"Review: Hard Luck Boys and Eisenkreuz (Panzer Korps)" Topic

(Note: I could have sworn there used to be a WWII Product Review forum. In lieu of that, I've decided to put this in the WWII General message board for lack of a better option.)

I am always shocked by the absolute dearth of reviews for the Panzer Korps game system and its many supplements. For a game system that has been around since 2008 and has remained actively supported with a steady stream of new supplements (counting the most recent releases, Panzer Korps sports no fewer than thirty four titles, including army manuals, scenario books and rules supplements), it really is surprising that there isn't more online chatter about the game. To be sure, Panzer Korps has its dedicated coterie of fans, many of whom congregate on the various Groups.io pages dedicated to the game and its supplements (link to one example). But while these groups probably serve these committed communities of fans well, I don't get the sense that their enthusiasm seeps out into the more general fora of the wider wargaming population.

One man who has done a great service towards this end is John Secker, who, some years ago, produced an excellent Youtube series explaining the mechanics of Panzer Korps in great detail. But, in a way at least, the only thing missing from Secker's otherwise comprehensive series is… everything. That's not a knock on John's work, which is as exhaustive as it is lucid. But what I have learned rather quickly from playing several test games at home, the game of Panzer Korps is more than the sum of its parts. Panzer Korps is an operational level game that pits large formations, from a brigade to a division or more per side, in a truly combined arms contest over many square miles of battlefield and potentially many days of tough fighting. True, the game has (for example) a mechanic for resolving fires, but these systems are something of a sideshow. The real measure of the game is the progress your force group makes towards objectives that are of significance for an entire corps or even army. This is progress measured in terms of hours and days and relies upon the coordination of high level assets, reserves, supply and large maneuver. Put another way, to understand Panzer Korps really, you need to play it. (To John's credit, he also has a terrific blog where he showcases some of the battles he has run, giving a much better sense of what Panzer Korps is really like to play.)

I can't match John's efforts, but I think I can make a small contribution by reviewing two products I recently picked up for Panzer Korps. Until now, I have been mostly interested in OPFOR, the modern variant of Panzer Korps, but I decided to get a better sense of the main (WW2) game and towards that end I purchased the most recent scenario book as well as an army handbook. These two types of publications represent the most numerous supplements for the Panzer Korps game. More importantly, the scenarios give a great sense of how the game comes together as a whole and the army manuals provide insight into the scale and scope of the game. And in an odd way, they are complementary products. The scenario books provide prepackaged scenarios to get playing right away, while the army manuals provide a wealth of information to help a player to design his own scenarios.

To organize these two reviews, I will separate them into two different posts (making it easier to skip to the book in which you are more interested). The first post will tackle Eisenkreuz: The Wehrmacht General's Handbook and the second post will address Hard Luck Boys: Battle Scenarios Volume XIII.

Eisenkreuz: Wehrmacht General's Handbook
Clocking in at 411 pages, this massive, phonebook-thick, black and white softcover volume covers the ground forces of the German army during WW2. Importantly, this book is no "army book" or "codex" with point values and army lists. Rather, Eisenkreuz is a deep, deep dive into the history, organization, doctrine and deployment of the forces of the German Army in the Second World War. Written by James M. Poli, the volume covers the organization and reorganization of many formation types over the course of the war. Some of the formations discussed in great detail include command and supply structures, Panzer divisions and brigades, Panzer Lehr, Motorized and Panzergrenadier Divisions, Sturmgeschütz formations, Infantry and Grenadier divisions, Volksgrenadier, Volkssturm, Jäger Divisions, Mountain divisions, Light Afrika divisions, cavalry formations, fortress formations, Ost formations, Luftwaffe Field and Sturm Divisions, various types of airborne troops (Falschirmjäger, Luftlände and Flieger units), Marine divisions, Corps-level formations and assets (including independent artillery, anti-tank, tank destroyers, machine-gun and Flak formations). Even odd-ball units that occasionally and sometimes inadvertently served in theaters of combat (like the Reichsarbeitsdienst and the Deutsche Arbeitsfront) are discussed. The only units obviously missing from Eisenkreuz are the Waffen SS, who get their own separate book.

