Hi All,

We played two sessions of TANKS today featuring Soviet vs. German forces (no damage card mechanics used, or crew cards available yet). One modification we tried out was the use of movement arrows marked at the half way point, the half measurement segment used for infantry movement (in our mod rules), and reduced travel when vehicles are moving in difficult terrain (on our board - in woods), and for vehicles moving in reverse. We also employed the movement arrowhead to specify an assault gun arc of fire angle, a maximum turn allowance per segment moved of up to 45 degrees, and a different way to determine front - flank - rear impact aspects (see pic below for an illustration of these ideas).



The first scenario pitted a company of 10 T-34/76s and a section of 2 SU-85s against a dug-in company of German infantry, supported by a battery of 4 PaK40s, and 2 StuG IIIs. The opening round below shows the spearheading T-34 platoon as it probes forward.



Demonstrating on the left side, while being supported by the SUs, the medium platoon there attempted to draw the StuGs into an engagement w/o being overwhelmed by the mass of in-coming AT fire.



On the right, the remaining 6 T-34s rapidly pushed forward, and were able to break through the German defense covering a rearward ford, and execute the coup de gras with flanking attacks on the defending StuGs now having to mix it up at close range (which were just out of view of the picture here, to the left).



For the second game, we kept the infantry/AT Gun forces the same, but exchanged the 2 StuGs for 3 Panthers (the switch to the more lethal and turreted tanks made all the difference in the close terrain). The Soviet attack was similar in execution to the first attack - a weighted right side punch, but the Panthers quickly reduced the pinning force in the center to scrap metal, and would have been able to thwart the developing flanking attack (and if we had played the action to its conclusion). Here's a picture of the action from early in the second fight.



We liked the functioning of the half-segment measurement for reducing reverse movement for vehicles and when they're moving in difficult terrain (it also functions as the base infantry move rate for our mod-rules too). The arrow-heads angle worked fine for limiting turning per segment, and to function as an easy arc of fire determination for assault gun fire, and as a different guide to judge impact aspect.

(1/144th scale minis)

HitHero, the turn limiting gives an authentic feel to the vehicle movement, and requires some forethought when maneuvering around terrain and towards the enemy. It makes the moves more "coarse" in execution and way less "gamey" IMO (give it try and see what you think).

We allowed any tank once on a road to be able to follow the curves of the road as it traveled along it without being limited to the 45 degree turning restriction.

HitHero, good testing and thoughts!

In a few of our games we ran into what might be considered a rules exploit, where a tank, say defending within a woods could turn and shimmy just a little in one direction, and then on its second segment move a little in another direction, and all the while having changed position maybe an inch or less in traveled distance, still getting the defensive credit for having moved twice if targeted and fired upon. Now, although this wouldn't be completely prevented by having a minimum distance required for placing down a speed token, it got us thinking of how much movement during a segment would actually be required to introduce targeting penalties to fire? What do you think of having some sort of minimum movement distance to traverse per segment for triggering a speed token for it, like the following image example (also put a "tail" on the measuring stick to aid in the angle alignments if when using this mod idea).

Informally, we call that 'popping smoke' :D
Essentially it's part of the turn-by-turn decision on whether to be offensive or defensive.

Since it's available for all players to use, it's somewhat "relative", and part of the game's tactical tool kit to use as-is, still.....

I think most players will really appreciate the speed token mechanics of TANKS, as it creates a neat mix for a tactical game, where mobility is "armor", but where it limits gun accuracy too (modeling that time on target becomes limited- and therefore time for correcting aim of successive rounds is reduced). Most armored forces by mid-war were using the move & halt tactic for firing (advancing by short bounds), and also to have effective probabilities of hitting targets. So it would be feasible to allow short movement that's doesn't penalize firing (or conversely not degrade the aim of opponents which don't need to correct their gun laying much at targets that are moving very little in actual distance during a turn).

Personally I think one could keep modding the movement rules for ever to get what we think of as a 'more realistic' result - but in the end I'd probably want to be playing cut down FOW or other rules (if this is what I wanted) - it's pretty easy to justify most of the 'annoying' game tricks - such as the shimmy shimmy as being popping smoke canisters, hitting the firer with WP ammo quick etc etc.

Not saying one shouldn't house rule etc etc - just that there is no need to push it as 'needing' to be part of the rules as come OP season (for the people who want to play comps) we will need to keep it as simple and unarguable against as possible, I would hate to play against a lot of people I have come across in comps if the movement rules were not as simple as possible to work in a decent way.

Just my thoughts though :)