Panzer Corps - a Panzer General remake

http://panzer-corps.com/
Better screenshots: http://www.matrixgames.com/products/....

"In 1994 Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI) released a title that would change the face of strategy gaming forever. Panzer General delivered an exceptionally easy to learn gameplay system and was such a captivating game that it became a benchmark for future designers for years to come."
- says Marketing & I agree.

Panzer General and Allied General are my favorite games of the so-called "Five Star Series" from SSI. With Windows 7-64 Panzer General for Windows stopped working and I had to boot Windows XP just to play it. Very annoying!
PANZER CORPS is a remake - more in spirit of Panzer General I than II. In fact it is almost a 100% copy, they changed some mechanics a little but that was it already.

I was quite sceptical. It's easy to look like a 14 years old game, but would it also be the nice not too hardcore Beer & Pretzels wargame? I was positively surprised. The tutorial campaign is very nice designed, though some advanced concepts are not explained in my opinion.

My first benchmark was the Norway scenario. Everyone who played Panzer General knows that it is an invasion scenario that combines air power, naval warfare, paratroopers and muddy terrain if the weather goes ugly. In short, it was one of more interesting Panzer General scenarios and early on it was quite easy for junior Generals to lose core troops or fail a major victory. I immediately had the old Panzer General feeling back and tried the scenario several times with different tactics.

I played the campaign from Poland to Norway over the Low Countries to France, and it has been a blast. Very much like Panzer General, the scenarios are basically 1:1 copies and do not only look like that, they also retain the high quality of the original. Some changes include a less dominant Panzer IVD and a better Ju88. The 8.8 Flak can be switched between AT and Flak modus. Infantry plays a much more important role. Recon units got the special movement modus of Panzer General II. Air combat in general is less binary and it takes longer to completely destroy squadrons.

Also very interesting: Units don't get automatically repaired before the next scenario of the campaign starts. But you can replace losses for free before you deploy with normal reinforcements. Later normal reinforcements are rather cheap Elite reinforcements that don't reduce XP/Stars cost a lot more, IIRC 4x. This is a lot better than in the original Panzer General where it was a common tactic to save a 1-2 strength unit and wait for the next scenario instead of fixing it with expensive elite reinforcements. This also prevents too many units becoming just too good and getting too many stars, you probably won't have enough "Prestige" to always use elite reinforcements in Panzer Corps, unlike Panzer General.

You can zoom out the map with the mouse wheel, there is also a new strategic map. The campaign path is identical to that of Panzer General except that there are 3 more "America" scenarios. Unfortunately all Africa scenarios of Panzer General are notably absent. I am quite sure they are saved for a standalone expansion or an "Allied General" remake or something like that.

Probably the best for Panzer General enthusiasts: The annoying PBEM (Play By E-Mail) Prestige Bug of Panzer General is fixed in Panzer Corps.

Even if you have never heard of this games studio before, I can only recommend the game if you ever liked Panzer General. Reviews are very positive and the rather high price shouldn't scare Panzer General afficionados.

Since you are a PG fan you might not know that GOG has remasterd PGII, and PGIII for XP and Win7.

I will check out Pazer corps.... thanks

I'm surprised there hasn't been a post about this yet--I guess people are too busy playing it to post about it.

Apparently the other big change from classic PG is the way artillery movement is handled.

I think it's been mentioned in the Wargamer's Corner thread, might want to look at that too.

Thanks for pointing this out! Might get Panzer General II, but I am a bit angry of GOG.com since they did their "we are shutting down" PR stunt.

My favorites are/were the windows versions of Panzer General and Allied General. Heck, I would even prefer Pacific General over Panzer General II and "3D Assault".

The series is fascinating in this regard, they developed it till it became worse. IMO of course. The 3D graphics also didn't age nearly as graceful as the hand-drawn 2D sprites.

Some screenshots for you:
http://imageshack.us/g/695/panzercor...

Itsatrap wrote:

Apparently the other big change from classic PG is the way artillery movement is handled.

You can shoot after moving artillery. But only if you did not mount it for transport. So only 1 hex for normal artillery.
Self-propelled artillery on the other hand can move full distance and shoot.

There is also railroad transport. But to disembark you must reach a city, you can't unload between cities which can be a problem. So far I didn't find railroads very advantageous. I did not use them in Poland, and neither in France. But you can potentially move units very fast.

