Panzer General

Panzer General is a staple strategy game. It is not RTS (Real-Time Strategy), as many wargamers don't wish to rely on quick reactions to be able to play our wargames.

As a console game, it is one of the best strategy games around. The experience and promotion system rewards the careful player, while the upgrading process and the nature of victory points rewards the swift. Unlike many of it's predecessors, the units are developed such that combined arms (that is, artillery, infantry, and armor all mutually supporting each other) is required to succeed for very long... a realism factor. There are no rolling armies of Panzers (tanks); instead, there may be rolling armies of Panzers supported by a number of infantry units, or infantry reinforced with Panzers--it's up to the player. 4/5 stars for a console strategy game.

As a computer game, however, it is a "beer-and-pretzels" wargame. That is, a game to enjoy as amusement, not for it's realism. I give it a 3/5 as a computer game, due to it's excellent gaming community which has developed a number of different maps, scenarios, campaigns, and different takes on the units based on alternate historical data. I would recommend the Steel Panthers series of games to the serious wargamer.

Panzer General (available today for free as "Panzer General Forever") is still one of the greatest turn & hex-based World War 2 computer games ever produced. You can play the numerous scenarios as either side, but the true meat of the game is the campaign game of the entire war.

You can only play a campaign as the Axis. There are 4 shorter campaigns or the long one of the entire war. The long campaign starts in 1939 with the invasion of Poland. Units that survive the scenario are carried over to the next one, so a starting unit could survive the entire war (but with upgraded equipment that you've bought). You repair, upgrade, and add new units using points you get for obtaining objectives during the scenarios. If you do particularly well in a scenario, an extra scenario is available. For example, if you beat France very quickly, you can invade England.

This game is more of a stylized version of battle rather than an accurate simulation of the real thing. However, the end result is a good reenactment of the effectiveness of combined arms, the fog of war (enemy units more than a short distance from yours can't be seen), ambushes, and others.

A Unit has a "hard" and "soft" attack and a defense that is either hard or soft. You move, then attack. Usually both attacker and defender fire in a combat. Attack order is determined by initiative. The unit with the best fires first, the other unit takes losses then fires with whatever's left. Whenever a unit has a successful attack, it improves slightly. This increases its initiative and allows you to build it up stronger than a unit with less battle experience. During a scenario you can also reinforce damaged units and build entirely new ones. Units available include tank, infantry, cavalry, artillery, planes, and ships. You can also build trucks and other transport to move your troops and artillery faster.

The computer player is good. If you're a player of average ability, it'll be a challenge. I've played war games for years, but I still had a lot of fun playing this. So I say get it. It's free.

Panzer General is one of those old games that isn`t any worse than on the day it was released because it couldn`t get any worse. The game has a good idea. It is a fresh experience to command the German Wehrmacht rather than the Americans like in all the all strategy-games out there. But that nice idea has been badly executed. The graphics are really poor and simple, the gameplay is slow and boring, the gameplay should`ve been more like the brilliant "Command & Conquer" rather than the chess-style gameplay in this game. About the only nice thing to say about this is that it has some good video-clips from World War 2. Don`t buy it, don`t rent it, don`t borrow it! 2/10

What is it with all those real time battlefields we see now days in game-world? This is THE GAME if you just wish to have a good time playing war and not get stressed about it. A round based game with graphics that are appropriate for a 1996 game. For once you play the German side and face "the world" with superior tech, but inferior numbers. Manage your troops well and your campaign will advance, fail and you will find yourself defending Berlin. This is the game you need to play if you have ever asked yourself: what if general von so and so had not lost this and that battle. Now you can demonstrate yourself that you could have done better and end up invading the USA! (but remember not to disable resupplies, for they are the essence of battle)

Panzer General is a classic computer wargame, a great adaptation of the classic board wargames. Its turn-based system lets you, as the commander of the German army in World War II, decide which will be the best moves to try and vanquish the Allied troops in each stage of the war.

It hasn't got fancy modern graphics, just a good 2D geographic representation of the battlefield and the military units deployed over it. Little animations show the action when actual combat takes place.

Probably, fans of modern real-time strategy won't like this game, but there's many of us who don't like only quick paced action but also having time to think quietly what our next movement will be, and what consequences will it have in the short, middle and long term.

So, if you are tired of Command & Conquer, Sarcraft and Age of Empires, or if you've liked more modern turn-based strategy games like Advance Wars for Game Boy Advance, I recommend you to try playing Panzer General or its more recent, 3D sequel, Panzer General III.