View source for Panzer '44: Tactical Combat in Western Europe, 1944–45

{{Short description|Board wargame}}
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[[File:Cover_of_Panzer_44_wargame.png|thumb|right]]
'''''Panzer '44: Tactical Combat in Western Europe, 1944–45''''' is a [[board wargame]] published by [[Simulations Publications Inc.]] (SPI) in 1975 that simulates historical tank combat during [[World War II]].
==Description==
''Panzer '44'' is a two-player board wargame where one player controls German forces, and the other Allied forces. With rules for plotted fire, and different types of artillery fire, including direct fire, defensive opportunity fire, and indirect fire, all of which use various types of ammunition, as well as close air support, minefields and entrenchments, this game has been characterized as "complicated."<ref name="cbw" />
Combat is tactical at platoon level, with map hexes scaled at only {{convert|200|m|yd|abbr=on}}, and each turn representing 6 minutes of game time.<ref name="gtsg" /> The counters represent 27 types of German units, 24 types of American units and seven kinds of British units. As critic [[Jon Freeman (game designer)|Jon Freeman]] noted, this is a game where armor units are predominant, and infantry are "offensively useless."<ref name="cbw" /> Critic Geoff Barbard agreed, saying "the infantry plod along at 1 hex per turn and play a very subordinate role."<ref name="phoenix21" />
===Gameplay===
Both players simultaneously plot their fire for the turn, then reveal which of their units are going to move. Units are then moved before all firing happens simultaneously.<ref name="cbw" /> The game system is the same used in SPI's ''[[MechWar '77]]'' wargame set in the 1970s.<ref name="palmer" />
===Scenarios===
The game comes with fourteen scenarios, all of them based on actual battles that happened from June 1944 to March 1945.<ref name="gtsg">{{Cite book |last=Campion |first=Martin |title=The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training |date=1980 |publisher=Sage Publications |isbn=0-8039-1375-3 |editor-last=Horn |editor-first=Robert E. |location=Beverly Hills CA |pages=507 |chapter=Panzer '44 |editor-last2=Cleaves |editor-first2=Ann}}</ref>
==Publication history==
In 1975, [[Jim Dunnigan]] designed two tank combat games that used the same game system, ''Panzer '44'' and ''MechWar '77''. SPI released ''Panzer '44'' first, in March 1975, and it proved popular, immediately opening at #6 on SPI's Top Ten Bestseller List, then rising to #5 two months later.<ref name="top10">{{Cite web |title=SPI Best Selling Games – 1975 |url=http://www.spigames.net/spi_bestsellers_1975.htm |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=spigames.net}}</ref> ''MechWar '77'' was released two months after ''Panzer '44'', in May 1975, and proved even more popular.
==Reception==
In a 1976 poll conducted by SPI to determine the most popular board wargames in North America, ''Panzer '44'' was rated very highly, placing 33rd out of 202 games.<ref name="palmer">{{Cite book |last=Palmer |first=Nicholas |title=[[The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming]] |date=1977 |publisher=Sphere Books |location=London |pages=166 |author-link=Nick Palmer}}</ref>
In Issue 10 of ''[[JagdPanther (magazine)|JagdPanther]]'', game designer [[Stephen V. Cole]] called "the twin games of ''Panzer '44'' and ''MechWar '77'' a pretty decent simulation." He noted that because the two games use the same game system, it was possible to combine the two and throw World War II tanks against modern (1970s) tanks. However, he noted that 1970s armor was capable of withstanding World War II firepower, and suggested, just for fun, that tanks from ''Panzer '44'' be given 3 points of extra firepower to at least make them competitive. He then suggested two science-fiction scenarios in which World War II tanks find themselves time-warped into the 1970s to face modern opponents, calling both scenarios "hokey but enjoyable."<ref name="jagd2">{{Cite magazine |last=Cole |first=Stephen V. |author-link=Stephen V. Cole |date=25 July 1975 |title=Panzer '77 |magazine=Jagdpanther |issue=10 |pages=18}}</ref>  In the same issue, Howard Anderson liked the game, calling it "the best simulation of these types of actions you are likely to find." However, he noted that with the game's unwieldy quasi-simultaneous move and fire system, it was impossible to control very many counters. Anderson proposed moving to a more traditional "I Go, You Go" sequential turn system, saying "you are throwing away quite a bit of the accuracy, but the game is a lot more fun with faster action and more units."<ref name="jagd">{{Cite magazine |last=Anderson |first=Howard |date=25 July 1975 |title=P44-M77 Revision |magazine=Jagdpanther |issue=10 |pages=4}}</ref>
In the 1980 book ''[[The Complete Book of Wargames]]'', game designer [[Jon Freeman (game designer)|Jon Freeman]] thought the game system was very complex and the command control rules "absurd", saying "they cannot be justified on the grounds of either realism or playability." Despite this, he concluded by giving the game an Overall Evaluation of "Good," saying "''Panzer '44'' isn't a bad game and when published it represented something of an advance in the state of the art of tactical armor simulations."<ref name="cbw">{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Jon |title=The Complete Book of Wargames |date=1980 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |pages=179–180 |author-link=Jon Freeman (game designer)}}</ref>
In Issue 21 of the UK wargaming magazine ''[[Phoenix (wargaming magazine)|Phoenix]]'', Geoff Barnard looked at developments in armor combat simulations, and complimented ''Panzer '44''{{'}}s artillery rules as a positive step forward, saying that they "add further to the detail of the artillery rules by putting the artillery effect at the very end of the turn, after all movement and book-keeping." However, he noted the issues with infantry, saying, the game has "a mere subsidiary role for the infantry: as the tanks and vehicles zoom about, the infantry move at one hex per turn, generally the fire system leaves them very exposed to being wiped out by a tank with nothing better to fire at!" He concluded that ''Panzer '44'' was "not too bad at representing tank vs tank combat, and mobile warfare but not really tactical simulations and, not doing a very good job on the infantry side."<ref name="phoenix21">{{Cite magazine |last=Barnard |first=Geoff |date=September–October 1979 |title=Tactical Games Review |magazine=[[Phoenix (wargaming magazine)|Phoenix]] |issue=21 |pages=15–18}}</ref>
==Other reviews and commentary==
*''[[Fire & Movement]]'' #65
*''Panzerfaust'' #77
*''Campaign'' #85
* ''Ann Arbor Wargamer'' #17
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Panzer '44: Tactical Combat in Western Europe, 1944-45}}
[[Category:Board wargames set in Modern history]]
[[Category:Jim Dunnigan games]]
[[Category:Simulations Publications games]]
[[Category:Wargames introduced in 1975]]
[[Category:World War II board wargames]]