Panzer Corps 2

TLDR an excellent turn based WWII game ,better than its already great predecessor Panzer Corps Gold.
Panzer Corps Gold is my most played game in Steam with some 360 hours so I bought this as well plus all DLC (minus the General Edition. Have not bought Fall of Poland yet either).
It's a considerable improvement over its predecessor. I was skeptical at first about the 3d graphics but I changed my mind : they are very nicely done and they improve the immersion.
There are two drawbacks though :
a) you could play Panzer Corps Gold in a potato PC but for this one you ll need a more modern GPU
b) because of the 3d perspective, at times, it is a tad harder to distinguish what you are looking at. For instance, an air unit may partially cover a ground unit behind it and you need to pan/zoom the view a bit to see things better
More importantly there are new and improved mechanics and quality of life improvements such as :
- optional buffs/debuffs selection for your general
- richer customisation of gameplay and difficulty level
- nice briefing per scenario
- commendation points
- unit awards
- improved AI that feels more alive and dynamic ( in previous game AI was largely static, sitting and waiting for you)
- mechanics such as : encirclement, overrun, high ground, forced march, recon units buff attacks of adjacent friendly units, recon planes, anti aircraft guns now support not just adjacent units but everything within their attack radius, anti tank units provide support to adjacent units against hard attacks, phased recon unit movement, special artillery with counter artillery support, engineers buff entrenchment build speed of adjacent units, mass attacks, two types of airfields plus option to relocate aircraft, split units, exchange units.
Another major change is that now, in each scenario, you have a given amount of unit slots, say, 50 slots. Now, a not so good tank may require 2 of these slots. A better one might require 3 or 4. So you get to choose, you can have more but not so good units or fewer but better ones. Which I think gives one more option to customise your play and improves replayabilty.
Having completed the first DLC Spanish Civil War I can now provide some more input :
- scenarios, overall, last longer. Turn limit is typically around 20 turns (if u dislike turn limit however it can be switched off). Last scenario of that campaign had a massive 36 turns limit. It felt epic but also dragged a tad longer than I should like to be frank, alas, not much spare time for gaming anymore
- AI feels better than its predecessor: it is very active and alive on the battlefield and it makes less mistakes. Bombers will almost always be supported by fighters. Air units will try to avoid your anti-air umbrella if they can help it. Recon units will use their phased movement to slip through gaps of your front line and hit vulnerable units. Artillery and AA guns will reposition to attack your units. They will think twice before attacking your units if they are supported by artillery or anti-tank guns.
That said, AI remains far from perfect:
- infantry will sometimes attack tanks in open space
- tanks will sometimes attack infantry having close defence
- units may move and remain on vulnerable positions
- units near death, instead of retreating & repairing, will sometimes go ahead and perform doomed suicidal attacks
- units will move within encircled space getting encircled themselves
- infantry will abandon the safety of close defence and/or entrenchment to attack some badly wounded enemy but, in doing so , expose themselves to painful counter attacks
- AI units seem to behave each on their own. They don't seem to be aware that they have their buddies around them. (Fighters which will support their bombers are excluded from this). AI also seems to only consider the circumstances of current turn only. Does not "look ahead" at what might happen in the next turn

Just a fun, stress free strategy game, a lot like checkers... Does not take up a lot of time and not all consuming. I use it as a stress reliever.

I held off buying this game because it was listed as incompatible on the Steam deck which is a deal breaker for me. I saw a video of someone playing it on the deck though, so I decided to give it a try. It actually works perfectly and flawlessly on the Steam deck straight away with zero adjustments whatsoever, so this game should absolutely be listed as playable now. The game doesn’t show controller icons like A or B button, but it took all of two minutes if that to figure out which steam deck button did what I needed, super simple really.
With that out of the way, I absolutely love everything about this game! I played the original Panzer Corps and this game so far has been everything I had hoped for in a sequel and more. Panzer Corps 2 is bigger, better, and more immersive for me in every way than the original Panzer Corps, and I’m sure I will sink many more hours into it before moving on to the DLC. The strategic depth of the gameplay, and variety of options available in setting up each campaign exactly how you like are phenomenal.
If, like me, you held off on Panzer Corps 2 because of the supposed deck incompatibility, it runs flawlessly and looks amazing on the deck! What a treat to be able to play this strategy gem on the couch or on the go. I would whole heartedly recommend this game to any and every strategy gaming fan.

