Similar Games

[Mitth'raw'nuruodo]

Any other games like this that has a bit more depth - specifically things like officers / leaders, command structure etc?

[Montecalm]

You could try the men of war series which is somewhat similar or panzer general 2. Radio commander has the command structure you seem to be looking for.

[Hercule Poirot]

Originally posted by Mitth'raw'nuruodo:

Any other games like this that has a bit more depth - specifically things like officers / leaders, command structure etc?

decisive campaign series, Hex of Steel, the operational art of war series to name a few

[Warriordude]

Total Tank Generals is the most similar so far but they don't have officers,Leaders and command structure yet, they are thinking about adding some field commanders though.

Panzer Corps 2 has the longest Campaigns and a lot more stuff but Total Tank Generals is still a lot of fun.

[Droogan]

Order of Battle is similar and has quite a bit of content as well.

[Hercule Poirot]

Originally posted by Fulgrim:

Originally posted by Mitth'raw'nuruodo:

Any other games like this that has a bit more depth - specifically things like officers / leaders, command structure etc?

decisive campaign series, Hex of Steel, the operational art of war series to name a few

also gary grigsby's games

all in all pc series is very much to the arcade side when it comes to turn based ww2 strategy/operational games and i would say gary grigsby is propably the farest on the simulation side

[Hercule Poirot]

Originally posted by Droogan:

Order of Battle is similar and has quite a bit of content as well.

more panzer corp likes that come to mind are:
unity of command series, strategic minds series, warplan, klotzen and hex of steel

[Sithos]

Hex of Steel - Demo available :)

[Mitth'raw'nuruodo]

Thank you all for your suggestions. Sadly most of these games do not have officers / leaders. I don't know why this has become a trend, especially among Slitherine published games, whereas leadership and command structure were fundamental aspects of warfare through the ages.

Of course that does not include brilliant games like War in the Pacific or War in the East, but their scope is vastly different from something like Panzer Corps.

Total Tank Generals looks promising if they do follow through on their promise to add officer units. Other than that Decisive Campaigns looks promising as well. Will pick it up next sale.

The one game I found that had a similar scope and design, with the addition of officers, is a little game called Army General. It could have been great, but unfortunately developers did not make enough money so they stopped updating and expanding the game.

[Boredflak]

Part of what you are missing is the scale of these games. PzC 2 has a scale that varies from scenario to scenario. The ground scale in most non city maps is between 12 and 20 KM per hex. Unit size is never locked down it is left very vague. Officers are part of every unit at this scale. But also you can think of some of the Heroes you get as Officers. That you have a higher command structure is really not common in this scale. A game of this type that you do get Officers is OOB. You get named officers that can effect the unit they are attached to and in some cases units with in 2 or 3 hexes of that unit. It uses the same system as PzC 2.

[Mitth'raw'nuruodo]

Originally posted by Boredflak:

Part of what you are missing is the scale of these games. PzC 2 has a scale that varies from scenario to scenario. The ground scale in most non city maps is between 12 and 20 KM per hex. Unit size is never locked down it is left very vague. Officers are part of every unit at this scale. But also you can think of some of the Heroes you get as Officers. That you have a higher command structure is really not common in this scale. A game of this type that you do get Officers is OOB. You get named officers that can effect the unit they are attached to and in some cases units with in 2 or 3 hexes of that unit. It uses the same system as PzC 2.

IMO officers should not be considered as heroes, and vice-versa. There were both good and bad officers. Every unit at every level would have officers or leaders, both good and bad, as real world armies do. It would be up to the players to make the best use of them. Order of battle has the same problem in that despite calling them officers, they are treated in the same way as the heroes in Panzer Corps 2.

