Overall, I think this is an excellent direction for the PzC franchise. The use of side "quests" and surprises such as captured enemy units is great. The scope of the scenarios is more intimate, and made me feel more attached to my units. These campaigns made PzC feel not just like a strategy game, but to a lesser extent an RPG experience as well (and since I enjoy RPGs, I think this is a good thing). Prior to the release of the DLC betas, I found myself mostly drawn to the multiplayer side of PzC -- the single-player campaign was nice, but seemed to be over too quickly. With the arrival of the DLCs, I am more eager now to try my hand on the SP content; to experience taking my units through both years (and later years, once they are available). In other words, the DLCs have rekindled my interest in PzC as a whole, and not just a MP vehicle.
The AI is much improved. I know I pointed out the times when the AI did less-than-intelligent moves on the battlefield, but in truth those occurances did not detract from the fact that, in general, the AI plays a more spirited, smarter game. There were very few times when the AI felt like a pushover; in fact, in some scenarios (Albert Canal comes to mind) it played on par with a competent human player. Again, this reinforces my desire to get back into the SP aspect of the game, because now I feel there will be a genuine challenge offered.
As far as improvements, the only thing I can stress is allowing players to review the mission briefings during the course of the campaign. Likewise, a similar device needs to implemented to allow players to easily see how many casualties they've accomplished in those scenarios (i.e., Dunkirk) where such counts are part of the victory conditions. Perhaps a toggle button on the main UI on the right could bring up a copy of that mission's briefing during play; a similar button (or shortcut key) could provide a casualty list specific to the scenario, rather than the whole campaign.
One other suggestion. With the time represented in scenarios now taking place over a few days rather than weeks, perhaps at some point a nighttime turn could be implemented in the game. This feature was present in Pacific General, and I think it could be added to PzC to reflect time when units (particularly aircraft) are less effective, but also offering units a chance to reinforce/resupply quickly.
Again, I think both the '39 and '40 campaigns are excellent and reflect a new level for PzC. Over the next few days I'll restart the '39 campaign and try to play through to the end of the 1940 campaign. I'll set up a separate thread to record how it goes. Until then, thanks for bringing new content to PzC so quickly; it has been a pleasant surprise.
