GIVE TANKS
Hitler wants more hexes. Help him get
them with PANZER CORPS by Tim Stone
Unit stats and kill
tallies are a click away.
What is it? A classic wargame brought up to date Influenced by Panzer General, Panzer General 2 Play it on 3GHz Pentium 4, 2GB RAM, GeForce 6800 GT/Radeon X800 Pro Alternatively Open General Copy protection CD Key
Need to know
To give credit where it’s due, most of the design work on Panzer Corps was done over 17 years ago by wargaming
pioneer Strategic Simulations,
which crafted Panzer General. That
absurdly elegant, dangerously
distracting World War II turn-based strategy game is what Panzer
Corps apes so skillfully.
This homage is an evening-eating delight. After romping
through a handful of crystal-clear
tutorials, you find yourself on the
Germany-Poland border, the eager
overseer of a force full of Panzers,
Stukas, and stormtroopers. When
you next look up, the room will
probably be dark, your brow will be
crinkled, and the survivors of that
initial op will be cherished veterans
slogging their way across the
Balkans, USSR, or England.
The basics of battle are as easy to
understand as the internal workings
of a Molotov cocktail. Move a unit
next to an enemy (artillery and
naval units have longer reaches),
check the combat odds tooltip, then
commit to an attack—or think
again. What gives the scraps their
amazing texture is the vast range of
400 units and the telling influences
of terrain, experience, and luck.
Battle ready
Though a little flummoxed when
asked to play as the Axis in the
Operation Sealion scenario (the 26
campaign missions can be played
separately as either side) the AI gen-
erally handles itself with deadly
aplomb. Leave bombers unescorted
and badly damaged units exposed
and the enemy is drawn to them like
wasps to a jam-faced toddler.
