Order of Battle: Panzerkrieg DLC

So far good. But does anybody no how to incorperate your core units from Blitzkrieg to Panzerkrieg. I thought you coud do that.

I have Panzerkrieg and Blitzkreig along with Kreigsmarine. I have not tried Kriegsmarine yet, but I have completed Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg. The two DLCs work together very well in telling the timeline of the war. Panzerkrieg is certainly more mature vs. Blitzkreig in that the maps seem to be bigger and the difficulty is much harder once you reach Stalingrad. I'm stuck on the scenario after the Stalingrad Trap scenario and am enjoying trying to figure out good strategy to beat the Soviets. Their air superiority and amount of armor units gets to be quite the challenge at that point. That said, like all Panzer General-like games, there is a bit of puzzle solving that supercedes the actual strategy in the game (i.e. certain unforeseeable events will throw you for a loop the first run-through or you are forced to take one route in order to beat the objectives in the given turn count). All Panzer General-like games seem to include this element. Regardless of the one neutral comment above, this is highly enjoyable and highly recommended.

I bought this but the DLC is not showing up in my game. Steam says not our issue, contact the game maker. Took a bit, but all is well again, so I have changed this to a thumbs up. :)

My first impressions on Panzerkrieg were negative due to the stiff opening difficulty and subsequent fears that the entire campaign would be an RP-starved struggle, but I kept playing and ended up having a pretty good time. I'll give some brief thoughts on each scenario hopefully without spoiling too much. Rzhev Salient: One of the tougher opening scenarios, your resource budget is tight and you're forced to hold off attacks from multiple directions while working to liberate encircled friendlies. Efficient defensive positioning and conserving RP are the rules of the day. You should also invest in some good anti-tank equipment, whether towed(more efficient) or self-propelled(more powerful); you'll need it for this campaign, especially early on to turn aside Soviet armor while your tanks are still outclassed. Demyansk: A unique scenario that has you rushing to rescue a large pocket of allied troops while resupplying and reinforcing them by air. RP is still scarce, however, and the Soviets are, as always, troublesome and numerous, happy to flank you with powerful armor if you're not careful. This is the first scenario where the upgunned Panzer IV F2 is available, which finally allows you to compete with T-34's and KV-1's and is the start of you regaining technological superiority. Kharkov 1: Reminiscent of the Barbarossa scenarios in the Blitzkrieg campaign, you're encircling and destroying a Soviet force. Aggressive use of armor and air support is key to create the initial encirclement, but the Soviets won't lie back and let you obliterate them. This is the point where I realised I was now having fun with the campaign instead of just being challenged by it, so if the first two scenarios discouraged you, Kharkov 1 might be a much-needed breath of fresh air. Sevastopol: The Siege of Sevastopol! Can you crack the mighty fortress-city? This scenario was less brutal than I expected and while your Romanian allies are inferior to the Soviets in a head-on fight, they make for excellent auxiliary and defensive troops and can draw attention away from your own siegebreaking efforts. Take care of them; it's worth having their help in later scenarios... just don't expect miracles, that's what your own troops are for. Voronezh: The start of the Case Blue offensive. This time you get the benefit of Hungarian allies, which have marginally better equipment than the Romanians and are capable enough to work independently if required. This is also a great exhibition of your (hopefully upgraded by now) panzers due to the relatively open terrain. The Night Witches make their first (and likely only) appearance here, which is a cool detail. Kalach: A pretty straightforward 'Blitz' that has you rushing to besiege Stalingrad. A bit of a filler scenario, but it's still fun rolling across the plains with your panzers. Stalingrad itself is nigh-unassailable and has long-ranged artillery backup, so it pays to keep some distance until you're ready to finish the objectives. Caucasus: An interesting time-sensitive scenario, where you have to advance fast enough to prevent the Soviets from destroying your objectives. The substantial distance between you and the objective locations means you will have to move quick and commit to an early push if you want to capture everything in time. Stalingrad: The infamous Siege of Stalingrad. This could have been a nasty, unavoidable slog, but there's actually a surprising amount of space to work with, plenty of opportunity to use your tanks, and free reign on where you want to strike. This, along with the varied objectives and eventual block-to-block fighting, gives the scenario a unique flavor. It's one of the more challenging scenarios for the Luftwaffe as well; they have a lot of work to do, few bases to do it from, and some well-positioned AA to contend with, not to mention the Soviet air force has been getting stronger with every scenario. Winterstorm: Probably my favorite scenario of the campaign and the biggest of the 'rescue' missions. The German 6th Army, trapped in the Stalingrad pocket, is well-equipped and dug in, but are not at peak condition and have barely any resources to replace losses with. You have a lot of ground to cover to relieve them and the Soviets will offer fierce resistance along the way. In addition, during this rescue attempt, the Chir river line (and its spunky Romanian defenders) will come under a withering assault, forcing you to manage a thrilling and challenging three-front battle. This is also the first chance you have to use the immensely powerful (and expensive) Panther and Tiger tanks, though their early unreliability hurts them enough that you might be better off sticking with Panzer IV's for now. Zvesda/Operation Star: A short scenario centered on a controlled, fighting retreat, and an interesting change of pace. You have a lot of space to trade for time and the terrain favors you, but... you might be tempted to try holding on to the objectives for as long as possible. Just don't be surprised if the Soviet spearheads exact a heavy toll on your troops if you decide to stand and fight. Instead, you're encouraged to use the space available and consider if/where/when you want to make your delaying actions. Kharkov 2: The swift counterstrike that follows the tactical withdrawal of the previous scenario. Fairly simple and lacks a proper 'crescendo' as the main struggle will be defeating the initial Soviet spearheads and retaking Kharkov. Capturing the secondary VP's afterwards is more of a mop-up operation, though as always the Soviets won't exactly roll over for you while you do it. Kursk: A pretty good final scenario that results in a climactic clash of armored forces. Your unit roster opens up a lot for this scenario, providing you some excellent vehicles like the reliable(!) Tiger E, the tough and powerful Sturmpanzer IV, and the fast, long-ranged Hummel SPG. The Soviets have some of their own new equipment too, but their advantage still lies in the sheer weight of their numbers. A good finish to the campaign, best left unspoiled. You could describe this campaign as the equivalent of the USA/Japanese pacific campaigns, in that you fight the same capable foe for most of the campaign and the variety stems from the different technology, circumstances, and locations where each battle takes place. Carrying over your Blitzkrieg core is recommended even if just for the leaders as they are fantastic. I can't guarantee the difficulty curve will be the same otherwise, unless you're looking to add a bit more challenge.

