Panzer Campaigns Scheldt ’44 – Released!

Hi All,

We are excited to release Panzer Campaigns – Scheldt ’44. This is the 24th game released in the Panzer Campaigns franchise and will not be the last. John Tiller mentioned the other week – I remember about 2001, a magazine reviewer called Panzer Campaigns “long in the tooth” after about the 3rd release

Well here we are nearly twenty years later…

We are excited to get this first, original title from Mike Prucha and Dave Michas. After building the extra content for France ’40 Gold, they chose Scheldt ’44 as their next project and have worked tirelessly to complete it. The guys have become an integral part of the JTS/WDS team, and I doubt they will be a one hit wonder.

Below is the information that will be up on the JTS web page.

…it was a battle of prime importance, at least as decisive in determining the date of final victory in the West, with all that implied for the future of Europe, as Arnhem and the Battle of the Bulge

– Major General J.L. Moulton, commander of No. 48 Commando in Operation Infatuate and author of Battle for Antwerp

Overview

On the night of September 25th-26th, the survivors of 1st Airborne Division were ferried to the south bank of the Nederrijn in a torrential downpour. Operation Market Garden had failed and Allied hopes for a speedy conclusion to the war in Europe were dashed. With a long winter ahead, Allied leaders had to grapple with the worsening supply situation in Northwest Europe. The lightning advance from Normandy and the rapid build-up of forces on the continent had placed immense logistical strain on the Allied Expeditionary Force and shortages of fuel and ammunition threatened to stall further Allied action. The massive deep-water port complex at Antwerp, delivered from the enemy intact by the Belgian Resistance on September 4th-5th, alone could remedy Allied supply woes, but this inland port was useless so long as the Germans occupied the Scheldt Estuary. Issued the unenviable task of clearing the Scheldt and opening Antwerp to Allied shipping, the men of 1st Canadian Army embarked on a miserable campaign against a determined enemy that was to be characterized by dismal weather and knee-deep mud…

Scheldt ’44 explores 21st’ Army Group’s actions in the autumn of the 1944, focusing on the Battle of the Scheldt, the Maas Salient Campaign, and the Channel Ports. Other actions in Belgium and the Netherlands are also represented, including Operation Market Garden in an all-new campaign scenario.

Scenarios

Panzer Campaigns: Scheldt ‘44 covers the major actions of 21st Army Group between September and November of 1944, including

  • The advance to the Dutch border, September 7th-12th
  • The Channel Ports Campaign, September 17th-28th
  • Operation Market Garden, September 17th-25th
  • The Scheldt Campaign (early), October 1st-17th
  • The Scheldt Campaign (late), October 20th-November 8th

Additional scenarios cover the 1st and 2nd Battles of Overloon and other actions from the period.

There are 46 scenarios in total including the above-mentioned campaigns. Campaign scenarios range in length from 58 turns up to 177 turns. Smaller scenarios ranging in length from 6 to 115 turns, averaging 18 turns, will provide players with plenty of challenges and battles of variable length and size.

Features

Game features include:

  • Game scale is 1 hex = 1 km, 1 turn = 2 hours, with battalion and company size units.
  • 46 Scenarios – covering all sizes and situations, including specialized versions for both head to head play and vs. the computer AI.
  • The Master Map covers 66,400 hexes and includes much of the Netherlands, Belgium, and north-eastern France.
  • Five Order of Battle files covering the 21st Army Group and opposing elements of Heeresgruppe B during the period September-November 1944, including ground forces from nine Allied nations and the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS.
  • Order-of-Battle and Scenario Editors which allow players to customize the game.
  • Sub-map feature allows the main map to be “chopped” up into smaller segments for custom scenario creation.
  • All new images for unit art on both sides, including guns and vehicles.
  • Extensive Designer notes providing historic background to the scenarios and explanation of design decisions

Scheldt ’44 provides multiple play options including play against the computer AI, Play by E-mail (PBEM), LAN & Internet “live” play, and two player hot seat.

You can get the game now from John Tiller Software on this link; JTS Shop Link

You can get more information on the game as well as a number of free downloads here; Scheldt ’44 Product Page

We hope you enjoy this latest Panzer Campaigns title and a big thank you to the team again!

25 thoughts on “Panzer Campaigns Scheldt ’44 – Released!

  • argh…..I get paid once a month. Gotta wait until the 26th.

    Congratulations. I can’t tell you how much JTS gameplay I’ve gotten in since starting quarantine back in March. keep the good stuff coming!

    Tom

  • My first thoughts …

    A truly masterpiece when you consider the challenge posed by the new terrain’s representation. This campaign seems to have particularities that will require the player to master, once again, the engineers as well as a careful planning.

    Beside this, Scheldt ’44 will allow to discover for some players the British/Canadian methodical style of war in the European theater.

    On the other hand, the German player will face a defensive campaign with a strange mix of some elite troops, and and a whole bunch a small units with a poor morale and brand new tigers II fighting alongside beute B1bis panzer …

    I began playing yesterday evening, so I have yet to discover a lot of things (I am personally eager to see how the volksgrenadier divisions short range firepower has been treated by your team), but so far Scheldt 44 is, as I expected, a very pleasant surprise.

  • Great title. I’ve bought and installed no problem. The new graphics are crisp and clear and beautiful, David. Excellent work. Your team’s best yet. It’s a sumptuous title full of interest and lavishly rich in information. Wide selection of fascinating scenarios. Been looking forward to it for quite a while. Thanks.

