Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines - Bulge announcement

[saraviga]

Hello Generals,

During today's Tea Time, Marco has announced the upcoming release of Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines - Bulge, the latest DLC in the Panzer Corps 2 series. 

The DLC is scheduled to launch this spring. For more insights, check out the full interview with the game's producer, David Sharrock:



Get ready to immerse yourself in the Battle of the Bulge, experiencing the intensity of WWII strategy gaming like never before.


A Strategic Onslaught

Beginning just days before the infamous December 16th, 1944, the campaign kicks off with a smaller-scale US offensive, setting the stage for the tumultuous 4-6 weeks of the Battle of the Bulge


Dive into the Details

Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines - Bulge cleverly divides the entire operation into smaller, focused battles, each spanning just a few days and a limited area. This approach allows you to relive crucial moments with unprecedented detail.


New Challenges and New Rewards

As you face a surprise German offensive in adverse weather conditions, you'll be outgunned and outnumbered. Earn heroes and extra units to tip the scales in your favor. Plus, tailor your experience by selecting easier or more challenging battles – it's your call.



Key Features:

Experience the Battle of the Bulge within a more zoomed-in scale, featuring the famous Siege of Bastogne
Unique Campaign Structure divided into smaller battles for detailed, focused gameplay.
Allied airpower is restricted for a few turns due to adverse weather conditions.
Earn heroes and extra units as rewards.
Tailor the experience by selecting easier or more challenging battles.
Enjoy a balanced gaming experience with rewards and scenario selection.
Adapt difficulty to individual skill levels and preferences.
Stay tuned for more information.


To celebrate the announcement of Panzer Corps 2 - Frontline - Bulge, we are excited to announce a new Chess Tournamen

It will feature the 3 multiplayer chess maps. You can sign up here The Tournament follows Swiss Tournament rules: you can find the full list of rules 

The first round will start on Thursday, 15th February 2024 at 12.00pm. No further entries can be accepted after the tournament has begun.

The tournament will last 3 rounds, 10 days each. Games are paired, so each matchup will be played both ways. All you need to do is sign up, then the system will pair you with opponents and create your PBEM games. You will be notified by mail of when the tournament is starting and when it will be time to play your turns.

[adiekmann]

Sounds like my long-standing wish for smaller, more focused (or "zoomed in" to use their lingo) mini-campaign is coming after all - and not from the mod community!

American PoV so I expect a largely defensive campaign at first until you go on the counter. I wonder what surprises and new ideas that they have introduced. Plus, the fact that they have given this a series title, "Battlefront," means that we can probably expect more campaigns like this in the future. The possibilities are almost endless!

[wecker]

Hm - can`t imagine how this new concept will work out.

I`m afraid I will skip this DLC - most boring battle in WW2...and that from the american side even more so...

[Retributarr]

Hm - can`t imagine how this new concept will work out.

I`m afraid I will skip this DLC - most boring battle in WW2...and that from the american side even more so...

"Hm - can`t imagine how this"... unexpected surprise assault could not be extremely exciting... especially when there could be an opportunity for the "German Panzer Force" to come across and find... then secure the "American Fuel Dump"... which would lead to making the mission to capture the port of Antwerp much more attainable. With Antwerp under German control... the British forces would now be cut-off from their supply-chain... forcing them at some near timetable to surrender.

If this premised event were to actually occur... the American and British forces would now be effectively "Cut In Two!"... thus making the allied effort as a combined whole... tenuous at best regarding holding onto their gains in Western-Europe. It could also mean the collapse of the American forces as well... as without Montgomery's British participation ... the invasion for the American's would also very-likely collapse as well.

Is that not worth playing for???... for either side to "Thwart The Other!".

