Pacific General - Gameplay

Gameplay

Pacific General (also known as "PacGen") is played on a hex map with icons representing aircraft, warships, tanks, and groups of soldiers. The turn-based style allows each player to strategize their next move. Combat involves various factors, like critical hits, surprise, and terrain. Particular attention is spent on naval warfare, where ships can sustain critical hits to ship systems and submarines can submerge to launch stealth attacks. The weather and time of day are also important factors to consider: darkness can obscure troop movements and rain can prevent air strikes. Troops can sustain suppression from enemy fire, inhibiting their offensive and defensive abilities, and they can also entrench themselves, enhancing their defensive strength.

Players win by amassing victory points that are gained by occupying specific objective hexes. The side with the most victory points is declared the winner. Like role-playing games, the player can upgrade or add units to his core force, with the unit's experience carrying on to the next battle. He also must be aware of each unit's fuel and ammunition levels, and also the fog of war, the collective vision of all units under his control.

Prestige is the currency of the game. Prestige is gained by destroying enemy units, and lost when a player buys or upgrades his units. Prestige is also available at the start of a new scenario, before any combat begins.

Whereas the first Panzer General targeted DOS, Pacific General was made for Windows. Pacific General utilize interface and share an underlying file system that differs from the original Panzer General. Fans created a version of Pacific General, based on its own DOS version, that borrows interface features from the original Panzer General. Called Pacific Panzer General (PacPG), it includes all scenarios and campaigns from the original, as well as bugfixes.