TITLE: Panzerkrieg, von Manstein and Herres Gruppe Sud (PK)
PRICE: $12.95
DESIGNER: John Prados
PUBLISHER: Operational Studies Group (OSG), 1261 Broadway, New York City, New York 10001.

SUBJECT AND SCALE: PK covers the comings and goings of German Army Group South during the late, lamented war on Russia. The portion of the campaign dealt with here begins 27 August 1941 and extends to 31 March 1944. Each turn equals "about" one week of real time, and each hexagon on the map represents 14 miles of real terrain. Combat units represent battle groups, brigades, divisions, corps, air wings and armies, headquarters, and individual officers. Artillery and anti-tank formations of unspecified sizes are also represented.

COMPONENTS AND PHYSICAL QUALITY: PK comes packaged in a two-piece cardboard box measuring 11 3/4" x 9" x 2". It's done up in black, blue, white and red, and in addition to showing the title, it contains quotes from Hitler and Manstein and a Rodger MacGowan black-ink illustration of German Infantry and Tiger tanks. Inside the box you'll find 500 standard size, back-printed, die-cut playing pieces, a 22" x 34" soft map, printed on the same quality paper SPI uses for its magazine games, one 16-page rules folder, a 24-page scenario/historical notes folder, and one errata sheet. Two sheets of charts are located in the center of the rules booklet and must be removed and separated (again, a la SPI).

Overall, the game gets high marks for its packaging and graphics. The board, though it only contains blue, green and yellow (on a base color of light brownish-gray for clear terrain) is done up in a manner at once easy to read and nice to look at. The counters are black on red for Soviet, black on gray for Wehrmacht, white on gray for Hungarian, black on medium-brown for Italian, black on golden-brown for Rumanian and, of course, white on black for SS. (I'd like to put in a short aside here: A few issues ago in Fire & Movement magazine, Fred Helfferich remarked that he couldn't understand why game producers more and more seem to lean toward depicting Waffen SS units with this white on black color scheme, since it was that awful other branch of the organization which wore the black. Hmmmm. Of course, the Soviets didn't wear red either. The point is, aside from the practical one of it being virtually impossible to color all sides' units with the uniform shade they wore, since it would be very difficult to tell those flat tans, browns and khakis apart, color schemes are selected by other criteria than historical coloration. That is, in the gamers' perceptions each particular army generates an aura, an essence, a gestalt, or if you will, a karma. This karma takes on a color in the mind's eye, and though in games on wars fought prior to the twentieth century it's often possible to match physical colors with their karmic counterparts, i.e., red British, blue Federals, etc., this is not usually the case for the monochromed wars of our century. For modern period wargames the medium truly has become the message, and hence communist units are red and Nazis are black. Though we can't prove it, we all know that when these color schemes are there the cardboard armies will perform better for us and we for them. Further, I'm certain that producers who fail to take these things into account have the popularity of their games suffer for it. Take SPI's Ardennes Offensive for example. How many of you eagerly tore open your newly bought copy of that game, expecting to find veritable hordes of the black clad demons, only to lose your ardor when you found all the Germans uniformly colored in that end-of-the-Reich-blues gray? More than will admit to it I'll wager.)

The counters are in all ways standard, except one does wonder why they decided to switch the normal positions for the unit I.D. number and its size symbol. (Every time you look at a set-up board you get a brief urge to cock your head.) The exclusion of any type of storage trays from the PK box is regrettable, but the new SPI unit trays will fill the vacancy very nicely, if you're willing to go to the trouble of ordering extra from that company or cannibalizing one of your other games.

Certainly the most interesting physical features of PK are its rules and scenario folders. On the unusual side, the covers of both pamphlets are arranged so that when you lay them down side by side the title is shown in large red capitals, with another larger reproduction of MacGowan's cover drawing underneath. Of course, you don't use the pamphlets that way, and when you pick either up you're left with one that shows half a drawing and reads, "Rules of Play Krieg," and another that says, "Scenario and Study Folder Panzer."

Opening the scenario folder will lead the PK owner to a pleasant surprise. Each scenario, and there are eight, is laid out in foldout format. The page opens to double length, with one portion of the large sheet containing a well written historical essay by Prados, on the part of the campaign under consideration, next to it a reproduction of that section of the map over which the scenario will be fought, marked off with various starting lines and mobilization areas, and finally the turn record chart, reinforcement track, victory conditions and rules peculiar to that scenario are contained on the end panel. Very nicely done. The general rules folder is also attractively laid out, with several large black and white period photos interspersed throughout the double-columned text.

