Panzer Command - Nothing Quiet on the Ostfront

You can argue that Panzer Command Ostfront (PCO) will not win any awards for its looks ... But there is more than polygons and textures in this massive tactical war game.

Despite heavy AT fire, a Russian T-34 attempts to join a botched thunder run in the town of Niemirow.

I played the first scenario that the game's single battles menu threw at me. Quite interesting setup: I played the Germans defending the town of Niemirow with a mix of infantry and (half-assed) Pak 36s against a blitz of Russian tanks supported by infantry.

I intended to write an AAR about this battle but in the interest of time and of not spoiling the scenario for you, I will post just some screenshots and notes about the game and the scenario itself.

Infantrymen: you are not to be massacred in close terrain. Infantry in PCO is abstracted, meaning that the pixel troops you see in the screen are just a representation of a squad's position, strength,cover, concealment and posture. The German squad in the screenshot above had enough abstracted cover and concealment to survive the seemingly direct line of fire from the BT7 Russian in the background. The German squad eventually knocked out the tank, as you can see.

I placed my AT guns deep in the town, overlooking the most likely avenues of approach. The scenario features a battlefield that is roughly 1 square kilometer and it was hard to make choices for the best AT gun positions. I ended up with a thin line of guns. To make matters worse, I couldn't figure out how to reposition these during the battle.

The Russians closing onto Niemirow. The Russian infantry got suppressed and bailed out to remain pinned in the open, while the tanks pressed onto the town. My AT guns were placed deep in the town and the marauding Russian tanks got into a dicey situation. German combat engineers hidden in the houses proved lethal to the Russian iron beasts.

A panoramic view of the battlefield. Niemirow is located in a small depression around the center. The blue flags are victory location. The Russians attacked from the far background

I earned a "legendary victory". My troops repelled the Russian attack, knocking out 15+ tanks to the loss of 2 AT guns and a few infantry casualties. Part of my victory is just pure luck: most of the Russian tank losses were BT7s. Just when the things were getting hotter than what I expected (a few hard-to-knock-out T34s closing in), the bell rang.
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Cheers,