The time has finally come, and we can tell you more about our next Home of Wargamers, which will take place, as you already know, in beautiful Venice on May 10th.

It will be a great chance to be updated on our already announced games and discover new, exciting, upcoming releases.

In the following weeks, we will announce the official schedule of the live event, but you will also get more information on our social channels and newsletter.

Stay Tuned and activate the reminder on our Twitch channel.

Panzer Corps 2 - Axis Operations 1943 - Dev Diary 1



Opening Statement
Greetings, Panzer Generals! Before we begin with this Developer Diary, we thought it to be important to address the elephant in the room. No, not this Elephant with its 8.8cm gun...



But rather, the time gap since the last Axis Operations installment. The first five chapters in the series came out in pretty rapid succession, but then there was many months passing after the 1942 campaign released.

For that, all we can give you is our apologies. But let us assure you now, it was time well spent recuperating, planning, and continuing work on the awesome game that is Panzer Corps 2.

One of the biggest time eaters has been needed to plan, and execute, the concept of a split timeline. There's a lot of groundbreakings to take content that is usually added as a fun bonus with no reasonable connections or lingering effects, and instead integrating that in a Grand Campaign that is ongoing.

Ultimately though, this could mean even more than just a split timeline. Specifically, one of the concepts we've put a lot of thought into the classical late war problem of 'why am I losing the war if I keep winning every battle?'. In theory, we can potentially explore that winning potential, and completely recontextualize the nature of what 'winning' the late war German historical campaign means.

What if, for example, there were scenarios you couldn't lose in 1944, but instead your task during each scenario was accomplished as much as you can inside of it. Did you just survive the scenario, or did you 'win' it? Victory might only get you as far as a historical outcome, where anything less spells eventual doom.

The bottom line though, we are at a point where we want the Axis Operations Grand Campaign to be much, much more than just a machine stamping out scenarios, and a lot of extra time and energy was needed to conceptualize just how we could continue to innovate, before we could begin to produce the content. Which leads us to...


The effect on Axis Operations 1943 East
With that extra-long gap of time between 1942 and the upcoming 1943 campaign, we've had a real opportunity to take 1943 to the next level, and we want to shine a spotlight on several of the campaign highlights here today.

In this sixth chapter of the Axis Operation Grand Campaign, we're going to take a look at some of the surprises in the Axis Operation Kursk battles, returning customization options, a lot more historical goodies, and a very special ending that players have been asking us to get in the game for a long time now.


Kursk in the Axis Operations


Now we're all certainly familiar with that historical tagline for Kursk of the 'Largest Tank Battle in History'. And with our game literally having 'Panzer' as part of its title, we definitely have that aspect of the battle in play.

There's going to be lots of action for your brand-new Panthers, Tigers, and other German armor to engage in.



But more than that, we wanted to take advantage of Panzer Corps 2's unique game systems to make the various scenarios that explore the Battle of Kursk to be a lot more than just tanks clashing against each other.

Some of these battle maps are so dense, that internal testing shows progress of the player's army slowed down to a rate of advancing just 1 hex per turn! The historical Soviet defenses of Kursk have been brought to life in the Axis Operations 1943 campaign, as layers of minefields, supporting anti-tank weapons, hardened strongpoints, and Soviet air support will fight their hardest to stop your German spearheads from penetrating into the Kursk Salient!

Most dangerously, the Soviet forces have learned from the past years of conflict and the power of German air support, and now there are many squadrons of Soviet aircraft who have the very specific mission and ability to provide support fire... against ground attacks!




A returning feature


As you can see in the above image, something we've finally been able to return to the Axis Operations that players enjoyed in the Vanilla Campaign is the ability to turn off the turn limit for this campaign.

We have structured as many scenarios as possible to allow for the disabling of the turn limit, if the player so desires. We haven't quite got every single scenario to play without a turn limit, many defensive objectives require the timer to govern their conclusion, but as much as possible for this, and future DLC, we will strive to once again allow players to disable the scenario turn limits.


