After testing this deck in numerous configurations over the course of about 8 hours and 10 matches against Medium AI in 1v1 and in team games, with a win rate of about 50%, most of which were in team games with a teammate whom I coordinated with (and who also was running the 21. Panzer). It is evident to me that I do not understand this deck. I am a Wargame vet with about 300 hours in the series total and about 26 hours in SD so far. I understand if you don't see AI matches as cause for balancing, but I would also argue that balance in the multiplayer reflects in AI matches (such as seeing that Axis AI is virtually incapable of beating Allied AI, but correlation doesn't mean causation, of course). I will include a tl;dr at the bottom of this thread, since it's turned out to be quite long.
Everyone on the forums seems to have a fairly positive opinion of 21. Panzer so far (disregarding that one rage thread...), calling it things like "well-rounded" and "competitive". I guess I'm not really seeing why. There are a number of flaws in 21. Panzer's playstyle that make it fairly weak in conquest mode compared to the 17th or even the 12th. I do not understand how you would win with this deck against a competent opponent running either the Scots or the 2nd ID. This is because 21. Panzer's Phase A is, well, pretty bad, and bad in worse ways than the other options for Axis. I'll explain my reasoning.
Disclaimer: There are many, many units on the roster and it's likely I will forget to mention some important units. If I don't mention something, I either forgot or don't think it's different enough/important enough to warrant discussion. An example of this is the UE630 tank destroyer: It's hilarious, but I don't think it is relevant in any way in the current metagame, since it can't even penetrate a Stuart, even though it has a great rate of fire at 12 r/m.
It's true that 21. Panzer gets a few interesting options in each phase. With the current way that conquest works, however, the game is generally won in Phase A and B, with C sometimes not even happening, or generally not mattering enough (as I understand it from what I have read on the forums-- I find Wargame's multiplayer to be irritating to play, but find that balance arguments for multiplayer are relevant for AI matches as well).
Phase A for 21. Panzer revolves around the usage of what are, in my opinion, overpriced and under-numbered infantry with the Panzergrenadier. 50 points per squad (which is your only option; PG's in Kubels come in phase B for some odd reason) means that your infantry presence is virtually non-existent and you will likely lose towns or close-quarters bocage fighting, especially to the Scots and 2nd ID. This is exacerbated by the extremely low unit availability per card.
You can get a Panzerschreck team that costs 75 points in this phase because they come in on a halftrack with a 37mm AT gun. If you were looking for cheap anti-tank, well, I'm sorry. Nothing in this deck is cheap.
This pigeonholes yet another Axis team into trying to maintain long-range firing arcs with AT guns (which can get sniped by tanks and arty) and their own artillery. Unfortunately, 21. Panzer must rely on the mortar halftrack (1200m range) and a 1000m range rocket launcher for phase A. These are fine, and are actually pretty effective, but stretch this broken economy even thinner. Already paying 50 points per PG squad and 85 for a mortar or 100 for a rocket launcher, and the cost of this team continues to rise, which is painful despite their higher income compared to other Axis divisions.
The captured S35 tanks are tactically inefficient since 6 frontal armor only blocks HE--there literally isn't anything in the Allied arsenal that can't penetrate it frontally apart from a few AA guns. 5 accuracy is nice but only 7AP means that it can barely hurt even tanks like Stuarts, and is completely ineffectual against anything better than that. The tank even gets wrecked by Greyhounds. At least the 91st's H35's are cheaper. A better 80 point investment would be to get a Pak 38 and a command unit, or even the mortar halftrack, or perhaps one infantry squad to help plug the lack of frontage you have from how expensive your starting units are.
2 Highlights for phase A are the strangely good AT halftrack S307 Pak with 13AP and 1200m range that allows you to counter things like Stuart pushes and even hurt Churchill V's so long as the enemy doesn't get too close. The Aufklarer comes in on a 2 star SPW 222, which when near a command unit is actually fairly potent, if a bit fragile. However, this is yet another 50 point unit that makes it difficult to maintain frontage, which, if you don't lose units, you will lose territory and thus points, and thus the game.
The Pz. IV C support artillery tank is also fairly effective as well if micro'd properly. A Phase A Pak 43 seems like overkill and this unit, in my opinion, really belongs more in Phase B when you actually might need something with 22AP. That being said, reliance on AT guns is dodgy in online games where arty spam is the dominant meta.
But bad phase A is something we're used to in Axis. Getting hurt feelings from Rangers, Churchills, Scot infantry, Greyhounds, T30's, and DD's is pretty standard at this point. Phase B is where things usually start to pick up for Axis divisions, but in the case of 21. Panzer, well...