MAP AREA: All of southwestern European Russia is shown, from the Pripyet Marshes in the map's northwest corner to a little beyond the Don River in the northeast, south to Maikop and the foothills of the Caucasus and west to the Danube estuary.

COMPLEXITY: PK is not a simple game, and though it's not overly complex when compared to some of today's monsters, there is surely enough here to keep lovers of such games at least satisfied, if not overjoyed. On an ascending scale of one to nine, I would place PK at about 6.4, making it roughly comparable to such titles as NATO, Sixth Fleet and GDW's Fall of Tobruk in this respect.

SET UP TIME: Each scenario foldout lists both sides' starting units (about 100 per side) by type and number needed; referring to the scenario map, you then find front lines marked off, each with various initial garrisoning requirements, along with certain areas where specific units must be placed. Aside from those specified areas and front densities, players are free to deploy the bulk of their armies as they see fit. Fishing out the units (even if stored partially sorted in some tray), and getting both sides deployed can take as long as 40 to 60 minutes, depending on the players' familiarity with the scenario being played.

PLAYING TIME: Anywhere from five to seven hours, again depending on which scenario is being used.

GAME TURNS AND DECISION POINT: The eight scenarios are, in chronological order, Kiev Pocket (27 August to 10 October 1941, 7 turns), Winter Counteroffensive (14 January to 2 April 1942, 12 turns), The Drive on Stalingrad (28 June to 13 September 1942, 11 turns), Stalingrad (19 November 1942 to 11 February 1943, 12 turns), The Backhand Blow (19 February to 4 April 1943, 6 turns), Aftermath of Zitadelle (2 August to 2 October 1943, 8 turns), Battles for the Dnepr (2 October to 21 December 1943, 11 turns) and Pocket at Korsun (1 February to 29 March 1944, 8 turns). While I have not played all eight scenarios to mastery, it seems that between equally matched opponents the winner cannot be predicted earlier than the last or next-to-last game turn.

RULES COMPREHENSION TIME: It' you are a seasoned gamer it will take you about 90 minutes to read and study all of PK's rules and charts well enough to allow you to begin play. If you are a newcomer to wargaming, do not attempt to enter the hobby using this game!

RULES CLARITY AND COMPLETENESS: Lately there seems to be growing resistance to the style of rules writing pioneered by SPI. That is, while most will admit that their efforts in this area have raised rules writing to a new level (at times), many are wondering if clarity really requires that we read each rule stated three slightly different ways in three different sections of the instructions. There's a growing conviction that it should be possible, using nothing more than common style English prose, to produce a readable, complete and non-repetitive set of wargame instructions. I agree it should be possible; however, though the makers of PK apparently also agree and accepted the challenge of producing such copy, it is with much regret that I report they have failed. At one point PK's rules are completely contradictory, and at many other points they are vague and incomplete.

As they stand, the rules are certainly well enough written to get you into playing the game, but it's certain that each such playing will bring forth situations which simply are not dealt with sufficiently in the rules to give players a feeling that they're always resolving those situations in the correct way. Fortunately, one of the things which the rules do list clearly is an address to which questions may be sent.

PLAY BALANCE: By looking at the earlier listing I gave of PK's scenarios, it becomes immediately obvious that the game, in dealing with situations from the extreme ends of the war, is going to present players with some scenarios which are grossly imbalanced in terms of army strengths. And although such one-sided melees can often initially stimulate gamers' curiosities, interest soon flags as the inevitable massacre of one side occurs again and again. PK gets neatly around this problem by using its victory conditions (all given in terms of capturing or reaching geographic objectives) as balancers. Where one side has a romp, they must romp extremely well in order to win.

At the same time, Prados has turned certain of the higher echelon command limitations originally placed on the area commanders to great advantage here. For instance, there's no doubt at all that an earlier withdrawal from the Kiev area in 1941 would have saved the Soviets a lot of grief. Stalin, though, wanted the city held and thus prevented his commanders in the area from exercising the better part of valor until it was too late. Now, to put some sort of iron-clad no-retreat rule into the scenario would have limited Soviet player options so much that it would be hard to find anyone willing to play that side. Alternatively, to allow the red commander total freedom in this regard would have tipped the scales too far in the opposite direction and faced the German player with a very dangerous and un-historic situation. The successful compromise hit upon in the scenario rules is to deny the Soviets any eastward rail movement during the first four game turns, on the rationale that the reinforcements and replacements that Stalin kept so heedlessly shoving toward the Ukrainian capital during that period tied up the transport net. This solution allows the Soviet player enough tactical mobility to make the scenario's outcome tense and uncertain, while it also denies him an unrealistic strategic option. Thus are both history and game playing well served.