And when I say that Eisenkreuz covers these formations, what I mean is that organizational charts are included (typically up to the divisional level), compositional tables are provided (described as would be useful for including these units in Panzer Korps, including recommended decorated leaders, decision dice bonuses and morale), major variations and revisions are detailed, operational histories are described and more. In fact, more than 150 Divisions get full write-ups, including combat history, constituent formations, operational deployment timelines, crests and recommended values for decision dice, divisional commander quality and base morale. Those given such detail provide an excellent and representative assortment of the many different mobilization waves, theaters, organization revisions and variations at play in the Wehrmacht over the course of the war.

That is not all that Eisenkreuz provides, however. There is a great overview of the Wehrmacht's tactical doctrine, which reads very much like an actual training manual from the period (mentioning details such as frontage, combat missions, various types of terrain, attack and defense methods and more). There is also a good glossary, for those not familiar with the German technical terms. There is a discussion of various German weapons, including lists of captured equipment (as well as how and where they were used). Game values are given for the German weapon systems and finally there is a bibliography.

For $40 USD USD, Eisenkreuz is a terrific value. It's true, many of the details this volume contains can be found (for free) in resources like the Nafziger collection, yet there is undeniably great utility in having this information collated into a single volume that provides an overview of the many forces of the German army in the Second World War. In fact, one of Eisenkreuz's greatest shortcomings is also one of its advantages. If we were to answer the question, "Do I need this to play German forces in Panzer Korps?", then the answer would almost certainly be "No." Eisenkreuz (and presumably the other army manuals) are not actually required, even slightly, to play Panzer Korps to the fullest. In fact, although there are very useful special rules here or there for handling late-war manpower shortages, ammunition shortages and the relative zeal and training of certain units, surprisingly little of this volume is actually dedicated to Panzer Korps specific game mechanics. Maybe 95% of Eisenkreuz is entirely system agnostic, and if you weren't looking closely, you probably would not notice the Panzer Korps system references in it. Yet, I would strongly recommend this volume to wargamers generally. Whether you want a thick overview that touches on a frankly impressive number of topics, or you are specifically looking for battalion and higher level organizations, or you just want a handy reference volume that can demonstrably show you that "No, you haven't in fact yet learned everything there is to know about the Wehrmacht," then you ought to have this book on your shelf. This volume is great for Panzer Korps players and great for everyone else besides.

There are issues with this work. Eisenkreuz struggles at times with organization (contra expectation, the individual Volksgrenadier divisions are detailed before the Infantry divisions, which chronologically preceded the late-war stopgap Volksgrenadiers). This is also just generally true, given how large a book this is and how many different things it seeks to cover. There is no index, but oddly enough it doesn't feel needed, given the comprehensive table of contents and thematic organization of the book. Some of the inclusions do seem slightly odd, such as the Volkssturm (who, while initially outfitted by the Heer, were actually part of the Nazi apparatus and therefore perhaps belonged in the appendix of the Waffen SS volume). More broadly, the pricing mechanism of the Panzer Korps supplements more broadly is not clear. This work, 441 pages black and white, costs $40. USD Most of the other supplements cost $30 USD, including the relatively "thin" American handbook (91 pages, also black and white; for the record, the average handbook size is 175 pages). I suppose that if we expected the American book to cost a quarter as much as the German volume, we'd probably be looking at a much more expensive German book rather than a necessarily cheaper American book. Still, there is something odd about that.

But this book review deserves to close on the high note the book deserves. Highlights include the strong editing. I found only a few errors, which is more than I can say for the actual Panzer Korps rulebook! While the special rules are few in Eisenkreuz, they all stand out as exemplary, including a really vital rule for Artillerie Kommandeur (ARKO) assets that is so essential for building scenarios that it ought to be released as a freebie PDF to supplement the game. The long sections taking a close look at several famous units (Panzer Lehr, HG Division, DAK) were very welcome, and the special case rules applied here or there were both clever and understated. Finally, the author has done a herculean task in rating 150 odd divisions and their commanders, a somewhat subjective and research-intensive task that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

With all that said, if you are looking for a volume that shows you how a great variety of German forces were deployed and how they were meant to operate, Eisenkreuz should be one of your first stops.

