I already own this game too. It’s OK, but not that great in my opinion, but that’s mostly because I tend to like detailed games. The advantage, obviously, is that it doesn’t take too long to play a game (as opposed to playing HoI, covering also WWII, for instance).
Bought it yesterday and begun playing it. It looked very much like the kind of game I wanted about the Napoleonic period. Although I didn’t fell in love with it, at least yet, (I can’t pinpoint exactly why), it seems good. I bought the second “Emperor’s edition” version, where they added some features, in particular regarding naval battles.
I wrote something that looked like a review by someone who didn’t read the rules and doesn’t have a clue about what he’s doing. But I deleted it and am just going to say : the game is complex with many aspects (detailed battles, improvements of units or at the national level probably allowing to customize your army a lot, trade, diplomacy, economy, influencing minor countries, generals, a rather light supply system). Battles are quite long, so playing a full campaign with a major power is certainly going to take a very long time. When I’ll have actually read all the rules, understood all the concepts, and played a full game, I’ll know what to think of the game. There’s no way at this point I could guess if it’s a great game or a disappointment. I think it will mostly depends on the AI.
I never played “Panzer general” itself, but I played another game of the serie : “People’s general” (about an hypothetical conflict between China and basically the rest of the world). I liked the fact there was a campaign mode, some customization, and bringing experienced units from a scenario to another, found it rather pleasant overall and had fun playing it, but I have some reservations :
-It’s not a grand strategy game. It’s rather a tactical game where the fight, including only a limited number of units, is supposed to represent a large scale battle. You don’t make any strategic decision, just go from one scenario to another.
-As a result, the units depicted aren’t realistic. You have artillery, tanks, armored infantry,etc… but they are very generic and you have no way to guess at what scale you’re playing. Your units could be divisions or companies. Impossible to tell.
-The issue you face as a player is generally "going from A to B quickly enough so that you won’t lose because you reached the end of the scenario, with enough units in good shape to win.
-The strategy of your computer opponent is almost always : I have a ton of hidden anti-air weapons, artillery and whatever else will prevent you from even approaching the objective. That is, it uses brute force to provide a challenge. After X number of battles, it becomes a bit repetitive and frustrating to assault hedgehogs.
I can’t tell it’s a bad game, it’s still fun. But definitely not a great game for buffs. I think it’s probably a good game for casual players.
Of course, I’m assuming here that Panzer General is similar.
I bookmarked it for future reference, but I don’t feel like playing a specific operation. I want a full war from beginning to end 
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