Would you go into battle without the best equipment?
Would you go into battle without the best equipment?
Panzer General II
Equipment Updates & New Units
Release 1.5
Dated: 19 Sep 98
For Panzer General II - version 1.0, 1.01, 1.02 and above
Produced by Steve Strayer
Download Panzer General II New Equipment Roster 1.5 (18kb) 
IMPORTANT: These new files are NOT from SSI. I am a gamer like you, who thought I could help improve the unit roster for Panzer General II. I seek neither fame nor credit, I just enjoy the satisfaction of sharing this work with others! If for any reasons you have problems with these files, it's not SSI's fault, as I did the work on this roster outside of SSI's "official" supported patches! I'll be more than happy to answer anyone's questions about this unit roster, but you needn't bother SSI for the files I've changed! My e-mail address is at the end of this read file. Though I am NOT an employee of SSI, I have worked somewhat with them in the past (my name is mentioned at the bottom of the PG2 readme.txt file), so I have a good understanding of how the game works and how the stats relate with one-another; and being a BIG World War II buff, I figured I could throw in a little more statistical balance and sense to the already great game of Panzer General II. This patch contains replacement files for two pre-existing files in your Panzer General II main directory. Before installing the new equipment list, make sure to back up your original equip97.eqp and equip97.txt file, as this new equipment roster will replace them. If you don't like what's been done with the new equipment, feel free to reload your original files back into your main directory! Do realize that the PG2 Armory Roster guarantees and maintains 100% BACKWARD COMPATABILITY with ALL scenarios and campaigns in the game! GENERAL INFO & INSTALLATION: After unzipping, This update contains the following files: equip97.eqp equip97.txt readme2.txt To install, simply copy the two 'equip97' files into your Panzer General II main directory, and write over the pre-existing files by the same name (you did back them up right?!?). WARNING: You may install this new file and immediately resume any saved game you have in progress... however, some of your units may differ in their statistics, as many units have been slightly modified. You have been warned! If this would annoy you, please finish your current saved game before using this new equipment list! Furthermore, anyone wishing to play multi-player either by Lan, Internet or Club SSI should be aware that you can only play against people who have this same database in use! WHAT IS IN THE NEW EQUIPMENT ROSTER? Alot! I had been examining the unit roster and found many units either flawed or unbalanced. Most of the changes that were needed were changes to prestige values. There were repeated cases of clearly inferior vehicles costing more than clearly superior vehicles. This has been addressed. Some availability dates have been moved up. Also many units have been 'tweaked' in combat abilities. NEW ADDED UNITS: German Units: Pz IVE, Pz IVF1, Marder II, StuG IIIE, PzWerfer42, Me-109f, Me-110g, Lynx British Units: Matilda I, Cruiser Mk I, Cruiser Mk I CS, Cruiser Mk II, Crusader II CS, Churchill VII, Spitfire II, Meteor Russian Units: T-26B, BT-7A, KV-IA US Units: M3A1 Grant French Units: H38, 20mm AD, 47mm ATG Polish Units: 40mm AD, 155mm Artillery SPECIAL NOTES: Many people get confused between SS Grenadiers and SS Regular infantry units in the Armory PG2 Equipment Roster because they have the same combat stats, but much differant costs. The reason is simple... SS Grenadiers are more expensive because they have the combat engineer special abilities. Units with this ability can blow bridges like bridge engineers, but don't form bridges... also combat engineer endows the unit the ability to IGNORE ALL ENTRENCHMENT LEVELS, and the unit can NEVER suffer from a rugged defense when attacking a well-entrenched unit... ergo SS Grenadiers are tougher fighters than SS Regular units! --- The Germans now have a new Transport class halftrack available to them during the game. It is the 250/1 halftrack (formerly in the recon category). Though halftracks were indeed used for recon purposes, for the reason of "consistancy" with previous General series games, and simply to keep the most effective vehicles used in the best roles (simply put, halftracks make better transports, and armored cars make better recon vehicles), I have made the 250/1 a transport vehicle. For reasons beyond our control (mainly the game engine) the 250/1 will not physically appear in the transport window when upgrading or buying units that can use transports, but if the unit is available (the 250/1 becomes available in late 1941), simply click on the "empty" window, and the stats for the 250/1 will show, and you may purchase the unit normally if you so desire... this also works for upgrades. Once the 250/1 transport is either purchased or upgraded, the unit will function quite normally in the game, and it's unique icon will show on ALL unit info screens, and in the game itself. Bottom line, it functions quite normally in ALL aspects, except it's icon won't appear in the purchase/upgrade screen... otherwise, it functions