World War II in Europe: The First Blitzkrieg

Have you ever wanted to lead the German panzers on a daring assault deep into the enemy's rear echelons? Use your Stukas and panzer columns in a stunning coordinated attack through the front lines and into open country? Cut supply lines and isolate pockets of slow, demoralized defenders? Have you ever wanted to throw caution to the wind, ignoring your flanks, and charge for the enemy's vitals, trusting to your infantry and artillery to keep your supply lines open and to mop up behind you? Well, HPS have just brought out a new game intended to give you just that feel.

The First Blitzkrieg (TFB) is the first game in a planned new series from HPS. The series is entitled World War II In Europe, and is intended to cover all warfare in Europe and North Africa between 1939 and 1945. A single massive map has been prepared for the series covering the whole theater - Narvik to Benghazi, and Moscow to Plymouth - and each game will be played out on appropriate segments of the map, with the scale being slightly adjusted to cope with the forces and geography involved. It is planned that the last game in the series will cover the whole War in Europe, 1939/45, and will have the full map for certain scenarios.

There are 18 scenarios included with TFB, including a training scenario. These cover such diverse destinations from the War in Europe in 1939-40 as the invasion of Poland, the attack on Norway and of course the Battle for France and the Low Countries. Also included are several fictional scenarios covering Operation Sealion (the Invasion of Britain), the invasion of Denmark, French offensives in 1939, and the original Case Yellow Plan, which give the game added depth.

The game is simply packaged, and the various help files, including an intriguing and very informative one entitled "Tips on Play - Panzer School 101", are all on the disk. The controls are simple to use and easy to learn, and should present little or no problems to the new wargamer.

The screen layout, and many of the controls, are similar to the HPS Panzer Campaign Series, (PZC) and anyone familiar with that series will have little or no trouble in getting up to speed with TFB. These similarities are only skin deep however, and there are substantial differences in both design and gameplay between this and the PZC games.

Whilst a typical turn (daytime) in PZC would cover 2 hours, in TFB it covers 2 days! Because of this, the scale of the TFB maps is smaller (hexes represent greater areas than they do in PZC). Units in PZC are typically a battalion, company, or platoon of infantry, artillery, or tanks, whereas in TFB they represent a regiment or division. It will be obvious therefore that this is not a game of micro-management or intricate tactics. Indeed, the whole of the command and control structure that we are so familiar with in other games (leaders, army, corps, division etc) is effectively dispensed with. The units in TFB form part of no larger organization, and there are no penalties for mixing them up in combat. The only form of higher unit is actually the division, and panzer/motorized/infantry divisions can consist of 3 components (equating to regiment/brigade) which can be split up and fought and maneuvered separately, if desired.

Also, although the combat resolution is based upon 138 weapons types, these are not apparent to the user, who sees a simplified unit type (e.g. panzer, motorcycle regiment etc). Casualties are shown by a reduction in the strength of a unit, but it is not possible to see how many tanks etc., or what types, are left. Therefore it is impossible to see what panzer types, or what numbers of each, are currently present in a panzer division or regiment.

Orders of Battle look to be authentic, in that expected historical units are all present. Units vary between regiments and divisions and the latter unit type (usually consisting of three sub-units) can be broken into its components by the player. However, these are not shown as regiment/brigades, but rather as simply part of the division in question sharing all the attributes of the parent organization.

The designers have, I believe, sought to produce a simpler and easier to play game, but one which gives players the ability to recreate the Blitzkrieg attack and breakthrough with deep penetrations into the enemy rear. Their declared intention is to encourage an aggressive and adventurous style of play from the Axis player, and they encourage you to avoid slogging matches, particularly with your armored forces, but rather to press on at all costs and get into the rear.

The game is turn based, with each player having the ability in his turn to maneuver and initiate combat. Movement, combat and air attack all take place in a single phase, and a player needs to think carefully about bringing all elements of his forces to bear in the best way if he wishes to be successful. All combat and movement are governed and resolved by complex formulas based on a variety of parameters, all of which are explained in the on line help files.

An interesting, and in my experience almost unique feature, is that in most of the scenarios certain objective hexes are designated as surrender objectives, and gaining simultaneous possession of all of these by the attacking Axis player, regardless of the situation in the rest of the scenario, will guarantee the automatic surrender of the defending country. Thus, in the full Invasion of France and the Low Countries scenarios, Holland and Belgium can, and will, surrender independently, whilst the remainder of the Allies, Britain and France, continue fighting. These surrenders, if achieved, will be based on the performance of the player(s), rather than on actual historic dates. Plus, the British and French will arrive on cue in the Norwegian scenarios. All unit arrivals appear to be historic in all the scenarios I examined (or at least the historically accurate rather than what if scenarios), but the editor does allow for variable arrivals.

Airpower plays a significant part in the game, and the judicious use of your bomber force will not only help punch holes through enemy lines, but seriously degrade enemy forces before ground combat, thereby helping preserve your precious mobile forces.

