Tanks - Modern Warfare

Started by Silent Disapproval Robot, January 03, 2019, 02:12:03 PM

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Silent Disapproval Robot

Tanks is a fun little beer & pretzels type minis game with a very low cost of entry.  I bought into the WWII version and we play fairly often and always have a good time with it.  Recently, they released the next line in the series, Tanks - Modern Warfare.  One of my gaming buddies bought into this series.  They're only released the first wave of armour so far (US, Soviet, West German, UK, and French MBTs and a few APCs but they are putting out more APCs and helis in the next wave).

We got it on the table for the first time tonight and had a few quick skirmishes.  First battle saw 4 T-64s (me) attacking US tanks (2 M1 Abrams and an M60) in West Germany.  Soviets crushed the Yankee imperialists while losing only 1 T-64.  2nd round was the same Soviet force facing off against the Brits with 3 Chieftains and two Scimitar APCs.  The Soviets carried the day again but it was much closer with the USSR losing two of their tanks with the remaining two badly damaged.









demjansk1942

How do you plat these miniature games?

Staggerwing

Usually, with a tape measure or some sort of measuring template for range and movement
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Silent Disapproval Robot

Tanks is very simple and very similar to the X-Wing minis us game if you've played that.  Each vehicle comes with a stars card that will define its capabilities.  Initiative is from 1 to 9.  Firepower is from 1 to 6.  Armour is 0 to 3, and hull is 2 to 9.  You may also add crew and equipment cards to modify these base stats.

Each turn is divided into three phases.  First is movement.  Tanks move in order of initiative with the lowest tanks having to move first (allowing higher initiative tanks to respond and maneuver for better position).  You can see a grey arrow marker in some of the photos.  You use that for movement.  Line up the base of the arrow with the front edge of the tank and then move it so one edge lines up with the 90 degree angle on the arrowhead.  Most tanks can move up to two ruler lengths per turn (some can move three and others only one).

Once movement is done, shooting starts.  Shooting takes place in reverse initiative order.  Highest initiative tanks shoot first.  If you can draw line of sight from the centre of your turret to any part of an enemy tank, you can shoot.  Roll a number of d6 equal to your firepower.  4s and 5s are regular hits and 6s are critical hits.  The defender rolls a number of defence dice equal to his armour rating plus extra dice for cover and hull down positions.  He also adds one die for every ruler length that he and the shooter moved.  He removes dice for side or rear shots, point blank shots, etc.   Hits are blocked on a 4-6.  Each hit that gets through subtracts one from the hull value.  When this gets to zero, the tank is destroyed.  Unblocked critical hits draw damage from a deck of cards.  This includes things such as broken tracks, injured crew, ammo explosions, bail outs, etc.  Some can be repaired, others can't.

Phase three is repair and reset.  That's basically it.

Most games give you 100 points to spend and you use that to build a force.  In my game, each T-64 cost 20 points so I bought 4 for 80.  I bought Kontact 5 reactive armour for two tanks (12 pts), a platoon commander who had time ability to give each surviving tank +1 initiative every time the platoon lost a vehicle (7 pts), and liquid courage for 1 pt.  One crew hit the vodka hard and were therefore brave enough to avoid bail out criticals. 

The T-64s has 6 initiative, 5 firepower, 1 armour, and 8 hull.  They also come with advanced stabilizers so you can Errol two attack dice.  They're a lot better than I was expecting Russian armour to be.