Next week on Monday April 8th we will be streaming the first ever video footage of Panzer Corps 2 on Twitch!

Tune in on our Twitch channel at 6 pm BST: we will be showcasing Panzer Corps 2 during our Home of Wargamers Live II event!

Hello All! Today we wanted to revisit the topic of random scenarios and talk about missions which you can play on various random maps we have shown before.


Attack and Defense

These are classic mission types familiar from Panzer Corps and other similar games. The attacker starts from a limited bridgehead (maybe more than one) and needs to conquer the rest of the map in the given time. It is possible to play such missions on random maps as well, both as the attacker and the defender. Such missions will also play a central role in random campaigns.







Free for All
This is another all-time classic mission type, both for single player and multiplayer. Up to 8 players can play a Free for All mission, and they all start in an exactly the same situation, with a single capital city under their control, while the rest of the map is neutral and needs to be conquered. The goal of the mission is to eliminate all opponents from the map. There is a time limit as well, but it is quite generous and there is no need to rush. It is a perfectly valid tactic to sit and wait while the other players battle it out and weaken each other. But you need to make sure none of your opponents becomes too strong as the result. Each city under control increases player’s income, so a player controlling a large part of the map is getting stronger every turn.





Survival

This mission type is intended specifically for players who think that other missions are too easy in single player mode against the AI. In a survival mission, human player is placed in the middle of the map, while all the opponents are in alliance and do not fight each other. The number of opponents can range from 2 to 7, and seven enemies attacking from all directions can be hard to survive indeed.




Team missions

All four mission types described above can be played in single player or multiplayer mode. For example, it is possible to have 2 humans and up to 6 AIs struggling for map control in a Free for All mission. However, each mission type also has a “team” variant, where 2 humans play coop against up to three other teams. For example, it is possible to try and hold ground in a Survival mission together with your friend against up to 6 computer players.


Other options

In addition to mission types, there are several other parameters worth mentioning.

- Shroud. In addition to standard fog of war, it is also possible to cover the whole map or some part of it with shroud, which hides not only units, but flags and terrain as well. On such maps recon becomes much more important. Shroud is a standard option in some genres (like 4x), but in Panzer Corps series it appears for the first time.
- Neutral player. Normally, neutral cities on a Free for All or Survival map are empty and can be captured by any unit easily. However, it is possible to turn on neutral player which will slowly build up defenses in neutral cities every turn. With this option, planning capture of neutral cities becomes more complex. At the same time, your units can get some initial experience before engaging your primary opponents, which is especially useful in a Survival mission.
- Free deployment. By default, the game places random starting units for all players automatically. But it is possible to skip this step and have a proper deployment phase instead, where you will purchase and deploy your whole army, within the given prestige and slot limits.

Combined with different map types, all these options provide a lot of variety in random scenarios. This new playing mode is getting a lot of attention, and we sure hope that our players will enjoy it. However, the classic campaign mode is not forgotten either, and we are right now working on a massive new campaign for Panzer Corps 2. In one of the next dev diaries we are going to tell and show more of it. Stay tuned.

PS. In the past dev diaries many people asked why we are showing screenshots without hex grid. The answer is simple: this is how we play the game internally. However, in today’s post we have turned the grid on to show how the game looks in this mode.

It's been an epic journey, an astonishing feat, but the longest, largest Panzer Corps tournament ever is now over!

131 players, 374 days, one winner: Lifever!

Lifever has become the Panzer Corps World Champion by defeating AlfredoAllu in a tough and epic match.

The champion, Lifever, is going to be remembered in the Panzer Corps Hall of Fame, alongside last year's winner! He will also be featured as a Hero in Panzer Corps 2! Hail to the champ!

We would like to once again congratulate with Goose_2 for a perfectly run tournament which wouldn't have been possible without his dedication and passion. Thank you Goose!

Hello All! Welcome to the first dev diary of 2019. Today we wanted to make another dive into game mechanics. And since many people asked about naval rules, this is what we are going to cover in today’s issue.

