''PanzerBlitz'' is a
tactical-scale board wargame
A board wargame is a wargame with a set playing surface or board, as opposed to being played on a computer or in a more free-form playing area as in miniatures games. The modern, commercial wargaming hobby (as distinct from military exercises, o ...
published by
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...
in 1970 that simulates armored combat set in the
Eastern Front of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The game is notable for being the first true board-based tactical-level, commercially available conflict simulation (wargame). It also pioneered concepts such as
isomorphic
In mathematics, an isomorphism is a structure-preserving mapping between two structures of the same type that can be reversed by an inverse mapping. Two mathematical structures are isomorphic if an isomorphism exists between them. The word is ...
mapboards and open-ended design, in which multiple unit counters were provided from which players could fashion their own free-form combat situations rather than simply replaying pre-structured scenarios.
Description
''PanzerBlitz'' was designed to simulate a clash between two opposing regiments or battalions, at the level of company-sized infantry for Russian units, and platoon-sized infantry for
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
units, as well as individual mechanized or motorized vehicles. Although not envisioned for division-sized battles, with units that represented either
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
or
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
** Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ge ...
platoons
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range f ...
, because of unique game design, multiple players combining several boxed game sets could conduct such large battles. This scale of simulation had never been done before. Nearly all previous war games had focused on larger units such as
brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that typically comprises three to six battalions plus supporting elements. It is roughly equivalent to an enlarged or reinforced regiment. Two or more brigades may constitute a division.
Br ...
s,
regiment
A regiment is a military unit. Its role and size varies markedly, depending on the country, service and/or a specialisation.
In Medieval Europe, the term "regiment" denoted any large body of front-line soldiers, recruited or conscripted ...
s, and divisions. ''PanzerBlitz'' was published by
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...
in 1970. The hex-grid map comes in several pieces to be fit together for various scenarios. As the board edges are mutually compatible, the three sections can be placed in 48 distinct arrangements. Different scenario cards gave the players specific missions to carry out in order to achieve victory.
Designed by
Jim Dunnigan
James F. Dunnigan (born 8 August 1943) is an author, military-political analyst, Defense and State Department consultant, and Wargaming, wargame designer currently living in New York City.
Career
Dunnigan was born in Rockland County, New York. A ...
, an early version was published in ''
Strategy & Tactics
''Strategy & Tactics'' (''S&T'') is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for publishing a complete new wargame in each issue.
Beginnings
''Strategy & Tactics'' was first published in January 1967 under its original edit ...
'' #22 (1970) as ''Panzerblitz Minigame''. As such, ''PanzerBlitz'' is the very first
tactical wargame
Tactical wargames are a type of wargaming, wargame that models military conflict at a tactical level, i.e. units range from individual vehicles and squads to platoons or company (military unit), companies. These units are rated based on types a ...
in the history of modern board
wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game in which two or more players command opposing armed forces in a realistic simulation of an armed conflict. Wargaming may be played for recreation, to train military officers in the art of strategic thinking, or to s ...
. This early version had the essential rules, but only a limited number of counters and a single map sheet. The Avalon Hill boxed version featured an extensive array of unit types, and three geomorphic boards that allowed player-created scenarios to be played as well as the 12 'situations' that came with the game.
Much of the strategy in ''PanzerBlitz'' derives from the rule allowing units to shoot or move, but not both, in a single turn. Additionally, the difficulty of outright destruction of units encourages players to use
combined arms
Combined arms is an approach to warfare
War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme vio ...
rather than a simple concentration of one unit type to defeat the opponent.
The level of detailed information in ''PanzerBlitz'' was astonishing at the time it was published. The game included technical information on the weight, speed, gun size, and crew complement of every major tank used on the Russian front. Additionally the battles - which were tactical fights - featured the detailed organizations of fairly small units, all the way from mortar teams to the trucks and wagons needed to give the units strategic flexibility. Much of this information had never been published before, outside of Army field manuals and partially classified intelligence reports.
Avalon Hill followed ''PanzerBlitz'' with two companion games; one called ''
Panzer Leader'', which focused on the
Western Front (an extension kit featuring the tanks of the 1940 French campaign was also produced), and a game called ''
The Arab-Israeli Wars'' which covered the 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars in the Middle East. The numerical values used by counters in The Arab-Israeli Wars conformed to the same scales as the World War II sister games, so that players who wanted to create fanciful scenarios involving modern equipment facing World War II equipment could do so while maintaining the internal consistency and realism of the game system.