Combat itself is interesting in that this is less hazardous than in most games. When you have massed your assaulting forces and designated those you wish to use, and as is common, there are limitations on how many units may participate in a single attack, the computer will advise you on the likely results - i.e. overrun, superiority, advantage, evens or disadvantage. You may then choose whether to proceed with the attack or rethink. Overrun is a guarantee of a successful victory, and will permit the attacking forces to press on and continue overrunning where possible. Superiority indicates an automatic victory, but not an overrun, thus the attacking forces will have no further movement that turn. The others represent combat where the results and casualties will be more problematic.

A good aspect is that any enemy hex/units can be attacked several times in a single turn, if additional units are available to do so. Again, careful planning as to moving and stacking your forces will give you the ability to deliver a series of hammer blows to tough enemy defenses. Sequencing of movement, combat, use of airpower, and so forth, is critical and will make the difference between success and failure in this game.

A slightly strange phenomenon, and one apparently fully intended, concerns surrounded units. If you closely surround enemy units (i.e. all adjoining hexes are either occupied by you, or if unoccupied are under your ZOC) allowing them no room to retreat, they will be encouraged to fight on to the bitter end resulting in far more casualties to you. If you wish to destroy them, or more often occupy a key objective, it is better to allow them a line of retreat and then attack them hard, and repeatedly, until they are forced back and/or destroyed. This was a deliberate choice on the part of the designers to encourage the mobility aspect of the game, but it does feel slightly strange "leaving the back door open." I found, by experience, that it was necessary to have a screen of troops in place, albeit at a distance, to keep the enemy from being able to reinforce key defensive positions, whilst still giving them some possibility of a one hex retreat. The AI is very sensitive to the surrender objectives (see above), and will pack as many forces as it can into these and surrounding areas. Many times I cut my enemy to pieces and destroyed large parts of his forces, only to find that I had neither the time, nor the strength, to take all of his key points and attain a victory due to the forces he had packed into key areas.

There are a large variety of units represented in the game, including combat and construction engineers, each with different qualities for attack/defense, and also railroad repair units. Interestingly, the game totally ignores roads, which do not appear on any maps. However, it does include large rail networks, which facilitate the cutting and opening of supply routes, and allowing "entrained" reinforcements to arrive speedily on the scene. As well as the usual units, paratroopers and seaborne landings are also included, as are the ability to bring forward replacements to exhausted units, in the larger scenarios.

There are many of the usual wargame features we are used to seeing, such as reinforcements, fixed units, replacements, stacking limits (calculated by strength points), supply, zones of control, and the influence of weather. Each unit has a variety of attributes such as strength points, values for attack/defense, and armored, anti-tank, and anti-aircraft capabilities; all of these are important in combat. Units are allowed to move through hexes occupied by friendly troops, even if technically in the ZOC of an enemy unit, giving mechanized units the ability to penetrate through narrow gaps/corridors and into open country.

As well as playing against the computer there are options to play against a human opponent, either by email, or in real time.

Although the number of scenarios currently released with the game is not huge, limiting longevity of the game slightly, an editor is included which allows for the development and creation of new scenarios based on existing maps and units. In this first game in the series, 13 nationalities are included in the editor with appropriate Orders of Battle. However Russia is not one of them, meaning the Polish scenarios can only represent German versus Polish units. This should still allow for interested users to create a wide variety of what-if and alternate scenarios.

Many wargamers, who are looking for more and more realistic games with ever more complicated command and supply structures representing the intricacies of armored warfare, may be initially disappointed with this game. It does not offer the technical challenges they are used to seeking in controlling their diverse and large forces, nor does it offer micro-managed combat with intricate tactical options. But this game has to be looked at for what it does offer, and I believe, for the market it is aimed at.

The scenarios are capable of being played in a single sitting, and offer a flavor of armored combat which can often be lost by the more detailed and tedious games. Although intended for the general wargaming market, this seems to me an excellent game for the person new to computer wargaming who would like to sit and learn his craft in a reasonably enjoyable fashion. I believe that many new users, and those existing wargamers who prefer less complicated games, will enjoy this, and hopefully succeeding games in the series, and will be encouraged to progress onto the more complex wargames in the genre such as the HPS PZC series, or Schwerpunkt's excellent games. Whether it will be appreciated by all of the more experienced wargamers is something I personally am not too sure of, (and maybe only time will tell!) but I do believe they should try it out. I enjoyed it, and provided the experienced player approaches the game in the right frame of mind I think there are elements he can enjoy.

I have only played this game to date against the AI, and only as the Axis player. Indeed, in certain scenarios (e.g. Denmark, Norway, Holland) one might wonder how difficult it would be to get someone to take on the Allied side - particularly against another human. I personally enjoyed the gaming experience, although I have yet to win a scenario to the computer's satisfaction (although to my own mind I destroyed my enemy!). I look forward with interest to see how this game translates onto the Russian steppes, or the North African desert, and to combat where the two sides are more evenly balanced.