Golden Journal 27 Panzer Grenadier Sherman Tanks

Our 27th issue is all about the Sherman tank: is it under-rated in Panzer Grenadier? You get 24 upgraded Sherman pieces to test out this proposition. Almost 50,000 Shermans would be produced during the Second World War, equipping not only U.S. Army and Marine Corps tank units but those of many Allied nations as well. The Sherman appears in many Panzer Grenadier games (more of them than you’d think, thanks to all of those Allied Shermans). But are those Shermans studly enough? Designer Brian Knipple gave them an armor rating of “3” in our long out-of-print Battle of the Bulge, the first game in which they appeared. They remained so rated in their next appearance (this time in British colors) and it’s been that way ever since. Should they have had armor of “4”? Some fans thought so from the beginning, but we have stuck with “3.” Our “Belton’s Bane” variant gives you two dozen Sherman tank platoons of various types (M4 Shermans, M4/76 and M4/105) and service (Army, Marines). While the Sherman had a bewildering number of sub-types, most of the differences aren’t enough to show up in game terms and we’ve always kept the naming conventions simple.