The View from the Turret

World at War: Death of the 1st Panzer — Review

Posted on 07Feb08 Updated on 25Aug09

World at War: Death of the 1st Panzer is the first expansion to Lock ‘n Load’s Cold War era World at War: Eisenbach Gap wargame. The expansion ships in a ziplock and introduces new forces, scenarios, and a map to the game.

Death of the 1st Panzer is a straightforward expansion and provides the units for West German panzer units. In this case the 1st Panzer is essentially two mechanized infantry companies and two panzer companies with some attachments. Other new units included are the Soviet T-12 ATG and the ASU-85. The counters are of the same design as WaW:EG but are printed on thicker stock. They are still on the thin side but not unusually so.

The rulebook is six pages long and the only new rules introduced are for the new units as well as an optional victory point scoring system. The front and back cover of the Death of the 1st Panzer actually has a new map printed on the back. This is of similar design to the WaW:EG map but is printed on cardstock not cardboard. It is also printed in more subdued colors with a predominate deeper green for the clear hexes. This looks better than the brighter WaW:EG map but the level one hills are a tad hard to see. The different map materials are not an issue for play as the two maps are not used together.

The expansion includes six new scenarios. The scenarios are a nice mix and include ones with West German only forces as well as mixed forces from EG versus the Warsaw Pact. Both the new map and the Eisenbach Gap map are used with the new scenarios. Lastly, a small FAQ is provided at the end of the rulebook.

Conveniently, Death of the 1st Panzer fits inside the Eisenbach Gap game box for easy storage.

If you enjoyed World at War: Eisenbach Gap then Death of the 1st Panzer is a must get expansion. The new forces, scenarios, and map add considerable play value to a great game system. Recommended.

Also see our Line of Fire review for more WaW material.