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So I got around to play Panzer General with a friend, and the gameplay was good enough to overcome my initial reservations.
Overview:
PGAA is a hybrid Tactical Board Game/Card Management Game with a WWII theme. The board is made up of some 30 square terrain tiles (of 36 available) that have different terrain on both sides so that many different maps can be created. Cards are 60 German and 60 US units plus 120 action cards that are shared by both sides.
Any given scenario uses a selection of 20 units/side and 40 cards that make the common Action Deck. There are 11 two-player scenarios included, and many more can be made by somewhat experienced players without too much effort.
Mechanics:
You use units to destroy opposing units and control board tiles. Both gives you Prestige, which is used to
-buy additional cards for your hand, over the 4/turn you get for free;
-put units into play and play actions;
-act as a tiebreaker for winning the game.
Actions are used to help your units in movement or combat, or occasionally give you additional Prestige. Instead of playing a card (both unit or action), you can also sacrifice it in combat, at no Prestige cost, to increase your defence or firepower.
Turns are IGO/UGO, and you can move your units, attack, play actions and bring new units into play in almost any order you wish, as long as you can pay the Prestige costs.
Moving and attacking is free, all units can either move one tile or attack one adjacent unit or dig in; Panzers can move and attack. The heart of the game is in the combat system, which very neatly combines many different factors, such as unit matching, terrain, morale, support, dug-in status, special circumstances (combat actions), sacrifices and (a little) randomness into an outcome which can range from destruction of one of the participants to no result. If defender is eliminated, attacker gets an (optional) free advance and can take the tile. Destroying a unit also gives your victorious unit a small morale boost, and you get an award in Prestige which, instead of adding it to your own pile, can also be subtracted from your opponent´s pile (your choice).
Winning is pretty straight forward: you have to take your opponent´s Home Base tile or 3 adjacent tiles in his Home Row, unless scenario conditions say otherwise. In the case of a stalemate game ends by turn 6, with the winner being the player who has the most Prestige left -fair enough since this usually means that player is in control of the most important locations.
Components:
The components are very good quality, with the exception of the Tracker Board and, in part, the Rulebook. The terrain is nice. The cards are stunning. The Tracker Board is unnecessarily large and not flat. The Rules are easy to understand and well organised, but very badly proofread -errata increase at lightning speed. A shame, because the cards and tiles would deserve a rating of 10.
Components:   
Theme:
To be clear about it, this is not a simulation. PGAA is certainly not as realistic as a heavy hex-and-counter wargame or the PC classic Combat Mission. That said, the WWII flavour is definitely strong, and the equipment items bear recognizable resemblance to their historical counterparts. So if you use your equipment in a somewhat intuitive way, you are not going to fall flat on your face. The game feels like a somewhat abstracted version of a WWII battle, which is mission accomplished.
Theme:
Gameplay:
If you like WWII games, Card Management games and games with chess-like tactics, don´t walk, run to buy this one. If you like two of the three above, you should also probably get PG. I was very impressed by the way how this game rewards sound thinking and precise analysis, and by how small the luck factor really is. Unlike many other CMGs, you do not at all feel you are at the mercy of the card draw. The cards aren´t in control, you are. On the downside, if you tend to lose at chess and such, and you get easily frustrated, this may be one of the few reasons not to buy PG.  Of course, once you have figured it out, I can imagine the game may get a little repetitive, but it will take many plays to get there.
Gameplay:
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Juan Luis Lorenzo
Spain
Madrid
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Great review. I think like you in more than the 90% of it. Sorry that my poor english limit me to write a review like this.
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Darrell Hanning
United States
Jacksonville
Florida
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Good review, Ulrich. I agree with a lot of your assessment. The two disappointments in the game for me are also the scoring tracker and the error-riddled rulebook. (I guess it isn't all that bad in the rules, themselves, so much as in the examples and scenario information.)
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Mathew Anderson
United States
Las Vegas
Nevada
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DarrellKH wrote: Good review, Ulrich. I agree with a lot of your assessment. The two disappointments in the game for me are also the scoring tracker and the error-riddled rulebook. (I guess it isn't all that bad in the rules, themselves, so much as in the examples and scenario information.)
Excellent review, very nice Ulric! In many cases for the rules, it was a matter of clarification or lack of specifics. With games like these, that's bound to happen. Fortunately, we're on top of it with v1.3 .
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about our latest solo scenario. Take a photo of your gameplay in action and you have a chance to win a Panzer General mousepad AND an XBLA key!
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Marco Fuini
South Africa
Durban
KwaZulu Natal
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Hi Ulrich
Out of interest, what were your original reservations?
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They are in an earlier post, right after opening the box - See General/First impressions.
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