You finally get a Panzergrenadier option with Kubels! Except those are better when your income is lower in Phase A. Which is awkward. Your MG42 teams cost 50 points because of the halftrack. Yay.
I'll admit that I am not really a big fan of the Panzer IV tank as it is modeled in this game. They are almost always weakly armored and die to Phase A AT guns or even tanks depending on the model. 14AP is nice, but not losing tanks is nicer, and Allied tanks tend to not have that great of armor anyway (barring the Jumbo and the old AVRE, of course). A Vet 2 Panzer IV option is nice (6 frontal armor though? Good lord), but they still will get annihilated by most Sherman variants and anti-tank of virtually any kind. It is hard to make them work, especially with the lowered turret rotation speed. Phase B is when multiple Allied units with 1200m range appear, and Panzer IV's get wrecked by these. I do like the captured Shermans, but without veterancy they are typically meatshields and their 10 armor really only serves to stop Stuarts and Greyhounds. You can beat enemy tanks, of course, if you use your Pak 43, which blessedly you can get cards of in this phase (but not Phase C, oddly enough). The Marder 1 has good range, but as with most TDs, the stealth is bad and it cannot sustain any amount of fire, making them iffy in terms of reliable performance. Still, it's better than no defense, even if it is 100 points per unit.
Brummbars are brutal and are a highlight of this phase. With 14 frontal armor they are arguably better tanks than your actual tanks. However, they will still die to phase B AT guns.
The phase B artillery is pretty good. The multiple mortar and even the 39H. SPG all perform pretty well for their price, though all of their ranges aren't the best ever.
Then there's Phase C, and it's the part everyone wants to talk about with this division. I don't need to mention it, do I? Let's talk about it.
The King Tiger is a very expensive unit, requiring 3 ticks of income in order to deploy. The vet 2 (vet 3 with commander) version is a dominant force on the battlefield provided it arrives and it cannot be penetrated frontally by anything the Allies have at maximum range. Given enough space, it can and will clean up an entire flank virtually on its own. The problem with the King Tiger isn't its performance, however, or even its price: The King Tiger suffers from the way the current conquest mode works. The King Tiger can and will turn the tide in close games; however, against the Scots and 2nd ID it is highly unlikely that a 21. Panzer deck will survive this long, often being overrun and driven back to the starting point in the first 5-10 minutes of the match. But, if you manage to get here this unit can with even mediocre micro perform miracles and break enemy lines. That being said, if your KT gets knocked out, you are completely and totally screwed and this is surprisingly regular given that the unit has a frankly sad 9 side armor. In my AI test matches, in only about 3 of 10 games was this tank relevant, and that was usually against the 3rd Armored. Most matches are won or lost far before this unit can make a difference. But it is glorious when it does.
And for the record, I don't care if it "only" has 19 frontal armor compared to the Jumbo's 21. Nothing in the Allied arsenal has 19 penetration, so it might as well be invulnerability.
What about the rest of Phase C, though?
You get Pak 40's instead of Pak 43's. It's real weird. You also get access to more Brummbars and the Flak 88 anti-air gun/anti-tank gun. Which is pretty neat.
Artillery rounds off with a 170mm off-map battery and the adorable but frightening H39 tank with Stuka 280mm rocket-bomb-democracy-removal-devices for a bargain at 100 points.
But that's about it. The King Tiger is your ace in the hole, and it can screw you over as much as win the match. It's a bit of a gamble that feels good when it works, and is crushing when you lose it-especially to the tank deciding to spin itself right-round baby right-round in place for some reason.
A note on aircraft: 21. Panzer gets great aircraft options in basically every phase, but 3 aircraft slots basically necessitates communication with a teammate who can actually shoot down Allied planes if you ever want to use your own aircraft. Which is a real shame given that they have the Ju 87G and the Ju 88.
tl;dr/Conclusion:
21. Panzer suffers from the same Phase A woes as other Axis divisions, but because of overpriced early game units has an even harder time maintaining frontage for either 1v1 or team games. Compared to other Axis divisions, 21. Panzer has a hard time responding to threats on multiple fronts and relies heavily on wonder units like a Phase A Pak 43, 2 star 222 AC, or PakTrack to be successful. Its artillery is stellar and the King Tiger is a treat when it works, but none of these things help the income issues this faction suffers from. With a few pricing tweaks and the option to get 35 point Phase A panzergrens, this division could stand out I think, but at the moment it is far too easy to overwhelm with dominant metagame tactics and Allied divisions. I don't understand why people are calling this deck competitive or well-rounded when it is the most all-or-nothing deck in the game now, even more so than the 12th SS thanks to its deck budget.
