Introduction

As every military historian knows, every battle is fought on several levels: Important among these are the tactical and the grand tactical. The tactical side of Stalingrad evokes the grimmest side of war. The grand tactical aspect of this epic battle captures and intrigues as well. The German approach to the city proper is interesting but the Soviet encirclement is breath-taking. To use an entire city and a multitude of corps as a pin for a massive envelopment was a coldly brilliant undertaking. The German attempt to relieve the besieged Sixth Army has the stuff of high drama. Players can fight the charnel house-like tactical side in some scenarios of HPS’ Advance of the Reich installment of the Squad Battles series. The immense grand tactical side has been produced by HPS and developer John Tiller with Stalingrad ’42. We can hope that the developers address the operational side in a forthcoming episode of the Total War series.

In some ways, the creation of this game was as epic as the battle. Gamers have wondered why this pivotal campaign hadn’t made it in to the Panzer Campaigns series yet. Stalingrad ‘42’s designer notes tell the tale. Designers Glenn Saunders and Dave “Blackie” Blackburn started work on the game in 1999. Working with several sources, they created a map with 75,000 hexes. Meanwhile, Mike Avanzini fought through sizzled hard drives to create three separate Orders of Battles for each distinct phase of the campaign. Critics who cry “cookie cutter” about this series obviously have never looked into the kitchen. All that being said, a large amount of work doesn’t necessarily mean the product is proportionately well-made. Scrutiny is demanded.

Installation and Documentation

Installation is simple with the usual wizard and takes up 250 MB of hard disk space. A flawless installation requires players to download a fix for a very interesting scenario. As always with the Panzer Campaign series, documentation is provided in-game through a function using the Windows help format. This documentation is divided into general help, users’ manual, scenario parameters and designer notes. The Contents, Index and Find tabs make for quick answers to questions, as does the liberal sprinkling of hotlinks to related sections. The tutorial scenario continues the more user-friendly style set by Moscow ’41. All the basic interface concepts are explained and helpful tips are provided, too.

Graphics and Sound Effects

Stalingrad ’42 has two primary graphic modes for the main map, each with two zoom levels. The 2D mode has terrain depicted with varying shadings for elevation, different colors and line widths for streams and rivers, appropriate colors for vegetation and ground conditions and small clusters of dots or rectangles for buildings. Units are NATO icons with toggled division colors for easy identification. An option in this mode is board game-like 3D counters that have basic information like strength, quality and fatigue printed on the corners. This 2D mode, plus the essential jump map showing all known units and objectives, is the choice of most gamers.

The 3D mode shows graphical representations of units and terrain features. Units become generic tanks, guns and men while vegetation, structures and terrain become small trees, houses and rises. While such graphics are useful for a tactical game where facing and formation are important, they seem almost garish and obstructive in this series. These images seem to clutter the screen and may distract players from the important aspects of play. Those gamers who must see a concrete representation of units may need them; others don’t.