For the new players... The game is about speed and caution. You have to find
the bad guys, soften them up, then kill them.
As mentioned there is a concept called entrenchment, which reflects a units
time spend preparing their defenses. Infantry units are the best at defending
in close quarters. For the german's Pionare (sp) and Bridging units are amazingly
useful:
*They ignore entrenchment, so you never have to worry about a rugged defense
*Bridge units let your other units cross a river hex without movement penalty
Typically tanks are best served by the III Series or the IVD until you can upgrade
to the most powerful tanks IVF2 or the Panther (The tiger has such a short fuel
range it's hard to really justify). Look at the Initative values, as well as the
offense and defensive values. In case you're wondering what that close defense
number is, that's the defense your unit has if it's ambushed.
Artillery are also useful, particularly the long range artillery. when you
can get self propelled artillery pick them up as soon as possible, also
make sure you put your units in tracked transport as wheeled transports
simply cannot keep up when things get muddy.
fighters are critical. keep your fighter force strong and be prepared to hunt down
and generate air supremacy. Your Tactical bombers are best served by the Ju
series since they can effectively bomb both hard and soft targets.
Strategic bombers can take away opponants prestige points, as well as render
a city unusable to create reinforcements. Finally a strategic bomber can
'supress' enemy defenders, which means you have less forces opposing you for
the rest of the turn.
Always have a couple of recon units, their spotting ranges help make up
for the times when the weather is poor and you need to find where those
durn artillery are that keep defensive firing on your units.
Also, for close defense, the attackers initative goes to a base '0' which means
most likely the defenders get first shot, and usually it's a devastating volley.
(You generate an auto close defense if you run into a unit blind I believe)
Other tips/tricks.
* Use elite Replacements with your core units. The extra cost is worth the extra
capability an elite unit gives you.
* Towards the end of a scenario, *overstrength* some of the core units that
you don't need for the final assault. Having strength 12 or 13 tanks fighters
and infantry can make an amazing difference in a combat, particularly in
air combat, as you can get your units so good you can completely destroy
an opposing unit in the first volley.
* also keep in mind as your units experience grows, their initative in combat
also goes up, so a unit that would normally go last can suddnely either go
simultaneously or even go first, which also can make a tremendous difference.
if you want replay value, see how well you can do by only getting minor victories.
you'll end up going on the defensive after 1943 and you'll get to see how well
you can do against some fairly large and powerful forces.
As an aside, SSI still has panzer general bundled with other games and still
for sale at comp USA a few months ago, so, if you're willing to shell out a few
bucks, there's a win95 version available.
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