Customer Reviews

Panzer Tactics

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This game plays almost like a perfect copy of the Panzer General series and is a MUST HAVE for any fans of said series. Any fan of hex map strategy war games would like this even if they haven't been exposed to Panzer General. I am very happy with this purchase. The units stats are very well done and the game play mechanics are perfect for the DS. I hope they make a sequel.

If you ever liked hex wargames, you'll love Panzer Tactics DS. It has all the best elements of turn-based strategy wargames, without the nitty-gritty rules that would get one mired in details. It is very fun, with the added bonus of unit level experience and special attacks. The developers did a great job packing the UI and gameplay experience within the limited controls of the DS.

Like another reviewer said, this is like a copy of the Panzer General series, specifically Panzer General II, and if you loved that game, you'll love this one. It's also tempting to compare this to Advance Wars DS, although it's not quite as easy to pick up and play it as the Advance Wars series. This is partly because the DS is not a great platform for this game. The game is a bit too detailed for such a small screen, and it can be a little difficult to make out what unit is what, especially if you are using the less-bright older DS instead of the DS Lite. That's the only real drawback and why I didn't give it a 5 star rating.

It's also wonderful to be able to play someone besides the Americans in a WWII game for a change. Sometimes people like to play Germans or Soviets instead! Hope they make a Pacific War sequel so I can play the Japanese...

Panzer Tactics DS strikes the right balance between a challenging strategy and an intriguing storyline for you to uncover as you march your way through three campaigns of World War II.

Each scenario is uncovered as you make progress through the campaigns. The game is impossible to play without playing through at least some of the tutorials. The scenarios each present a different challenge in terms of the terrain, the primary objectives, and the minor objectives which often lead you into discovering something new about the game.

Reading the manual is generally useful, those many important details are not included. Some aspect or rules of the game or unit behaviour I'm still not clear about.

Fame points are earned as soon as you achieve an objective, cause the enemy to take losses, or when you capture towns.

The most exciting and vulnerable units are the commando units, they are also the most expensive general unit you can purchase with your fame points, and therefore were very rare in my armies. Officers are even more expensive, and were difficult for me to achieve until towards the end of the first two campaigns.

A flaw with the game flow is that if you achieve your primary objective, the scenario is ended, even if you still intend to achieve the secondary objectives. So grab those secondary objectives first.

My progress through the first campaign was rewarded with a bonus scenario being unlocked, which ended up in the annihilation of my best units - so I didn't appreciate that gift very much! The second campaign is more challenging and I didn't unlock the mystery scenario there. On the third campaign, I'm totally stuck on the Invasion of Normandy scenario. In this scenario, you must capture the objectives before you can receive reinforcements, and I can't see how this can be done without using my core units which don't arrive until this requirement is met.

This is the only DS game that I have invested a large amount of time with playing late into the night, while commuting to work etc.. I noticed I started developing eye strain, RSI in my right thumb, and I also wore out the right button on the DS which I used to toggle between units. So far my children haven't noticed any of this! At this stage I've given up playing since I got stuck on the last scenario.

This game brings me to my days of Panzer General. This game is extremely solid in both play and mechanics. If you loved Panzer General, you will LOVE this game. While this might not be great for kids, any fan of wargames will drool over this gem. I couldn't be happier with a DS game.

This game is great! The scenarios are absorbing and realistic, and the historical accuracy that this game has is also nice. Some of the units can be hard to tell apart, but that problem goes away over time as you get used to the game. I have played the Advance Wars games and this game is a little more realistice (with hexagon squares, planes being able to fly over land units and your units getting hurt even if you destroy the unit you are attacking)and also takes longer to play. Since I have already beatean the scenarios on my Advance Wars games more times than I can count the longer play is nice. The main problem I have with this game is that I pick it up only intending to play for a few minutes and next thing I know it is hours later. So this is a great game but don't buy it unless you have time to kill, becuase it is extremely addictive.

