Related Articles: How To Play

How To Play

Assault Guns, Tactics and Tips

   
Assault Guns
One of the most frequently asked questions about Assault guns is about how their firing Arc works. I thought I would address that here before going into some of my assault gun tactics.   

Firing Arc
A majority of tanks  can shoot in any direction.  An exception to this rule is the Assault Gun, which can only shoot at an enemy tank if either the entire hull or any part of its hull (excluding protruding gun barrels) is in front of the Assault Gun.

Assault Guns can only engage targets completely within its front firing arc of 180-degrees. If any tank is even partially behind this 180-degree firing arc, the Assault Gun cannot shoot at it unless it happens to be directly in front of the tank itself. 

To determine  if a tank is directly in front your Assault Gun, draw a line across the front  of your Assault Gun, any enemy tanks frontward of this line is considered directly in front of your Assault Gun.

 
 
 Assault Gun Tactics
 
Terrain Placement
Placement of terrain in the Table set-up phase is important in all games, but when it comes to Assault Guns it is vital. Assault Guns perform best  when terrain  is positioned to protect their flanks and offers excellent lines of sight. 

I tend to place my two buildings back near a table edge to create a firing position, and I also tend to set my forest offset of the center of the table, trying to make it easy to fire around and into.

Setting Up Firing Lanes  
I like using the edge of the table or terrain pieces such as buildings to protect my Assault gun’s weaker side armour while maximising their limited firing arc. The best location to utilise this tactic is the corner of the table. However,  this is dependent on  the six terrain pieces  leaving enough firing lanes to be effective. Since terrain cannot be placed within a measuring arrow’s length of another terrain piece or the table edge, you can expect to experience some excellent lines of sight in a majority of your games. 
   
Fire Support
I tend to set-up my Assault Guns to provide fire support for my more mobile flanking units. The goal of these flanking units is to manoeuvre  into short-range and  expose the enemy tanks more vulnerable side armour. For this tactic to succeed, you must keep the enemy tanks within line of sight of your Assault Guns.  Set-up is very important as once my Assault Guns are in position; they will remain stationary in order to gain the benefits of  re-rolls while  not adding to my opponents defence rolls.
   
   

Cautious, Not Stupid

Tank Destroyers have one simple role on the battlefield, to seek out the enemy armour, mercilessly destroy them and then disappear, leaving only the burning hulks of their enemies as evidence they were ever there. In TANKS terms this translated into a new rule called Cautious.


When designing Cautious we drew inspiration from the American Tank Destroyer doctrine of Seek, Strike and Destroy which emphasised mobility and speed over heavy armour.
   
Cautious: After shooting, if this tank has any Damage Points left, roll a die. On a 4, 5 or 6 make a single move and add one to its Speed token.

So after a Tank with Cautious fires and passes its test it gets to make an additional move. This increases your movement token also gives the Tank added defence without the shooting modifier. 

This extra movement can allow the tank to move out of sight or into cover, giving these tanks a measure of extra survivability as it is a bit of a glass cannon. 

But Cautious is a gamble, you have a 50/50 chance of being stuck where you were, without gaining any movement or defence. So it is still important to move the tank somewhere that gives it cover in case you fail your roll.    

Playing against a tank destroyer force will be tricky as they will be hard to pin down. A good tactic will be to spread out  your tanks to make sure you can guarantee that one of them will be able to shoot at all times.The relatively low base defence and hull points means that most Cautious tanks will go down pretty quickly once you start firing at them. 
   
   

Organizer Guide to the OPS Kit

   
What is in The Normandy Invasion Month One Kit?

1 Hit the Beaches Store Poster
1 TANKS Normandy Map
1 TANKS OPS instruction sheet
1 Scoresheet Poster
10 player Roster Sheets (these can be easily photocopied if more are needed)
1 Hit the Beach Mission rule sheet
5 Normandy Fortification cardboard terrain sets 
10 Red Acrylic Measuring Arrows
10 oversized Sherman Cards

Each kit is designed to support up to ten players, with prizes for all players. 
   
