My first campaign and thoughts on Panzer Corps

[robc04_1]

I just finished my first playthrough on the grand campaign that comes with Panzer Corps and thought I would share some thoughts. I played on the default difficulty level (Colonel). My gaming background started about 30 years ago and I enjoy all types of games (strategy, RPG, action, etc), but in general my favorite genre has been strategy games. I usually do fairly well, but my lack of patience prevents me from performing better. The game was challenging, but I did pretty well with much room for improvement. My campaign ended with a marginal victory in the Sea Lion 42 campaign in the last turn. My landing strategy cost me a lot of time I think. I tried to dump all of my troops in between the cities on the left side of the map. I was hoping that by keeping my forces mostly together I could steamroll through the defenses. In the end it took to long to get there and get deployed. During the campaign I got 5 decisive victories (DV) and 2 marginal victories.

In general I enjoyed the game. The main complaint I had was with the campaign. The scenarios felt very similar to me. In each case it seemed like the main point was cracking the defenses of several cities which included AT guns, artillary, and anti air-guns. In many cases the cities were wedged between some rivers to make moving a challenge. I'm not a history buff, but I suppose that is a fairly realistic portrayal of what happened. It just got a little tedious feeling so similar. Again, I did enjoy it but have a feeling it could have been more enjoyable. The time constraints for a DV were definitely challenging for me in the latter scenarios after easily getting them in the beginning. It definitely created a tension while playing.

I think the game did a good job of making the different units feel like they had a distinct purpose and forced you to carry a balance of unit types. Sure you can favor one type over another, but you do need a variety. It seemed that due to the maps it was hard to really use the tanks effectively and let them advance quickly. Between the rivers and AT guns you couldn't let the tanks run wild.

Visually the game does its job of presenting the information in an attractive manner. I have no complaints on that front. There was some information that isn't available in the game that I think should be. For example, the unit abilites should be visible while playing the game. I didn't even know they existed until I stumbled upon them in the forum. They seem like necessary and basic information that is required to play the game effectively and shouldn't be hidden from the player.

Thanks for the 50% off sale. I had been watching this game for a while after reading many positive reviews. The 50% off made me pull the trigger and buy it. I'm not sure when i will give it another try because I think I want to take a break from it. When I do return to it I'm not sure what i will play. On one hand I would like to see if I can invade the US, but I might like to try and bump up the difficulty a notch. Perhaps if I am more careful I can bump up the difficulty and still invasd the US. Maybe I should just play the scenarios instead of the campaign. In any case thanks for a good game.

[VPaulus]

When you come back, you should try the DLC, most probably you would like it.
And there are already other campaign mods, of course.

[Rood]

I can only add that the DLC's add much flavor to the regular campaign. There's plenty of bunker busting to be done but a whole lot more defensive scenario's and/or counterattacks to deal with aswell.

The DLC's are more dynamic, if you can achieve a breakthrough quickly then you can really race to the other cities (and with a unit adjacent to a city the AI cannot build/deploy units there) and avoid the any sieges, the risk is that your advancing forces will be utterly destroyed by an enemy counterattacks.
Also the AI sents its planes in waves now so you always have to be prepared for air bombardments and guard your softskinned units and own bombers.

[robc04_1]

People really seem to like the DLC so when I play again perhaps I will try the first one. If I made it to the Sea Lion 42 scenario in the original campaign (got a marginal victory) at the default difficulty level, would you recommend I stick with the default difficulty level? I want it to be challenging, but still have a chance to 'win'.

[jaggy]

Hi, robc. I consider myself just an average gamer and not a veteran one. Never played Panzer General and Panzer Corps was my first crack at a remake. Started the campaign at the lowest difficulty setting, treaded through the campaign path carefully (but at this level its really a cinch) and finished off in the US. Replayed again at FM (with Mannock's custom campaign adding a few more scenarios) and even though I botched my campaign path (ie. I thought Sealion '40 and '42 were optional), I'm now at the USA West Coast (thanks Rudankort for the edited campaign.pzdat!)

Its true your tanks can't run wild in every scenario. I built up my core to 8 tanks but brought it up to 12 tanks for USA Midwest as you are faced with about 30 enemy tanks! It was a good scenario (2 Bridge Engineers helped a lot to bypass enemy strongpoints across a major river). I'm planning to use all 12 tanks for the last scenario too as there are 42 core slots (if you have your full complement of SE units, that would make it 45 units available).

When I finish my current campaign, I'm going to patch to 1.05, install DLCs '39, '40, '41. I've also yet to play nikivdd's Italian campaign. My understanding from the posts on this forum is that the DLCs' feature more variable victory conditions and enemy counter-attacks during the scenario. Also felt that various mods also enhance the game experience. Personally, I like the Redux Real Sound Mod, Mick Mannocks Maps and Evgeny's Big Picture mod. Maybe you need a short break from the game.

[Locarnus]

People really seem to like the DLC so when I play again perhaps I will try the first one. If I made it to the Sea Lion 42 scenario in the original campaign (got a marginal victory) at the default difficulty level, would you recommend I stick with the default difficulty level? I want it to be challenging, but still have a chance to 'win'.

I would recommend field marshal level, since you are not new to the game. Afaik you will only gain experience at a slower pace on fm level.

When you start with GC39, just use only green replacements until you are halfway through, this should give you lots of prestige.
The second half of GC39 is usually enough to train most of your units up to 200 experience. If you would start earlier with elites, you would reach the exp cap of 225 halfway through, and since your mostly infantry/artillery army doesn t profit too much from 200 experience, you would waste lots of prestige.

And the GCs really play differently, with them it feels much more like a war, instead of a series of sieges and you have to adapt to it.