Just played through one game, and am posting initial thoughts.
Ok... it's hard. I expected to do bad the first game, but I really did poorly (Dismal). Hopefully some experience will help improve my score.
This game is VERY similar to TAL, which is nice. Picking up the mechanics was pretty easy. There are obviously some Tank-specific differences, but they were pretty easy to remember. There are 5 nationalities used for each battalion card (depending on scenario) with different numbers for each nationality. Cool. I did play the Poland scenario, which has the easiest enemy battalion counters. Did I mention it's hard.
There is a nice selection of equipment, from armored, unarmored, infantry, and artillery. I picked "For the Reich" Objective Card, that has 40 SO points to start, and an additional 6 SO points per week. Seems like a lot, but... I bought mostly low-end equipment to have more, which didn't seem to work out very well. I had mostly infantry, which also seemed to be a mistake. I spent the weekly SO points replacing equipment and reducing stress. 449
I probably need to save more for promoting commanders, because most of mine were recruits or green.
The battalion card approach is almost identical to TAL. The battalions setup in different zones, and can advance each week. Some of the battalion cards have a LOT of individual units, which is really hard to handle with only one attack/turn (unless a tactic is available). I got decimated the last turn, and I used all of my equipment just on that one battalion.
The components are great, absolutely no complaints. Cards are nice, counters are perfect, player aids are laid out nicely.
The terrain tiles were interesting. After the random setup, there are some terrain features (buildings, forest,..) that made the attack interesting. I moved my longer range equipment into a building or forest for some protection.
The equipment has some special notes that modify how you should use it, such as "+2 Attack vs. Infantry". I liked that. I would have thought that there would be some different modifiers for attacks between different equipment types (like Armored vs. Unarmored). That would make the tactical phase a little more interesting. Maybe a ripe opportunity for a variant.
Overall, I like this game a bit better than TAL. I just hope I can learn from this debacle and do better next time. There are enough different strategies to use that will help.
<PERSON> 100