BLITZKRIEG -- PRELIMINARIES
Origins
Back in the early to mid-1960s, the Avalon Hill (AH) Company (based in Maryland, USA) published a number of tabletop (board) wargames. Almost all of them were historically themed. Blitzkrieg (BzK) represents a most notable and, in my opinion, significant exception.
BzK was originally designed by Mr. Lawrence Pinsky and developed by Mr. Thomas Shaw. It was published by AH in 1965. This topic will treat BzK's 1965
Basic Game design as the conceptual axis around which the inevitable play system clarifications, modifications and expansions have taken shape and been revolving ever since the mid-1960s.
Subsequent Developments In Brief
Circa 1975, BzK's design was significantly revised by Mr. David Roberts and the wargame title was redeveloped by Mr. Donald Greenwood, always under AH's commercial auspices. This redesign is reflected in BzK's revised / expanded play rules.
Eventually, a number of freeware BzK modules were developed in support of all-human play via the well known freeware, open-source engine VASSAL.
It's somewhat instructive to compare the original, mid-1960s basic rules with the revised, mid-1970s ones. For sure, quite a few useful rule clarifications, modifications and additions did see the light of day. That said, there was a bit of... darkness to go around as well !! You see, James Dunnigan's (SPI's)
warsims (some quite unplayable) were becoming increasingly fashionable in "grognard" wargaming circles. The "grognard" order of the day essentially became:
Keep on adding layers upon layers of detail until 'you'... drop dead; even then, others are bound to pick up where 'you' left off and continue the 'project' until the ultimate warsim is attained where its undisputed, perfect realism will be demonstrated by the inability to dream of any other additional details to be incorporated into the... masterpiece of all time.
Overview
BzK is a board wargame that comes with printed cardboard square pieces played on a hard mapboard. The mapboard is made out of hard paper stock that's the same as what one would find with a Monopoly playboard. Printed on the mapboard is a map under a super-imposed hexagonal grid (hexagons, or simply "hexes") featuring such diverse terrain types as clear land, beaches, cities, rivers, roads, mountains, deserts and country borders. A few charts such as a Combat Results Table (CRT) and a single die for generating random outcomes are also bundled.
The cardboard pieces represent large military units. There're brigades, divisions, squadrons and air wings. The different types of military units represented are infantry (including airborne & ranger units), armor, (shock) artillery, fighters and bombers. Naval action is allowed but is quite abstracted.
There're two game play levels, basic (simplest) and tournament / advanced (more complicated). There're optional rules as well mainly suitable for the advanced play level. The basic play level only includes the land game (no naval invasions and air war) and is the best starter tool for newcomers. For instance, the basic play level sports a rather simplified CRT. The advanced play level adds such features as special unit abilities, supply restrictions, air war and strategic bombing, naval invasions, commando raids and special desert supply restrictions.
Being... Absent
Earlier under this topic, I wrote:
I'll essentially strip PG1 of virtually all "being there" features right off the bat. Having done that, I'll be able to exclusively focus on PG1's underlying play system, the "embedded rulebook", if you prefer.
To this effect, let me briefly focus on "being there" features that are
absent in BzK:
1) Obviously, being a tabletop (board) wargame, BzK
doesn't and can't feature audiovisual content. In other words, movies, battle animations, voice-overs and sounds are
absent.
2) BzK is
totally devoid of "role playing" features such as... "being the greatest general ever".
3) Obviously, BzK
doesn't and can't feature a "Programmed Opponent / Artificial Intelligence" (PO / AI).
To summarize, there's absolutely no connection whatsoever between PG1 and BzK in the areas indicated under preceding points (1), (2) and (3).