More History than any past DLC
One of the biggest beneficiaries of the extra time we've had with 1943, is we have had a lot more time to weave more history into the content. There is, without a doubt, more text in briefings, debriefings, and scenario messages than any DLC we have produced so far.



Extra special attention has been given to the mannerisms and speech patterns of the historical figures you will encounter in this campaign. For example, many of Erich von Manstein's appearances now directly reflect his true thoughts on the conflicts on the Eastern Front he participated in. This is thanks to us having the time to fully read and absorb some of his extensive writings on the war, to use as reference and to inject authenticity to his character.


Also, less History than any past DLC (but more history)
The other thing we have had extra time to really explore is, at long last, the ability for the players actions to actually influence not just their tactical victories, but potentially alter the course of the full war on the Eastern Front!

Be warned, consider everything you read from here on a MAJOR SPOILER!!!

In the past, even in the original Grand Campaign, we've never really been able to explore a proper historical outcome. This has always resulted in extremely truncated bits of content, more like just a bonus mission. You finish off Germany as the Allied Powers, and you get a single bonus scenario to explore Operation Unthinkable. You capture Moscow, and teleport to the East Coast of the United States. Or you manage a miraculous victory at the Battle of the Bulge, and go on to a truly fanciful series of events that leads you to Sealion 45. Fun stuff, but complete flights of fancy that act more like bonus material than a fleshed out and highly detailed campaign.

In Axis Operations 1943 though, we are able to present a major split in the timeline. We did extensive research on the idea of 'what would Germany do next after a victory at Kursk?' And we found that the answer was not 'go on to take Moscow and end the war with Soviet Russia'. After all, before the Battle of Kursk, who had even heard of Kursk? Even in planning for Operation Citadel, German leaders realized how ridiculous the amount of effort and resources being prepared to take basically nowhere that no one had previously even heard of.

What that means is the historical branch of the Panzer Corps 2 Axis Operations campaign is taking shape like no campaign before it has. We've planned and research a wealth of information to offer our take on what German victory at Kursk could result in both short and long term.



Suffice to say, the fighting on the Eastern Front is not going to magically stop, but whole new campaigns are going to be fought as your victories erase events such as the German retreat from the Dneiper River, and are replaced by new frontlines that Allied and Axis leadership will have to consider and plan for...


Your Feedback
As always, we are reading and listening to your feedback. Many thousands of posts and messages have greatly improved Panzer Corps 2 for its entire player base, and we encourage you to continue to share your thoughts and wants for the game in the future!

We especially encourage anyone who would like to participate in the DLC BETA testing to do so.

Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this first glimpse into the upcoming 1943 Axis Operations DLC campaign, and stay tuned for at least one more of these Dev Diaries to come where we will explore some of the new units, briefing images, and true historical content being added to this latest DLC campaign.

Today we have a great announcement for you.

We're announcing the next Axis Operations DLC for Panzer Corps 2: 1943

The Axis Operations 1943 DLC Campaign focuses entirely on the Eastern Front. But more importantly, this DLC begin to answer long standing questions of the series, culminating in the possibility to permanently alter the course of the war in this campaign... and also in future campaigns to come!

In addition to the continuing trend of bonus mission objectives inspired by true historical events, this campaign will be supplemented by appearances from additional historical German leaders from World War II.

As no 1942 campaign could be complete without Stalingrad, no 1943 campaign can overlook the infamous Battle of Kursk.
Engage in a unique take on this battle, often touted as the Largest Tank Battle in History, as you pit your Wehrmacht veterans against the seemingly endless lines of Soviet defenses protecting their salient.

Axis Operations 1943 will be released later this spring. We will be revealing the release date in the coming weeks.

If you would like to sign up for the beta, you can do so by clicking here. Your feedback is extremely valuable, and it will help us greatly.

The Panzer Corps 2 - World Championship moves into the sixth round today.

