For all Steel Panther III players


Here are the tips. not all are here, just the most important ones. The game is too complex for generalities, and every rule has exceptions.

READ THE MANUAL - 'NUFF SAID!

My tournament has been put into suspended animation, unfortunately. I have taken a new job, and don't hardly have time to get on line, anymore. Also, I was not happy with the way it turned out- my rules I thought would make it a manuver game, that didn't happen. I hope to try to put another one together here in the spring, that will be more doable in 2 hours time. E me with suggestions
SKURV

I think these are some good rules, so here they are.


Posted by 32ACR (Ranked 4 on Case's Steel Panthers III (Mplayer) Ladder)on October 26, 1999 at 06:15:24:

Steel Panthers Rules of Engagement
I always seem to be doing something taboo so I'm going to list all of the rules of play, as I understand it
1. During deployment no using Helicopters in a popup mode to try andget a peek
2. The use of first strike (with Artillery) should be clearly defined before the commencement of hostilities
3. The use of FO's should be clearly defined before the commencement of hostilities
4. Absolutely no using your Artillery as spotters in the battle (unless you have a direct line of sight)
5. Cannot fire on your own routed or retreating unit (even though they may be COWARDS and deserve it)

I know there is more, so post them. And we (all of us who play) can distribute them to anybody, new or old. That way we are all playing on a level battlefield.
Rick
3/2ACR

What the heck is TCP/IP

SPIII Ten Commandments

General Terms Used

Knowing Your Stuff!!

Tips

Common Cheats and Glitches

Tips and notes on control and command

 Go to page 2,Comments, and Skurvy's game archives.

What the heck is TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) - Put simply, it's the language the computers use to talk to one another. When you log on to the 'Net using TCP/IP, your PC becomes part of the 'Net when connected. TCP/IP allows your PC to communicate to your opponent's PC, using the PC that is setting up the game as the server. When you join a game, the IP address ( a four group number) that you put in at the prompt tells your PC where to find it on the Net. The main advantage of playing that way is that your ability to play no longer depends on MPLAYER, so it is a more "stable "connection. Also you can use AOL Internet Messenger (AIM) or ICQ, e-mail, etc. to set up a game.

How do you play TCP/IP?

To play TCP/IP-
(1) find your Intro program in sp3online folder, a program file.
(2) choose TCP/IP
(3) Then choose join
(4) Put a name
(5) Then the servers IP, which server provides
( a typical IP may look like this 111.7.26.111)
(The person setting up game is the server)
IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE INTRO PROGRAM, USE YOUR "FIND" ON THE START MENU

You chat by hitting enter.
To go between the game and Mplayer, hit alt key plus the tab key (alt/tab)

To set up TCP/IP game on your PC

(1) use your winipcfg.exe program to determine your IP address.
The program is in windows.
(unless you have have a dedicated line, it changes a little
everytime you log onto the net.)
(IF YOU CAN'T FIND THE PROGRAMS, USE YOUR "FIND" ON THE START MENU)
(2) Run your Intro program
(3) Choose TCP/IP
(4) Chose create
(5) Put in your name
(6) Choose a random battle, scenario, or load game
(7) Set up game, and preferences
(8) Once complete, alt/tab to go back to mplayer and tell opponent your IP address
wait till you see your opponent's name on screen in the game before starting

Tips- Determine who has the fastest PC, it should be server.
Shut off your pager so you won't crash, it will happen if you are paged during turn transition.
If your PC is the server, and it is going slow, log off of Mplayer. Intro.exe doesn't need Mplayer to run, you can set up game ICQ or on AOL's instant messenger, e-mail. etc.

"Whispering Death"- what the Iraqis' called the M1-A2 MBT.

