Stripped Down for Parts: Panzer Battles: 11th Panzer on the Chir River

  

  

I've recently been on a second-hand game binge, and as I’ve raised elsewhere on this blog, it never ceases to amaze me how many of these have reentered the wargame /commerce ecosystem unpunched. Occasionally, they've still been shrouded in their original shrink (like the copy of Waterloo, 1815: Fallen Eagles II (Hexasim, 2022) that came with the one I’m looking at today), but a lot of the time somebody has received the game, taken everything out an examined it, maybe read though the rules, then boxed it up again, never to play it.

Panzer Battles: 11^th Panzer on the Chir River (Multi-Man Publishing/The Gamers, 2016) was another one like this. On the outside it looks a little more second-hand than some (the box lid looks pretty good, just a little dishing, but there’s a significant compression wrinkle running from the bottom corner for about four inches on the bucket-half; as I’ve said before, that doesn’t concern me too much, so long as the stuff inside is fine, which you’ll soon see, is the case).

This has been a month of firsts. Panzer Battles came in the same bundle as Somalia: Interventions (Schutze Games, 1998), which I unpacked here. That was my first Schutze game, and it was my first ever Blue Panther-produced game. This isn’t my first Multi-Man Publishing game (that appellation goes to Lincoln’s War (MMP, 2013)), but Panzer Battles is my first Standard Combat Series (SCS) game. This is a series with some longevity (Panzer Battles is the 19^th instalment). According to Boardgamegeek, there are 27 volumes in total, although several games making up this count are second editions covering the same situation, like Ardennes II (MMP/The Gamers, 2023). I don’t know if this was the best place to start, but this one was available, and the price was right.

Panzer Battles is also my first wargame designed by Dean Essig. Mr Essig passed away in 2024, and his loss was felt throughout the greater wargaming community. He laid the groundwork for not only the SCS series, but seven other series rules-sets as well. An extraordinarily prolific designer and artist 95 citations on BGG), Mr Essig was a CSR/Clauswitz Hall of Famer and earned a clutch of awards for both his design and artistic contributions to the hobby. I never corresponded with Mr Essig, but many people I respect in the hobby held a lot of respect for the designer and warmth for the man. He will be remembered fondly.

Panzer Battles cover art. The guy in front of the Panzer III looks
too short to be a Stormtrooper.

The cover leaves no doubt as to what you can expect here. German infantry on the move through a snowy plain, in support of a Panzer III in the middle ground, all heading toward the smoke. Some folks complained about what they thought was the use of AI art on the cover of Ardennes II. I don’t know for a fact, but to me this looks more like some Photoshop work from an original black and white photograph, circa ’41 or ’42. The image is clear and evocative. The cove also features the 11^th Panzer’s crest. I get the gratuitous use of some symbology of national socialism is anathema (and it is often gratuitous, used on the premise that any publicity is good publicity), but I really don’t have a problem with this kind of graphic use any more than I would the Desert Rat insignia, the LRDG's Scorpion stencil, or the Big Red One patch in a similar situation.

Box back.

I’m by no means an expert on the Eastern Front, so please forgive me if I overlook or ignore any crucial details here, but here’s a thumbnail of the situation. The 11^th Panzer was fresh to the Eastern Front and at full compliment when it was assigned to be part of the attempt to relive the encircled elements of Army Group South near Stalingrad. Running into a major Soviet advance, the division conducted “a text-book example of a mobile defense and counter attack which is studied to this day,” managing to “defeat the Soviet mechanized drive,” but at the cost of relieving the pressure on the trapped divisions, who succumbed to the overwhelming weight of the Russian impress.

The game description on the back of the box is written for someone with more of a background in this chapter of military history than I possess, but a Dean Essig game isn’t for the faint of heart.

The Series rules - A head-start on learning other SCS games.

I’m really impressed with the quality of the paper used for the rulebooks, it’s a stiff (I’m guessing about 100-120gsm), matte paper with a nice texture that will take pencil notations really well (not something I’d ever insist on in a game but appreciated nonetheless).

I need to spend some more time on this, but the series rules (version 1.8) seem to be quite straight forward and coherent (which, by the nineteenth game in a series, you’d kind of expect them to be), and tight; at a mere eight pages (with graphical examples). Even though the publisher rates the solitaire play at moderate, I can’t see any reason why Panzer battles shouldn’t run quite smoothly with two-handed play.

Let's get down to specifics: the Panzer Battles Exclusive rules.

