Eastern
Front: Old and New
 In
the year 2000, 119694_avalanche Press returned wargaming
to its roots with the exciting Panzer
Grenadier series. A new game for a new
century, it combined the fun of 1970s World
War II tactical games with modern graphics
and smooth, interactive play.
The first volume, titled simply Panzer
Grenadier but called Eastern Front
in our sales and marketing literature, was
immensely popular and sold very well. The
last copies of a large print run went out
of our warehouse in early 2003.
Computer crashes and aging film left us
unable to simply re-print this best-seller,
a tragic outcome for a small company. If we
wanted to make more copies of this game, we’d
have to start from the ground up.
Since the work required out of the art department
would be the same as that for a new game,
it seemed best to just make a new game. However,
some of the older Panzer Grenadier titles
(Heroes of the Soviet Union, Airborne)
had been published with scenarios requiring
parts from the original Eastern Front.
If we took Eastern Front permanently
out of print, these games would be incomplete
for new players. Plus, we had several modules
or book supplements (Arctic Front, Edelweiss,
Tank Battles) also calling for pieces
and game boards from Eastern Front.
Finally, there was just plain old market
inertia at work. Role-playing games, and a
handful of tactical wargames, have for years
been sold on the core-supplement model. A
“core” game is sold which contains
the rules and perhaps key components, and
then “supplements” allow players
to add more stuff. Panzer Grenadier was
never intended to follow this model, and to
emphasize this feature, games published after
Airborne stand completely alone with
no scenarios calling for parts from other
games. However, many retailers and some players
fell into the belief that without Eastern
Front, they could not sell or play any
other games in the series.
Thus, our sales and marketing manager, Liz
Fulda, directed that Eastern Front must
return to print.
Art and Counters
Since we needed a new box and new counters,
we decided to replace the map art as well.
No longer will the deeply hated “10
percent” rule afflict gaming tables.
The new maps will use the style Terry Moore
Strickland showed so well with Beyond
Normandy. And there’s
twice as much playing area from which to choose,
as we jump from four to eight maps.
And we didn’t just replace the old
counter set, but expanded it greatly. For
owners of the original edition, there are
many new additions here. The Germans add their
Czech-made Pz35t and Pz38t tanks and French-made
P204f (Panhard) armored cars. They receive
their own armored train, and a platoon of
Brandenburger commandos.
Artillery ranges from 37 mm anti-tank guns
through the feared 88 mm anti-aircraft guns
to the 105 mm howitzer. In addition to infantry,
the Germans also now have two full squadrons
of cavalry. Panzers vary from the near-useless
Pz I through the mighty Tiger.
A new concept is added for the first time
to the series, the vehicles known as prime
movers. These are tracked or semi-tracked
vehicles like the Soviet Komsomolets or the
German SdKfz-7. They have better performance
off the road than the game’s standard
trucks, but cannot carry infantry.
The Soviets received a much greater overhaul
than the Germans. New artillery pieces include
the 107 mm cannon and 76.2 mm mountain gun.
A new “mixed” type of infantry
is available, anti-tank rifle platoons. There
are two new flavors of armored car: the FAI
and Ba6 in addition to the Ba10m found in
the first edition. The stable of tanks is
vast, with T-60, T-35, T-34A, T-28, T-26,
BT-5, BT-7, KV-1 and KV-2 types.
112 Scenarios!
As though this were not enough, a new nationality
makes its first appearance in the Panzer
Grenadier series, the Romanians. They
have their own tanks (the R2, very similar
to the German Pz35t) and lots of cavalry.
They also have elite mountain troops and some
motorcyclists, but are weak in artillery and
anti-tank guns.
With all those new toys, we have to give
you scenarios in which to use them. The 50
scenarios of the old game are back, many of
them carrying slight revisions that have cropped
up over the years or to reflect the new mix
of game pieces available. And we have 62 new
ones, for a grand total of 112.
Several full-sized games’ worth of
fun, for $74.99. Now available for pre-order,
for release in late 2004.
Links:
Price: $74.99
Status: Coming
Soon
Pre-order
this game now! |
