At WBC, the tournament is run as a coached event. This means that any player need only show up between 9am and 10pm any day of the convention, be coached through a game and then play a game on their own. The Gamemaster (GM) will provide battle situations, from extremely fast and simple to longer and complex, for play.

Players may also bring their own games and situations for play during the week. Any situation for Panzerblitz, Panzer Leader, or Arab Isreael Wars, including do your own, are allowed for play pending GM approval. For the Semifinal and Final, The GM will provide 12 situations. Players must choose one out of the 12 for their Semifinal amd Final game. The rules for the Semifinal and Final games will be the basic and optional rules.

Why play this old game? Simplicity. It is a great boardgame! Maybe it is pleasing to the old grognard brain or maybe it is because of the elegance of design and fast play. PanzerBlitz is a game with a short book of rules. PanzerLeader expanded those rules to include plotted indirect fire, opportunity fire, infantry double time, and aircraft. PanzerLeader has the feel of a more interactive tactical game, while adding a minimum of rules. Arab Israeli Wars added a few more rules and improved upon PanzerLeader. All three game versions offer optional and advanced rules for those grognards looking for more choices.

You can tailor the game situation to play to your learning curve. A skirmish of small forces can be played in an hour, or a large battle can take all day into the night to finish. And it is different every time as there are many, many historical and hypothetical situations to choose from. In addition, the gamer can create their own battle to re-enact. This can be a detailed historical situation, with accurate order of battle and terrain. It can also be a build your own force with to play for an objective on a pre-selected terrain board.

With so many choices to choose from, with the ease of play, and with all the support of 50 years of written materials, it is a game that cannot be missed on anyone€™s gameplay bucket list. A play of this old game is worth the experience of boardgame design history! Today, the games are still valuable, and are often for sale used, and very rarely unused, sealed, on the resale market. So, access to the game is easy to come by. Read the rules, play a situation and be ready for the WBC tournament.

PanzerBlitz, PanzerLeader, and Arab Israeli Wars will be played as separate game versions within the PZB game series tournament. Pairs of players may play each other three times, once playing PZB, once playing PZL, and once playing Arab Israeli Wars, the winners of each game receiving 10 points, as opposed to 2 points for the second game, plus bonus points as usual. Subsequent games between the same players award the winners 2 points.

1. Free Form Format - This Tournament uses a Swiss Elimination format with Swiss preliminary rounds followed by a Single Elimination format for the four players with the best performances during the Swiss segment. Entrants may play multiple games during the preliminary Swiss segment anytime during the first seven days. Best performances will be determined as described below in paragraph 6.

2. Schedule - The schedule consists of seven daily heats. The Swiss Segment ends on Friday at 10:00 pm for game starts, and at 11:30 pm (or later if approved by the GMs). The four players with the best performances during the Swiss Segments will advance into the Single Elimination Rounds. All games played during the Swiss Segment will be used to determine the top four players heading into the Semifinal and Final.

3. Battle Situations - Either PanzerBlitz or Panzer Leader or Arab Israeli Wars may be played with the former the default version in the event no agreement can be reached. Players can play any situation that they and their opponent agree to during the preliminary rounds, with GM approval. The GM will provide twelve (12) situations to choose from for the semifinal and final playoff play.

The players in the Semifinal and Final will be asked to rank 12 situations from the GM list in order of preference that they want to play. A value of 12 will be given to the highest ranked situation, 11 to the second highest and so on down to a value of 1 for the twelfth ranked situation. The highest combined ranked situation will be the one that is played for that match. If there is a tie in the rankings for the highest number of points, the situation with the smallest differential between the tied player selections from these rankings will be the situation. In the unlikely event that there is still a tie after this tiebreaker, a die will be rolled to determine which of the two situations will be played.

4. Optional Rules - See rules for PanzerBlitz and Panzer Leader and AIW, players must agree before play starts to include optional and advanced rules. Otherwise, the game is to be played with the basic rules. For Semifinal/Final games of Panzer Leader, the optional rules are added to the basic rules.

5. Single Elimination Rounds - Four players from the Swiss segment will advance to the Semifinal. Semifinal winners will advance to the Final. All Swiss rounds must be concluded by 11:20 pm (or later if approved by the GMs) on Friday to count towards the calculation of who advances to the single elimination rounds. If any of the Semifinal qualifiers fail to appear 25 minutes aafter the scheduled start time, they will be dropped from further participation in the elimination rounds. Players who finished lower than 4th in the Swiss segment may move into the Single Elimination rounds if they are present when higher rated no-shows are officially dropped. The 1st place finisher will play the 4th place finisher and the 2nd place finisher will play the 3rd place finisher. If players qualifying for the Final round do not intend to participate, they should alert the GM as soon as possible so that lower ranked finishers may be moved up to play in the single elimination portion.