(Another aside here: Did you ever notice that Russophile gamers really become incensed if a German commander balks at having to use a Hitler no-retreat rule in the latter stages of some east front game? But notice the effects generated when you wish out loud that the Bolshevik units would stay in place long enough to be surrounded as they often did, at Moscow's insistence, during that summer of '41. Why is this?)

DESCRIPTION OF PLAY: Weather is determined at the start of each PK gameturn. Depending on the season, the skies can be clear or it can rain, snow or storm. Rain and snow only effect combat by causing a minus-one die roll modification, while storms do the same plus ground air units and halve ground units' movement allowances. If it rains on two consecutive turns mud occurs, which halves the movement of mechanized units. Likewise, consecutive snow turns (or just one storm) will bring ice, which halves the movement of all units.

Supply effects are represented by requiring each unit to trace a ten-hex line to a railroad and thence to a friendly board edge. Units "out of supply," have their movement and combat factors halved, dropping fractions. Supply is only determined once at the start of each play turn, and the supply status revealed at that time remains unchanged until that player's next determination phase. Ground units may remain out of supply indefinitely (airfields go after two consecutive turns). Markers are provided to place atop such out of supply units.

The Soviet player may stack any two ground combat units per hex and the German any three. In addition, each side may add one leader, combat air patrol (CAP), bridgehead, artillery, anti-tank and headquarters unit per stack. Airfields and attack air units do not count toward stacking limits. (Yes, some very high and awkward-to-handle stacks do occur.)

To exert a zone of control (ZOC), a unit must be armored or mechanized and have a movement factor of at least eleven. By way of exception, there is also one German parachute division in the game that is granted a ZOC, though no air drop capabilities. Combat is not mandatory between adjacent enemy units even if one or several do possess ZOCs; however, to enter a controlled hex costs enemy units three extra movement points. Friendly ground units negate the effects of enemy units' ZOCs for all purposes. Units may move from one ZOC to another, but no type of overrun is allowed, nor are units guaranteed the ability to move at least one hex per turn.

Road movement negates terrain effects and doubles movement factors. Railroad movement is infinite on the friendly side of the scenario startline on raillines which contain no enemy ZOCs or units. Units moved by rail must start and end their turn on the railline, may not use such movement to come next to an enemy unit, and may not perform any other function that turn. Both sides also have a very limited sea transport and supply capability along the Black Sea coast.

Towns and cities may be moved through at the road rate, with the latter tripling defense factors and the former doubling them. Minor rivers cost mechanized units four movement points to cross and leg outfits two; they effect combat by deducting five strength points from any attack (regardless of its numeric size) made across them and also cause a minus-one die roll modification. Major river hexsides are the only terrain features which inhibit ZOCs, and attacks are not permitted across them except at bridges and "river crossing" hexsides. Attacking across such hexsides causes the attacker's strength to be reduced by two thirds and necessitates a minus two die roll modification. Bridges may be moved over at the road rate, but river-crossing hexes cost mechanized six and leg units three. Mountain and swamp hexes (there are few) have the same effects as river crossing hexes, while woods double the defender and cost four for mechanized and two for infantry.

Unit strengths are as follows: Soviet ground units vary in size and speed from small (but due to airdrop capability, at times deadly) 1-7 airborne brigades up through 3-7, 4-7, 5-7, 7-7 and 9-7 infantry divisions (the 7-7s and 9-7s are "Guards" units). Soviet cavalry corps are shown as 4-9s and 5-9s, while their armor and mechanized corps weigh in as 4, 6, 8 and 10-11s. Artillery units lumber around as 8 or 13-5s, and anti-tank pieces are 3-7s. The weakest units in the axis OB are 1 and 2 strength Rumanian, Hungarian and Italian units. The bulk of the Germans participate as 3, 4 or 5-7s, but there are also a few 2-7 training and security divisions. German mechanized divisions vary in strength from 5 to 16-11s; they have no anti-tank units and only one 8-5 artillery unit,

Headquarters units play a major role in the game. Both sides' HQ units have defense factors of one and movement factors of eleven, and move as normal units, have no ZOC and may not attack. However, regular ground units must be able to trace a line of communications, no longer than seven hexes, to a friendly HQ unit in order to be able to attack. This "line" may pass through enemy ZOCs and units and any type of terrain, and one HQ unit may exercise command control over all units within that range. Axis satellite units must be within four hexes of an HQ unit to receive command control, they may only receive it from German HQs and those of their own nationality (never from the HQ of another satellite army), and they also need such control to defend at full, rather than only half, factor.

