Looking back from a Designer's view:

[JayTownsend]

Looking back for me as a Panzer Grenadier Game Designer, it started slowly and gradually. I remember when the first Panzer Grenadier game was first released, called of all things: Panzer Grenadier! After a couple of plays I was hooked and looked forward to every new product in the line-up. Sure I played other games or even similar game and I still do but I always return to my bread & butter game and always have a longing to play another scenario when it has been too long since my last game play. 

At some-point I always wanted more then was offered and Mike Bennighof, the owner of Avalanche Press, Ltd encouraged me to submit materials. At first I tried to push the Philippine in WWII idea around in around 2003 but decided it was way too large for me to handle and kind of gave up and got busy with life but in 2008 I return to the idea of contributing to PG again in a much smaller scale, adding an 11th scenario to the Alaska’s War called Kiska Evacuation and really enjoyed doing that and I think I was hooked after that. Mike encouraged me to do something larger, so I designed my first game supplement, call Nihon Silk in 2011 as I was fascinated by the fact that the Japanese ran airborne operations in WWII that most of us had never heard of. Avalanche Press published it and I wanted more!

At the time, I want more Pacific action and Mike I decided on the subject of Saipan 1944, as it had all types of actions and would add a ton of new unit types for both the Japanese and the Americans. Not only that but the maps Guy Riessen created from my original drawings were just outstanding and still my favorites of any game in print to this day, of any game company for that matter. With Saipan I was able to create actual amphibious landings, larger Japanese tank actions, flame-throwing units, rocket trucks and the idea of a cave counters, that is setup on the map, instead of a fixed location on the map, making each scenario gameplay variable and easy to adapt in future game products. As my first box game, Saipan is still my most cherished game, which was first published in 2012.

I knew the action around Saipan 1944 wasn’t done, as it was only one Island in the Marianas and there was still the battle of Tinian 1944 & Guam 1944 but I also want Guam 1941 in there, so I created a Game supplement called Marians 1944. This added two more gorgeous maps, more counters and many more scenarios. More game products would follow and draw components from Saipan and the Marianas including some by Mike, like: Ancient Armor, Armor of Saipan, Atlantic Marines, Afrika 1944 and eventually Leyte 1944. The Marianas 1944 was published in 2014.

After the Marianas 1944, I wanted more game design work and Mike directed me to the Korean War. I thought (Wow), this is still in line with WWII and can still fall nicely into the Panzer Grenadier realm, as the equipment is pretty much the same and everything can be handled in the scenario book special rules just like every game that comes out in the series with new unit types, new terrain types and few special rules. Saipan probably had the most to date so the Korean War shouldn’t be a big deal and it wasn’t. Now the size of the Korean War is just huge and I needed to read a ton of books on the subject but I found reading up on the subject to be just as enjoyable as creating scenarios. But the Korean War is too large for one game, so Mike originally said let’s make three games out of the war.  I was still kind of naïve to the amount of work and time the Korean War would take but alright lets start and before the Marianas was even published I started work on the first game in the Korean War series, call the Pusan Perimeter 1950. I found the desperate times of the (ROK) Republic of Korea or South Korea and the United States (UNC) United Nations Command trying to hold back the North Koreans (NKPA) or North Korean People’s Army just very fun gaming material, which I had known little about until reading about 20 books on the subject.

With the Pusan Perimeter completed, I wasn’t sure if I would continue of not as it just seemed so large of a task but after Pusan Perimeter was published in 2014, I was already on my way to charting the next game in the series called Counter-Attack which pushes back the North Koreans from the perimeter and has an amphibious landing in Inchon and adds ROK Marines, American Marines and a small amount of British forces and also an actual airborne paratroop drop, as I love games that have both amphibious landings and airborne drops, this game has both. I think Counter Attack offers a ton of unique and interesting scenarios and was finally published in 2017.

After Counter Attack, I had a third game in the series that covered most of the rest of the war but Mike felt it was too large, which it was, so things sat around for a few years. Mike decided to use the existing material and created a supplement called the Battles of Seoul which in turn motivated me again to return to the Korean War and Mike directed my focus to the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir. It will be a supplement, adding 20 scenarios and only drawing materials from Counter Attack only but adding new Chinese of (PVA) People’s Volunteer Army counters, British Marine Commandos and 20 new scenarios broken down into three sections: Prelude to the Reservoir, Battles of the Reservoir and Withdrawal from the Reservoir, it will be an excellent package to look forward to.

Besides the Pacific WWII and the Korean War and had some other subjects that really interested me, including The Brazilian Expeditionary Force or call the Smoking Cobras, which means smoking snakes in English. My heart was really into to this game supplement and telling Brazil’s story in WWII, part of this being that my wife is originally from Brazil, so I have been there many times as well. Brazil minors America in many ways and has many of the same social and economic problems as we do but double that. The Brazilian arrived in Italy in 1944 and were a very much needed man-power, which had been drained from Italy via casualties and shifting forces to France. The Brazilians take on both the Fascist Italians and the German Armies in 20 scenarios and with two new maps, new counters and the works. I really can’t wait to see this in print. I owed it to my Brazil and my wife, who helped me with translation when needed! It is a really fun game.

Staying in the Mediterranean, kind of an odd subject but one I love, and read both Italian and Greek accounts, which can differ from each other a bit but Ochi: The Greek-Italian War 1940-41 had to be told, in six months of some of the most brutal struggle you will never read about in normal history books, as it is usually just glaze over and barley mentions the struggle, well in PG we won’t miss out on this and there is a great story to be told and it has 40 scenarios to be played out, new counters and this supplement with draw materials only from Conquest of Ethiopia & Parachutes over Crete to play. This was not a back-water conflict but an interesting part of WWII. The scenarios tell a troubling story that are enjoyable to game. 

Now after all these years I finally returned to the Philippines! First with Leyte 1944 which added 46 new scenarios, some new counters and used materials from Saipan & Marianas but adds both American and Japanese paratroopers to the Pacific and one little twisted, added to caves counter rules, if they are adjacent, they are connected, allowing movement between the two. I finally conquered part of the Philippines I had first tied back in 2003. This time however, it is and excellent product and Leyte 1944 was published back in 2020.

Now the next piece of the Philippines is The Fall of the Philippines 1941-42, which has counters for the Philippine Scouts, Philippine Army, American & Japanese Armies and draws on materials from Saipan & Marianas but will also have 77 scenarios of early war actions. This will be a fun game supplement in desperate early war action in the Philippines. 

In my design path, I also had a few that didn’t make it to publishing for various reason, like Strange & Unusual, it was just too scattered. Also Sicily, again, it was just too large, I even tried to scale it back and a few others. All designs required tons of time and research and once you are completed, they may take years to publish, but it’s the journey getting there that is half the fun or maybe not! After games are published, besides playing with the final components, I want gamers to enjoy my fruits of labor and love that is where I get a lot of joy, seeing my designs on other gamers playing tables. Also, it is good to mention, game production is team work, as after design, developers get the production going, and then artwork is done, production, marketing and finally distribution to name a few of many people involved in the game process. There are also many designers in the PG genre or history, where you can see different interests and styles in game design.  

If you want to learn more about or see more about my current designs being processed: Smoking Cobras, Ochi, Chosin Reservoir and The Fall of the Philippines, join Avalanche Press Gold Club for all the latest information of upcoming games, free gaming materials and game discounts. There is much to look forward to in the Panzer Grenadier Series!