Slitherine

Come celebrate ten years of Panzer Corps with us

Before we plunge into the detail of our first Development Dairy, we are pleased to announce that we will be celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Panzer Corps Franchise. The celebrations will start on Friday, the 9th of July and will kick off with a live event on Twitch. There will be discounts, a new announcement, the opening of a new tournament and even a live interview with the creator of Panzer Corps: Alex Shargin.

The action will kick off at 4pm BST on our official twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/SlitherineTV and will be sure to be highlight for Panzer Corps fans like us.





First detailed look into Axis Operations 1942


With the 1941 campaign putting the Panzer Corps 2 Axis Operations Grand Campaign on the path to Russia, Axis Operations 1942 is doubling down with a new campaign that is (almost) exclusively set on the Eastern Front of World War II.

In this latest DLC campaign of 17 scenarios, Axis Operations 1942 contains all the more Panzer Corps 2 gameplay our players have been enjoying since launch, but also includes some pretty radical twists to keep the gameplay fresh.

In this fifth chapter of the Axis Operation Grand Campaign, there are some new, high quality prototype tank models to look at, a variety of additional German and Soviet unit camo skins, and a entirely new type of scenario: Close Air Support.



Close Air Support Missions

This is something we only very lightly experimented with in the past, in scenarios such as Dunkirk from the 1940 Axis Operations Campaign, but now we are seeing this concept taken to a very advanced state. It represents several different aspects of the game (Aircraft base mechanics, the mechanisms of AI partners, and bonus objectives) all coming together to form something very new and original.

In Axis Operations 1942, there are going to be several missions that will only allow the player to deploy their aircraft to the battles!

Not only does this represent a new type of gameplay, but it is very much rooted in history. As the war waged on, stretching the German military across Europe, the Luftwaffe often found themselves called in to support far flung operations. This also gives Panzer Corps 2 an opportunity to explore more historical WW2 battles that are practically never seen in other games, and in this particular case that battle is the Channel Dash of 1942.


It will be up to the player to provide air cover as three German warships attempt their daring passage right through the English Channel in Operation Cerberus.

And later on, more Close Air Support missions will appear on the Eastern Front. One scenario has Hungarian AI allies requesting your aircraft to aid them near Voronezh. It must be said, it is quite satisfying to have several squadrons of Stuka coming in to the rescue of your allies by diving in to blast a column of Soviet tanks!



Fear not, players who play with Denied Air Force, these missions are all optional, and you can still deploy your stocks of captured aircraft if you really want to engage with them without a standard German Air Force.


Historical German Leadership

After the positive reception to the appearance of Rommel in the Axis Operations 1940 Campaign, we're beginning to dive more into this concept by having even more legendary German leaders appear in and participate in the scenario briefings.

While the appearance of these historical figures cannot replace the loss of characters we've previously seen, they definitely add both context and perspective to many of the battles players will be engaging with in Axis Operations 1942.

The first figure is one players have potentially already seen in a few scenarios, but instead of serving as a fighter pilot hero, newly promoted General der Jagdflieger Adolf Galland takes his historical place in Operation Cerberus to brief the player on their upcoming battle.



Another figure who will be making appearances now is Generaloberst (soon to be Field Marshal) Erich von Manstein. A legendary figure of the Eastern Front, players will see Field Marshal Manstein in several critical battles, and one often overlooked one on the outskirts of Leningrad during the Autumn of 1942...





New unit models

Panzer Corps 2 already contains an absolutely massive library of WW2 equipment models, but there is always room for just a few more. Accompanying the release of Axis Operations 1942, the following units are being added to the base edition of the game. These models, as before, are for all players to enjoy, but they get special highlights in the new Axis Operations 1942 campaign content to specifically showcase them.

