It may be "real time" but it's not a RTS. It's a hardcore wargame, and one of the best there is.
Now, if someone confused Highway to the Reich (HTTR from now on) with an RTS, I wouldn't give them the review.
But the user reviews here show how many people thought this is what this game was. Oh dear.
"The enemy camps". Erm, the enemy was defending. It is historical FACT that they camped. Oh, and the phrase "camp" sort of gives away where you're coming from - action shooters, FPS's and RTS's.
Attacks have to be thought out. Throwing troops into an attack rarely works. A feint here, a mortar barrage there, a probe, an enticement to finish you which leads to an opportunity for encirclement.
Yes all these need to be though of.
Line of sight, artillery range. (and artillery and mortar is for suppression - not victory barrages) tactical reserves and thrusts.
If all of this seems interesting, you like the idea of first learning the strengths and weaknesses of your OB (order of battle - your "line up" as it were) .
You study the abilities of you forces and the commanders (don't give complex orders to idiots, they are all different)
If all this seems like fun, and if your brain has melted through years of playing nothing other than first person shooters it probably WON'T, then HTTR is a brilliant game. I would give it a higher score, but its sequel is even better, and the new game due out this year will be even better still.
In it's time a 9 or 9 and a half. Now a sold 8 and a half.
Matrix now sell this online. It does not come with a paper manual AT ALL. but several BIG pdf's.
That lost them half a point. Games that don't play in a window, and also don't provide physical manuals (and really need a manual due to the games complexity) should be a little ashamed. Printing over 250 pages on my little HP printer took flipping hours - and almost a whole ink cartridge.
So Panther (and Matrix) great game - but for this (and all other big, deep strategy games...we want a manual, failing that at least let us play in windowed mode so we can have the PDF open on screen alongside the game.;
Doing neither is pretty poor.