The first sign of their appearance are the billowing dust clouds, and then over the horizon the low, ugly shapes are visible. Gears whine as turrets traverse, zeroing in on the lead elements. Seconds seem to turn into minutes as the final adjustments are made, as the platoon whispers a prayer and everyone waits. The time for action is now!

Then, it happens. The first vehicle crosses the designated point of action and the countryside erupts in flashes of flame and smoke. High velocity shells scream across fields and slam into their targets, turning what were once vehicles into burning hulks of metal and flesh. As quickly as it began it is over, and the hunters quickly move to alternate locations, leaving death and destruction behind.

WinSPMBT is the Windows version of Steel Panthers Main Battle Tank (SPMBT). SPMBT is a classic super-mod for the fan favorite 1996 SSI game, Steel Panthers 2: Modern Battles. Developed by Camo Workshop, and available to the public for no cost, SPMBT followed in the treadmarks of their original super-mod for SP2, Steel Panthers World War II, first released in 1998. More than just a mod, SPMBT is a standalone game that totally reworks the original game. While the gameplay will be familiar to anyone who has spent time with Steel Panthers, the data and gameplay has been tweaked to provide gamers with the ultimate tactical experience.

Originally a DOS program SPMBT has now been upgraded into a full Microsoft Windows application. No longer will players be stuck running the game at 640x480, dealing with sound compatibility issues, or any of the other headaches involved with running DOS games in the 21st century.

WinSPMBT includes everything that everyone loved with SPMBT, and turns it up to eleven. There are three brand new scenarios and one new campaign, bringing the grand total to over one hundred plus scenarios in the game! New terrains have been added, and terrain tile sets redone.

Scores of OOB files have been updated, there are new and revised vehicle icons, and the AI can now target smoke signatures with artillery. The much requested barbed wire makes an appearance, and now vehicles can reverse out of troubled areas without having to expose their rear.

WinSPMBT is available as a basic, free download or in a CD Edition that must be ordered. Both provide players with the exact same, free game but the CD Edition includes helpful items like a printed quick start guide and nice goodies like higher possible resolutions, and a cut-n-paste map editor.

If you have not yet experienced why Steel Panthers, a game released an eternity ago in terms of computer gaming, is still considered one of the (if not THE) best tactical turn-based computer wargames ever, download the addiction right away and see how Camo Workshop has kept the game fresh and viable all these years!

What's New in This Release:

