Are there better strategies to reduce redundancy in test case specifications?

When writing test case specifications I often run into patterns where some actions to be performed by the tester are shared between test cases:

Test case 1:
  Action A
  Action B
  Action C

Test case 2:
  Action A
  Action B'
  Action C

Test case 3:
  Action A
  Action B''
  Action C

This is a very simple case, in practice, things get much more complicated.

I normally use a combination of two strategies for handling this, both of which are not really satisfying:

1. Don't describe actions A and C in test cases 2 and 3. Instead refer to the action descriptions in test case 1. Problem: This makes the test case descriptions hard to read.

2. Combine test cases 1-3 into a single test case. Problem: In paractice, this can lead to huge test cases.

Is there a better (easier to read, less error prone) way?

Note: These are tests to be performed by a human tester, no test automation.