DESCRIPTION

Do you think you could have done better at El Alamein than Erwin Rommel? Or maybe you think you could teach Heinz Guderian a thing or two about Blitzkrieg. This game lets you test your mettle. Panzer General is a turn-based 2D hexagonal strategy game based on the German offensives in World War II.

Play is handled in a number of discrete turns, with each turn being divided into two halves. Each side conducts its offensive maneuvers during one half, and one turn passes when both sides have moved. During each turn players can buy new units with their prestige points and move, resupply, or attack with their existing units. Units with some sort of transport can mount up and move, but they cannot attack that turn. Instead, they must dismount in the next turn before attacking. Self-propelled units can attack and move in the same turn. Instead of moving, units can also use the turn to be resupplied or reinforced.

Units start off with a default ten strength points. When a unit attacks another, their relative statistics are compared, and the two units involved take damage accordingly. When a unit cannot logically counterattack, it doesn't inflict damage on its attacker. For example, artillery units can bombard infantry from a distance, but infantry can only attack units next to them and cannot counterattack. Terrain also plays a role in the offensive. Tanks perform better under clear terrain, but poorly in urban areas. Units being attacked have an advantage in their level of entrenchment, which is influenced by the type of terrain the unit is stationed in.

Panzer General brings to strategy games the idea of a group of core units. These are units that players acquire with prestige and carry with them through the various scenarios of a campaign. Prestige is the up- and-coming general's equivalent of money, and is earned with success in battle. Players and the CPU can use prestige points to buy reinforcements for damaged units during a turn, or to buy entirely new units. The game offers a good selection of historical units that would have been available at the time, with each unit having statistics that roughly correspond to the prowess of their historical counterparts.

Each scenario has a number of victory objectives that must all be assaulted and conquered before the maximum number of turns allowed for that scenario has elapsed. There are also a number of objectives that players do not have to take to successfully resolve the scenario, but can be taken for more prestige. ~ Kyle Knight, All Game Guide