• Tiger (P), the Porsche Tiger

• Just before the start of Operation Barbarossa, there was an idea in Germany to mount their impressive 88mm gun on a heavy tank design. That idea, plus the surprise of encountering Soviet made medium and heavy tanks during Barbarossa, is where the story of the Porsche Tiger begins.
• But after a series of test trials, this design would lose out to the legendary and iconic Tiger I that is now so instantly recognizable.
• Several Tiger(P) can be acquired by players who perform above and beyond the call of duty, but it not a tank destined to ever be put into full production.

• Improved Panzer IIIM and Panzer IIINs

• Panzer IIIM now has extra turret side armor
• Panzer IIIN now has extra turret side armor and extra hull side armor!
  

• FW-189 Recon Aircraft

• The very unique looking Focke-Wulf 189 aircraft was designed with a single role in mind: aerial reconnaissance. And to this role, it proved to be an exceptional design.
• The FW-189 served extensively on the Eastern Front and was known for being very difficult to shoot down thanks to its extreme manoeuvrability. And unlike other recon type aircraft that are completely unarmed, the FW-189 has some limited armament that it can fight with as well.

• Barrage Balloons

• Barrage Balloons are by no means normal blimps or zeppelins and serve their purpose from a stationary position.
• Barrage Balloons can block the airspace over a target, requiring them to be destroyed before bombing can commence on targets below.
• These units also serve as target practice in training scenarios. This gives fighter aircraft an airborne target they can engage with to fast track their experience levels.
• Barrage Balloons are also units on the 'air' layer that are not tied to airfields like normal aircraft!

• Ju52 and Me323 on the ground

• Similar to the inclusion of various Soviet aircraft appearing on the ground, these German transport aircraft, when on the ground, will serve as special objective units, especially as objectives to defend.

• Hungarian Toldi IIa tank

• A new development by Hungary, the Toldi IIa tank represents a significant improvement over the Toldi light tanks that have been made available to campaigning players during their 1941 campaigns.
• Superior stats at a lower slot cost will make these vehicles extremely valuable, if you can get your hands on them.

• Soviet Po-2 Biplane Bomber

• More commonly designated as the U-2, which primarily served a role as a training aircraft or reconnaissance aircraft, the Po-2 designation refers to the light bomber variant of this Russian biplane.
• The most notable operators of the Po-2 bombers were the Night Witches, a Soviet bomber Regiment that was comprised exclusively of female pilots. Their earned their particular name not only from their female orientation, but also for their night time attacks against German positions during the Battle of Stalingrad.

Influencing the Eastern Front

Ever since the Panzer Corps 2 Axis Operations Campaign has started, there have been players who have been looking for more strategic control of the war's course. While grand strategy is a bit too far outside the scope of Panzer Corps 2, this idea has been our radar for a while now.

And the content approaches the Mid and Late War Eras, we believe the Axis Operations campaign is finally reaching the point where meaningful exploration of alternate history paths can begin.

This is exemplified in Axis Operations 1942 having two different endings! How this will affect future content, as history and alternate history continue to diverge, we are extremely excited to unveil. At the very least, it will continue to pave the way for more original content to arrive as we explore uncharted territory alongside the traditional historical battles players may already be familiar with.



Your 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 player base, and we encourage you to continue to share your thoughts and wants for the game into the future!



Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed this extended preview of the upcoming Axis Operations 1942. Axis Operations: 1942 is currently finishing its testing phase, and is scheduled to deploy in mid July 2021.

In the meantime, don’t forget to join us for our 10 years of Panzer Corps celebrations. The celebrations will start on Friday, the 9th of July and will kick off with a live event on Twitch. The action will kick off at 4pm BST on our official twitch channel: www.twitch.tv/SlitherineTV and will be sure to be highlight for Panzer Corps fans like us.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Wow thank’you so much for all!!
I love so much “Improved Panzer IIIM and Panzer IIINs” that I will give you the asked feedback asking you the improvement of Kv1 series because the version 40, 41 and 42 ad the same 3d model... We miss to kv1s version!
Pleeeeease

Wow - I love you

This is amazing - Pz III M and N, Tiger (P) and the Uhu !

