For two years I was aware of the existence of a game called Panzerblitz before I ever played it. I tried a scenario with a fellow gamer and it turned us both off completely.

All I remember was that we were both hiding behind the copiously complex terrain waiting for the other guy to kindly allow us a shot. It wasn't until I began studying the Eastern Front that my thoughts turned again to the game.

In my readings about the Eastern Front battles, the ones that interested me most were those on the broad Russian Steppes or the "wheatfields" of the Ukraine. The terrain on the P8. mapboards did not match my vision of armored warfare in the USSR.

I came across a book entitled Hitler Moves East 1941-1943 by Paul Carell. Carell, I learned from issue Number 3, volume 5 of AFV- G2 magazine, is a pseudonym for Dr. Paul Karl Schmidt, the somewhat notorious press chief of the German Foreign Office during the Hitler regime." Carell has written an interesting, if partisan, account of the eastern fighting.

With the sequel, The Scorched Earth, the reader is given a breathtaking view of the fighting from the German point of view. Homilies such as "The Boys from Stuttgart", and that type of thing, are found throughout the book. When the "boys" reached the steppe country of Astrakan (back out Elista way, for you Stalingrad players)- I thought my heart would burst with pride at the accomplishments of the Reich's brave soldiers.

I suppose it was written for home consumption in a land where unit reunions are even a bigger thing than here or England. So I shouldn't complain. From this book I began to see the possibilities of PB. Carell's willing informants have given us numerous accounts of actions from the corp down to the individual foot soldier's level.

After finishing the Hitler Moves East volume it suddenly dawned that the PB. manual contained charts and tables that would enable one to put together the Russian and German units described in the text. Time and time again Carell describes in breathtaking commentary the actions of a division, a regiment, a battalion, a company or platoon. It is a simple procedure to convert the written account into your own scenarios. Panzerblitz can be a powerful solitaire game for the player who is interested in something other then competing against himself.

Personally, the joy of wargaming comes not in the heat of competition but in the solitary hours of contemplation, making careful moves and checking facts and data in my small library. In general, I study the campaign or battle I happen to be playing.

Some games are solid and there exists a relationship between the mapsheet, counters and charts that make the use of alternate mapsheets that amount to sacrilege. You feel like you're violating some inner trust when you use something of your own making. No one likes to be profane, and it is a happy occurence that the designers of Panzerblitz transcended this barb. Preparing your own terrain is a simple matter once you've obtained the blank, terrain free, mapsheets.

Avalon Hill sells them as does SPI. (As a short aside, Avalon Hill should be congratulated on their new delivery system they call "blitz- quick" or something like that.) if you already have the Panzerleader game you need only borrow the counters and extra rules. The counters themselves must be chosen with care as there are many types not represented in the PB. game. You must of course have extra sets of counters for any successful solitaire play. There's something reassuring about having five or six sets of counters laying around. One never knows when the urge for an armored division might hit him. Best to be prepared. The terrain is easy enough to draw, using felt tip markers.

Surprise yourself, you might find out you have artistic talent. What type of and where should the various homegrown terrain features go? Should I put a forest here, how many hexes should it be? Good question! You will have to do, no doubt, careful reading in the available literature, and there's plenty of that in paperbacks. Or else just draw up the terrain yourself randomly. Most of us are familiar with the general layout of Woods, towns, roads, slopes and hilltops in the many games published. Don't forget to label your mapsheet for indirect fire coordinates. Letters down the width and numbers cross the length hexes.

If you're not of an absolutely historical mind, creating your own scenarios is an easy task. I usually set up an attack on a fortified position. I try to see the PB. battle as the playing out of an action on one or two hexes from a division-corp level game such as Kursk or Destruction of Army Group Center.

I use either a German or Russian mixed force attempting to breach a fortified position. My first attempt involved a defending German infantry division, with an attached batallion of assault guns, (four to six), and an extra anti-tank battalion or two. The Russian attack force consists of a three wave assault. The first is made up of two infantry divisions whose purpose is to penetrate the first line of defenses and "spot" enemy anti-tank strongpoints.