I love this game. I think it's the successor to the Panzer General Series and better in every aspect. This is my third DLC for this game, I'll probably buy the rest eventually but I had to have this one because it's the Eastern Front. Had to have it. I played the first battle last night, it took me three hours and I lost....however, I almost won. I had to maintain control of 4 objectives / cities and on turn 17 in a 20 turn scenario, I screwed up and moved a garrison of 3 units north of one objective, the Soviets parachuted 3 or 4 airborne infantry into that objective and screwed me out of the victory. I was pissed to say the least, a little disgusted, but after I slept on it I had to admit the next day that I was challenged and I had fun even though I lost. The Russians are more relentless than the Japs and they never stop coming at you. So if you buy this DLC, bring your A game or prepare to be educated. Slitherine publishes the best wargames. They are unchallenged in this genre. I would really like to see them tackle a Strategic version of WW2 to take out Paradox and their overly complicated, simplisticly designed, repetitive and difficult to grasp Hearts of Iron series. Turn based instead of real time. Paradox has been milking that Clausewitz engine since the early 2000's. They need some competition and it would be great for us PC wargamers too. I would prefer to play this game than Hearts of Iron IV.

Panzerkrieg is a glorious (likely) conclusion to Order of Battle's campaigns in the East between the Germans and Soviets. It's suprisingly varied, difficult, and plain old fun. It's good to know the newest DLC is the stongest to date, as it bodes well for the future. I put in about 35 hours in this DLC. Well worth the cost. Buy it. The series of campaigns pick up where Blitzkrieg left off, with you at the door of the Kremlin...except the Soviets have counterattacked. The battles focus on this grand back and forth across the steppes, with close ups in Crimea, the Caucasus, Stalingrad, and Kursk. At the start of the first battle, you realize this will not be like other DLC. You're hardpressed to hold what you have, let alone push forward. Over the first few battles, you're rescusing entire encircled armies (the scale of maps and units is HUGE), and taking phyrric victories. I lost a number of times, trying to figure out the best way to both deploy and use my troops. It's the first DLC where I can recall needing and using a varied force with mobile flak, light transport, anti-tank, and engineers. The middle battles in the 12-battle campaign see a lot of German success. You're russing to the Don, to the Volga, to the oilfields of the Caucasus. Running tank battles and upgrading your men to having armored transports are the letter of the day. Stukas fly ahead and reduce entrenchment. It's fantastic. The scale of maps and the number of troops on both sides mean you have to choose your advances and where to fortify crossings. The game really shines. There's a three-battle focus on Stalingrad: first the rapid advance to the outskirts of the city, then a close up on the taking of the city, and finally a fantastic winter battle with encircled German armies holding out. They don't come one after another, and that's another good aspect of the DLC - the devs know when to shift the campaign focus to keep you interested. The battle of take Stalingrad is all you could hope. Weak troop transports are easy pickings for your veteran Stukas, if you can dodge gunboats and AA. Heavy artillery across the Volga wreaks havoc on your advancing armies, so you have to soak it up and hope the Luftwaffe can survive to take them out. Block-by-block fighting around a number of key locations is fully engrossing. Taking the city feels like an accomplishment. The battle of hold Stalingrad is possibly even better. The Volga's frozen, so your encircled army can only hang tight and fend off Soviet assaults from many sides. Garbage Romanian troops help you hold the line elsehwere as you try to relieve the encircled army. It's a close battle, and I nearly lost on the middle difficulty. The crowning achievement of the DLC is the final battle centered around the Kursk tank battles. It at first seems like another standard running battle, where the Germans blitz through scattered Soviet garrisons and occasional armies. And then you hit resistance. I don't want to give it away, but suddenly you realize there are 20 Soviet tanks threatening not only your advance, but the whole army. I had hardly any ability to repair my units or heal men due to upgrading to Panthers and other improved tanks. In the end, I eked out victory by having my veteral infantry soak up attacks and let my veteran Stugs bombard the Soviets. But it was close, and I'll hear Katyusha rockets in my nightmares.

