Panzer Grenadier: Puppet Brigade (2023)

In March 1939, the small, newly-created nation of Slovakia declared its independence from Czechoslovakia and immediately became a satellite of Nazi Germany. Slovak troops invaded Ukraine in 1941 and fought alongside the Germans for five years as the most minor of allies. The puppet government began mobilizing reservists just four days before the German invasion, and sent its troops over the border six days later. Those soldiers proved far less enthusiastic about the adventure than their proto-fascist leadership. Slovak formations performed poorly for the most part, with just one notable success. Puppet Brigade is a Campaign Study for the Panzer Grenadier series, focused on the battles of the Slovak Army’s Mobile Brigade. There are nine scenarios plus the brigade’s background story, and 88 die-cut-and-mounted playing pieces. This is not a complete game; you’ll need Fire in the Steppe and Broken Axis to play all of the scenarios. Puppet Brigade is a partial reprint of our long out-of-print Slovakia’s War expansion, with just the first chapter from that book and the 88 pieces that first appeared in First Axis. —description from the publisher