6. Player Challenge - A player may challenge any of the top four players on the leader board if the challenging player stands a chance to move into the top four if they defeat the player they are challenging. Top four players are responsible to check the leader board for challenges and arrange for the game. The last chance to challenge will be on Friday at 12:00 pm, so the game can be completed by 11:30 pm. If the player being challenged does not make time for the game, then they forfeit, and may lose their position on the leader board. The GM will be available to resolve any disputes concerning a challenge game.

7. Player Performance Ratings:

All game results and performance ratings will be posted and updated as the results are reported
• Performance ratings will be based upon the three best games played by a participant
• Games more than your three best games will not add, nor detract from your performance rating
• Performance ratings for a player will be obtained as follows:
  • Ten points for each win against an opponent in the first match between two common players
  • Two points for each win against an opponent in the second match between two common players. The exception to this is that if a different game in the game series (PB/PL/AIW) is played in the second match between two common players, the winner receives ten points
  • If players select a situation that allows for a draw ending, and their game ends in a draw, both players will be awarded four points each
  • Players will earn one point for a loss.
  • Finally, a player receives two bonus points for each victory tallied by an opponent THAT YOU DEFEATED or HAD A DRAW against, up to a maximum of three wins (six bonus points) for that opponent. NOTE: The bonus points count towards your final score if they are for one of your three best games. You do not get bonus points for a loss.

8. Performance Rating Tiebreakers

• Head-to-head play (points earned vs. that opponent) is the 1st tiebreaker
• Points scored VERSUS mutual opponents is the 2nd tiebreaker
• Points scored BY mutual opponents is the 3rd tiebreaker
• Points scored BY all opponents is the 4th tiebreaker
• Die roll is the 5th tiebreaker

9. Multiple Games - Entrants may play every day during the Swiss segment, if so desired. Entrants may play multiple games during the Swiss segment. While you can play the same opponent multiple times, note that players can only earn ten points for a win versus an opponent during their first match against that opponent. An additional ten points can be earned if two players play another of the three games in the series (PB/PL/AIW) that they have not already played.

10. Match Assignments - The GM will assist in determining match pairings during the free form segment; however, players can seek each other for matches independent of the GM assignments. The exception is for player challenges.

11. Administration - Each player will be given a sheet to record the essential elements of their game. These elements will include the scenario played, which player played which side, the winner and other important game elements. The sheets must be handed in to the GM to have the match be considered official and completed.

12. Missing Participant - If an assigned opponent does not appear for a mutually agreed upon start time (Challenge/Semifinal/Final), the GM will forfeit the game to a player who is waiting. The player who is waiting must alert the GM that a forfeit is imminent within 10-minutes of the start time listed on the Match Card. If the tardy opponent fails to appear, the game will be forfeited to the player who is waiting at 15-minutes past the start time on the Match Card in the case of a challenge game. In the case of a Semifinal/Final games, the next player on the leader board will face the player waiting to play their game. If no other players are available then the player waiting wins by forfeit.

13. Game Start Change Requests: Both players must alert the GMs if they would like to request a change to their game start time. For a Semifinal game this request must include all four players in the Semifinals, if the Final game start is to be pushed back to a later time.

14. Judgement - The GM (or assistant GM if the game involves the GM or the GM is not present) reserves the right to adjudicate any game at the end of the time limit for the round. If one player is moving at a significantly slower pace than the other, this will be considered in the adjudication. The time limit for each day is 10:00 pm, unless both players agree to play later.

15. Order of Finish - WBC rules require submission of a Winner Claim with the top six players listed in order (although there may be no prizes for some of these finishes for this event). At the end of the Swiss, players will be ranked in order from 1 to 6. The final 5th & 6th places will be determined from these standings.

16. AREA Ratings - The GM will submit the results of ALL games played for inclusion in the AREA ratings.

Additional Prizes - The GM will provide dioramas as trophies for first, second, and third place finishers. This year 2024 is the 50th anniversary of Panzer Leader, and each player participating is eligible to receive a special commemorative t-shirt, mug, or hat for playing.

Links