UN-OFFICIAL STRATEGY GUIDE FOR STEEL PANTHERS VERSION 1.0
	Compatible with STEEL PANTHER version 1.1

Hi there I just couldn't help sending to you guys my favorite tips and 
hints about SP , this game is too good and I just want to share the little 
I've learn in the hope your comments will help me improve my 
gameplay.Moreover the lack of good reference book make this kind of 
post usefull ( at least I hope so). Let' call it the Un-Official Strategy 
Book ! As a bonus this UOSG is written in an extremely academic 
language with perfect spelling so it will be an exellent occasion for you 
tough colonials or noble sons of Wellington to learn something really 
new : the pure french continental english <g>

 1. About 88 AT and german defense .

At start your most potent weapon is the 88 AT buy one section of 
those ( they are cheap you can buy more but it is just not fun and 
historical to have more than a couple of those in your batallion we are 
not playing DOOM II here !) .
88 AT are very accurate , they can punch a hole in any kind of enemy 
units , but they are very vulnerable . Use them only for long distance 
kills when visibility is good . in scenario where the enemy have heavy 
artillery move them the turn after they fire . It is the priority target of 
aircrafts and artillery , have them stay more than 15 hexes away from 
enemy units. Ammunition is scarce so use it carefully . 

In defense scenarios , when they are not spotted yet , set their 
opportunity fire to one hexe . Otherwise they will be spotted too early 
and the enemy will fire everything  available at them and will not engage 
the bulk of his units before your spotted 88 AT are destroyed ( well at 
least if the player is a competant human , the AI is more 
straightforward) . You should deliver a decisive blow when your 88 
open fire during your turn using their 6 shot . A well trained 88 should 
normally kill any unit in 3 shots at 20/30 hex range , so normally 4 
(maybe more) of the most heavy enemy tanks should be burning wrecks 
after your first "broadside" . Have your battalion leader  (in A0 unit) less 
than 5 hexes away from your 88 section leader (the "0" unit ) , it helps 
greatly pass the morale check during fire and...successfull morale check 
improve *a lot* the accuracy for consecutive shots at the same target 
Do not forget to move some cheap big truck or cavalry to draw the 
enemy opportunity fire *before* you fire your 88 AT otherwise they 
may be suppressed / destroyed by the return fire . After this you may 
want to move your 88 AT away from enemy spotting range to lay 
another ambush before massed direct fire from enemy start pounding 
your vulnerable crew next turn...Your opponent will just see 4 of his 
best units burning without any explanation for that , not good for the 
enemy major's morale ! I strongly recommand not to place those AT on 
top of the hills , sure they have a beautifull view and enjoy the 
landscape but it is the first place where the 152 mm preparatory (ie just 
before first turn ) shell from your human opponent will land . If you play 
against the AI hill tops are just great so different opponents , different 
tactics ...
If you like to follow the books , you may want to lay a carefull ambush 
near the objective with a first line of infantry/engineers with range set to 
1 and some AT with their range set to the distance to infantry plus one 
. The idea behind this is to have the enemy tank bump into the infantry 
and every AT and infantry fire at the same time. Sure you will kill the 
first recon unit but it is a cheap price for him to pay in order to spot 
your complete defense system , and your opponent will engage your AT 
immediately with all his firepower (since he his the attacker he his 
supposed to have more than you and you will loose).If you really want 
to play the infantry ambush I suggest you cover the area with smoke (or 
use reverse slope) in order to avoid concentration of fire from the 
attacker and take his incoming units piece meal preferably with your 
enginners (I suggest to stiffen your grunts with some armor adjacent to 
kill instantly any unit foolish enough to enter that fog and avoid any 
retaliation from incoming unit) . Works great with the computer , 
haven't tried it yet with a human opponent but it should embarass him 
because he will not even be able to spot for artillery because of the 
smoke .

In offense 88 AT must be used to kill from a distance the heavy enemy 
armor detected by your recon units . Be carefull to leave them outside 
retaliation range ( 15 hexes minimum),  do not forget to move them the 
turn after they have fired (here will come the enemy artillery) and... 
move them with AA units because they are the preferred target for 
aircrafts.I know , I know, 88 AT were originally AA weapons but ... 
they still need some AA to protect them !