Boil a cup of tea, play some rekaxing background music and use map editor to test and try various attack and defence scenarios planning your grand campaign.
I've played original Panzer General series and still this one has same smell and addiction.
Downside? Honestly I've more enjoyed good old flat 2D animations. There was something romantic about them. UI tends to be bit too crowdy with too many details and contrast graphics.
And worst thing of course is that this game is time sinker, true classics from time when people just didn't care about time so much. If you are truly dedicated to genre you can spent 2 hours just for couple of turns.
I wonder are there actually out there people playing this game that are not just continuing memories of golden original Panzer General. Well I guess it's one of those special games for special people.

I've been playing these kind of games going back to the original 'Panzer General' series from the mid-90's and I'm in the middle as far as recommending it or not.
- As technology advances so do the graphics. Outstanding in this case, but... it's far over done for what's necessary. To really appreciate the quality you have to zoom in so far that it makes the game incredibly difficult to play, in a practice sense.
-At times the Axis operations campaigns, battles are exactly that. I don't know many battles that you go from being the primary force, then cutting it to a fraction to support allies forces. it doesn't sound like an issue until you have to completely reorganize your units as well as all the heroes' to fit the changing mission. If you don't know what you'er doing this can take a significant amount of time that could be used for actually play.
In addition to that, you sit there watching the computer fight itself and some of the battles are big, with two or there friendly forces plus the enemy. Sure, you can set the AI turn to fast, but still... The way I see it, is that it's just robbing your core forces of experience.
- Now to the biggest issues with any of these games. The AI programming itself. There are numerous ways to make the game more difficult for the player; give you less core slots, making the enemy stronger among other ways to hinder the player, ect.
No matter how difficult you make the game it still doesn't fix the root problem- the AI has the tactical/ operational sense of a tree stump. Imagine kicking over a nest of fire ants. It swarms and attacks everything in range until they are all dead. Except when the programming tells them to stay in place and do nothing. (even when they should)
It doesn't matter what the mission is, just assume that you start in a defense mindset or cautious movement to contact. Let the enemy come to you when you're in a favorable position and destroy themselves. Bound forward a little more and let them do it again. Rinse and repeat.
That programming doesn't take things into consideration that the player does, like economy of force or force preservation, because they start out fresh and strong at the beginning of every battle.
- As the game progresses beware of the sucker punch. Just when you think the enemy is on the ropes, you've fought your way through several waves of what you 'thought' was the bulk of the enemy, then the enemy 'cheat' units attack. Or they are sitting on some Elite objective. They will be stupid powerful, most times beyond what you could ever have, with the equivalent of 4 or 5 hero perks. It's all about having bigger and tailored units instead of having an AI that 'thinks' smarter in a tactical sense. Find these guys and tear them up before they do the same to you.
-There are steam cheat codes and I use them in moderation; nothing more than evening the odds, as I see it. Especially when you keep getting worthless heroes after a battle, over and over again.
- Despite all that, I've played this game a lot and it is fun. It could just be so much better is all.

Like its predecessor, this game resembles a classic wargame from the 90s, with its core rules and presentation carefully reworked. This is what you get, and you should know that before buying.
Yeah, it's a good game. Yeah, Panzer Corps is a better game. The reason is simply that Panzer General is a bit of a better game than Panzer General II.
Panzer Corps 2 is a lot fancier as Panzer Corps in it's presentation, and for me it's not really an improvement but confusing at times and actually a bit distracting. Above that It needs way more resources and you won't get it to run, say, on your Steam Deck.
But still it's a very good wargame and well worth your time and money providing an awful lot of maps, historical and semi-historical campaigns spanning all of World War II.

total classic legend of a game you like tanks and hex strategy this is king . the thing that sets it apart and above the competition is your tanks level up with experience and can be used through out the game. earning credits each mission to invest in more the next battle .