military symbols, making the game a departure from other operational level games as well as being reminiscent of miniatures games. Combined with bookcase-style packaging, it advanced Avalon Hill's reputation for physical quality. The game was not limited to the 12 scenarios provided with it, but included instructions for making a Design-Your-Own (DYO) scenario, or "Situation 13". The Designer's Notes showed players how many counters it would take to make up a complete Soviet Tank Corps, though this would require purchasing additional counter sets from Avalon Hill. (Players were advised against such extravagance, however, and urged to keep "counter density" low.) This open-ended approach made PanzerBlitz a highly replayable game system, a feature widely emulated by subsequent games. The wealth of technical detail was unprecedented, as was the detailed description of how this technical data was incorporated into the game. The Designer's Notes stated, "A glance at the PANZERBLITZ game components gives you the impression that you can pick up a considerable amount of historical data by just studying the game, much less actually playing it ... Unfortunately, you cannot take this data, as modified in the game design, at face value. Instead you must understand some of the decisions that were made about this game data before it was incorporated into the game." Design philosophy In spite of the heavy technical payload, PanzerBlitz was easy to learn and play. The basic system was quite simple. PanzerBlitz was a vivid expression of Avalon Hill's design philosophy in that playability and design elegance were prized above exactitude. The game mechanics were abstract and aimed at giving a realistic "feel" for armored combat rather than a completely accurate simulation. Simulation issues Although the abstract simplicity of PanzerBlitz attracted a wide following, certain unrealistic aspects were heavily criticized. Below are a couple of examples. "Panzerbush" Units in towns and wooded hexes were invisible unless an enemy unit was directly adjacent to them, even though those units may have moved to that position in full view of the enemy, and fired from it as well. There is an optional rule called opportunity fire in which a unit moving in the line-of-sight of an enemy unit may be fired upon by that unit. This ability of units to hop from one woods hex to another without being attacked was called "Panzerbush Syndrome", and "Panzerbush" became a scornful nickname for the game itself. The game provided a