Among men of a certain age and experience, Avalon Hill's PanzerBlitz game brings back memories of a truly different age. Retailing for the vast sum (at the time) of $10, it was just within reach of enterprising teenagers, while still being expensive enough (by far) to ensure the game was treasured. At the time, gasoline was around $0.25/gallon.
Fast forward 40 years.
While the classical PanzerBlitz remains long, long out of print, the game is commonly sold on Ebay, and a copy in good condition can often be acquired for $10-$35.
Even better, there is community of dedicated PanzerBlitz fans who have added an enormous amount of value to the game over the last 40 years. New situations, new maps, new counters, and most importantly, new and revised rules have appeared regularly over the years. Much of this activity has been copied on to the web.
Given the amount of material already available, why add more?
The reason is simple: it's really hard to find - in one place - a complete description and analysis of the original game.
And that's what these web pages provide: some notes on Avalon Hill's PanzerBlitz game played out of the box, as originally shipped.
| Situation | Solo 1 | Solo 2 | Russian | German |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | 2013-11-25 | 2013-11-25 | ||
| #2 | 2013-12-22 | 2013-12-28 | ||
| #3 | 2014-01-19 | 2014-01-26 | 2014-01-12 | 2014-02-09 |
| #4 | 2014-03-03 | 2014-03-29 | ||
| #5 | 2014-02-02 | 2014-02-09 | ||
| #6 | 2014-05-18 | 2014-05-31 | ||
| #7 | 2014-03-22 | 2014-09-21 | ||
| #8 | 2014-09-25 | 2014-12-25 | 2014-06-15 | |
| #9 | 2014-07-06 | 2014-07-19 | ||
| #10 | 2014-08-31 | |||
| #11 | 2015-11-14 | |||
| #12 | 2014-05-04 |
Considering the number of copies of PanzerBlitz which were printed over the course of more than a decade, it's probably not surprising that the game isn't unduly difficult to acquire.
From observation on Ebay, collectible quality games seem to run about $40 to $50, with unpunched copies starting at $50 and fetching well over $100 at close of auction.
If waiting until the last few minutes of an Ebay auction to watch something get bid right out of your budget bores you, a fair percentage of copies on Ebay are sold for "Buy It Now" prices ranging from $25 to $60.
The key is finding a playable copy for a good price.
Currently, I have several copies, none of which I paid more than $25 to acquire on Ebay. Adding on shipping can send the total price to around $40. All the games were in great playable shape, especially considering their age. The boxes range from pretty good to less than fair shape. I've probably been lucky insofar as every copy is (apparently) counter complete.
If you're an expert at Ebay auctions, you may be able to find some really good deals.
You might also have a brother, cousin, uncle or some miscellaneous inlaw more than happy to give you their copy. Poke around, these games are out there, if you want one, you will find one.