THE SPIII TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR MODERN WAR

1. BUY THOU PLENTY OF ANTI-AIR DEFENSE
2. THOU MUST NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF ARTILLERY,
AND THAT ARTILLERY THAT SHOOTS CLUSTER AMMO IS SUPERIOR.
3. NEVER BUNCH THY UNITS UP.
4. NEVER LEAD WITH THY TANKS!
5. REMEMBER THEE,THE 1ST COMMANDMENT, THAT APACHES,
HINDS AND HAVOCS ARE FEARFUL.
6. REMEMBER THEE THAT COVER IS CONCEALMENT, BUT CONCEALMENT IS NOT COVER! TAKEST THOU COVER IN ROUGH TERRAIN, URBAN HEXES, AND BEHIND HILLCRESTS.
7. SHOOTEST THOU FROM HIGHER GROUND THAN THY FOE, AND FROM DEAD STOPPED, IF THY CAN.
8. NEVER STAYEST IN POSITION WHEN SPOTTED, BUGGEST YE OUT!
9. THOU CAN NOT HAVE ENOUGH RECON, OR AMMO.
10.DIGGEST THOU IN WHENEVER POSSIBLE.
AND LASTLY THE ELEVENTH, HAVE FUN!

General Terms Used

VIC Hexes: Flag covered hexes on map, yours(home) central( v's) enemy's home (his flags) - for meeting engagements. in delay/assaults they are on one side or the other.
Cross-buy: Buy units from any country - use nation button to change in buy screen
No 0.2 : means you have to use spotters for assigning fire missions, or arty unit must have direct line of sight to target. (note- In some cases, especially with U.S. ARTY and F.O.s, you may acheive 0.0, depending on the year of course).
C&C off : command and control in prefrences off
F.O.: Forward Observer- use to assign arty and air strikes
MBT : Main Battle Tank, ie; M1A2 Abrams, Challenger, Merkava, T-72 etc.
AFV: Armored Fighting Vehicle, ie; M2 Bradley, Marders, BMP-3 etc.
APC : Armored Personel Carrier, ie; M113A1, Fuchs, Halftrack
Slick: Slang for a un-armed or lightly armed transport helocopter. Huey, Chinook, Puma, Sea Stallion
FASCAM : Family of Scatterable Mines - mines shot from a cannon
Mutant Maps: defined as a meeting engagement where the map has been manipulated to make the hexes all 'V's in a north-south configuration.(see cheats/glitches for more info.)
'Gaming' and 'Junking' : Using features of the game that would never be something you would see on the battle field- like driving trucks back and forth in front of units to draw fire, using trucks as 'lead elements' or scouts, especially if they have no troops like infantry AT, infantry scouts, etc.
See you manual for a full set of conventional terms

RECONNAISSANCE IS POSSIBLY THE MOST OVERLOOKED BUT IMPORTANT ELEMENT!

It don't matter how awesome your units are if you don't know where his guys are. If he can see where YOUR attack is coming from, and you don't see his stuff, he probably will zap the hell outa ya, or arty you till you cry UNKLE.

Knowing Your Stuff

The 11th Marines and their M198 155mm, expressing U.S. foreign policy.

This is old hash to the veterans of the game. for folks green to online play, listen up!

WHAT IS NOT EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN IS PERMISSIBLE.

The above statement is usually the first thing that a young troop learns on his own. Historically, since the turn of the 19th century, soldiers who were given the latitude to decide for themselves how to tackle a problem were better at what they were there to do - eliminate the enemy. If the soldier was bound to what the REMFs( I ain't giving a definition, ask a military veteran) decided what was the right way, they were losers.
Want an example? France=Maginot Line, U.S.=Vietnam, Iraq? Want more?

One of the the things you must have in any contest, game or sport is flexibility of mind. You must be able to adapt to a changing situation, usually one you only partially control. When things go against you, you must accept the fact that your opponent may have outwitted you, or out guessed you. Being knowlegeable about the game you are playing is of the first importance. Be glad that you are only playing a game. It is not combat. There, your first mistake is liable to be your last. Maybe, if you are lucky, you live through your first few mistakes, learn how to stay alive, while destroying your foe instead.

Steel Panthers III is only a GAME!

 You live through your mistakes, and hopefully, learn from them. Energy wasted on 'meeping'(meep=moan and weep) could be better spent in analyzing the game you lost and spotting your mistakes.