Of course, the main focus of Panzer Corps series is ground warfare. Compared to that, ships can be considered less important. At the same time, scenarios involving ships and naval landings provide a different set of challenges and for this reason feel unique and memorable. In Panzer Corps 2 we wanted to try and make the ships even more interesting to play with, both in single player and multiplayer environment. In scenarios focused on naval warfare, ships can be purchased, upgraded and repaired in ports and can capture neutral and enemy ports. So, it is possible to have up to 8 fleets struggling for control of a map, much like it works for ground units. We keep the basic “rock – paper – scissors” approach from Panzer Corps for capital ships, destroyers and submarines, but add a number of new rules on top.


Damage model

All ships are single entities, and their strength number indicates hit points. Reduced hit points do not automatically reduce the ship’s firepower. Larger ships, like battleships and heavy cruisers, have more hit points to reflect their higher survivability. All damage done to ships falls in two categories: “kills” and “wounds”. “Wounds” can be repaired in open sea, while “kills” can only be repaired in ports. One “wound” per turn is healed automatically. Unspent move and attack actions are used to heal additional “wounds”.

When attacking enemy ships, both distance to the target and relative orientation of the attacker and the defender affects the accuracy of the shot. Smaller ships are also harder to hit from long distance.


Support fire

To better represent cooperation between ships, we introduce several new support fire rules.

- Destroyers provide support fire against enemy submarines.
- Ships with AA ability provide support fire against enemy bombers.
- Capital ships provide support fire to smaller ships and naval transports against enemy capital ships.
- Ships provide support fire to adjacent ground units against enemy ground units. This means that ships become very important in their role to support naval landings, especially destroyers because larger ships cannot enter shallow water.


Submarines

Submarines can switch between submerged and surfaced states. Surfaced submarines have better movement speed, spotting and firing accuracy, but can be spotted and attacked like any other ship. Only surfaced submarines can enter shallow sea hexes. Submerged submarines are much more difficult to spot: they can only be spotted only by destroyers, and only if they moved on their turn. Submerged subs also ignore ZOC of enemy ships.


Carriers
Carriers serve as mobile airfields. Air units attack from carriers and automatically return at the beginning of their turn. Each carrier has a certain aircraft capacity (up to 7), and aircraft types which it can carry are configured for each carrier type separately.


Special damage

Each point of damage done to a ship also gives a certain chance to cause “special damage” which affects the ship’s stats in various ways. Here are some examples of special damage:

- Damaged turret – reduced naval/ground attack strength.
- Damaged AA turret – reduced air attack.
- Damaged propellers or engine room – reduced speed
- Damaged radar – reduced spotting
- Damaged sonar (destroyer) – can no longer detect submerged submarines
- Damaged flight deck (carriers) – all aircraft lose move and attack actions next turn


Naval landings

As was explained in previous dev diaries, embark only requires unspent attack action, which allows to embark a whole army in a single port in a single turn. Same is true for disembark: it only requires unspent attack action, which means that naval transport can move and disembark on the same turn. This makes naval landings much more flexible. Additionally, infantry units have a special ability to attack directly from landing craft. This, combined with damage and suppression from other ships, allows pushing enemy units back from the shore.

Hello All!

The holiday season is upon us, the year 2018 is almost at the end, and it is a good time to pause, look back and summarize what was achieved, what were our successes and failures.

Panzer Corps 2 did not release this year. This is... not ideal. We will not try to pretend that it’s a good thing, “because now the game will be even better and more polished”. Back when we announced it, nobody planned to deliver a bad game in 2018 either.

The good news is, the game is really turning out the way we hoped. It has come a long way since the beginning of development more than 3 years ago. We were taking many risks with this project, and it is great to see that for the most part, they are paying off. 3D graphics works and provides a level of clarity which we need. Random maps are fun to play. Historical content plays just as well. The game is 100% future proof and looks gorgeous on any displays up to 4K. We are confident that 2019 will be a “Panzer Corps 2 year” and that Panzer Corps will get a worthy successor which will deliver many hours of fun to all the fans of this genre.

