KampfPanzer by James F. Dunnigan is a two-player game about early tank warfare (1937-40) with each unit representing five tanks, a platoon of infantry, or a battery of guns. Hexes represent 100 meters of real terrain and each game turn is three minutes and forty seconds of real time. One of several distinctive features of the game is that it uses pre-plotted simultaneous orders.
Components
KampfPanzer was released with Strategy & Tactics 41. The counters (not backprinted) have silhouettes for vehicles and are pretty nifty. All are clear and easy to read.
The map is bare and dull. The rules are printed on one of the foldout pamphlets that were a regular feature of SPI’s output. (There’s a small amount of errata which you should track down if you want to play the game.) There’s also a separate sheet with scenarios, historical notes, and the charts and tables.
Game Turn Sequence
Each game turn includes the following:
- Simultaneous Movement and Combat Plot Phase
- Panic Determination Phase
- Combat Execution Phase
- Panicked Movement Plot Phase
- Movement Execution Phase
- Disruption Removal PhasePlaying the Game
Playing the Game
To get me in the right place to do this post, I chose Hannut from the nine available scenarios.
The game is not really suited for solitaire play given that you start each turn by writing out the detailed orders for each unit. The plotting system is well explained with plentiful examples, and in face-to-face play it adds a considerable amount of tension to the game play.
When playing this solitaire, I wrote out orders for one side first. Then, took a coffee break, returned and did the other side. To try and alleviate my knowledge of the other side’s orders, for the second side I tried to give each unit at least two sensible options and let the dice decide which one was selected.
Panic determination involves one die roll per side and a quick and easy process for finding out who has been affected. However, as with PanzerArmee Afrika, the system has its limits in that not every hex is equally at risk. For better play, I suggest using one of the options mentioned there.
Panic is a misleading term as it’s more to do with command and control. (And, in PanzerArmee Afrika, it was referred to as command control.) Units plotted to fire, don’t fire. Units plotted to move, do a random (die-roll determined) move. The latter was too chaotic and unrealistic for many players with several suggestions for house-rule replacements being touted. For sure, the result does give you a challenge because you cannot guarantee your units will do what you want them to do. In my opinion, that’s both a good thing and realistic.
The scenario runs for ten game turns. In the first game turn, both sides plot movement orders as each needs to head for the victory point area.
The French (with a Panic Level of 3) suffer a bad breakdown of command and control with several units going off in the wrong direction in the first turn. The Germans are untroubled. By the end of the turn, the French have a toehold on Hill 2, and the Germans are not quite there. Turn two sees the advance German forces start to arrive and turn three sees much combat. By the end of turn four, lots of damage has been down. Slowly, but surely, the German superiority in command and control tells – as does their superior firepower against the French infantry and anti-tank guns – and by the end of turn seven, it’s clear the Germans are going to win.
In this system, units take hits in terms of levels of disruption. There’s also a Pin result that prevents units with a move order from moving. You have to roll for recovery from disruption, so disrupted units are potentially out of the action forever if you roll badly. Pinned units automatically recover. I’ll admit the French recvovery rolls were awful. Such is war.
Good Stuff
The capability of the different types of unit (tank, infantry, guns) is portrayed well, as is the fact that the German tanks were not necessarily the best in the world.
This game is a great starting point for looking at creating your own game about tactical warfare in World War II. You get an impression – broad brush, to be sure – of what combat at the sharp end might have been like and a sure appreciation of the difference troop quality can make. It would be straighforward to replace the simultaneous plotting parts to make the game more solitaire friendly.
The simultaneous plotting adds to the tension.
Not So Good Stuff
This game doesn’t teach a lot about the tactics of armored combat of the time. You won’t see much of a difference between the German forces that were masters of the Blitzkrieg and for example the French forces that were, in general, swamped. The exception is that the German forces will have a better Panic Level and so be less prone to panic and not implementing your chosen orders. That’s a somewhat shallow differential, albeit it does highlight the advantages of (presumably) better command, control, communications, and troop quality. But the influence of artillery and air power, not forgetting radios, are sadly missing.
The unit ratings are a mystery to me. For example, the article in Strategy & Tactics gives armor thickness figures that don’t seem to directly relate to defense strength. The speeds given seem more closely related to each unit type’s movement points (MP). Here’s a sample of units with the armor thickness (as given in the article) and the defense strength in the game, then speed per the article and MP in the game.
- French B1 Armor 60, Defense Strength 5 <> Speed 18, 8MP
- French S35 – Armor 55, Defense Strength 4 <> Speed 25, 12MP
- French H39 – Armor 45, Defense Strength 4 <> Speed 22.5, 10MP
- French R35 – Armor 45, Defense Strength 4 <> Speed 11.8, 6MP
- British A10 – Armor 30, Defense Strength 4 <> Speed 16, 8MP
- British A11 – Armor 60, Defense Strength 6 <> Speed 8, 3MP
- German Pz I – Armor 13, Defense Strength 1 <> Speed 25, 10MP
- German Pz II – Armor 30, Defense Strength 3 <> Speed 34, 15MP
- German PzIVD* – Armor 30, Defense Strength 4 <> Speed 25, 10MP
*Note: there is no Pz IVD counter, only a PzIVE counter. The latter type wasn’t available till 1941 so I assume it’s a typo and is really the type D.
The numbers are close, but it appears there are other factors being taken into account when calculating defense strengths. There’s no hint what these might be – size, speed, metal quality – making it next to impossible to expand the unit coverage for DIY projects. At least speed and MP seem close enough.
The combat system has not aged well.
The scenarios are not especially engaging.
The map is drab and dreary, and looks unrepresentative of any real-life battlefield.
In Conclusion
KampfPanzer is an OK game and while I enjoyed my time playing it, this may well be the last time it hits the table, at least in its present format. Some people in the hobby developed the combat system for the related game Panzer 44 (though it has a different ground scale) and hopefully at some time I am going to try that out.
I remember being excited when this game originally arrived as part of my S&T subscription. Some 52 (!) years later, it’s less exciting, but I had some great times with KampfPanzer and I’m glad I got the opportunity to enjoy it.