From: Paul Blankenship <pabl@IM.SE>
Subject: comp: Panthers in the Shadows

I've had this game for a week now and told a couple folks that
I would do a 'review'.

Requirments:
  Processor:  25megahertz+
  Ram:        2megs+
  Display:    VGA
  Drive:      4 megs HD space needed
  Mouse:      required

General:

Panthers is a tactical level game of combat on the western front from
1939 to 1945, it can be used to game engagements involving Geran,
British, French, American, Italian, and various other western front
participants (including the desert war). Each side can have up to two
battalions on a map that can range up to 80 hexes across by 50 hexes up
and down.  Each hex is 100 meters across, turns are 1 minute long, and
individual units are generally platoons.

Sequence of play:

The game is played by entering the orders for your troops and then
watching your orders being carried out.  The execution phase consists of
an airstrike, arty, surpise fire, defensive fire, and finally a movement
phase.  Entering commands is a simple point and click affair which any
computer gamer should pick up the nack for in very little time.

Features:

This game encompases a wealth of detail.  Sighting takes into account
the range to the target, the general level of vegitiation in each hex
traversed, the level of lighting, and the amount of smoke and wrecks in
the target hex.  The effect is that enemy units change from sighted to
not sighted without even leaving the hex they are in, especially if you
have destroyed other units in the same hex.   Attack resolution is
resolved down to individual rounds fired.  When firing at vehicles the
system takes into account the angle the shell hits the vehicle from and
calculates such things as ricochets and bounces off of the angle the
shell hits at.  There is also a chance given to each shot that it will
hit a weak spot on the target (I had a couple panthers get plastered
from shermans at medium range because of this I think). Firing at
infantry is checked through a similarly complex serious of calculations
- I just don't remember them.  The results of fire on vehicles can be
set by the player to be reported in detail or generaly.  The results of
fire on infantry are never reported as anything more then 'no effect' or
'probable effect', and the more obscured the target is the more
incorrect your information will be regarding enemy infantry losses.

Movement is handled pretty much standard, units can be given objectives
or told exactly what path to take.  The only unusual feature of movement
is that vehicles can be given a speed at which to travel, and the faster
they go the better chance they have of breaking down (knocking them out
of the game).

Order delay:  This is the big part of the simulation, units will not
start acting on movement orders they have been given till after they
receive those orders.  Orders have to pass from the TF headquarters (1
per side) to the battalion HQ and then finally to the individual unit.
The closer a unit is to the various command units the quicker they will
be able to respond. There are a few exceptions to this, recond unit
detachments have no movement delay when within a certain distance of the
TF headquarters (but you only have a few recon units in the game),
second a unit can be given a reverse move order and that will be
executed with no delay - the unit may only move one space backwards
doing so however (this is used to get your ass out of a bad situation),
finally units which have been fired on may be given special orders which
have no delay - with these orders it is possible to be given a
destination up to 600 meters away depending on the characteristics of
the force: this order type is used to get units into their final
positions and due to the distance restriction it is not useful for
getting reserves into position.

Other features include carpet bombing, amphibious assaults, airdrops,
rolling barages, regular airstrikes, mines, wires, night rules with
flares, smoke generating vehicles, and morale. I haven't mentioned
morale because it is interoven into every other part of the game, your
ability to spot, shoot, and hold together are all influenced by the
units current morale.  If morale gets too low then units will either go
beserk or break - and if the enemy is close enough surrender.

Various stuff including my impressions:

The graphics stink.  (but that is NOT what I bought the game for)   The
sounds stink too. (ditto above)

The detail in the game is incredible, the fog of war is wild, you know
an enemy is in a certain hex but your units can not spot the unit
because of the wrecks or whatever else, and you also can't get an
accurate count of the units in this case.  When units move however it is
generally easy pickins.

The game also runs through so many calculation that on my 486/25 machine
things can get slow - I don't want to play the larger scenarios because
of the time needed to draw the map and recheck sighting at the end of
each turn (which gets into minutes).  The smaller scenarios with smaller
maps are quite reasonable however.  At work I have a Pentium 75 that I
started the game on and there is no problem with wait times on that
machine...

There is no map editor, if you want to make your own maps you will have
to buy a seperat product or if you own ADC you can use that, you are
able to make your own scenarios however - you just have to use a
predifined map.

The two desert scenarios I tried were boring, there was nothing the
player had to do - since the computer makes very good decisions about
what units to target and in both scenarios manuever was not really a
needed option.  I did make up a scenario where I had to hold off an
allied breakthrough - that was exciting while I tried to hold off a two
pronged allied attack.

The AI seems very competent - but I haven't played long enough to be
sure of this, at least it has not made any stupid mistakes.

Recomendation:

If you are looking mostly for a fun game with good graphics and sound
then this is not for you - I would suggest you look into tanks! by SSI
(which is also a good game, just more of a game and less of a
simulation).

If you are looking for a detailed simulation (the most detailed I've
seen yet) and do not care about graphics and sound then this is the game
for you.  The interface is clean and does not get in the way of the
simulation, the data and results are very accurate, and finally the feel
seems right - you give units orders and see how well they carry them
out: if you get behind the power curve you will spend most or all of the
game trying to catch up, if you choose correctly and deploy reserves
when needed then you should do well.

Paul Blankenship
pabl@im.se