As much as I enjoyed the carrier battles of the US Pacific and Rising Sun campaigns, Panzerkrieg is still my favorite in the Order of Battle series. For me it is the consummate East front experience. So many great iconic battles here, all showcased within a system that is easy to learn and hard to master. There is a lot of variety and ebb and flow in this campaign which keeps things interesting. Some comments on most of the scenarios: Ryzhev - One of the more challenging opening battles in the OoB series, and one where you have to defend a three-sided salient in the high Russian winter, and do it on a shoestring budget. This one puts you to the test right out of the gate. Demyansk - Like the previous battle, I didn't know a lot about this one other than it happened, and it turned out to be quite interesting. It was a 'cavalry to the rescue' situation and a dress rehearsal for the relief of Stalingrad. Further, most players will still be hard up for resource points this early in the campaign, so you have to win it on a budget. Kharkov '42 - Expected this one to be a pushover for the Germans, and it was not. You have to quickly close the encirclement and do it with limited forces, with the Soviets trying to break your encirclement from both within and outside the pocket. This battle was very tense and chaotic, and exceeded my expectations. Case Blue (Voronezh and Kalach) - The iconic drive on Stalingrad. You do it over two large maps and are given a lot of leeway on how you want to proceed. Also, the Soviets are toughening up by this point (as if they weren't challenging enough already!), and starting to deploy more T-34's and Il-2 Sturmoviks. Also, the Night Witches was an interesting touch. Stalingrad - This famous iconic battle could have been a grindy city slog, but it was not. There's a lot going on in this battle both within and around the city, and as in the historic battle one of the challenges is to not be taking excessive casualties on your vet troops at the hands of Soviet conscripts. Winter Storm - This one greatly exceeded my expectations, and is one of my favorites in the Order of Battle series. Not only to do you have to advance with your Winter Storm relief force against tough opposition while defending 'Fortress' Stalingrad, but you also have to defend the Chir River line against strong Soviet attacks. Fail in any of these three and it's game over man! Operation Star - It's always an interesting challenge trying do a fighting withdrawal in the face of a superior enemy, and this one was very tense and exciting. The situation forces you to make judicious use of engineers, and plan in advance where you will make your stands. Kharkov '43 - Manstein's legendary 'Miracle of the Donets'. This was another one I expecting to be easy, and turned out to be rather challenging. You have to advance against a strong opponent and think outside the box for creative solutions while you're doing it. Also, it's hard not to resist deploying some early Tiger tanks at this point, which can still be quite useful despite their expense and unreliable early state. Kursk - What better way to end this campaign than with one of the largest, most apocalyptic battles in history. The interesting thing about the game's take on this epic and iconic battle is it is not quite the grindy slog I had expected, but rather gives the player some maneuver options. Without giving away any spoilers, suffice to say that the devs delivered in spades here with an epic finale worthy of the battle and the campaign. Anyway, I highly recommended Panzerkrieg. Also, I would recommend prospective players doing the Order of Battle Blitzkrieg campaign first, as you can transfer your core force from Blitzkrieg to Panzerkrieg, but this is by no means a requirement.

