Panzer Command Ostfront

Jobu88 · 09-05-2010, 08:51 AM,

Has anyone played PC Ostfront? If so can I get a review of the game? What's good, what's bad, etc? Is is suitable for PBEM?

junk2drive · 09-06-2010, 12:14 AM,

Only the beta team members have played it.

There is plenty of info at Matrix PCO forum including CMBB vs PCO comparisions.

Yes it has old fashioned PBEM plus a better way to exchange turns.

Mad Russian · (This post was last modified: 09-06-2010, 12:50 AM by Mad Russian.)

The update is scheduled to be released 4Q 2010.

It will be free to anyone already owning PCK or can be bought on it's own. It has all the contents of PC:OWS and PC:K in it plus much more.

Here is a link to the comparison I did between CMBB and PCO.

If I Own CMBB why should I get PCO?

Here is the full update list at the time of the announcement. There have been some features added since that time but it will give you a good idea of what is already in the update.

Good Hunting.

MR

# Includes all previous Winterstorm and Kharkov content for FREE, in addition to the all new content listed below. This is the complete Panzer Command for the Eastern Front and the perfect way to get started if you have never played Panzer Command before.

# If you own Panzer Command: Kharkov, this will be provided to you as a MASSIVE FREE UPDATE. If you are new to Panzer Command, this will replace the current Winterstorm and Kharkov releases (once it releases, it will be the only Panzer Command release in our catalog) and will be a great affordable new starting point and a way to get all the previous content as well as the new features and content below at a very reasonable price.

# 10 Preset Historical Campaigns

* Choose a campaign and progress through a series of linked battles where your core force stays with you for the campaign and gains experience and medals.
* Boot Camp (Tactics Tutorial) (6 Battles)
* German Operation Barbarossa, June 1941, 3rd Panzer Division (4 Battles)
* German Battles for Mcensk, October 1941, 4th Panzer Division (5 Battles)
* German Kursk North, July 1943, XLI Panzer Corps (3 Battles)
* German Kursk South (2 Campaigns), July 1943, 1st SS Panzer Division (6 Battles Total)
* German Winterstorm, 6th Panzer Division (5 Battles)
* German Kharkov, 14th Panzer Division (8 Battles)
* Soviet Winterstorm, 7th Tank Corps (5 Battles)
* Soviet Kharkov, 169th Rifle Division (8 Battles)

# 14 Randomly Generated Historical Campaigns

* Choose a time period, a number of missions and a core force and progress through a series of randomly generated linked battles where your core force stays with you for the campaign and gains experience and medals and even equipment upgrades for the longer campaigns.
* German 1st Infantry Division (5 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (12-129 Battles)
* German 1st Panzer Division (4 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (12-96 Battles)
* German 7th Panzer Division (3 Campaigns) 1941-1944 (19-97 Battles)
* Soviet 7th Tank Corps (1 Campaign) 1942-1943 (10-26 Battles)
* Soviet 29th Tank Corps (1 Campaign) 1943-1944 (15-41 Battles)

# 60+ Preset Historical Scenarios (including stand-alone and campaign battles)

* Stand-alone and campaign scenarios include:
* Ring of Fire, May 1942 (Near Kharkov)
* Maxim Gorky I, June 1942 (Battery 30 at Sevastopol)
* The Railway Station, September 1942 (Stalingrad Central Railway Station)
* 13th Crossing Guard, September 1942 (Stalingrad Central Railway Station)
* Return Road to Kharkov, March 1943
* Buying the Farm, July 1943 (Komsomolets State Farm at Kursk)
* Prokhorovka, July 1943 (Kursk)
* Kolomak, September 1943 (West of Kharkov)
* Hell’s Gate, February 1944 (Near the Korsun Pocket)
* Grosse Kompanie, October 1944 (Recon Battle)
* Operation Konrad, January 1945 (Near Budapest)
* Spring Awakening I & II, March 1945 (Near Budapest)
* Tucheband and Golzow, March 1945 (Near Berlin Highway)
* Hypothetical Debut of the Maus
* … and many more!