Hard Luck Boys: Battle Scenarios Volume XIII
As the title suggests, Hard Luck Boys (authors credited as Manny Granillo and David Bush) is the thirteenth and latest scenario book for Panzer Korps. Contained within are fourteen different scenarios, including one North Africa battle, two 1940 Battle of France scenarios, three late-war scenarios (armoured spearhead towards Arnhem, early Hürtgen Forest and an elite armoured German counterattack near Dresden in the final days of the war), six Barbarossa scenarios (including Sevastopol 1942) and two early Far East scenarios (Khalkhin Gol 1938 and a scenario from the Sino-Soviet Conflict 1929). To suggest the dynamics of the battles contained within, I will give my thoughts on a small handful of the scenarios included in the book.

As you may have guessed, two of the scenarios are actually just the opening battle of a larger campaign. While you can play Khalkhin Gol ‘38 and Highway to the Reich ‘44 (the Arnhem scenario mentioned above) as single battles, you are ideally meant to use the Panzer Korps Campaigns supplement and the included orders of battle to build out a series of linked engagements that simply begin with these battles. I don't own that supplement so I won't give any further comment on these scenarios other than to say that it is great to see the underappreciated Khalkhin Gol campaign and Zhukov's early experiments with mobile warfare included in this product.

The sole North Africa scenario is Mishap Near Knightsbridge, June 12th, 1942. The battle covers the fighting immediately following Rommel's breakout from the cauldron near the Gazala line, in the vicinity of Tobruk. Piecemeal attacks by the 8th Army have allowed the Desert Fox to take back the initiative, and now the 7th and 1st Armoured Divisions, held in reserve to counter a German breakthrough, are thrown in to blunt the German advance. The scenario is described as being for 2 to 3 players, although it is actually a fairly modest battle, with only 14 battalions on the 8th Army side and 10 on the Afrika Korps side (which is well within the scope of a two player game of Panzer Korps). Oddly, the scenario doesn't try to represent the falling out and mistrust between the two British commanders, Messervy and Lumsden, and I would have liked to see a rule for a 3 player game where there could be two Allied players who were somewhat in competition or at least not entirely supporting of each other. Lack of coordination between units historically cost the Commonwealth forces dearly during the Battle of Gazala and the fractious relationship and lack of trust between Messervy and Lumsden was well noted. Otherwise, the scenario is quite interesting. Unusual for Panzer Korps scenarios, the battle is mostly between armoured units (9 on the British side and 4 on the German, not counting a German armoured car battalion). Moreover, each side has dedicated air support (also unusual) and both sides can make plans to come in on the flanks. Both sides are well-led, particularly the Germans, meaning the scenario will feature highly mobile and resilient forces that fight aggressively (although the lack of German supply could cut that short unexpectedly). Given the open terrain of the scenario, this could lead to quite a strange, swirling battle, with armoured vehicles driving this way and that amidst the roiling dust clouds.

