As with other tactical turn-based wargames, the game features realistic military control, with the smallest common units being squads, up to a brigade sized force.

[2] In 1992, Grigsby had publicly discussed his plan to make another tactical wargame "similar in scope to Panzer Strike", which dealt with ground-based conflicts in Europe during World War II.

[11][12][13] It also won Computer Game Review's 1995 "Military Sim of the Year" award, tied with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

[15] A reviewer for Maximum stated that "From the producers of Warlord I and II, Steel Panthers is everything you'd expected, with authentic WWII footage and over 200 digitized photographs of tanks adding an interesting dimension to the proceedings.

[16] Retrospectively, author Rusel DeMaria remarked that Gary Grigsby "created what many believe to be the ultimate armor simulation in Steel Panthers.

[citation needed] The game and its sequels proved to be significant hits for SSI, coming on the heels of the company's lucrative Panzer General.

[17] According to Robert Mayer of Computer Games Magazine, Steel Panthers "inspired a cottage industry of for-profit add-ons made by enterprising users.

[21] TGN had been founded by wargamer David Heath and others,[22] who had managed to obtain the Steel Panthers source code from Strategic Simulations.

[22] A remake of Steel Panthers, it launched as freeware in May 2000,[24] and won the 2000 Charles Roberts Award for "Best 20th Century Era Computer Wargame".