Initial reactions

[MickMannock]

A thread to post some initial reactions.

My two cents (I've played the Polish scenarios (North), Norway South and then Sedan):

I feel like the Bf 109E is performing a bit underwhelming compared to what I would expect. No matter if it is up against the Polish and Norwegian biplanes or the French monplane fighters, the Bf 109E always gets smacked around. Almost always I need both my Bf 109E and a Bf 110C (later D) to bring down a single fighter. And while doing so the 109's take quite some strength hits (making them even weaker moving on to the next plane). Maybe the point is to overstrength them (I've bumped them to 14 now, have had them at 10 so far), I will try that for the next scenario. Still, the 109 was, apart from the Spitfire, the best fighter in Europe at that time but I don't feel it's reflected as such.

A quality of life improvement would be to add a real world clock in the top right corner when playing in a full windowed mode, just like Civ VI does. Cause much like the Civ-series, this game has a tendency to make you think "just one more turn" and boom the time flies. So it would be a nice addition along the road.

Love the consolidator hero. A very good name for it.

I think I encountered two bugs:

1. I renamed all my units, but when I started Norway South I noticed my Ju 87 had reverted back to its original name. Don't know if it happened just then, but that's when I noticed it.
2. In options for the campaign, I removed weather as a function in the game. But on the first turn of the Norway South scenario, it was raining and none of my planes could take action.

Other than that, everything works fine so far, much like the beta did. Looking forward to getting deeper into the campaign. Good work!

[Hexaboo]

It would be really nice if the core slot weight of every unit were shown in the unit list, so that you don't have to go to the Panzazon ('Add to basket') every time you want to check who's hogging all the core slots.

[Kerensky]

... the Panzazon ('Add to basket') ...

You're funny, I like you.

Also, I can help you with your request.

The better place to see how many slots a unit is taking is the 'Toggle Unit Stats Panel', which mysteriously is off by default. (hotkey 4)
Not only does this very small UI element list up to date information that compensates for units that have been overstrengthed, it's just a plain and simple fantastic reference for all the combat stats of a unit.

[Hexaboo]

Heh, that's right! This brings me to another interface nitpick though — the game should remember your last settings with the toggle menus on the left: having to switch the mission overview off and the unit stats panel on gets tiresome after you reload a bunch of times.

[Vaughn]

Initial reaction?

Perhaps 3d will grow on me eventually, but right now I really want my old 2d graphics back.

[colberki]

There is a simple "house rule" a player can adopt to slowing the rush to upgrade to the latest tank or equipment. Select the negative "Slow Modernization" trait which limits the player to a maximum of three upgrades per mission. In return, the player does get a "2" chit to select positive traits. I am playing with "slow modernization" and it really add an nice additional dimension to core unit management and improves my game enjoyment a lot. Progressing without core units that are nearly always upgraded to the latest equipment is a nice challenge. And play at "General" difficulty.

[Dorky8]

I have only played the Poland scenario & started a multiplayer but am very impressed so far. PC2 has more of a PG2 feel than PC1 which IMO is an improvement. I held off on buying it because so one in the steam forum said there were only 2 multiplayer scenarios (there are 10). Hopefully more will be added over time.

If you liked PG2 & PC1 you'll like this.

[panzeh]

It's really weird that your 109s are losing to the fighters in the first few scenarios of the campaigns- the only thing i can think of is that you're fighting enemy fighters over AA where they have support. Spitfires were a little touch and go but if you double up on them you get a significant advantage.

[colberki]

I love the unit history which keeps track of their equipment, attached leaders and kills.

[Longasc]

Initial reaction?

Perhaps 3d will grow on me eventually, but right now I really want my old 2d graphics back.

Same here, I don't like the looks of the map, units and the border of the map. I found that quite disappointing.

[Dorky8]

I do agree on some of the 3D issues, especially the planes. Sometimes the planes look like they are on the ground. Hopefully they can improve it.

Some 3D issues aside I do like the game. They have incorporated some PG2 concepts which upgrades it over PC1.

[OldFocker]

I find there is not the clarity and crispness of PC1 and sometimes it's difficult to determine what's what in an armoured melee plus aircraft. Also the city names are rather large and bold, often obscuring unit stats. I guess I can turn these off...but a factor with PC1 was for me the difficulty of seeing city names. Now they loom too large on a coloured background.

