Steel Panthers III - Brigade Command (1939-1999)
 

Feel free to comment and discuss this game here. Also, if you have any useful tips or tricks don't hesitate to share them with the others! Thanks!

Review and download (if available)

Quoted for truth. This game is a sucker.
(Personal opinion, of course, you may think it's the best of the series.)

[Edit]
BTW, why isn't there a "0" in the game rating...? This one could use a 0.

It doesn't deserve a 0, as there were some improvements to the attack calculations, hit and damage calculations, spotting calcualtions, minor improvements to graphical detail, and expanded library of units and nations all of which are historically accurate. Not to mention they fit all stuff from the first two games combined with more scenarios onto a single CD.
Its problem is that it tried to cover way too much area in each battle with too large of a force. It was an attempt to combine Steel Panthers with Panzer General.
Dumbing down the AI didn't improve the situation, and the sheer size of the battlefields and number of units involved resulted in a computer AI that can take upwards of 10 minutes to complete its turn. Many a time I had time to go make a sandwich, eat it, and come back and still ended up waiting 2 or 3 more minutes for my turn to come back around.

If SSI instead took Steel Panthers 2 and added all the improvements without the dumbing down of the AI or the increased size of the battles, it could have been a much better game.

dkw, would you say SP2 has a better AI than the popular, more recent(and freeware) WinSPMBT and WinSPWW2 games?

I have Steel Panthers 3 and when I saw it here I downloaded and am playing a fast campaign in late 1943 as Germany. I put on the points as 800 so I won't have that many units. I wish that SP3 had a long campaign. If the points are like 3000 then that is too many units to handle.

DOS Box commands
 

What do I type in DOS Box to run it?

Well that question can only be answered with more questions I am afraid. The easist way is to direct you to the DOS Box tutorials.

Someone installed DOS Box for me so the question is what are the command words need to run Brigade Commander? Eg with Steel Pathers I type

C> Steelp¬l
C. Steel>Steel

and it runs what are the equivilant for Brigade Commander

Claire

well if someone "auto-mounted" a drive for you you can type dir to see all the files and directories inside your curent directory

then to change directory type cd [name of the directory], like "cd steelp" would go down to steelp directory (if it exists of course)

then when you type dir and see some files with extension exe or bat just write name of those, those are excutables which run things

This suggestion is not possible, as the game download does not appear to include any executable file that dosbox can run. (Well, except for EDITMBT, but that's used for unit editing, not playing the game. SETSOUND also runs, but isn't of use to run the game either. "intro" is a Windows NT executable, "Mech" is a PE executable, whatever that means.)

I know this game can actually be run in dosbox; that's how I ran it off my CD version back in the XP days, but with the shift to 64-bit windows the CD I have can no longer install. (Shame too, it includes the extra scenario for the registered CD.)

Ironically I can actually run the files inside the download via my version of Windows 7, but they expect to find a Steel Panthers 3 CD in my C: drive when that's happening.

As it stands this program cannot be used with dosbox and would require either a no-cd crack or some way to redirect it to my actual CD to use. Otherwise you might as well pull this or at least not pretend it's compatible with dosbox.

Oh .... really?
Indeed, it can.
Oh ... really ?
It isn't ....?????
Lets see, freshly downloaded from AB -(just to be sure we have the same stuff)- to testrun and ......
http://thumbnails110.imagebam.com/31...4314195512.jpg
How strange, runs fine in dosbox 0.74, no problems ....... must be me again .... :whistling:
Maybe you should read some tutorials about running games in dosbox ...??? :mhh:

steel3.exe . Your argument is invalid.
If your copy does not have it, re-download the archive.

History
 

We use this in history, and the other two as well, im 15 and go to the after school history club. Its a sim not a game, it simulates a battle, it dose this very well, but it takes some getting used to.

If your a game player then go away, if you want to find out what might have happened, or just want to control a battle group you found a very good programme.

A real pity they gave up on number 3, with more power in modern CPU's they could have had a winner, if only for geeks like me.

KP Being a WWII-nerd this is my number one computer game. I keep returning to it a couple of times a year and end up wasting a week or two gaming each time. This is the standard each new game I try will have to mesure up to... ; )

Sure the visual is old yet good but where this titel really shine is the balance and historical depiction of most units which is about as good as you can get it.