We would like to thank everyone reading these diaries for your interest in the game and for valuable comments and feedback. We cannot reply to every single comment, but we read them all. And although the end of the year has been a very busy period for us, we were able to react on some of the feedback as well. For example, just yesterday Scenario Editor has got a new feature to import any Panzer Corps scenario, which can then be edited and resaved in Panzer Corps 2 format. This has been requested in the comments to one of the diaries, and now it is implemented. Please keep your feedback coming, and together we can make this game even better.

To show how Panzer Corps 2 looks now, we have prepared two new screenshots. Hope that you will enjoy them, and looking forward to telling and showing you more in the coming year. See you in 2019! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As 2018 is coming to an end, we are getting a lot of questions about the Panzer Corps 2 release date. Unfortunately, by now it has become clear that we won’t be able to release the game this year. This is something which some of you have already guessed, but we wanted to confirm it here so that there are no unrealistic expectations.

The game will be released next year, and we will announce the exact date as soon as we are reasonably confident about it.

After a deep dive into gameplay specifics in the last to issues of the Dev Diary, today we wanted to talk about a different topic. We have spent a lot of time lately polishing our random map engine. Let us take a look at what it can do.

Panzer Corps 2 is able to generate random maps of different sizes, and for any number of players from 2 to 8. These maps can be played both in single player and multiplayer mode. Random maps come in six primary types.


Continent

This type will be the most familiar to most Panzer Corps players. It has no bodies of water, besides rivers, and battles on such maps are 100% focused on ground and air warfare. Although scenarios generated on these maps are random, very similar battles could have happened in WW2 in real life. At the same time, it is great to explore all kinds of historical what-ifs, like allies fighting each other instead of Axis forces.

Continent maps might not look as fancy as the other types below, but there is a lot of gameplay to enjoy there. Perhaps more than in any other type.




Coast

This map is similar to the previous type, but there is also a sea in one part of the map. Although naval component on such maps is limited, it cannot be ignored: if you don’t take advantage of it, your opponents will instead. An enemy capital ship bombarding your capital is not fun. :)





Big Island

The name says it all; this map is one big island, completely surrounded by the sea. This map opens up a lot more space for naval warfare because you can easily reach any of the opponents by the sea and try to bombard their cities or surprise them by landing your troops behind their lines. However, battles on big islands are still resolved on the ground by the old trusty panzers. Superior strategy and tactics with your ground and air units is key to victory.




Archipelago

Each player starts on his own private island, and there can be a few more “neutral” islands to conquer. Island hopping campaigns were not typical of the European Theatre, but here you can get a taste of what it would look like if the biggest European powers clashed over the control of a remote archipelago. Expect lots of naval action, because the islands are small enough, and most land hexes can be bombarded directly by capital ships. This is probably the only map where you cannot win without a strong fleet. Airforce is also important because aircraft based on one island can easily reach several surrounding ones. As for land battles, they are going to be smaller in scale but very fierce, because losing your home island will likely mean instant loss of the game.




Big Lake

This map has one big lake in the middle of the map, while all players are placed on the coast around it. Another way to think of this type is “Big Island reversed”, with land replaced with water with land. This is another map with significant naval component because whoever controls the Lake will possess strategic initiative and can directly attack any of the opponents at any moment. So, expect large-scale battles both on the ground and for control of the Lake. Alternatively, you can play this map in winter, where you will be tempted to march your troops across the lake, but beware – the ice could thaw at any moment!




Lakeland

If you have ever been to Finland, which is often called “'the land of a thousand lakes”, you can easily imagine Lakeland. On this map, the land is dotted with lakes of different size, and although land mass remains fully connected, water gives it a very complex structure which you need to carefully consider when planning your strategy. The naval component is once again small scale in Lakeland, but you can still surprise your opponents by unexpected naval landings. Playing this map in cold season could be another fun option, because every time the lakes freeze, each player will try to use this drastic change in map configuration to his advantage.

