Ok I saw this being listed in cheap gaming so I decided to get it and also Theatre of War 2.
I honestly only tried TOW2 a few times and was not impressed.
The first time I played Achtung Panzer i had to get over a small learning curve since I didn't see a tutorial available in the game itself. In fact I wanted to quit playing it on the first 2 runs mainly because I have a short attention span and get bored easily.
Deciding to give it another go, after reading the small manual, I went back and found myself actually quite immersed in the gameplay mechanics.
For those of you that don't know; Achtung panzer is a real time/turn based strategy game.
ACHTUNG PANZER: KHARKOV 1943
The battles can be extremely tense yet last longer than the Total war battles in most cases, giving you enough time to pan your camera in close and actually take a look at the action. This obviously depends on how much cover each unit is taking.
The game itself is produced by a games team that creates military simulations for the Ukraine military.
The goal of the developers has been to supply a strong level of realism and to recreate the actual terrain of the Kharkov area. The developers apparently studied overhead maps/photos and visited the locations to get a feel for the terrain.
The graphics are not amazing but they effectively get the job done using bump maps and dynamic lighting. The color scheme that has been used also heavily reminds me of the movie Stalingrad to some degree, coupled with the fact that the terrain is deformable and units can dig trenches and fox holes into the terrain itself.
For example a series of mortar blasts and tank fire left a particular field studded with small and medium sized craters. When I told my men to take cover in the field, some of them jumped into the craters that had been left as an extent of the battle.
Operations map:
Gameplay is separated into two phases; operational and tactical ie: Operation map and 3d map.
The operation map represents a series of squares to which you can move your platoons. These squares represent a 1km square of the map. When fighting occurs on one of the squares then all platoons from adjacent squares are available for battle. This means you have to consider how you will advance your platoons on enemy forces, since you don't want to send an infantry platoon near an enemy tank platoon without friendly tanks being in the area as support.
This often prompts the formation of a frontline offensive/defensive strategy on the operational map.
Tactical/3d map:
Once battle occurs the game goes 3d allowing you to deploy your units before going real time.
The combat can be paused at any stage allowing you to issue orders, or you can issue orders on the fly. This is where the magic happens
To give you an idea of the combat, picture the battle scene of the movie Stalingrad. Infantry units and anti tank guns can dig fox holes and trenches and will duck and stand to shoot. Tanks can crush enemy infantry and can run over and crush AT guns. Grenadiers will get out of their APCs and advance in a line towards the front to avoid infantry ambushes on armored vehicles. Individual tank crews can be killed or picked off by penetrating AT shots. Tank shells can bounce off tank armored vehicles and Machine guns can be set up in defensive positions (So far I've only used the maxim not MG42). Also infantry can take cover in houses, tanks or artillery can blow up said houses and infantry will shower any armored vehicle that gets to close with molotov cocktails and grenades.
The enemy AI will attack in unexpected directions and more often then not I am left hastily reorganizing my offensive or defensive line.
The tank combat is some of the best I have ever seen. In one case my 3 panzer 4 Ausf G tanks got the drop on 2 T-36 tanks and managed to hit them in the sides. One shot ended up shooting off the track of one of the T-36s, and completely immobilized the tank while the next penetrated the tank and killed some of its crew members and damaged the turret gun. A while later the tank caught fire and the crew bailed out burning.
In another instance I sent a recon patrol along a road at night (vehicle will use lights at night when given orders to move fast). My recon platoon was ambushed by a Russian AT gun along with an enemy maxim machine gun and infantry squad. The platoon was all but wiped out.
The following day in a separate combat engagement I came across the bodies and the vehicles from the day before. These little touches make this game totally worthwhile. Another small but awesome detail was watching infantry hitch a ride on tanks, in some cases general infantry helped replace dead crew members in tanks and the bodies of the crew members were placed on the side of the tanks. Small details that impressed me. Also heavy fire will pin down troops, in some cases you can see soldiers holding their hands over the heads while lieing prone on the ground. In other cases they surrender which is another cool addition. I am going to get operation star addon when it comes out.
The closest comparison is the close combat series, my only gripe is that soldiers don't have individual names by which you can find more attachment to their history and sort of follow their individual progress.
Here's 2 pics of one of my recent operations, I wanted to take pics of the trenches but didn't have fraps on at the time:
I honestly only tried TOW2 a few times and was not impressed.
The first time I played Achtung Panzer i had to get over a small learning curve since I didn't see a tutorial available in the game itself. In fact I wanted to quit playing it on the first 2 runs mainly because I have a short attention span and get bored easily.
