"Panzer Corps: Wehrmacht"

[Ghambit]

http://www.matrixgames.com/products/399/details/Panzer.Corps.

I'll try to be concise:

Essentially a remake of the glorious original "Panzer General." 
Picture Memoir'44 on steroids and speed.  The game is based around a multi-tiered grande campaign, which entails the blitzkrieg of Europe (starting in Poland) and ending in the USA; with variations depending on performance.  The main goal is quick victory (you're turn-limited) with minimal resources used (prestige limited) .   Units can gain xp (through battle and spending prestige), heroes, rewards, etc. and will stick with you through the entire campaign assuming they dont die or you mistakenly reinforce them with green troops.  The units consist of most of what the Axis had at their disposal in that particular year (land, sea, and air) and more becomes available as you get further.  I find the selection perfectly sized (not too much, not too little).

Normally I wouldnt say a game like this is worth $30, but I'll make the exception in this case.  It really has no glaring flaws.  The campaign is dynamic and rewards superior play, the difficulties are varied (there are 5 lvls), playtime is relatively quick per scenario, it's got a very robust MP mode, a nice editor, and there seems to be a DLC every month.  If you're a bit burnt on stuff like Crusader Kings and like to blow off steam with a great military puzzler, then it's a no-brainer purchase.  And by puzzler I mean exactly that, a puzzle... so even if you're not a strat. grognard it's still a great puzzle-game in and of itself.  However, if you're expecting "civ 4 or HOI with panzers" look elsewhere.  And if you're expecting the simplicity of memoir'44, also look elsewhere.

Pretty good gameplay review:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqzQS3uWPDY

[tgr]

Ooh mama.

[Korachia]

This might just get bought very very soon.

[Nebu]

As someone that played Squad Leader, Panzer Blitz, and Third Reich as board games, I thank you for bringing this to my attention. 

I may have to give this a shot. 

[Cyrrex]

I lurv me some old school Panzer General.  This is interesting.

[Ghambit]

Bear in mind there's no visible "diceroll" like there is in something like Memoir'44 Online or ASL.  There are probabilities built into the engine based on a million factors and then there's some luck for sure... but you'll never quite know how much; so in this sense it's a true PC-based wargame.  Also, they give you a nice "prospective outcome" UI but obviously it's not always accurate.

And this thing was pretty much GOTY for wargames (in some circles) last year, or will be this year.  Why it never made it onto the board is  

I haven't really touched MP yet as I'm still workin' the campaign (which is goddamned hard even on medium), but I can imagine some pretty epic confrontations especially if/when they get co-op going.  I'd say in the online world the new Memoir'44 "mmo" is probably a bit better for games of this ilk, but as an overall game PCorps dominates.  And the latter is definitely more of a brain-burner than a dicefest.  It really feels like a resource-based puzzle game in Nazi garb.

There are demos up on varios sites btw.
http://www.gamershell.com/download_82572.shtml
http://www.fileplanet.com/223703/220000/fileinfo/Panzer-Corps-Wehrmacht-Demo-v1.04

[Tmon]

I played the crap out of this last year when I was traveling a lot, because it ran pretty well on my work laptop..  It was fun at first but I do get tired of Nazi, Nazi, Nazi games, being able to play the allied side in single player would be nice.  Also, the AI cheats like mad and some scenarios (Moscow I'm looking at you) depend entirely on the luck of the weather die rolls, get mud instead of a freeze at the wrong time and you might as well reload the game.

[Ghambit]

Moscow is kinda supposed to be weather-dependent is it not?  The blitz gets bogged down in Russia, so your strat. has to adjust.  Use the rail-lines/roads more? Paradrop?
The "ai cheat" goes both ways also.  Take the 1st scenario in Poland, you can pretty much assrape every unit they throw at you even though statistically they should put up a better fight; unless there's a stat in there I'm missing.  Historically they just roll over, so that's portrayed nicely in the game.

There's a deceptive amount of subtlety in this that you slowly learn as you play.  Unit strength and what effects it relative to initiative along with ranking are big ones.