If there are any other types of random maps which you would like to see in Panzer Corps 2, let us know! And finally, in one of our future diaries, we will tell about various mission types which you can play on all these random maps.

Our previous dev diary on gameplay has sparked some very interesting discussions, so we have decided to follow up on the same topic and tell about a few more gameplay mechanics which are being changed in the sequel.


Major and minor victories

Although major and minor victories have been a signature feature of the series, we felt that this mechanic had a number of problems. In many cases the abrupt transition from major to minor felt extremely artificial. Players wondered why finishing on turn 10 is a major victory with all its inherent bonuses, but finishing on turn 11 is already a minor victory, and finishing on turn 9 did not give any additional bonus. The latter also motivated the players to linger in the scenario and “harvest” more prestige and experience before the major victory limit.

On the other hand, we found that many players refused to settle for a minor victory and had to replay a scenario several times in order to achieve a major. And this detracted a lot from the fun of the game.
To fix all this, we introduce a new approach in Panzer Corps 2. The faster you achieve successes on the battlefield (be it capturing flags, killing enemy units or forcing them to surrender), the more prestige you will earn for these achievements. And the final reward when finishing the mission will be based on the number of remaining turns. This will give you enough incentive to finish the mission as fast and as decisively as possible, but at the same time, you will not be punished too severely when you miss that major victory by a single turn because of the stupid random generator.


Heroes

We felt that in Panzer Corps heroes were too numerous, to a point where getting a new hero was not so exciting any more. We are going to take a step back on this. The number of heroes which you are going to get in Panzer Corps 2 in the course of a campaign will be several times smaller. On the other hand, heroes will be more powerful and important in the new game.

Each unit can still have up to three heroes assigned to it, but we are adding controls to dismiss unwanted heroes and move them freely between units (within certain constraints, i.e. some hero abilities can be class-specific). This will allow you to concentrate heroes with synergistic abilities in a single unit without relying on pure luck.
Depending on the difficulty level, heroes can be wounded or even die when their unit is destroyed. But there is always a good chance that a hero will survive and can be assigned to a different unit before the next mission.
As for hero abilities themselves, we already have around 50 unique abilities in our list, and most of these are not simple stats changes, but more fundamental abilities affecting the unit and other units (friendly or enemy) around it.





Awards

Awards are also getting a significant overhaul. In Panzer Corps awards were purely decorative and represented elite veteran units, even if they lost their experience in a series of green replacements. But we felt that as a gameplay mechanic, awards were wasted to a large extent.

In Panzer Corps 2 awards will not be given for a certain number of kills (which all units in the core achieve eventually, and often at about the same time), but for doing something outstanding on the battlefield. For example, for killing a certain number of units in a single scenario, or for surviving several attacks in a single turn.
Each award earned like this will not only be a memorable text note in unit’s dossier but will also give a small bonus to various stats. Unlike heroes, awards cannot be transferred between units.


Bonus units
Bonus (SE) units as such are eliminated from the game. We felt that they were redundant since we are introducing a number of new mechanics.

First, some heroes can have a special ability to reduce the number of slots occupied by the unit to zero, which would mimic the most important trait of bonus units, but will also allow you to apply this trait to any unit in the core.
Second, we introduce the concept of prototypes. Prototypes are more advanced and cool units which can be made available to you before their “official” availability date in limited numbers. Prototypes can appear randomly, or based on various conditions, meeting secondary objectives etc. They are available directly in Purchase interface and can be used to raise new units or replace and upgrade existing ones until you run out of available points. Just as in real life, prototypes can have reliability problems, which are shown in the game by occasional loss of move points and attack action at the beginning of a turn.

Finally, in Panzer Corps 2 it is possible to assign any custom camouflage and insignia to any unit in the core, including the characteristic “SE” camouflage from Panzer Corps, in order to give them some visual distinction.


