2024 RELEASES
Panzerschreck #20
Dogfight! 1939-40
PANZERSCHRECK #20 contains a lot of wargaming articles and reviews, along with two World War II wargames. This edition of our award-winning magazine is 102 color pages of good old-fashioned gaming content. See table of contents box below. Panzerschreck #17 to #19 back issues still available.
GOTTERDAMMARUNG BERLIN 1945 is a two-player, tactical, hexagon wargame based on the fighting in Berlin during the final days of the Reich, April 1945. The game system is classic, utilizing a simple sequence of play (I go/you go) that emphasizes high playability in simulating combat situations featuring infantry units. Units (squad level) represent German Regular 1st line, SS, Green 2nd line, Volkssturm, and Hitlerjugend, and Russian Regular 1st line, and Guards formations, plus individually named and rated leaders. Units are rated for attack, defense, and morale. The game comes with three small maps, 119 units and markers, four scenarios, and rules and reference material. (See samples of map and counters, below.) You will need to scan the game components (from the pages of the book, or PDF) and print before play. This is the first title in Minden's new 501 Series, offering a classic design with scenarios that can be played in half and hour.
ADRIFT IN THE PACIFIC is a solitaire game of survival. Your USAAF bomber has been shot down on the way home after a bombing mission. You are cast in the role of the highest ranking survivor in rubber life rafts, and must manage resources and morale until (hopefully) rescue comes. Each game turn represents one day; the game lasts until you are rescued, or everyone in your party dies. There is some strategy involved with managing your supplies and dealing with random events, but there's only so much one can do in a situation like this. Water, food, flares, rain, sharks, Japanese strafing encounters, catching fish, battling exposure to the sun, capsizes, managing discipline and morale, mental and physical incapacitation, and more can and will confront you. In the end your survival will come down to luck or fate or providence, and perhaps the best you can hope to do is your duty, and "play the man" in spite of circumstances. Seven pages of rules and game tables are provided; you provide paper and pencil, a single d6, and a standard deck of playing cards to play.
Panzerschreck aims to provide you with an interesting read and connect you to the current hobby through reviews, variants, articles, and games. Order your copy today.
PANZERSCHRECK stresses classic boardgaming fun, written by wargamers, for wargamers. Order your copy today, in physical book format, or electronic PDF format. Each 6"x 9" full-color issue is loaded with tons of gaming content... great bang-for-your-buck wargaming fun.
CONTENTS OF ISSUE #20
Opening Rounds -- Editor
Getting to the Roots of Your Hobby -- Ty Bomba
Series in the Mainstream -- Jim Werbaneth
Lessons Learned -- Hans Korting
Weltkrieg 1914: First Look -- Bob Flood
U-Boat Captain: Italian Variant -- Gary Graber
Game Reviews: Robert G. Smith, Review Editor; & David Newport
Watch on the Oder (Decision)
Weltkrieg 1914 (Minden)
1941: Race to Moscow (Phalanx)
French & Indian Wars (Two Buck)
Slerno '43 (GMT)
El Alamein (SPI)
Imperial Struggle (GMT)
Der Tag 1916 (Minden)
1944: Battle of the Bulge (Worthington)
North Africa '41 (GMT)
Italian-Ottoman War (Decision)
Moscow Campaign (SPI)
1944: D-Day to the Rhine (Worthington)
Kursk: The Tigers are Burning (GMT)
Battle of Taierzhuang (Decision)
ISSUE GAME: Gotterdammerung Berlin 1945
MINI-SIM GAME: Adrift in the Pacific
Short Takes -- Brad Shatner
Dispatches From the Front -- Editor
The Last Word -- Editor
Editor & Game Designer: Gary Graber
PLANES INCLUDED
British
Spitfire I
Hurricane I
Battle
Gladiator
Lysander
Bleinheim IV
Defiant
German
Me-109E
Me-110C
Ju-87D
Hs-123
He-111H
French
MS-406
MB-152
D-520
Potex 631
LeO-451
Belgians
Fairey Fox II
Renard R-31
Poles
P.Z.L. P-11c
Italians
MC-200
CR-42
Ba-65
SM-79
DOGFIGHT! 1939-40 is the latest game using our Battle over Britain game system simulating single plane dogfights. The Dogfight! series will eventually consist of three volumes, to cover all of World War II. The current volume covers the early war years in Europe, with planes from Great Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland, and Italy represented. The game system is unchanged from the Battle over Britain games. So, why this new volume?
Dogfight! has been made more accessible and inexpensive, and basically unifies the BoB card game system. First of all, the game book is now 100 color pages. It contains all standard and optional rules, plus solitaire rules, plus rules governing medium and heavy bombers, and several capmaign games. Most significantly, each warplan has been given its own Data Card. Players can use these to more easily keep track of damage, ammunition spent, and critical hits that may occur during play. (See the examples of Data Cards to the right and to the left.) Other game components remain the same as in the Battle over Britain series. So, this edition of Dogfight contains Reference Card, Dogfight Display, three counters for each of the two dozen planes provided, plus game markers to use on the Data Cards.
Should players owning Battle over Britain 2nd ed. and other games/modules get this new Dogfight! edition? That is a personal decision. Strictly speaking, you do not need this 1939-40 volume if you have the various BoB games already. However, everything for the early years of the war are now collected in one 6" x 9" book. The game is meant to be excellent for newcomers, as well as satisfying for veterans of the system. Campaign games cover the Polish Blitzkrieg (1939), the Battle for France (1940), Sacrifice of the Belgians Solitaire Campaign (1940), Dunkirk (1940), Battle of Britain (1940), Battle over Malta (1940), and North Africa (1941). And with the solo rules, Bomber rules, and Data Cards, you have a comprehensive individual dogfight game covering the nations and major planes of the 1939-1940 period. You could call this a Battle over Britain Deluxe version and wouldn't be far off the mark.
Planes are authentically rated for speed, agility, firepower (front & rear), performance, and durability (damage). Players must supply a single d6, a deck of standard playing cards, and the ability to scan and print (from book or PDF) game components. The game rates high in playability and authenticity... superior planes have the advantage in play, but as in real life, a good pilot (your skill) will make a huge difference in who wins individual dogfights.
If you have an interest in World War II fighter combat, and appreciate games that are quick playing and don't get bogged down in complex rules and mechanisms, Dogfight! 1939-40 is the ticket.
book & PDF
