Panzer Corps 2

great game, simple yet really engaging.

First: I have played PC for a couple of years, so i can say i am experienced with it. I liked the user interface of pc2 and also the heroes, the game feels and plays technically well. But: pc2 is completly different in difficulty level and realism. I will give a few examples from the first two campaings "spanish civil war" (scv) and 1939-poland as far as i have played it. spanish civil war dlc First: i like it that spanish civil war is part of a dlc, because i never saw it before in any strategic game of ww2. But: the AI controlling the spanish allies is much too stupid leaving my troops alone, attacking always the nearest enemy, you can only give three general commands to all of them: attack, hold, defend. Would be much more better to let the player control the spanish troops. Next: the republic troops are extremly strong which results in playing all the dlc in defensive mode and hardly getting any bonus goals. Even in level 2 (oberst in german) it is soo hard, much harder than all i have played in panzercorps in all the three lower levels and through the years 1939 to 1943. Sorry but you cannot make level 2 in pc2 as hard as level five in pc. That is frustrating in particular when taking in to account the attacking spanish troops eating up my privilege points. And using the dlc for training troops to import them in 1939-dlc wasnt possible for me because in the madrid scenario, during the offensive of the republicans between turn 10 and 17, all were erased by republicans with their heavy tanks und incredible superior planes. Buying AA againts the planes doesnt work as well, because AA-units are incredible expensive with 250 to 300 privilege points. Keep in mind that at the beginning ot the scenarios you get for all of your troops usually only 1500-1700 privilege points in level 2 (oberst) for 44 core units and 15 auxiliary units. And the more: level 2 ist not much easier than level 3 because the enemy seems proportinal stronger to me. conclusio: scv ist no fun at all for me. 1939-poland DLC In the czech-scenario, which i like because usually games begin with poland - you may not destroy czech units, but they are attacking you frequently, and if a czech unit is destroyed because of his own attack, you loose the goal. Defending against czech units without destroying them ate up all of my privilige points, but ok, thats the first scenario. I reached the goal by buying a lot of Brückenpioniere (engineers with bridges). In the second sarreguemines-scenario (refers to a part of the historical Offensive de la Sarre) you have to place a mine on one hex near you in territory occupied by french troops. To achieve this there are three (red) minelaying trucks, one of them to move onto the hex for mine laying. Bonus goal 1 is laying 2 more mines and bonus goal 2 laying 3 more mines, in total six mines to reach all bonus goals. The french troops are very strong and are attacking you in the first turns like mad. You have no planes and are facing a few strong french attacking planes. OK i bought a lot of AA units, with the 8000 PPs thats possible but not much fun. I abandoned the west of Saar-river, but the french are frequently attacking Kleinblittersdorf over the river Saar. At the end i managed to lay one mine in Bliesbruck (town in the upper right corner of map, very close to the initial position. But also that ate up all of my PPs. And why i am unable to destroy a bridge, eg. the bridge at Kleinblittersdorf over the Saar? At the end of the scenario is historically noticed in pc2 that the french were defensive oriented ... OK, but how realistic is this scenario? In history: Germany had a very strong air force (Luftwaffe), but 90% of them were at the polish border, nonetheless the british/french commanders feared air attacks onto their territory. The Germans had laid their mines long before the french began their attack on 7 sept 1939. The german troops did not fight at all in this region, because they had their strong Westwall (Sigfried Linie) resulting in only less then 1000 casualties against the french ... and a few destroyed aircraft ... nota bene: the air force was active in that sector. The french troops were factor 3 stronger, but the french didnt realize it and therefore didnt attack intensely. In the Saarbrücken scenario the french have incredibly ressources and destroying a french unit is not easy, so every time i attack remains a french unit with 1-3 strength and one turn later is back at 15 strength. Again i played in defensive mode all 24 turns, what fun it is. Next scenario is battle of the bzura. You deploy the germans in the middle of the polish troops and you have to cross a river, where the polish are entrenched. In your back are polish troops, in the west polish troops, over the river a lot of polish troops. At least you can deploy aircraft, but the polish troops over the river are well equipped with AA-guns. You get only 4000 PP in level 2, i had to spend half of it to build up my troops to original strenght at the beginning. Nota bene: the map is about 38 hexes to 42 hexes, and the germans get a core-number of 85. The polish seems to have unlimited ressources, because every turn their units get refreshed. One example: at turn 4 i placed a tank IVa strength 10 and 800 experience in front of the bridge west of Lowicz, at turn 4-5 the AI moved a polish cavalry strength 17 and exp 2000 onto the bride, attacked my tank and i lost 5 strength points of my tank, the polish cavalry only 1 point. How realistic is this? At turn 12 of 24 my PPs are zero and i hardly have reached the other side of the river near Lowicz (its in the first third of the map. In the end i managed to hold the south side of Bzura River, thats it. What fun. Historically: germans outflanked the polish with a counter-attack, weakened the polish and Poznań and Pomorze army were destroyed. What?? My army gets half destroyed. I would like to play the counterattack, but not the defensive part south of the bzura river. Now i have played 35 to 40 hours only in defensive mode. Maybe others have fun with this, not me. Maybe it gets easier when playing through all the scenarios the fourth or fifth time, you will find a way to get better through this mess, but hey: i am playing in level 2 and i have played panzercorps and order of battle for many years without having annoying difficulty in level 2 (level 1 is +30% PPs). And to conclude: those of you who are climbing rocks know the word: redpoint climbing. That is what i expect from level 2 in such a game. I dont want to go through the scenarios in level 2 for 40-50 hours to find a way through this difficulty labyrinth. And last but not least: i dont like the ugly picture of Hauptmann Wagner particularly not when his mouth is open. The germans had a lot of decorated soldiers who looked much better than he. Nonetheless i recommend the game, because not to recommend dont feels fair, but others should take into account the general framework of the first two DLCs.