Panzer Corps 2

its a fun game but be prepared to be milk dry from this company in DLC. Its sad since back in the old days u bought a full game upon release

Once again, a game where i regret there's no "neutral" rating.
Panzer Corps 2 has quite a few things going for it, but has just as much questionable design decisions.
So, the GOOD:
-Slick-looking interface and graphics:
The game is quite beautiful, with animated units actually moving between hexes, instead of just magically teleporting between them, like in older wargames, with a lot of different and well-made sound effects for guns blazing, bombs falling and tanks exploding. Not to mention, the models themselves are pretty great too, even if a bit too clean for the endless war that happens on-screen. The interface is highly-customizable and mostly inobtrusive, even though it may feel too cluttered at times. I'll also add that the sountrack is pretty good and i listen to it from time to time even when not playing the game.
-Improved supply mechanics:
Your units, just like in Panzer Corps 1, have limited supply and ammo, which they replenish at the start of your turn. However, this time it is also tied into the new surround system, where supply flow along roads from supply hubs, and if you manage to block off the supply routes for enemy units, they won't replenish fuel and ammo and get stacking combat penalties as long as they remain cut off. Yeah, we know which game they took the idea from (looks at Order of Battle), but it has its own quirs in this game and works quite well, giving you more ways to overcome the mounting numerical superiority your enemies will have most of the time.
-Customizable "player character" for more diverse playthroughs:
Actually, not as much as a "player character", as a point shop for bonuses/penalties you can access one time when you start the campaign. In it, you initially have 2 points, which you use to get global improvements for your army, such as an additional move point for your panzers, permanently revealing enemy positions around mission objectives, and so on. But, if 2 points is too few for you, you can take a penalty (like less unit slots, slower supply replenishment, etc.) to get more bonus points. Depending on which bonuses/penalties you take, your playthrough may end up pretty different, which is a good thing
-Equipment capture mechanics:
Think your panzers suck? Want to use that shiny T-34/French Somua you've seen? You actually can, as the game features a fully fleshed-out way to capture enemy equipment. Make the enemy unit retreat by attacking it with overwhelming force, and it will retreat. If it has nowhere to retreat to because of either terrain or your units blocking the way, they surrender, yielding you a 1 hp worth of equipment per 1 hp they had left when they surrender. When you have 10 hp worth of surrendered equipment of the same type, you can field it as a unit! But be careful, as you gotta keep a stockpile of extra parts to replenish this unit, so keep on capturing!
Now, onto the BAD:
-Terrible difficulity balancing:
So, you know how difficulity is usually balanced in those kinds of games: your enemy might have more hp, more units to take down, stricter time limits... But this game went further: on difficulities above Normal (3rd one out of 5), the enemy units will just deal more damage, making units that get damage often, like infantry, nearly totally obsolete on higher levels and making turns where a random machine-gun armed tankette one-shots your forward panzer unit all too common, which is a lame way to balance a strategy game in a somewhat-realistic setting, as making every enemy unit into a superhuman blows that "somewhat-realistic" feeling out of the window.
-Hero system
Every mission you clear awards you a random hero, which you can attach to any of your in-game units, but instead of boosting its stats, it awards a special ability, like increasing the unit's defense per hp lost, being able to attack twice per turn, repairing a few HP for free if a unit didn't attack... While it does sound pretty cool, what ruins it are two facts: that you can attach up to 3 heroes to each unit, and that once per mission cleared is a bit too often, as it leads to absurd amounts of heroes, which can make absurdly overpowered combinations with each other, or even by themselves. Want to capture every piece of equipment you see? Here is the hero that turns every enemy retreat into surrender. Want even more broken tanks for the complete "wehrmacht power fantasy" experience? Here you are, a hero that removes the only weakness of a tank-class unit, which is a defense penalty against infantry in close terrain. With so much of those they stop feeling special, and abilities being that absurd do not help the "historical" flavor.
-Mostly boring missions
"Capture this hex there, then over there" is all there is to mission objectives. Granted, they tried to fix that in the "Axis Operations" series of DLC, but given that enemy scripting is nearly nonexistant, most of the time you will simply repel waves of random enemy units trying to charge in your general direction, sometimes even doing stupid things like placing their artillery at the frontline. Enemy scripting is important, as it was one of the major things that made the other wargame, Order of Battle, feel fresh across numerouf missions and DLC's.
-Low-effort writing
Yeah, i admit that writing during mission briefings is not the most important thing in this genre, but given the fact that the game, and especially the DLC campaigns try to get into character-driven narrative, it all feels pretty rushed and "same every time".
Now, with all that being said, i still do enjoy the game for what it is and will probably buy the DLC's that get released in the future, but it is far from being the "King of wargames" how the game description says, doesn't earn its 86-point Metacritic ranking and won't be THE game i will remember first when my friend will ask me to recommend a wargame. Yet, it is still pretty decent, and if you didn't play wargames before, Panzer Corps 2 might be a good place to start, as it tries pretty hard to be new player-friendly, even though Panzer Corps 1 is still the superior game.

