John Tiller's Campaign Series exemplifies tactical war-gaming at its finest by bringing you the entire collection of TalonSoft's award-winning campaign series. Containing TalonSoft's West Front, East Front, and Rising Sun platoon-level combat series, as well as all of the official add-ons and expansion packs, the Matrix Edition allows players to dictate the events of World War II from the tumultuous beginning to its climatic conclusion. We are working together with original programmer John Tiller to bring you this updated edition.
ODE TO PANZERBLITZ VI - THE BATTLE OF ARRACOURT ET AL.
Time for a new set of scenarios, this time for West Front. Download link available in the Opening Post!
DESIGN NOTES FOR SCENARIOS IN ODE TO PANZER LEADER VI
By Alan R. Arvold
And now we come to the end of the conversion of Panzer Leader scenarios to the West Front computer game. In this set are various scenarios from the General Magazine. There is no central theme to them as the come from various articles.
These articles were “The Battle of Arracourt; New Scenarios for Panzer Leader” by myself in the General Vol.28. #4; “Operation Rescue: Panzer Leader Situation 31-6” by F. Pierce Eichelberger in the General Vol.31, #6; “Tournament Scenarios for Panzer Leader” by Bill Scott in the General Vol.31, #4; “The Red Ball Express: Logistics in Panzer Leader” by Elwood Carlson in the General Vol.14, #1, and “Situation 207” by Roy Easton in the General Vol.9, #3.
Note that there is a break in the numbering sequence of the scenarios. This is due to the missing scenarios being in another set that were created at a later time after this set was posted. The two higher numbered scenarios are ones which were created later and more properly belong to this set than the later one. As with the previous articles in this series, all original Panzer Leader scenarios were converted to the same standards as set forth in the Design Notes for the “Ode to Panzer Leader” series.
As it happens, this AH General issue was one of the first I got my hands on, and since then the Battle of Arracourt has sort of had a special place in my mind. For that reason I am quoting the full introduction Alan wrote at the time to introduce to us these situations:
And this is it, for now. Next weekend I am spending Christmas at my brothers, happily of the grid for a few days. More scenarios from Alan Arvold's "Ode To" collections to follow in 2016!
All work makes everyone a dull boy, but with the working week behind, here's the latest addition of Alan's fine work on Panzer Leader Situation conversions for everyone to enjoy (download link in the opening post).
ODE TO PANZER LEADER VII - BATTLES IN GERMANY 1948
Design Note from Alan R. Arvold:
Ode to Panzer Leader VII contains five scenarios from two articles by Roy Easton from the General magazine (Vol 12-2 and 13-5) depicting clashes between the Soviets and the Western Allies, both at the end of the war in 1945 and also during the Berlin Airlift of 1948.
These were not possible to duplicate until the later versions of the MCS allowed for prewar and postwar scenarios.
Terrific stuff here, thank-you for sharing. I've been thinking of attempting some scenario conversions of my own but these will keep me busy for a while.
There's a simple answer to every complex question - and it's wrong.
-Umberto Eco
Back to East Front and Panzerblitz situations, in what is one of my true favorites: PANSSARI SALAMA. Panssari Salama, of course, is Panzerblitz, ie. Tank Lightning in Finnish, and it makes no more sense there as when written in English.
Regardless, included in this scenario set are ten fine situations covering the Russo-Finnish war, including Winter War (1939-1940) and Continuation War (1941-1944) battles.
Scenario Set download link available in the opening post. Again my thanks to Alan for sharing his work with us [:)]
From Alan's Design Notes:
DESIGN NOTES FOR PANSSARI SALAMA, By Alan R. Arvold
Panssari Salama was a Panzerblitz variant published in Grenadier Magazine #21 back in 1984. It brought Panzerblitz to the Russo-Finnish Wars and the author was Michael Benninghof. The article was unique in that not only did it introduce new counters into the Panzerblitz mix but also presented ten fully developed scenarios in the standard Panzerblitz format. Yet for all of its achievements, the article was also full of flaws. Some of these were from the source material that Bennighof was using (we were still in the Cold War era and much source material that had to do with the Russians was still laced with mis-information). Others were based on several false assumptions that Benninghof made at the time. This has made it difficult to convert the Panzerblitz scenarios to East Front. In this case these scenarios are not directly convertible as has been the case with previous conversions of Panzerblitz to East Front. Certain changes had to be made to make them convertible.