2-About setting infantry trap against armor:

0 range is usefull for nothing , if you want to trap tank set your range to 
1 since close combat occurs at 1 hex distance not 0. Maybe 0 range 
can be usefull if you want a sniper to stay unspotted in a tree hex (I 'm 
not so sure it works). Use engineers preferably because they can blow 
off almost any tanks with flamethrowers and satchel charges.Preferably 
use your infantry in reverse slope condition in order to avoid enemy 
concentration of fire once they are detected.See below.

3-About stopping heavy russian armor .and the reverse slope trap

Try those 88 AT , set their range to 1 (to avoid them being detected 
early with opportunity fire ) and fire massively all of them at long range 
when your enemy have commited the bulk of their forces (if visibility is 
good).Of course after they fired wyou may want to change their range 
.Do not forget to have all your leader within command range(5 hexes) to 
improve the accuracy of successive shots. If visibility is bad try the 
reverse slope trap (just set all you units massed behind a hill or forest in 
the path of the enemy) in order to avoid enemy
concentration of fire . Have your tanks behind your engineers and 
destroy the incoming forces piece meal (thanks to your concentration of 
fire) , it can be usefull also to back them up with some 88 AT (to punch 
big holes into those KV easier) in the rear area but not too far
since visibility is bad. Just be sure the enemy has fired all his 
opportunity fire before firing your AT : just move or fire (alternately to 
avoid enemy accuracy increase) a couple of expendable or well armored 
unit . After a while repelling any kind of armor attack will be second 
nature !
I've found the reverse slope works also pretty well against the german 
too, he cannot use his long ranged 88 and his superior accuracy , he 
must fight your T34 in close combat at a disaventage.

PS: You can also use smoke in front of your units in order to create the 
artificial "reverse slope" , it is even better because the enemy doesn't 
benefit from beeing on top of the hill (I think there is a bonus for that) .



4 Searching for a way out of the Mines! 

 Yes those are really a pain in my ... too ! I think mine are the most 
potent weapon of a defending AI.
I had very few scenarii with them . I used some cavalry to detect the
minefield and advance quite fast , one cavalry will not always detect the
minefield but 4 of them stand a good chance to have some losses in a 
dense minefield area (I have them followed them closely by some 
_support_ expendable Stugs just in case they get really unlucky to pass 
theminefield without losses!) , once the mined area is detected I 
dismountmy engineers from my tanks and try to find a way out of it , its 
seems you do not have to wait till the engineer clear the minefield 
completely, sometime the engineer can make a path , for the 
mechanized units . It seem also once the engineers are in the hex you 
can move trough the hex safely , it seemed to work but I just tested it 
once so I'm not sure 100% . Once you have crossed the dangerous area 
, just repeat the process with advancing cavalry. The funny thing is that 
enemy artillery do not take long to fall on your dismounted engineers so 
you better find the path quickly ...

	Maybe there is another way to avoid minefield ,
attacking enemy objective from the rear after a large enciclement (I 
haven't tried this one yet !) . According to the latest info I got from 
other players , the minefields are always in your path whatever it is !

5- Best reconaissance

	For me the best reconaissance unit is the cavalry , they are not 
fully destroyed when they bump into enemy position (unlike armored 
carriers or light tanks),you can use them again after rallying, they are 
cheap, and they spot much better than vehicles since they are infantry 
so why not buying a platoon of them as support unit ?

6-Spending enemy opportunity fire f

	Move alternately 2 expendable or heavily armored units , the 
enemy will switch target and loose all cumulated accuracy bonus . 
When the target stop firing move some armored killer adjacent 
preferably in his rear .Take care if you want to dispatch him with 
infantry since the bad guy may still have some machine gun left and 
your precious engineers may be pinned before shooting , move some 
cavalry within range in order to spend his MG opportunity fire . Be 
carefull this adjacent aproach can be dangerous if you suspect some 
enemy concentration around the target .