  • Very good game (as always) and great initiative in the graphics. I specify that I live in Belgium, a privileged theater. I like the immersive power of the austere JT games and the room for improvement left to players of all levels. Apart from the famous GG War in the East, there’s nothing like it from a playful point of view for big kids who like to “play toy soldiers” without guilt (humor) and with the added advantage of covering all fronts and styles of conflict. In terms of requests (not criticisms or constructive ones), I admit that it took me a while to adapt to the Hex Jilsons whose somewhat “naive” style deserves to be somewhat attenuated by a saturation of colors accentuated with a little less “pastel” in my opinion. I would also like to find the very practical aspect of the management of the size of the menu bar buttons and the mouse pointer, as well as the choice of Hex embroideries in terms of intensity and colors, but these are details. Thanks for the work. On which Panzer Campaign title do you plan to release, the next HiRes upgrade because it’s almost time for the sales…? Good continuation.

    • …another little detail that is close to my heart (because I am Belgian), the impossibility to leave the names of cities and rivers visible during the action (the location menu is not permanent). The fighting is very intense and much less ‘linear’ than on the eastern front, excellent work. Thank you very much.

      • Hi Phil,

        To keep map names on hit Shift & Alt at the same time and they will stay on permanently. Hit Shift again to turn them off again. Hopefully that fixes your issue?

  • For info, I copied the HI-Rez graphics of Scheldt 44 in Mius 43 and here I am with a brand new beautiful map compared to the old…… good to know…

    • I tried this, and copied over the new files into my Bulge game. It looked ok, but the top level zoom is a little blurred compared to in Scheldt 44, so I assume the true hi-rez zoom doesn’t quite work properly if you do this.

      • All,

        That is correct. You need a new game exe for each game for the new graphics to show at the max zoom level. They will work at the mid and far zoom level though. At the max zoom level it is using the mid-level graphics and magnifying them as per the original Gold graphics. That’s why it looks blurry currently.
        I will be working through the games in the series to get the new exe and graphics as quickly as our schedule allows.

      • On Mius 43, I don’t have a blur effect or, for that matter, graphics equivalent to Scheldt 44 (even in Max zoom), I rather get a kind of mix that resembles the original Mius Gold card but very clear and free of the rather annoying “hand painting” effect on my 23′ screen in 1920X1080. On the other hand, at maximum zoom, the “Motion Highlight” doesn’t work and the “transport mode” symbol doesn’t appear under the unit icon in the info bar (but on the map). I didn’t try this on other titles because the file distribution is not the same in the Map folder of Mius 43. I’ve tried renaming the units to get a better result than the “pixel swathe” in Max zoom but it doesn’t work. A little trick but not a miracle ;-). Thanks for the help.

        Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

  • Hi there guys thx for S44 Very nice simulation I found a bug All marsh terrain are marked as jungle Take care and thanks again for this amazing sim.

    • Hi Marcin,

      Thanks for the note, glad you are enjoying the game.

      We covered the ‘Jungle’ in the Player’s Notes on page 91. See below. I hope the explanation is clear.

      Like the Dutch in 1940, the Germans engineered defensive inundations to inhibit enemy movement and discourage attack in certain sectors. This flooding was tightly controlled so that the water was roughly knee to waist deep. This depth was considered sufficient to inhibit movement and deny cover, but not so deep that the Allies could traverse the flooded zones in boats. Allied infantry were particular vulnerable when attacking through flooded zones as the land offered limited cover and their movement would often be restricted to dikes and elevated roads. We did not feel that any existing Panzer Campaigns terrain type adequately represented the challenges associated with advancing through the flooded zones. Ideally, we would create a new “Flooded Field” terrain type, but unfortunately this is not possible. Our solution was to modify an existing terrain type to represent the flooded fields. We chose jungle terrain because this is otherwise unused in European maps. The map art and PDT values for jungle hexes are modified to
      represent flooded fields. It is regrettable that the info box will read “Jungle” when a flooded hex is selected, but we felt that the gameplay effect of having the extra terrain type outweighed this display issue.

  • Hello, is it possible to know which is the next title(s) of the Pz Campaign series that will be updated according to your theoretical calendar? Thank you (sales are coming soon).

  • I also would love to know the rough program for conversion. The new graphics make such a difference that I won’t play any other titles until they’re converted, I think.

  • Hello, this is the “winter sales” on JT Shop, I suppose we’ll be able to upgrade the games purchased at that time for free when the time comes? Thank you very much.

    • Yes, all upgrades will be free to existing owners. Make the most of the sale as the new hi-res graphics will be available soon.

  • Thats’s the objective of my request 😉 Thank you Santa Claus. I see the “battle of the bulge” project, it looks very great…I’m impatient.

    • Hi Phil,

      I expect we will update Modern Campaigns. Panzer Battles already has hi-res graphics, so I don’t expect any changes there. We do have new winter graphics though that are important for upcoming titles.

      David

  • Hello, it seems that some units are missing from their representation in Graphic Icons in recently upgraded titles. So far I have spotted two cases in Budapest 45. Are you aware of the problem? Thank you…

  • Sadly, FWWC isn’t David’s, but Ed Williams, I believe. Would be fantastic to get the new PC graphics in FWWC, but it’s not to be, I fear.

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