The first of the two Battle of France scenarios is Stand Your Ground!, which covers an allied French and BEF attack on a German bridgehead over the Somme river in late May of 1940, beginning the Battle of the Somme and Fall Rot. The Germans deploy across most of the table and must hold the Somme bridgehead at the very rear of their area and the hill immediately in front of the bridgehead or lose the battle. The Allied forces enter on the far end and must push across the length of the table and capture either of these objectives by the end of the day. This again is a smaller battle, despite being written for 2-3 players. Like the Knightsbridge scenario, Stand Your Ground! Features a split command, at least for the Allied player, except here the friction between the two commands is very well represented. The two task groups on the Allied side are both mixed groups of French and BEF forces and a special rule applies to the scenario where BEF and French formations cannot fire upon the same enemy target. Moreover, each task force is quite small and the Decision Die (representing the coordination of the command staff) is quite poor, being only a Yellow die for each force. As a result, the Allied player will have to retain all (or nearly all) of his decorated leaders in the command staff in order to keep things moving. The downside to this is that the momentum of the Allied ground forces will attenuate quickly with casualties and their ability to fight assaults will be severely diminished. The only hope the Allies have is to move quickly and simply bypass German forces whenever possible, which is facilitated by the composition of the task forces (which each have three British tank battalions, a French horse cavalry battalion, motorized dragoon battalion and a towed howitzer battalion). These forces are more mobile than the German's four motorized infantry battalions, AT battalion, engineer battalion and artillery battalion, and the German player would be wise to hold back his only true armoured unit (an armoured car battalion) as a tactical reserve. The catch is that the German units are hidden all over the map, so a bad move could see an Allied armour unit going out of its way to circumvent a German infantry unit it blundered into. Finally, with the divided firepower of the Allies, there is a real question as to whether they will have enough time to lay down sufficient firepower upon Germans holding the objectives to force them back before the day is done. This seems to be a very steep fight for the Allies, but a very interesting challenge nonetheless.

The second Battle of France scenario is Undefeated, which occurs a little over a week later (on June 6th, 1940) and about 60 miles upstream on the Somme. Dug into the town of Roye, the beleaguered 29th Alpine Division of the French Army, reduced to six infantry battalions, a bicycle battalion and three artillery battalions, finds itself sandwiched between the advancing elements of the German 62nd Infantry Division to the East and a detached mechanized task force of the 3rd Panzer Division from the West. Oddly enough, the German Panzer Kampfgruppe of two tank battalions, a motorized infantry battalion, an armoured car battalion and a towed artillery regiment has seemingly snuck into their positions behind the entrenched Chasseurs, as they deploy hidden at the start of the game. Fortunately for the encircled Frenchmen, relief is on the way in the form of the 1st Armoured Division, with three tank battalions (including a Char B1bis battalion!), a motorized rifle battalion and a towed howitzer battalion. Quite quickly in the scenario, these reservists will smash directly into the Panzer task force at point blank range, as the Panzers' deployment zone effectively overlaps with the path of the incoming French armour. While the French infantry entrenched around Roye might take some pot shots at the Panzers flanks in the open terrain, what is actually likely to happen in this scenario is that the Panzers (hidden in the wheat fields) along with Junker divebombers will ambush the incoming French tanks. In that matchup, only the Char B1bis are likely to weather the relatively light caliber guns of the German Panzer II's, although even here, the brittle nature of the French relief forces makes a recoil off the board quite possible (an outcome that would leave the Alpine troops to sit in their foxholes and wait for the jaws of the German pincer to fall upon them). Perhaps ironically, the French side would probably benefit from being proactive with their defenders around Roye. These troops are relatively well-led, having a moderately-large force (10 battalions) and a solid HQ staff (Red Decision Die). They could send the bicycle battalion East to spoil the advance of the German infantry, while turning their three howitzer battalions on the Panzers to the West (providing they spot the formations successfully). The lack of supply (until the French tanks clear the way) could be a problem, but by the time the ammo starts running low they could have caused some major headaches for the thin German encirclement. Perhaps these mountaineers did not need rescuing after all?

While most of the battles contained within Hard Luck Boys are playable with two players, there are some truly massive clashes here as well. Sebastopol: Rivers of Stone (June 29th, 1942) is one of those battles, allowing for anywhere between four to six players and multiple "game" days of fighting. Truly, this scenario would work well for a grand convention game with an elaborately detailed table (12' x 6', using the default scale of the rules). Many victory conditions are listed, allowing for a complex of potential outcomes. Two entire German infantry divisions are assisted by no fewer than three full Romanian divisions and a host of heavy corps assets in a battle over the infamous besieged port city on the Crimean Peninsula. Defending the rubble are four Soviet Naval Brigades and six Soviet Rifle Divisions, complete with high level assets. The battle for Sevastopol features naval landings, marines, engineers, flamethrowers, barbed wire, mines, miles and miles of urban rubble hell and, of course, nightmarish rail artillery in the 800mm and 600mm caliber.

