Matrix Games Forums

Stupid things to do while playing Steel Panthers

Don’t bother to look at the Victory Hex values on turn one, after all, knowing the best places to attack only ruins the chances of enjoying some confusion.

Never check to see if starting armour has anyone actually riding on it when they begin the scenario or enter as reinforcements. It’s far more fun to find out you had that extra squad later and doing the battle the hard way.

Immediately fire your limited bazooka team anti tank rounds at the first enemy unit to expose itself. It’s always fun to see the panic it causes to meaningless enemy troops. And they are great for making unimportant vehicles really go kaboom.
Besides those rounds are heavy eh, and odds are they wouldn’t blow up an actually dangerous tank anyway.

Never spend even 5 seconds clicking through your starting units, to check out their current status at the start of a game or at the beginning of a turn.
Besides real men never ask for directions correct?

Intentionally sit on any enemy entry hexes when found. This causes pandemonium and chaos and can be quite a hoot to watch.

When given numerous tanks or anti tank capable forces as reinforcements assume you are merely lucky. After all, it’s possible right? It’s not like you will really need them.

Always make a mad dash towards the VH locations on turn one. This confuses the AI into shooting artillery missions into the wrong places (where a sane person would be).

Attack with any unit, even the command units, because glory should be for everyone eh. Remember, its not the weapons the unit possesses that’s important, its how big a number the unit possesses that’s important.
In Steel Panthers, it’s the size of your unit that counts, bigger is better

MG units make great recon units, and if they die, well they were only small units anyway, and remember size matters more.

It’s a waste of time using the lay of the land to maneuver. The direct route is best. Open fields that allow fast movement are always better than slow plodding routes through trees.

There is never an easy route across rivers, so don’t bother looking for one.

Always use up your off-board artillery rounds as fast as you can. Sure, you may need them later, but they'll probably get hit by counter-battery fire anyway.

Since size matters its always best to have your biggest heaviest tank units act as recon....I mean..they are big and bad and can deal with anything....

Yeah, accept when they encounter nuts like Forward Observers convinced they can take out anything

Advancing with tanks is generally a no-no, depending on your adversary. The new OOBs give you early-war Japanese tank-hunter units armed with satchel charges (This is a 8.0 spoiler, so forgive me, Bryan . This is as far as I'll go.). The rule of thumb is never ever advance into unknown territory with tanks unless you have either (a) infantry or recon riding aboard the tanks or (b) have infantry or recon units leading the way. As I love my US Marines, this new development had to be learned the hard way. The new OOBs contain some other surprises, but I'm not at liberty to discuss them yet. As the USMC, fighting the Japanese in a long campaign is still fun, but now it's even more potentially bloody (and realistic).

Always focus on the game, instead of your girlfriend. The latter is replacable, but clicking on Save and coming back could take up to 20 hours!

always drink a six-pack of beer before playing your PBEM games.
Hic! Hic! :sleep:

Use your armor to search for mine fields! Almost every unit in Steel Panthers can be used to find mines. Some are more appropriate than others.

M4 Jess wrote:always drink a six-pack of beer before playing your PBEM games.
Hic! Hic! :sleep:

This way, when you get yer butt kicked, you won't care about it until the hangover sets in tomorrow.

Swamps offer dense cover and heavy duty concelment... Great for hiding armor!

Always assign air assets to attack enemy units near your armour, preferably within a few hexes. That way the pilots can wave at the AFV commanders. Besides, air units NEVER attack friendlies!:D:D

Eric Maietta

Never waste valuable points on transports for your atty/AA units, especially the large ones. It's much better to let them sit in the same place, so they can register on all the targets you really want them to hit accurately. Also, never waste infantry/mg units providing protection for atty/AA units, as they almost never get attacked by infantry.

Eric Maietta

Don't ever think that a tank-heavy force is an automatic victory. In SPWAW, Grunts do the job ... every time.

WB

Found a shortcut or a way around the hard part? Not in my world. Better have some engineers handy!