The AI doesn't cheat and needs LOS to find your units. Placing anti-tank guns in forests or submarines where you suspect capital ships to come along usually pays off, the "ambush" mechanic exists in Panzer Corps.

I have the game. I like it. I think its a good and very accessible for new players getting into wargaming. The UI is clean and simple and the game play is pretty straightforward. You can actually just start playing the game without reading a 100 page manual beforehand. Also, you don't have to memorize NATO chit symbols - a tank is tank, artillery looks like artillery, bombers look like bombers, etc. The game also has a type of "persistence" in that you carry over your surviving troops and they gain experience. Also there are 5 big campaigns from what I can see. I started playing the 1943-1945 campaign which starts out in Italy.

We talk about this quite a bit on the Conference Call going up tomorrow night. Even for a layman like me, I found it really approachable and easy to dive into.

PG1, by the way, runs nicely in DOSBox. If you've got an ISO image, I think it even handles the music correctly. (I may be confusing that with Fantasy General; I'm not sure that PG1 had CD music, it may have been MIDI only.)

Free unit replacements was probably THE major tactic in PG1. I'm not too sure I like them changing that. I don't mind the other changes you mention (well, detuning the PzIVD bugs me a little, I love that thing), but no freebies at the end of the battle is a HUGE change. edit to add: especially in air power. Wow, what a massive shift that is.

You can shoot after moving artillery. But only if you did not mount it for transport. So only 1 hex for normal artillery.

Can you even move 88s that way? In looking at them in FPS games, they seem much too large to move without packing up.

This is pretty awesome. Nostalgia overload, in a good way!

I'll be up for some PBEM

In for a bookmark. I just started playing and it is a real wave of nostalgia - I played tens of hours of PG and I felt right at home. Some of the new features are nifty - mass attack helps with those bothersome sieges and makes infantry generally more useful in such situations and the movement shown both on and off trucks is a great feature.

@Malor: Yes, you can move the 8.8 like this. One hex.

I did this in France as the opportunity was too good to pass: 6 strength Matilda II one hex away from my 8.8 in Flak mode. I switch to Pak, move it near the Matilda II and fire. The Matilda gets the first shot, but low soft target damage means little damage even if the 8.8 unit has lousy ground defense. The counter attack killed the Matildas. Still, moving Pak to attack isn't advisable in most cases, as AT units suffer the initiative penalty when attacking and their ground defense isn't amazing when they move out in the open.

As I stopped at Sealion 40 last night (I actually often slowed down in PG to follow the historical course of WW2 but forgot to save in France before the decisive victory) I also noticed something quite amazing.

It's again about Air combat. I definitely like it better than in Panzer General 1.

The BF109E and BF109F are very interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messers...

Like their historical counterparts the E carried more guns, while the F had more range and improved flight dynamics.

In Panzer Corps this is reflected like this: 6 initiative and higher air attack for the E, but 11 (!) initiative and lower air attack for the F.

Now what happens when two equally experienced BF109E and BF109F attack a Spitfire?
* The Spitfire has an initiative of 7 - it is likely to shoot earlier than the BF109E.
* The BF109F always shoots first.

In Panzer General the first to shoot in fight air combat usually killed 50-100% of the enemy strength.
Not so in Panzer Corps!

The BF109E fired first in my example, lucky, but it killed 4 Spitfires.
The BF109F fired first, no surprise, but only killed 2 Spitfires.

The Air defense of the Spitfire is 15, rather high, killing more than 3-4 in one pass is impossible for the BF109E and F.

I pulled a Göring and also failed to destroy the Royal Air Force during Sealion so far. But my Ju88 and Subs destroyed the Royal Navy. Not before they killed a core unit transport, unfortunately. Three other transports are basically out, 1-3 strength left, I almost don't dare to unload them as they are so weak.

As you noticed air combat is not as binary and fatal as in Panzer General, another change is that the level bombers are much stronger in every regard. Their suppression is often better than Stuka attacks, but a Stuka costs only 172 Prestige compared to ~372 for a Ju88.

Ju88 don't get crippled right away from flak or fighter attacks. They lose only some 1-3 strength at max. They can take a beating! Also, fighters lose between 1-2 strength when attacking a Ju88. I have not checked yet but if the Ju88 is so strong, how strong must B17s be? Also interesting is that the He111 H2 is total crap compared to the Ju88, this was different in Panzer General.