Hit the Beach Poster
This Poster is to display in your store, it serves to let players know that you are running the TANKS Organised Play Seasons at your Store.
 
TANKS Night
It is a good idea for organisers to pick a single night each week for the TANKS league. Games played that night are counted towards your Season points and it gives everyone a regular evening to focus their gaming. Make sure you get players signed up beforehand ensure you have enough space and kits to cover all your players. Remember each kit is designed to support up to ten players, with participation prizes for all ten.
   
OPS Night (or Day)
One night of each month should be focused on players playing that Seasons mission. The first of these missions is "Hit the Beach". On this night players are required to fill out a roster for the platoon they want to run, also players are asked to play with 100 point lists. On other nights players can pick their point levels before they play their games. The organiser may choose to run the OPS night a structured mini tournament, with three or more games featuring that month's mission. Use the Scoresheet to keep track of how many games each player plays and wins.

Platoon Rosters
On the OPS night, these sheets allow a player to plan and record their various tank platoons. As the Event Organiser, you may want your players to submit their rosters prior to playing any OPS games. These are mainly used so that the organizer can double check the lists. Due to upgrades being secret until used, players should only share these details with the organised.;
 
   
Sign-up/Scoresheet
The Sign-up sheet doubles as a Scoresheet for the month. Make sure you get each player signed up. Organisers are in charge of the score sheet and they are the ones who must update it as the month progresses. They make all judgment calls and are the ones who will calculate the points at the end of the month.

Picking Sides
The Scoresheet is split into two teams, for this month it is split into German and Americans. Picking a team does not limit a player on what they want to play; for example players who are on the German team can play a list with Americans, British or Soviets tanks. The sides are there just to set up teams. If you keep the teams even and the same throughout the season, at the end of the three-month season you can add up the scores and declare what team was the overall victor. 
   
Season Games
Season games are played using the themed mission that come in the OPS Kit, and are featured on the specific OPS Night. Organisers may allow non-mission games that include this week's terrain to count as a Season game for checks. Players can still play the mission on normal league nights to earn Season game checks. Players earn a single check for each Season game they play and another if they win that game.

Pick-Up games

These are non-mission games played on any league night. These are just games out of the rulebook or any other official missions that have been released online.  Players earn a single check for each pickup game they play. 

Normandy Invasion Map
This poster shows the story of the campaign being covered by the OPS Kit. Each month will also introduce Pick-up game rules appropriate to that stage of the campaign, these are shown on the Map.
 
   
 TANKS Model Preperation Painting And Building Tanks
Players earn points for building and painting tanks during the league, the organiser is the judge in this matter and he decides what will earn painting checks. These tanks must be painted during the month, any tanks painted beforehand do not count. 

Playing Both Sides
Players will earn a check for their first games they play with Americans and Germans. 
 
No More Room for Checks
Once a player has filled all their checks in a category, they can no longer score checks in that category. They can play games and help other players earn checks.   

Scoring Points.  

During the month players will earn checks for various things they do, playing games on league night and painting models will score players checks during the month.

Why am I saying checks instead of points? Because you don’t earn points for each check you get. You markthe scoresheet from left to right under the right category. At the end of the month, the organizer will check the scoresheet and add up the checks that land on national symbols and that tally will be a players score. This means a player can score anywhere from 0-12 points each month

The overall winner for this month will be the player or players with the most points. Organisers need to keep track of this score to add to the players final tally at the end of the three-month season, those players will be eligible to win the season's Challenge Coins included in the 3rd Kit of each Season.

   
What Players Need to Bring

Players need to bring their GF9 TANKS models, damage deck, tokens, terrain as well the TANKS cards for each tank, upgrade or crew member in their force. They will also need to bring some dice.

