a whole lot of fun, and that's what games are all about, isn't it?" In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer called it "Perhaps the most frequently played wargame ever produced." He noted PanzerBlitz was "the first to bring a wealth of tactical detail to the Second World War East Front, and met a delighted reception from the hobby when it came out in 1970." Palmer highlighted some frailties of the aging game design, particularly "somewhat unbalanced scenarios and the 'Panzerbush' syndrome, in which units popping from wood to wood cannot be attacked by non-adjacent units, which is a flaw in realism." He concluded on an upbeat note, saying, "Exciting, high skill level, very complex." Games magazine included PanzerBlitz in their "Top 100 Games of 1980", saying, "Simulating World War Il combat between small units of Germans and Russians, this is the best-selling wargame ever published. Its popular features include a nifty mapboard that fits together in 12 different configurations, and rules that allow players to invent battle situations beyond the 12 provided." In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman called PanzerBlitz "a watershed design. It was the first to simulate World War II events at the tactical level, the first to treat the differences between armor and infantry as more than a distinction in attack or movement factors, and the first to develop a real sequence of play, with different events occurring at different stages." He called it "an enormously important game — really the first to break out of the 'classic' Avalon Hill mode." In addition to its historical significance in the hobby, Freeman also noted that "It is also a very good game that is fluid in play, exciting, and colorful." He did admit there were problems with the spotting rules that allowed units "to skulk from woods without being fired on — a pattern known as the 'panzerbush syndrome'", as well as with the effectiveness of indirect high explosive artillery. Despite these issues, he gave the game an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good". By August 1996, a quarter century after its publication, PanzerBlitz had sold 275,000 copies. Computer Gaming World columnist Terry Coleman claimed that these figures made it the second-best-selling board wargame ever, behind Axis & Allies. In his 2000 book Wargames Handbook: How to Play and Design Commercial and Professional Wargames, PanzerBlitz designer