There are, however, also smaller scenarios that are no less memorable. Perhaps my favorite in the entire volume is the eponymous Hard Luck Boys (November 12th, 1941), one of two scenarios that detail the Italian expeditionary force on the Eastern Front leading up to the disaster at Stalingrad. Hard Luck Boys sees a small but bold Italian task force attempt to rescue comrades that have been cut off by an unexpected Soviet advance as the frigid Russian winter sets in. The Raggruppamento consists of three Bersaglieri battalions supported by a battalion of tankettes, a cavalry battalion, two howitzers battalions, a formation of Blackshirts and some reserve infantry. Facing the Axis relief force is an entire Soviet Rifle Division, the 74th, complete with three full Rifle Regiments (for a total of 9 infantry battalions), three artillery battalions, a Katyusha battalion and a T-26 Tank Battalion.

What is fascinating about this scenario is that it really features no elite units at all. To be sure, the Italians are well-led and mostly rated as regulars on average (the Blackshirts being rated fanatic reservists makes them a particularly interesting unit to field). This makes them a step up from the poorly led and low-morale Soviets who outnumber them, but not all is as it seems here. In order to represent the surprising vigor with which the Soviets held their positions, the scenario assigns them a higher-than-normal number of decorated leaders (you can think of these as medalled heroes and leaders of men who are vital to the useful performance of your infantry and armour). Yet the Soviet player needs to make a hard decision about how to deploy these heroic figures. If they are scattered around the maneuver formations, this will somewhat make up for their overall poor morale and inability to win close assaults which will doubtlessly play a defining role in this battle as the Italians try to force their way through the Soviet encirclement. But this will also make the Soviet command as a whole sluggish and unable to respond quickly to any breakthrough of the line. Conversely, if the decorated leaders are retained for the staff HQ, the Rifle Division will be much more light on its feet as initial orders are actually followed through, but this façade would soon give way as the brittleness of low-morale troops without proper combat leaders reveals itself. Perhaps the best solution is to retain some leaders for the staff HQ and give some units combat leaders, creating a small but effective reserve force that can move quickly and plug gaps, but this also means certain maneuver formations in the line will not have any ground leaders of quality at all and thus there will be invisible weak points in the Soviet line that the Italian player can probe and feel out. Although they are not motorized, the Bersaglieri do get a movement bonus and, together with cavalry, tankettes and steady air support, the well-led and responsive Italian task force could take advantage of these weak points and create a serious problem for the Soviet general.

This review has already gotten rather long but it is difficult for me to understate the degree to which I've left out more than I've kept in. The recurrent feature of all fourteen scenarios in Scenario Book XIII can be summed up as follows: "Movement." Consistent with the operational scale of Panzer Korps, movement and maneuver are king. A successful operation is one that must be kept moving at all costs—every choice, every decision is on the clock and the clock is ticking. Battles that go into subsequent days not only allow for the defender to resupply and take stock, strengthening their position and preparing to contain any gaps created by the attacker during the day, but it also means a general loss of momentum. The number of turns per day segment dwindles and less and less can be accomplished as the advance loses energy and coordination. Hard Luck Boys: Battle Scenario Volume XIII manages to provide fourteen exciting and dynamic conflicts from around the world, covering a span of time from 1929 to 1945. Most importantly, it gets at the heart of the Panzer Korps rules by showcasing how maneuver warfare, coordination of combined armed assets and command of a variety of troop task force groupings define operational warfare. Many of the scenarios lit up my imagination and put me down the dangerous path of trying to figure out which new models I would need to run them. Yet, even if I never have a chance to actually play a scenario from Hard Luck Boys (fingers crossed!), simply reading the briefings and historical synopsis gave me a better sense of how to run my own games, craft my own scenarios and a better idea of the ingredients that go into a great wargame experience on the operational scale.

Fantastic reviews! I think Panzer Korps is the best operational-scale game system I've played. It really rewards proper tactics and planning, and the use of maneuver and combined arms tactics.

Thanks very helpful indeed.

David, Thanks for posting all your insights and comments! We enjoy your reviews and hope to see more in the future. Maybe even on our UDARNA LEJIGA: CROATIAN & SLOVAKIAN General's Handbook among others.