Panzerblitz Hill of Death and Carentan - 12 Scenarios
Back to the West Front and Normandy! This time we're presenting Alan's conversion of the Panzerblitz Hill of Death boardgame, depicting the battle for Hill 112 between the Nazi and Commonwealth forces. In addition covered in this scenario set are the Carentan scenarios of Panzerblitz Carentan, a game add-on made available separately.
DESIGN NOTES FOR PANZERBLITZ: HILL OF DEATH By Alan R. Arvold
Back in 2009, the wargame “Panzerblitz: Hill of Death” was published and released to the public. Advertised as the direct next generation descendent of the original Panzerblitz
it was in reality a very distant descendent as many generations of tactical armored warfare games had come and gone in the 39 years between the release of both games.
Having played the game I found that it did have some of the flavor of the original game, but it was updated with more advanced game mechanics that have evolved over the past forty years. Still it was a nice experience and almost immediately I started converting it to the Talonsoft Campaign Series of computer games. One would wonder, shouldn’t this be Panzer Leader as the scenarios in the game occur in the Western Front as Panzerblitz deals with scenarios on the Eastern Front. Well normally yes but the new publisher, Multi-Man Publishing, has decided to use the name Panzerblitz for both fronts, plus any new ones that they may get into in future releases. Never-the–less since the scenarios in the new game occur on the Western Front, I must convert them to West Front game.
As usual, the download package contains a thorough Design Note, of which only the Abstract is copied above. Enjoy! [:)]
Into the final three scenarios sets! Three, he says? Yes, Alan's got a little surprise on his sleeve in a form of ten additional situation conversions, included here under the title of East Front Bonus Set. Hooray for Alan!
Ode to Panzerblitz - Tactical Game 3 (6 Scenarios)
From design notes:
TACTICAL GAME #3 DESIGN NOTES By Alan R. Arvold
Many wargames have their origins from somewhere and the game of Panzerblitz is no exception. It just didn't appear in the fall of 1970 out of nowhere, it came from another game, a test game mind you, but a game never-the-less. Many players are ignorant of the story of its origins. So here is the short history of it.
Back in 1968 one James Dunnigan, basking in the success of game Jutland where he converted naval miniatures to a boardgame format, decided to do it again, this time with AFV miniatures. He chose the Eastern Front in 1944 as his back drop since that time period had plenty of different tanks and assault guns to use on both sides. The playtest game he designed for this was named State Farm 69. The game had counters representing single tanks or anti-tank guns and could be played on a tabletop or the floor, much the same way as Jutland was played. The game was simple and fun to play but Dunnigan wanted to take it further. Pretty soon one of the play testers at Poultron Press where Dunnigan worked came up with a conversion to play the game on a hexigon wargame map. Dunnigan liked the idea and as his wont, adopted the idea as his own and soon expanded the simple game, adding infantry squads, terrain to the map, weather effects, off and on the board artillery, and much more. Within six months the game, which he renamed Highway 61, became a monstrosity which became just about impossible to play as it was so complex. It had become the Advance Squad Leader of its day in a time when wargame play mechanics did not allow games at that tactical level to be played. So Dunnigan had to start over again.
It was now 1969 and Dunnigan still wanted convert miniature land battles to a boardgame format, indeed he had started a series of test games to cover land warfare in many different eras of history. These were not end products in themselves, they were mere vehicles to test out various ideas from which proper games could be designed and developed from the results of these test games. The difference with these games was that they were sent out to play testers all across the country, instead of being confined to within house. Tactical Game #3 was Dunnigan's test game for armored warfare on the Eastern Front in 1944. It had simple rules and more importantly, six scenarios to play out. In order to keep it simple, Dunnigan had to raise the tactical level to the platoon/company level. As a result, many new ideas came into Poultron Press for it and Dunnigan was able to develop a proper game from them from which the end result would be Panzerblitz. As he was developing it, Avalon Hill expressed interest in publishing it in the fall of 1970. Dunnigan made a deal with them where he would complete the game and then deliver it to them. This he did, the game premiered in October 1970, and the rest is history.
