Panzergruppe Guderian is a simulation of the German campaign to capture Smolensk in July, 1941. The game is played in twelve turns, each one represents 2 days of time on a map scale of 10.5 km/hex.
The game is famous for its innovative use of "untried" Soviet units. The Soviet combat counters are face down, their combat strength unknown to either player, until they are involved in a combat.
The game also models the effectiveness of German operations by allowing them a full movement phase both before and after a mechanized movement phase after combat, while the Soviets only move prior to combat. If all a German divisions regiments attack or defend in the same hex, their strength is doubled, by a so-called divisional integrity bonus.
The German player scores victory points for capture of cities and the Soviet commitment of forces from the Southwestern Front. The Soviet player scores for recaptured cities and destroying entire German divisions (which possess several steps of strength).
The game includes: 1 map, 260 counters, 1 6-sided die, 1 Soviet reference card, 1 German reference card, 1 rules book, and 1 advanced rules insert.
Originally published by SPI in Strategy & Tactics magazine #57 (1976); re-issued by Avalon Hill in 1985. The original SPI map is slightly larger (22"x 32") than the Avalon Hill re-release.
PGG's descendants include:
The Four Battles of Army Group South:
- Kiev
- Rostov - The First Soviet Counter-Attack, 1941
- Operation Star
- Korsun
as well as the stand alone games Kharkov, Drive on Stalingrad and Cobra the latter of which does not have untried units.
PGG is credited with inspiring other successful systems such as the Victory in the West series led by Operation Typhoon and the East Front Series led by Typhoon!
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