Sinister Forces:
Publisher's Farewell
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
December 2014

I really hate Nazis. So I wrote a book about them.

Sinister Forces became the pattern for dozens of books that followed: 64 pages, a full-sized sheet of playing pieces, a bunch of scenarios (35 of them in this case) and background articles dovetailing with the scenarios. We’ve done several dozen like that since, and it seems to suit us. We’ve discontinued other types of supplements to concentrate on this type of book.

What I like about this format is the opportunity to interweave historical background material and the game scenarios themselves. In the future, I’d like to make this the pattern for all of our games, including boxed ones, not just the add-on supplements. It’s a much better format for telling a story in game format than the traditional boxed game.

The initial releases in the Panzer Grenadier series had no Waffen SS troops; that’s solely because I didn’t want them in there. Our marketing manager at the time finally convinced me that customers wanted them, and by denying their existence I was letting the “heroic Aryan” narrative go unchallenged, at least among wargames. I finally gave in, but I’m still not sure I should have. At any rate, I wrote the book.

I had a very clear story in mind for Sinister Forces: despite the disturbing accolades given the Waffen SS by some popular historians and some wargame publishers, they simply weren’t a very good combat force. Mostly this was because they had not been intended for combat: these were occupation troops, intended to suppress conquered peoples and conduct mass murder of unarmed civilians. Never intended to serve at the front, these units began to enter the lines as Germany ran short of troops. Their ranks filled with cowards, party activists and released criminals, most SS units collapsed quickly in combat.

And that’s the bulk of the book: short histories of most SS divisions, followed by a few scenarios featuring that division. There’s also a section on the Finnish SS mercenary battalion, and the Norwegian SS ski battalion. Greg Guerrero wrote a very fine piece on the Soviet NKVD and its combat troops, and they get their own scenarios, too.

The 165 pieces put the SS troops in the camouflage scheme that became the standard for later games. They get a lot of unusual weaponry, since these units intended for occupation duty had to make do with tanks, vehicles and artillery captured from Germany’s conquered enemies, chiefly the French. Their morale is poor, and their leadership is worse.

The NKVD have a cool color scheme, and unlike the SS they’re actually pretty good at fighting armed enemies (like the SS, they’re pretty good at mass murder, too). Their morale and leadership is usually at least as good as the regular Red Army of Workers and Peasants (RKKA), and sometimes much better as these are long-service professionals rather than conscripts. The OMSBON commandos are among the best troops in the Panzer Grenadier series.

The cover took six weeks of full-time work by the artist. We debuted it at a convention (can’t recall which one) and the then-sales manager ripped open the first carton, steadily complaining about the lengthy production delay.

“I almost told (another artist) to gin up a plain black cover just to get the thing to press,” I said while she hacked at the thick layers of packing tape with her signature weapon, a black switchblade. Finally she got a copy free.

“Why the hell didn’t you?!?! This is godawful!”

I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I’m not really thrilled with it, either.

Most scenarios in Sinister Forces draw on Eastern Front for maps and pieces, with some of them using parts from Afrika Korps or Desert Rats. All three of those games are going out of stock this month as we retire all of the Panzer Grenadier Third Edition boxed games, so that means that Sinister Forces must follow them into a Viking Funeral.

We printed a lot of Sinister Forces – it was printed in Asia, and we had a pretty large minimum order to meet. The book has actually sold really well, with well over 80 percent of that gigantic print run sold. This will be its last call; though I doubt we’ll actually burn many copies of the other books and games in the Viking Funeral Sale, Sinister Forces is really unlikely to sell out. Something about torching the SS really appeals to me, so you’d best grab a copy while you still can.

Click here to order Sinister Forces while you still can!

Mike Bennighof is president of Avalanche Press and holds a doctorate in history from Emory University. A Fulbright Scholar and award-winning journalist, he has published over 100 books, games and articles on historical subjects. He lives in Birmingham, Alabama with his wife, three children and his dog, Leopold.