# Infinite Randomly Generated Battles

* Each scenario option can be fully randomized or customized based on your preferences
* Choose any date from 1941 through 1945
* Choose your force mix, either custom (by unit type) or pick from the presets
* Choose additional options from the following:
* Points level for each side
* Human or AI control
* Reinforcements available or not
* Minefields available or not
* Battle type, ranging from assaults and meeting engagements to envelopment/pocket breakout battles and pincer/wedge battles.
* Operational strength
* Unit experience
* Force deployment direction
* Map
* All of the random battle and campaign input files are easily accessible and can be custom-configured for additional options, though no file editing is required for any of the above!
* Random battles and campaigns can also be shared with other players.

# Updated Manual

* Includes all the new rules and comprehensive tables on game modifiers and effects as well as historical background and detailed documentation for all of the editors and random generators.
* Separate tutorial guide

# New Maps

* More than thirty new maps that combine to give a representative variety of Eastern Front terrain. Some are used in the campaigns and scenarios, others are available for random battle and campaign play.

# New Full Map Maker!

* Make your own maps of historical locations. Designed to work with public terrain and height databases to automatically generate a 3D terrain mesh from real-world data. Pick your location, pick your map size and click! Additional tools to automate the placement of structures and items such as trees and shrubs assist map designers in putting together a realistic map in record time.
* Panzer Command now supports 500m, 750m, 1000m, 1500m and 2000m maps. This allows the vast majority of historical WWII battles to be properly modelled and the larger map sizes allow plenty of room for maneuver.
* The Scene Editor has also been improved for easier tweaking of object placement.

# 50+ New Fully Modeled and Animated Units spanning the 1941-1945 period on the Eastern Front (note that these are in addition to all units from Winterstorm and Kharkov)

* German
o Jagdpanther
o Brummbar (Early, Middle and Late)
o Hetzer
o Jagdpanzer IV (IV, IV Late, IV 70A, IV 70V)
o Panzer VI Tiger II (King Tiger)
o 150mm sIG33
o StuG IIIB
o Grille (M and M Late)
o Elefant
o Panzer IVG and IVH Schurzen
o Pz Kpfw T34-76 M40
o Pz Kpfw T-70 M42
o Marder IIIM
o Maus
o Panzer IIC, IID, J-VK, IIL
o Flammpanzer II
o Panzer II G-J ohne Aufbau
o SdKfz 221, 221 Late, 221 PzB 39
o SdKfz 223
o SdKfz 234 Puma
o SdKfz 250/11 Pzbuk, Halbkette ob-com, 250/09, 250 Neu
o Luftwaffe Flaktruppen
o Gebirgsjaeger Infantry
o Pioneers with Satchel Charges
o Almost all previous units overhauled and improved with better models, animations and textures
* Soviet
o Josef Stalin series (IS-1, IS-2 M1943, IS-2 M1944, IS-2m M1944, IS-2m M1945)
o KV-85
o KV-1 1939 and 1940E
o KV-1S
o ISU 122 and 152
o Sherman M4A2 Lend Lease
o T-5 Pantera
o T-4 PzKpfw IV
o T-34 M1943e
o T-34-57 M1942 and M1943
o T-26 Model 26E and 26S M1941
o Almost all previous units overhauled and improved with better models, animations and textures