Returning to the classic campaign, this round we have a multiplayer re-imagining of a classic map: The Battle for Kasserine Pass. This battle should have been an easy victory for the Allied forces, but poor leadership and green troopers led to vastly more losses than anyone expected. Of course, for multiplayer the forces have been carefully tweaked to give both sides a fighting chance.

Will you be able to alter history?

Leaderboard
In leaderboard news, Kleko11 has finally been unseated from the top of the leaderboard, but only barely. Trepko has now taken the lead, but less than 300 points keeps him there. This round will definitely decide the fate of one of these two excellent players.

It's not as if those giving chase are that far behind either...

Round 6 leader board:
1 Trepko 13549
2 kleko11 13257
3 FritzchenEK-I 12443
4 nutoha 12009
5 rishat 11678



Continued improvements
We have fixed a few errors in scoring that occurred during the last round. Please do continue to report any problems you face, as your feedback helps improve not just this tournament but all future ones as well.

Patch 1.2.4 has come about primarily due to your tournament feedback and includes these fixes:

- Fixed occasional crashes when assigning heroes
- Fixed problems with awarding tournament points at the end of a mission

We hope everyone is continuing to enjoy the competition at this mid-way point.

Today we are releasing a small update for the game, fixing a bug which was causing the game to crash when assigning heroes occasionally, as well as fixing an issue related to the tournament scoring which was reported in the last round. Apologies for that bug, but it seems everyone was affected, so no player was advantaged over others during that round, scoring wise.

Changelog:

- Fixed occasional crashes when assigning heroes
- Fixed problems with awarding tournament points at the end of a mission

As development on Panzer Corps 2 Pacific and the next Axis Operations DLC continues, we thought this week we’d take a look at some of the best rated and most popular mods for the game on the Steam Workshop.

First we have Panzer Corps 1 Grand Campaign https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2410075863 which is the grand campaign for Panzer Corps 1 remade for Panzer Corps 2 by a group of six fans (Ezequiel Romanko, Rick Kesler, Davidson, Grondel, R2G2 and Swifty).

It’s a large mod, and the most downloaded on the whole of the Workshop. It is currently playable up to 1943, and development is still ongoing.



On second position, here’s the New Units Pack https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2406908759&searchtext= which adds 10 new german units to the game, including the Command Panzer A, the BF110 Heavy Fighters and the Fallschirm sPzB 41 (airborne anti-tank). It’s developed by one of the authors of the Panzer Corps 1 Grand Campaign remake, R2G2.



The third most downloaded mod is The Big Red One https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2323744661&searchtext= a campaign comprising of 15 custom made missions following and detailing the chronicles of the Big Red One (1st Infantry Division) as they fought from the dunes of Africa to the end of the war in Germany in 1945. This is also developed by one of the authors of the Panzer Corps 1 Grand Campaign remake, Davidson.



Give them a try and let us know what you think about them!

We'd like to thank everyone in the modding community for Panzer Corps 2: modding is a key component of the Panzer Corps saga and we're really happy to see such interesting mods spring up.

The Panzer Corps 2 - World Championship moves into the fifth round today.

This round, we have a special treat for everyone - a brand new and never before seen map, The Siege of Leningrad. Study it carefully, as the battle you win may be your own.



Will you break the encirclement? Or simply hold the line?



In leaderboard news, PlannedParenthood drew blood from Kleko11 last round, but it wasn't enough for him to secure a victory. Nevertheless, another 3000 point Kleko11 victory was prevented and now around 1000 points separates the top of the leaderboard.

Everything is to play for.

Round 3 leader board:
1 kleko11 11069
2 Daystick 10616
3 FritzchenEK-I 10272
4 Adel77 9916
5 Folklore 9898



AFK Players
We have heard your feedback about AFK players and have taken action this round to remove those that have not played in the last 2 rounds. We hope between this and the scoring system, there will be a lot less chance that an active player will face an AFK player.