[heinz1803]

No new information to the DLC on the slitherine homepage. How many scenarios?

https://www.slitherine.com/game/panzer- ... s-Bulge/pc

[VirgilInTheSKY]

No new information to the DLC on the slitherine homepage. How many scenarios?

https://www.slitherine.com/game/panzer- ... s-Bulge/pc

Marco said it has 12, with all branches included. A rather small one if compared with the grand AO ones.

[heinz1803]

Why not an Allied Campaign starting 1939

First English then US Campaign

Or an Axis Operation DLC Desert Fox.

Guess it will be the first DLC that i will ignore till the first reviews came in.

[medkirtys]

I'm surprised to see such negativity towards this DLC. I got bored of axis operations around 1943 though I still intend to finish 1944 and 1945 someday. For now a smaller DLC focused on a single battle sounds much more interesting to me.

[terminator]

It’s a good idea to do mini-campaigns. The Axis Operation campaign is too long for me who does not have much free time.

[Tassadar]

Interesting concept. I prefer larger DLC that span over a longer period of time as I enjoy how the units get upgraded over the course of the campaign, but this seems like the perfect way to test out some different mechanics and ideas in a much more curated environment. I'll play this for sure.

[terminator]

Should be more logical that Battle of the Bulge comes this winter and not this spring :

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[bondjamesbond]

Belgium is good, but when is the addon about Panzer Corps 2: Pacific !?
https://www.slitherine.com/game/panzer-corps-2-pacific

[monkspider]

I posted my take on this on steam, but in short, I'm not very optimistic.

"This honestly sounds disappointing. Who wants to play as the Americans during Bulge, that is so much less interesting from a gameplay perspective than the Germans. Moreover, as a more significant point, this content misses the point of what people love about the Panzer Corps series, long, branching campaigns where you build up a core over time. How often do people play the standalone scenarios, which is what this is for all intents and purposes."

There are so many cool things they could have done, Italian Axis Operations, Japan Axis Operations, Hungary Axis Operations, hell, if they insisted on having the Americans be the playable faction, they could have started an "Allied Operations" series, maybe a couple scenarios featuring the Abraham Lincoln Brigade in Spain, then maybe some creative stuff like American volunteers in various European battles, the armed neutrality phase and the sinking of the Reuben James, just have the first DLC focus on building up a bit of a core and experiencing some unique battles and then finally have the next dlc start the war proper and then go year by year with maybe a final DLC focusing on Operation Unthinkable or Operation Olympic, some kind of interesting alternate history. I would have preferred keeping the Axis Operations series going but even I would have found that interesting. And it would have stuck to a formula that is known to be popular. No one plays the standalone scenarios.

[DefiantXYX]

Moreover, as a more significant point, this content misses the point of what people love about the Panzer Corps series, long, branching campaigns where you build up a core over time. How often do people play the standalone scenarios, which is what this is for all intents and purposes."

Excactly. I never played a single szenario in any panzergeneral game. It makes no sense if you dont have your core.
I will also skip this one.

Maybe they are trying to test some stuff for greater campaigns in the future. Also there is absolutly no feedback in the forums here I guess the devs know about the problems in the "lategame".

[bebro]

Not sure if there's a misunderstanding here - it's a campaign, not a single scenario.

I absolutely see why players ask for more, longer, and linked campaigns, but you can certainly have a core army in Bulge, it's just not meant to be a multi DLC thing.

[heinz1803]

Not sure if there's a misunderstanding here - it's a campaign, not a single scenario.

I absolutely see why players ask for more, longer, and linked campaigns, but you can certainly have a core army in Bulge, it's just not meant to be a multi DLC thing.

No equipment upgrades and after 12 battles you can delete the save file. Guess most players like to develop their army over more than one DLC.

[wecker]

Not sure if there's a misunderstanding here - it's a campaign, not a single scenario.

I absolutely see why players ask for more, longer, and linked campaigns, but you can certainly have a core army in Bulge, it's just not meant to be a multi DLC thing.

No equipment upgrades and after 12 battles you can delete the save file. Guess most players like to develop their army over more than one DLC.

