Friday 27 April 2018

WHAT A TANKER! - 'HARDCORE' Variant

At my local club (HWC) we've been playing numerous WW2 games using the excellent 'What a Tanker!' rules written and published by the TwoFatLardies of Nick Skinner and Richard Clarke  If you haven't check them out yet, they are definitely worth a try as we have had such a laugh with them.

What this posting is about, is providing optional rules for the 'hardcore' tanker enthusiast who wants some extra detail in the game, a few of the inconsistencies in the data tables smoothed away, and the ability to use half-tracks and wheeled vehicles.  Feel free to:
a)  Use all the extra elements and amendments suggested, or
b)  Just use the bits you like, or
c)  Disregard completely as an utter waste of time of.....  LOL

I will shortly be placing all these into a single word document, in the meantime feel free to keep coming back to this page as I type up my hand written notes.


ACCELERATED CAMPAIGN 

If you want to play an accelerated campaign, use the following mechanism.
-  For each game played that your crew survives they receive a Battle-token.
-  Both Battle-tokens and Kill Rings can be cashed in to  Level Up.



EXTRA CHARACTERISTICS

Please note that for some of these new characteristic, a small amount of additional record keeping using either extra tokens or dice or written notes, will be required.

Slow Reload
The reloading action takes two Reload Order Die.  The activity can be carried on spread over turns.
Design Note:  Some vehicles due to the size of the rounds involved used two part ammunition,  i.e.  Soviet 122mm, Soviet 152mm, German 128mm.

NoCO
Vehicles with No dedicated Commander (NoCO) need one extra Acquisition die to acquire a target.
Design Note:  Some vehicles due to their small size only have a one or two-man turret or fighting compartment and therefore do not have a dedicated vehicle commander.

Half-Track
Cannot rotate on the spot.  Can only reverse over major obstacles.
Design Note:  The wheeled suspension is fragile.

Wheeled
Cannot rotate on the spot.  Can change any Order Die to Move Die when on roads (must remain on road for the movement..  Cannot cross major obstacles.

Fast Back
Does not suffer the normal penalty for when trying to reverse.
Design Note:  Some vehicles such as the German 234 range of armoured cars have two driving positions and the same number of reverse gears as they do forward (6).

Hot Shot
+ 2 to Penetration except at Long Range.
Design Note:  Some vehicles were issued with a full compliment of Tungsten Carbide cored rounds, USA and British tank destroyers in the main. Performance dropped off at long range however.

Very Slow
Vehicle can only use a maximum of 1 Movement Die per turn.


NEW RULE AND AMENDMENTS

Track On Target
The benefit of using additional order dice to aim at a target are not lost once the firer has fired.  They are retained for all follow on-shots (across turns if need be) until aim is lost because either the firer are target move or acquisition is lost.the next shots.  Additional Aim order dice can continue to be added.

Example:
Turn 1:  A Sherman acquires a target, and has two AIM dice. It's long range no cover in the way, so he needs a 7 modified down -1 to a 6.  He fires and misses.  He makes a note of his -1 Aim modifier.
Turn 2:  The Sherman rolls his Order Dice and gets two aim dice.  His basic 7 to hit is now modified down by a total of -3.


Point Blank
This is a new range category of 0 to 12" range.

Adjustments For Range - To Hit
Point Blank -1
Standard Range: No adjustment.   (as per existing rules)
Long Range: +1  (as per existing rules)

Adjustments On The Number Of Strike Die
Point Blank +1
Standard Range: No adjustment.   (as per existing rules)
Long Range: -1


Flank Shot Bonus
Vehicles from the flank have a bigger aspect than from the front or rear, as a result they are 1 die easier to Acquire and are -1 to hit at all ranges.


Point Of Difference Card
Sometimes it is not possible (or desirable) to have point balanced games.  In these instances for each point of difference between the sides a card is issued; this card, 'The Point Of Different Card'.  This allows the user to, once per game:
a)  +3 or -3 to their Initiative Roll
      or
b)  change two of their rolled Command Dice to a different number.
Note:
-  The cards must be distributed before the game starts.
-  Players can only play a maximum of one card per turn, although multiple cards can be played in a turn by one side (if multiple players are involved).