HR GAMES

@HRG I've got Trenchline coming in the mail, so I may indeed do a review for that at some point!

I got Panzer Korps a few years back as it was just the level of rules I was after.

But I found it to be the worst written set of rules I'd ever come across. It was absolutely awful at even getting a basic idea across.

I'd find that a key piece of information would either be buried in a piece of text 20 pages away or not disclosed at all, the latter only being discovered on enquiry to the online discussion group where the author would disclose the information, usually with more confusion.

I actually began to think that the author had dyslexia.

In the end I gave up and binned them.

Not sure if we're talking about the same rules, Battler. I have heard the 1st Edition had a lot of editing problems, but I only own the 2nd Edition so I cannot comment. I will admit that I'm no brilliant mind, but I have to say that I didn't have any trouble with it.

+1 Achtung Minen

Battlerbritai: Thanks for your comments. The 1st edition was unfortunately rushed out as there were a number of personal issues going on at the time. The method I use to create innovative designs also creates fragmented concepts that take time to polish and integrate into the "living rules" which is what I call PANZER KORPS. AS it is not simply a collection of phases, but an integrated machinery under the hood, it was not the best in clarity. The 2nd edition goes a long way to streamline and clear up the concepts. Email us at support@hoplite-research.com and we will sort you out a 2nd edition.

@ACHTUNG MINEN30 TWo key concepts unique to TRENCHLINE are the BARRAGE BLANKET and the COMMAND SECTOR systems. Both are crucial to modeling WWI warfare. Of course GAS is also a component

HR GAMES

Thanks for the offer guys but I'm going to give these rules a miss.

Why would I prefer these to CD2 and OTT? I looked at the website and honestly couldn't tell.

Nine Pound Round--You might want to visit the forum at PANZERKORPS@hopliteresearchgames.groups.io and download some free scenarios, fast play charts and read up as to what PANZER KORPS is all about or join us on FACEBOOK PANZER KORPS DIVISIONAL WARFARE

HR GAMES

@Nine Pound Round, I've been looking at both Command Decision and Panzer Korps recently so I can speak a little to this. Briefly, I would call them very different games to be honest. I've spoken very highly about Command Decision in my other recent thread. Panzer Korps is a divisional game that focuses entirely on the operational scale. You can think of rulesets like like Command Decision and Battlefront WWII as being a "double feature" where you get to command large formations like a field officer but still make micro decisions about tactical issues like a unit leader would. What is the advantage of such games? As another TMP member put it, who doesn't want to be both Gen. Patton and Lt. Audie Murphy at the same time?

Panzer Korps is different in that you are solely making the decisions that a field officer would. You aren't a leader of men, you are a general giving orders down your staff. You see only the big picture and you have only the big picture concerns. You don't make fine decisions about how your platoons or even companies are deployed and how to best take advantage of terrain. The smallest maneuver element is in fact a battalion and the positioning of the component companies does not greatly matter. Your concerns are not questions of weapon rate of fire but rather of ammunition supply. You are not overly concerned with fire, fix and flank but rather how to keep an entire division's advance moving on time with a tight schedule. Panzer Korps purposefully abstracts small unit decisions away from the player's decision making circle so you can actually feel the unique pressures, constraints, exigencies and objectives of operational level decision making.

Thus it is a very different game than Command Decision. Not better or worse, just a very different experience. A single player can easily handle an entire division in Panzer Korps (it's about as much work as a single player handling a reinforced battalion on Command Decision). You can sort of get that "big battle" feel with Command Decision if you have huge multiplayer games (6 per side or more), but only one player (the team leader) is going to get a sense of that. But even then, games like Panzer Korps do this part better because the rules are specifically tailored to emphasis all the nuances that make high level command very different than a lower command level. So if you want to be a General and run actual "battles"… not skirmishes, which is what most wargames actually are… but the actual battles of history books (Stalingrad, Anzio, Salerno, Cassino, Market Garden, Bulge etc.), then you are looking at Panzer Korps.