Panzer Elite
Encyclopedia
Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory (sometimes just Panzer Elite Action) is a video game, developed by ZootFly
and published by JoWooD Productions. It was released in Europe
in 2006, yet has not yet been given a North America
n release date. This game is distinguishable from the original Panzer Elite, a 1999 realistic WW2 tank simulator, which has a separate modding community devoted to it and was first published by Psygnosis.
PESE is not public domain software and the Panzer Elite Development Group is permitted to continue modding only under a non-competitive special agreement with Jowood allowing them to do so.
Panzer Elite Action was released by Jowood in 2006 and uses the same visuals as Panzer Elite but moves to an arcade instead of simulation interface. The remainder of this article describes Panzer Elite Action.
tank
action game, in which the player can command a platoon of either German
(4 tanks) or American
(5 tanks) forces in three scenarios: the Tunisian campaign
(1943), the Italian campaign
(1943-44) and the Battle of Normandy
(1944), each one featuring a series of battles. Later on, fans developed new scenarios in North Africa
(1940-41) and the Soviet Union
(1941).
The player can roster the crew for each tank in his platoon, based on their skills, which increase over time. New members become available over time, for replacement of dead and wounded. They may also be awarded historical medals.
Each battle station on the player's tank may be occupied, and the gun sighting may be set to be very realistic. Better tanks become available during the course of time (Tiger I
for Germans, later models of Sherman for Americans), close to the real availability of these models during WWII. Every few kilometres there are repair and ammo stations for when the tank is damaged by enemy fire. There is also a multiplayer mode for up to 32 players in each server, and the player gets to choose which tank they may use.
There are 18 missions, for German, Russian and allied campaigns. The first few missions are fairly beginner-friendly and easy, and they gradually get tougher and tougher as the player progresses. The game is very detailed and quite realistic, with most of the major tanks of World War II included in the various missions. There are night missions, where the player goes under cover in a captured enemy tank.
There is also an American version of the game, First Battalion
.
and free some Soviet POW's, and finally to win the Battle of Kursk
. The next campaign is allied where the player takes part in the successful landings at Normandy in June 1944. Then, the player destroys some V2 rockets and finally make it out of the dreaded Bocage. The next is probably the hardest mission in the game, where the player is up against nothing but Tigers and Panthers and has to get the tank ace Michael Wittmann
. Then the player has to stop the German counter-attack at the Battle of The Bulge
and go under cover again in a captured King Tiger to stop the Germans blowing up a dam and flooding the Roer Valley, and the final mission is the final drive to the Rhine.
The player has the opportunity to use both the primary (cannon) and secondary (machine gun
) armaments while in combat. The game itself is the story of three tank commanders, one for each campaign. While playing, the crews often "talk" to each other, when the quotes show up on the screen. The player often receives praise when they knock out an enemy tank or shoot an enemy soldier, e.g. "Good Shot", and "Score one for the good guys" and complaints in instances of friendly fire.
The player has a slight advantage over enemy tanks, as it would take about twenty direct hits to knock them out, whereas in some instances the player can knock ut an enemy tank in just two or three direct hits.
as mentioned before, and the availability time is quite close too.
The first German tank was the Panzer II
, used for the first two missions. Next is the Panzer III
followed by the Panzer IV
, and finally the famous Tiger I
. In the multiplayer mode, the Panzer III, Panther and King Tiger tanks are available for combat.
The first Russian tank is the T-34
/76/42 in the encirclement of Stalingrad, followed by the KV-1-S, T-34/85 and IS
-2. Next is the captured Panther and then the IS-2 armed with the powerful 122mm gun. The T-34
/76/42, KV-1-S and IS-2 tanks are available in the multiplayer mode.
The M4 Sherman
is the first Allied tank, followed by the M24 Chaffee
, Sherman Firefly
and M26 Pershing
. Then is the captured King Tiger and the M26 Pershing. The Chaffee, Sherman and Pershing tanks can be played in the multiplayer mode.
The player has the opportunity in the multiplayer mode to use either the cannon or alternate weapon (airstrikes for light tanks, mines
for medium tanks and supply drops for heavy tanks) in the multiplayer mode, as opposed to single-player where the alternate weapon is always the co-axial machine gun.