Naval, air and rail transports

Naval, air and rail transports remain essentially the same. You have a pool of available transports, and you can embark on them in the right hexes (ports for naval transports, airfields for air transports etc.). But there is one small change which will fundamentally change how all these transports are used.

In Panzer Corps, a unit must have unused move action in order to embark. If you have 10 units and a single embarkation point, you would need 10 turns (!) to embark this whole group.
In Panzer Corps 2 embark command only spends attack action. You can move into a port or airfield, embark and move out, all in a single turn. The same group of 10 units could be embarked in a single turn. We expect that this change will make transports a much more useful strategic and tactical asset, especially on fictional random maps with a lot of sea, lakes and islands. You still cannot disembark on the same turn you embarked on, so your opponent has a chance to react and catch your units in defenceless transports on the move.

In the previous dev diaries, we have talked a lot about new features and mechanics we are implementing in Panzer Corps 2. But what about the core game mechanics which have always been a fundamental part of the game? Will they remain the same, or will they change in the sequel? In this issue of the dev diary, we’ll discuss how some of the core mechanics are going to be transformed.

Turn limit

In a real war, late victory is often no victory at all, and the game represents this. The player must not just achieve the victory, but achieve it in a limited number of turns. This requires proper planning and strategy, instead of just rolling slowly over the map and eliminating scattered groups of enemy units with the concentrated power of the core force.

All this remains true in Panzer Corps 2. But we were surprised how many players feel that turn limit is an artificial limitation which detracts from the fun of the game. For such players, we are also adding an option to disable turn limit completely. Adding such a checkbox is the easy part. The tricky part is to make sure the game remains balanced, and fun with this option turned on. We are making sure that it is not possible to “harvest” more useful resources (prestige, experience) by staying in a scenario indefinitely, and that enemy units provide an adequate challenge.


Prestige

Prestige is this game’s currency, and, as its name implies, it is awarded for your successes on the battlefield. In Panzer Corps, there were certain exceptions from this rule, like Minor victory giving more prestige than Major, and this created a lot of confusion. In Panzer Corps 2 we will avoid any such things. Better performance will be rewarded with more prestige.


Unit slots

Unit slots determine how many units the player can have in the core force, which travel from scenario to scenario in a campaign. In Panzer Corps, every unit occupied a single core slot. In Panzer Corps 2 this will change so that a unit can occupy one or several slots. More powerful units will take more slots.

Such an approach is not a novelty, it was used in a lot of similar games before, and many people thought that we had to implement it in Panzer Corps already. But of course, this change is significant and fundamental. The way it worked before, optimal core structure was obvious – you wanted to use all the best units available. Maybe you were not able to afford these units right away, but this was a clear goal to go for in the long run. It is no longer as clear-cut. What is better: 3 Tigers IIs, 5 Panthers, or some combination of them? Maybe add some Panzer IVs, and Tiger Is to the mix as well? With changed unit slots mechanic, we expect to see much more varied core forces in Panzer Corps 2, and they will probably become more realistic too.

Same is true for transports. Better transports cost more slots, so using them for every single unit in the core might not be a good idea.

At the same time, we are not going to introduce specialised slots, for example, ground-only or air-only ones. We want the core composition to remain flexible, and the players are still free to go with ground-heavy or air-heavy cores if they prefer.





Overstrength

Overstrength units (i. e. units with more strength points than their type has typically) have always been very popular with our players, and in some cases, they become outright necessary, especially when your opponent has more powerful units in his roster. We felt that it was imperative to keep this mechanic in the sequel.

At the same time, overstrength was a big problem with game balance, while its connection to experience felt very artificial, and because of this, overstrength became significant only in the later part of a campaign. We wanted to solve these problems. In Panzer Corps 2, any unit can get overstrength directly in the Purchase screen, from the very beginning of the game. But such units cost more prestige and slots than usual, so you can have fewer of these. A balanced core will include both overstrength and regular units, but the player will need to figure out perfect ratio for himself.


