Panzer General 1 Wargame 1994

Part of History of 1990s Computer Games.

Panzer General 1 Wargame

Developed by Strategic Simulations in 1994, Panzer General 1 is a tactics and operations-level turn-based wargame for MS-DOS. Panzer General is notable for its entry-level combined-arms tactics, unit upgrades and slick, steamlined presentation.

Panzer General displays in 256-color square-pixel SVGA 640x480. Running on MS-DOS 3.0, Panzer General requires an Intel 80386 DX-33 MHz CPU with 4 megs of RAM and 1 meg vRAM.

In Panzer General the player assumes the role of a promising new panzer General of the Axis forces during the Second World War (1939-43). Naturally, the General commands his forces against Allied forces.

There are two modes of play in Panzer General: Campaign and Scenario.

As in combat flight simulators of the early-90s, the Panzer General campaign consists of a series of scenarios staged in a specific theatre of war or geographical region.

Campaign mode is an extended mode of play that treats five battles of the Second World War:

• 1939 Blitzkrieg (Poland)
• 1941 Western Front (North Africa)
• 1941 Eastern Front (Barbarossa)
• 1943 Western Front (Husky)
• 1943 Eastern Front (Kharkov)

Due to the immensity of such battles -- 10 million combatants in Operation Barbarossa -- Panzer General's scenario treatment is abstracted, with the player's General given the opportunity to play a key role in striking decisive blows.

Rather than through divisions or regiments, the General affects battle outcomes through his combined-arms command of Core and Auxiliary units. The difference between Core and Aux units is that surviving Cores from one battle carry over to the next battle, gaining in strength as the campaign progresses.

In Scenario mode, players set or customize game difficulty, choose between player and computer control, and then choose to play a scenario out of a pool of 38 different scenarios, which can have offensive of defensive objectives [1].

Under Custom Difficulty, Enhanced AI can be toggled and the difficulty level can be set, which affects the AI's experience point and prestige point acquisition.

Experience Points (XP) lead to unit leveling. By participating and defeating enemies in battle, Core units gain XP.

• 100 XP = 1 Level.
• Max unit level 5 (five Gold Stars).
• Level 1 = Rookie, levels 2-3 = Veteran, Levels 4-5 = Elite.

Unit level impacts unit initiative (who goes first in a turn) and unit overstrength size (the ability of units to avoid and inflict casualties). Units start off with 10 Strength points, can gain up to 15 at Level 5, and are destroyed at zero Strength points.

In battle, unit Strength points can be decreased by enemy suppression-fire. Units flee or surrender when suppression points equal or exceed their Strength points. Even fortified units may flee under heavy bombardment.

Gained by destroying enemies and taking or holding cities, Prestige Points represent the "currency" of influence Generals exercise with High Command. On the other hand, Prestige Points are lost if Generals lose units and cities. Prestige Points allow Generals to order new units and unit upgrades from High Command.

Differing from history, in some cases Prestige Points can impact the course of events of the Second World War. Bonus Prestige Points can be gained by satisfying non-critical objectives (such as taking a town that you don't need to take).

The employment and effects of Prestige Points and Experience Points (stat-mechanics) evoke the computer role-playing game.

Panzer General Combat & Movement

In campaign or scenario modes, the object of Panzer General is to satisfy mission objectives within or before the scenario's turn limit. If the General has not satisfied mission objectives when the turn limit is reached, it is game over. The objectives usually involve taking Allied cities and holding them under Axis control.

Panzer General is a turn-based game. That is, actions by both player and computer are taken in discrete turns each of which corresponds to one day in each scenario.

Players move, position and command units to attack on a top-down tactical map made up of hexagonal tiles (a 12x9 hexgrid / 555 x 426px). The hexgrid features eight-way mouse-driven edgescreen auto-scrolling that updates the screen in one-hex increments. [2]

After making their moves, attacks and purchases for the day, players hit End (Turn) and Confirm. After confirmation, the computer takes its turn. During the computer turn players may not intervene until their next turn, at which point they regain control. Play continues until the turn limit has been reached or the Axis/Allies have emerged victorious. If the Allies win the General's career is over, animated doors close and the player is kicked back to the DOS prompt.

