From: "David S. Bieksza" Subject: AH's Blitzkrieg (was: Worst Game) On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, tjohnson wrote: > Ah but how politically correct BlitzKrieg is today! > > No minority group can be offended by Big Red and Great Blue. > > P.S. Does anyone know what ever happened to Capt. Carl Knabe, USAF? > I heard that the Knabe River in Big Red was named after him. It's no secret that the rivers on the _Blitzkrieg_ map were named after the developers and AH personnel. Larry Pinsky, one of the earliest "names" in the hobby, was involved in the development and became both Lake Pinsky and the North and South Lawrence Rivers. (One of the early issues of MOVES -- #20 or thereabouts -- published an interview with Mr. Pinsky entitled, "Lake Pinsky Speaks.") And it doesn't take much imagination to figure out who the Dott River refers to. >> I feel the same way about dear old Blitzkrieg. It was my first AH purchase >> after playing some of the better early S&T games (Renaissance of Infantry, >> USN, PanzerArmee Afrika) and was quite amazed at how totally bland and >> hideously expensive Blitzkrieg was in comparison. > > That's just because you bought your games in the wrong order. I got > Blizkrieg right after Tactics II. It was amazingly exciting. > > --Dav > davanden@capaccess.org Nowadays we ignore _Blitzkrieg_ as just brain-dead AH stuff, but at the time it was published it had quite an impact -- essentially an early monster game. SPI produced the _Blitzkrieg_Module_System_ (or whatever it was called) in order to capitalize on the game's success. The discussion has reminded me that there is some confusion over who Great Blue and Big Red are supposed to represent. The common interpretation is Great Blue = Allies and Big Red = Axis. (One of the earliest variants for _Blitzkrieg_ to appear in the GENERAL had Great Blue exchanging some ground forces for a larger navy to better reflect the historical background.) However, I dimly recall that when the game was initially published the advertising identified Great Blue as Nazi Germany and Big Red as the Soviet Union. This makes more sense to me: 1) GB is split into two pieces by a large minor country (like Prussia and Poland) while BR has a large land area (like Russia). 2) GB 4-6 armored divisions are called "light" divisions (reminiscent of the light divisions that participated in the Nazi invasion of Poland) while BR 4-6's are called "tank" divisions; also, "breakthrough artillery" is a term I've noticed associated with Russian forces. 3) It's GB aggression that starts the war. On the subject of unit types, I always thought the idea of an airborne armor division ("air assault") was somewhat bizarre. But many years after acquiring the game I found that in the time frame of _Blitzkrieg_'s development the U.S. Army was experimenting with just such a concept and called it an air assault division. (I found this in a book in the Dept. of the Army's Vietnam Series -- "Airmobility" IIRC). Finally, one of AH's biggest oversights must be that nowhere in the second edition rules does it state that the little chunk of land on the northwestern peninsula belongs to Great Blue. The only hint is buried in the Optional Tournament section -- some of those cities are GB production sites. On the other hand, I once talked to a veteran of the first edition rules who told me enthusiastically that the first thing he always did as Great Blue was "conquer that little minor country on the peninsula." Guys, thanks for the opportunity to stroll down memory lane. ------- Dave Bieksza // "Peace Through Superior Firepower" bieksza@aplcomm.jhuapl.edu // ST:TNG, _The_Arsenal_of_Freedom_