In Panzer Corps the in game currency is prestige, which roughly represents your influence within the chain of command and therefore your ability to get new equipment and replacements allocated to your army. So you need prestige to buy, upgrade or repair your units and needless to say, you want as much prestige as possible.

Basically there are two general ways to accumulate prestige:

• maximizing your prestige income
  
• and minimizing unnecessary prestige spending

Following we will look into the details of available methods for both ways and I will try to sort them by complexity beginning with the easiest. Moreover I will point out possible tradeoffs.

There are several sources for prestige in Panzer Corps. Most of them are basic and some require considerable skill to get the most out of them:

1. Fixed amount for winning marginal and decisive victories:
   The amount differs for each map and for some (e.g. Norway) a marginal victory actually brings more prestige. Take a look at the campaign tree to see were you want to or can afford to go for marginal victories. Other than that, there is no way to influence prestige from this source.
   
   
2. Prestige per turn:
   Because you will get a small amount of prestige each turn, drag out each map as long as possible. There is no reward for finishing earlier than absolutely necessary. Note that the current turn is counted. So if you have 20 turns total and have to complete 5 turns earlier for a decisive victory, you have to capture the last objectives on turn 16.
   
   
3. Capturing towns:
   Take all towns, air fields, ports and other flags on the map. Each hexfield with a flag contributes to your prestige. With the basic rules you will get 50 prestige points for minor objectives and 100 prestige points for primary objectives.
   
   Futhermore in some campaign scenarios there are special tasks you can do and get rewarded with prestige or equipment. So keep an eye out for them.
   
   Tradeoff: If you suffer high casualties because of rushing, try to adapt your tactics or simply ignore this last remote city.
   
   
4. Disbanding units:
   During campaigns you can disband your units in the setup phase by pressing the 'D' key. You will get the full price refunded, if health is 10 Points or higher. Otherwise your refund is proportional to the remaining health points. So get normal replacements first, because they are free.
   
   You are able to exploit this mechanic when you plan to switch unit types. For example disband your Panzer III and then buy a Panzer IV. This way you will only pay the price difference, but will lose all experience. Since experience is important, this method is only advisable for special situations. You might even consider disbanding on of your SE-Units, because if you free up a SE-Unit slot you can get awarded with a new one next mission.
   (Contributed by Delta66)
   
   
5. Forcing surrenders (rule set 1.20 only):
   A Unit that is completely suppressed in a fight will try to retreat, if it has a entrenchment level of zero (one before the attack). When it can’t do that, because it is blocked by terrain or units, it will surrender. This will give you half of the units surviving prestige points. For example if you manage to force a surrender on a unit that has 5 strength points left and originally is worth 200 prestige points, you will gain 50 prestige points. This might emulate capturing equipment or gaining popularity.
   Tradeoff: Encircling and suppressing units takes time and careful planning. If you have trouble meeting the time limits, only go for easy surrenders.
   
   
6. Soft cap (rule set 1.20 only):
   The soft cap actually reduces your prestige income after you reach a certain prestige threshold and thus preventing going overboard with your unit composition. The relevant value is the average prestige value of your units including transports and overstrength and not including special units like SE-Units. At the moment the limit is 400, after that you will gradually earn less prestige. The reduction is capped at 80% when your average units value reach 800. This might change in the future or may differ for different maps or campaigns.
   
   Keep in mind that you will reach the threshold earlier than you might think by using overstrength. Let’s take a look at a regular pioneer and keep numbers simple. Let’s say the unit has a base cost of 250. Now we add a truck (50) and the new base value is 300. If we add two level of overstrength (60 + 90) the value of the unit is 450 prestige points and already over the limit. So this system rewards more historical unit compositions with mixed in obsolete tanks and increases prestige income after you take a beating and lose some of your overstrength levels or even units.

Reduced prestige spending almost always comes at a price, because your army simply will be weaker on the short run. However there are more efficient ways to spend prestige and some are less so. You always want to balance spending with your progress/speed on a map or the campaign and thus end up with a much stronger army in the long run.

1. Pay attention to upgrade paths:
   Whenever possible you should upgrade within the same basic unit type. This way you only pay for the price difference. Think of it as a refit and not a completely new unit. For example do not switch between Panzer IIIs and IVs because a better variant becomes available. Stick with one type and eventually upgrade to a Tiger or Panther.
   If better units become available, consider if upgrading to the new type is really worth it. Is the new scout car worth paying the full price? Is changing my strategic bombers worth the price or do I wait for the new variant of my current bombers?
   
