Life is good (I got SP3 Brigade Combat to run)

[MrsWargamer]

As the title says, I somehow managed to get a downloaded file to function today (I have no idea what I did specifically correct this time ).

I consider Steel Panthers 3 Brigade Combat to essentially be the spiritual equal to the old AH PanzerBlitz/Panzer Leader experience in much the same way that Steel Panthers was essentially about the same for Squad Leader (yes, I know we have a nice ASL wannabe program too these days).

I've always liked Steel Panthers 3, but, after the XP era, getting it to cooperate was like getting your 13-year-old daughter to listen to you (often more effort than most of us can manage).

I'm soooo happy.

Hey what can I say, I'm not inclined to think much of current real-time, fancy smanshy 3d graphics games are that impressive. Today's demanding graphics expensive computer requiring programs are about as thrilling as a high maintenance spouse eh.

I consider Steel Panthers (likely refers to SPCamo and SPWaW equally), SP3, Battle Academy, Panzer Corps and possibly Strategic Command 3 (I don't own SC3 yet) to probably be my idea of the pinnacle of computer wargaming. Simple, engaging, repeat use friendly entertainment able to run on almost anything.

Just glad I can finally fiddle with SP3 again. My original disk has been lamenting not being of use to me for years. Now I can finally put it in storage and stop fussing about it.

[mkr8683]

I never got into SP3, but it had some great campaigns.

[demyansk]

I think I had this game at one time. I know I had sp1 and sp2. I can't remember much about it. Just looked at a few reviews.

[MrsWargamer]

The most interesting details about Steel Panthers 3 Brigade Combat, is SP3 is the code Steel Panthers World at War aka the Matrix Games version is based off of (unless everything I know is wrong ). Which is why the SP Camo versions function differently (because they are based off of SP2 code).

Otherwise, in its SP3 form, it's not about individual pieces of equipment, but groups 1 step up the chain ie not a tank, but a tank platoon.
The scenarios are thus platoon management and thus the name brigade combat because it isn't single items and squad management.

It's best to compare it to its board game equals, Squad Leader and Panzer Leader.

One only plays SP3 if they want to enjoy combat one tactical level up the chain. It also has battles not limited to WW2 and the community has a wealth of user created content (which I managed to scrounge up over the years).

[demyansk]

Is it working fine on Windows 10?

[Riitaoja2]

Being a DOS game it will work fine on any modern OS using the DOSBox emulator:
https://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Basic_Setup ... _of_DosBox

That all said it will take a little bit of know how and patience to setup DOSBox and the game properly. It also helps if you remember the basic DOS commands and functionality. So it may not be for everyone.

I also wrote some DOSBox tips here a while back:
fb.asp?m=4054489


P.S.
There is also a version of Steel Panthers 3 for Windows that came with one of the expansion disks. This is called Steel Panthers 3 online and it is mainly intented for Online play using TCP/IP to connect with an opponent. If I remember correctly it also allows limited single player functionality and can be used to play some of the scenarios. If you see a file called mech.exe in the SP3 forlder you know you have it. However getting this Windows version to run can be tricky since it suffers from running way too fast on a modern system. It also has the same artillery screen bug as SPWAW has on modern multi core CPU's. So maybe I should take a look at it and see if I can fix it? [:'(]

EDIT:
Should have checked it before posting but the Windows version of SP3 has multiplayer options only. So it is pretty much useless...

[Riitaoja2]

Well just for fun I tried running SP3online with Dxwnd and it does run after setting up the launch field with the "direct" parameter. The resolution is just 640x480 and I can only use the scenario editor. So not that usefull but at least it still runs.

[Riitaoja2]

Here is a screenshot of the Steel Panthers 3 game running with DOSBox. The scenario is called "Supercharge". The resolution is of course just 640x480 and you can see how units are represented as a platoon of 4 or 3 tanks. The hex scale in SP3 is also larger at 250 yards/hex instead of 50.

Although I do prefer the SP1/SP2/SPWAW scale I think it can be a refreshing change to play around with Steel Panthers 3 scale.

[MrsWargamer]

ORIGINAL: demyansk

Is it working fine on Windows 10?

No way of knowing about it working in 10 as I'm back in 8.1

Riitaoja2, this gibberish string of text is from what I think is how the program looks according to dosbox.

I copy pasted this not knowing really anything other than how to copy paste it

[sdl]
fullscreen=true
fulldouble=false
fullresolution=desktop
windowresolution=original
output=ddraw
autolock=true
sensitivity=100
waitonerror=true
priority=higher,normal
mapperfile=mapper-0.74.map
usescancodes=true
[dosbox]
language=
machine=svga_s3
captures=capture
memsize=64
[render]
frameskip=0
aspect=false
scaler=hq3x
[cpu]
core=auto
cputype=auto
cycles=max
cycleup=10
cycledown=20
[mixer]
nosound=false
rate=44100
blocksize=1024
prebuffer=20
[midi]
mpu401=intelligent
mididevice=default
midiconfig=
[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16
sbbase=220
irq=7
dma=1
hdma=5
sbmixer=true
oplmode=auto
oplemu=default
oplrate=44100
[gus]
gus=false
gusrate=44100
gusbase=240
gusirq=5
gusdma=3
ultradir=f:\ULTRASND
[speaker]
pcspeaker=true
pcrate=44100
tandy=auto
tandyrate=44100
disney=true
[joystick]
joysticktype=auto
timed=true
autofire=false
swap34=false
buttonwrap=false
[serial]
serial1=dummy
serial2=dummy
serial3=disabled
serial4=disabled
[dos]
xms=true
ems=true
umb=true
keyboardlayout=auto
[ipx]
ipx=false
[autoexec]
cd ..
@cd ..
@mount c .\games\StlPan3
imgmount d .\games\StlPan3\cd\STEEL3_E10.cue -t cdrom
@c:
cls
@cd steel3
@steel3
exit

There's a batch file I run that is outside of the folders where everything else is.
The zip file unpacks in that fashion.

[Riitaoja2]

As noted using DOSBOX reguires a little bit of practice and reading to understand how the configuration works and how to operate DOS.

In your case it looks like an automated setup that is pre-configured to mount the drives and launch the game without much user input other than double clikcing on a batch file. So the DOSBOX configuration and DOS opeation is invisible to you.