If your foe has gone to the trouble of learning the capabilities of the forces at his disposal, and uses that to win the match, there is a term for that. It is called a winning strategy!

Perhaps your foe knows what works to make the artillery better. Find out how. Ask them nice and they might tell you. Put your saved online game from Msave into Save in SPIII, your regular game, and look. Replay the game. Send the files to a friend and replay it. How in heck do you think chessmasters become masters? they do their homework. a coach watches his game films. A soldier studies military history. he works on his strategy and tactics. He develops new strategies and tactics to counter his opponent's. Being A superior player takes a bit of offline time, learning what is available, looking at units in the encyclopedia (See your manual!) to see their capabilities should be an important subject, If you want to win. Look at how well they penatrate armor. Find out how far they see. Of course, you can buy things and try 'em out. Don't get mad if you get blasted.
Maybe you find out because you get your butt kicked by a "new" find, or trick. So what?

S-U-P-R-I-S-E!

Suprise, the soldiers buddy. When the first troops who stuck a dagger into the end of their musket and gave the other guys cold steel, they acheived SUPRISE.
But what do you know?
Word got around, and soon every grunt had a bayonet.
Thus it goes in any game! When the first guy threw a forward pass in U.S. football, he suprised the heck out of the other side. Soon, all football teams were using the forward pass.

SAME THING GOES FOR STEEL PANTHERSIII!

Advice before a ladder or a tournament game.

Make sure of the different variables/preferences before you play. Decide on the composition of forces, arty restrictions, air, etc.
Copy the terms!
save them in on your clipboard, .txt file, whatever. to copy from the chat lobby/room in Mplayer, highlight the text you want to save, press ctrl and the key 'c' at the same time. To paste, hit ctrl and 'v' at the same time. (you may be able to mouseclick paste, but not to copy.)

'Nuff said!

Skurv

Tips,tricks,and cheats for modern play

*When setting up a game, The countries you choose, even for a x-buy game, greatly affects the units Troop Quality. to be fair always have equivalent countries, like US vs UK, or turn off Country Training and set Troop Quality equal, unless you want a "more realistic" scenario, like Syria vs Israel in the '70s, or Russia vs Germany in pre '44, for example
*Air Moble is unrealistically strong in this game, so we usually don't use it. Ask.
*The best Arty: Paladins, MLRS, GCTs PZ2000, M198 155mm Howitzer w/ cluster AP, Uragan rockets are awesome, but you need a bunch
*Best Mortars: I like the BIG French 120mm mortar. Fast response, outrange any other mortar (and some howitzers) and fairly cheap. Next is 160mm mortar- Israeli has them organic to troops.
* SP Mortars: Soviet Anonas have 120mm Gun Mortar- long range. 120mm M113-PZM Germans, M113/120mm are good too.
*If you use the arty unit to assign it's fire missions, much faster response time possible, 0.2 to 0.0, no matter what the year or troop quality
This could be considered a cheat,(and most guys do) but if your unit can't see the target, damage is halved. A small sacrifice if using cluster AP ammo, cause even a 50% hit can fry everything in the hex. Also US arty is given a edge in accuracy and damage, same as in Steel I and II (note- In some cases, especially with U.S. ARTY and F.O.s,( FISTs are THE best) you may acheive 0.0, depending on the year of course)
*Put ammo carriers or dumps in the hex adjacent to unit you want to replenish.
*Hungarian ammo carriers are only 8 points
*If you have more F.A.O. units/vehicles you get more priority hexes to assign and faster response times( Forward Artillery Observers or FO)
*Assign priority hexes on points the foe is likely to cross or occupy, such as hill tops, crossroads, map edges, victory hexes , etc.
*Take it for granted that when your ARTY fires, it is spotted. MOVE OR DIE!
*During deploy, try to think where the foe may be hiding and air strike it first turn if you are player 1.
Set your air strikes to come on scene in a 0.3 response time, the foe will be spotted and you can arty him your turn.
*Patriots, Hawks, Rapiers are the best Anti Air Sams, Gainfuls and Goas not as good, but cheaper, and they usually have more shots in a turn.
Linebacker SP Sams have anti armor capability.So do ADATS, and Chapparals will shot at stuff that is shooting at them, especially in the same hex. Tracked Rapiers can carry troops. Rolands are damn good AAD. Crotales, Gekos, etc. are decent. the French have a BAD (fire control 125) SPAA cannon. Vulcans are cheaper, but better at shooting up infantry
Anti Air guns are cheap sentinels.
*The top tanks are; M1A2s, Challenger 2s*, Leclercs, Leopard 2 series, Merkavas are not as tough, but almost.*(I don't know why, but Brit Tanks seem to have an edge whatever year they are used. SSI must me anglophiles.)
*the top AfV/APCs are; Bradleys, then German Marders, then British Warriors, especially Desert Warriors, then France AMX's, Dutch YPR-765s then Warsaw Pact stuff- BMP-2.
*The best gunships are; Apaches, Havocs, Hinds, Cobras, Werewolves. Also known as "Major Gun ships"
*TAIWAN has the Tiger, a real cheap and effective ground attack plane
*RED CHINA has the cheapest effective infantry, Red Arrow ATMs are bad news!
*SOUTH KOREA has the ROKs-they are badass infantry! and ea squad has a 81 mm mortar and 75mm recoiless rifle
*For X-Buy games MUDJAHADEEN guerillas and sappers are tuff, and cheap!
*If you are US, Foxes make great recon 7 points ea
*If you are playing cross buy, the Netherlands APC YPR-765 is only 10 point ea, and has a 25mm cannon, really moves fast also. They can be great vs choppers;set to auto fire, they will shoot at least 6 times with a good chance to hit.
*Spain VECs 14 points chec em out
*Scout jeeps can shoot down choppers, and are cheap. sometimes unbelievably tuff
*Try to set up as to shoot into side, butts and tops on armored fighting vehicles( AFV) and Tanks. You will have a much greater chance to kill it.
*Dug in engineers(also known as 'sappers') can kill any tank, and decent infantry can do almost as well.
*b10s, SPG9s, Carl Gustavs, 90mm Recoiless, are all great infantry borne AFV killers.

