We brought out the original edition of Panzer Grenadier: Eastern Front in the year 2000, choosing the early battles of the Great Patriotic War as its theme. Scenarios in that game range from June 22, 1941 through early 1942. It proved very popular and sold very well, finally selling out in 2003. An all-new edition will soon be released.
Almost immediately after the first edition’s release, though, we got the question: Why not the late-war battles?
This many years later, we're not really sure why any more.
Gamers want the battles of 1944 and 1945 for a number of reasons. There’s the anti-fascist streak: In these battles, the Germans are on the run and the Soviets are smashing them. It’s always a good thing to make Nazis cry.
But mostly, there’s the gear. And Road to Berlin is loaded with heavy gear.
The Germans get Royal Tiger tanks for the first time in the Panzer Grenadier series, plus giant lumbering vehicles like the Hunting Tiger with its 128mm gun and the Hunting Panther. There are the fast Hetzer tank destroyers, too. Road to Berlin has both regular army and Waffen SS pieces, including SS cavalry. There are also pieces for the German home-defense militia called out in the last days of the Thousand-Year Reich.
The Red Army of Workers and Peasants is also loaded with powerful weapons: The JS-1 and JS-2 heavy tanks lead the way, but there are also all sorts of vehicles not seen before by Panzer Grenadier fans: T-34/85, T-70 and KV-85 tanks; SU-76, SU-85, SU-100, SU-122, SU-152 and JSU-152 assault guns. There’s also 122mm artillery for the first time, and Ba64 armored cars.
Returning to the Panzer Grenadier system are the Soviet Guards, the elite of the Soviet armed forces. They bring the modern weapons of 1944 and 1945 plus rocket launchers and a full array of ground forces. We first debuted these in Heroes of the Soviet Union, which will be retired when the last copies are sold, but this is a much fuller treatment.
Just as Eastern Front includes the Armata Romana, so does Road to Berlin bring the Royal Honvedseg, Hungary’s army. The Hungarians have excellent cavalry and a number of Hungarian-made armored vehicles that are, well, less than excellent: Turan and Toldi tanks and Nimrod and Zrinyi assault guns.
As for playing surface, Road to Berlin will feature six of the semi-rigid mapboards of the type found in Airborne and Eastern Front. These are new to players of the series, with art by Terry Moore Strickland.
And as will all games in the series, there will be plentiful replay opportunity: 75 scenarios drawn from the battles of 1944 and 1945 on the Eastern Front.
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