To me leaders and command structure are an essential piece of historical authenticity that turn a collection of sprites into an army. When I read about about historical wars, leaders always feature heavily in them. Their individual qualities and failures are often decisive. Wars since the 19th century almost all come with the orders of battle documented in detail. Yet only a handful of wargames (Command Ops, Scourge of War, Ultimate General Civil War, Grand Tactician, John Tiller's games, some Gary Grigsby games) have featured such things in their design. And most of those games are either ancient, or an ugly unusable mess. Would love a game that has the visual fidelity and mechanical detail of Panzer Corps 2, but with the addition of persistent command structure and officers throughout a campaign. Ultimate General and Grand Tactician is almost exactly that, but of course the Civil War setting is not as varied and interesting as WW2.

Anyways please don't take this as criticism of games you enjoy. Such features are important to me personally, does not mean they have to be important for everyone. Cheers.

[Boredflak]

No the leaders in OOB are not the same as heroes in PzC2. The biggest difference is that some of them will add bonus to multiple hexes. Hero in PzC 2 is strictly the unit it is assigned too. As for leaders not being heroes there are many cases historically that a leaders heroic actions inspired the troops. The part here that I think you are implying is that leaders should add a benefit to multiple units. Again that is not within the scope of this games scale. Could you add them? Most certainly but it would require a rework of the base mechanics of the game. As far as I know there are no games set at this scale that does that except OOB. And I admit that there are not many leaders that extend the benefits beyond the unit they attach to. But there are a few.

[яise]

Originally posted by Droogan:

Order of Battle is similar and has quite a bit of content as well.

This is the correct answer, OOB does some things better than PZC, and PZC does some things better than OOB

[Mitth'raw'nuruodo]

Originally posted by Boredflak:

No the leaders in OOB are not the same as heroes in PzC2. The biggest difference is that some of them will add bonus to multiple hexes. Hero in PzC 2 is strictly the unit it is assigned too. As for leaders not being heroes there are many cases historically that a leaders heroic actions inspired the troops. The part here that I think you are implying is that leaders should add a benefit to multiple units. Again that is not within the scope of this games scale. Could you add them? Most certainly but it would require a rework of the base mechanics of the game. As far as I know there are no games set at this scale that does that except OOB. And I admit that there are not many leaders that extend the benefits beyond the unit they attach to. But there are a few.

I mean leaders were there for each and every unit in history, irrespective of scale. Not just a handful you attach to certain units, like in OOB (and like heroes in Panzer Corps). Many leaders were heroic. Many were the opposite. Most were somewhere in the middle. While we do not know the name of every centurion in the Roman legions, WW2 has the advantage of these things being rather well documented.

If that seems like a lot of micromanagement, it is worth noting that, as it was historically, the commanding officer at the top (the role played by the player) would not manually assign, fire, promote each and every leader, which would be done via the army's own system (automated according to some rule-set in the video-game equivalent). There could be some political currency e.g. prestige or influence that will let the player intervene. But mostly the player would have to make best use of the leaders available, good or bad, according to their abilities.

It is not just for the sake of historical authenticity, but it is also good for gameplay. Among other things having a varied leadership qualities for each unit will prevent units from being clones of each other.

There are some tactical games, like I mentioned, that do model leaders in a more historical way - John Tiller's games, Scourge of War, Ultimate General. Command Ops also has leaders for every unit - although they are not always named, their abilities are distinct. Other than that abandoned game Army General, none I could find were in the same scale as Panzer Corps 2, with little pretty tanks and such. So I thought I would check if anyone knew some hidden gem that I was unaware of.

I have no interest in the reworking of Panzer Corps 2. So many people love it. Let it be as it is. But it is something developers, and copy cats should consider for the future.

[Supercalifragilisticexpiali...]

Panzer Corps

Commander- The Great War

Unity of Command
Unity of Command 2

Strategic Mind- The Pacific
Strategic Mind- Blitzkrieg
Strategic Mind- Spectre of Communism
Strategic Mind- Fight for Freedom
Strategic Mind- Spirit of Liberty

Strategic Command WWII- War in Europe
Strategic Command WWII- World at War
Strategic Command- World War 1

Order of Battle- World War II

Vietnam ‘65

Afghanistan '11

The Great War- Western Front

Total Tank Generals


P.s,
Happy gaming!