Number of active players
 

Does anyone have an idea how many players are playing Steel Panthers worldwide ?

I suspect there cant be many.

Re: Number of active players
 

Depends what you mean by "many".
Sure it's not millions, but probably in the thousands.
But most folks aren't really interested in simulations.
They want "bang bang shoot em up real time first person action".

Try your typical zerg rush in WinSPMBT the AI will eat you for lunch, and another player won't even break a sweat.

Re: Number of active players
 

It can work. If the opponent is not ready for it.
I remember 5-6 years ago against a very good player, I placed like 80% of my armored forces to break through the north part of the map and then mopped up from the flank.
Sure, it only worked once against him, but it was still doable.

As for how many active players there are. I guess it depends on what you mean active.

I consider myself active, but I haven't played in about a year due to other issues.
I plan on playing again this Summer.

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I guess he learned the hard way why having a reserve at all times is necessary.:D

Re: Number of active players
 

It is impossible to know for certain. Certainly far more have DL'd the free version or bought the game than post on this forum. If everyone did it would be totally unmanageable.

We know there are many long-time players who have never bought the game and still use the free DL version so "tens of thousands" would be accurate if you kept it to the low side. " Hundreds of thousands" would not be. How many might play a bit every day or on weekends or maybe just the winter months there is no way to know. Nor is it possible to know how may play the game for a month or two then never again or how many might play a few weeks then not again for a year or two. It's impossible to know.


Don

Re: Number of active players
 

I can confirm 1 in Kabul,the one other guy that I knew of took a job in Mali. It's funny that the NATO guys are more interested than the guys from the US. That's not from a scientific poll, just my experience.

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It might be because this is the only game (I'm aware of) that allows people to play with their own national army.

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I know for certain that there are 2 in Canada, 1 in England, 1 in Finland, France, Spain and Russia. Plus 5 in USA. But those are just the folks I know.

Re: Number of active players
 

You can add me for the USA.

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Oh you could also add me for the USA as well LOL

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Me and Wdll are from Greece.

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There are several Italian people who play Steel Panther on this site, with many epic Pbem battles. Although the worst obstacle to the game, as always, is real life
http://www.netwargamingitalia.net/fo...l-panthers.58/

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me playing from the netherlands

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Hi.
I'm Norwegian, and play both MBT and WW2, but mostly WW2.

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Like most games most people that play do not post on the forum, 4 of my friends play about a third of the people I told to give it a go. 3 regularly the other occasional. Also played PBEM with around 16 people some of whom used to post occasionally and now don’t. Several of these still play for sure, one doesn’t age stopped him in the end unfortunately.
The others I have no idea.

As a side note 5 of us playing the same game is a record normally only 2 or 3 of us think a games any good.

Re: Number of active players
 

US here, though specifically Texas. Mostly because when you live in Texas, you're in your own country, clearly.

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US, New York State near Buffalo.

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US, Illinois here...NOT Chicago.

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I came from Germany and mostly play on the weekend. So far only SPWW2. Sometimes together with a friend, we are taking turns on one single computer. It makes a lot of fun.

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I used to do that with a buddy as well. We would divide the points in 2, he would purchase his core units, then I would buy mine. He would be responsible for the northern half of the map and the southern was my area of operations. If we needed a quick reactionary force we would requisition for assistance from each other. Did that for years. Lots of fun for sure.

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In the past, a lousy weekend was just a lousy weekend, but today we have SPWW2! :D

Best regards to Illinois

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One version of gameplay I do from time to time is let the AI handle the infantry and arty and my job is to support whatever happens as the armour commander

Re: Number of active players
 

Hmmmm, never thought of that. That would take a lot of tedious movements off the table. I prefer my vehicle orders over infantry. I may have to try that. Thanks for the idea Don.

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Yes that will be great! But I will do it the other way around. I will command the infantry myself. I am looking forward to that. :up:

Greetings from Germany to both of you!

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:cheers:

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We used to do something similar back in the 80s when we were playing Exerion in the arcades. One would take control of the spaceship while the other would take control of the guns by choosing to shoot the fast but limited ammo/gun or the slower but unlimited gun/ammo at the enemy craft/aliens.
So with one coin we would both play the game.
Still pissed off there was never an Atari ST version.
(sorry for the kind of off-topic)

Re: Number of active players
 

There are even photos of the day you saved the world from the aliens. ;)

Attachment 15771

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Man, where did you find this? I miss the days I had red hair, or was black.

