Panzer General II

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Panzer General II

Developer(s)	Strategic Simulations, Inc.
Designer(s)	SSI Special Projects Group
Series	Living Battlefield
Version	(latest official) 1.02
Platform(s)	Windows
Release date	September 30, 1997
Genre(s)	Turn based strategy
Mode(s)	Singleplayer, 4 player multiplayer via internet, network, or PEBM
Rating(s)	(ESRB) Kids to Adults
Media	CD
System requirements	Pentium 90 or greater, 16 MB RAM, 1 MB SVGA video card, 4X CD ROM, 28.8 kbit/s modem for multiplayer
Input methods	Mouse and keyboard

Panzer General II is a turn-based strategy computer game by Strategic Simulations, Inc. Released September 30th, 1997, Panzer General II is the sixth SSI game in the "General" series and the first in the "Living Battlefield " series. It takes place during World War II, covering events from the Spanish Civil War in 1938 to hypothetical battles in 1946. In the April 2000 issue of the magazine PC Gamer, it was voted the 44th best computer game of all time.

[edit] Gameplay

The game of Panzer General II is divided into scenarios, each representing a specific battle. All are played on a hex map, which is divided up into hexagons that represent between one and two kilometers.^[1] At the beginning of the game, the entire map is revealed to the player, but enemy units are covered by fog of war and are not visible.

Each hex is assigned one of thirteen terrain types that penalize or assist the movement of units. Mountain, city, and forest types block line of sight. The game also features four kinds of capatureable hexes marked a flag indicating the country owning it: ownership, designating a player's ownership of a city, town or other important feature; supply, allowing unit deployment; victory, indicating critical cities or objectives; and victory-supply, combining victory and supply. The objective is to defeat an enemy by capturing all of their victory hexes in a specified number of turns.

The player attacks enemies and captures hexes by moving units, which approximately represent a battalion, regiment ^[2] or squadron. There are eight types of units, each with different properties: Infantry, Tank, Anti-Tank, Recon, Air Defense, Fighter, Artillery, and Bomber. Each unit is assigned a numerical value to represent its movement (in hexes); its line of sight (in hexes); its attack abilities against armored targets, unarmored targets, ships, and airplanes; its defense against ranged, close, and air attacks; as well as a values for initiative and remaining ammunition and fuel. The final value, health, is represented by a fraction, usually out of 10.

The player has several options that units may take in a turn: A unit may move as many hexes as it has movement points (modified by terrain). It may then fire its weapon, resupply, gaining back ammunition and fuel points, or reinforce, gaining back health points. Reinforcing costs the player prestige, the unit of currency used to buy units between scenarios in the campaign. Prestige is gained by capturing enemy hexes and as a reward for completing a scenario quickly.

Upon gaining experience, units may receive special abilities, called leaders in Panzer General II. See List of Leaders in Panzer General II for more details.

The game (namely German Scenario) contains many hypothetical and real life scenarios such as Battle of Suomussalmi where no German soldiers fought. Similar to other games of the series, players will be able to play some hypothetical scenarios if they perform exceptionally in their command career. For example, Germany can invade and capture British Isles by capturing Windsor or they can invade Malta with Italy. Again, if player attains victories in the east and defeats Soviet Union, Germany can invade United States from Port of Savannah and then march to Oak Ridge in Tennessee to capture prototype US atomic bomb.