Leadership and Morale
in Panzer Grenadier
By Doug McNair
October 2008

Working on the scenarios for our Sinister Forces supplement, I discovered all over again what makes the Panzer Grenadier system so interesting (not to say addictive . . . every morning my wife asks “How late were you up last night?”). Aside from the fact that nearly 500 Panzer Grenadier scenarios are in print, the game has a huge amount of replayability because it focuses more than any other game I know on leadership, morale and quality vs. quantity.

Leadership: “After you, Sir!”

In Panzer Grenadier, leaders are of primary importance. Without a leader, most units can’t do anything more aggressive than hunker down and fire. Units must be activated by a leader in their own hex or an adjacent hex if they want to advance into enemy direct fire or AT fire range, or enter an enemy-held hex for an assault (something that’s almost always necessary to take objectives and win the game). This means that players must group and move their units so that they’re always with leaders to keep them from being cut off from command and left behind.

Chain of command is another issue. During each turn in PG, players alternate activating leaders. Units that want to move or fire at the same time must be activated by the same leader, or by a chain of leaders in adjacent hexes. A leader can activate lower-ranking leaders in adjacent hexes, and those lower-ranking leaders can activate still-lower ranking leaders in hexes adjacent to them, and so on. So, players who want to get the jump on the enemy must make sure to string their leaders out in rank-order so that as many leaders and units as possible can activate at the same time.

Morale: “We’re too pretty to die. . . .”

Panzer Grenadier is almost pacific in an odd sort of way, because in many cases, killing the enemy is unnecessary. I well remember an early game with our esteemed plant manager, in which I played the Germans defending a town against a massive Soviet Guards cavalry assault.

As the Soviets entered the board, I hit them with long-range bombardment fire. Horses, being sensible creatures, are skittish under fire, so you get a +1 column shift on the fire tables against cavalry units. By concentrating my on- and off-board artillery on two or three Soviet stacks per turn, I was able to get “Disrupted” or “Demoralized” results on them with reasonable frequency. Soon several Soviet units were losing contact with their leaders due to reduced movement or retreats caused by morale failure. But instead of killing the disrupted units, I shifted my fire to fresh, good order units, disrupting them as well. By the end of the game, only a few Soviet units had made it to the town (where they were dealt with easily by German infantry), while the rest of the board was littered with disrupted Soviet cavalry units. The Germans won handily with only a few Soviet units having taken losses.

So, in Panzer Grenadier a demoralized enemy unit is just as useless as a dead one, and is often a thorn in the player’s side. If you eliminate a unit, it’s gone and the other player can forget about it. But disrupted and demoralized units slow down, stop and retreat into inconvenient places, clogging roads and breaking up advances. Disrupted and demoralized leaders are an even bigger headache, because disrupted leaders can only activate units in their own hexes, while demoralized leaders can’t activate anyone. So in many cases, all you have to do is disrupt or demoralize a few leaders to stop an enemy advance cold.

Quality vs. Quantity: Can you say “Urrah?”

Leadership quality is an important factor that makes the game very different if you’re playing one side rather than another. German leaders have high morale, usually give their troops morale bonuses, and often give them the ability to add their combat strengths together even if they’re in different hexes. But Russian leaders are another breed. Their personal morale is decent enough, but they seldom give morale bonuses to troops, and almost never give them combat bonuses. This worrisome disadvantage is mitigated by the fact that Mother Russia’s sons are legion, and if many of them break and run under German fire, there are always more just behind. And then there is the unique Communist solution to fleeing troops, the Kommissar.

My recent playtest of the “Trouble at Ivanovskloe” scenario from Sinister Forces illustrates these factors. The Germans had a full complement of combined arms (infantry, support weapons, heavy armor and off-board artillery), while the Russians had only NKVD infantry, light tanks and no off-board artillery.

Per the historical notes, I had the confident Germans advance boldly on a wide front against a double line of Soviet defenders. Following a brief bombardment, the German CO led his division’s center in an assault of the dug-in Soviet center. The combined-arms of the Germans plus their numerous leaders and high morale resulted in plenty of Soviet casualties, but there were enough Russians there and in reserve to bog down the German advance.

Meanwhile, on their left flank, German leaders had lined up six HMG platoons in three hexes outside the direct fire range of the Russians, and a German leader with a +2 combat bonus was combining their fire. This put German fire on the 22 column of the Direct Fire table, even after negative column shifts for range and dug-in targets. So, the targeted Soviet units were guaranteed to suffer morale checks or worse. Soviet morale was failing fast and threatening to open a hole in their line, but the 2-to-1 Soviet numerical advantage in infantry platoons proved their salvation.

The Soviet left flank extended far enough beyond the German right to be out of HMG range. So those fresh units charged the German flank. German opportunity fire against the chargers was punishing, but with the help of onboard artillery the superior Soviet numbers told, and they broke the German flank, sending the HMGs fleeing behind their bogged-down center.

Meanwhile, many of the demoralized Soviet units that had fled under German HMG attack had a sudden change of heart and achieved good-order with astonishing speed. This was due to mandatory re-education while staring into the barrels of Soviet Kommissar machineguns. The Soviet right flank was coming back fast (it’s amazing how a collective mentality can save the day while robbing one of the moral high-ground at the same time . . . ). So while the Germans Stugs were happily popping Soviet T-60s, the German infantry had to hope that their armor and artillery superiority would eventually prevail against the unstoppable Soviet human waves.

So overall, Panzer Grenadier offers players a tactical-level gaming situation that’s much more than just move-and-fire. Players must always make sure their troops are properly led, with morale and command-and-control taking precedence over simply inflicting or avoiding casualties. This, plus the fact that the Panzer Grenadier series games offer players the ability to play German, Australian, Russian, New Zealand, American, Indian, Japanese, Austrian, British, Finnish, Italian and Romanian forces (each with their own particular strengths and weaknesses), makes Panzer Grenadier a highly enjoyable and infinitely replayable game system.

This piece originally appeared in December 2005.

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