October 2, 2007

Strategically Planned: Panzer Tactics DS Brings WWII Warfare to the Palm of Your Hand
By Louis Bedigian

"A game like ours wouldn't have been possible on any other portable console."

The era of strategy games is upon us. More are being ported to consoles from the PC, and many are being made exclusively for Nintendo DS. Leading the way in NDS exclusivity is Panzer Tactics DS, a promising strategy game in development at Sproing.

"A strategy game like Panzer Tactics DS has to offer an accessible interface combined with efficient information display," said Designer Christoph Quas. "The touch screen is pretty much the best choice for controlling the units as you can drag them around easily, leaving the information visualization to the upper screen."

Panzer Tactics DS will offer three campaigns containing 11 missions (10 standard and one unlockable bonus) for a total of 33 missions. "The missions are mostly historically authentic and reflect the real course of WWII. You'll therefore experience the most important and thrilling battles of WWII including Stalingrad, Tobruk, D-Day, Market-Garden and many others."

Strategy games are a growing commodity on the DS, primarily because of its touch screen and dual screen gameplay. What has it been like bringing this game to Nintendo's handheld? Has the system provided enough power and gameplay options to make Panzer Tactics DS come to life as originally envisioned?

Christoph Quas: We enjoy working on the DS, as it definitely offers some great opportunities for a designer to create innovative and accessible gameplay. That’s the case with Panzer Tactics DS. A game like ours wouldn't have been possible on any other portable console. For example, the hex-based grid would not have been an option if we did not have a touch screen and stylus to make unit control really easy and intuitive.

Secondly, being a strategy game, Panzer Tactics DS is dealing with a good deal of information (unit data, terrain parameters, etc.) that needs to be permanently present while moving around your troops. Obviously the second screen of DS was perfectly suited for that issue. That said, the DS is not a Ferrari, for example, AI programming was a big challenge for our team, but they did a great job dealing with the DS’ limitations and coming up with a challenging AI.

Panzer Tactics DS offers three campaigns where you lead the German Wehrmacht, the Red Army or the Western Allies. What's unique about each of these campaigns?

CQ: Well, first of all, the three campaigns are chronologically linear and increasingly difficult, but we leave it up to the player in what order he wants to play the campaigns. Most of the time, players will start with the German Wehrmacht invading Poland in 1939 and ending with the battle of Stalingrad in 1943. Then you’ll switch to the other side and drive the Germans back playing the Red Army. Finally you invade Europe as the Western Allies in Italy and end the War in the German homeland. The campaigns differ in the difficulty level and tactics influenced by the units you have. E.g. the German tanks and planes are perfectly suited for rushing blitz-style attacks, but the German units are also the most expensive ones. With the Russian units on the other hand, being the cheapest ones of all factions, you can more go towards a massive attack strategy.

Judging by the screenshots, tank acquisition seems to be based on an in-game form of currency. How will this work – how do you earn currency and how frequently can you acquire new tanks if the funs are available?

CQ: Well, since you’re playing as a real-world army commander - you obviously can’t just walk into a shop and buy a tank or bomber. That’s why we decided that our currency wouldn’t be money. We’ve chosen the player’s fame to be the game’s “resource.” The better you play, the more famous you’ll become. The more famous you become, the more and better units you can recruit. It’s as easy as that. You can recruit new units at any time in your headquarters, if you can afford them.

How many units can you have in battle at one time, and does that limit apply to the enemy as well?

CQ: We make sure you have enough units to ensure an enjoyable and realistic battle. Nobody wants to be stuck playing with only five units on the map, right? So, playing the campaign you can recruit up to 20 core units that stay with you throughout the whole campaign and get better and more experienced with every battle. Besides that the game provides you with auxiliary units that you control only per mission. The number of auxiliary units depends on how good or bad you are. The better you fight, the less aid you need, the worse you perform the more auxiliary units you’ll get. In total the player can theoretically control 50 units at one time, so does the AI.

In addition to the many tanks we've seen, Panzer Tactics DS offers waterborne and airborne units. Could you go into details about them, as well as any land vehicles (if there are any besides the tanks)?

CQ: That’s correct, the game has a great mix of units, much more than just tanks and armor. We offer more than 150 different authentic units in total, e.g. infantry, paratroopers, artillery, recon units, fighters, bombers, battleships and many more. You’ll be able to play the fierce Tiger II tank as well as the Sherman. You’ll play the P-51 Mustang or the Russian Katyusha rocket launcher. They’re all there. We also have officers that you can use as heroes to boast your troops’ fighting abilities. On the other hand you can recruit commandos, which are invisible stealth units that can assassinate officers, demoralize or sabotage other units. This offers a new approach to strategy gaming and turns out to be a lot of fun - especially in multiplayer battles.

What are some of the bonus mission objectives players will have the option of completing?

CQ: Secondary objectives are optional and offer a bonus for the next campaign mission or they’ll bring you fame, when completed, which you can then of course use to trade for new units. Such objectives would be the assassination of an enemy officer, freeing prisoners, stealing secret documents and many more. In one mission you’ll be asked to capture a city without destroying it, meaning you should not use heavy weapons like artillery or bombers. That can make a mission quite tricky! As a reward you’ll be provided with prototype units, free unit upgrades, reduced supply costs etc.

One of the things Panzer Tactics DS boasts about is intelligent opponents. Give us some examples of how they'll challenge the player, and talk about what it will take to overcome them.

CQ: Our AI is really clever, as we put a lot of effort into making it behave like a human player would do. For example, our AI units never attack alone or without strategy. If possible, the AI will gather in squads and attack you in small and efficient groups, which obviously will make them much stronger and dangerous. Besides that, if you are too careless it is very likely that the AI will surprise you more than you’d like. Here’s a tip - don’t ever leave your headquarters unguarded!

There will be 10 different multiplayer maps, which may be used in four-player LAN or Wi-Fi games. What can we expect from these maps, and which ones will be the most challenging?

CQ: We wanted to make sure you get plenty of variety when playing the game, so we tried to offer a wide range of multiplayer maps, starting with small 2-player maps and ending with epic 4-player maps that can last there or four hours. Every map can be adjusted to the your preferences and skills. They can define the game’s win condition (kill all enemy units, capture enemy headquarters, capture all enemy cities), the turn time, starting fame amount etc. Those customization parameters offer a different gaming experience and directly influence the battles’ playtime. Sometimes you’d want a quick game, sometimes you’d want to play for hours. We leave that up to the players. Actually I can’t tell you which maps are the most challenging ones, because everybody has his own opinion on that, but I can tell you that I have my favorites.

What role will weather effects play (if any), during the single-player campaign or multiplayer?

CQ: We have three weather states: sunny, cloudy and rainy or snowy. When it rains or snows planes cannot attack or be attacked, so the veteran strategist should always keep an eye on the daily weather reports. Of course, the weather system is designed to depict the real weather of the location where the battle takes place. Russia in winter can be a very uncomfortable place to be, whereas the chances of snow in Northern Africa are usually quite low …

Lastly, does the game offer any customization features?

CQ: Before you start the game you will be asked to select your Avatar. He is your representation especially in multiplayer and stays with you throughout the game. You’ll start as a rookie private and – as you improve – you will finally end being an aged veteran general. This helps to estimate your opponents in multiplayer at a glance and it offers a great personalization aspect to the game. As mentioned before, multiplayer matches can be adjusted to the players’ needs to offer the perfect multiplayer gaming experience.

Thank you for your time.

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