Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Order of Battle is a series of operational WW2 games starting with the Pacific War and then on to Europe!

Moderators: Order of Battle Moderators, The Artistocrats

Post Reply
13obo
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:01 am

Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by 13obo »

Hello Veterans of Countless Virtual Wars!

While waiting for the next OOB DLC, could you lend me your expertise/opinion on previous games? I am debating which oldschool "General" game to play, and the current top contenders are Open General (OG) or Panzer General 2 (PG2). Of course feel free to suggest anything else like the original PG, though I've ruled it out for now as I've played it a bit as a kid, and because I am not a fan of some of it's older mechanics.

OG has a lot more campaigns due to its community support (that is still on-going) plus it has better mechanics, but PG2 is also tempting because I am a fan of playing official content in general as it's more tested and tried, so won't have as many bugs.

So what do you think?
Shards
Slitherine
Slitherine
Posts: 3990
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:05 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by Shards »

https://www.wargamer.com/articles/panze ... ries-best/

Saw this posted earlier this week, it may help!
13obo
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:01 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by 13obo »

Actually this post started my search for the oldschool game to play! Well spotted. In there, I saw PG and PG2 and since I've tried PG, went for PG2, but then I learned there's Open General as well which improves a lot on it.
kondi754
General - Elite King Tiger
General - Elite King Tiger
Posts: 4126
Joined: Thu Jun 25, 2015 8:52 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by kondi754 »

I played PG, PG 2, Allied General and Pacific General, then PG 3D
The best for me was Allied General.
I didn't play Open/People's General but maybe I'll try someday. However, I didn't like the graphic of PG 2 and those games based on this part of PG and use tha same graphic.
terminator
Field Marshal - Elefant
Field Marshal - Elefant
Posts: 5847
Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2011 12:48 pm
Location: the land of freedom

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by terminator »

PG2 is the original game more simple. Open General has more option thus is more complicated.

Other usefull links :

:arrow: PGForever (PG1 freeware) :http://www.pgforever.info/
:arrow: Open Panzer (remake of good old Panzer General 2 playable in Chrome, FireFox, Opera, Safari. iOS 5+ and Android 2.3+ browsers are also supported.) : http://openpanzer.net/
:arrow: PG2 to PeG-WW2 (conversion PG2 to People's General): http://www.pegww2.net/index.htm (-> Installing the game)
13obo
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:01 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by 13obo »

Fantastic, thanks! Will check tonight at home.
Shards
Slitherine
Slitherine
Posts: 3990
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 10:05 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by Shards »

I would, of course, be remiss to not recommend Panzer Corps from this very website ;-)
13obo
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:01 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by 13obo »

Clearly! That has been played till exhaustion.
uran21
Panzer Corps Map Designer
Panzer Corps Map Designer
Posts: 2318
Joined: Thu Dec 02, 2010 8:34 pm

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by uran21 »

Are you only for a WW2 setting? Or Cold War, Fantasy, Si-Fi would suit you as well?

People's General has different air mechanics than other General Series games but I like the most helicopter transport of light infantry. You can load infantry, move by air, unload and use half of available land movement and attack in the same turn.
13obo
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Captain - Heavy Cruiser
Posts: 911
Joined: Fri Aug 12, 2016 11:01 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by 13obo »

I like WW2 or before that. The Wargamer article Shards linked has People's General at the top spot and I'm sure it's great.

However, something about direct, large-scale Cold War fights between super powers doesn't sit well with my immersion- they'd have nuked themselves long before it came to such conflicts.
Mojko
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Sergeant Major - Armoured Train
Posts: 572
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2014 8:04 am

Re: Shout to the Oldschool Generals

Post by Mojko »

I have to give my shoutout to Fantasy general as it introduced lot of new interesting ides. For example:

Guerrilla trait (now used in OOB)

- some unit types are invisible on some terrain types

Concept of research

this is a very interesting concept and you could say it's something like specializations in OOB. Basically, the idea is that you have to decide how you want to spend your money. You can either used the money right away on unit repairs and upgrades or you can invest them which will have to impact right away but will unlock new units in the future. You are forced to play this a very long term balance management and you can't unlock all of your units.

Heroes

You can find hero units in some scenarios that will help you out.

Player characters

You can choose a faction to play which comes with a unique set of bonuses.


This game has it's problems though. The ideas are great but are unrefined and imbalanced. For example

- heroes as stand alone units do not work very well in this game since this is a strategic game a much better approach is used in OOB where leaders are attachable
- player characters are imbalanced some are much better than others
- some units can't be upgraded at all which makes them useless long term, they are stronger at the start though
- research is not very transparent so you never know how much exactly you need to invest to unlock next unit, note that you will know the effect of your research only after the next scenario

If someone could remade this game with proper balance in OOB game engine that would be fantastic :D.
Author and maintainer of Unit Navigator Tool for Order Of Battle (http://mfendek.byethost16.com/)
Post Reply

Return to “Order of Battle Series”