Added Entry for Matrix Games' Steel Panthers: World at War.

[Freyland]

It's worth pointing out that Peter Dero's post is referring to the Shrapnel version.

[Sir Slash]

As my Age-Addled mind recalls, the free version was Steel Panthers WWII. SP World at War was a later and larger version of the same game- up to Brigade level if I remember correctly. I played the free version a number of years ago and it was excellent, with hundreds of scenarios but I don't recall it having any campaigns included. It was VERY turn-based meaning you could move your units one at a time and draw the AI's response fire until they ran out and then move the rest of your units right up to the enemy without problem. Also in very large scenarios, the AI could take a long time to complete it's moves. I found a user-made campaign for it somewhere, Japan vs China in 1937 with a lot of unique units for both sides and loved it. Maybe more now somewhere. The game was from a time when wargames were about war not games. Great attention to detail and a huge choice of nationalities and weapons to choose from. A great but dated game. My 2 cents.

[Pete Dero]

It's worth pointing out that Peter Dero's post is referring to the Shrapnel version.

The Shrapnel version is the only one i know to have a paid version with improved graphics (higher resolution).
The Matrix version runs at the same low resolution.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_Panthers#Series_history :

The Steel Panthers series includes the following titles:

    1995 Steel Panthers (1939-1945) by Strategic Simulations Inc
    1996 Steel Panthers II: Modern Battles (1950-1999) by Strategic Simulations Inc
    1997 Steel Panthers III: Brigade Command (1939-1999) by Strategic Simulations Inc
    1999 SPWW2 (1930-1949) by Camo Workshop
    2000 SPWaW (World at War)(1930-1949) by Matrix Games
    2002 SPMBT (Main Battle Tank)(1946-2020) by Camo Workshop
    2005 WinSPWW2 (1930-1946) by Camo Workshop, Distributed by Shrapnel Games
    2006 WinSPMBT (1946-2020) by Camo Workshop, Distributed by Shrapnel Games

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.

There also exists ongoing development by The Camo Workshop based on the Steel Panthers II code. The Camo Workshop introduced new features to their two Windows based versions of Steel Panthers. Steel Panthers: World War 2 (WinSPWW2) features battles from 1930 through 1946, with an extreme vast array of OOB (Order of battle). Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank (WinSPMBT) features battles from 1945 to 2020, with 90 different nations to allow for the simulation of a variety of different real and hypothetical conflicts. Those versions are still maintained and improved.

In 2005 Shrapnel Games took over distribution of SPCAMO's output, handling the distribution of the Windows version of their games. WinSPMBT was released in June of that year as a free download. A CD version with added bonus features was also offered as a commercial product (though the free version of the game itself is a full wargame already), the first time SPCAMO had charged for one of its games. WinSPWW2 was released on May 15, 2006.


Simple isn't it ?

[kassdhal]

But is this a free game?

It's Slitherine so everything is overpriced and originates from gaming-evil :) Even their "free" aims at either killing the competition or enticing further marketing

[Pete Dero]

Shrapnel's versions of Steel Panthers,  WW2 and Main Battle Tank (paid and free versions), just received new updates :

http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Camo_Workshop/WW2/WW2_page.html
http://www.shrapnelgames.com/Camo_Workshop/MBT/MBT_page.html