Axis satellite forces also suffer from other restrictions, in that units from the different armies may not stack with one another, and Rumanian and Hungarian units may not even coexist in adjacent hexes. German units may stack with any friendly units. Satellite air units are restricted to flying only ground support missions for attacks involving only units of their nationality. Likewise, the Rumanian and Italian generals included in PK may only lend their expertise to nationally pure attacks, or such attacks made in concert with only one German unit.

Aside from the critical function of providing command control, another very important job of HQ units is to release reinforcements into defensive battles. Any HQ unit located in a town or city hex and stacked with one or more ground combat units, may release those units into a defensive battle within five hexes of its position. This release is made after the attacker has announced his attack. Released reserve units do not pay normal terrain costs (except for the continued prohibition against crossing non-bridge, non-ford major river hexsides), having instead an unmodified five-hex range. Enemy ZOCs do serve to halt such movement. Committed reserves add their strengths to the defenders in the attacked hex, but such newly arrived units do not get any terrain benefits which the formations already there might be enjoying. Any ground combat unit may function as a reserve unit any number of times per game, and once initially dispatched and attacked they again function as normal units.

Each side in PK has certain of its more notable historic commanders represented by individual units. Each leader has a movement factor of either seven or eleven, and an "improvement strength" between three and thirteen. These improvement strengths may not be used alone (no one-on-one hero combat in the 20th century Ukraine!), but one leader per battle may add his strength, representing his tactical expertise in directing the engagement, to that of the friendly units he's stacked with. This bonus may be used offensively or defensively, but may not exceed the normal strength of the units under the leader, any excess is ignored. Leader counters are not affected by supply, nor does terrain in any way reduce their improvement strength. Offensively, the presence of a leader also causes a plus-two die-roll modification, while defensively a leader will cancel such a bonus for the attacker's leader, but cannot generate a corresponding minus-two modification even if there is no attacking enemy leader involved. (On PK's combat results table, high numbers favor the attacker.) Leader units may not dispatch, nor be dispatched as, reserves.

The participation of both sides' air forces is represented by three types of units: airfield counters, air attack units and CAP markers. The airfields must be initially positioned in town or city hexes that contain railroads, and thereafter only one may be moved per turn. This is done by flipping the unit over and moving it to another friendly town or city on the railline. Airfields may each support the operations of up to four air units, but may conduct no operations during a turn in which it changes locations. Airbases may not be attacked by enemy air units, and defend against ground assault with a factor of one.

Air attack units have operational ranges extending between eight and twenty hexes from their base, and combat values of three, four and five. These units need not return to the same base from which they sortied at the start of the turn, neither exert nor inhibit ZOCs, and may participate in combat (offensive only) in one of two ways each time up. Air units may fly to an enemy occupied hex and there, unaided by ground units, may attack those units. Such attacks are resolved using the regular odds chart, but only "disruption" results (a result unique to air-to-ground attacks) can effect the attacked units in such cases. Such disruption effects units in the same manner as being out of supply. Alternatively, air attack units may participate in attacks made in concert with friendly ground units. In such engagements the air factors are simply added in as if they represented more regular ground formations. Air attack units are never affected by adverse results, and German 5-20 air units may be used to supply a limited number of isolated friendly units.

At the end of his turn a player may place his CAP markers. These units may only be put atop friendly ground units, within twelve hexes of the issuing airfields, and their placement prevents any enemy air activity from taking place in that hex during the ensuing enemy player turn. There is no way to drive off an enemy CAP marker.

All combat is voluntary in PK. The odds chart is a one-die affair, with columns ranging from 1-4 to7+-1. A die roll may be modified to as low as 1 or as high as 8. Possible results are: Attacker Routed (attacking units eliminated, defending units advance three hexes), Attacker Eliminated, Attacker Retreat Two, Stalemate (read 'engaged,' but no new ground units may join in), Exchange, Defender Retreat Two, Defender Eliminated, and Breakthrough. Whenever units are eliminated or pushed from their hexes opposing units may occupy that hex. Unmodified odds of 4-1 must be attained to guarantee territorial victory. If one side possesses mechanized units in a battle in which the other does not, the possessing side's attack (or defending) odds are shifted one column to its advantage.

