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 Panzer Corps Wehrmacht is a turn-based World War 2 wargame developed in 2011 by The Lordz Game Studio and published by Slitherine Ltd.. PCW is an almost point-for-point remake of the legendary Panzer General that was developed by Strategic Simulations Inc. back in 1994. PG was renowed for its easy-to-learn "beer and pretzels" take on wargaming while still being deep and challenging enough to keep players interested for decades. In PG's campaign, the player took on the role of a German general and fought in many of the most famous battles of the European Theatre. As a bonus, PG's campaign had extensive branching: losing a mission wouldn't necessarily end the game while winning one still might not be enough to change history and win the war for Germany. If the player was good enough, they could conquer all of Europe and even invade the United States! But few games age well over nearly twenty years and despite the PG community's efforts to keep the game updated (most notably the freeware Panzer General Forever), PG is still a little rickety these days. Panzer Corps was an attempt to modernize PG's mechanics while maintaining all of the elements that made the game endure for so long. It succeeds in every way.     Panzer Corps' mechanics are pretty simple. In each scenario you play as the Germans with a mix of ground and air units (sometimes naval as well) and typically need to either capture certain cities on the map or hold on to them. Combat is resolved through dice rolls that can be weighted by unit type, terrain, adjacent units, etc. and while this generally proceeds the way you'd expect (tank beats infantry, anti-tank beats tank, fighter beats bomber) there are a few twists to keep things interested (tank attacking infantry in a city or forest gets tore up, if anti-tank attacks first they get tore up, fighter attacks a bomber that has a fighter next to it gets tore up). You also have to manage some simple logistics and keeping your units reinforced as well as keeping your "core" units, units that will accompany you throughout the campaign alive and experienced. Its all easy enough to understand that someone completely new to strategy games can pick up and play while complex enough that the grognardiest grognard will be challenged. There are four campaigns to pick from, starting from the invasion of Poland, the invasion of Russia, the Allied invasion of Italy, and the Battle of the Bulge and carrying on till the end of the war. As mentioned, one of the unique features about Panzer General and now Panzer Corps was the branching campaign. There are three states you can end a mission in: Loss, Minor Victory, or Decisive Victory. A Loss doesn't necessarily mean you'll lose the entire campaign while just earning Minor Victories will stick to a historical path where Germany loses the war. But if you're good enough to get Decisive Victories (typically by capturing all your objectives in a short timeframe) you can radically alter the war. Invade the UK, capture Moscow, and even conquer the United States. How the war unfolds depends on how good you are.   There's also multiplayer but I haven't played it. Then there's another modern conveniences Panzer Corps has brought to the table: DLC! The largest package is Panzer Corps: Afrika Korps which puts you in control of the eponymous Korps during the campaign for North Africa and into the Middle East. There's also the swath of Grand Campaign DLCs. Each one adds 10-20 new scenarios at various stages of the war and generally serve as a more detailed look at each stage of the war. For instance, the invasion of Poland in the base campaign is a single scenario, while Grand Campaign '39 fleshes it out to 10 scenarios with new objectives. Both AK and the GC packs refine the base gameplay of Panzer Corps, most notably by decoupling Decisive Victories from capturing everything super-fast and making the objectives more varied and interesting.   You can get Panzer Corps and all its DLC as a digital download or boxed copy from Slitherine's site or if you like keeping all your games in the same place, it was just put on Steam Greenlight.  Get the demo from an official mirror. Its the training campaign, the invasion of Poland, and the first few turns of the invasion of Norway. 1stGear fucked around with this message at Mar 10, 2013 around 22:33 |
| # ? Mar 10, 2013 22:29 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 04:12 |
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