The Competition & Teaser Thread

[rhill1956]

OOB is showing 24 Tiger 1 tanks; only time I remember reading about this unit having this many Tigers is during the Ardennes offensive, and the fortifications could be from the Seigfried Line in December 1944; so my guess is Panzer Battle: Ardennes, but the uniforms on the counters are SS summer and not winter; so the only other logic is Italy in '43 or '44.

[Compass Rose]

[Liebchen]

I don't see the issue with allowing downloads of the manual; anti-piracy concerns don't make sense, because surely if someone is going to pirate the game they will pirate the manual as well?

Agree. You can download lots of board game manuals for free, but without
the game, maps and counts, it's just bathroom reading material till you buy the game

This is not really (or only) for marketing. It is so that when someone schedules a game, the session is not spent largely reading the rules.

[Aaron]

OOB is showing 24 Tiger 1 tanks; only time I remember reading about this unit having this many Tigers is during the Ardennes offensive, and the fortifications could be from the Seigfried Line in December 1944; so my guess is Panzer Battle: Ardennes, but the uniforms on the counters are SS summer and not winter; so the only other logic is Italy in '43 or '44.

That would be TO&E of the unit, it doesnt show how many tanks would be in that unit in each scenario, just the max that it could have.

Aaron

[Tide1]

OOB is showing 24 Tiger 1 tanks; only time I remember reading about this unit having this many Tigers is during the Ardennes offensive, and the fortifications could be from the Seigfried Line in December 1944; so my guess is Panzer Battle: Ardennes, but the uniforms on the counters are SS summer and not winter; so the only other logic is Italy in '43 or '44.

You missed Kursk

[rzhev42]

The graphics on the first page of this thread shows 2 rows of the same side graphics with slightly different art as stated below:

The fourth clue is counter art. There are three types of counter art included in game with a slot for modders. We have used that slot to put some top down counters in game. Counter art can be changed in game on the fly. You can also see the second set of side graphics that are included with a units 'transport' in the corner rather than behind the soldier. The counters shown have Divisional Markings on.

That being said there is only a 12 Tiger 1's shown in the unit as the second side graphic is a duplicate.

Michael

[Richie61]

Panzer Battles does fall between them but is probably closer to Squad Battles with the added bonus that armour & other arms are well represented. The scale keeps it playable and it will be a great series for tournaments and PBEM's. There is also enough PzC DNA in the game for it to feel familiar but also enough innovations that there is some different twists in playing it.

David,

Granted I don't own it yet, but I see way more PzC in PB then SB from what I see (graphics) and have read so far. The combining and breaking down of units is completely new to me. I have read about PzC but I own at the SB titles, so the talk about Arty & air power usage are over my head since I don't play PzC or whatever the WWI game is.

Here's one for you. How is ammo handled? Example: Does an infantry platoon have unlimited Panzerfausts? In SB I can have a few and need to old fire/ conceal a unit till a T-34 drives by to fire off my one or two Panzerfausts and hope for a kill?

Also, how does PB handle Panzerfaust equipped platoons? The game is 250m per hex, yet the Panzerfaust has ranges of 30, 60, 80 and 50meters? I am guessing that the tank platoon would have to enter into my hex and then a type of abstract calculations would be performed? Some type of melee type combat?

[Strela]

Panzer Battles does fall between them but is probably closer to Squad Battles with the added bonus that armour & other arms are well represented. The scale keeps it playable and it will be a great series for tournaments and PBEM's. There is also enough PzC DNA in the game for it to feel familiar but also enough innovations that there is some different twists in playing it.

David,

Granted I don't own it yet, but I see way more PzC in PB then SB from what I see (graphics) and have read so far. The combining and breaking down of units is completely new to me. I have read about PzC but I own at the SB titles, so the talk about Arty & air power usage are over my head since I don't play PzC or whatever the WWI game is.

Here's one for you. How is ammo handled? Example: Does an infantry platoon have unlimited Panzerfausts? In SB I can have a few and need to old fire/ conceal a unit till a T-34 drives by to fire off my one or two Panzerfausts and hope for a kill?

Also, how does PB handle Panzerfaust equipped platoons? The game is 250m per hex, yet the Panzerfaust has ranges of 30, 60, 80 and 50meters? I am guessing that the tank platoon would have to enter into my hex and then a type of abstract calculations would be performed? Some type of melee type combat?

Richie,

Sorry, let me clarify. When I say its closer to SqB I am referring to 'focus'. What do I mean? The tasks are simpler than PzC in that it is based on a daily engagement and will usually be something of the order of clear that hill, cross that river, capture that town etc. PzC has a different feel as it is usually a number of days strung together with an 'operational' feel with larger units, more complex logistics etc. The game system is definitely based on PzC with some features as mentioned from SqB. A lot of the play testers are from here at the Blitz and they'll confirm that it has a different feel to PzC's though.

As far as ammo, there has been some simplification from PzC. Units can be setup in a low ammo state in the scenario but will not go low ammo during the game. At a grand tactical scale of platoon/company and up to a day its assumed that units that don't start low ammo have a standard combat load. This was initially bought in because of the way isolation worked and the logic decided based on the battle covered in this first title. I expect we will do more work on this aspect in future title where supply issues are more of a central issue.

Referring to your Panzerfaust questions, Panzerfausts are built into the hard attack value and given a range of 1. It could be argued that with a 250 meter hex that is too long, but the unit one hex away is anywhere from 0 - 250 meters away. It could have been in the assault value (in hex melee value) but that means it has an effect on all units (including infantry) and that's not correct. It's worked ok in play testing.

David

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

Standard combat load was something along the lines of 180 rounds, which could be fired rather quickly in heavy combat. Going abstractly though, I see it covering the fact that in ww2, many a soldier carried several bandoleers of ammo in addition to what they already carried and the same goes for more modern as it was and is not unheard of soldiers carrying extra magazines. I'm wondering if maybe it might not be better to look at supply here just like PzCs having the option of explicit supply, but figure the length of scenario should be the deciding factor. If the time frame is a couple hours or even several hours, supply would rarely be the issue vs a scenario that would cover more than at least 12 hrs to a full day or more.

One thing to consider ifit hasn't is the fact that ammo checks were made after every action and more distributed if on hand and enough time to do so before the fight started all over again. That was one of our SOPs both times I served, although I didn't have to find out about it in combat. Even in training, there were times that not all in the same platoon or company even fired a round depending on terrain and location to the enemy leaving some units and parts of units that didn't need the resupply. So, I can see where you are coming from with the supply as it is now.

What is the time length of the smallest and longest scenarios?

[Strela]

What is the time length of the smallest and longest scenarios?

Shortest is 5 turns, the longest is 38.

Over half (36 scenarios) are 20 turns or less. A further 18 are in the 20 - 30 turn range. Only 6 are over 30 turns.

David