CHEATS AND GLITCHES

GLITCH/CHEAT: Hueys ,Blackhawks and Chinooks will only run from AAD one time,(and if it hit will stop running) after that they will ignore it unless hit.
CHEAT:If you bombard a retreating unit, (like a gunship) it will go to "Ready" and fight. Use direct bombard "Z" or indirect(ARTY) That was put in so units could shoot back under fire. I don't think SSI thought we'd shoot at our own stuff.
CHEAT: if you move a unit capable of transporting them to a gun, infantry, or sam unit, you can load it up and hit undo. the unit will go back to starting point, but with the unit you loaded onto it, also.
CHEAT: If during deploy, you assign a air strike or a fire mission to a particular unit, and then"lift" or "unassign" the mission, during the game that unit can hit the previously targeted hex at 0.0 response time.(note- there is some argument as to whether or not this is a cheat- a strike unit can of course have a pre planned attack in real combat.)
GLITCH: West German vs West German causes crashes. Also, some other country combinations will Glitch also.

'Mutant Maps'- defined as a meeting engagement where the map has been manipulated to make the hexes all 'V's in a north-south configuration. It is done by setting up the game as an Assault-Random River, then switched back to Meeting Engagement. Be aware that whichever side is used as the assaulting side in set-up will not get any hexes in his territory, but the defending side USUALLY gets at least 2 sets of victory hexes in his.Try it yourself- I can reproduce this time after time- so make sure you trust the guy who is setting up, or everyone deploy closer to their own map edges. Otherwise- you will start behind the 8-Ball.

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Some favorite links.

The Alewulf Horde
Mplayer.com, the game site!
Home Page for Crimsonwings.com - Player Run Tournaments
Crimsonwings SPIII message board
Case's Gaming Ladder- SPIII
Chessed Live - Play chess on line


If I can help, E-mail me at [email protected], or click on my name or pic.

Your Friendly Adversary,

Skurvy


GOOD HUNTING!