Also interesting: RADAR towers. They are all along the English coast and they will not only reveal your planes, but your transports. They are basically the spotters for the Royal Navy. I advise to take out at least the central radar station through a series of Stuka attacks. This might be more effective than going for destroyers or capital ships in Stukas, their air defense will weaken them and Spitfires will kill them off even more easily.

I haven't played much, but so far I'm impressed by the more modern interface and clean graphics for a wargame. I think something with a nice tutorial and simple mechanics is way more in line with my wargaming experience. I plan to get some more solid time in tonight. So far very impressed though, like I am with most Slitherine published games.

Last night I decided to launch the 1939-1945 campaign. I thought ok, I'll roll over Poland and level up my troops and then conquer all of Europe........uhhhh.....well, those plans were way laid. I lost the initial scenario! LoL. Campaign over. Wow I must suck at this game. I couldn't even conquer Poland for gosh sakes.

The AI is even better than Panzer General's, IMO. The makers of Panzer Corps also improved the AI to prevent things like "fly any unit to the airfield behind Warsaw and capture it, the AI won't stop you" and it also shows in Panzer Corps.

Some scenarios were also designed with veterans in mind. If you decided for extra Prestige and going for Kiev to later attack Moscow... good luck getting a decisive victory there. I didn't. So I had to fight Stalingrad, Kursk and really had to fear to lose the war in the East.

Now I am at the new US East Coast scenario - and despite being a season Panzer General veteran - asked for help regarding this scenario on the official forums.

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm...
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/view...

I picked this up and have been digging through the tutorial this week. We should get some multiplayer going so I can be thoroughly destroyed.

I'm struggling through the France portion of the Grand Campaign right now. I need to read up on my blitzkrieg tactics, the going is slow. I've opted for a strong air force so far during my campaign. I need to figure out how to properly use paratroopers...mine got slaughtered trying to flank artillery. One turn and 3 artillery barrages later there was little optimism.

I can't seem to solve France 1940 scenario. Any suggestions?

wow.

Just when I thought my pile was bad enough somoene had to go and re-do PG. I love this game a very good remake of PG. I too am in france, very surprised at how underpowered Stuka's are. Infantry seems to play a much bigger role than in PG. Airpower in general seems to be less important but perhaps thats just the parts I have played

I agree that tactical bombers in general are lacking. Fighters are doing well and are a lot more sturdy early on. You will have BF109E-G for most of your campaign. The late Ju87G is a blessing on the Eastern Front, but the early performance is really somewhat disappointing. This is probably also reflected in the price: 172 Prestige only. You can have tons of Stukas and repair them for next to nothing.

I found another type of unit to be VERY strong: Level bombers. Combine with artillery.
They don't kill, but their "suppression" renders strong enemy units, even tanks, helpless. They are also ideal for sinking ships.

Ju88 are strong enough to survive fighter attacks and flak with little losses and are very effective!
You don't have to escort them at the East Front at all, against England take care the Spitfires and Hurricanes can shoot them down, but it takes around 3 to wipe them out and the attackers will take losses as well.

In fact till you reach America the Ju88 will remain with you without need for upgrading for the whole campaign.

P.S. you can discuss with the designers, going by Rudankort and Kerensky on the forums on the Matrix and Slitherine forums:
http://www.slitherine.com/forum/view...
http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tt...

Following, as I think my brother and I are about to jump into this.

Just about done with my first playthough. Overall its a great remake, I can definately see me droping another 20+ hours in this over the next couple of months

I've been watching this thread, wondering if I should pick the game up. I was curious if any of your opinions have changed during playthrough. Rob Zacny had commented on Three Moves Ahead that the campaign missions started to feel samey after a while, crashing enough units against a waypoint until it breaks, then heading to the next waypoint and doing it again. It seems like multiplayer would at least eliminate this, but nobody on the podcasts had really played much multiplayer yet.

What tools are available for multiplayer? Is it all play-by-email or is there a matchmaking browser or anything? Even if multiplayer fixes the repetitive nature of the game, I'd at least need to be able to find multiplayer games.

Thanks for the posts so far.