Without doubt, the most significant result obtainable on the 11K chart is the "Breakthrough." When attacking units achieve it, a sort of local armor exploitation phase is created. That is, any friendly mechanized units which were in hexes adjacent to those of the original attackers, but were not themselves involved in that or any other attack, become eligible for exploitation phase movement. Such units (along with any leader stacked with them) are marked with an exploitation counter, and after all other battles are fought, these units may move and attack normally, except that air units may not redeploy to aid them (though if they're already there, having been placed earlier in anticipation of such a breakthrough battle, they may join in.)

Both sides are granted an infantry and mechanized replacement rate in each scenario rules section. The exact rate varies, but it never allows for the rebuilding of more than one unit of each type per turn, and it's often less. Units eligible for rebuilding are those that have suffered some sort of elimination result in combat and have reduced battlegroup strengths printed on their reverse sides. (All German SS, panzer, panzergrenadier, and 5-7 infantry divisions, and all Soviet 10, 8 and 6 strength mechanized units and all their guards infantry have such reverse printing.) In order to be rebuilt, such battlegroups must remain stationary for one complete turn in any in-supply town or city hex along with an HQ unit. At the end of the turn the unit is flipped back to its full strength and may move and fight normally beginning the next turn. Units which start a scenario set up as battlegroups may not be rebuilt during the play of that scenario. Battlegroups behave as regular ground units in all ways.

The German player is also allowed to break his panzer divisions down into battlegroup sized units (three 2-11s per division). The procedure is the opposite of a replacement operation (extra 2-11s are provided in the countermix), but once broken down such units may not reform.

Both sides are allowed to construct fortifications. The placement of such counters takes a complete turn, and may only take place in an in-supply non-town or non-city hex where there is a friendly unit that has remained stationary for one turn. Such works double defense factors. Again, following much the same procedures, both sides are allowed to build "bridgeheads" at river-crossing hexsides. Such counters function as bridges, but unlike fortifications which may be left empty and later reoccupied, they disappear if the constructing unit moves from the hex.

Finally, special rules also provide for the participation of artillery and anti-tank units. AT units nullity the o8ds column shift resultant from one side having ail the armor in a battle, and artillery units do not suffer any factor reduction when attacking across rivers.

All of this is bound together by a turn sequence that begins with weather determination, then goes on through supply determination to movement to combat to exploitation movement (if any) to exploitation combat (if any). and ends with a "protection segment," during which CAP is positioned, fortifications and bridgeheads are built, replacements taken and panzer bridgeheads are built, replacements taken and panzer 10 divisions broken down. It is not unusual to have one player turn last 30 to 40 minutes.

EVALUATION: If you've read one of the advertisements OSG has put out on PK, you've no doubt hit upon the part that goes, "Nor is this simply a rehash of John's old design - it is rather a redesign undertaken by a matured and experienced Prados, after years of play testing, and a redevelopment by OSG staff experts." That sounds really good, but sadly, it simply doesn't appear to be true in any important way. I own a copy of the old first edition, and there is very little difference, aside from packaging, between that version and this new edition. Now that's not necessarily bad, there's a lot I like about this game, as I'll shortly explain, but OSG's advertising implication is that by purchasing PK you'll receive a vastly reworked, all-around state-of-the-art simulation, and that just isn't so.

The most irksome feature in PK's new edition, just as it was in the old game, is undoubtedly the rules. They're written in a sort of scholarly-chummy tone, and seem to assume that you were there in the designer's mind, watching PK turn into a game, and that therefore not everything (indeed, hardly anything) need be explained in detail. This attitude is certainly not foreign to our hobby, though I wish it were, but if PK's rules are going to serve as OSG's standard for the other games in their new line, that company is in trouble. I have had to send over two dozen questions to their Broadway address; questions that have dealt with items from virtually every section of the rules. It's hard for me to believe that the rules were even edited or proofed.

My favorite example of this occurs in the Kiev Pocket scenario, which begins with the main front lying just a few hexes to the west of that city and Guderian's panzers poised on four northern map-edge hexes. The set up rules explain, "No Soviet units may begin the game opposite Guderian besides infantry (only) stacks at Chernigov and Novgorod- Seversky. " Those two towns lie one and three hexes away from Guderian's startline, so their location cannot serve as any true guide to determine just how far from those German units "opposite" extends, and nothing else is said about it.