Percentage of friendly fire, score limit and time connection limit can all be set when hosting a server, and sometimes players set player limit too.
Released an add-on, Panzer Elite Action: Dunes of War
to the game. It features the "African Chapter" of the war, and contains two new campaigns including German and Allied, and ten all-new multiplayer maps. There is an unlimited multiplayer-only version available for free download.
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ZootFly
ZootFly is a Slovenian video game developer specializing in the development of action adventure games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. ZootFly is a member studio of the International Game Developers Association .-History:...
and published by JoWooD Productions. It was released in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
in 2006, yet has not yet been given a North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
n release date. This game is distinguishable from the original Panzer Elite, a 1999 realistic WW2 tank simulator, which has a separate modding community devoted to it and was first published by Psygnosis.
Origins
Panzer Elite was developed by Wings Simulation and first published by Wing's parent company Psygnosis in 1999. This first version was v.1.05 and was considered very buggy, especially in multiplayer. A subsequent v.1.1 patch made it tolerable. During 2000, Pygnosis moved away from PC gaming and sold Wings and Panzer Elite to Jowood Productions. In 2001, Jowood authorised the release of Panzer Elite Special Edition ("PESE"). This was Panzer Elite with an additional CD containing exclusive content developed by community members with names like the Lennort Brothers and Aldo. During 2002, patch 1.2 was released by the Lennort Brothers which brought first real multiplayer stability to Panzer Elite. PESE continues to be extremely well supported by a very active modding community called the Panzer Elite Development Group. This ongoing version of Panzer Elite is widely considered the leading and benchhmark WW2 Tank Simulator. A full review of Panzer Elite can be found here: http://www.simhq.com/_land/armor_archive/Panzer_Elite_Review.zipPESE is not public domain software and the Panzer Elite Development Group is permitted to continue modding only under a non-competitive special agreement with Jowood allowing them to do so.
Panzer Elite Action was released by Jowood in 2006 and uses the same visuals as Panzer Elite but moves to an arcade instead of simulation interface. The remainder of this article describes Panzer Elite Action.
Overview
Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory is a World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
tank
Tank
A tank is a tracked, armoured fighting vehicle designed for front-line combat which combines operational mobility, tactical offensive, and defensive capabilities...
action game, in which the player can command a platoon of either German
History of Germany during World War II
The history of Germany during World War II closely parallels that of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler. He came to power in Germany in 1933. From that point onward, Germany followed a policy of rearmament and confrontation with other countries...
(4 tanks) or American
Allies of World War II
The Allies of World War II were the countries that opposed the Axis powers during the Second World War . Former Axis states contributing to the Allied victory are not considered Allied states...
(5 tanks) forces in three scenarios: the Tunisian campaign
Tunisia Campaign
The Tunisia Campaign was a series of battles that took place in Tunisia during the North African Campaign of the Second World War, between Axis and Allied forces. The Allies consisted of British Imperial Forces, including Polish and Greek contingents, with American and French corps...
(1943), the Italian campaign
Italian Campaign (World War II)
The Italian Campaign of World War II was the name of Allied operations in and around Italy, from 1943 to the end of the war in Europe. Joint Allied Forces Headquarters AFHQ was operationally responsible for all Allied land forces in the Mediterranean theatre, and it planned and commanded the...
(1943-44) and the Battle of Normandy
Operation Overlord
Operation Overlord was the code name for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied western Europe during World War II by Allied forces. The operation commenced on 6 June 1944 with the Normandy landings...
(1944), each one featuring a series of battles. Later on, fans developed new scenarios in North Africa
North African campaign
During the Second World War, the North African Campaign took place in North Africa from 10 June 1940 to 13 May 1943. It included campaigns fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts and in Morocco and Algeria and Tunisia .The campaign was fought between the Allies and Axis powers, many of whom had...
(1940-41) and the Soviet Union
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
(1941).
The player can roster the crew for each tank in his platoon, based on their skills, which increase over time. New members become available over time, for replacement of dead and wounded. They may also be awarded historical medals.
