Quote Originally Posted by screwtype
The Panzer General series was kinda fun, in a not-too-demanding sort of way. I quite enjoyed the first one in the series I bought, Panzer General 3D.
Well, to be honest the series was dead by then, IMO. I bought PG3D, loaded it up for an hour or so, then never looked at it again - very slow, too minute scale etc. Scorched Earth was supposed to be better, but I was not tempted. I'd recommend you try out some of the earlier ones - unfortunately, the company went belly up, so telling you how to get hold of them would be against forum rules.

The first Panzer General took several years of my life. It has linked scenarios that are vastly bigger than those in the PG3D series. For example, in the German invasion of Norway, you fight on a map that covers nearly all the country and have two sea-born invasion groups, facing the Royal Navy and tough terrain/weather. The pre-Barbarossa Balkans scenario was another standout - you have the Italians struggling stalled trying to break out of Albania while German battlegroups flank the Greeks from Bulgaria, overrunning a British expeditionary force and also conquering a vast Yugoslavia. The combat is very simplified, like PG3D, but it arguably captures the history at some higher level - I played a Balkans campaign in the much more realistic Operational Art of War and it played out just like PG1s, except it was much less fun. The ultimate problem with PG1, however, was that it became unbalanced over the campaign - the experience and money (prestige) you acquired allowed you to vastly outmatch the enemy 3-4 scenarios into a campaign. You can try to offset that using mods and editors, but sequels largely solved that balancing problem.

On the other PG games:

Allied General lacked something indefinable - it just never grabbed me.

Star General was supposed to be a flop -did not touch it.

Fantasy General: is superb, especially the music.

Pacific General: rather ugly, but excellent - at least the Japanese campaign. It's like the PG1 blitzkrieg all over again, only this time on bicycles. Some of the scenarios in the campaign are truly epic - e.g. a Japanese invasion of India that makes Norway look like a small scale training exercise.

Panzer General2: first graphics update but starts to compromise on the epic scale. For example, in the Norway scenario, you don't have the naval aspect, the landings etc, you just fight your way up part of the central (Lillehammer) valley. Also has a big bug that reduces the value of infantry. But still rather good and probably the PG game that most folk still play (lots of user made campaigns and scenario). From a graphics point of view, it is not too retro.

People's General: pretty decent updating of PG2 to contemporary (hypothetical) warfare.

As I said, these were arguably the Total War games of their time. Lashings of historical flavour (although ultimately absurdly ahistorical if taken literally) combined with very fun gameplay.