Modders at work. Here is a scenario for the battle of Kharkov in 1943.
http://slitherine.com/forum/viewtopi...

What tools are available for multiplayer? Is it all play-by-email or is there a matchmaking browser or anything? Even if multiplayer fixes the repetitive nature of the game, I'd at least need to be able to find multiplayer games.

It's pure play by email. You can put up a challenge and play a random person or password protect your game and have someone pick up the challenge from the in-game browser. It's a great one for popping on after working, doing your turn and carrying on with your day. I don't think there's a "live" way to play it, though.

I actually haven't played any of the campaign. Not sure I even finished the tutorial, but it's not too tough to work through. I'm enjoying my game with Rob Zacny so far. If only because my rookie luck is paying off

Thanks, Certis, that's helpful info. This one is definitely still on my radar. I'm making myself finish Frozen Synapse and/or Max Payne first.

Also, do you yell "Zac Attack!" during your turns?

anyone want to do PBEM? i've played a few scenarios of the campaign so far but want to try the multiplayer.

Finished up my very first multiplayer game with Rob Zacny. When it was all over, I was hoping there would be some kind of playback feature to watch the whole match unfold. Doesn't seem to be, though. Once you're done, it appears to lock you out of it. Disappointing.*

*This may be born partially out of the fact that I won.

Morgoth13 wrote:

I can't seem to solve France 1940 scenario. Any suggestions?

I got a decisive victory in Low Countries on Field Marshall difficulty the second time through. The core unit breakdown at deployment in the following scenario, Sea Lion was 17 infantry/2 tanks/4 air/3 artillery (I forgot to detail the composition at the beginning of Low Countries, but I added 2 artillery and lost a tank through the scenario).

Most of the cities are undefended so use truck/half-tracked/armor units to run down the sides asap and snatch them up without a fight. I took heavy losses, with the prestige awards just allowing me to repair my units to 10 strength and upgrade my remaining leFH18 to a sFH18.

I ran the provided mobile anti-tank unit down the west coast and squeezed past one defended town and the undefended airstrip to grab the coastal mission objective without a fight (and then doubled back to get the airstrip after which I grabbed the undefended Southern-most coastal city). I lost the scenario the first time through (that is to say I restarted it when it became clear that a decisive victory wasn’t going to happen) when I stopped to take the city I mentioned running past as the computer then fortified the coastal objective, causing me to split my forces into 3 groups (instead of 2) in the last few turns. Also keep in mind that if left to its druthers the AI will keep putting in fresh units every time you kill one and can’t occupy the vacant space before it's turn (I hadn’t realized that the French had perfected teleportation technology in 1940…).

Air units can be used to identify undefended cities. I had 5 air units in this scenario; 1 tactical (BF110D, which I used as a fighter about 30% of the time to finish off wounded air units) and 4 fighters (BF 109E). I focused on taking out their fighters first, after which I had complete air superiority and switched the fighters over to tactical roles, albeit inefficiently; this also allowed me to fly my paratroopers around unimpeded.

I used 8 paratroops, working them down the right side fighting cities in the most Northerly 1/3 of the map, then splitting them with a few heading West to Paris and the rest heading to the most Southerly mission objective city on foot and paradropping in. I think the paratroopers are extremely valuable; although they functionally lack the mobile transport options of other infantry, their high soft target offense and paradropping ability (allowing them to travel great distances, avoid pinch points, and take cities prior to setting up a large number of defensive units) makes them my unit of choice for taking cities.

Make sure to purchase/upgrade to the artillery sFH18 with attached truck if possible (I had two, plus a leFH18 that I couldn’t upgrade in scenario due to being in constant use). I think artillery is a much more versatile investment than the IVD tank at this point, providing high damage, suppression, and counterattack for adjacent units, but that may just be my play style. I only had 2 tanks in this scenario, a IIC that I upgraded to an IVD in scenario and a clunky old IA.

Hopefully this plan works for you also!

The lack of a unit stacking mechanic bugs the hell out of me, but this is an old school vanilla war simulation…

I formed a good defensive line on the 2/3rd's Western and middle portion for the 1st turn in order to draw them out and focus fire, while starting the run down from the Eastern 1/3. ...

New DLC announced today - Grand Campaign '39 and Grand Campaign '40, $4.99 each. Given this, I expect that North Africa will be in another expansion pack.