Panzer Campaigns Announcement – Spring Awakening 1945

Hello everyone,

Fresh off highlighting our various exploits in 2023, we though it appropriate to start sharing what is coming next.

In 2023, we released two new Panzer Campaigns titles, Philippines ’44 and Orel ’43. Our next Panzer Campaigns title is in testing currently and expected to be ready for release in the next couple of months. That title is Panzer Campaigns Spring Awakening ’45.

For those that are unaware, here is the description from Wikipedia:

Operation Spring Awakening (German: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen) was the last major German offensive of World War II. The operation was referred to in Germany as the Plattensee Offensive and in the Soviet Union as the Balaton Defensive Operation. It took place in Western Hungary on the Eastern Front and lasted from 6 March until 15 March 1945. The objective was to secure the last significant oil reserves still available to the European Axis powers and prevent the Red Army from advancing towards Vienna. The Germans failed in their objectives.

The Spring Awakening operation took place nearly two months after the engagements covered in the Panzer Campaigns Budapest ’45 title. As Wikipedia mentions, this is the very last large-scale attack launched by the Germans in World War Two. The battles occurred west of Budapest around Lake Balaton. Only the eastern most part of the lake was included in the prior title.

Spring Awakening ’45 is the very first official title for Wargame Design Studio by talented modder César ‘Indragnir’ Moreno. César has created several large, and detailed variants of campaigns in previously released titles, adding new forces, additional details, and his own innovative twists. He was finally convinced to do something a little more official, and we are happy to start sharing his first project.

Spring Awakening ’45 will ship with over sixty scenarios. These come in various sizes ranging from very small to a very manageable, ninety-eight turn campaign covering all the actions during the operation.

The orders of battle are at the usual level of Indragnir detail, and for the Axis include German, SS, Luftwaffe, and Hungarian forces.

For the Allies, there are Russians, Russian Guards, Bulgarians, and Yugoslav combatants.

As this is a (very) late war title, there is a real range of different quality levels across the various nationalities. The Axis forces, reflect the loss of manpower after a catastrophic multi-year engagement and the knowledge for all involved that the end of the war is nigh.

Players will find both sides have significant challenges and nuances to tame.

We hope to have Panzer Campaigns Spring Awakening ’45 ready for release some time in the next three months, all dependent on testing and final production.

We expect that Spring Awakening ’45 will not be the only Panzer Campaigns title released this year. We have another two titles entering testing very soon and dependent on the results, we expect at least one will be available before the end of 2024. Look to a preview announcement when we know.

Here are a few sample screen shots from Panzer Campaigns Spring Awakening ’45, all can be clicked for full size and please keep in mind that everything shown is still work in progress.