Panzer General

PlayStation console exclusive

You are the brightest and best of the new Axis generals in the Second World War. Your tactical skills will be tested in armored assaults, amphibious invasions, paradrops, naval engagements, and fierce aerial combat for control of the skies. Go from triumph to triumph, invading and seizing the capitals of Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and ultimately the United States of America on your way to conquering the whole world! Can you achieve a place in history?

Released: 1994
Platforms: 3DO 3DO Interactive Multiplayer Linux MS-DOS PC-9800 Series PlayStation Windows macOS
Genres: Grand strategy Strategy Turn-based strategy Turn-based tactics World War II
Developers: Strategic Simulations
Publishers: Strategic Simulations
Modes: Local multiplayer Multiplayer Single-player
Perspective: First person
Themes: Action
Age ratings: ESRB E

About

Panzer General is a 1994 computer wargame developed and published by Strategic Simulations Inc. (SSI). It simulates conflict during World War II. The designers of Panzer General were heavily influenced by the Japanese wargame series Daisenryaku.

Panzer General was a major commercial hit: 250,000 units were sold at full price, and long tail sales continued in the years ahead. It became and remained SSI's best-selling game across all genres, and was named the best-selling computer wargame of all time in 2007. It is the first in the commercially successful Panzer General series.

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Panzer General is a turn-based game, set on operational level hex maps. One plays lone scenarios from either Axis or Allied side and against a computer or human opponent. In Campaign Mode, the player assumes the role of a German Generalissimus against the Allied computer.

Panzer General is an operational-level game, and units approximate battalions, although the unit size and map scale from one scenario to the next are elastic. While the names and information for the units are reasonably accurate, the scenarios only approximate historical situations.

Development

The design of Panzer General was based on the Japanese wargame Daisenryaku. The Strategic Simulations (SSI) team had played a Japanese-language version of the game's Sega Genesis release extensively, and were inspired by its streamlined design. Scenario designer Chuck Kroegel later described Panzer General's structure as "diametrically opposed to the Gary Grigsby type of game that SSI was used to making". He noted that SSI founder Joel Billings was initially hesitant to adopt the design style. The company's Graeme Bayless later wrote of Daisenryaku: "The genius in this game was the fact that it took the highly complex subject (WWII conflict on land) and boiled it down to the pertinent parts".

Daisenryaku would go on to serve as the inspiration for the entire Panzer General series.

Reception

Panzer General was a commercial success. By November 1995, it had sold over 100,000 copies in the United States and 50,000 in Europe. According to William R. Trotter of PC Gamer US, it was particularly popular in Germany.

By August 1996, sales had surpassed 250,000 copies. Describing the situation at the time, Computer Gaming World columnist Terry Coleman wrote: "When you consider that a new Windows 95 and Macintosh version has just been released, it seems fair to say that PG will be incontestably the best-selling historical wargame of all time". The following year, T. Liam McDonald of GameSpot reiterated that the game had sold over 250,000 copies, and noted that 60,000 of these sales came from its PlayStation release.

Legacy

In 1996, Robert Mayer of Computer Games Strategy Plus argued:

In the years to come, computer wargamers may divide the world into two epochs, Before Panzer General, and After. Before Panzer General, wargames were supposed to be complex, intimidating things, accessible only by the anointed few, the grognards, veterans of decades of board gaming and masters of military arcana. SSI's Panzer General, however, shattered that view, with excellent graphics and animation, and sheer fun that drew in grizzled campaigners as well as green novices. Not surprisingly, there seems to be a rush now towards kindlier, gentler wargames.