is simply
not tough enough for you in a given scenario, you can change the
overall toughness with the aforementioned AI level setting.
Note that at the request of our redoubtable beta-testers and players
on the various tournament and ladder boards on-line there is a removal
of the controls for certain Preferences in human vs. human games. A
soapbox moment: this is a loss of control in the game, and we are
sorry to do it. It was necessitated by the extremely well-documented
examples of its use to cheat in competitive games. Far more draconian
measures were suggested, including some not appropriate for listing in
a "K/A" rated game! There is no way to stop all cheating. We have
tried to limit it. Here are some further suggestions to those who wish
to play competition games:
1. Don't cheat. The statistics of this game are well understood by
some 20 dedicated fans of the Steel series who beta-tested this game.
Many of these folks play in these tourneys - heck, some of them <run>
them! The depth of the sentiment against cheaters surprised me -
otherwise calm, polite and sensible folks start to froth when on this
subject. Also, it is mostly pretty obvious when cheating occurs.
2. Don't cheat. We are at the dawn of a potentially really cool day
in gaming. I well remember waiting weeks for PBM responses and using
the stock exchange results as die rolls and all that - online is
better. The only factor that I can see that we the makers cannot
address to make this great hobby even better is the potential
destruction of trust between players. Hard fact time: every dime
spent to harden the firewalls for cheating comes off the "make it
better" budget.
3. Organizers - use occasional mirrored forces to both test the mettle
of players and to catch cheats. This really ups the capacity to see
goofy results, as the sides are equal.
4. Don't - well, you know...
Campaign Notes
1) North Africa 1941-42
The open terrain of the desert allows much more room to maneuver than
a typical World War II battlefield. The low unit count allows the
scenarios to portray a much greater portion of the battles. The first
battle, El Agheila, will be easy enough to win with just armored cars
and artillery which can be upgraded as the campaign progresses. In the
second battle, Tobruk, you will find that engineers will help you get
through the two sets of mine fields. Watch out in Hellfire Pass or you
might get surrounded.
2) Stalingrad 1942
Stalingrad was arguably the 'turning point' of the war in the east. It
is a popular campaign among wargamers, and players have been eager to
'slug it out' in this epic blood bath, since the original Steel
Panthers . With the increased unit size of Steel Panthers III, this
campaign is now be recreated on a vast scale. You will need a lot of
artillery in this campaign to suppress the dug-in Russian infantry
force so your main force can get in close and mop them up. October
Factory is a tough one, so watch out for those ambushes.
3) Market Garden 1944
A well known and evenly matched campaign , Operation Market Garden was
a unique blend of a racing to rescue paratroopers and defending a long
stretch of highway that will create a tense and nail biting experience.
The key with this campaign is to take your time. Hey, you are the
British, just stay cool and methodical and dismantle the German
defenses.
4) Viet Nam 1965-1970
This was one of the most requested campaigns since Steel II came out.
This campaign is able to go beyond a small portion of an operation to
cover the entire battle. The system allows the fielding of complete OB's
and allows the user to fight full size battles in Vietnam. This is where
you can vindicate the theory of vertical envelopment by using
helicopters, along with accurate U.S. artillery, to hop from one LZ to
another and avoid 'humping it' through the 'bush'.
5) NATO 1988
This campaign explores the possibilities of a confrontation between
Germany supported by NATO allies, and the remaining members of the
Warsaw Pact. There are some paratroops that land in Hamburg that put
up a ferocious fight so watch your back. The assault on Munster can
leave a sour taste in your mouth when the enemy units attempt a flanking
maneuver. Zeven's swamps will channel your route of advance, so don't get
too bunched up. The Ratzeberg scenario finds you being assaulted by a
large amount of armor. You will need to blow the bridges by whatever means
available, if you are to keep your forces from being overrun. The ALRS is
cheap, and FASCAM comes in handy when you want to box the enemy in. For
the units that swim across, place some Panzerfausts on the shore. You will
need some infantry SAM's to keep the helicopters at bay. Keep an eye on
your flanks if you are unable to achieve a quick victory. You can purchase
a couple of older tank companies and upgrade as you go. This will help you
build a larger forces that you will need later in the campaign.
6) Holy War 2000
The current Middle East situation continues to deteriorate and this
'what if' campaign depicts what could happen if the united forces of the
Egyptian and Syrian armies gang up against the IDF. The Israeli player has
the challenge of facing two forces, with one being an Egyptian army equipped
with western armor. FASCAM will keep you from being mauled by the many tanks
that will be coming your way. The enemy tanks will get weaker the further
you get into the campaign.
Campaign Generator
This was called the "Long Campaign" early on, so any manual references
to "Long Campaign" pertain to the Campaign Generator. Note that there
are some special challenges and rewards for playing in the Campaign
Generator. Some scenarios will have an immediate follow-up attack,
and will not permit repairs or changes to your units - there's just no
time! These scenarios do however have an up side - all the benefits of
victory are increased, and such scenarios are the best chance a
commander has to be promoted. Some scenarios have orders that
indicate you are particularly to destroy the enemy forces. In these
scenarios the enemy units' victory point value is enhanced, while the
value of objectives is decreased.
When playing in the Campaign Generator, note that the number of games
setting is approximate. Like a real commander, you may do well,
giving even more opportunities to engage the enemy. You can get up to
about 25% more battles. If very small (1-6 or so) numbers of battles
are chosen, you might double the number if you do very well.
If you have a slower machine but plenty of disk space, use the largest
install option (which is what a WIN95 install does)and also copy the
Pic directory from the Steel3 directory on the disk to your hard drive.
Put the Pic directory in theroot of Steel3 (or whatever you named it).
This will also cut down on the CD accessing, so the music will stop
less often.
Tactical notes
Use cover. Move to the top of a hill, use the targeting option to
select an optimal target, then duck back behind cover. Never assume
you have seen everything nearby. If a building or other good position
appears empty and no more pressing target exists, pound it with direct
fire. This will supplement artillery as a suppressing tool, and help
'keep the bad guys' heads down'.
Keep some units back and at elevation to 'overwatch' your advancing
units. You will often wish to move units only part of their move so
that various units in a group moving towards the same objective can
provide fire support to one another. Be patient. Remember to rally
troops right away. This can provide extra firepower local to a
situation that is 'going sour'.
Keep air units on the enemy, and off your troops. The pilots are
going fast, and it is a sad thing when the only tank that dies this
turn is a victim of the badly misnamed 'friendly fire'.
Helicopters are fast - very fast, but they lose shots quickly and will
bug out if damaged (sometimes even earlier). They are fine but
expensive scouts. They can provide a decisive anti-tank edge, and are
is' for infantry.
Armored vehicles are more heavily protected to their front. To move
the turret, not the whole tank toward a target, use the Target Button
in the button strip on the right to select and fire. If you place the
cursor over the target in the main screen and left click, the whole
vehicle will 'point' at the target.
To the testing rolls add: Kelly Calabro, Sean Gallagher, Ben Fuller,
Shiloh Anacleto, Mark Schmidt, Jeff Powell, Forrest Elam, Damon
Perdue.
Very special thanks to Lee (the Man) Crawford. Above and beyond, baby!
Special thanks to the wizard of installation Ben Cooley.
Archived by OldGamesDownload.com 6th October, 2019