Outstanding. Order of Battle is just great. Outside of a whole ton of little gripes, and complaints, the OOB Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg are just awesome. I'm old and grew up with hex-based war board games and eventually into Panzer General series. I never really went beyond the Panzer General series, because I really enjoyed the chess aspect of the game. Recently, Panzer Corps was my war game of choice. Even though I finished Blitzkrieg and Panzerkrieg, I still am just a novice player. My second play through will be at higher difficulty, and I'll read the manual. I didn't really make use of Commanders, Generals and proper "Supply" management. I was well into the Panzerkrieg campaign before I realized that I had huge amounts of Waffen SS money to spend on Waffen SS units. That changed a lot for me. I rely far too heavily on Engineers over Tanks. Late in the campaign I bit the bullet on a Tiger Tank and eventually a Panther. They were both useless. The two tanks rarely had any ammo so they couldn't attack. However, enemy units didn't spend much time attacking it so it made a good hangout for a Commander. One thing I dislike about all these games is the effort for opposing forces to attach AA and Artillery 1st over tanks and infantry. Scenarios provide a couple free AA units that are not core, so I use them as bate when facing heavy Russian tanks. Anyways, the bottom line is that I am pleased with the OOB games and will likely get Winter War, Burma, etc. It's a much more sophisticated game then Panzercorps, and Panzer General. Just make sure you understand supply, commanders, specializations in stuff like Waffen SS, and more before you play.

I am torn when thinking about providing a review for this DLC. On one hand, I really like the time period, the struggle on the Eastern Front etc. On the other hand , the Panzerkrieg DLC is full of bugs. I think the Artistocrats should have waited with the release. Even from the start of the DLC, there are bugs with importing your core. It took me 3 tries in order to get everything right, to get my leaders, units etc. There are bugs with mission objectives, for example in the Sevastopol scenario I didn't get the Luftwaffe hero. There also seems to be a bug with the new Waffen specialization: it doesn't provide the +10 RP per turn as advertised. The last one made me stop playing the DLC, until they fix it in a patch. So I will give it a failing grade this time. Just so that the developers spend more time QAing the next DLC. PS. I still love the game though.