# New Improved Interface and Order Improvements

* New Waypoints for Platoon and Unit Orders
* Infantry units can now auto-mount as part of a movement path. No longer do you have to wait for the next phase to enter a building!
* New Full Resizable Battle Message Log, with color-coded event messages and highlighted messages based on the selected unit. This makes it easier than ever to understand what is happening to your units wherever they are on the map.
* You can now click on the unit or the unit’s floating icon to select it.
* Double click on any unit or its floating icon on the map to move to it
* Order and unit behavior re-worked for consistency
* Improved Pathing and Collision Handling
* Hotkeys for all orders and sub-orders, including use of the space bar to pop up and hide the order menu
* New Single/Group Orders hotkey
* New Charge orders allow Soviet human waves and ramming of tanks into other tanks and AT guns
* Scenario Briefing is now available from within the battle
* Improved camera behaviour, more realistic “binocular view” and no more “ground bounce”
* Mousewheel scroll support and page up/page down buttons on most game screens
* Configuration screen and intro movie will be skipped once they are successfully run once
* All Core units are automatically purchased in set battles to save time (they can always be “unpurchased” if desired).
* The Unit HUD now displays a green indicator if a HQ unit is in communication and able to call for off-map support. No need to check each HQ unit, this information is now available at a glance.
* New 3-D Targeting box to show the area of effect for Area fire
* New Unit and HUD icons now clearly differentiate HQ and Non-HQ units
* New Cinematic view hotkey to show just the battlefield and units while removing all interface elements.
* Improved Minimap
* Selected unit icon animation for higher visibility
* Enlarge the displayed unit model size for improved visibility
* New Covered Path option
* Automatic “grid” display option for new maps
* Improved targeting and LOS tool to distinguish area and direct fire

# New Full 3D Sound System with resampled sounds for a much more immersive environment

# New PBEM Multiplayer System for easy and streamlined play

* New Victory rankings at the end of each scenario that rate each player’s performance, also useful for ladder rankings

# New Animated On-Map Air Support

* Not only more impressive visually, but the air support system is now more realistically modelled in the gameplay as far as arrival, visibility and targeting

# New Rewind Ability in Turn Replay

# New Realistic Ammo Counts for all units

# New Physics System for more realistic vehicle movement across all terrain types

# Improved Relative Sighting System

* More realistic results and much better performance (significantly improved turn calculation times) especially on multi-core systems

# Improved Graphics Engine

* Better performance on all systems, especially multi-core systems
* Improved visual quality and new “Ultra” quality option
* Improved scenario load times

# New and Improved Animations

* Close assault animations for infantry
* Individual infantry casualties to show step losses, with fallen soldiers remaining on the battlefield
* Gun recoil when firing for vehicles and field guns
* Improved explosion and destruction animations with more variation by shell and explosive size
* New smoke and fire animations for static map objects
* Flowing water for Rivers
* New weather animations (Rain, Fog and Snow)
* Staggered animations for infantry so that they no longer move in perfect synchronization

# Improved AI

* Better able to seek flanking opportunities
* Better able to judge combat matchups
* Conserves ammunition rather than taking poor shots

# Improved Fog of War

# New Contested Objectives and Higher Visibility Objective Flags

# New Scenario-Defined Turn Structure

* At the scenario level, you can choose to play the normal 40 Second Orders / 40 Second Reaction turn structure, or choose one of the following instead
* 40 Second Orders with or without a Reaction Phase
* 60 Second Orders with or without a Reaction Phase
* 80 Second Orders without a Reaction Phase
* Yes, this means that if you want you can play with 60 Second Turns with no Reaction Phase and always have access to the full Orders menu at the start of each Turn.

# Very Open and Mod-Friendly Structure – unit models and data, maps, scenarios, campaigns and more can all be easily changed and added.

Jobu88 · 09-06-2010, 10:20 AM,

Wow. Ask and ye shall receive! Thanks!

I was under the mistaken impression that PCO was already available.

Mad Russian · (This post was last modified: 09-06-2010, 11:13 AM by Mad Russian.)

The original two titles can still be purchased but not PCO as of yet.

There is a DAR currently ongoing at:

http://www.matrixgames.com/forums/tm.asp?m=2565342

I'm the Soviet commander and at the moment I'm taking fire from a King Tiger. He hasn't done any damage yet but I don't think that will hold true in the future knowing how they can be.

Good Hunting.

MR