Hopeless, But Not Serious

What's the difference between an Austrian and a German?

A German, goes the Viennese response, says that a situation is serious, but not hopeless. An Austrian calls the same situation hopeless, but not serious.

And so it was for Austria's First Republic in early 1938. The Austrian Federal Army mustered eight and a half divisions, each of them much smaller than their German counterparts, and was outnumbered 4:1 by German troops slated for the invasion with even greater discrepancies in tanks, planes and artillery. Army chief of staff Alfred Jansa had drawn up detailed plans for armed resistance, and army commander Gen. Wilhelm Zehner had carefully removed Nazi sympathizers from the officer corps. But Chancellor Kurt Schuschnigg decided the situation was indeed as hopeless as it was serious. Austria bowed to the inevitable and the Germans rolled in unopposed.

Hopeless, But Not Serious is a supplement for the Panzer Grenadier system based on the actual actions of the Austrian Army against Socialist and Nazi militias in 1934, and potential battles foreseen by the Jansa Plan in 1938. This module is not playable by itself, but requires ownership of our Eastern Front, Road to Berlin, Battle of the Bulge, Elsenborn Ridge and Cassino '44 games and our Edelweiss and Sinister Forces supplements to enjoy all of the scenarios. There are 16 scenarios, two each from the Austrian Civil War and Nazi Uprising of 1934, one based on the only actual combat between German and Austrian units in 1938, and the other 10 drawn from potential battles considered by the Austrian General Staff that did not actually occur.