Slitherine

I am not sure how the campaign works, I assume you start with the tutorial, play 1939, 1941 then the 1943 campaigns. But the mega-pack says it starts at 1939 as well.

So you would think that you would want all the expansions and to have to play the 1939 campaigns first ...etc, in logical order. I only own the original (updated) Panzer Corps game at this point, which means I would have to skip some content.
I have just finished reading the manual, so I will certainly consider getting the expansions if the game is good, and it sounds good from the manual alone...

If you owned the mega-pack, original Panzer corps and African corps ...that's the whole game right? (the mega-pack contains all the small DLC's).

There's also Allied Corps ...

I think you may be confused.....the main game has a campaign that runs fron 1939 till 1945 and can result in germany winning the war.

The dlc expansions are a seperate campaign with each one focusing on 1 year of the war in a bit more detail

Thanks, it was just a question. I was trying to work-out which order I wanted to play the campaigns. according to manual, the main game only goes 'till 1943.

From the manual:

In Panzer Corps: Wehrmacht four campaigns are available:
» 1939 - Early Blitzkriegs
» 1941 - Operation Barbarossa
» 1943 - Eastern Front
» 1943 - Western Front

This aren't really four different campaigns but more a later entry points into the more or less same campaign.

If you start 1939 and assuming you won't fail and lose the critical missions you will play through the whole war up to 1946 (yes if you are really good there are some what if scenarios leading to Germany's total victory). If you don't like playing the early years of the war you can enter the war in one of the later entry points. Obviously as the campaign progress branches based on your performance if you enter at later stages of the war you lose some chances to influence the outcome and are forced into more historical path.

My personal advice would be to start 1939 and enjoy the full campaign where your performance can have the biggest impact on the war. Starting early you can develop your core more into the direction you like it and additionally the early missions tend to be easier then the later ones so you can get used to the game better.

Now to your other questions regarding the DLCs and the other expansions:

The DLC's cover the whole war as well which every DLC focusing more or less on one year of the war on one of the fronts. The DLC's do contain some minor branching but stick to the historical path of the war. They cover the war obviously on a lot more detailed level. For example in the original PC Wehrmacht campaign the invasion of Poland is just one mission. In the DLC it more like 8 different scenarios. The DLC Megapack contains all the DLC'S in one convenient installer.

Additionally there are two standalone expansions (they do not require PC Wehtmacht but do integrate into it if you have it:

PC Afrika Korps which focues on the Deutsche Afrika Korps in Africa. Again this campaign branches upon your performance and lead either to the historical end where the German are expelled from Africa or to a fictional end where the Germans conquer British India.

PC Allied Corps focuses on the West Allies (British and Americans). It starts in the Africa and leads through the invasion of Europe to the fall of Germany and a possible clash with the Russians if you perform really well.

I'm still a bid sad they didn't move on to make a hypotheticals DLC which makes the DLC campaign also take your achievements into consideration a bit more often (or at all).
Starting in '42, the DLCs contain too many missions in which total victory is followed by a debriefing which says: "But your efforts were all in vain." after which the losing of the war continues "as planned".
On one hand it's of course more plausible that you cannot single handedly win the war, but then again, you're commanding most of the major battles personally, so your exploits should have some serious impact.
A DLC with hypothetical missions that tied into the existing DLCs and allowed you to win some actual victories would be very much welcome, in my opition.
The US invasion in the original campaign was a little extreme, but the DLCs historical straitjacket is a little extreme as well.
$0.02 and all.
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rezaf

Hi, just a short question: I have both Panzer Corps Wehrmacht and Panzer Corps Afrika Korps. Is it possible to combine both games so that if you for example start Panzer Corps Wehrmacht in 1939 you have at some point the chance to go and fight in Africa and may be later come back to Europe?

scipioelafricano wrote:Hi, just a short question: I have both Panzer Corps Wehrmacht and Panzer Corps Afrika Korps. Is it possible to combine both games so that if you for example start Panzer Corps Wehrmacht in 1939 you have at some point the chance to go and fight in Africa and may be later come back to Europe?

yeah that would be a fairly simple Mod to the campaign file to give you a branching choice....though you may need to tweak individual scenarios for balance

Thanks. I'm quite surprised that this is not possible in the original games, as it was in Panzer General

rezaf wrote:Starting in '42, the DLCs contain too many missions in which total victory is followed by a debriefing which says: "But your efforts were all in vain." after which the losing of the war continues "as planned"

Rezaf: I do understand a lot of people enjoy a hypothetical exploitation of a successful German campaign, but I must say that for me personally I get much more enjoyment out of a detailed set of scenarios that accurately follows the course of history. I really really like to recreate all those dramatic and terrible battles I have read about in my history books, fight for those towns with famous names and actually see where they are on the map. I'm so pleased with the DLCs because that's exactly what I get, in more detail than I could have imagined.

I have to say that I find it strongly off-putting when I know that too many scenarios are hypothetical, because the historical experience is what I'm really after these days. But don't get me wrong, I still understand that one of the cool things about computer games is that you can play out the 'what-if'. Just my 'two cents' as they say!

Well, that's what I like about GC '45 West. It has both a historical path and a 'what-if?' branch following a succesful Ardennes offensive.