Organisers may allow the use Flames of War metal and resin tanks as long as the players have the cards needed to use the tank in the game. If a player is using a Flames of War metal and resin tank like a Panther, then they will need to have the corresponding Panther TANKS card to use with the tank.


What Organizers Will Need for the Month
Organisers will need everything else included in the OPS kit. They will need space for the league, and have the scoresheet accessible to fill in checks as the night progress. On the OPS night they will also need Roster sheets for each player. Feel free to make copies of this month’s Mission to hand out to players in the store. 
 
   
  Month One Mission
Each month in the Normandy season will have a themed mission sheet. Mission sheets describe how to set up the month’s mission and how terrain works in the games played that month. The first months mission is Hit the Beach, in this mission players will storm the Normandy beaches. 

Terrain
One of the cool things that will be in each month is a pack of terrain and since each kit is made to support 10 players there will be five sets of terrain in each kit. At the end of the month what happens to the terrain is up to the Tournament Organiser.  We suggest that the organiser keeps some for the Store and gives the rest away as prizes. 
   
Prizes
While we are on the topic of prizes, at the end of each month players will each receive an oversized TANK Card and some acrylic tokens. This month players will get the Sherman tank card and a set of two Movement Arrows. Through the course of a year worth of OPS a player will earn a full token set. At the end of each Season some players will receive Challenge Coins as prizes, these are rewarded by the Organizers discretion. For example the players with the most points over the Season and the player that painted the most tanks.
 
   
  Hit the Beaches!
With the first OPS just about to begin we are excited to see how the League play will be received by the gaming community. We love games that tell stories, relate history and get players involved in their gaming community. Good luck in your invasion of Normandy, get those tanks and go hit those beaches!

TANKS Boot Camp


Welcome to command training, this boot camp is specially formulated to help hone your command abilities and get youself ready for the fight. During the next few weeks of your training you will get to know your Tanks as well as you know yourself. 
 

TANKS Boot Camp Missions

In this PDF you will find three training missions for TANKS. Each mission will give players a better understanding of how the game works and will give players a chance to use some cards they may not be familiar with. 


These mission may be played as stand alone missions or as a Boot Camp event at your local store or gaming club. Players will need a starter set and three tanks that cost at most 25 points each to play in these Boot Camp missions. 


Download the Boot Camp missions here...

 
Awaiting Organized Play

The Boot-Camp missions are a great way to get your group ready for the Organized Play Seasons.  Make sure to ask your local game store if they pre-ordered their Organized Play Kit.

Stay tuned this week as we will be posting more on the Organized Play Seasons and what they entail.
 
 

Tanks How To Play Videos

 How To Play Tanks - Phases
 
Learn how to play TANKS. In this rules video, Sean covers the three phases that make up a turn as well as how tanks move and shoot. 
 
How To Play Tanks - Building Platoons 
 
In this How-To video, Sean covers the process of building a TANKS platoon and the difference between the various types of cards. 

Card Basics


Learning To Play Tanks

TANKS is an easy-to-learn, quick-play, small-scale game, where you take command of a tank platoon, seeking to destroy your opponent’s tanks and secure victory. TANKS is a flexible game with lots of ways to create a finely-tuned army that fits your play style. The game is fast and furious, do-or-die. In half an hour, you can pick your tanks and crew, upgrade them to your specifications, defeat your enemy (or die trying), and be ready for the rematch!   Find a full copy of the rules here… Find instructional videos click the link below TANKS how To videos... For a quick visual guide to the basic rules click the links below. Card Basics Movement Basics Terrain Basics Shooting Basics Click here to pick up a Starter Set that will have ev ...

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Movement Basics


Terrain Basics


Shooting Basics




Related Articles: How To Play

How To Play

Assault Guns, Tactics and Tips
Cautious, Not Stupid
Organizer Guide to the OPS Kit
TANKS Boot Camp
Tanks How To Play Videos
Card Basics
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