The biggest one is picking the best route to achieve the main objectives.  There's definitely a preferred path to capping cities, you cant just wipe the map.

I haven't encountered too much diceroll B.S. yet because I play pretty conservative, but for the most part when I've gotten raped it's pretty much my fault.  Things get dicey against arty for sure, especially bofors.

Anyways, I may have a serial key I can resell someone (at a discount) since I bought an extra by mistake.  My brother has 1st dibs on it though. 

[Korachia]

I haven't really touched MP yet as I'm still workin' the campaign (which is goddamned hard even on medium), but I can imagine some pretty epic confrontations especially if/when they get co-op going.  I'd say in the online world the new Memoir'44 "mmo" is probably a bit better for games of this ilk, but as an overall game PCorps dominates.  And the latter is definitely more of a brain-burner than a dicefest.  It really feels like a resource-based puzzle game in Nazi garb.

There are demos up on varios sites btw.
http://www.gamershell.com/download_82572.shtml
http://www.fileplanet.com/223703/220000/fileinfo/Panzer-Corps-Wehrmacht-Demo-v1.04

Thanks for demos!

If I can get it to run on my old lappy I will buy it(main PC died on me last week). So I would in time definitely be up for some MP at some point.

[Tmon]

Moscow is kinda supposed to be weather-dependent is it not?  The blitz gets bogged down in Russia, so your strat. has to adjust.  Use the rail-lines/roads more? Paradrop?
The "ai cheat" goes both ways also.  Take the 1st scenario in Poland, you can pretty much assrape every unit they throw at you even though statistically they should put up a better fight; unless there's a stat in there I'm missing.  Historically they just roll over, so that's portrayed nicely in the game.

Road/rail doesn't matter as much as that weather roll, if you get a freeze you can assualt Moscow from any direction.  Without a freeze your attacks can only be across water or over a bridge, you can still eventually capture Moscow but it will take so long and so many troops you won't be able to capture all the other victory cities.  I can't remember if I tried paratroops, but one of the cheats the AI gets is it always knows where your aircraft are and will generally avoid your fighers while raping your bombers so I'm fairly certain that paratroopers would be shot out of the sky with abandon.

There's a deceptive amount of subtlety in this that you slowly learn as you play.  Unit strength and what effects it relative to initiative along with ranking are big ones.

The biggest one is picking the best route to achieve the main objectives.  There's definitely a preferred path to capping cities, you cant just wipe the map.

I haven't encountered too much diceroll B.S. yet because I play pretty conservative, but for the most part when I've gotten raped it's pretty much my fault.  Things get dicey against arty for sure, especially bofors.

Anyways, I may have a serial key I can resell someone (at a discount) since I bought an extra by mistake.  My brother has 1st dibs on it though. 

I had a lot of fun with it, mostly I think because of the puzzle aspect, but some of the cheats are so obvious that it gets frustrating after a while.  Also I think I made some fairly serious errors early when I built up my core units which caused me a lot of problems later in the game but I didn't feel motivated enough to go back and replay it to try to fix them.

[Ghambit]

Yah, I was curious about early game screwups and how they effected you late-game.  The persistent units are a double-edged sword in this regard.
What errors early game with prestige did you make exactly?  Upgrades?  Reinforcements?

I dont wanna make the same.

[Tmon]

I stopped playing back around May when my work laptop had a hard drive crash so I don't remember the specifics.  I think my biggest thing was not focusing on keeping core units alive through the battle so I spent a lot of points on reconstitution that I could have used for upgrades and either I bought too many or not enough tank units.

[Ghambit]

Godammit I'm having a tough time with the 2nd mission on colonel.  25 turns to do like 10 objectives; insane.  I missed it by ONE TURN after toiling for 1.5hrs.
Therein lies another rub... you really gotta throw in the towel if things start looking a bit bleak.  I've got a handle on what to do now, but man it's so all or nothing unless u play the savegame-game.

p.s.
I have a serial and DL link if someone wants to buy it off me.  send a pm

[Ghambit]

So yah, I've got an extra copy of this game if someone wants it half off (for DL link and serial).  $15
pm me