Campaigns and Commanders Developer’s Preview
By Doug McNair
October 2008

The poor, bloody Leaders finally get their due.

Since we first published Panzer Grenadier in 2000, the system has evolved and so have the abilities of the combat units in it. Generic tanks have diversified into Open-Topped and Closed-Topped AFVs, certain types of infantry have acquired short-range anti-tank weapons, aircraft have acquired AT capabilities depending on the time period, and so on.

But through it all, the Leaders whose actions are the key to victory or defeat have remained the same: generic, faceless. No matter what nation he’s from or what theater he’s fighting in, each Leader can’t do anything different from any other Leader in any other army, and is differentiated from his fellows only by his Morale, Combat Modifier and Morale Modifier.

Not anymore! The brainchild of Dave Murray (who designed our upcoming Cassino ’44 game), Panzer Grenadier: Campaigns and Commanders includes a new set of expansion rules that lets players create individual Leader Characters with far more detailed skills than standard PG leaders.

Campaigns and Commanders does not alter the standard PG rulebook in any way; it simply lets Panzer Grenadier players create a new class of Leaders who have individualized combat skills and can improve over time.

It also provides players with campaign games, each of which is a string of linked Panzer Grenadier scenarios in which Leader Characters can lead the same unit through multiple battles while acquiring new skills, improving their attributes, earning medals and moving up the ranks.

Campaigns and Commanders also includes a detailed system for designing your own scenarios and campaigns, allowing players to take their Leader Characters into any World War II combat situation imaginable.

Leader Characters

Leader Characters represent the cream of the officer candidate pool. Each one starts life as a lieutenant, and has the same basic attributes as any standard Panzer Grenadier leader (Morale, Combat Modifier and Morale Modifier). Each Leader Character is represented on the board by a normal Leader counter that has the same printed Morale, Combat Modifer and Morale Modifier numbers as he does.

Each Leader Character has a Service Record that lets his owning player keep track of his status over time:

Leader Characters participate in Panzer Grenadier scenarios the same way as normal leaders.

Skills

In addition, each newly-minted Leader Character starts play with two skills from three broad categories: Assault Skills, Combat Skills and Miscellaneous Skills (see the Service Records for details).

Each skill allows the Leader Character to do things which standard Leaders can’t do. Some skills are available to new Leader Characters right out of officer training, while others can only be learned through combat experience and advanced training.

Leadership Points

Leader Characters earn Leadership Points in battle by rallying troops and participating in combat that scores combat results against the enemy. They can also lose Leadership Points by becoming disrupted or demoralized, by being eliminated due to compound demoralization or desertion, or by suffering a wound that takes them out of play. Leaders get new skills and improve their attributes by spending Leadership Points after the battle is over. Leader Characters can save up Leadership Points over several scenarios to buy the more expensive skills or to increase their attributes to the highest levels.

Medals

If a Leader Character scores enough Leadership Points in the same scenario, he may be eligible to earn a medal. Campaigns and Commanders includes nation-specific listings of all the medals that Leader Characters can earn, including the historical background of each medal.

German Leader Characters can earn everything from the Infantry Assault Badge up to the Knight’s Cross with Oak Leaves, Polish Leader Characters can earn everything from the Medal of Valor up to the Grand Cross of Military Virtue, and Soviet Leader Characters can earn everything from the Medal of Military Merit up to Hero of the Soviet Union.

Each medal’s listing includes the historical requirements for earning it, and this is translated into game terms as specific goals a Leader Character must accomplish during a scenario in addition to a minimum number of Leadership Points he must earn.

Promotions

At the end of each scenario, the owning player can roll dice for his Leader Characters to see if they get promoted. Each medal which a Leader Character earns gives him bonuses to the promotion roll. Over the course of a long campaign (or multiple campaigns), Leader Characters can get promoted all the way up to full colonel.

Campaign Games

Campaigns and Commanders: War in the East includes three campaign games: The September Campaign 1939, Barbarossa 1941 and The Battle for Germany 1945. Each campaign has anywhere from seven to eleven scenarios, which are played in sequence to allow Leader Characters to improve over time.

Players score victory points in each scenario just as in previously-published PG scenarios, and they keep a running tally of their total victory points scored over all scenarios played. Once players finish the last scenario in the campaign, they total up all the VPs they’ve earned and then add a bonus based on the rank of their highest-ranking surviving Leader Character. Whoever’s grand total VP score is highest wins the campaign. Leader Characters who survive a campaign can then go on to new campaigns later in the war.

Design Your Own Scenarios

Campaigns and Commanders includes a detailed system for creating your own scenarios and campaigns. It offers players two basic methods:

1. Creating scenarios in advance using wire diagrams to construct historically-accurate battalions.

2. Creating random battlefields and then buying whatever units players wish using unit cost charts and a point system.

Players can mix and match the two methods as desired to create as much historical accuracy or Fog of War as desired.

Campaigns and Commanders brings a whole new level of fun to Panzer Grenadier by letting players customize their Leaders to bring the exact skills they want to the battlefield. Then, it lets players take their Leader Characters through entire campaigns, gaining experience along the way so that by the final battle they’ve got all the skills they need to win a great victory. We hope you enjoy it!

Click here to order War in the East, the first
sourcebook for Campaigns and Commanders!