normally! CHANGES/ENHANCEMENTS: MAJOR prestige fix to ensure all units are priced better. Twenty-five new relevant units added to the equipment roster. Former combat engineer abilities of Pioniere now given to SS Grenadier. Many unit icon changes making units look better/more accurate. Release dates for units more historically accurate. Units with misleading or incorrect names have been renamed. Air Defense units are more consistent with history. Most Anti-tank units have had their prestige costs dropped. Bf-109b vs Me-109e problem solved. Russian 7.62 AT gun & SU-85 strengthened appropriately. German Heavy SP Artillery ranges fixed. German 250/1 Halftrack reclassified as a Transport (see special note). Same tanks from differant countries now have same stats. Tanks with same guns, but wildly fluctuating stats now fixed. Hungarian Turan tank stats clarified and corrected. Most Russian tanks have had their initiatives raised to match the West. THE DIFFERANT RELEASES OF THIS NEW EQUIPMENT LIST: Release 1.5 Adds two new units (UK close support tanks), price and movement corrections for halftrack transport vehicles, minor statistical adjustments to the following units: JagdTiger, Russian AT vehicles, British LT Mk IV. Icon changes to UK recon vehicles. Release 1.4 Adds two new units, minor stat adjustments to PSW 234/1, Pz-I's, Coelion, French Cavalry tanks plus Polish & UK light tanks, also some price tweaks to low-end infantry, minor name changes to Czech tanks and French Potez bomber. Some ammo changes to French and German armor. Release 1.3 Adds eight new units, changes date available to 8.8 FK18 ATG & Polish 100mm Artillery; changes Polish 47mm ATG to 37mm ATG & 105mm to 100mm Artillery; change of stats to 17 K18, Nationalist 149mm, UK 7.2 inch, US 8 inch, FW-190d, Pz-IV's, M4/76's, M10, M18, T-26S, many Recon units, German SP Artillery & AD unit changes. Ground attack values for fighters adjusted, British and German Tactical bombers re-evaluated; Russian T-34 & KV armor renamed and some stats changed; corrected Bersaglieri name. Changed icons of T-43, Polish 75mm, 100mm artillery & many icon changes for Naval & ATG units. Corrected GD of Polish 7TP. Release 1.2 Adds 9 new units (four German, three British & two French) changes to Valentine, PzIIIG & Matilda II release dates, changes Polish 7TP icon, changes AT gun, German Infantry & British Armor names plus stat changes to Recon units, Wurfrahmen, Me-110e, Centurion, IS-2, IS-3, ISU-122, Vickers, MkVI, Allied AD units, 6-pounder guns, SdKfz7/1 & SdKfz6/2. Major prestige realignment to towed AT guns & Infantry. Release 1.1 Corrects Tiger I cost, tweaks PSW 222, Pz-35(t), LTM 35, T-26S, Pz-IIA, NbWf41 and Wurfrahmen. Pioniere renamed to Waffen SS. Release 1.0 Refined version play-tested and quality checked, with four new units added to the roster. Beta Roster Includes the bulk of the changes which this entire read file explains in detail. Not available to the public. IN CASE YOU'RE WONDERING: I'm a big-time fan of WWII history, and have been studying the subject for more than 20 years. I have a large collection of WWII referance material, and thought I could put it to good use on the Panzer General II unit roster. I find Panzer General II to be a game with a lot of great potential, and with it being the first in SSI's Living Battleground game series, I'm doing my best to contribute to making it as big a hit as possible! I will neither seek nor claim to add the most units to this game as is humanly possible... I believe in quality over quantity. Adding every varient of every vehicle is not the point of this roster... adding equipment that either makes a differance or fills a missing hole is the point intended. Adding a piece of equipment that is basically statistically the same and fills the same purpose is not something you will see with this roster (as others have done). I carefully consider both the unit in question and it's potential value on the battlefield before I will "willy-nilly" add it to the list. If you see anything in this roster that seems missing, or seems in error, feel free to drop me some e-mail, and I'll see about adding it into the roster, or fixing the stats. Alot of time went into working this roster to it's current state, and we are talking about going over a lot of units... it can be an eye-strain, so please forgive me if anything was missed, and just let me know what you think! CREDITS: Of course a lot of credit to the folks at SSI for giving us a great foundation to work on. Special thanks go to Ray Schroder for his cooperation in working with ideas for equipment stats on the earlier versions of this roster, and a very big thank you to John McNulty for his continuing expertise and patience in physically making the changes to the database itself.
If you'd like to find out a little more about the lead designer of the Panzer General II Equipment Roster, check out the interview conducted by the Gamer's Net concerning my work on the Pacific General roster by clicking here!
Feel free to e-mail us!
Who did what to make this roster happen:
(notice we're not SSI employees, so we made up titles that sounded good!)
Producer Steven A. Strayer
Associate Producer (versions 1.0 thru 1.2) Ray Schroder
Lead Programmer John McNulty