Box art

Panzerblitz is a tactical-scale board wargame of tank, artillery, and infantry combat set in the Eastern Front of the Second World War. 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. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1673, 125 KB)Box art for the board wargame Panzerblitz, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image is of a board game cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the publisher of the board game. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1200x1673, 125 KB)Box art for the board wargame Panzerblitz, scanned by User:Stan Shebs This image is of a board game cover, and the copyright for it is most likely owned by the publisher of the board game. ... Tactical wargames are wargames in which units range from individual vehicles and squads to platoons or companies, and are rated based on types and ranges of individual weaponry. ... A board game is any game played on a board (that is, a premarked surface) with counters or pieces that are moved across the board. ... Wargaming can be one of number of ways of exploring the effects of warfare without actual combat. ... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ... Infantry of the Royal Irish Rifles during the Battle of the Somme, First World War. ... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...

PanzerBlitz was designed to simulate a clash between two division-sized forces with units that represented companies of infantry and squads of tanks. This scale of simulation had never been done before. Nearly all previous war games had focused on larger units such as brigades, regiments, and divisions. PanzerBlitz was originally published by Avalon Hill in 1970. The game was designed by Jim Dunnigan, who would go on to run Strategy & Tactics magazine and design many other war games. Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. ... 1970 (MCMLXX) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1970 calendar). ... James F. Dunnigan (born 1943) is an author and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis. ... Strategy & Tactics (S&T) is a wargaming magazine now published by Decision Games, notable for its groundbreaking move of publishing a complete new wargame in each issue. ...

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 rather than a simple concentration of one unit type to defeat the opponent. Combined arms is an approach to warfare which seeks to integrate different arms of a military to achieve mutually complementary effects. ...

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 morter 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.

As of 2005, the rights to Panzerblitz are held by Multi-Man Publishing, which is, as of this writing, developing Panzerblitz II, but there is plenty of interest in the classic version. New units and scenarios 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.

Panzerblitz was followed by two companion games; one called Panzer Leader, which focused on the Western Front, and a game called The Arab-Israeli Wars which covered the 1956, 1967 and 1973 wars in the Middle East. Panzer Leader is the sequel to Avalon Hills Panzerblitz game. ... During World War II, the Western Front was the theater of fighting west of Germany, encompassing France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemberg, and Denmark. ... Arab-Israeli Wars® is a tactical level wargame published in the US in 1977 by Avalon Hill and simulates at a tactical level the various Middle East conflicts. ...

The Game

Panzerblitz introduced a number of innovations to board wargames:

1. Isomorphic mapboards which could be arranged in various combinations to create different battlefields. This became a hallmark of Avalon Hill tactical games such as Squad Leader. In mathematics, an isomorphism (in Greek isos = equal and morphe = shape) is a kind of mapping between objects, devised by Eilhard Mitscherlich, which shows a relation between two properties or operations. ... Avalon Hill was a game company that specialized in wargames and strategic board games. ... Squad Leader game // Introduction Original purple topped SL box Squad Leader is a tactical level board wargame originally published by Avalon Hill in 1977. ...

2. Armor units were represented by vehicle silhouettes rather than standard military symbols. As a result, the game was visually striking and reminiscent of miniatures games. Combined with beautiful bookcase-style packaging (which made it an ornament as well as a game), it advanced Avalon Hill's reputation for superb physical quality.

3. 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 even 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 an infinitely replayable game system, and was widely copied by subsequent games.

4. 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."

5. In spite of the heavy technical payload, Panzerblitz was easy to learn and play. The basic system was quite simple and it was up to the players to complicate it with additional rules if they chose. Panzerblitz was a perfect expression of Avalon Hill's design philosophy. Playability and 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. It was free of pedantic detail, which Avalon Hill dismissively called "dirt in the system". Ironically, this masterpiece was designed by James F. Dunnigan who later became a major designer for SPI, a competing company noted for its emphasis on highly detailed simulations. James F. Dunnigan (born 1943) is an author and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis. ... Simulations Publications, Inc. ...

"Panzerbush"

Although the abstract simplicity of Panzerblitz attracted a wide following, certain unrealistic aspects were heavily criticized. 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. This ability of units to hop from one woods hex to another without being seen or fired upon 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 "opportunity fire" and more realistic rules for spotting and visibility. Panzer Leader is the sequel to Avalon Hills Panzerblitz game. ... Arab-Israeli Wars® is a tactical level wargame published in the US in 1977 by Avalon Hill and simulates at a tactical level the various Middle East conflicts. ...

Panzerkinder

Besides the Avalon Hill sequels, there were several Panzerblitz-style games that Dunnigan designed for SPI: Combat Command, Panzer '44, and Mech War '77. James F. Dunnigan (born 1943) is an author and wargame designer currently living in New York City, notable for his matter-of-fact approach to military analysis. ... Simulations Publications, Inc. ...

One of many situation cards that tell players how to arrange board and which game pieces to use

Image File history File links PanzerBlitz_Situation_Card. ... Image File history File links PanzerBlitz_Situation_Card. ...

External links

• http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/2238