Good find. :D

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I started playing this game back in my young and single days, 1995, with the original Steel Panthers. The game has been around so long that I now have my 17 year old son playing it, and my wife complains that there are now 2 computers making all kinds of war noises :D

So I have added one person to the ranks of those playing ;)

Steve

Re: Number of active players
 

Let's see. I was born in Southern Rhodesia, Grew up in South Africa, have visited Mozambique, Argentina, Uruguay and Canada. Now I live in the US. All those countries have OOBs in WinSPMBT. Thank you.

troopie

Re: Number of active players
 

One Kiwi here, from Christchurch NZ. I play daily, mostly MBT from 1-2 hours

Re: Number of active players
 

I bought the original game in 1995. Before that I played a game on my old Apple somewhat like this... I think it was called Tanks (but at my age, the memory isn't clear). Loved SPMBT from the start and it's been a constant presence in my free time (as little as that is and much the annoyance of my wife when I spend my days off and leave sitting at the computer instead of doing her tasking lists).

I'm short and retire in 20 months (not that I'm counting) and I plan on spending more of my time in the game (that should make the wife decidedly pleased!).

This is my link to sanity (as much as I still possess) and I'm going to hold onto it by my fingernails.

Cudos to the admin people who have kept this game alive.

USA/Pennsylvania here.

Tom

Re: Number of active players
 

You have to absolutely LOVE "The Honey Do List", "TG" CINCLANTHOME keeps mine to a bear minimum, because I'm such a nice guy, mostly deal with over the phone etc. type issues.

If it dealt with tanks/combined arms well, I think I pretty much covered that with just about every board game that SPI & Avalon Games (And a couple of "off" brand ones as well.) made from the early 70's until they were basically no more. But it all started with Tactics II the father of them all. From there it was onto Avalon Hills Blitzkrieg. The game that got me hooked on modern warfare and thus responsible for all of you to "suffer" :D :p with me were in reality games from SPI Sixth Fleet (And I became a Submariner!) and "the time is 0800 hrs., Summer 1975" yes, Red Star/White Star man I loved that game it was so "technical" for a board game, plus you had blank die cuts to allow you to introduce new equipment for all the forces in the game. That's where the research all started.

SSI would introduce me to my first PC games right from the start in 1995 with of course STEEL PANTHERS (Played up to III.) I never had an interest for whatever reason to pursue the rest (I think ten versions now.) mostly because I was under the water but it seemed MATRIX Games had some issues when they took over the series.

Now I'm here and am as happy playing our games as I was playing my Avalon Hill and SPI, you'll just have to trust me when I say that means a lot to me personally.

THANK YOU ALL!

Army "brat" from West Germany at Panzer Kaserne, Boblingen where I was born and lived for many years. Came stateside in Dec. 1966. Lived in Port Jervis, N.Y. after college moved/worked in the western burbs of Chicago, went to Williamsburg, Va. long enough to join the USN. stationed in Groton, Ct./Charleston, S.C./Back to Groton Ct. and finally to here and God help me for now almost the last 30 years.

New York State however will always be "home" to us, though in many parts of the state the taxes will kill you!!

So here physically, but this time of year, definitely in a N.Y "State of Mind" for you music folks!!

Regards,
Pat
:capt:

Hey did they extend to edit time on posts? Thought it was extended to only an hour or two ~3-4 years ago. Not complaining mind you!!

Re: Number of active players
 

Copy that! Many a time I came off watch and sat down to play Squad Leader, Panzer Blitz and Arab Israeli Wars. Of course, I had no one to play with, but after a few beers, the "AI" did pretty good! Good times.

Glad to be a part of the community.

Best

Tom

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Oh?
How we're doing life/gaming biography's?

I grew up on a 160 acre farm 15 miles from nowhere (Oldham, pop. 133 in 2010) South Dakota and while other girls were clamoring for the latest Barbie I wanted a GI Joe. The first wargame I recall seeing was "Tactics II" somewhere around 1965. As the eldest child on a working (vice hobby) farm I got all the "fun" chores and learned to drive in a Model-T farm truck (hey, it still ran, so we used it) when I was about 8-10. It was pretty much inevitable I'd get married to a farmer, raise 15 kids, and ... blah ... so I joined the US Marines with the intent of getting off the damn farm. And never looked back.

