The Final months of WWII In Europe
After several years and many campaign installments, Panzer Corps 2’s Axis Operations Grand Campaign has finally arrived at 1945 and the end of the Second World War. Thank you to all our community members and players who have been with us on this epic journey, especially those who have been with us since the very beginnings in the Spanish Civil War!
As with 1944 before it, Axis Operations 1945 will have dual campaigns on offer: one path continuing with the historical conclusion of WWII, and another path to continue down an alternate history pathway.
In this first Dev Diary, we’ll be previewing and talking about the Historical Campaign Axis Operations 1945 will include.
Historical 1945
For a campaign that is doing as much as possible to stay true to historical outcomes, there is a lot to say about Historical 1945. We originally thought it would be a pretty obvious course to chart, just pick real battles from history and recreate them in Panzer Corps 2.
But as we researched the final months of the War in Europe, we found the situations and history to be extremely complicated. How could the German Wehrmacht, famous for such incredible victories across Western and Eastern Europe, seem to disintegrate so quickly in a matter of months?
To properly tell this story, Axis Operations 1945 has some very unusual scenario designs behind it. Prestige awards have been practically eliminated, to try and show how crippling German’s supply situation had become by this stage in the war.
Instead of prestige allotments, the player will be expected to begin to salvage and disband their reserve units in an attempt to keep their main fighting force fit enough to continue the struggle.
Other reward systems have also been reworked to directly deposit captured enemy vehicles straight to the player reserve. These units can then be pressed into service to try and plug gaps in your lines, or they too can be disbanded for prestige to keep your main Panzer force operational.
On top of this, the days of conquering all victory hexes and sweeping all enemy units from the entire map are long past. This was an especially delicate balance to strike, because we needed scenarios designed in such a way that they would be possible for players to succeed in some way to continue their overall campaign, but also designed that if players tried to push further than their basic objectives, overwhelming Allied forces are ready to grind your now prestige starved force into dust.
This kind of scenario design has had a lot of unusual side effects and really opened up Axis Operations 1945 to have a lot more storytelling of the situation Germany and its Wehrmacht found itself in the final months of the war. There are some pretty large maps with hundreds of individually configured and scripted units spread across them, but don’t forget that fancy new fast AI turn if you don’t want to watch all of these units take their actions individually!
The Sun Sets on the Axis Operations
As any good story needs an ending, Axis Operations 1945 has done its best to conclude its own story. Over the years, both of the war and in real time, we’ve come to meet many characters in the Axis Operations series
Axis Operations 1945 will not only offer a glimpse into the historical fates of famous Germans such as Adolf Galland, but a look into the fate of the special briefing characters. Their paths have been woven into the true historical narrative... for better or for worse!
So get ready to prepare your Panzers for their final campaign. Gone are the days of German conquests of Europe, now is the time to fight for survival!
But of course, that is not the only ending Axis Operations 1945 will have on offer. There is the entire Ahistorical Campaign path to explore. Whether or not that trail will continue past 1945 remains to be seen...
Test Feedback
As always, we are reading and listening to your feedback. Many thousands of posts and messages have greatly improved Panzer Corps 2 for its entire playerbase, and we encourage you to continue to share your thoughts and wants for the game into the future!
Axis Operations 1945 is currently in its BETA testing phase, and we again want to give a special thank you to all of our BETA testers for their hard effort to help us make each installment of Panzer Corps 2 content the best it can be!
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this advance look into some of the content that the historical 1945 campaign has on offer. Be on the lookout for our next Dev Diary, where we take a look at some of the new units being added to the game and explore a preview of Axis Operations 1945 alternate history campaign.
Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations - 1945 is coming on June 22nd wishlist now!
