In the April 2000 issue of the magazine PC Gamer, it was voted the 44th best computer game of all time, and the highest rating in the Panzer General series.

[2] At the beginning of the game, the entire map is revealed to the player, but enemy units are covered by fog of war and are not visible.

The game also features four kinds of capturable hexes marked by a flag indicating the country owning it: ownership, designating a player's ownership of a city, town or other important feature; supply, allowing unit deployment; victory, indicating critical cities or objectives; and victory-supply, combining victory and supply.

The player attacks enemies and captures hexes by moving units, which approximately represent a battalion, regiment [3] or squadron.

There are eight types of units, each with different properties: Infantry, Tank, Anti-Tank, Recon, Air Defense, Fighter, Artillery, and Bomber.

Each unit is assigned a numerical value to represent its movement (in hexes); its line of sight (in hexes); its attack abilities against armored targets, unarmored targets, ships, and airplanes; its defense against ranged, close, and air attacks; as well as values for initiative and remaining ammunition and fuel.

Again, if the player attains victories in the east and defeats the Soviet Union, Germany can invade the United States from the Port of Savannah and then march to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to capture a prototype of a US atomic bomb.

[9] In 1998, PC Gamer US declared it the 15th-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "the perfect introduction to wargaming".