My first "PC Game" was "War in Russia" around 1983. I don't recall when I discovered the "Steel Panthers" series (probably the year it was published), but I've yet to find a battalion/regimental scale tactical wargame I like better.

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Looks like Nebraska with a few more trees ( corn--corn--corn--corn--corn........ repeat)......Ever gone back to look around ?

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Last time I dropped by was in 1981.
And the only noticeable change was the calender's said "1981".

(My father passed in 1975, my siblings were too young to run the farm so my mother sold it.)

Corn, oats, wheat, soybeans. A few head of cattle for our own milk and meat, a few hogs for the same, and the inevitable chickens.

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I play 2-3 hours a month

In the past much more

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Ok, since I guess this is a thing now.
I was born in the 70s as a 70 year old man at least mentally getting younger by the year.
First strategy/wargame I had was UMS. Universal Military Simulator, on the Atari ST, playing it at high resolution on my monochrome SM124 monitor.
I was hooked with the whole strategy gaming part. Technically I was hooked before then, when I first watched the movie Wargames and dreamed of having a game like Global Thermonuclear War. Without a computer at first, all I could get to play was Missile Command lol.

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Ain't much for me to state, since I lurk more than post here. I was born in Louisiana, dad died, and I moved to Texas where I got a real big itch for WWII after binging some game called "Secret Weapons over Normandy". Over time this turned into me digging into it, then getting real into it, then getting real into the tactics of it. I played games like Men of War and the like, but I wanted some big, grand-scale battle game. On some forum I went on someone posted a link to this and, well, I've been around since 2011 so I think it's had some sorta' impact!

I tend to play ten hours a month, designing maps that I ultimately scrap because I have extremely high standards for myself. College and work also drag me down, however I hope to finally release a proper scenario or two sometime this year. Maybe before I'm 24. :V

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What I can't understand is why people keep playing venerable yet antiquated wargames like Advanced Squad Leader or Panzer in which players must make all calculations, determinations, cross-references etc. themselves when Camo Workshop's computerized version is available. Ease and speed of play are infinitely enhanced while choice of units, scanarios, maps, campaigns and so forth are beyond compare.

As an example here's a fellow playing an old SL scenario--Guards Counter-Attack--that he's using to demonstrate ASL. Note that it takes him nearly two hours to play HALF a turn! Also note that it's got over 27,500 views. Go figure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbgVZsMGneU

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I remember that scenario!

Been years since I opened my ASL box, still have it tho.

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That's heartwarming, but would you ever consider playing it again? Especially given that a five-turn company-sized action could take half a dozen hours (or more) to play solitaire.

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I retired from playing ASL in 2014, it’s a community and human thing that keeps ASLers playing. ASL is still the best board game out there and its the other fellow across the table that makes it work. I love SPWW2 and SPMBT but the AI’s is not as fun to win or lose to than it is verses Bob, Chuck, Tom, Mike, Brian, Joe, Andy, Dan, Hans, Tony, Keith, or Scott. It’s the game and the folks that play ASL.

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Solitaire, no.
But vs another player I'd give it a go.

A good friend and I usually spend Saturday afternoons and into the night playing various board war games. Everything from ancient Rome to Star Wars.

My personal favorite is a Vietnam game we've created ourselves that deals with the North Vietnamese political/PR war vs the American conventional one. VERY interesting when one side has different goals then the other.

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ASL is a different type of game turns take longer because it’s very complex by comparison what stops most people playing is space even playing on VASL you need to set it up somewhere. Also you need to play regularly to remember the rules so it’s not a game you can just play now & again. I could play it pretty quick once all the counters were laid out it’s the decisions that take the time.

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Had a bout 80 board games gave them all to a guy that said he has access to a gaming club that would use them hadn't opened one in years and they were rotting in my garage. Figured a good home for them would be nice.

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I still keep mine. I will never play them but some go back 50 years


http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/attac...1&d=1569538118

Can't remember why I have two Cross of Irons............

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For more of the units ) I had a 7th Cavalry small game hated giving it up but was useless to me.

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That was one of the problems if you had squad leader ready to go with counter trays etc so could play quickly even stored it took up at least that much space. I had a tray for every single unit not just game counters so could set up quickly.