By Lewie Procter on July 11th, 2011 at 5:23 pm.
World War II strategy game Panzer Corps is available right now. You can get it from either Slitherine here or Matrix Games here. It’s priced at £26.99/$39.99 for a download or £33.99/$49.99 for a download + shiny plastic disc edition. For your money, you get four hundred different types of unit, including Tanks, Planes, Cars, Guns, Boats and all sorts. I’ve embedded a trailer underneath for you to have a nosey at.
The press release has this to say:
Campaign: all 26 scenarios are combined into a large campaign tree with several entry points at various stages of the war. Depending on the outcome of each battle (decisive victory, marginal victory or defeat), the player will be faced with different challenges and a progress along different parts of the campaign tree;
Nations: all major and many minor nations represented: Germany, Italy, Poland, France, Great Britain, USA, USSR, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Albania, Romania, Greece and more.
Core units that travel with you throughout the campaign gaining experience and that can be upgraded as new weapon technologies become available.Get more information on Panzer Corps from its official on the Slitherine site or on the Matrix Games site.
Too many tanks for me I’m afraid. I’m out.
11/07/2011 at 17:35 angramainyu says:
I’m really curious about this one. I tried to get the old free PG running last month, but fiddly/small graphics and lack of tutorial killed my interest pretty fast. I’ve been wanting a nice turn-based tactical game that isn’t as crazy long or deep as Hearts of Iron. Anyone picked this up yet? How is if for the non-grognard who wants to get some war on?
11/07/2011 at 22:12 DeCi says:
Try the open source ^^. supports fullscreen etc. PGForever. it comes with alot of expansions!
11/07/2011 at 17:42 TychoCelchuuu says:
The screenshot leads me to believe that this is a game about tanks the size of cities. My goodness!
11/07/2011 at 17:47 angramainyu says:
Really, it’s a game about normal-sized tanks attacking very small cities.
11/07/2011 at 17:46 wodin says:
Am I the only wargamer who didn’t enjoy Panzer general??
11/07/2011 at 17:48 utharda says:
Yes =). Then again I was only 13 or so when PG came out, and hadn’t yet come into my full grognard beard yet.
11/07/2011 at 20:10 scharmers says:
This comment is amusing.
Back in the day, the grogs on USElessNET held (the original) Panzer General up as the whipping boy of their genre, giving it much the same regard that the rivet-y flight simmers gave something like Ace Combat or the yots here give consoles.
So, NO, you are certainly not the first “wargamer” not to like PG.
11/07/2011 at 21:01 pipman3000 says:
grognard sounds like some kind of troglodyte goblin that lives in it’s own filth.
how much exp are they worth?
11/07/2011 at 21:06 FunkyBadger3 says:
Being charitable – that suggest there are games of its ilk you enjoyed more than Panzer General… they must be something special… any examples?
11/07/2011 at 17:47 utharda says:
I am enjoying it. I am enjoying it right now. If I had a little beer, and maybe some lantjaeger or herring to snack on, It would be best, but the game is everything i liked about PG with updated graphics so far.
12/07/2011 at 21:37 son_of_montfort says:
So, is that the beer and pretzels of the disgusting countries? :-)
Actually, I love herring.
11/07/2011 at 17:52 Shadrach says:
Graphics are nice and crisp, relatively speaking that is, and I’m sure it’s deep enough for most wargamers, I just can’t get over the toy-like tanks and the isometric view. I know its only symbols, but I prefer my wargames with counters ;)
11/07/2011 at 17:53 Vexing Vision says:
Oh for God’s sake, no more World War 1 or 2 games please.
I wouldn’t mind playing some updated version of Panzer General first, but this looks a bit like History Line without the graphics. No offense.
12/07/2011 at 06:42 thebigJ_A says:
What? This is an updated version of Panzer General.
11/07/2011 at 18:16 Torgen says:
I’ve always wanted to make a small scale Victorian England colonial warfare game (think of the movies “Zulu,” “Gunga Din”,) but afraid I’d be hunted down and burned at the stake :(
11/07/2011 at 18:38 Shadrach says:
Well, if you don’t make it, there’s always Rorke’s Drift;
http://www.myabandonware.com/game/rorkes-drift-103
11/07/2011 at 18:47 Kakrafoon says:
Open General has a campaign in the Victorian Age, I believe. Also, there’s one called “the Last Crusade”, focussing on World War One in the Middle East. The problem is just that I don’t find Open General very pretty or accessible.
11/07/2011 at 18:37 sebiroth says:
So, how does it compare to Open General? Apart from NOT being free…
11/07/2011 at 18:48 Alexander Norris says:
Oh my god; what has Lewie done with Tim Stone?!?!?!