Edit: Honestly, 21. Panzer is about as competitive as the 17th, but that isn't necessarily saying much. After a little more evaluation and some tips from this thread, I take back a lot about what I said about their early game, especially since those 2 star 222 scout cars exist. They still suffer from the woes of being Axis right now, though.
All this being said, let's discuss.
Everyone on the forums seems to have a fairly positive opinion of 21. Panzer so far (disregarding that one rage thread...), calling it things like "well-rounded" and "competitive". I guess I'm not really seeing why. There are a number of flaws in 21. Panzer's playstyle that make it fairly weak in conquest mode compared to the 17th or even the 12th. I do not understand how you would win with this deck against a competent opponent running either the Scots or the 2nd ID. This is because 21. Panzer's Phase A is, well, pretty bad, and bad in worse ways than the other options for Axis. I'll explain my reasoning.
Disclaimer: There are many, many units on the roster and it's likely I will forget to mention some important units. If I don't mention something, I either forgot or don't think it's different enough/important enough to warrant discussion. An example of this is the UE630 tank destroyer: It's hilarious, but I don't think it is relevant in any way in the current metagame, since it can't even penetrate a Stuart, even though it has a great rate of fire at 12 r/m.
It's true that 21. Panzer gets a few interesting options in each phase. With the current way that conquest works, however, the game is generally won in Phase A and B, with C sometimes not even happening, or generally not mattering enough (as I understand it from what I have read on the forums-- I find Wargame's multiplayer to be irritating to play, but find that balance arguments for multiplayer are relevant for AI matches as well).
Phase A for 21. Panzer revolves around the usage of what are, in my opinion, overpriced and under-numbered infantry with the Panzergrenadier. 50 points per squad (which is your only option; PG's in Kubels come in phase B for some odd reason) means that your infantry presence is virtually non-existent and you will likely lose towns or close-quarters bocage fighting, especially to the Scots and 2nd ID. This is exacerbated by the extremely low unit availability per card.
You can get a Panzerschreck team that costs 75 points in this phase because they come in on a halftrack with a 37mm AT gun. If you were looking for cheap anti-tank, well, I'm sorry. Nothing in this deck is cheap.
This pigeonholes yet another Axis team into trying to maintain long-range firing arcs with AT guns (which can get sniped by tanks and arty) and their own artillery. Unfortunately, 21. Panzer must rely on the mortar halftrack (1200m range) and a 1000m range rocket launcher for phase A. These are fine, and are actually pretty effective, but stretch this broken economy even thinner. Already paying 50 points per PG squad and 85 for a mortar or 100 for a rocket launcher, and the cost of this team continues to rise, which is painful despite their higher income compared to other Axis divisions.
The captured S35 tanks are tactically inefficient since 6 frontal armor only blocks HE--there literally isn't anything in the Allied arsenal that can't penetrate it frontally apart from a few AA guns. 5 accuracy is nice but only 7AP means that it can barely hurt even tanks like Stuarts, and is completely ineffectual against anything better than that. The tank even gets wrecked by Greyhounds. At least the 91st's H35's are cheaper. A better 80 point investment would be to get a Pak 38 and a command unit, or even the mortar halftrack, or perhaps one infantry squad to help plug the lack of frontage you have from how expensive your starting units are.
2 Highlights for phase A are the strangely good AT halftrack S307 Pak with 13AP and 1200m range that allows you to counter things like Stuart pushes and even hurt Churchill V's so long as the enemy doesn't get too close. The Aufklarer comes in on a 2 star SPW 222, which when near a command unit is actually fairly potent, if a bit fragile. However, this is yet another 50 point unit that makes it difficult to maintain frontage, which, if you don't lose units, you will lose territory and thus points, and thus the game.
The Pz. IV C support artillery tank is also fairly effective as well if micro'd properly. A Phase A Pak 43 seems like overkill and this unit, in my opinion, really belongs more in Phase B when you actually might need something with 22AP. That being said, reliance on AT guns is dodgy in online games where arty spam is the dominant meta.
But bad phase A is something we're used to in Axis. Getting hurt feelings from Rangers, Churchills, Scot infantry, Greyhounds, T30's, and DD's is pretty standard at this point. Phase B is where things usually start to pick up for Axis divisions, but in the case of 21. Panzer, well...
You finally get a Panzergrenadier option with Kubels! Except those are better when your income is lower in Phase A. Which is awkward. Your MG42 teams cost 50 points because of the halftrack. Yay.