These strongpoints consist of an anti-tank gun and one infantry platoon "in" (under) a pillbox counter. The second wave will also have two infantry divisions with one being composed of Guard units. Several companies of SU-76s, may venture out from behind cover if the first wave has managed to locate the nearest anti-tank emplacements.

In reserve the Russians have several tank brigades as well as a full mechanized corp to consolidate any major penetrations or advance off the opposite end of the board for a major breakthrough.

Setting up the German positions can be a tricky matter. A '44 division had a front of from 20 to 40 hexes and my mapsheet just happened to have thirty-one hexes. just about right! I take it for granted that the Russian engineers have been active the last few nights lifting minefields in front of the intended assault point.

At the top of the mapsheet I include a thick minefield, consisting of two or more hexlines of Mine counters. Not only does this simulate the narrowness of the entry point but it saves the solitaire player from worrying about Just that much more space. The solitaire player must be careful not to overload the map with too many counters until he has gained the perseverance to use them all. He will find for himself certain shortcuts, learned along the way, to make the play easier. Certain of these shortcuts would be intolerable in competitive play so keep them secret.

After covering the five to ten "dead hexes, I then deploy the blocks which represent anti-tank ditches, barbed wire, steelrods etc. They are placed in a contingous line from the top to the bottom of the mapsheet.

Next Comes the Fortification Counters

The setting up of this line can be tricky and much is at stake for the defending player. The front line of pillboxes is placed five hexes from the "obstacle course" where enemy units will have to spend at least two turns getting across. In that time the defensive player will be able to severly damage any armored units attempting to advance across the blocks. You will see instantly the necessity of sending your infantry in first, before the armor.

The first line of defense is also in a position to act as a spotter for the powerful artillery units far in the rear. A second, less dense, line of pillboxes is placed anywhere from five to ten hexes behind the first line. This will ensure the German player that any stray units breaking through the main line will be dealt with before they can do much harm.

The first line's pillboxes contain 75mm anti- tank guns, (13 A 6) and one infantry platoon each. In the second line's are 150mm infantry guns, (20 H 12), 120mm mortars, (15 M 20), and 88s, (20 A 20). Beyond this, emplaced on hilltops or covered terrain, is the artillery-the backbone of the German defense.

Usually I draw in a hill or two, a ridge or forest off to either end of my mapsheets, to accommodate the artillery. There it remains hidden from view. Not concealed so much from the Russian artillery, which it outranges by better than two to one, but from marauding Russian ground-attack aircraft, just looking for an exposed battery or two to pounce on. Later in the war the Germans were forced by their serious losses to use their artillery as direct fire in an antitank role. All would be well if it was only the Russian guns they had to worry about. There would be plenty of time to pack up and leave if danger threatened. But, as actually happened in the destruction of Army Group Center, much artillery was destroyed by Russian airforces. There are air rules in Panzerleader and I thought at first to include them in my own version, but they added such a complicated new situation that I decided to abandon the project.

As basically a solitaire player, it was too much for me to handle. With the massive artillery component attached to a German infantry division you should have little trouble in knocking out a considerable number of Russian units and AFVs making a quick dash to glorv in front of your gun muzzles.

The task of the Russian infantry is simple: knock out the German anti-tank emplacements. If this proves impossible they should get in position to act as spotters for the Russian guns and hold themselves ready to close-assault any pillbox disrupted by artillery fire. It is imperative to clear a lane wide enough through the defensive positions to allow the armor to pass through unmolested. If you deploy your AFVs up front you might get through quicker, but once you're there you'll be too weak to do any more then hold.

Compare the difference between Manstein's dispositions with those of Model at either end of the Kursk salient. Hoth, Manstein's general, got through quicker with the massive use of blitzkrieg tactics, but paid dearly in tanks and assault guns, weapons the Germans could ill afford to squander. I consider all German units and fortifications unspotted. This includes German infantry units in clear terrain hexes. If you can't remember which units are spotted keep them flipped over until spotted. You must use these rules to simulate reality.

You will understand on the tactical level, why the odds tables on SPI's mapsheets have so many exchanges that force the player to attack with infantry and armor against almost any target. I make it a rule never to release my armor until I'm sure it will get through relatively unscathed.