11/07/2011 at 19:10 oatish says:
This is pretty cool but that is a high price point for the kind of free stuff you can get at this abandonware site:
http://gamesclassic.webs.com/apps/blog/
I think the Multiplayer will be worth it due to Slitherine’s play-by-email but damn do these guys ever do sales?
11/07/2011 at 19:32 BobsLawnService says:
I echo the sentiment that it seems a little over-priced. Then again we have been spoiled by low priced games lately.
11/07/2011 at 19:36 DarkFenix says:
Tempted, but that’s really expensive and the game has no demo.
13/07/2011 at 12:03 JiminyJickers says:
Same here. If I had a demo to have a crack at. I may be tempted to buy it but definitely not an impulse buy at this price.
11/07/2011 at 19:53 Jajusha says:
Well, i got it.
Campaign branches alot depending on your progress. And i mean ALOT. You can be invading the US in 45 or defending Berlin, just depends on how good or bad your progress was.
Units carry on from each campaign “level”, and you can upgrade them with new equipment.
Upgrading an old unit to a new model or purchasing a new core unit has the same cost, so, besides the unit XP, you wont have to reload the game everytime you lose a unit.
Currently in 1940 – France, got what, 7 different models of infantry (from Pioners to paratroopers to grenadiers), each with a niche, so, it’s not a straight beeline of upgrades, you have to chose what you want and for what.
12/07/2011 at 11:01 sneetch says:
“And i mean ALOT. You can be invading the US in 45 or”
Please don’t invade the US! I don’t think I can take any more shootouts in suburbia! ;)
Mind you a “resistance” game with fedoras and tommy guns in chicago might be fun, I’m thinking “mob vs nazis”… ok carry on, invade away.
11/07/2011 at 20:38 destroy.all.monsters says:
High price is high.
11/07/2011 at 21:13 lunarplasma says:
…how much?!?
11/07/2011 at 23:38 DK says:
Aaand Matrix screws itself out of hit yet again with their absurd 1990s pricing. A real shame since this could have sold like hot cakes with a side order of Panzer IV.
12/07/2011 at 00:04 jti says:
A bit too much. :(
12/07/2011 at 00:35 banski83 says:
Seriously, if it was cheaper, I would. Looks perfect for a long Sunday afternoon. Just with no demo, I’m not dropping that cash without being able to try it to see if it really suits me.
12/07/2011 at 01:58 LazerBeast says:
If it was cheaper I’d be all over this.
12/07/2011 at 02:15 nathanebht says:
Thanks for the info on the PGForever and Open General.
Probably not picking up Panzer Corps until some point way in the future.
12/07/2011 at 05:06 doctorfrog says:
Adding to the cries of “$40 US, really?” Sorry Matrix, your anachronistic pricing model dooms yet another awesome game to virtual obscurity.
12/07/2011 at 05:22 Torgen says:
Whenever I see “Matrix Games” in an article, I write that game off. Their official motto *has* to be:
“Matrix Games: 1/10 the audience, 4x the price!”
If the same game was put on Steam at $15, they’d probably sell ten times the number they will at Matrix.
12/07/2011 at 05:29 tlwest says:
I suspect that you are *highly* overestimating the elasticity of the wargaming market. Drop the price to $15, and I’m certain you might add 50% to your sales. And then you go bankrupt.
Interestingly enough, from what I see, the massive drop in prices in a variety of products tends to mean that it is no longer economically viable to serve niche markets. You can’t sell for a higher price – people rebel, but you can’t survive at lower prices unless you’re selling to a large audience.
Frankly, I don’t imagine the cost of producing the games has suddenly dropped precipitously, so I don’t see why I should expect the price to me to drop much either. Thus, I’m willing to pay for games targeted to my particular niche.
12/07/2011 at 13:32 Gaytard Fondue says:
Still just a PGII clone
13/07/2011 at 11:43 DK says:
“Frankly, I don’t imagine the cost of producing the games has suddenly dropped precipitously, so I don’t see why I should expect the price to me to drop much either. Thus, I’m willing to pay for games targeted to my particular niche.”
Except that the games they make are stuck in 1998. Including production costs. So they didn’t even get hit with the “modern graphics are expensive to make” stick – they dodge that entirely, but still price as if their games were more expensive than a CoD to make.
12/07/2011 at 06:10 Myros says:
Funny thing … all the marketing on the Matrix website had this game as “The next generation of wargaming!” So the next generation is a clone of a retro title? Silly PR people.