Panzer Campaigns - Looking to make first purchase in series!

[Mr Grumpy]

Enjoy, it is a great title.............

[jim pfleck]

I really have enjoyed Sicily too. It may lack some of the open movement of the desert or east front titles, but it is a good game to learn the combat mechanics. If you are looking for open, more maneuver based warfare, both Kharkov games have it (especially 42), as do Tobruk and El Alamein, and Minsk and Smolensk for sure. I have not played the East Front games PBEM a ton so maybe other people know better than I..

[76mm]

If you are looking for open, more maneuver based warfare...Minsk...for sure.

I have to disagree with this one--it is probably the least maneuver-friendly game I've ever played... Fortified Germans, lots of swamps and rivers to channelize movement, blown bridges, etc. I found it rather tedious.

[-72-]

Disclaimer: I have only ever played PBEM as the Soviet side (and then only in the campaign once, and then after that two smaller ones against Chad awhile ago - who had the misfortune of my having had experience in the campaign game first.).

I did not find it all that static (I mean yes, it is a 1944 scenario -so you are going to be using significantly heavier formations) - at least not for the Soviet player. Even in the campaign scenario I have made some pretty massive gains by the time my opponent and I had called it, as well as some fairly significant pockets that would be eliminated eventually.

You do have to dismount your infantry and other mech formations and go on foot. Cross rivers and go isolated while you build bridge crossings, and things like that.

I don't know, though, that it would probably be all that much fun playing as the German player when a large proportion of your force is non-mechanised infantry - it is sort of its own discipline I guess... using that force to its strengths and minimising weaknesses.

I don't know though, unless I had a major interest in that campaign that I would go for it first, though...

I like Smolensk 41 for open maneuver (although it is a bit like the opposite of Minsk 44 in that this time it is the Germans doing the advancing -although with less powerful artillery forces in 41 than the Soviets had in 44 (naturally)...).

[jonnymacbrown]

If you are looking for open, more maneuver based warfare...Minsk...for sure.

I have to disagree with this one--it is probably the least maneuver-friendly game I've ever played... Fortified Germans, lots of swamps and rivers to channelize movement, blown bridges, etc. I found it rather tedious.

M44 has quite a few good small scenarios 10-20 turns with plenty of room for maneuver.
jonny

[76mm]

I've only played the Minsk 44 campaign once as well, hotseat against myself. I think the biggest problem was that with the auto-bridge blowing turned on, massive numbers of bridges were going down. Granted, I should have paid more attention to keeping the bridging units forward, but in any event I will play some other PzC games I've got (but haven't played yet!) before playing this one again.