Saturday, August 25, 2012

Panzer Blitz II Hill Of Death gets an outing

Played a game with my Father of this game which I have had for a bit but not actually played (one of a growing number !!).
Used the Carentan supplement (that I was very generously gifted by a chap from 'Oz'tralia).
Turned out to be a really good scenario and a rather good game system (similar to White Star Rising but with more depth and historical rather than generic scenarios) despite rather negative reviews it garnered.
We liked the chit pill system for Operations and the varied ranges of same.
Movement and shooting systems all fine.
The LOS rules took a bit of reading but fairly easy to work things out anyhow.
Only rules we had any real difficulty with was AA fire (were not sure what values to use but sorted in latest V2 edition of rules).
As per old PanzerBlitz Infantry are slow (1-2 hexes per turn) but most vehicles are not very fast compared to old game.
 Infantry generally only fire 1-2 hexes as well so main use is in Close Assaults (which with hexes being 250m or so is of course accurate).
This scenario had lots of kit with PzGrenadiers, Airborne, MGs. Mortars, Stugs, M10s, Off-board Artillery and Jabos all of which gave is good grounding in various unit types.
Several new rules (some of which were options in PzBlitz/Leader) such as PzBlitz Assault (Tank Desanti type), Reaction Fire (last gasp stuff vs CAT and Overrun attacks), Opportunity Fire, and suchlike.
Anti-personnel shooting is old odds ratio type but anti-tank is now a combat differential.
Biggest drawback to game (just as in WSR and indeed most tactical board wargames) is the counter clutter with lots of Disrupted, Spent, No Move markers on units.
These are smaller than the combat units in this game which can make things a bit fiddly but other than that the combat counters are little works of art with good functional layout, gone are the silhouettes of original game all now full colour graphics.
Overall we liked the game and keen to try some of the historical Hill 112 scenarios of the main game.

Overall view of the Carentan map

Germans pushing forward

Nice looking counters






















Will be interesting to see in due course (ie who knows when) how this compares to my other recent, and as yet unused, Normandy tactical acquisition..................


3 comments:

  1. I also have this game but have yet to play it. I really must get it on the table sometime. It also has a VASSL mod for it so I really have no excuse LOL

    Ian

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  2. More counter goodness that I want to play!

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  3. Vince8:59 am

    Hope to see more of you on PG-HQ if you get Beyond Normandy going. Its not the best of the PG titles, but at least you have a foot in the door. Hope you enjoy it.

    There is also a forum on the HQ should you need to ask any nube questions.

    Best of luck

    Vince (in Kent)

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