Mein Panzer

World War II Data Book

by Bill Rutherford

Published by Old Dominion Gameworks, this is actually a set of punched pages designed for insertion into your loose-leaf binder. The WW II Data Book (WW2DB) is 287 pages long, including covers, and provides as complete a body of data as the author could find on the 29 major powers of WW2. OK – some of the powers, e.g., Latvia and Egypt, weren’t considered that major but most of the belligerents you could imagine are there. There are also five pages of notes on using the book and eight pages of WW2-specific special rules such as “funnies”, cave-clearing, human wave attacks, and nation-specific artillery rules.

Each national section includes a brief introduction, i.e., when they entered the war, who their friends were, where they fought, and a couple of paragraphs summarizing their WW2 engagement. As Mein Panzer (MP) uses five troop quality levels (e.g., untrained, regular, elite, etc.), a troop quality table with full game statistics for each quality level comes next.

A cross-reference table shows which types of troops (ski troops, panzer grenadiers, paratroops, etc.) for a given nation can be of what quality levels and an infantry table lists all of the possible troop types, their basic game statistics (before modification based on troop quality), and their weaponry. The meat of each section is the equipment table with full game statistics for each item. WW2DB’s back cover claims that there are over 3,000 pieces of equipment detailed.

I’ve not tried to count them, but when you consider that the Finns have 17 dismounted troop types, 79 (including a variety of captured equipment) vehicle types, and 40 guns (again including captured equipment), it’s quite believable. There are extensive aircraft charts – nine pages for the Germans alone – as well as extensive ordnance tables and even short naval lists for the countries with ships. The last part of each national section is the TO&E, which are quite extensive. Though none of the organization charts go above the battalion level – remember that MP uses the fire-team as its building block – the German section, for example, provides battalion (and independent battery) level organizations for 25 different formations, down to the vehicle and fire-team level.

In summary, what you get is just about as much information as you could possibly need for virtually any country involved in WW2, writ small (i.e., battalions and below) for the Mein Panzer game system. The various charts and tables – equipment and organization - are useful for other rule sets, from the perspectives of equipment mapping (e.g., find equipment common to both sets, study their factors, then extrapolate game system factors from those in this book) and of course, the extensive organization tables. A $34.95, the WW II Data Book isn’t cheap but it’s quite packed with information that will be useful to almost any WW2 gamer. It should be available from your local game shop but if you can’t get it there, go directly to Old Dominion GameWorks at PO Box 1456, Winchester, VA 22604 or visit their website at www.odgw.com (email them at mpanzer@odgw.com). If you do have web access, I strongly encourage a visit to ODGW’s website – it contains tables of contents, nation and chapter overviews, and a fair body of information about all of their products, including the subject book.

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