I'll admit that I am not really a big fan of the Panzer IV tank as it is modeled in this game. They are almost always weakly armored and die to Phase A AT guns or even tanks depending on the model. 14AP is nice, but not losing tanks is nicer, and Allied tanks tend to not have that great of armor anyway (barring the Jumbo and the old AVRE, of course). A Vet 2 Panzer IV option is nice (6 frontal armor though? Good lord), but they still will get annihilated by most Sherman variants and anti-tank of virtually any kind. It is hard to make them work, especially with the lowered turret rotation speed. Phase B is when multiple Allied units with 1200m range appear, and Panzer IV's get wrecked by these. I do like the captured Shermans, but without veterancy they are typically meatshields and their 10 armor really only serves to stop Stuarts and Greyhounds. You can beat enemy tanks, of course, if you use your Pak 43, which blessedly you can get cards of in this phase (but not Phase C, oddly enough). The Marder 1 has good range, but as with most TDs, the stealth is bad and it cannot sustain any amount of fire, making them iffy in terms of reliable performance. Still, it's better than no defense, even if it is 100 points per unit.
Brummbars are brutal and are a highlight of this phase. With 14 frontal armor they are arguably better tanks than your actual tanks. However, they will still die to phase B AT guns.
The phase B artillery is pretty good. The multiple mortar and even the 39H. SPG all perform pretty well for their price, though all of their ranges aren't the best ever.
Then there's Phase C, and it's the part everyone wants to talk about with this division. I don't need to mention it, do I? Let's talk about it.
The King Tiger is a very expensive unit, requiring 3 ticks of income in order to deploy. The vet 2 (vet 3 with commander) version is a dominant force on the battlefield provided it arrives and it cannot be penetrated frontally by anything the Allies have at maximum range. Given enough space, it can and will clean up an entire flank virtually on its own. The problem with the King Tiger isn't its performance, however, or even its price: The King Tiger suffers from the way the current conquest mode works. The King Tiger can and will turn the tide in close games; however, against the Scots and 2nd ID it is highly unlikely that a 21. Panzer deck will survive this long, often being overrun and driven back to the starting point in the first 5-10 minutes of the match. But, if you manage to get here this unit can with even mediocre micro perform miracles and break enemy lines. That being said, if your KT gets knocked out, you are completely and totally screwed and this is surprisingly regular given that the unit has a frankly sad 9 side armor. In my AI test matches, in only about 3 of 10 games was this tank relevant, and that was usually against the 3rd Armored. Most matches are won or lost far before this unit can make a difference. But it is glorious when it does.
And for the record, I don't care if it "only" has 19 frontal armor compared to the Jumbo's 21. Nothing in the Allied arsenal has 19 penetration, so it might as well be invulnerability.
What about the rest of Phase C, though?
You get Pak 40's instead of Pak 43's. It's real weird. You also get access to more Brummbars and the Flak 88 anti-air gun/anti-tank gun. Which is pretty neat.
Artillery rounds off with a 170mm off-map battery and the adorable but frightening H39 tank with Stuka 280mm rocket-bomb-democracy-removal-devices for a bargain at 100 points.
But that's about it. The King Tiger is your ace in the hole, and it can screw you over as much as win the match. It's a bit of a gamble that feels good when it works, and is crushing when you lose it-especially to the tank deciding to spin itself right-round baby right-round in place for some reason.
A note on aircraft: 21. Panzer gets great aircraft options in basically every phase, but 3 aircraft slots basically necessitates communication with a teammate who can actually shoot down Allied planes if you ever want to use your own aircraft. Which is a real shame given that they have the Ju 87G and the Ju 88.
tl;dr/Conclusion:
21. Panzer suffers from the same Phase A woes as other Axis divisions, but because of overpriced early game units has an even harder time maintaining frontage for either 1v1 or team games. Compared to other Axis divisions, 21. Panzer has a hard time responding to threats on multiple fronts and relies heavily on wonder units like a Phase A Pak 43, 2 star 222 AC, or PakTrack to be successful. Its artillery is stellar and the King Tiger is a treat when it works, but none of these things help the income issues this faction suffers from. With a few pricing tweaks and the option to get 35 point Phase A panzergrens, this division could stand out I think, but at the moment it is far too easy to overwhelm with dominant metagame tactics and Allied divisions. I don't understand why people are calling this deck competitive or well-rounded when it is the most all-or-nothing deck in the game now, even more so than the 12th SS thanks to its deck budget.
Edit: Honestly, 21. Panzer is about as competitive as the 17th, but that isn't necessarily saying much. After a little more evaluation and some tips from this thread, I take back a lot about what I said about their early game, especially since those 2 star 222 scout cars exist. They still suffer from the woes of being Axis right now, though.
All this being said, let's discuss.
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