Hello again, you magnificent grognards! Yeah, I know. It’s been far too long since I last posted a proper wargame review. I’ve been hiding in my bear cave, shamefully neglecting the blog while life threw weddings, honeymoons, and general laziness at me like artillery barrages. My bad. Consider this my official crawl back into the hexes. But before you banish me to the outer darkness of “casual” wargaming, let me explain why Panzer Corps 2: Frontlines – Cyrenaica, the latest DLC from Flashback Games and Slitherine, constitutes a surprisingly addictive, sand-blasted treat that transforms historical humiliation into tactical joy.
And yes, I stand guilty as charged for reviewing it only now, some eight months late to the party. The DLC launched in March 2025, and here I am in November 2025, finally dusting off my core forces. What can I say? Real life ambushed me like a Matilda II in the fog. I got married, jetted off on a honeymoon to Bali (where the only hexes were on the villa tiles), and then settled into the blissful chaos of newlywed life. Add in a hefty dose of lazy old bear syndrome, hibernating through Steam sales, ignoring the campaign layer, and letting the desert dust gather on my install, and you have the perfect recipe for tardiness. (Regular readers will recall I previously reviewed the core Panzer Corps 2—a worthy Panzer General heir—and its early DLC Spanish Civil War; expect more reviews for the other Frontlines and Axis Operations DLCs, as long as Slitherine keeps feeding me those yummy review codes.) Mea culpa, grognards. But better late than never, right? Let’s proceed before another life event (or nap) derails me.
Let’s address the heresy early, because honesty is the best policy when praising a game that lets you command the side that historically lost 130,000 men in six weeks. Panzer Corps 2’s engine is now approaching six years old in core form, and it shows. The hexes remain blocky, the sprites flat, and the terrain textures appear sun-bleached since 1940. Zoom in on a Fiat CR.42 Falco biplane and you’ll see a pixelated pigeon with delusions of grandeur. The soundtrack is a looping martial medley that starts jaunty and ends up sounding like a funeral march for your prestige points. And the AI? Bless its cotton socks. It’s the same lovable dimwit that’s been charging headlong into kill-sacks since Panzer General was in short pants. In one defensive set-piece at Bardia as the British, I watched an entire Italian armored brigade funnel itself into a pre-registered artillery box like lemmings on espresso. The resulting fireworks were less “tactical masterpiece” and more “Benny Hill does desert warfare.” Scripted? Undoubtedly. Hilarious? Absolutely.
Yet here’s the magic trick Cyrenaica pulls off: it takes all those familiar Panzer Corps 2 quirks, dated visuals, predictable AI, prestige micromanagement, and wraps them in a dual-campaign structure so clever, so narratively coherent, that you’ll forgive the engine its trespasses. This isn’t another Axis Operations mega-branch where you’re steamrolling from Poland to the Pacific with a god-complex. This is Operation E and Operation Compass served up as a tragicomic diptych: first you’re Rodolfo Graziani, the “Butcher of Fezzan,” spearheading Mussolini’s ill-fated dash to the Nile; then you flip the script and become Archibald Wavell’s sunburnt avenger, pushing the invaders back to Benghazi with extreme prejudice. Twelve scenarios per side, many mirrored but never identical, are stitched together by a campaign layer that actually matters.
Pick the Italians and you start with a swagger. Your opening push from Sollum to Sidi Barrani is pure desert blitz: Moto Guzzi TriAlce motorcycle recon zipping across the dunes like caffeinated hornets, Bersaglieri infantry riding into battle on trucks, Ascari del Cielo paratroopers dropping behind enemy lines to capture airfields before breakfast. Your air force, those plucky CR.42 biplanes and SM.79 Sparviero bombers, can actually tangle with Gloster Gladiators if you play the turning-circle card right. The 47/32 anti-tank gun, that little elephant-killer, punches holes in early British Cruisers with gleeful regularity. Prestige flows like Chianti at a Roman wedding. You feel unstoppable. You capture Maktila, overrun Sollum, and start eyeing the Suez with the optimism of a man who’s never met a supply line he couldn’t overextend.
