Why Panzer Elite?

The Grognard

There is a special breed of man on this Earth. People who missed their calling as soldiers in the great wars of the past and now relive them in tabletop battle re-enactments, hardcore wargames (both computer and other), hyper-accurate sims and the like. They laugh at Panzer General and kin while thinking how they can further embarrass the computer in the old Three-Sixty Pacific classics. They re-create real, obscure battles in Steel Panthers and, man, has it sucked to be one of them for the past 10 years. You see, we have had one small, simple request during the entire computer age: a realistic, hardcore tank sim. It doesn't need good graphics, sound or a good soundtrack. We can make up for that with our imaginations. It just needs to be true-to-life. Real tactics must be employed (or at least be effective), effective infantry must exist and all the goodies of modern computing (like physics) would be oh-so-nice.

First victim of the day

Look! They line up for me!

Unfortunately, tank games have been extremely rare. Those that came out were arcadish and unrealistic, or butchered, macabre versions of what we want. No historical and accurate tank sims have appeared. There are modern-day tank sims (namely the excellent M1 Tank Platoon II), but nothing from the old days.

Panzer Elite

Sadly, the one game with true promise was almost overlooked. Panzer Elite, from Psygnosis, nearly slipped through the cracks. What a shame it would be if it had…

Smoke trail from my shot

One more time!

The game absolutely reeks of quality from the moment you pick it up: the box and feel a weight worthy of the size of the packaging, there is hope. You look inside and see two excellent, detailed manuals. One of them, the "WWII history and unit data" book is the thicker of the two, and Psygnosis could easily have cut it out to save on costs. It contains a brief history of World War II, but more importantly the history of tanks. From their early incarnations in World War I, to the weird designs thought up between wars (see: land battleship) to the ultimate incarnation of the perfect tank of World War II (PzKpfw V - Panther G.) There is even a "Tank Academy" section that explains the basics and some of the more complex ideas behind a tank's effectiveness. The manual then goes through the disposition of the American and German armies, the strategies they had and the theories behind them.

Hide behind trees

Oooh you're such a BIG boy

Finally, there is a very detailed unit list with pictures, statistics and loadouts of all vehicles used in the game. The capabilities of each gun are all shown and the differences between all the ammunition types explained.

Instruction Manual

The instruction manual is a little thinner but no less detailed. It gives a list and brief description of each scenario available, as well as all the controls. The overwhelming multitude of controls, including the visual mouse interface (AKA MouseTank) and realism options, are explained in detail. There is no quick reference card, but all the controls are listed on two pages - you just can't ask for more.