   
2. Order of action during set up
   Buy elite replacements before upgrading or buying transports. This way you buy the price for the cheaper version. However when buying overstrength upgrade to the new unit first. Since version 1.20 you will lose overstrength when upgrading and the basic unit changes. For example Panzer IIIE to IIIN is ok, but upgrading to Panzer IV will get rid of the overstrength.
   
   
3. Optimize replacements:
   There are two types of replacements. Normal Replacements are free between missions, but reduce the experience. Elite replacements are quite costly, but preserve the experience of the unit. Both types are more expensive during a mission. So once again balance is important.
   
   During missions: Try to completely avoid elite replacements and use even normal replacements only when absolutely necessary. The questions you might ask are: Do I lose the unit otherwise? Do I need this unit for victory or can it just trail behind? Be more hesitant with non-core units but do not hesitate to reinforce, if necessary!
   
   Between missions: Experience is extremely important and will help reducing losses in the future. So elite replacements are advisable, but depending on your play style some unit types might be less important. Scouting units for example usually get the job done without high experience levels and have a higher chance of getting wiped out later on.
   
   
4. Reduce using overstrength:
   Overstrength (OS) is very powerful but very expensive and since rule set 1.20 gets more expensive for each step:
   
   
   • Base OS cost modifier is 200%
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 11 is 100%
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 12 is 150%
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 13 is 200%
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 14 is 250%
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 15 is 300%
   
   Looking at an example these numbers will get clearer. At tank with base prestige cost of 300 has 10 strength points. Therefore each point is worth 30 prestige. OS modifier is 200%, so each OS level costs 60 prestige points. Since 1.20 the additional modifier is applied.
   
   
   • Base OS cost: 60
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 11 is 100% => 60 x 1 = 60
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 12 is 150% => 60 x 1.5 = 90
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 13 is 200% => 60 x 2 = 120
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 14 is 250% => 60 x 2.5 = 150
     
   • Modifier for OS strength 15 is 300% => 60 x 3 = 180
   
   So a tank at 15 strength points is a massive investment: 300 + 60 + 90 + 120 + 150 + 180 = 900 Prestige. Considering prestige costs alone getting knocked down from strength 15 to 13 is worse than losing the basic tank!
   
   Keeping this in mind you might want to prioritize buying overstrength for units that normally don’t get hit like artillery and bombers and guard them well. Moreover the soft cap will hit harder if you excessively use overstrength and you might find yourself depleted of prestige when you desperately need to upgrade your troops.
   
   However overstrength is powerful and especially when you have trouble beating a scenario it helps to use it on front line troops!
   
   
5. Cost efficient unit composition:
   Usually more expensive units perform better than cheaper ones and the composition depends on your play style. So there is no optimum composition for a campaign and not even for a single scenario. However there are a few things you might want to consider.
   
   
   • AT-Units are cheaper than tanks and even while their stats are worse than their counterparts, the have a few things going for them. Their bonus to hard attack from each experience level is 2 instead of 1, they get a massive initiative bonus when defending and impressive variants get available later in the game. However they are less versatile so do not go all AT, but try mixing them in instead.
     
   • AA-Units are cheaper than fighters. Their advantages are very similar to the AT-Units, but it is much harder to make them work. Once you got rid of the enemy air force they are useless and the variants that can switch to AT mode are slow and difficult to get into the fight. I am not happy with their performance, but maybe you can make them work and one or two 88s are great especially when defending.
     
   • Do not go overboard with the air force. Planes usually are expensive and especially fighters don’t do much damage after you have air superiority. Moreover planes generally depend on good weather. However you do want a strong air force and do not forget to implement strategic bombers. They do little direct damage, but are useful nonetheless. So experiment with the number fighters you need for protection and offensive and find your ideal mix.
     
   • Towed versus self-propelled variants. Especially when looking at artillery both have their advantages. However when looking at efficient prestige usage, towed artillery is a little bit better in my (personal) opinion, because they simply have a cheap upgrade path open early in the game.
   
   
6. Avoid losses
   and win at the same time. Well that is what tactics is all about. There are a lot of guides and let’s plays out there, that will help improving your performance. I will list a few concepts here, so you can look them up: entrenchment, mass attack, surrender mechanics, ambushes, defensive artillery, suppression and many more. They will help building up your unit experience faster and avoiding spending unnecessary prestige because of losses.

If you have corrections or further tips, post them below and I will integrate them from time to time.

If you are interested in further details and practical examples you might want to watch my Let's Plays on Rommel difficulty. Since you only get half prestige on that difficulty level it is focused on optimizing and maximizing prestige income and spending.