Entrenchment

Entrenchment mechanic will remain fundamentally the same. Stationary units will accumulate entrenchment over time (infantry and towed guns faster, other classes slower), and it will give various defensive bonuses in combat. But in Panzer Corps 2 we want to make this mechanic even more critical. There will be more entrenchment levels, and specialised units (heavy artillery, strategic bombers, engineers) intended to destroy them quickly.

Another significant change is that, unlike Panzer Corps, base entrenchment provided by terrain will not be destroyed. Base entrenchment is a defensive bonus created by the terrain itself (forest, hills, mountains), and no bombardment can significantly reduce this bonus.


Support fire

Support fire is another signature mechanic from Panzer Corps. It is a prime example of interaction between units, and it allowed the defender to create “clusters ofdefence”, which were not so easy to “crack” by the attacker. All this remains true in Panzer Corps 2 too. However, we felt that in the prequel artillery was not very useful in support fire role against tanks, while the class of AT guns was underused. So, in the sequel artillery will provide support fire against soft targets, while AT units will provide support fire against hard targets.

This is it for today. Thanks for reading, and if you have any questions about how core game mechanics will work in Panzer Corps 2, post them in the comments. See you in the next dev diary!

Welcome to the third Dev Diary of Panzer Corps 2! This time we'll focus on aspects which were left out in the previous two diaries. As previously, though, we'll treat them in a rather generalistic way, but from the next dev diary onwards you can expect more indepth information about specific areas of the game.


Graphics

Despite a significant change in underlying technology (3D and Unreal Engine), we have tried to preserve the same general approach to graphics which always worked so well in past games. Terrain is clean and unobtrusive, and units are big, crystal-clear and stand out well from the map. This is important when the game has hundreds of different units, and the player must be able to distinguish them all at a glance. That’s why we never considered showing several smaller models for a single unit, which might look more “real”, but ultimately is not usable in this kind of a game.

As for terrain, we have drawn a lot of inspiration from Panzer General 2, which was widely considered the most beautiful in the old Panzer General series. At the same time, our maps are not hand drawn or otherwise constructed from small atomic elements, and so they are much quicker to create.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gntXzviba0


UI
The UI in Panzer Corps 2 is a huge step forward in terms of functionality and usability when compared to its predecessor. It can scale to any monitor size (all assets are done in 4K and scale to the required size), adapt to any screen ratio, and allows scaling of certain elements (like the unit list and the minimap) to make the best use of screen space on any monitor, from square to super-wide or multiple monitor configuration.

We are making sure that all information about unit stats, traits, game rules etc. is available directly on screen or in the tooltips and is easy to find. All commands will also be available on the screen and easily discoverable, without relying on hot keys and other obscure means to invoke a function. We can’t wait to show the new UI in action.





Panzer Corps did not require the player to do a lot of routine micromanagement, but in the sequel we have tried to reduce it even further. For example, the player no longer needs to use “Supply” button manually. All units will receive their supply (fuel and ammo) automatically, as long as supply is possible.


AI

The AI in Panzer Corps 2 is a complete rewrite, it does not reuse any code from Panzer Corps, and it uses some more advanced approaches. This means that the sequel will feature a new, completely different AI opponent.

The new AI is designed and implemented with random maps and random campaigns in mind. This means that it cannot rely on AI scripting at all. It must be able to figure out the structure of any map on its own, achieve any kind of scenario objective and try to prevent the opponent from doing the same. It can also purchase and deploy its whole army in case there are no preconfigured units in a given scenario.

On the other hand, AI scripting options in Panzer Corps 2 are also richer than in its predecessor. This means that it is possible to fine-tune the AI to exact desired behavior, which can be useful in a historical setting.


