Two big tanks, what to do.

[martin goddard]

Here is the situation.
Your opponent has 2 Tiger II. Gun 11, armour 11. He has paid 110 points for the pair.

Their MG fire will not change the battle greatly.
They will kill opposition tanks.
They reduce the player to 300 points for the rest of his force.


What do you do about them?

martin

[Colonel Kilgore]

Don't field tanks, and go off and hide somewhere else on the table

Use the Tank Hunter asset and a few Bazookas to keep him guessing.

Use decent AT guns and the Surprise (?) Asset to ambush the Tigers.

Choice of scenery might help - lots of woods should slow him down.

Simon

[Moggy]

Silly question but I don't recall anything about the speed of tanks in the rules. I think all tanks get the same movement rate regardless. Perhaps super heavy tanks such as the Tiger 2 and Elephant need to have a slower speed in game terms. Some of those German behemoths crawled along as a moderate walking speed on roads at best. To have them able to run around the tabletop at 1AP per square (except for leaving difficult) seems excessive to me. Maybe restrict the number of squares possible for movement to 2 except on roads and possibly a restriction of a max of 2 1/8 changes??

Just had a quick look through latest version and couldn't find the stuff in the rules about vehicle movement ap costs. Didn't there used to be a cost for turning 45 degrees at some time in the past? I notice that on the play-sheet its there as 5 points to leave difficult and 1 point to change direction 1/8. Think that change of direction could do with some clarification for people new to the rules as its easy to miss as not mentioned in the rules (possibly)

I am now wondering if we are all a bit too close and familiar with the rules to spot what's not there that we all just take as read. Maybe time to find some people who have no experience of the rules to have an "unguided" game or 2.

Derek

[Sean Clark]

If I know my opponents bringing two tanks with armour 11, I'll prepare accordingly. Tank hunter asset, Anti tank guns etc.

I'll hope I outnumber him with infantry and try to kill as many of them as I can whilst taking pot shots at the big cats to keep them honest.

If I don't know he's bringing 2 Tiger 2's, I'm still going to go after his infantry as it'll be unlikely Ill have anything that can take them out.

[martin goddard]

I would follow your approach Sean. Then panic if I got caught out.

Derek, the tank speeds are the same because I assume they would all be moving at cautious "enemy close " speed. Tanks on average in PBI move at twice the speed of foot troops which seems about right in the combat zone.
You are right about the need for examples of movement etc of tanks.
This sedition will have accompanying videos.

My immediate problem is how to make the rule book shorter, which means I am not likely to add more detail. PBI must be saleable . If I add all sorts of extra ideas then it becomes unsellable. Changes are OK but not additions.




martin

[John Watson]

I notice in the latest version of the rules there are quite a few empty spaces. I assume these are allowing for photos, but, if not, they could be condensed to save some pages.
John

[Colonel Kilgore]

I assumed that they were pictures of Martin's new snow-camouflaged troops 

Simon

[martin goddard]

Those odd boxes are just place holders for potential photos.
One of my "soon" jobs is to decide what photos to put in.

I think popular culture will force me to print the rules in full colour. This is expensive so I will try to get plenty of photos in. Of course photos take space. A conundrum. A good solution is to market the photos like collectable football stickers. "Anyone got a swap for Sherman shooting at building? I have three already".

Might even be a serious idea.

Maybe PBI will be pdf only?


martin

[Nigel_s]

i have rules that were PDF only which i then got printed and bound and use very happily. Smarter pdfs where you can easily jump around the document using apps like GoodReader work perfectly well for reference during games.

Your call completely on this Martin. Its your business, and your money, and your time.

[Colonel Kilgore]

i have rules that were PDF only which i then got printed and bound and use very happily. Smarter pdfs where you can easily jump around the document using apps like GoodReader work perfectly well for reference during games.

Your call completely on this Martin. Its your business, and your money, and your time.

A big attraction of wargaming for me is that it's tactile and analogue.

Many of us spend a lot of our normal time looking at screens, and they are something that I happily do without when playing.

I realise that this is very much a personal choice: mine is for paper.

Simon

[martin goddard]

I think my sticker book idea looks good?

martin

[John Watson]

I'd go for hard copy. I have found that in the past rules I don't have in paper form I don't use. I agree with Simon about screen watching. So if it comes out in pdf only I will have to get it printed and bound by someone else. I'd rather be giving that money to PP.
John

[Wardy64]

Ben and I would prefer the printed version, for all the above reasons.

D&B

[Nigel_s]

I love a printed rulebook. I own many. More than i'll ever play! But the business has got to work financially and logistically for Martin. Better to have new PBI in Pdf than no new PBI.

The print and bind services are pretty good so you can easily get your pdf printed as a rulebook. Ive used DoxDirect.

[Colonel Kilgore]

Good points, Nigel.

That's what I would do with PDF rules. I'd not heard of DoxDirect, so thank you for the reference.

Simon