The twelve-page Exclusive Rulebook for Panzer Battle breaks down into roughly four pages of exclusive rules and designer’s notes, Six pages covering the game’s four scenarios, and a page of notes on the two sides’ Orders of Battle (for chit-draw activation). The back cover fills the role of a Player Aid Card, providing the game’s Combat Results Table, Terrain Effects Chart, Kill Roll instructions and a reminder note covering the Artillery DG Roll rule. I’ll probably photocopy and sleeve this for ease of use at the table.

There’s a big distance between the two shorter one-map scenarios (“State Farm 79” and “I’ll Be Balck” both played on Map-B), at just two turns each, and the full Panzer Battles campaign (which is still only six turns. I may have missed it, but I’m not quite sure what the turn duration scale is. The six-turn campaign game covers fourteen calendar days of action. The Containment Battles scenario, reflecting six calendar days of action, also runs for six turns. So, I think the duration for a turn is a little abstract. I’ll be interested to investigate other SCS games to see how this is handled.

The breakdown of forces on each side is authoritative. MMP/The Gamers have a reputation for solid research on Orders of Battle, and it’s borne out here in the unit breakdown. As mentioned, the rules use a chit draw activation system which activates a large set of units (for the Germans, either the motivated and well-led 11^th Panzer division or all the other units not attached to the 11^th Panzer; for the soviets, either the 1^st Tank/5^th Mechanised division, All Infantry/Cavalry, “All Units”, or Air Support. The unit scale is primarily company-sized (some battalions among the Soviet units). I starting to see how a two-turn game could take more time to play out than I first anticipated.

A lot of ground to cover: the two adjoining maps. I always appreciate when the terrain
legend and turn track are both incorporated into the map-sheet.

Panzer Battles comes with two 22” by34” maps which meet on a long edge to make a 34” by 43” (you lose about three-quarters of an inch with the overlap) area for the two larger scenarios, the Campaign scenario of seven turns, and Containment Battles, which runs to six turns. The game also comes with two smaller, shorter scenarios which only require Map B, and run over two turns each.

The maps are nicely drafted and fit for purpose. The background colour is a creamed butter, or a couple of shades lighter (if you doubt me, compare one to the stark white verso of the other). I don’t know snow, having never lived anywhere snowy, but the action takes place in December, so this is an appropriate colour choice without going blindingly white. The roads, trails and rail tracks are clearly marked, and the few elevated points marked with red triangles noting the peak altitude points.

Flawless registration, not cleanliness, is next to Godliness.

The game come with a single full sheet of 1/2” (a touch above 12.5mm) counters, not my preferred size, but they are well laid out and mostly quite readable, although I’ll need reading glasses for the formation details (perpendicular to the unit symbol on the right, in about 3-pica).The colour variance is good between the formations; the German greys are easily differentiated, while the 11^th Panzer – the workhorses of the German activity, have an identifying horizontal stripe. The Soviet forces are equally clearly identified, with the traditional tan variations for regular army and red for Guards units. Both sides have high quotients (around a quarter of their overall unit counts each) with mechanised movement ratings (12 MPs to leg units’ 6), making for a more dynamic battlefield situation.

The counters are printed on a reasonable thickness white-core card-stock. The sheet is warping a little, but that could be from the environment the game had been stored in before it moved to Adelaide (decidedly less humid than, say, Brisbane). The registration of the counters is spot-on. I cannot trace any bleed either side where the counters’ background colour changes mid-row. This is rarely an issue these days with a lot of games I see being pre-rounded easy-punch boards with a clear delimitation between counters, but it’s tougher to get perfect with traditional die-cut sheets. Hats-off to the production team.

Dice and a kind note.

Finally, Panzer Battles comes with two six-sided dice, one white, one green, and a small, printed message exclusive to the game, but presumably common to all MMP products. The note explains that the company is committed to producing quality games, and should the purchaser have any issues with the product in their hands, they should contact MMP directly via the various means of communication listed on the note, along with a list of the components that should be present in the box.

I've received excellent service from a couple of game publishers when problems have arisen, but this is a proactive cut above the others, and the publisher should be applauded for their foresight and commitment to service.

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From the little time I’ve spent with Panzer Battles, it looks like it will make a good introduction to the SCS system, and as I've already mentioned, should be comfortably solo-able. It’s the very beginning of the year, and I haven’t made any plans for what to get to first (except for the Commands and Colors: Medieval - Crusades Expansion (GMT, 2024) that I want to review before the end of the month. If I can clear an afternoon, and the wife doesn’t need her sewing table, I’ll try to get one of the short scenarios done and write up an AAR. Better get clipping.