How to Start Playing PzC Games Properly? Any newbie guides?

[Mowgli]

Mowgli,
Than you for the very informative post with examples (excellent screenshots too, no less). I didn't even know that such a small and easy-to-make hole in your lines could make such a large difference. I knew supply lines and being isolated were a thing, but I didn't think one hex would play such a significant role. Now that I think about it, one hex in PzC is 1 kilometer, so one hex truly is plenty of space between units where isolation makes sense. I also downloaded your guide and could understand just enough to make sense of some of it. German has a lot of words that I can translate just by sound or spelling, though I did take a couple of semesters back in junior high way back when.

Out of curiosity, which game in the series do the screenshots come from?

These are screenshots from Smolensk '41, one of the Yelna scenarios. But I'm using the excellent mapmod which can be found here: http://www.mapmod.se/

So you could suggest that the Russian player in the example did not understand how the ZOC mechanics work in these games otherwise they would have not presented the German player with such juicy targets.

So understanding the basics is vital and if you make a mistake like this understanding what you did wrong and how to not make the same mistake again. 

I don't know where you're going with that. If you're implying I'm a bad player perhaps I am. I just try to give advice to newbies here. Also, in defence of my lack of concentration in this turn, the played scenario is just a chore for the Soviet player. The situation happened after 10 turns in which I was basically just falling back, never even firing a single shot. Even larsonney (who is a much better player) says the Soviets have no chance to win this and you will end up with some of your units isolated sooner or later.

I found that the chess-like absolute domination of the isolation/zoc mechanics surprise many new players. They're surprised how many limits it imposes on their game play. It's not so much about having a plan. Gameplay revolves more about making positional errors. Only once you're perfectly trained not to commit these errors does the tactical part come into play again. The dominance of positioning (over e.g. unit quality and creating local superiorty of force) is quite a big entry barrier for the enjoyment of the game, I have to say. That being said, it certainly has its place. But maybe the effects are little bit too extreme, or maybe it's because most scenarios make you struggle hard to cover a lot of distance with very few units. Or maybe I'm just playing the wrong scenarios.