Monday, December 09, 2019

Tank Duel first outing

Played Tank Duel with Dad last night and very fun time it was.
Essentially game is Up Front for Tanks but with considerably lighter rules overhead.
Artwork is terrific (my poorly lit photos do NOT do justice to look of game) and its a very playable card driven system.
Eastern Front only (no doubt expansions for other regions in due course) but lots of tanks included (as large 'battle boards') such as T34 (several models) SU100, JS2 and of course Pz II, PzIV, Panther, Tiger 1 mainly mid to late war types.
A lot of abstraction in rules (to keep it playable) including limited Infantry and Anti-tank gun system but it all gels together well.
The cards (basic battle deck is 100 cards) are gorgeous with some variety included for scenarios (such as substitute terrain cards for city fights).
All game actions are conducted by card play (as per Up Front) and results recorded on the individual battle boards a separate Damage Deck is used for ....well... damage results and Morale tests.
For two players (up to 6 can play) its a minimum of 2 tanks per side.
After going through the helpful tutorial we set up a basic scenario using a PzIVG and StugG versus a pair of T34/76 M43.
Dads Stug proved deadly and hard to hit (has a -10 silhouette) taking out both T34s, lost vehicles 're-generate' (simulates other tanks in battle-group coming to the fore) at end of turn to keep players in game.
In the vein of Up Front/B17/The Hunters things can be quite 'luck of the draw' dependent but does make for an exciting dice-less game.
For second game we had a Panther and Tiger versus a T34/85 and a SU100 using Take The High Ground scenario.
This proved to be a bloodbath for Dads Germans as the SU100 got lucky with several Catastrophic Hit results brewing in the end both the Panther and the Tiger twice each with the T34 adding a Panther kill of its own and amazingly all for no Soviet losses !!
Mind you the SU100 was hanging only with 2 dead crew and having manged to put out 2 Fires and recover Broken Morale twice.
Not a good day for the Panzerwaffe.
Fun light game and first to push COIN games off table in awhile.

As stated above crappy pics as lighting very poor


Initial set up 2 x T34/76 vs PzIVG and StugIIIG






T34/76 battle board showing crew positions and general layout.
This tank is 'in motion' as denoted by Move card showing.











PzIVG










T34/85 in 2nd scenario in the default Field terrain










And the SU100 tank killing machine (The card at bottom left is used for Initiative with lower number cards going first, the cards being numbered 1-100)









Tiger 1 in Woods








Other Big Cat the Panther








SU100 showing first 2 of 4 Kill Markers (beside bragging rights these are used as tie-breakers if Victory Points level at game end)

4 comments:

  1. Looks and sounds a lot of fun?

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    Replies
    1. The What A Tanker boardgame version ? Strangely minis version does not appeal but likely fun too

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  2. Very interesting - dialed in to even having crew placement. Very detailed.

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    Replies
    1. Different crew positions garner differing VP if KIA and other crew can take over roles but at reduced efficiency (usually 1 less card in hand). So yes some detail but complexity neatly contained within cards so very playable.

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