this a "Fluid operational game [...] The most popular recent East Front game and spiritual father of several more games with the same basic system." However, Palmer had issues with the untried units rule, saying, "Personally I find the untried units rather odd: they range from excellent to useless, and their owner has no more prior idea of their value than the enemy." In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman thought the game was marginally unbalanced in favor of the Germans, but called the game "an advance in the state of the art for operational simulations of World War II." He found the "system of untried units is a novel and interesting way to handle the qualitative differences between the German and Russian organizations during the period." Although he thought the Russian player, always on the defensive, "would die of frustration — if boredom didn't put him to sleep", Freeman still gave this game an Overall Evaluation of "Very Good." In Issue 50 of Moves, Steve List called this "a very good and popular game [...] a happy blend of old and new ideas." He concluded, "This is both a playable game and a reasonably good simulation." In Issue 7 of Phoenix (May–June 1977), Graham Wheatly found that the three-color mapsheet was "a pleasure to behold", and he also complimented the graphic designer for not adding extraneous tables and charts to the map. He noted the game was designed to be unbalanced in favor of the German player, and warned the Russian player to look for any opportunity to slow the German advance: "In any way, gain time, as time is the most important thing in this highly playable game of the Russian war." In The Guide to Simulations/Games for Education and Training, Martin Campion commented on using this as an educational aid, saying the game "is a superb representation of the German Blitzkrieg in Russia in 1941 — if the players take advantage of the possibilities. The rules are understandable enough that I have been able to give the game to students to play on their own." In the 1980 book The Complete Book of Wargames, game designer Jon Freeman commented, "Panzergruppe Guderian was an advance in the state of the art for operational simulations of World War II." However, Freeman did have issues with the variable and hidden strengths of Russian units,