Each battle station on the player's tank may be occupied, and the gun sighting may be set to be very realistic. Better tanks become available during the course of time (Tiger I
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
for Germans, later models of Sherman for Americans), close to the real availability of these models during WWII. Every few kilometres there are repair and ammo stations for when the tank is damaged by enemy fire. There is also a multiplayer mode for up to 32 players in each server, and the player gets to choose which tank they may use.
There are 18 missions, for German, Russian and allied campaigns. The first few missions are fairly beginner-friendly and easy, and they gradually get tougher and tougher as the player progresses. The game is very detailed and quite realistic, with most of the major tanks of World War II included in the various missions. There are night missions, where the player goes under cover in a captured enemy tank.
There is also an American version of the game, First Battalion
First Battalion
First Battalion is an arcade tank combat game developed by Zootfly.- Campaigns :There are three campaigns The German, The Russian and The American campaign. In all these campaigns a user is given command of a WW 2 tank . The user is given a task that involves tank fighting, taking out artillery...
.
Single Player Mode
The game is divided into three campaigns, German, Russian and Allied as mentioned before. The first is the German. The player takes part in the invasions of Poland and France, then helps Operation Barbarossa succeed. The last German mission is Stalingrad, where the player takes part in the taking of Stalingrad. The next campaign is the Russian. The player's first mission in this campaign is to complete the encirclement of Stalingrad, then to halt Operation Winter Storm by destroying an armoured supply train and drive the Germans out of the city. Then the player has to stop a German advance and destroy some long range artillery. Then the player goes under cover in a captured Panther tankPanther tank
Panther is the common name of a medium tank fielded by Nazi Germany in World War II that served from mid-1943 to the end of the European war in 1945. It was intended as a counter to the T-34, and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV; while never replacing the latter, it served alongside it as...
and free some Soviet POW's, and finally to win the Battle of Kursk
Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk took place when German and Soviet forces confronted each other on the Eastern Front during World War II in the vicinity of the city of Kursk, in the Soviet Union in July and August 1943. It remains both the largest series of armored clashes, including the Battle of Prokhorovka,...
. The next campaign is allied where the player takes part in the successful landings at Normandy in June 1944. Then, the player destroys some V2 rockets and finally make it out of the dreaded Bocage. The next is probably the hardest mission in the game, where the player is up against nothing but Tigers and Panthers and has to get the tank ace Michael Wittmann
Michael Wittmann
Michael Wittmann was a German Waffen-SS tank commander during the Second World War. Wittmann would rise to the rank of SS-Hauptsturmführer and was a Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross holder....
. Then the player has to stop the German counter-attack at the Battle of The Bulge
Battle of the Bulge
The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive , launched toward the end of World War II through the densely forested Ardennes mountain region of Wallonia in Belgium, hence its French name , and France and...
and go under cover again in a captured King Tiger to stop the Germans blowing up a dam and flooding the Roer Valley, and the final mission is the final drive to the Rhine.
The player has the opportunity to use both the primary (cannon) and secondary (machine gun
Machine gun
A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm, usually designed to fire rounds in quick succession from an ammunition belt or large-capacity magazine, typically at a rate of several hundred rounds per minute....
) armaments while in combat. The game itself is the story of three tank commanders, one for each campaign. While playing, the crews often "talk" to each other, when the quotes show up on the screen. The player often receives praise when they knock out an enemy tank or shoot an enemy soldier, e.g. "Good Shot", and "Score one for the good guys" and complaints in instances of friendly fire.
The player has a slight advantage over enemy tanks, as it would take about twenty direct hits to knock them out, whereas in some instances the player can knock ut an enemy tank in just two or three direct hits.
Tanks Used
The game contains most major tanks used in the European theatre of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
as mentioned before, and the availability time is quite close too.
German
The first German tank was the Panzer II
Panzer II
The Panzer II was the common name for a family of German tanks used in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen II...