	If you face an enemy concentration let him move toward your 
position and use the reverse slope trap to defeat him piecemeal.


7-Fighting "invisible" armies (ie Japanese or Finns)

	For those who are upset by invisible Japs , I think I've found a 
miracle cure ... screen your precious core with some unexpensive 
(support) snipers , they will die detecting the incoming japs and you will 
crush them before they can crush you . Of course I understand it is very 
un-american to sacrifice precious human lives just for detection ( I would 
expect this from Russians or Japanese ) but c'est la guerre SP way 
<g> I haven't experimented it (not played the american side yet) so 
can anyone confirm if it works ? This technique worked not so bad 
when I played the russians against the invisible finish army ...

here is another interresting tip from Craig Boulton:

Pascal, I found another way as well. Put your core units behind the 
objective area, hopefully in cover. Buy a lot of fast armored cars and
put them there too. When you see victory flags change color you charge
over the hill with the armored cars. Most of them will get whacked, but
so what, they are only support. Once the japs have used up all there
shots, you go in with core units and rack up the kills. If you have
movement points left, hide the core units again. Repeat until all japs
are dead.

8-About attacks and smoke.

First you have to decide if you have "long distance" supremacy.Long 
distance supremacy is the ability to have enough long distance gunnery 
to inflict a decisive blow to your enemy without much risks for 
retaliation . This is the case if you are the german with enough 88 AT (I 
consider using more than 2 of them is "cheating" ) or enough Panthers 
or Tigers . Usually the german can be expected to have long distance 
supremacy.

If you have long distance supremacy do not use smoke , If you do not 
have long distance supremacy buy a lot of cheap mortars to lay smoke 
lavishly along your avenue of approach and go straight for the objective 
(use some 152 mm to soften them before) with your troops massed and 
covered with smoke.Remember smoke is the most potent weapon if you 
are outclassed by enemy gunnery.

If you have long distance supremacy almost everything will work ... 
make some concentrated attack since the enemy will probably use 
smoke (unless it is the dumb AI).

Always recon before moving precious units , I like to have some 
expendable support cavalry spearheading the attack , then some support 
stugs or heavy close support tanks mounted by support engineers and 
then my precious core , if you can keep your force concentrated nothing 
can stop you exept mines , maybe also enemy artillery can disrupt a 
little too ... Have some air support attack along your path of advance 
during preparatory phase to take out some potent long distance killers 
and/or use smoke for cover if you do not have long distance supremacy.

9-Do not forget AA 

The enemy aircraft will always bomb your most important assets , 
protect them with specialised AA units.

10-Command control

Try to have your units within 5 hexes range of the platoon/section 
leader (the "0" unit) and the platoon leader within 5 hexes range of the 
battalion leader (A0 unit) . Your suppression will be removed more easily 
and your firing accuracy will improve greatly with consecutive shots. 
Always try to rally before firing since suppression is very bad for 
accuracy.

11-Off board artillery

Everything less than 150 mm is just good for laying smoke . Corollary 
:buy cheap mortars for smoke, buy nothing but 150 mm for OBA.

12-Experience and morale.

Morale , experience and leaders ability are extremely important factors 
in SP. Very often a veteran outguned unit will kill or rout an 
inexperienced enemy thanks to superior accuracy and rate of fire .The 
more you kill enemy units the fastest your experience grows.The unit 
credited for the kill is the unit who destroyed the vehicle or killed the 
last infantryman . Alway have your support units supress the enemy and 
leave the kill for your core units in order to gain more experience , use 
every opportunity to finish enemy units.Exeption (bug?) if you kill a unit 
with area fire (targeting the hex rather than the unit , this happen when 
you use flamethrowers for instance...) you won't be credited for the killl 
.

Hope it helps

Pascal Ode ( Compuserve e-mail:100257,1375 )

PS: This is the very first version of the UOSG . I didn't have enough 
time to play a full campaign with all this on line chatting so I'm 
conscious there is a lot of potential for improvement, I will be very 
pleased to get all your comments for the next version.This text file is 
freeware and you can use it as you like , just drop me a post to help me 
improve it . 