I don't know what the other guy is talking about. If you like turn based strategy games, or WW2 strategy games, or both, you'll like this title. It reminds me alot of Desert Commander, the old Nintendo title

basically you just set up your units at the start of each scenario, then move and attack with each. at the end you use points you've accumulated through capturing towns or destroying enemy units to buy new units or repair the old ones. then the enemy gets its turn. rinse, repeat

nothing ground-breaking, but its fun to play and really if you want cutting edge games you're not going to play a hand-held anyway. Pick this one up and give it a try, its good for a few hours of fun

I love turn-based military hex strategy games and Panzer Tactics is a lot of fun. There are 3 campaigns to play (Axis, Soviets, Allies) and each of them will keep you occupied for many many hours, so this game gets good mileage for your gaming dollar. I played through the German campaign and now I'm on the Soviets. It's fun to see the game from the other side, though it's basically the same units with different paint jobs.

What I really like is that units gain experience in combat and carry over to the next level. You can then upgrade them to more powerful units when they reach the necessary experience level. You also get bonuses for completing the level under a certain number of turns. You can hire additional units or officers with the points you earn after each level. Officers give you certain tactical bonuses. Each level also has secondary objectives that reward you with special prizes if you accomplish them.

The music is very suitable, and sounds like World War II military-themed music you'd hear in war movies and shows like Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. The game is not without flaws, however. It takes a long time to "think" and you'll be seeing the hourglass a lot during enemy moves. This is a major complaint. It can take several minutes for the computer to finish thinking and complete its moves. On the plus side, however, the AI opponent can be very tough and give you a good run for your money. Another complaint, though minor, is that it is somewhat hard to distinguish which unit you're targeting for attack because only the hex outline color changes.

If you like hex turn-based strategy games, this one is definitely worth owning, but be mindful of the wait time before it's your turn again.

Great game for the strategy-minded "big kid". Probably a little too dry for the younger crowd, but for the 20- 30-something this game is rock-solid strategy. Bring along your units and upgrade them throughout the story.

If you love Panzer General you'll love this game as well, which is heavily inspired by it, to the point of it almost being a copy. There is a learning curve at first, but once you get immersed, it's highly addictive and lots of fun.

The game is about 90% Panzer General, somewhere in between PG1 and PG2 rules-wise. Playing through the game I notice some details or minor rules here and there that are different. Some improvements, some steps backwards (especially considering how old PG is I'd expect more improvements). As a PG junky, none of these little changes kept me from enjoying the game, some I actually liked more(the leader system reminiscent of PG3, artillery can move one unit prior to firing without having to mount).

One thing I didn't like is movement rules - movement ends when your unit fires. And you can't move a unit, switch to another, come back to the original unit and then fire. Unit movement is done all at once with a particular unit and once it's done, it's done for that turn. I recall PG2 you could fire first and then move, or move one unit, move another, come back to the first and then fire. This system is a little to simple for me. It becomes troublesome in congested areas where things just get stacked up and sloppy for my tastes. It can get annoying when you can't bring firepower to bear because too many adjacent hexes are occupied, or the new leader systems gives leaders an effective range of usually 1 hex, but it's very difficult to optimally position units around the leader to take advantage of that with the aforementioned movement rules. Also recon don't get phased movement, which really reduces their effectiveness since they are so weak in combat. Most AT guns only have a range of one hex (even 88s) - which makes them almost useless, since you have to get right up on top of any enemy, hope they don't wallop you since you are so vulnerable mounted and wait until your next turn to dismount when the enemy may have already withdrawn at that point - it really hampers an aggressive blitz type approach when you have slow things down to want to engage these creeping AT guns. Also, no unit knockback, it was always a nice touch when an engineer would assault some INT entrenched in a city and force them to withdraw, or when a recon unit would pull itself back when facing heavy pressure. In this game your units are planted where they are when turn ends, this ends up being very costly. And resupplying costs prestige! And refitting doesn't also resupply, meaning in longer missions you may have to resupply one turn, refit the next, thus taking your unit out of the battle for basically 2 whole turns!

Anyway, minor differences aside, this game sucked me right in in much the same way PG did. I found the game to be very challenging and unforgiving, especially in the later campaigns.

Most of any interface frustration comes from the limitations of the DS. Screen size makes for a lot of clumsy scrolling, especially for long range units. Only one save game slot for all 3 campaigns. No mods, expansion maps, custom campaigns like the good ole' PC games.

It's not quite Panzer General 2, but it's the closest thing to it, and I'd recommend it for wargamers.
Great portable strategy fix!