Then winter arrives, the British wake up, and the bill comes due.
Your core slots begin to shrink. That loyal L3 tankette you’ve nursed since Tripoli? Gone. The veteran Bersaglieri who survived the frontier battles? Disbanded to free up prestige for fresh meat. By the time you’re defending Mechili, you’re juggling a dwindling pool of units like a street magician with arthritis. Sandstorms, brilliantly implemented, ground your air force, blind your recon, and turn every hex into a potential ambush. I lost an entire armored thrust at Msus because I chased a phantom convoy into a storm-shrouded pocket. My M13/40s rolled in confident; they rolled out as flaming wrecks. Reload? Of course. But the game remembers. Fail to evacuate stragglers from Bir Rabia, and your Tobruk garrison arrives understrength. Nail the bonus objective at Giarabub? You unlock a hero general with the “Desert Fox” trait, +2 initiative in clear weather, because irony is free.
Switch to the British campaign and the tone flips from hubris to righteous fury. You start on the back foot, holding the line at Halfaya Pass with a ragtag force of Matilda IIs, Rolls-Royce Armored Cars, and Free French legionnaires who fight like they’ve got a personal grudge against pasta. Prestige is tighter than a drum: do you splurge on Hurricane fighters or hoard for the inevitable counterattack? The early scenarios are masterclasses in defensive layering, artillery pre-registered on choke points, infantry in sangars, tanks held in reserve for the counterpunch. When Operation Compass finally kicks off, it’s glorious. Your Cruisers flank Italian columns at Derna, your 25-pounders pound Bardia into submission, and your commandos seize airfields before the Regia Aeronautica can scramble. The pursuit to Benghazi is pure wargaming catnip: recon ahead, armor in the center, infantry mopping up pockets. I encircled an entire Italian division at Beda Fomm and watched them surrender en masse. Somewhere, O’Connor was smiling.
The battles themselves are brisk, three or four in an evening if you’re not obsessing over every entrenchment order. Pacing is spot-on: defensive stands demand patience and fire discipline, while mobile battles reward aggression and recon. Units feel period-appropriate without being slavish; Italian M13/40s can trade blows with Cruiser Mk IIIs (historically optimistic, but balanced), while the 47/32 remains a Matilda-slayer until the 2-pounder arrives in force. Heroes add flavor: assign Annibale “Electric Whiskers” Bergonzoli to a unit and watch it gain +1 movement in rough terrain, perfect for breakout attempts. Weather is the great equalizer: a well-timed sandstorm can save an Italian rearguard or doom a British thrust. Air power is potent but fragile; lose your fighters early, and the enemy owns the skies.
Drawbacks? Plenty, if you’re inclined to grumble. Infantry is cannon fodder; sell your Italian leg units for artillery prestige the moment you can. The AI, while improved over vanilla, still loves frontal assaults into prepared positions. Without mods or the higher difficulty settings, elite cores trivialize late scenarios. The campaign is predetermined in outcome; Italy loses, Britain wins, but the journey is the point. Can you escape with more cores intact? Capture that bonus airfield? Evacuate the hospital at Tobruk? It’s roguelite tension in a hex-based skin, and it works.
Compared to Frontlines: Bulge, Cyrenaica is leaner, meaner, and more focused. Where Bulge was a sprawling snowbound epic, this is a tight desert duet, perfect for a weekend campaign (or a honeymoon recovery session). It lacks the graphical polish of newer titles, but it compensates with personality, period flavor, and that elusive “one more turn” magic. At $14.99 (or less on sale), it’s a steal for Panzer Corps 2 owners. Newcomers should grab the base game first; it’s the Panzer General successor we’ve waited decades for, but veterans will find this DLC a worthy addition to the sandbox. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got a rematch at Mechili calling, and this time, no sandstorms will save me from my own overconfidence.
