Panzergruppe Guderian is a board wargame published by Simulations Publications, Inc. in 1976 that simulates the 1941 Battle of Smolensk during World War II. Description During Operation Barbarossa, Germany's 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, the Second Panzer Group led by Generaloberst Heinz Guderian attempted to encircle Russian forces at Smolensk. Panzergruppe Guderian is a simulation of that battle. Components The original pull-out game comes with: 32" x 22" paper hex grid map scaled to 10.5 km (6.5 mi) per hex 200 die-cut counters 8-page rulebook The flat-pack edition added a plastic counter tray, clear plastic cover, and cover graphic sheet. The Designer's Edition added a large box, and the paper map was mounted. The Avalon Hill edition featured a slight smaller 31.4" x 21.5" map, and 260 counters packaged in a "bookcase" box. Counters The board wargame Invasion: America, published in January 1976, was the first board wargame to use the concept of "untried units" — American militia units display a question mark when initially laid on the board; their true combat strength is not revealed until the opposing player engages them in combat and the unit is flipped over. Panzergruppe Guderian, published six-month later, used the "untried unit" concept to represent all Soviet units: the Soviet player initially picks face-down units randomly and deploys them face down; their type (e.g. infantry, armor) and movement values are displayed, but not their strengths. Neither player knows the unit's combat strength until it first engages in combat, when it is flipped over, revealing its offensive and defensive capabilities. Gameplay The Soviet player moves his units first, then conducts attacks. The German moves, attacks, then moves his mechanized forces a second time. Victory conditions The German side receives victory points for capturing certain geographical objectives. The Soviet gains points for destroying entire German divisions and for recapturing locations taken by the Germans. Publication history Panzergruppe Guderian was designed by James F. Dunnigan, with cartography and graphic design by Redmond A. Simonsen, and first appeared as a pull-out game in Strategy & Tactics No. 57 (July–August 1976). It was also published as a flat-pack box, and as a Designer's Edition boxed set. After TSR took over SPI in 1982, it sold the rights to Panzergruppe Guderian to Avalon Hill, which published a new edition of the game in 1984. Reception In his 1977 book The Comprehensive Guide to Board Wargaming, Nicholas Palmer called