As always, we are improving the system based on your feedback and the data we collect on our side.

Two days ago we had our Home of Wargamers Live+ stream, in which we delivered news on all fronts, including for Panzer Corps! You can watch it here in case you missed it:



David Sharrock, producer for the game, went through the new mechanics of Panzer Corps 2: Pacific, which will be released later in 2022.

We've also released new free scenarios as a holiday gift! As is befitting the season, all three of them have a distinctly wintery theme to them. We hope you enjoy them, and are getting ready for more upcoming Panzer Corps 2 content arriving early next year.

Scenario: End of the Bulge


This historical scenario played from the German perspective and takes place in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of the Bulge. While the German counteroffensive made impressive initial gains, it has now stalled out for lack of supply and fierce Allied resistance, such as the stubborn defense of Bastogne at the hands of the American 101st Airborne.

But when German High Command insists the limited gains of the offensive not be abandoned, several elite Panzer Divisions find themselves dangerously exposed to flanking attacks from British and American forces aiming to erase the 'Bulge' created in their lines.

Is it still possible to preserve Germany's elite Panzer Divisions, or will the half-victories accomplished by Operation Wacht am Rhein turn to another defeat Germany can no longer afford?

Scenario: Voronezh43


The second Soviet Winter counteroffensive is underway! While Soviet encirclements stamp out the last embers of German 6th Army resistance at Stalingrad, more Soviet forces race across the snowy landscape of the Motherland to reclaim vital cities and territories back from the fascist invaders.

One of their main objectives is to regain control of the Don River, and to do that the Soviets have set their sights on Voronezh. Defended by a motley scattering of Axis auxiliaries, this vital crossing is just one of the many lightly guarded positions the Axis powers have been forced to create as their forces are stretched to breaking across the enormous distances of the Eastern Front.

This historical scenario played from the Soviet perspective and takes place near Kursk in January of 1943.

Scenario: Meridian


This fictional scenario played from a British perspective pits your forces against a Soviet enemy in a MidWar Era setting. Featuring many game improvements such as enemy heroes, secret caches, and randomized enemy reinforcement waves, this scenario promises strong re-playability as you must plan defensive positioning and offensive maneuvering against a series of unpredictable threats.

Quick word on Axis Operations
While it is still too early to reveal any new details just yet, we want to reaffirm our commitment to this DLC series, and have huge plans to finish it in spectacular fashion!

Right now we need a little extra time and work for 1943 though, so as you have noticed it is taking longer to produce than the previous DLC installments. This is mostly so we can properly lay the ground work for how exactly the split timeline will take form and be handled through the game's mechanics, but also to make sure we can continue to innovate and design new and interesting content for both new players and veterans alike to enjoy. We also still have plans to continue to revisit and improve past DLC, for example turning on the Commendation Point display in the early Axis Operations content.

Have a Happy Holidays!

The Panzer Corps 2 - World Championship moves into the forth round today. Kleko11 remains steadfastly at the top, but there has been considerable movement below his position. Can PlannedParenthood conceive of a path to victory over Kelko11's remarkable hold of the top spot?

Round 3 leader board:
1) kleko11 9152
2) PlannedParenthood 8150
3) a432 7713
4) Trepko 7386
5) Dardalon 7359

Round four sees us battling in the Ardennes. The famous operation that took place here, used late war equipment combined with blitzkrieg tactics. The unusual weather conditions (for Western Front) gave Germany ample scope for a last-ditch tank offensive. The hope was to regain momentum and control of the war...

We're releasing a new update today, this one consisting of a number of fixes.

You can find the full changelog below.

Change log:
- Fixed crashes and errors when assigning heroes outside the Deployment Phase (both manually or from scripts)
- Fixed crashes which some people experienced with "Show Instances" option turned off
- Fixed tooltips over difficulty levels
- Fixed red selection getting stuck in "import core" popup
- Fixed encirclement markers not showing for allied players