... And The Next Panzer Battles Takes You To ...

Black blocks are not html malfunctions, they imitate obliterated text from an official document. The text behind the blocks will become visible later this week when any of you answer the question at the end of this blog entry. 

Welcome to my command post. Today I'm in charge of the ██████ Infantry Division and what a tough mission is upon us!

A cropped view of the battlefield. Although this game is at an advanced stage of development, graphics and game play functionality are subject to change. 

Back in 2014, John Tiller Software released the highly successful Panzer Battles Kursk, The Southern Flank, a grand/tactical game at the level between the Squad Battles and the Panzer Campaigns series. This game series runs with an hex (250m/hex)-, IGOUGO turn (30 min/turn)-based engine.

I was lucky enough to be allowed to preview the upcoming installment of Panzer Battles. Thanks to John Tiller (CiC of John Tiller Software), David Freer (Field Marshall of All Things Panzer Battles) and the entire order of battle of artists, scenario designers, researchers, map makers and testers.

Here comes the second installment of the Panzer Battles series, and it is choke-full of content and war gaming goodies. The game engine fits like a glove for the next particular spot in military history.

What follows is an AAR of the in-development game (graphics and game features are subject to change). Let's start with an overall view of the battlefield.

Right click and open in a separate window for a better/expanded view. The light blue boxes are objectives and their victory values.

The ridge south holds the most valuable objective, the town of █████████. With two infantry brigades, I will have to push through the German defenses. The Germans have deployed in depth, "typical of German military thinking and destined to cause major problems for the attacker" as one military historian put it. My troops, eager for combat but lacking the shock required for this mission are like a hammer trying to cut through a foot-deep sponge.

So my plan is to put as much weight on the enemy defensive line, to break it by expanding from local points of rupture and trying to keep up with the main axis of advance.

This is the attack plan. The objectives are circles and the main axis of attack are the yellow lines. Note that this map is the same screenshot shown above, made black and white (for emphasis on the plan) and edited with a third party software.

After thinking about my attack plan, I came out with a plan that is quite remarkably close to the historical one. On the west flank, the █████████ Infantry Regiment, on the center and kind of peeling out from the previously mentioned formation, the famous █████████ will push towards the main objective. Our armor attachments, from the █████████ and the █████████ are just barely enough to push through, so I will keep them near the center of our attack line. On our east flank, the █████████ Infantry Regiment from the █████████ Brigade. It will be later reinforced by the █████████ Infantry Regiment.

Can you guess where and when is this scenario and thereby the next Panzer Battles title? Comment below, please!

The location of the next Panzer Battles title is not a secret anymore, you can find that if you search the web or if you have been following David Freer's comments at a very popular war gaming hang out.

Stay tuned for the next installment, coming very soon.

Cheers,