· 25 Additional Scenarios
· 89 Updated Scenarios
· 6 Additional previously released Campaigns
· 29 New Maps and 1 Updated Map
· 113 Updated AI Picklists
· 1 Updated Leader Name File
· 6 Updated Ranks File
· 695 New photos
· Over 400 New and Revised Icons
· 92 Updated OOB Files
· Upgraded Cost calculator
· Upgraded MOBHack
· 1. GPS and laser Range Finder have been integrated into the game for use by FOO officers and vehicles. When Artillery observers or FO vehicles are using
· a Laser RF and IF the target hex is in LOS the shell scatter will be less. A FOO with a Range Finder rating above 20 is considered to have a Laser Range
· finder. If the observer or FO vehicle is fitted with GPS the scatter will be less again. A FOO with an EW value of 15 has GPS. . Forward observers with both GPS and Laser Range finders are not cheap but they do have added uses in the game ( see point 2 )
· 2. The game no longer automatically issues 10 artillery priority hexes per side except for sceanrio design. Priority hexes are issued based on the type of battle and the number of Forward Observers and the equipment the forward observers have available. .
· 3. Retreat/Rally hexes have been added to the game.
· 4. Opfire filtering has been added as a bonus for players owning the CD version of the game. As well, ScenHack and CampaignHack, which were issued with the last version of WinSPWW2 for CD holders of that game, have both been rewritten for use by CD holders of WinSPMBT and have been included as well.
· 5. Multi Charge HEAT has been added as a new weapons class so RPG-7VR, RPG-29 , PzF 3T DC and PzF 3 IT-600 DC are modeled correctly now as well as well as the Russian 125mm Tandem HEAT ammo.
· 6. An Optional AI force level adjustment for Campaign games has been added An INI file variable has been added (optional) for users to use to boost (or even reduce!) AI points in campaign games .
· 7. HEAT ammo now has a secondary HE ability. Units with HEAT ammo can fire HEAT/HE at 66% if the effect of the regular HE round for that weapon. Units will reserve the last 4 HEAT rounds for anti-tank purposes, and are more reluctant to fire HEAT/HE against soft units in the reaction fire in the opponent's turn unless at 1-2 hexes or so. ( in close combat you throw everything into the fight ). HEAT/HE cannot be area fired (Z-Key) nor does it have effects in the surrounding hexes like regular HE might, for larger warhead sizes.
· 8. All HE ammo has been removed from RPG type weapons that had them added in to simulate the change mentioned above. This fixes the problem of two man AT teams carrying 10 or 12 ( or more ) RPG rounds. Typically now they carry half what they did before.
· 9. A "View All" key has been added to the game to show all hexes currently visible to your unit and saves clicking in all 6 directions.
· 10. The Light helo class is now classed as an arty observer and has all the same abilities as the Leg FO and FO Vehicle classes with the exception that the 15 EW value for other FOOs is not used, as that interferes with AAA self-defence EW.
· 11. Arid maps Changes . Arid maps (e.g. Iraq) were sometimes being referenced as a "summer" map, so the desert icons were not being used and the "green" set was used instead. Desert icons are now used (if they have them) by units in Arid maps.
· 12. Artillery effectiveness against armour was too high and the following changes have been made to the code:
· Only units in the shell explosion hex will receive top hits (except cluster munitions)
· Penetration in the blast circle outside the shell explosion hex has been reduced for shell splinters (except cluster munitions)
· Armoured units may now suffer a suppression-only hit (hit by shell splinters message)
· HE penetration on armour now needs more over penetration to be certain of a penetration effect. If equal, 25% will go through, if over penetration of 6, 90%
· More chance of immobilizations (track hits) rather than kills especially if the shell size is small
· 13. Short range effects in infantry combat was a bit too high and the following changes have been made to the code:
· The bonus effect for fire at 50m reduced, and takes more consideration of firer suppression
· The bonus for being unspotted (ambush fire at short range) has been reduced and takes more consideration of firer suppression level
· The panic fire chance at 50 metres takes more consideration of suppression to the firer
· 14. Barge Changes-- Barges were creating a new barge in the barge carrier when save games were re-loaded. Fixed. One barge per barge carrier now.
· 15. The coding for Smoke shells in campaign game upgrades was wrong and has been fixed. In campaign battles beyond the first, units will have correct smoke shell loads.
· 16. When "clone all" was selected in the scenario editor where the cloned units had weapons deleted ("-"), the game initialization code was wrongly loading the template weapons for all the cloned units if the scenario was reloaded in the scenario editor, or when the scenario was played as a game. FIXED. The cloned units will now retain their weapon changes
· 17. Maximum game points has been increased from 50,000 points to 65,000 points. Previous versions of the game allowed 65,000 points only in one specific case. We now allow the 65,000 maximum in all cases.
· 18. New Iran - Iraq war battle locations added
· 19. AI picklist revisions
· 20. MoBHack database checks expanded
· 21. Infantry and vehicles may now enter -1 water hexes. Previous to this change they could enter -1 hexes but only if they are classed as "land". There are sticking penalties for vehicles moving though these water hexes similar to swamp or mud. Infantry move one hex per turn. The game will now also accept entering -1 into a water hex with the map editor and the change will stick. Previous to this it would not.
· 22. Infantry is more expensive in V3. A typical rifle squad that costs 14 points in the previous version now costs 22 but the costs vary by eqipment. A "high end" squad that cost 34 points in the previous version costs 39 now which is considerably less. The net result is the overall cost of buying infantry in the game has gone up whereas tank costs have stayed the same or maybe gone up a point ot two .
· Plus many other small tweaks and adjustments