, used for the first two missions. Next is the Panzer III
Panzer III
Panzer III was the common name of a medium tank that was developed in the 1930s by Germany and was used extensively in World War II. The official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen III translating as "armoured battle vehicle". It was intended to fight other armoured fighting vehicles and...
followed by the Panzer IV
Panzer IV
The Panzerkampfwagen IV , commonly known as the Panzer IV, was a medium tank developed in Nazi Germany in the late 1930s and used extensively during the Second World War. Its ordnance inventory designation was Sd.Kfz...
, and finally the famous Tiger I
Tiger I
Tiger I is the common name of a German heavy tank developed in 1942 and used in World War II. The final official German designation was Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. E, often shortened to Tiger. It was an answer to the unexpectedly formidable Soviet armour encountered in the initial months of...
. In the multiplayer mode, the Panzer III, Panther and King Tiger tanks are available for combat.
Russian
The first Russian tank is the T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
/76/42 in the encirclement of Stalingrad, followed by the KV-1-S, T-34/85 and IS
IS
-Language and words:Words formed from the letters "is" include:*"is", the third form of the verb "to be" at present tense, in the English language. For copulative usage see Copula...
-2. Next is the captured Panther and then the IS-2 armed with the powerful 122mm gun. The T-34
T-34
The T-34 was a Soviet medium tank produced from 1940 to 1958. Although its armour and armament were surpassed by later tanks of the era, it has been often credited as the most effective, efficient and influential design of World War II...
/76/42, KV-1-S and IS-2 tanks are available in the multiplayer mode.
Allied
The M4 Sherman
M4 Sherman
The M4 Sherman, formally Medium Tank, M4, was the primary tank used by the United States during World War II. Thousands were also distributed to the Allies, including the British Commonwealth and Soviet armies, via lend-lease...
is the first Allied tank, followed by the M24 Chaffee
M24 Chaffee
The Light Tank M24 was an American light tank used during World War II and in postwar conflicts including the Korean War and with the French in the War in Algeria and First Indochina War. In British service it was given the service name Chaffee, after the United States Army General Adna R...
, Sherman Firefly
Sherman Firefly
The Sherman Firefly was a World War II British variant of the American Sherman tank, fitted with the powerful British 17 pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon...
and M26 Pershing
M26 Pershing
The Heavy Tank M26 Pershing was an American heavy tank briefly used in World War II and in the Korean War. It was named after General John Pershing, who led the American Expeditionary Force in Europe in World War I....
. Then is the captured King Tiger and the M26 Pershing. The Chaffee, Sherman and Pershing tanks can be played in the multiplayer mode.
Multiplayer Mode
The multiplayer mode is an outstanding feature of the game. It can be accessed by the main menu. Players often create Video Game Clans when playing. The game features seven multiplayer maps, Mairy-Sur-Marne, Kursk, Bocage, Shestakov, Stalingrad, Bingen-Am-Rhine and Huertgen. Players can connect to servers of up 32 players. The multiplayer mode also has a talk mode, where players can have a chat by pressing T or Y on their keyboards.The player has the opportunity in the multiplayer mode to use either the cannon or alternate weapon (airstrikes for light tanks, mines
Land mine
A land mine is usually a weight-triggered explosive device which is intended to damage a target—either human or inanimate—by means of a blast and/or fragment impact....
for medium tanks and supply drops for heavy tanks) in the multiplayer mode, as opposed to single-player where the alternate weapon is always the co-axial machine gun.
Percentage of friendly fire, score limit and time connection limit can all be set when hosting a server, and sometimes players set player limit too.
Add-Ons
In 2007 JoWoodJoWooD
JoWooD Entertainment AG is an Austrian computer game publisher of video games, founded in 1995 by Andreas Tobler and currently led by Franz Rossler....
Released an add-on, Panzer Elite Action: Dunes of War
Panzer Elite Action: Dunes of War
Panzer Elite Action: Dunes of War is a computer video game, developed by ZootFly and published by JoWooD Productions. It was released in Europe in Q1 2007.-Gameplay:...
to the game. It features the "African Chapter" of the war, and contains two new campaigns including German and Allied, and ten all-new multiplayer maps. There is an unlimited multiplayer-only version available for free download.
External links
- http://forum.jowood.de/forumdisplay.php?f=241
- Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory official website
- Forums at SimHQ which continue to discuss Panzer Elite
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