Panzer Campaigns: El Alamein 1942

In the summer of 1942, WWII was in it's third year and still going strong. Hitler controlled most of Western Europe and his Armies were deep into the Soviet Union. When the Italian Army was on the verge of collapse in North Africa in 1941, Hitler sent General Erwin Rommel to save the North African front from destruction. Upon his arrival, he took command of units who would become known as the Afrika Korps. Rommel was able to turn the tide of defeat, beating back the advancing British armies all the way to Tobruk and beyond. Rommel laid siege to Tobruk, which eventually fell. The DAK kept going east and into Egypt. The 8th Army under General Auchinleck fought the DAK to a standstill in a battle known as the First Battle of El Alamein. In August of 1942, the soon to be famous General Bernard Montgomery took over command of the exhausted 8th Army. Montgomery began preparing his operations against the DAK and launched his attack on the 23rd of October 1942. At first, the offensive was slow and a war of attrition ensued. By the 6th of November 1942, Rommel's DAK was in full retreat, despite an order of "Victory or death" received from Hitler a few days earlier. This victory was heralded as the turning point of the war in North Africa and it began the long retreat of the Axis forces in North Africa until their complete surrender in 1943. Montgomery became known as "Lord Montgomery of Alamein".

This game is the 11th installment of the successful and addictive Panzer Campaign series by John Tiller. For those who are not familiar with the series, it is a strategic wargame with 2D and/or 3D counters on a hex map. Units are varied, ranging from armored, infantry, artillery, reconnaissance, antitank, anti-aircraft and HQ units to name a few, and are at the battalion and company levels for the most part. This game covers the desert campaign of 1942 after the fall of Tobruk into Axis hands, up to their defeat at El Alamein. The game includes British, Commonwealth, Free French, German and Italian units. It includes the largest master map of the series at 780 by 220 kilometers and comes with 34 historical and alternative style scenarios including an airborne assault on the British stronghold of Malta. Scenarios range from 6 to 250 turns. A full turn includes a movement, offensive and assault phase, and a defensive fire phase in which a player gets to defend himself from his opponent's movement phase. The game has an online help and game manual to assist the novice and grognard players alike. It further comes complete with a scenario editor, which allows players to create their own scenarios, as well as an Order of Battle editor.

The game is menu driven and easily customized to the player's choices. It starts by selecting a chosen scenario and then choosing your opponent; be it the AI for solo play, or a PBEM, hot seat, LAN or internet game to face a human opponent. There also are numerous rules the player can check and/or uncheck to his satisfaction. The game plays in turns, which allows time for the player to think over his strategy and next moves. After playing a couple of scenarios, I quickly found that one of my favorite settings was the ability to select the Fast AI processing option. The computer plays out its turn at a very rapid pace, therefore allowing the game to play out rapidly. Of course, there is a drawback, that of not seeing the losses incurred by your units as they occur. I did find however that the AI has weaknesses in the gameplay. On several occasions, I managed to encircle whole German armored battalions only to destroy them with my own tanks. This move, had I played against a human opponent, would have been much more difficult to execute as my opponent would have seen my tanks coming and would have reorganized to meet the threat.

Overall, this game is great. As with all of the Panzer Campaign games, it certainly allows the players to delve in and immerse themselves into a command role and match their wits against another armchair commander. The game provides hours of enjoyment and as a side note, also offers some historical outlook on the campaign and battles leading to El Alamein as well as some good information on the Orders of Battle. I highly recommend El Alamein 1942 to novice and veteran players alike.