The Russian player should keep all his mortars and infantry guns together operating as one battery. I doubt the Germans would waste an artillery shoot for them and its the only way they can be of value. One Russian infantry division receives twelve of these units and with several attached pieces they will be capable of obtaining a one to one against a pillbox. If you're lucky you can soften them up for a close assault battalion to finish them off.

The storming of these emplacements can be the key to victory, for once they're gone you can send a mass of Russian armor off for a "deathride" to the German artillery. The range of German heavy artillery is from 28 to 36 hexes and it takes them two turns to limber and move off. The T34s have a movement allowance of eleven. You can see that the German guns cannot afford to take a few pot shots for they would risk annihilation.

In case they do stick around I would suggest using an optional rule to cover the difficulties of firing on moving targets. If the target unit moved one half of his total movement points or less add to the firing units die roll. If the target unit has moved more than one half add two to the die roll.

A clever German player would have deployed his 88s to cover this "empty" space. They can wreck havoc on an advancing tank force if you're prepared to sacrifice the valuable pieces. 88s take two turns to limber and move as with other artillery pieces.

It's obvious that neutralization of the German artillery is the main goal of the assaulting force. Clearing and holding an enemy position will not be possible until the massive German firepower is no more. A typical German infantry division has between 340 and 360 factors of long range HE fire available. There is another 140 factors of heavy mortars with a range of twenty.

Added to this is an assortment of infantry guns and light mortars which all added together can produce a destructive hail that is quite capable of destroying anything sent against it-for at least one turn, that is. The winner will be decided on the basis of who has the greater staying power. For the Russian, the decision will have to be made as to how badly he wants the position.

I leave the option of unlimited infantry formations for as long as the Russian thinks he has a chance of breaking through.

The Russian heavy artillery cannot be considered in the same category as the German- at least not in the game. It's decisively outranged by the German pieces. This fact necessitates that the tubes be emplaced behind hilltops, woods or anywhere out of sight. Direct fire with these weapons is out of the question. You would hardly have time to unlimber them before the German fire smashes the pieces to bits. Initial placement of the guns is crucial on a front of 30 to 40 hexes.

To destroy a German pillbox requires 160 units of HE fire at close range due to their "armor" configuration. The entire attack strength of divisional Russian artillery, firing at half strength due to distance, is barely able to muster a respectable one-to-one. Is it any wonder that the Russians attached large numbers of guns, grouped in separate artillery formations, to the infantry assault teams? I group the entire artillery component of all the attacking units into one massive battery then double the number of weapons to simulate attached firepower.

Don't forget to add two or three Katushyka counters, their attack strength of 40 and range of 24 make them ideal against fixed emplacements. The Soviet also receives additional AFV formations. Usually two or three SU-152 and/or five to ten SU-76 and SU-85 counters.

Make sure you don't employ all the infantry divisions at the same time. You'll overload the map and run the risk of your monster controlling you. But you have to have the support divisions somewhere to support, don't you? Of course, use a sheet of paper and a humble pencil to move your second wave of infantry up to the block barrier. Note the turn they entered the board and record any movements. It's much too much trouble to move a great mass of counters continually forward, there's plenty to do with the combat forces to bother with much of anything else. I designate their location, after four or five turns as being directly on the row of hexes that fronts the obstacle line. When the time comes for their utilization I place them right there. If the German player ever has any artillery left over he may wish to "shoot-up" the assembly area of these units. If he fires four times the defensive value of any unit it should be considered destroyed and removed from play. I doubt whether the German will have much artillery to spare, however. If you wish to extend the game you might try preventing a Russian breakthrough by introducing a German tank regiment as a counterattacking force. A new game on a wreck-strewn battlefield!

The above is my technique for Panzerblitz solitaire. Basically, be flexible and sensible. Try to have a goal in mind for both sides and keep them going toward it without immediate interference. Remember, they shouldn't know what the other side is up to.

Go ahead, set up a tank trap with your Hetzers, let the T34s roll on in. Have fun and if you get frustrated, start over. It's only a game.