Editor and modding

Modding community of Panzer Corps was always strong and vibrant, and we are fully committed to making Panzer Corps 2 a modder-friendly game as well. Panzer Corps 2 will include the editor from day one, and this editor will be even easier to use than the editor in Panzer Corps. Although the new map engine is 3D, scenario designer still only needs to specify terrain type for each hex, and the rest of the map will be generated by the engine automatically. Other useful features not found in its predecessor are full support of Undo/Redo, group operations on hexes and units and much more streamlined interface for scripting and AI. At the same time, the designer can bypass all UI and write scripts directly in Lua language which requires a certain skill but gives immense flexibility and power in return.

Just like in Panzer Corps, gameplay data tables will remain in open text format and can be easily edited. People familiar with Unreal Engine can download Unreal Editor and create much deeper mods, which includes adding new units, new terrain types, changing map generation rules etc.

Also, we are working on a proper mod manager which was sorely missing in Panzer Corps.


The main point we were trying to make in these three introductionary dev diaries is that Panzer Corps 2 is far from a mere facelift. While staying true to traditions of the series, our goal is to improve playing experience across the board, and every single aspect of the new game receives a lot of thought and attention. It’s a huge and very ambitious project for our small team, and we really want to make it right, so it is taking a lot of time. In fact, much more time than originally expected. In hindsight, we were a bit too optimistic with our estimations and should have probably delayed the announcement. So, please bear with us, and we sure hope that once the game is released, it will be worth the wait.

See you in the next dev diary!

Content and play modes
Big branching campaigns with lots of interconnected scenarios and unit carry over have always been a signature feature of this genre, and they will remain the key feature of Panzer Corps 2. The initial release will feature a brand new Wehrmacht campaign that will be a middle ground between Panzer Corps vanilla and the Grand Campaigns in terms of size, and will feature both the European and African theatres in a single interconnected tree of scenarios. Our design goal is to make various historical and fictional branches well balanced in terms of length and interest, in order to improve campaign replayability. We hope that the new campaign will offer a sufficiently fresh and different gameplay experience.

Besides this classic mode, we also want to give our players new experiences to try, and they will be based on our new random map generator. The generator is able to generate maps of different size and type (continent, island, archipelago etc.) with up to 8 players struggling for control, various mission objectives, starting conditions and play options. So, the number of combinations to try is virtually endless.

With such a random generator in place, the next logical step will be to generate full-blown random campaigns, based on date range, number of scenarios and opposing factions selected by the player. Another possibility is to integrate a few random scenarios into a classic, human-designed campaign.






Factions and units

The list of factions in Panzer Corps 2 is, of course, very similar to its predecessor and includes most of the nations which fought in WW2. But the list of units will be more extensive. The initial list of units is based directly on Panzer Corps with all its patches, DLCs and expansions. So we start where the prequel finished, and we are adding a few things on top. Firstly, we are adding a lot of historical ships instead of generic “battleships”, “destroyers” and “submarines”. Together with new naval rules mentioned above, we felt this was important for more interesting and authentic naval experience.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCC8kIvI4LE


Secondly, we are trying to give smaller factions some more substance, so that they are better represented in the game. It does not mean that these factions will be able to fight the “big four” (Germany, USA, Great Britain and USSR) on equal terms, but we hope that they will become interesting enough to get their own content (scenarios and campaigns) as the series progresses.



Multiplayer

The classic PBEM++ multiplayer in Panzer Corps was very popular, and we will of course keep this option in the sequel. At the same time, some players felt that PBEM++ was not interactive enough and in fact “too old school”, compared to a “true” online multiplayer experience offered in many modern games. For these players we are adding a new Multiplayer mode which allows the players to be online at the same time, connect directly, and see each other’s moves in real time.

Most importantly, PBEM++ and online modes are not separated. All games are still kept on the server, and you don’t need to commit to a single play mode when creating a new MP game. You can play a few turns of a game in online mode, then revert to PBEM++ for several more turns, then play online again etc. We hope that this new system will make multiplayer even more popular in Panzer Corps 2.

Other changes in Multiplayer result directly from supporting up to 8 players on the same map. This gives us a lot of options to create competitive and cooperative games between several human and/or AI opponents.