Panzergruppe Guderian (game)

During Operation Barbarossa, Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Second Panzer Group led by Generaloberst Heinz Guderian attempted to encircle Russian forces at Smolensk.

During either movement phase he may conduct overruns (attacks at half strength, using only units which began the turn in the same hex - scattering the regiments of a German division on an adverse combat result is therefore a key Soviet tactic).

German panzer and motorised infantry divisions consist of several regiments, whose combat strength is doubled ("divisional integrity") if all units are stacked together.

The German player has to decide how much strength to devote to reducing surrounded pockets of Soviet troops and how much to push on to conquer fresh objectives.

After TSR took over SPI in 1982, it sold the rights to Panzergruppe Guderian to Avalon Hill, which published a new edition of the game in 1984.

PGG is a great game, however, as the system allows a realistic simulation of Blitzkrieg as well as tenacious resistance, both ahead of and to the rear of the Panzer Spearheads!"

"[6] In Issue 7 of Phoenix (May–June 1977), Graham Wheatly found that the three-color mapsheet was "a pleasure to behold", and he also complimented the graphic designer for not adding extraneous tables and charts to the map.

He found the "system of untried units is a novel and interesting way to handle the qualitative differences between the German and Russian organizations during the period."

[9] In the inaugural issue of SPI Revival, Ted Kim noted that the map was not geographically accurate, commenting that "it is clear distances are distorted from reality."

However, he noted that the game "skillfully combined [various] elements to produce an exciting, fun and playable system that was not overly complex."