The rights to ''PanzerBlitz'' are currently held by
Multi-Man Publishing
Multi-Man Publishing, LLC ("MMP"), founded in 1994, is a Maryland based game company that publishes many Wargaming, wargame titles, including ''Advanced Squad Leader'' and Operational Combat Series.
History
Multi-Man Publishing (MMP) was founded ...
, which developed and released ''PanzerBlitz: Hill of Death'' on March 27, 2009. This title was an attempt to invigorate the franchise, and a plan to release other titles using the new rules, which utilize new game mechanics such as chit pull activation, has been announced.
In the meantime, new units and scenarios for the classic version continue to appear in such venues as ''The Boardgamer'', ''VAIPA'', and ''Old Soldiers'' magazine, primarily through the efforts of Alan Arvold. There are even new maps and counters, created by Ward McBurney.
The game
Scale
The game board hexes represented 250 meters, a turn was 6 minutes, the playing pieces represented
companies
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared go ...
and
platoon
A platoon is a military unit typically composed of two or more squads, sections, or patrols. Platoon organization varies depending on the country and the branch, but a platoon can be composed of 50 people, although specific platoons may range ...
s.
Innovative features
''PanzerBlitz'' introduced a number of innovations to board wargames:
#
Geomorphic mapboard A geomorphic mapboard is a game board that can be configured in different ways and reused to create different playing surfaces. The mapboards are made geomorphic by using identical features along the edges of the maps, so that any two may be paired. ...
s which could be arranged in various combinations to create different battlefields. This became a hallmark of
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...
tactical games such as
Squad Leader
''Squad Leader'' is a tactical level board war game originally published by Avalon Hill in 1977. It was designed by John Hill and simulates on infantry combat in Europe during World War II. One of the most complex war games of its time, ''Squa ...
.
Panzer Leader included a beach board for invasion scenarios, while
The Arab-Israeli Wars included a canal board to represent the Suez Canal. From the release of ''PanzerBlitz'' onward, wargamers started to call "geomorphic" any modular game mapboard, adding a new and peculiar meaning to that word.
# Armor units were represented by vehicle silhouettes rather than standard military symbols, making the game a departure from other operational level games as well as being reminiscent of miniatures games. Combined with bookcase-style packaging, it advanced Avalon Hill's reputation for physical quality.
# The game was not limited to the 12 scenarios provided with it, but included instructions for making a Design-Your-Own (DYO) scenario, or "Situation 13". The Designer's Notes showed players how many counters it would take to make up a complete Soviet Tank Corps, though this would require purchasing additional counter sets from Avalon Hill. (Players were advised against such extravagance, however, and urged to keep "counter density" low.) This open-ended approach made ''PanzerBlitz'' a highly replayable game system, a feature widely emulated by subsequent games.
# The wealth of technical detail was unprecedented, as was the detailed description of how this technical data was incorporated into the game. The Designer's Notes stated, "A glance at the PANZERBLITZ game components gives you the impression that you can pick up a considerable amount of historical data by just studying the game, much less actually playing it ... Unfortunately, you cannot take this data, as modified in the game design, at face value. Instead you must understand some of the decisions that were made about this game data before it was incorporated into the game."
Design philosophy
In spite of the heavy technical payload, ''PanzerBlitz'' was easy to learn and play. The basic system was quite simple. ''PanzerBlitz'' was a vivid expression of Avalon Hill's design philosophy in that playability and design elegance were prized above exactitude. The game mechanics were abstract and aimed at giving a realistic "feel" for armored combat rather than a completely accurate simulation.
Simulation issues
Although the abstract simplicity of ''PanzerBlitz'' attracted a wide following, certain unrealistic aspects were heavily criticized. Below are a couple of examples.
"Panzerbush"
Units in towns and wooded hexes were invisible unless an enemy unit was directly adjacent to them, even though those units may have moved to that position in full view of the enemy, and fired from it as well. There is an optional rule called opportunity fire in which a unit moving in the line-of-sight of an enemy unit may be fired upon by that unit. This ability of units to hop from one woods hex to another without being attacked was called "Panzerbush Syndrome", and "Panzerbush" became a scornful nickname for the game itself. The game provided a cumbersome optional rule to overcome this, but the later versions of the system (
Panzer Leader and
The Arab-Israeli Wars) provided much better solutions, such as the optional opportunity fire and more realistic rules for spotting and visibility. In these systems, a hidden unit that fires on the enemy becomes seen and can be fired upon in return. A common practice for those who desire more realism is to play ''PanzerBlitz'' with the Panzer Leader spotting rules.
