Matrix Games Forums

The Victors, the newest of campaigns for Steel Panthers World at War, is now available in two versions.

The easier version can be found on Rick Cloutier's (Tankhead) SPWAW support site. I recommend this version for those who don't feel quite ready for almost impossible winning situations. In this one you have a fair chance.
[url="http://tankhead__1.tripod.com/"]http://tankhead__1.tripod.com/[/url]

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Now if you are a real diehard and have rolled through the earlier campaigns with little or no problem, then you'll want the harder version, found on Fabio Prado's Armorsite.
http://www.fprado.com/armorsite/sp_waw.htm

"The Victors" is a hypothetical confrontation of US and USSR forces in late April and early May, 1945 in Central Germany.

For those who have fought their way across Western Europe or through the mud and snow around the Dniper River, this will be your most challenging campaign to date.

Many thanks to the testers, a great buch of guys! They are Steve Avery, John Keenan, Don Llewellyn, Jaime Mainheiro, Klaus Fischer, Massimo Rocca, Randy Casebier, William Rusco, Fabio Prado, and Rick Cloutier

They are avaiable right now on both sites.

Tankhead's site - Easier Version

Fabio's site - Harder Version

Time to go to war!

Wild Bill


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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Already downloaded the harder version. Will try it out tonight.

I’m downloading it right now form Fabio’s site. There are two files to download “campaign” and the “campaign doc files”.

Do I need to install both the “campaign” and the “campaign doc files” in order to play the campaign? Or the doc files are just the historical text introduction.

I read the introduction. Sounds terrific.

Please answer me quickly, I want to stop Stalin ASAP!


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No Pasarán!!

Gallo, The doc file is the history which is also detailed on Fabio's site.

To play, you only need to install the game zip file. Load them into your campaigns subdirectory and you are ready to go.

You may want the other version also just to have it and it may be your alternate choice

The "Hard" one is just that. So be warned
Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

I personally cannot win the hard version so I am trying out the "easier" version.

I know, I know, I designed it, so I should be doing better

WB

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

I've downloaded the "campaign" easier version, but it did not arrive as a zip file. I converted it to a zip file, unzipped it into the campaign subdirectory, started SPWAW and nothing was there. Anyone got any ideas of what happened?

I've checked previous downloaded campaigns and they are all multi-file zip files. This one is only one file.
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McGib
Ready Aye Ready

[This message has been edited by McGib (edited December 28, 2000).]

I've downloaded the "campaign" easier version, but it did not arrive as a zip file. I converted it to a zip file, unzipped it into the campaign subdirectory, started SPWAW and nothing was there. Anyone got any ideas of what happened?

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McGib
Ready Aye Ready

I can't get the file to download from Tripod, period. Goes to about 60% and stalls. One thing I noticed: In the title bar of the dialog box for download, there is a question mark after the "zip" file extension, followed by a "1", thus:

xxxxxx.zip?1

Might this indicate a problem?

Bing

OK, I tried again and it went much better.

First, I cleaned out my Internet Temp files, via the DOS command line method.

Then I went back to Tripod, the download went fine, there are a buncha files in the zip package, extracted them to the campaign folder and played the first turn, everything went as advertised. I did however get the VCR error message.

Bing

Well, I won the first battle of the hard version. All I can say is God Bless General Pershing; and that 4 man recon team which took out a truck, a 76mm ATG, a BT-7M, and an
ISU-152 all by their lonesome (while hiding in a wooden building) have been put in for silver and bronze stars all around...

Got em both. Be real interesting to see haw easy the "Easy Version" really is. Hopefully I will know better.

Gentlemen:

I downloaded the zip file from Rick's and Fabio's sites and had no problem. The zip file for both should contain 65 files. They are numbered 20 (easy) and 21 (hard).

Mc, I would send it to you directly but I don't have your e-mail address.

The files are about 700Kb in size, which means that with a 56k modem it should not take too long. With cable or dSL, you can get it in about 30 seconds or less.

Igor, congrats on that first battle in the hard version. You have some real fighters on your team, I'll tell you that!

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Perhaps I should have named it "easier" rather than easy, William,...but not by much

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Just finished the first battle with a draw,
Yeah! the Pershings are real good and the Bazooka's team are deadly dangerous. Ivan had many Havies knocked out.
It's my first time playing with US troops.
Great job WB!!

Senta à Pua!!!

I know what you mean Adantas!

I killed Russians till my barrels turned red and still they came! I got a draw too and was glad

The same for me with battles two and three. This is a hard one!

Thanks! I'm glad you are enjoying it.

Wild Bill

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In Arduis Fidelis
Wild Bill Wilder
Coordinator, Scenario Design
Matrix Games

Originally posted by Wild Bill:
Gallo, The doc file is the history which is also detailed on Fabio's site.

To play, you only need to install the game zip file. Load them into your campaigns subdirectory and you are ready to go.

You may want the other version also just to have it and it may be your alternate choice

The "Hard" one is just that. So be warned
Wild Bill

Thanks WB!! If Stalinist smash me, I’ll try again... That’s the good think about wargame: you have a second chance...

Just finished the first battle in the "hard" version. Brutal! I barely managed a draw. Had 1/2 my command shot to pieces, and actually ran 2 tanks out of AP ammo trying to beat back the red hordes. Who would have figured I'd need an ammo truck. I'm looking forward to the 2nd one, thanks WB.

I finally finished the campaign (even got promoted to General). One thing; that last game included an unusual amount of skeet shooting (more than half of the airborne got shot down inbound, the rest came down in an artillery park).

One problem I had with the last battle; I didn't realize that the map was bigger than one navigation screen worth. It wasn't until turn 6 that I finally discovered that there was a victory hex way down south. Was my face red...

Shamefaced confession; the only way I did as well as I did on battles 2 on was by replacing recon squads with land mattresses (4.5 inch multiple rocket launchers) during the refit stage. There's nothing like a quick response MRL or two to break up an assault by buttoning up and/or suppressing some of the heavy tanks; so you can deal with them in detail instead of in a wave. I think they only ever killed some soft targets and one T-70; but their ability to disorganize an enemy attack makes them more than worth the reasonable price per unit. Besides, their HE rounds make great smokescreens.

Last thought; During the Cold War the 1st Infantry division got referred to as The Big Red One versus the Big Red Many. My troops here probably could have related.

[This message has been edited by Igor (edited December 31, 2000).]

Finish the first battle of hard Victor with a draw. I broken the enemy troop, but my forces was also too scattered to make a final push to the last several objectives.

ouch...

I started the hard campaign and had to run the first three or four turns a couple of times. I then stumbled through up to turn 12 and noticed "100 points PER TURN". Ooops. Time to start again.

Finally managed a draw on that one, and then a draw in the next one, but that left me with too few build points to even bother showing up for the next one. Back to the start with a 90% infantry force. Managed a draw (again) - 17xxx to 5xxx points. So close to a minor victory.

This is one tough cookie. Thanks.

In the second battle I noticed something strange - we get some OB SPA as reinforcements, but they didn't show up on any of the bombardment command tables. I went into this battle without repairing my destroyed HQ unit - would this be why?

Thank god for bazookas.