Panzer Corps: A Game of War and Indeterminate Units

I finally got down to playing Panzer Corps. It was reminiscent of the old Panzer General series which I had purchased but not played much due to its appearance during a stage in my life when I was very busy.

I went through all the tutorials, after which, I loaded the Kursk scenario and played the German forces attempting to force a decision at Kursk. The objective of the scenario was Kursk and several more urban spaces, presumably towns. There were quite a bit of them including some at the edges of the salient. 

The first observation made of the Panzer Corps game system is that the units are indeterminate in scale, identity and composition. One can see Nashorn units, Ferdinand units, anti-tank units, Tiger tank units. What on earth are those? Surely, they can't be corps given the namesake of this game? A Tiger tank corps? An anti-tank gun corps? A Nashorn corps? It absolutely does not make sense. It does not model reality. If one were to define them as armoured corps, then, why would a Nashorn corps have strong anti-tank values and weak defence values? In other words, the units are arbitrary, much like the units in Axis & Allies, a game with a war theme but not a conflict simulation (consim).

Secondly, there is no scale on the map. It is merely a map with units and geographical locations that seem to reflect what was there in 1943.

I will not then speak of supply nor command. It would be pointless.

Having established that this is like Axis & Allies, a game with a war theme but not technically a wargame, Panzer Corps is not like those early SPI or Avalon Hill beer and pretzel game which at least try to model reality in some form.

What are the strengths then of Panzer Corps? Based on the Kursk scenario which I completed and won on the last turn, yes, there were that many objectives. I had to dispatch units all over the map just to hold them. It does have a flavour of what you read of Operational Zitadelle. The Germans were drastically short of infantry, which did reflect reality. The Russians had a lot of anti-tank guns, infantry and tanks, most of which were easily dispatched, much like in real life. The Russians had more fighters and were able to establish local air superiority at various junctures. In that, it does reflect history. It does have a certain flavour about it.  It is full of game and it is fast-paced.

It would really depends on what one is looking for in a game or if one is looking for a wargame (consim).