Wagons of Doom
By Mike Bennighof, Ph.D.
November 2014

The Soviet Union made massive strides during the "forced industrialization" of the Five Year Plans. But in 1941, the horse remained a vital component of its transportation structure. This was true across Europe, of course, but the poor Soviet roads gave horse-drawn wagons an advantage during rainy weather.

Axis troops, therefore, merrily stole thousands of horse-drawn vehicles they called "Panje wagons." The name comes from the Magyar (Hungarian) word for "pony," and had entered the German military vocabulary during the First World War on the Eastern Front.

In our Fronte Russo Panzer Grenadier supplement, we used all 165 new pieces for Italian troops, weapons and leaders. That left no cardboard for the humble wagon, and players must use German pieces to fill in for them. Most won't mind — after all, in this series trucks and wagons usually have no effect on victory or initiative levels, and never do in this books' 41 new scenarios. So there's no reason that German pieces won't work.

But from the start, Panzer Grenadier was designed to avoid the "pretend this counter is actually that one" syndrome. No, you don't need Italian wagons, but the game's more fun if all the Italian pieces are in the Regio Esercito's gray-green. Or in Blackshirt black-and-gold.

So today we have a large, free download: two dozen wagon/truck pieces in Italian gray-green with the CSIR symbol, just like the troops and weapons of Fronte Russo. That's far more than you'll ever need in a single scenario, but you can never have enough toys.

You can download the new pieces here.

And here's a hint on how to make them of the utmost beauty.

Take to the muddy roads now in Fronte Russo!