Panzerblitz is considered to be the patriarch of all tactical armored warfare games ever made in the wargaming hobby/business. The video game East Front has been considered to be the ultimate expression of Panzerblitz in a computer game. This makes sense considering that James Dunnigan was on the original design team for East Front back in the late Nineties. As such, I have paid homage to the original Panzerblitz by converting the original scenarios from the game, as well as those from the various articles published in the Avalon Hill General magazine, to East Front over the years. Having completed this long task I then decided to pay homage to the father of Panzerblitz, the test game Tactical Game 3.
The mapsheet is rather sparse when it comes to terrain. The Orders of Battle are fictional, with the unit designations being made up. The scenarios do not depict historical battles. Rather they depict common tactical situations that both sides encountered during the time period in question. So what good are these scenarios in East Front? Well they are far more simpler than even the Boot Camp scenarios and would be a way to introduce a player new to the campaign system to the game.
Okay, these scenarios are not much to write home about. But besides being introductory in nature, they help preserve another piece of wargaming history for future players.
Ode to Panzerblitz - Tournament Scenarios (4 scenarios)
Includes the following four Panzerblitz tournament scenarios:
T1: A Meeting Engagement
Alan R. Arvold
18 June, 1944
A Meeting Engagement: A Russian Guards mechanized force encounters a German kampfgruppe somewhere in the open steppes of the Ukraine.
T2: Another Meeting Engagement
Alan R. Arvold
17 October, 1944
Another Meeting Engagement: A Russian mechanized force encounters a German kampfgruppe somewhere in the hills of eastern Hungary.
T3a: A Little Fight in the Woods I
Alan R. Arvold
25 April, 1945
A Little Fight in the Woods I: Reinforced infantry forces from both the Russian and German armies battle for control for a section of woods in eastern Austria, with the Russians on the attack.
T3b: A Little Fight in the Woods II
Alan R. Arvold
25 April, 1945
A Little Fight in the Woods II: Reinforced infantry forces of both the Russian and German armies battle for control of a section of woods in eastern Austria, with the Germans counterattacking the recently implaced Russians.
Ode to Panzerblitz - East Front Bonus Set (10 Scenarios)
As described in an email from Alan:
This East Front scenario set contains ten scenarios which were originally made for Panzerblitz, either for the Imaginative Strategists website or the WBC Panzerblitz tournament, by other authors. With their permission I converted them to East Front and posted them on Games Depot years ago. Although I converted them, I put the original authors names as the designers in the scenarios.
One scenario, Arvold's Honor, deserves comment. It is based on a real battle (or raid in this case) but the original author substituted my name for the real German commander's name, more or less as a tribute to me. I went along with it because of the tendency for gamers of my generation to insert their names into created scenarios of the Second World War as a way to place themselves in that period of history.
The Imaginative Strategist Scenario Page referred above is available HERE. Do visit it for additional information on these scenarios!
These three scenario sets complete the work Alan's done in saving wargaming history into electronic format under the JTCS games of East Front, West Front, and Rising Sun.
It has been a priviledge to assist Alan in saving these scenarios for wargamers, now under The Blitz Wargaming Club's scenario database, after the demise of Gaming Depot game database. I've not only had a chance to revisit all these game situations from the Avalon Hill game boxes and Avalon Hill GENERAL articles, but also have had a chance to enjoy Alan's narrative as how all these classics game together from late 1960s forward.
All this represents a huge effort by Alan, and I humbly thank him for all this. It is something words fail me to represent here, so I just say this: Thank you ever so much Alan. [&o]
For the JTCS community, I do hope you enjoy all these scenarios not only as something new to play, but faithful representations from an era where they represented an absolute state of art as far as wargaming was concerned.
This is it, and what a ride it's been. Enjoy!
All the download links are in the opening post, HERE.
