I've been playing a totally free war game for the past week called Steel Panthers: Main Battle Tank (SPMBT), and it sure has a lot to recommend it. Based on the Steel Panthers II: Modern Battles engine, this widely expanded version allows players to set up a wide variety of battle types throughout the 1946-2020 period. 

Personally, I like to fight defensively, so I usually try to hold off an assault, but each player can set up the conditions they want to fight under. With so many options available, it makes choosing the right conditions for your battle seem almost limitless. Say you wanted to create a hypothetical battle between Iran and Iraq in the summer of 1975 or even 2005... well, you can make it happen. SPMBT features 90 national armies, including the major warring powers of the time period like the US, USSR, Vietnam(North, VC and South armies), China, the two Koreas and the often forgotten nations in Cold War/Vietnam-era gaming like Angola, Ethiopia, Argentina, Cuba, and a whole score of other nations. An interesting feature is the fact that as you advance through the years, flags change and new countries are formed or are removed from the choices menu, so going through a couple of decades while watching, say, the Afghanistan flag is a treat to see it take on so many different forms. Its also interesting  to see Rhodesia cease to exist as an independent entity, the Soviet Union become Russia and Germany reunite as Yugoslavia disintergrates. Of course, if you are feeling a bit international, you could always play as the United Nations as well.

Thinking back to some of the battles I've fought over the last few days, I have to say I was most struck by a fabulous long defensive battle I create in September 2007 between American/Russian forces (who I played) and Chechen rebels... and though I fought to a technical draw in that contest, I had a lot of fun trying to hold back the human wave of Chechen forces with a series of ill-placed defensive works and a surprising lack of air support (ok, I got cocky and didn't put the points into having air support before the battle, and it cost me the northern flank of my army, but the centre and south held out beautifully). Depending on how much work you want to put into the battle before you start, you can let the computer choose your forces and deploy them on the map for you, or you can do these tasks for yourself. 

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Speaking of set-up battles. do you think you could do better in Iraq/Afghanistan today? Test your mettle in a pre-designed scenario, or a randomly generated battle or download new scenarios from Games Depot. The possibilities are endless. I think my favorite scenario would have to be "Rhodesian SAS: Op Dingo" which involves a Rhodesian raid "which targeted the Chimoio camp in Mozambique. This raid involved bombing raids by Hunters and Canberras, followed by a ground assault supported by Alouettes, and proved a complete success." When those bombers start hitting the camp, my reaction was a simple, awed "damn"... and then the battle began in earnest....

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I think one of the largest selling points of this title is the vast and changing arsenal of weapons you can command on the battlefield... and each weapon has an encyclopedia entry in the game, so you can weigh the benefits of competing pieces of hardware, troop types and other various attributes... and you can check out unit by country and find out how long certain equipment was actually in use by the armies that developed and deployed them. Its both educational and informative.

Now, I admit that the download is a bit long for dialup users(77.9 meg for the game and 6.5 meg  for the patch), but it was well worth the wait. The gang at SPCamo have produced an excellent strategic game, and I couldn't recommend it more. I think anyone who is even moderately interested in wargaming would love this game.

I have to admit, I was generally not a fan of "hex-based" war games, but this one has made a believer out of me. Thank you SPCamo for all your hard work.

Here's where to get it: