Codename Panzers: Phase 1 will drag you straight to the heart of the battle field - flames, bullets blazing, explosions, rumbling tanks and all. As the unit commander you will sit atop your Panzer with the power and majesty of your metallic steed thruming up through your feet, watching over your troops like the Roman Centurians of olde sitting astride their mighty horses. You are the Lord of All That Yyou Survey, the field of battle is your domain.

In Codename Panzers you will take a tour of WWII as seen through the eyes of Hans von Grobel. Throughout the game, Hans will read to you from entries in his personal journal as he progresses through his career as a Panzer field commander. You will have at your command a varying number of units ranging from rifle squads to medics to mortar teams for infantry, and from scout cars and APC's to tanks and mobile artillery for vehicles. There is also a selection of artillery and anti-tank guns to choose from.

Based upon the type of mission being completed, you will have the opportunity to mix and match your core unit with each start. Sometimes having 6 extra infantry squads rather than a tank can be useful. After the successful completion of a mission, you will be rewarded with prestige points. These prestige points can then be used to upgrade your core unit or to purchase additions to your core unit. Newer and better vehicles, artillery and infantry units will become available to you as you progress through the missions.

The infantry customization is particularly cool. When you select different infantry units you will be given various options to add to the squads. These options include things like grenades, Molotov cocktails, binoculars, metal detectors, mines and rafts. Depending on the mission (some of which require large numbers of infantry to cross rivers) you will want to adjust not only your mix of infantry but also their additional gear. And let me tell you this; metal detectors - good, antitank mines - bad.

Aleksander Vladimirov Must Survive!!

As with Hans, Aleksander is a unit commander, but with the Russian military. He to will read to you from his personal journals and you will now get a look at the war from the perspective of a Russian soldier.

The Russian missions are a step harder than the German set. And, start you out on the Russian front defending against the invading German hoardes. As your units complete missions, and survive, they will be awarded experience points. These points have the immediate effect of enhancing their combat effectiveness through an increase in the damage they do with their standard weapons. Oh, and should you, the commander, catch enough lead to cause you to become a daisy root tickler, the mission comes to an abrupt end.

Speaking of unit survival, here's where your combat tactics will show results. As with other WWII military RTS's Codename Panzers is played in a Fog-of-War style so you will only see those parts of the AO (Area of Operation) that can be seen by units under your command. The UI gives you a nice help up in that it puts a dotted red circle around your unit, showing the limit of that unit's weapons range. This is a nice little utility since it makes it easier to know when your artillery is in range of the enemy and you don't move it too close to be fired upon.

Terrain in the game makes all the difference in the world. Even though an enemy may be in range of your weapons, if there is a hill or rise in the terrain, you may not be able to see them, or them you. So, you can park your mortar team on one side of the hill, and move your snipers up and around from the other side to act as spotters for the mortars. You will also find, when you pit a tank against a stand of trees, that the trees lose. It's actually rather fun to watch as a tracked vehicle moves through the trees clearing a path as it goes.

Jeffrey S. Wilson Must Survive!!

Jeffrey is the American unit commander in the third and final set of missions of the game. And, of course, these are the most difficult set of missions as well.

By the way, visual contact is not the only way to detect the enemy. Tanks and squads of men are not quiet as they move through the battle field, they make noise - squeaky tracks, snapping twigs, coughing, weapon clinking, etc. So, if any of your units are "near" the enemy, they may hear them moving about. Though you will not know exactly where they are, you will be given a shadow icon showing their approximate location. And just remember, the reverse is true about you. So don't go stomping about and not expect the enemy to sit idly by and not react to your presence.

The battlefield is a dangerous place. Men get shot up, vehicles take copious amounts of damage and the environment tends to become a blackened wasteland. You as the unit commander, have a responsibility to your troops to keep them in tip top shape so they can go out and do unto others before they do unto you. Here is where your support units come into play. For the infantry, you have medics. Your medics will run about the battle field applying bandages to all the booboo's that have accumulated over the course of the battle. And if they can get to an infantry unit fast enough, perhaps they can even save some lives. For your vehicles you have a repair truck. The repair truck is basically the medic for your tanks. It can be sent on missions of mercy to repair the battle damage that your vehicles, and artillery, will acquire from being on the sharp end of an engagement. Like the medics for the infantry, the repair vehicle can perhaps save a wounded tank and bring it back to life before the enemy puts it out of its misery.

One of the cool aspects of the game is that when vehicles start to take lots of damage, they tend to expel large amounts of black smoke, and when you click on them, you get a garbled and staticky message from the track commander. Presumably to scream for help, but since I don't speak German, he could be asking for directions to the local McDonalds…

Oh, yes, ammo.

Your infantry units expend huge amounts of ammunition. One would think that they would run out at some point. Fortunately in this universe they have a dimensional link in all their weapons to ammunition factories and never run out of bullets. The vehicles on the other hand, aren't so lucky. The main weapon of the tanks and artillery units carry a limited amount of ammunition and will eventually run out. This is where your ammo hauler comes in handy. When the little blinking ammo symbol shows up above your vehicles, just send the hauler over to it and it will get reloaded so that it can continue to pound the enemy into so much hamburger.

And then there are aircraft. Some of the missions you will be saddled with will assign you some air support. Air support comes in the form of CAP, dive-bombers, bombers and recon planes. All of these various types of planes can be used and should be used when they are offered up. I like the dive-bombers best of all, they home in on a single unit and typically turn the enemy into a flaming pile of wreckage.

Codename Panzers: Phase 1 may seem to be a game that's all about tanks. But it isn't. Yes you can adjust your core unit to be nothing but tanks and more tanks. But to truly survive on the battle field you need to have more than just tanks. Tanks are vulnerable to infantry attacks, so its good to give them infantry escorts especially in close in combat in towns and villages. Also, in some of the missions you will be dropped behind enemy lines with a few squads of paratroopers. No tanks, no artillery, no air support, just a bunch of guys with rifles and grenades.

The UI is very straightforward and easy to use. The commands are all mouse driven (though you can use the keyboard if you really want to) and are very uncomplicated. In fact the beginning tutorial will run you through the basics and give you the skills you need to be successful in the game. Once you have completed the tutorial missions it will be up to you to practice practice practice and break out your book on small unit tactics.

The graphics are excellent. The camera controls allow you to zoom in and out and change the angle of view so you can get a good overview of the field of battle. The level of detail applied to the vehicles, people and environment is wonderful. Between some of the missions, you will be shown cut scenes that have been generated from computer models. You can see that the work and effort that has been put into these, and the game as a whole, has not been wasted. In fact, I can't wait for Phase 2 to come out.

The background music does not overwhelm the game; in fact for the most part it didn't even register on me that it was playing until the tempo changed because I was entering a combat situation. The overall sound effects were very well done and enjoyable. Again they did not overwhelm the game. In fact it was kind of cool that the background noise would fade or get louder based on your camera view point movement and its relation to the area of active combat.

Codename Panzers has an excellent story line that will lead you through the progression of the game. Though the actual journal entries don't really have much of an effect on gameplay, it gives the game a nice touch of nostalgia and brings home the fact that the war was fought by people like you and me. It also has a good replayability aspect to it - to try to finish the various missions with fewer losses, or more efficiency. Also, the variation in types of missions allow for a great overall experience. Though being dropped behind enemy lines and having to take on a tank platoon kinda sucks…

Codename Panzers is brought to us by the same company that has made games like Blitzkrieg and Blitzkrieg: Burning Horizons and has an excellent reputation in the military RTS arena. Panzers has continued that tradition and brings to the WWII gamer a great introductory game to get his/her feet wet. The game is a blast to play, easy to learn and use and a great collection of varying kinds of missions and scenarios. I highly recommend it to beginngers and experts alike (especially to beginners).