That is exactly the point.

The fun since the original Panzer General is for me to establish a core army with growing experience and upgrading my units with new equipment through the years accordingly.

I cannot imagine getting that satisfaction in this Bulge DLC - no matter how many fights or battles this will allow. Simply defending Bastogne or St Vith - it sounds boring to me. Not to mention the fact that I don`t like the US at all...

What will be next? A separate DLC for Sicily, Salerno, Monte Cassino, Normandy, the Falaise Gap, Arnhem, the Remagen Bridge? And every DLC for 10 bucks?

You can try to convince me - but it would be hard...

[zakblood]

Arnhem, i'd buy it

[adiekmann]

9 scenarios longest playable path - that is much shorter than I had in mind when I have been asking for a more focused (I prefer my term over "zoomed in") mini campaign. I envision a more focused mini campaign being the length of at least the vanilla campaign, or 20-30 scenarios. That's playable scenarios, not narrative or other bizarre scenarios.

I totally agree; I too rarely play single scenarios. Since Panzer General 1, the greatest aspect of this game is developing your core over a long campaign. While I do enjoy a good, huge map, sometimes the giant maps with 200+ core slot deployment, etc. can get tedious. Smaller, or medium-sized maps with fewer units throughout is sometimes preferable for a change. Simplicity can have its own element of beauty to it.

Even more than focusing on a single battle/operation, the history nerd in me would like even more for it to be focused on a historical formation and their historical operations/battles that they participated in. Some examples, though there are tons of possibilities, include one focused on the Fallschirmjäger, British Commandos, or really any famous single division on any side. And then, yes, I definitely would like to see the units historically named on both sides. I would think in these smaller, historical maps/campaigns that would be totally possible.

At the same time, try to align all the maps and units to the same scale, whatever that may be, even if that means adjusting the unit stats to make it work. That last one would be a huge endeavor, so I could let that one go if I could get the others. Maybe scale the hexes to be somewhat proportional to the range of the aircraft, and then the ground units will just have to fit in on that scale whether it still doesn't make total sense or not.

Or maybe it is too late for all of that for PC2. But that should be a starting consideration and huge improvement idea for any future Panzer Corps 3!

[Grondel]

At the same time, try to align all the maps and units to the same scale, whatever that may be, even if that means adjusting the unit stats to make it work. That last one would be a huge endeavor, so I could let that one go if I could get the others. Maybe scale the hexes to be somewhat proportional to the range of the aircraft, and then the ground units will just have to fit in on that scale whether it still doesn't make total sense or not.

We did this, well actually wasn´t me who did the doing, but whatever, here´s the reason why this is sadly no good idea.

We set a hex as 4 square kms and adjusted all ranges, fuel and whatnot to accomodate that range.
Artillerie and all ground vehicles would go fine with this. Most artillerie would have a range of 2-4 hexes with some, namely the 17cm and the US 8inch going off at 7hexes. All fine, but planes break it. The A-26 eq would have a range of 575 hexes. If we still had the air-system from PC1, all fine, fuel adjusted and then looked at the top speed to set a range per turn. The system with planes bound to airfields forces a certain scale on the scenarios, zooming in is an issue that way.
I haven´t tried planes with that range since they fixed the lag issue when selecting planes, but before my computer froze for several seconds when selecting a plane with that range.

I finally decided to do a compromise and enhance the plane range by roughly 5 hexes and zoom in a little more, but going down to battalion sized units, which is what i would really like to do, is still out of the question. Currently 1939 and the intheworks 1940 of the PC1-remake mod has a unit size somewhere between division and regiment, which imo is still to huge to have the units devided into infantry/tank/anti-tank/artillerie...etc. since on that scale it is mostly mixxed units.

Maybe u should look into Headquarters:WW2, unit size goes down to squad for infantry and single vehicle for motorized units.

sers,
Thomas