Deciding to give it another go, after reading the small manual, I went back and found myself actually quite immersed in the gameplay mechanics.
For those of you that don't know; Achtung panzer is a real time/turn based strategy game.
ACHTUNG PANZER: KHARKOV 1943
The battles can be extremely tense yet last longer than the Total war battles in most cases, giving you enough time to pan your camera in close and actually take a look at the action. This obviously depends on how much cover each unit is taking.
The game itself is produced by a games team that creates military simulations for the Ukraine military.
The goal of the developers has been to supply a strong level of realism and to recreate the actual terrain of the Kharkov area. The developers apparently studied overhead maps/photos and visited the locations to get a feel for the terrain.
The graphics are not amazing but they effectively get the job done using bump maps and dynamic lighting. The color scheme that has been used also heavily reminds me of the movie Stalingrad to some degree, coupled with the fact that the terrain is deformable and units can dig trenches and fox holes into the terrain itself.
For example a series of mortar blasts and tank fire left a particular field studded with small and medium sized craters. When I told my men to take cover in the field, some of them jumped into the craters that had been left as an extent of the battle.
Operations map:
Gameplay is separated into two phases; operational and tactical ie: Operation map and 3d map.
The operation map represents a series of squares to which you can move your platoons. These squares represent a 1km square of the map. When fighting occurs on one of the squares then all platoons from adjacent squares are available for battle. This means you have to consider how you will advance your platoons on enemy forces, since you don't want to send an infantry platoon near an enemy tank platoon without friendly tanks being in the area as support.
This often prompts the formation of a frontline offensive/defensive strategy on the operational map.
Tactical/3d map:
Once battle occurs the game goes 3d allowing you to deploy your units before going real time.
The combat can be paused at any stage allowing you to issue orders, or you can issue orders on the fly. This is where the magic happens
To give you an idea of the combat, picture the battle scene of the movie Stalingrad. Infantry units and anti tank guns can dig fox holes and trenches and will duck and stand to shoot. Tanks can crush enemy infantry and can run over and crush AT guns. Grenadiers will get out of their APCs and advance in a line towards the front to avoid infantry ambushes on armored vehicles. Individual tank crews can be killed or picked off by penetrating AT shots. Tank shells can bounce off tank armored vehicles and Machine guns can be set up in defensive positions (So far I've only used the maxim not MG42). Also infantry can take cover in houses, tanks or artillery can blow up said houses and infantry will shower any armored vehicle that gets to close with molotov cocktails and grenades.
The enemy AI will attack in unexpected directions and more often then not I am left hastily reorganizing my offensive or defensive line.
The tank combat is some of the best I have ever seen. In one case my 3 panzer 4 Ausf G tanks got the drop on 2 T-36 tanks and managed to hit them in the sides. One shot ended up shooting off the track of one of the T-36s, and completely immobilized the tank while the next penetrated the tank and killed some of its crew members and damaged the turret gun. A while later the tank caught fire and the crew bailed out burning.
In another instance I sent a recon patrol along a road at night (vehicle will use lights at night when given orders to move fast). My recon platoon was ambushed by a Russian AT gun along with an enemy maxim machine gun and infantry squad. The platoon was all but wiped out.
The following day in a separate combat engagement I came across the bodies and the vehicles from the day before. These little touches make this game totally worthwhile. Another small but awesome detail was watching infantry hitch a ride on tanks, in some cases general infantry helped replace dead crew members in tanks and the bodies of the crew members were placed on the side of the tanks. Small details that impressed me. Also heavy fire will pin down troops, in some cases you can see soldiers holding their hands over the heads while lieing prone on the ground. In other cases they surrender which is another cool addition. I am going to get operation star addon when it comes out.
The closest comparison is the close combat series, my only gripe is that soldiers don't have individual names by which you can find more attachment to their history and sort of follow their individual progress.
Here's 2 pics of one of my recent operations, I wanted to take pics of the trenches but didn't have fraps on at the time:
The loader loads a shell into the Marder 3 after firing on an enemy infantry unit:
A recon unit waiting orders. The backdoor opens to let out/in infantry. The models are pretty well done and all vehicles have interiors. Example the tanks you can see all the hatches open for the crew to look out from.
A recon unit waiting orders. The backdoor opens to let out/in infantry. The models are pretty well done and all vehicles have interiors. Example the tanks you can see all the hatches open for the crew to look out from.