When units are selected a black bounding box appears on their occupied hex and their movement potential is highlighted on the hexgrid in accordance with the unit's movement rate as well as other unit positions, terrain-type and Zones of Control. Units that enter rival ZoCs must either attack or end their turn. Logically, air and ground units have separate ZoCs.

Roads facilitate movement whereas a ground unit's turn ends by moving into mountain, swamp or (non-frozen) River hexes. Vise-grip chokepoints are at the forefront of strategy.

When commanded to move, unit icons smoothly slide across the hexgrid to the target hex. Units may not occupy already-occupied hexes (no unit stacking), but may freely pass through ally-occupied hexes.

Tanks and infantry can attack before or after moving, but artillery can only attack before moving (a priority target of AI, artillery should be moved after bombarding). In one turn, Artillery can dismount from Land Transport (trucks), bombard and then move one hex. Ammo-permitting, attacks can be mounted when units are adjacent to or within range of rivals on the hexgrid. Attack mode is indicated by red cross-hairs that appear when rival units are moused-over.

Indicating projected losses for attacking and defending units, Attacker and Defender numbers are displayed at botom-screen when in cross-hair mode. Projections are probability-based, not guaranteed outcomes. That is, combat resolution is based on a combat roll, not just unit stats and other known variables. For example, an attacking unit may be projected to lose two strength whereas the defending unit may be projected to lose four, but the outcome varies due to the roll.

During combat animated insets appear over the hexgrid depicting the units in battle. As with movement and combat mechanics, Panzer General's graphics, sound effects and music are impressive. Each unit has its own ornately-drawn graphic and inset animations as well as authentic movement and attack sounds. (To speed up gameplay the animated insets can be disabled.)

Units can spend their turn on resupplying: the Supply Unit command refuels and rearms units by one half of their max (logistics). However, unless they occupy a city, airfield or port hex, units generally cannot resupply if they are rival-adjacent.

Also consuming their turn, units can be mounted, upgraded, replaced, elite-replaced and disbanded. Expensive but economical in the long run, Elite replacements maintain unit level and are resupplied. Due to their slow movement rates, mounting heavy infantry and artillery onto Land Transport (trucks) is key to efficient blitzkrieging (not just tank or bomber employment).

Constituted by 30 or so stats each, there are a whopping 350 units of ground, naval and air type in Panzer General. From infantry units up to the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, unit battle performance is impacted by unit level, vs. unit-type, terrain-type, weather, suppression and rugged defense (ambushes and defender entrenchment level).

It is important to understand unit strengths and weaknesses. As a rule, tanks excel in open terrain whereas infantry excels in rugged and mountainous terrain. And artillery excels versus fortifications whereas tanks get wrecked versus fortified anti-tank units (which have a score of 8 in defense and 7 versus hard armor targets). But players only need to call up unit stat panels to see what the unit strengths and weaknesses are, and how they can complement other units in combined-arms tactics.

A surprising depth in combined-arms tactics disguised by a streamlined interface -- that is what impresses me most about Panzer General. Even when playing on the easiest difficulty you are unlikely to win many scenarios solely with tank-spam, for example. The scenarios need to be studied and the rules need to be learned -- even for entry-level wargames (an example of a grognard wargame is Steel Panthers).

Assuming combined-arms tactics and appropriate recon- / logistics-employment, punching through enemy frontlines and pushing deep into enemy territory often leads to decisive victories -- which is how Generals gain prestige and influence High Command.

Criticisms: Strategy map is too small, GUI sidebar is fiddly.

[1] The scenarios are Poland, Warsaw, Low Countries, France, Sealion (40), North Africa, Middle East, El Alamein, Caucasus, Sealion (43), Torch, Husky, Anzio, D-Day, Anvil, Ardennes, Cobra, Market Garden, Berlin (West), Balkans, Crete, Barbarossa, Kiev, Moscow (41), Sevastopol, Moscow (42), Stalingrad, Kharkov, Kursk, Moscow (43), Byelorussia, Budapest, Berlin (East), Berlin, Washington, Early Moscow, Sealion Plus.

[2]  That is, jerky hex by hex scrolling as opposed to per-pixel hardware scrolling at 50 FPS, of which 1985 Amigas were capable.

Panzer General runs in proper square-pixel 640x480 (1 MB SVGA). 486 33 MHz and 4 MB RAM recommended. 

Back to: Turn-based Strategy Games.