It's been many years (decades) since I played Panzer General, Fantasy General, and every other General there was at the time. I enjoy COH2 and Ultimate General Civil war along with a few other military RTS games, and wondered when PC2 first caught my eye, if I would enjoy a turn based hex game. Well, I wonder no more. Despite its shortcomings, it's sucked me in pretty hard. I've spent an embarrassing amount of time playing it over the last few days. Apparently I'm not very good at it, because even on easy level I had to use a cheat to get some prestige to upgrade my army, and even then getting through it was a tough slog. Then when I got to the Kursk scenario I had to back it down to Very Easy. Usually I don't like to cheat as using cheats usually causes the challenge to go away and I lose interest. With this game it doesn't bother me. I'm still early in the Kursk scenario, and I'm not far enough in to see if it's lost its challenge. I think prestige income is ridiculously difficult to come by. Honestly, I have no idea how anyone can go through the kind of attrition over time and still have enough prestige to even replace units, let alone upgrade or buy new units. Again, I don't care, I'm having too much fun.

Fantastic Game. It had a rough start, but now it's a fantastic successor to Panzer Corps 1. The campaign that comes with the main game is quite extensive, but the Axis Operations DLC is absolutely massive. Each DLC is approximately 20 missions long and you get to carry your units across to each successive year. It's easy to get attached to the units that stay with you and it can be heartbreaking if you ever happen to lose one. (RIP 1st Air Recon Squadron 1936-1940, you will be missed).
I can't wait for the next set of operations.

I would like this game to be expanded for Allied campaigns!

As someone who grew up with war gaming using military miniatures and board games like Panzer Leader in the years before the advent of home computers and the internet, this turn based game combines ease of use with many of the features I liked about board games and miniatures. The infantry, armor, ships, and planes look like little miniatures. I even like the way the turrets on the tank turn prior to firing at the enemy. It's also neat to see vehicles explode and become smoldering wrecks.
The game map is overlaid with a hex. Each unit has a different number of available moves. When you click on a unit, white dots appear around it to show the range of movement that's available.
As units fight, they take casualties which is shown by the unit's decreasing strength. During your turn, you have the option of moving your unit, moving and fighting, or reinforcing it.
Each ground unit has a zone of control. You can surround an enemy unit simply by placing two of your units on opposite sides of the opposing unit. Units that are cut off CANNOT resupply.
Air units include scouting planes, fighters, and bombers. The planes are based at airfields. As with the ground units and sea units, they have a range of movement. As with the ground units, fighters and bombers (but not scouts which are unarmed) have the ability to fly and fight or fly and bomb or strafe. If your forward lines have advanced beyond the Air Force's ability to provide support, the planes may be staged forward if you have overrun an enemy airfield.
This game may be played at various levels. Prior to playing I strongly recommend that you go through the tutorial. Each tutorial is linked to a short YouTube video that provides detailed information about the type of game play in question.
I like this game because of the combined arms feature. An enemy unit can be destroyed using combined arms by first hitting it with a tactical bomber like a Stuka. Artillery fire can then pound this target. Infantry may launch close assaults. If the unit is entrenched combat engineers or pioneers have access to demolition charges and flame flowers. Tanks could also be used though they're better in open terrain than against a fortified position or an infantry unit that's in a city.
It's a lot easier to destroy an isolated unit than a unit that's in line abreast with other units. It's also a lot easier to use your tactical bombers if you've first wiped the enemy fighters from the sky. You may do this by combining multiple fighter attacks upon enemy fighters. If you have anti-aircraft guns within range, they can also provide supporting fire.
Each time you take an objective, you receive funds. Funds are used to pay for reinforcements. You may also use these funds to purchase replacement units if you lose units in combat.
There are all sorts of scenarios that may be played. You may also play in campaign mode and invade Poland, France, Russia etc.
All in all, this is a fun game that I would recommend to anyone who likes the old board games or war gaming with miniatures.

Took a while to get used to the large amount of units and new mechanics, but I'm almost 50 hours in, and I can confidently say that this is a marked improvement over the first game...and I LOVED the first game! I haven't really touched the base game as I'm a long haul player, so I went straight the Grand Campaign. I mixed reviews for the Spanish Civil War DLC, but man I'm hooked. But since this review is for the main game, I have to say that the graphics, sound, unit variety, mission/campaign maker, steam workshop, dynamically generated missions...everything you need for replayability is here. Well worth the price if you like WWII,point and click strategy games.