Again referring to their advertisement, OSG explains, "Rather than a long campaign game which players can seldom conclude, the campaign is broken into easily managed pieces . . .'9 In the first edition, it was also explained that a campaign game was omitted because, over the long run, many important changes in strength and disposition which were forced on Army Group South came about as the result of actions which took place off map or only partially on map (i.e., Kursk), and therefore no sort of smooth playing continuity could be maintained for so long a game. I agree with both rationales; a campaign game covering all the time AGS spent in Russia would be boringly long and, so long as it was played on a map the size of PK's, very awkward to orchestrate in any meaningful historical sense. However, I see no reason, except for an unwillingness on the part of Mr. Prados and those "OSG staff experts" to completely finish the development of their product, why rules could not have been provided to link, say, each of the, same year's scenarios into three 'maxi-scenarios.' This would have provided games of about 30 turns duration which, given PK's rather involved mechanics, certainly would have been long, but at the same time certainly would have been manageable by today's hobby standards. Such additions would also have provided PK with more historical depth. That is, as things are now, the short scenarios provide players with tactical and operational control of their armies, but there's little variation possible at the strategic level. Each scenario invariably programs one side or the other as attacker or defender, and nothing can be done to alter that, given the short timespans represented in each battle. The longer games would have allowed for exploring whole other alternate directions for operations over a long time period.

(Another aside: Of course, this lack of complete development in games is an old and, so far, accepted feature of our hobby. An example that comes instantly to mind here is SPI's Drive on Stalingrad. The lack of development there is just the opposite of that found in PK, but the frustration it generates is much the same. I mean, can you really believe that after laying down twelve dollars for DoS, you opened the box to find a game with only one long campaign version and not a single scenario?!? Perhaps if some of these disparate designers could be brought together we might get some really amazing games on AGS, but in the meantime it's for sure that the subject's been done often but it hasn't yet been done right.

OSG's ad also explains about the war in south Russia, "Historians examining that time and place are only partially effective in expressing the scope and importance of these events. In our games, though, we have a unique tool ... that can give us some insight into immense events . . ." When I first read that, before seeing and playing the new PK, I was overjoyed - a wargame company that unabashedly pays direct homage to the need and desirability for historical accuracy in our games! A rare thing in 1979! This same company, however, then goes on to provide us with a game with an abridged order of battle and no air transport rules. The first I would normally forgive easily, since I am convinced that to produce a game on the Russian Front with units at the division and sub-division levels that is completely true to history is impossible. Anyway, why clutter the board with multitudes of hard to handle Soviet 1-7 infantry units, when they can just as easily be condensed into 4-7s and 5-7s, as was done here, without compromising the broad historicity of the game? The thing that sticks, though, is that OSG seems to be advertising itself as one thing and producing a game that shows that company to be another.

The same consideration also holds true for the lack of air transport rules. For the Germans in particular, this capacity, though limited, proved critical in fighting in the Taman and Crimean Peninsulas. To include it would have required adding another paragraph (or perhaps for these fellows merely a dependent clause) to a rules folder with a lot of available space left. Of course, the air rules in general are the great disgrace of PK; they had already been surpassed when Avalon Hill first brought out Blitzkrieg.

Having so belabored the negative aspects of PK, I would like to explain that the game is still far from bad. I was originally worried that the lack of an across-the board second movement phase would turn PK from a simulation of Blitzkrieg into one of Sitzkrieg. Happily, this isn't so. In a game in which the large majority of units have no ZOCs, and those that do have them have only fluid ones, a line that is not completely solid is quickly revealed to be no line at all. In fact, fluid is al 'most too mild a term to describe the situations depicted on a PK board by the end of most scenarios, a miles-wide melee is more like it.

The dramatic and always sought after SS and Guards units appear in every scenario, and the Luftwaffe is downright ubiquitous. And no matter how desperate the opening situation of one side or the other may seem at the start of play, both sides always possess enough of those behemoth 'fire-brigade' units to pull off local counterattacks. One thing this game does not lack is drama. The battles are surely there - fast, furious, decisive and bloody.

To conclude then, I cannot recommend Panzerkrieg to the neophyte gamer. One bout with its rules manual will leave such players at least frustrated, and more than likely ready to quit the whole hobby. Likewise, neither can I recommend the game to the experienced player with only general historical interests; PK will not serve to provide you with a smooth entry into historical gaming. However, if you, like me, are a true East Front Fanatic, by all means do get this game. For though you, too, will gnash teeth and rend garments in frustration over some of its limitations and omissions, you'll also have a great lot of fun, once more campaigning across that sheer mass of unbelievability that was World Way II in the east.