Panzer General 3D Assault

The Good
This was SSI's first attempt at a true 3D version of the PG series, and that alone made it far better than the pseudo-3D from PGII. Units seemed to be improved in general, as was unit strength balance. Overall it was certainly an excellent upgrade to PGII.

Another change was the "improvement" system. In previous games the units gained experience and became better at their jobs as a result of successful combat, and they would lose experience when they took replacements for losses. In 3D they changed the system so that the experience was a property of the unit commander instead of the unit itself. That way you can trade out units or hardware, and keep the experience.

In addition, the experience from combat is not handed directly to a unit, but given out during the mission in the form of promotions. That is, at the end of the mission you will have gathered a number of promotions that you can then give to the leaders as you see fit. This part I found rather suspect, because one unit could be "winning" a promotion for an entirely different unit.

Promotions in turn change a unit's (or its commander's) number of "action points". That means that more experienced units can do more things in one turn. I'm not entirely sure what to think of this, should tanks really move faster just because of the commander was promoted? Maybe...

Another simple change is the addition of special abilities on the commanders. These are given out at random and improve their skills in ways that wouldn't fit into the traditional experience system. For instance, the commander of a recce unit might get the ability to do longer-ranged sighting, tactical bomber units gain special abilities for attacking bunkers, etc.

Beyond that, the game is pretty much as it always was. Soften things up with your artillery and bombers, then send in the infantry while your tanks run around and take on their vehicles.

The Bad
3D, like all the games of the series, has a single terribly serious flaw. That is the fact that there is no "front line". Units can fight with full effectiveness anywhere on the map. This is a serious problem, because it means that a single unit can win the game by running far behind your units and capturing your strategic cities.

In 3D this is particularly bad because the missions seem to always include a few hidden units who's only purpose in life is to do just this. I've lost countless missions where I am decimating the enemy only to find a single recce unit arrives 200 miles behind the front and that's that. This is really a very very bad idea. The game forces you to leave units behind in case this happens, and frankly that's just an unfair cheat.

Another complaint is UI related. Since any particular unit is a combination of the unit and a leader, it's important that you continue to upgrade both. The interface makes this practically impossible. Many units are displayed in the upgrade screen as default icons with no descriptive text, so it's often very difficult to figure out what unit needs upgrading and which is already the latest and greatest.

The Bottom Line
Good game, but get Scorched Earth instead.