Steel Panthers

Steel Panthers Series
Cover art from the first game in the series.
Developer(s)	SSI Inc., CAMO Workshop, etc
Publisher(s)	Strategic Simulations Inc., Shrapnel Games, Matrix Games
Designer(s)	Gary Grigsby and Keith Brors
Platform(s)	MS-DOS Windows XP
Release	1995-present
Genre(s)	Tactical wargame
Mode(s)	Single-player and Hotseat / PBEM

Steel Panthers is a series of computer wargames, developed and published by several different companies, with various games covering battles from 1930 to 2025. The first game was released in 1995, and the most recent was released in 2006 and is still updated regularly. In 1996, Computer Gaming World magazine named it their Wargame of the Year.

Players control individual tanks and vehicles from a top-down perspective, on a map with a hexagonal overlay. Infantry are mostly in squad/section (8-12 men) sized units, but some units, like snipers, can be controlled individually. The whole force under a players 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.

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 (either branched or linear), 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 (hotseat or online), human vs. AI and PBEM (play by email). 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.

The Steel Panthers series includes the following titles:

Rights to the game and source code were acquired by Matrix Games who developed and released as freeware a remake based on the Steel Panthers III engine (but limited to the timespan of World War II), Steel Panthers: World at War! The latest available patch version is 8.403. No further development is planned.