14 DAY TRIAL // If only the German Army had the advantage of hindsight. I know that Panzers are good on the offensive but need to be backed up by solid support. I understand how many bodies the Russians can throw at me. I get the way combined arms can crumble if any piece fails to do its duty. And I need all this knowledge to win battles in the new 1942 downloadable content for Panzer Corps 2.
Part of the Axis Operations set of DLC the new delivery is created by original developer Flashback Games and published by Slitherine. As the name makes clear the team is following the German army in its struggles in the Soviet Union, covering some of the biggest battles of the campaign and showing off some of the most recognizable units of the moment.
Stalingrad, the biggest real-world engagement of the year, is featured in several scenarios. And, for the first time, players have more than one ending, depending on their performance. It will be interesting to see how the development team is able to take an ahistorical result and deal with it in the next piece of Axis Operations DLC.
The hex and turn-based nature of Panzer Corps 2 is unchanged, with no new major systems to learn. There are more mission types and there’s innovation in objective design (a focus on airpower in some missions seems a little underwhelming). But the core moves that brought a player to victory in previous DLC work here.
The Soviet Union’s forces do put up more of a fight and the lethality is higher because of better equipment. I primarily played conservatively, minimizing exposure even if I miss bonus objectives. But more aggressive players can certainly tailor a commander and force that will serve them well.
Panzer Corps 2: Axis Operations - 1942 continues to do justice to all the hardware that was used in World War II. This is a hex-based turn-focused title but, up close, Panzers look good, planes have details, the terrain is easily readable.
Conclusion
If you like the core concepts that Panzer Corps 2 works with but have no DLC starts with the Spanish Civil War or 1939. I must again comment on the lack of coverage for the Allied or Russian perspective on these battles. But there’s clearly demand for Axis content, and I hope that the developers at Flashback do introduce new ideas and new perspectives when they move to the Pacific Theater.
