Well, I really would have loved to give PT a higher score, but unfortunately, I can't. Why? Read on.
Well, PT has three campaigns (which are historically accurate, I might add) - one from the Nazi side of WWII, one from the USSR's perspective, and the other from the Allies viewpoint. They are supposed to be in increasing order of difficulty, Nazi being easy, USSR being normal, and Allied being hard. I played through the Nazi campaign and was absolutely astounded at how well the gameplay delivers and how the controls handle (more on that in the next paragraph). I proceeded to the Soviet campaign, an, for the first 3 missions, was likewise astounded. Then I hit the fourth mission. Uhhhhggg! What a drastic difference in difficulty from one mission to the next. The first 3 on the normal campaign seemed to be a step higher than the 1st campaign, without being too easy or too hard. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not against a challenging game at all. There is a difference between challenging and impossible, however. I'll use the 4th mission as an example (they only get harder from there on out). Well, I started out and placed all my core units (units that stay with you and gain experience through the whole campaign unless they are destroyed) after scoping out the map and getting my objectives, and proceeded on with my strategy. There were 4 city's I had to capture, while keeping control of 3 others, in 30 turns, while protecting 6 core units. I took my core army and would attacked the northern most city that was a primary objective, and did in fact take it. However, it took me about 8 to 10 turns just to take the city, not to mention moving my troops into position. The reason was because the enemy just kept pouring troops into the city after I had destroyed most of the others. When I finally captured it I thought, "Well, they just flung a ton of units at me so their defenses at the other objective cities must be really wimpy." Not true!! I took the next city, but after another 11 turns!!! So I had 9 turns to move my forces into position and take 2 cities with huge amounts of troops protecting them?! Hopeless. Let's add that while I was taking their cities, the ones I had to defend were constantly being attacked by other bombers and paratroops. So, yeah, it gets hard. Insanely hard. I would venture to say impossibly hard (you should see some of the missions in the hard campaign). Fortunately, that's the only complaint I have with Panzer Tactics.
Even though it's hard, it does have numerous bright spots. The tactical system is great (combining the type and strength of a certain unit with the unit it's up against and the terrain), the units are easily distinguishable, and the touch driven controls work wonderfully. The campaigns are well designed and I love the way that you have a core army, which stays with you through the whole game, gaining experience after each mission. You're also "loaned" other units just for one mission, or you can recruit new ones in the mid-mission. The officers add an exciting twist, although they aren't used often and they aren't absolutely necessary.
If you're looking for a good strategy game, and are willing to be frustrated by some of the campaigns, then this truly is a diamond in the rough of all the trash that has been released for DS recently.