AT Guns
Anti-tank guns have the following Characteristics by default:
Small, Low Profile, Rapid Fire.  They may not button up.  1 drive dice allows then to change their facing, otherwise they count as immobile for the game.
They also count as TD, in that they can change any die to an aim dice, BUT this is for the first shot at a target only.  This limitation is to reflect the blast issues associated with gun barrels so close to the ground and recoil issues which disturbed the aim on many AT guns.


NEW VEHICLES THAT WILL BE ADDED

Here is a link in Dropbox to the current version of the Hardcore Vehicle Listing v18:  Link
Latest version uploaded on 31 Jul 2021.
It's currently work-in-progress...  The Germans are almost there, as are the USA.



NEW HARDCORE RULES & RULE CLARIFICATIONS !! 
I've written the Hardcore Rules up into a document that can be found here:   Link
Latest version 2-6 uploaded on 9 Jul 2021.
Let me know what you think below in the comments :)

8 comments:

Mitch Berdinka said...

A good start. What I'd like to see is anti-tank guns. They would count as "low profile" and "small". No movement, but need a drive dice to rotate. Now here is the complicated part. Tanks shooting at them with AP do minimal damage, but have to switch to HE to do significant damage. They should be easy to destroy with HE rounds. They start hidden until they fire.
Imagine the tension as tanks frantically try to acquire them as targets and switch over to HE to take them out.

Vulture said...

Hi Mitch
I've added a link to the German listing, which is still Work In Progress, but getting there...

I agree, a Hardcore variant should have AT Guns. I'll sort the vehicles, then have at go that them. Agree with a lot of what you say, they should have a higher Rate Of Fire as well. I'll need to consider the HE content of the Tank shells, so I'll have to add some factor on that, as well as some damage chart for AT guns.
:)

DaveL said...

We used the stats for both the AC Sd.Kfz 234/2 "Puma" and the Panzer VIII "Maus" in our Christmas game last Saturday and they worked like a charm.

I'm looking forward to receiving and using my forthcoming M8 Greyhound Armoured Car, and hoping to see Russian stats, particularly the SU-122 SPG.

Vulture said...

DaveL
Glad to hear the stats worked fine :)
We have taken a breather from playing 'What A Tanker' at the moment, but I do intend to return to it at some stage and do the Russian stats.
Kind regards
Ian

Somboed said...

Excellent additions to the WAT tables. However, I see no additions have been made to the incomplete forces and no new ones, as of early 2018. With such an encouraging start, it would be a shame to see this isightful project die out.

Do you have any idea if and when you will have any new material?

Alex Carranza said...

Very interesting material, makes the game more tactical and "realistic". Did you finish them? I see this is a 2018 WIP and I can find no new posts that continues what you started here.

DaveL said...

Ian,

I’m also still interested in both Russian and British stats too. I realize you guys took a “breather” from WaT! back in 2018, so I suspect we may never see any additional work on “HardcoreWaT!,” but, as with unknown above, it doesn’t hurt to ask. 🙂

DaveL

Vulture said...

Dave and unknown blogger, I have been continuing to develop the Hardcore WaT, but have yet to post about it. I've been continuing to refine both the German listing and US listings. It is my intention to do the Brits and Soviets, but just haven't gotten round to it.

What I have been doing is playing 5 games over the last 3 months. One was a scenario which ran for friends as a Zoom game over two nights. The other games I have run over WhatsApp by taking photographs as the game progressed. I have really enjoyed playing those and might Blog about it. The whole fog of war thing really comes into play for both sides. The rules are slightly modified to speed play up.

My group of friends has been played quite a bit of it recently with me so are going to take a break from it. I am thinking of running another game though... If would like to participate let me know by posting here and we can arrange to correspond by email.