Truck burners
Non-vehicle units such as infantry and anti-tank guns are very slow or can not move at all and the game provides units specifically to carry them, such as trucks and wagons. Unfortunately, players were able to find ways to use trucks and wagons for things they were never meant to be used for because the game let them. One example is as a spotter since any unit could spot enemy units in town or wood hexes as long as it was adjacent. Another was as a roadblock to stop enemy tanks since, except for overruns in clear terrain, friendly units could not enter hexes occupied by enemy units.
Unofficial sequels
In addition to the Avalon Hill sequels, there were several ''PanzerBlitz''-style games that
Dunnigan designed for
SPI: ''
Combat Command
A combat command was a combined-arms military organization of comparable size to a brigade or regiment employed by armored forces of the United States Army from 1942 until 1963. The structure of combat commands was task-organized and so the force ...
'', ''
Panzer '44'', and ''
MechWar '77''.
Reception
In his 1977 book ''
The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming
''The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming'' is a 1977 book by Nicholas Palmer about the hobby of board wargaming.
Contents
''The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming'' is a 223-page book about the hobby of wargaming for non-gamers and game ...
'',
Nicholas Palmer called it "Perhaps the most frequently played wargame ever produced." He noted ''PanzerBlitz'' was "the first to bring a wealth of tactical detail to the Second World War East Front, and met a delighted reception from the hobby when it came out in 1970." Palmer highlighted some frailties of the aging game design, particularly "somewhat unbalanced scenarios and the 'Panzerbush' syndrome, in which units popping from wood to wood cannot be attacked by non-adjacent units, which is a flaw in realism." He concluded on an upbeat note, saying, "Exciting, high skill level, very complex."
In the 1980 book ''
The Complete Book of Wargames
''The Complete Book of Wargames'' by Jon Freeman and the editors of Consumer Guide was published in 1980 by Simon & Schuster under the Fireside imprint.
Contents
This book comes in both a 285-page hardcover edition and a paperback version. In ...
'', game designer
Jon Freeman called ''PanzerBlitz'' "a watershed design. It was the first to simulate World War II events at the tactical level, the first to treat the differences between armor and infantry as more than a distinction in attack or movement factors, and the first to develop a real sequence of play, with different events occurring at different stages." He called it "an enormously important game — really the first to break out of the 'classic'
Avalon Hill
Avalon Hill Games Inc. is a game company that publishes wargames and strategic board games. It has also published miniature wargaming rules, role-playing games and sports simulations. It is a subsidiary of Hasbro, and operates under the company' ...
mode." In addition to its historical significance in the hobby, Freeman also noted that "It is also a very good game that is fluid in play, exciting, and colorful." He did admit there were problems with the spotting rules that allowed units "to skulk from woods without being fired on — a pattern know as the 'panzerbush syndrome'", as well as with the effectiveness of indirect high explosive artillery. Despite these issues, he gave the game an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good".
By August 1996, a quarter century after its publication, ''PanzerBlitz'' had sold 275,000 copies. ''
Computer Gaming World
''Computer Gaming World'' (CGW) was an American computer game magazine published between 1981 and 2006. One of the few magazines of the era to survive the video game crash of 1983, it was sold to Ziff Davis in 1993. It expanded greatly through ...
'' columnist Terry Coleman claimed that these figures made it the second-best-selling board wargame ever, behind ''
Axis & Allies
''Axis & Allies'' is a series of World War II strategy board games. The first version was initially published in 1981 and a second edition known colloquially as ''Axis & Allies: Classic'' was published in 1984. Played on a board depicting a Spri ...
''.
In his 2000 book ''Wargames Handbook: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames'', ''PanzerBlitz'' designer Jim Dunnigan stated that the game had sold the "extraordinary sales figure" of 320,000 units over 25 years, making it the most successful board wargame in the history of the hobby.
Other reviews and commentary
* ''
Casus Belli
A (; ) is an act or an event that either provokes or is used to justify a war. A ''casus belli'' involves direct offenses or threats against the nation declaring the war, whereas a ' involves offenses or threats against its ally—usually one b ...
'' #12 (Dec 1982)
References
External links
*
Panzerblitz, et al., Community Forums and Filesfrom the owner of the old AOL PB website.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panzerblitz
Avalon Hill games
Jim Dunnigan games
Board games introduced in 1970
Tactical wargames
World War II board wargames