On the left of the screen I think the unit blocks are waaayy too big and take up an inordinate amount of room. Looks like I will need to by a 36" monitor to fully enjoy PC2 in its present form.

[Kerensky]

On the left of the screen I think the unit blocks are waaayy too big and take up an inordinate amount of room. Looks like I will need to by a 36" monitor to fully enjoy PC2 in its present form.

While you can't resize the unit block on the side bar, you can resize the side bar itself if that will help. Push it down to be 1 unit block wide, or pull it out to be 3 or more unit blocks wide.

[MickMannock]

So I got to Moscow (1941) and lacked one major victory hex (had all bonus) when the scenario ended. I didn't really mind cause I thought it would be like PC1 where I would continue on the Russian front in 1942. But instead I was thrown out into the main menu. Game over.

Must I win in Moscow? Is it impossible to play a historical German campaign (which I always did in Panzer General and PC1)?

[Kerensky]

So I got to Moscow (1941) and lacked one major victory hex (had all bonus) when the scenario ended. I didn't really mind cause I thought it would be like PC1 where I would continue on the Russian front in 1942. But instead I was thrown out into the main menu. Game over.

Must I win in Moscow? Is it impossible to play a historical German campaign (which I always did in Panzer General and PC1)?

It's a little different now. You have to win to proceed. The branch for historical campaign will come later, don't worry you'll still have the chance to choose, and you will know for sure when it's presented.

Speaking of having to win completely.... I'd definitely like to bring back some degrees of victory. All or nothing is a bit much I think, especially in the harder battles on harder difficulty. We'll see what we can do about that.

[MickMannock]

So I got to Moscow (1941) and lacked one major victory hex (had all bonus) when the scenario ended. I didn't really mind cause I thought it would be like PC1 where I would continue on the Russian front in 1942. But instead I was thrown out into the main menu. Game over.

Must I win in Moscow? Is it impossible to play a historical German campaign (which I always did in Panzer General and PC1)?

It's a little different now. You have to win to proceed. The branch for historical campaign will come later, don't worry you'll still have the chance to choose, and you will know for sure when it's presented.

Speaking of having to win completely.... I'd definitely like to bring back some degrees of victory. All or nothing is a bit much I think, especially in the harder battles on harder difficulty. We'll see what we can do about that.

Yeah, it was me living in the "old world of things". It hampered my playstyle too, I think I was a bit too lax when I went about planning for the scenario. I needed more urgency, that is very clear. But I found it troublesome that I had so few units for such a large map (with very spread out objectives). Probably have to look into buying aux units.

Other than that, it made me happy to see that the campaign tree had adopted the style of my old mod for the vanilla campaign in PC1, i.e. having to chose between army group north, center and south, when you head into Barbarossa. And you also got small details in like the Soviet paratrooper unit in Daugavpils. Kudos!

Though it was a shame that the Balkans scenario was left out, I always enjoyed playing that and the Crete scenario.

[colberki]

Hopefully, future DLC will extend the German Grand Campaign for the Balkans, and Case Blau.

[MickMannock]

Hopefully, future DLC will extend the German Grand Campaign for the Balkans, and Case Blau.

No Fall Blau? And no Sevastopol either then I assume? What happens with the player campaign in 1942 then?

[George_Parr]

Hopefully, future DLC will extend the German Grand Campaign for the Balkans, and Case Blau.

No Fall Blau? And no Sevastopol either then I assume? What happens with the player campaign in 1942 then?

These missions are in the game. You get Kharkov, Sevastopol, Case Blue and then it is off into Stalingrad.

I think what the colberki meant was that he hopes that there will be a Grand Campaign which gives you more missions in the Balkans and during the Stalingrad campaign, similar to how this worked in the first game.

[MickMannock]

These missions are in the game. You get Kharkov, Sevastopol, Case Blue and then it is off into Stalingrad.

I think what the colberki meant was that he hopes that there will be a Grand Campaign which gives you more missions in the Balkans and during the Stalingrad campaign, similar to how this worked in the first game.

Ah, okay, sounds good.