Will we get the Me 323 Gigant for airlifting our heavy weapons?

Take my money and let me play!

I am so excited - especially about the branch in the end!

Those Panzer IIIs look nice!

wecker wrote: ↑Thu Jul 01, 2021 6:22 pm Wow - I love you

This is amazing - Pz III M and N, Tiger (P) and the Uhu !

Will we get the Me 323 Gigant for airlifting our heavy weapons?

Take my money and let me play!

I am so excited - especially about the branch in the end!

Well, i was wondering how to respond to this announcement. But you perfectly summed up my feelings. I can completly agree to your post. Awesome news and finally a possible ahistorical path in the GC. /hug /hug /hug

Looking forward to AO'42!

I'm really excited about a few of these announcements:

- The Fw-189 finally appearing, probably the most often requested unit ever.
- Branching endings, so more options to replay campaigns.
- Constantly improving on models, that's a really nice touch.
- Effects of earlier decisions - I'm quite curious what keeping or releasing Galland will do to both the story and the mission details

The only thing I slightly regret now is choosing a few traits in some of my runs (those Tiger (P) prototypes probably won't get too appear in my prototype campaign), but I'd trade that fro the element of surprise. Plus once all the AO DLC arrive I will for sure feel the urge to go through them once again. I can't seem to have enough of this game.

Can't wait !

very good. I have to confess. My first impressions was not so good about PZC2 - I mean the historically and the ungeographic maps. in the base game. I also was a little dissapointed about 1939 AXIS DLC, But I can close my eye about this. I really liked this game.I hope that devs try to make this game more historically and more precise the geographic maps... Im waiting for new DLC. cheers

calmhatchery wrote: ↑Sat Jul 03, 2021 12:58 pm very good. I have to confess. My first impressions was not so good about PZC2 - I mean the historically and the ungeographic maps. in the base game. I also was a little dissapointed about 1939 AXIS DLC, But I can close my eye about this. I really liked this game.I hope that devs try to make this game more historically and more precise the geographic maps... Im waiting for new DLC. cheers

Agreed!!!: What can diminish and undercut as well as diminish the premise or portrayal of the 'Game'... is the injection of un-historical embellishments as well as the incorrect representations of geographic WWII reality. Of course... from time to time... it may be necessary to oblige some relaxation in that strict regulation in order to make the 'Game' work or to do its story or continuation of events... that is as it has to be!... but, not for unnecessarily gutting reality for unreality!..

Always the same historical argument that emerges for each game... A game would be good if it respects historicity and would not be good if it does not strictly respect historicity? There are other things that make a good game and PzC2 is a good game even if it does not strictly respect the historicity sometimes (I guess because I am not a historian and I do not know precisely the whole history of the Second World War).

Please don't waste your time with to much un-historical content. There is a lot of battles and campaings which I want to see and play, like a english campaign or a new US corps after all the Wehrmacht content.
BTW how do you like to manage this with Galland?
I denied to promoted him and now I saw him as a General in the briefing?

I still don't understand where some people get the idea from that PC2 is somehow more "unhistoric" than PC1.

Basically every single issue is either existing in a similar fashion in PC1, where it somehow wasn't a problem, or amounts to "I didn't like X, therefore it is unhistoric" which just doesn't make any sense.