Honestly I think that Order fo Battle: Panzerkrieg is the best Order of Battle: World War II DLC to date. I am impressed with the new units in the game and the new maps. I can tell the game developer (The Artistocrats) put alot of effort and spent alot of time to make this latest DLC. I have put over 800 hours playing Order of Battle: World War II DLC's. Order of Battle: Panzerkrieg has alot of replay value to it The maps are huge. For example, on the first campaign mission in this DLC, I got my butt whipped by the enemy Russian units. I spent alot of hours playing that mission and I was surprised when I got defeated by the enemy AI. I went back and played that first mission all over again and I noticed that alot of the enemy units approached me differently the second time around. For instance, Russian paratroopers flew in Russian planes from the East the first time I played and landed on the southeast part of the map. The second time I played, Russian paratroopers flew in from the west and landed on the southwest part of the map. That was pretty impressive because I had to change my strategy completely on how to deal with the enemy. I fill like I'm playing part of World War II history when I'm playing Order of Battle: World War II DLC's. I can't wait until the game developer (The Artistocrats) make future DLC's for this game. I think they are givng the game developer of Panzer Corps a run for their money. I have all the Panzer Corps DLC's and I have played them all. I really liked playing Panzer Corps but I have to admit I love playing Order of Battle: World War II more. __________ Update First of all I love Order of Battle: World War II and I have played every campaign so far. With that being said, I'm sorry to say that I feel like Order of Battle: Panzerkrieg is incomplete and needed more time to be worked on by the game developer and finished properly. In the beginning of the campaign, I thought it was great until I play the last three scenarios. I noticed that the last three scenarios don't feel right. On the third to last scenerio, Operation Star, the scenario starts out February 1, 1943 and tells you have 24 turns to play through the scenario. The problem is I'm only able to play until about turn 10 or 11 and then the game declares victory for you and the scenario is over with. It doesn't make any sense. How come I can;t play the full 24 turns in the scenario? In the second to last scenario, Kharkov Counterattack, it starts out February 19, 1943 but I noticed the ground is not covered with snow. It takes place right after Operation Star scenario. Why does Operation Star which basically take place in the same area have snow on the ground but not Kharkov Conterstrike? Both scenarios take place in the same month and year. Shouldn't both scenarios have snow on the ground? In the last scenario, Kursk South scenario, it takes place starting July 5, 1943. Why does the scenario only have the southern half to the Kurak Salient to play? Why was the northern half left out of the game? In my opinion, the northern half was just has important has the southern half of the Kursk salient since both halves had two large German Army Groups trying to meet and cut off and destroy thousands of Russian troops. The Kursk campaign involved millions of both Gernan and Russian troops and thousands of tanks and planes. The largest tank battle in the history of warfare took place during the Kursk campaign. I really wanted to play the whole Kursk scenario playing both the southern and northern German Army Groups trying to meet up in the middle of the Kursk Salient and try to do a massive pincer moverrment.to trap Russian troops in the Kursk Salient. I was disappointed I couldn't do any of that. Getting back to the Kursk South scenario, I don't understand why the objectives changed halfway through the scenario where in the beginning of the scenario you are supposed to attack and take the town of Oboyan but then halfway through the scenario your objective changes and you are suppose to destroy 15 Russian tanks around Prokhorovka to win the scenario. Why can't you destroy the 15 Russian tank and still take Oboyan to win the scenario? Obviously you would need to add more turns to the scenario because right now it simply is not possible to do all this. I think you should add more turns to Kursk South and add a bonus scenario to play the northern half of the Kursk Salent (Kursk North) to Order of Battle: Panzerkrieg. Or do a giant map to play the whole Kursk salent from both north and south. Just to clarify what I mean with the turns in the Panzerkrieg Campaign, in the U.S. Marines Campaign, the last scenario in the campaign (Iwo Jima) has 40 turns. In the Burma Road Campaign, the second to last scenario (Irrawaddy River) has 60 turns and the very last scenario (Race for Rangoon) has 70 turns. The Burma Road Campaign came out just before the Panzerkrieg Campaign so you would think that a newer DLC would have more turns in the scenarios. Especially when you consider that in the Kursk South scenario you have one of the largest land battles fought during World War II. The game developer only put 32 turns in the last scenario for the Panzerkrieg Campaign. In the last scenario you would think that the game developer would have at least put in a minimum 40 turns because of what past DLC campaigns had. I hope the game developer puts out a new patch to address all these problems. I really feel like this is the first Order of Battle: World War II DLC that was not done properly and the game developer had rushed to get it out for the Christmas season. It sort of reminds of what game developers done with two World War II games called Medal of Honor Airborne and Brothers in Arms Hells Highway where the first part of the games were done great and then I feel like the game developers rushed through to finish the latter part of each game just to hurry and finish them to meet a deadline. I really like the new video that is shown at the beginning of the game. It is very well made and gives me an idea of what is coming in the future. It looks like we will be playing in the North African Campaign and the Normandy Campaign in future DLC's. I'm very excited to be playing these future DLC's along with Panzer Corps 2 coming out next year. Cheers