PC1 allowed you to win WW2 as Germany, toppling the Soviet Union and invading Britain and the USA. Afrikakorps allowed you to move all the way to India and included an Ethiopia that was as flat as a pancake, when in reality it is mostly mountainous with some deserts in the south. The British also somehow held Burma in the last India map, when it was held by Japan at that point. The Grand Campaign also offered you alternative victory paths at the end. You also participated in batles that happened at the same time (Norway, Netherlands and Belgium/France), had allies equipped with stuff they never used at any point (Romanians and Hungarians), and got captured equipment in numbers far greater than ever fielded by the Germans. Same with US and Allied Corps, where you could at times capture units in places where the units never appeared (e.g. getting a Puma in Africa when it didn't enter service until the Allies were already in Italy). The British would field a pretty extensive force in Norway, including tanks and planes, when in reality they were basically left without any air-support and only had a rag-tag assembly of infantry without most of its heavy equipment. You entered Stalingrad alongside the Italians, and left it alongside the Hungarians, when neither was anywhere near that battle historically. You got shifted all over the front, again participating in battles that historically happened at the same time (Fall Blau and its precursors versus Crimea / Sevastopol). You also had to take much of Crimea in 1942, when Germany already held most of it at that point. You could run around with a large set of Kingtigers and Maus, even when you were supposed to be on your last leg and the Maus never made it into proper production. You could use the Gustav / Dora gun as a mobile artillery piece, when in reality it was very much a stationary gun that took four weeks to set up. There is an endless list of this stuff if you want to be nitpicky about it.

Many of these things can be said about the original Panzer General as well.

Panzer Corps 2, just like basically every game of this type, tries to find a balance between game-play, historic missions, interesting content, and an inclusion of all the famous battles that the majority of players care about. All while keeping the inner-workings of the game in mind. It's hypocritical to act as if PC2 was somehow a huge diversion from history where its predecessors weren't. They were all guilty of this, mostly because they are games. PC2 doesn't have a deviation from history that didn't exist in earlier games, nor are its maps more "unhstoric" than those from its predecessors. There are cases that make you scratch your head, but that was true for all the other games as well.

Hello George_Parr,

I salute you on your comment.

All games are games and not accurate simulations of a reality. And a simulation is not intended.

I myself enjoy these settings a lot. For example I remember well Pacific General of SSI where as the Japanese player you would invade India, Persia and meet the Germans in Iraq or you could choose the path to Australia, Hawaii and the US West Coast meeting the Germans at the Mississippi.

It was not only fun - it was legendary fun, although they messed up the scenario in New Guinea. Japanese forces never reached Port Moresby on the south coast - they landed on the northern coast. SSI simply made a mistake and switched the sides - awful, tasteless and no fun at all. But mistakes like that happen.

I felt so very sad about a friend who argued with me after having won the original Panzer General that Germany could have won WWII - because he won the game

So I am perfectly fine with PanzercCorps2 and I am shure that the devs will do a good job in the future and deliver fine content for us with a lot of extra hours of gameplay.

Bye

PC2 is truly a great game. One of a few games that I have been able to engage in for years. I understand your zeal for expanding the features of the game and expand its playability and relationship to the realities of WW2.

All of that said, the documentation and support falls far behind the game features. Ultimately this results in a smaller player base and less dedicate players are unwilling to do the “detective work” involved to find their answers or gain understand of the complexities.

Spend some money on support before you add complexity.

Addendum:
1. The tournament scoring rules are very unclear and often counter intuitive. A simple, clear upfront algorithm will suffice (a+B+c=points etc). Perhaps adopt conventional victory hex conditions as another user suggested.
2. The ‘mod manual’ is half complete and includes no walk thru
3. Your forum layout and organization is way too difficult to navigate

I understand you are SW engineers and game makers. But as any tech firm will tell you, don't underfund user support and survive.

"Users Abused":

Their 'Concerns' are 'Real', listen to them!. If 'PzC2' is going to survive... it [The PzC2 Machinery] needs to listen to these disgruntled voices. Listen to what they have to say and then follow through with their concerns!. Make it happen!.

Tournament scoring is incoherent!!
1.Get an email my game is complete, yet I go to the site and I have a move left where I take Moscow..and get the points.
2.Meanwhile (after my game s “called”), many others continue to accumulate 2nd round points.
3.I am in 22nd place yesterday. Wake up today in 40th, as many other as have continued to accumulate 2nd round points after the second round is “complete”. Please explain this to me.

If you want people to play any game you must make logical rules and communicate them. My last tourney until you guys get your act together. Its a shame to have a great game undone simply because you cannot communicate.

Very excited for new DLC!

Honestly can't wait!