Tanks

[NTRabbit]

Tanks is a new game from Gale Force 9. Depending on where you're coming from, it's either World of Tanks on the tabletop, or X-Wing for those who prefer historicals to scifi. Either way, it's meant to be an entrance point to the full sized miniatures wargame Flames of War, as well as a standalone game.

The game draws on the X-Wing flight path system and presentation to deliver a simple wargame of fire and maneuver, with all of the infantry, artillery, and planes taken out, and shrunk down to a 3x3' playing surface.



Although the minis don't come prepainted like X-Wing, they do come in nation coded colour plastic, for those who don't want to paint. They're in 15mm scale, same as Flames of War, which means an M4 Sherman is only 6cm long. The starter comes with rules, tokens, simple cut cardbord terrain pieces to get you going, a bunch of upgrade cards, and a stat card for every vehicle in the first wave of release, because a lot of people have the minis already. It also comes with two M4A3 Shermans, each of which has a 75mm turret and a 76mm turret you can swap between, and a dual Panther/Jagdpanther kit, which can be magnetised for swapping, but will take more experience (and some guides) to pull off.

All of the vehicles come in clampacks, at roughly $10 per tank:

UK: Sherman V/Firefly, Cromwell, Comet
USSR: IS-85/IS-2, ISU-122/ISU-152, SU-85/SU-100, T-34/T-34-85
USA: Sherman (75mm)/Sherman (76mm), Pershing/Super Pershing
Germany: Panzer IV, StuG G, Panther/Jagdpanther

Coming soon include the M36 Jackson, M10 Lend Lease, Achilles, and Puma/Pak-Wagen

The clampacks also include special cards, same as X-Wing, but unlike X-Wing, you have options - if you're willing to forgo the physical cards and rely on army builder software, you can buy 15mm scale tanks from

Plastic Soldier Company - big time 15mm and 1/72 kit producers, their 5 tanks in a box, and 5 boxes of 5 tanks in a box discounts are what they're known for, and they also distribute Zvezda
Gaming Models - men in a shed
Skytrex - Resin and metal rather than plastic sprues, but good quality, and some unusual vehicles

Pics of the demo table at the Group North open day on the weekend

 

[Chief]

Might give that a bash. One of our gaming group has one or two 15mm/FoW tanks we can add in.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i106/zap123_photos/queue9_zps2bfa0da4.jpg

 

[NTRabbit]

Just one or two hey

I've got 6 Sherman Vs, 2 Fireflys, a Comet, 3 StuGs, 2 Panthers/Jagdpanthers, 2 M4A3 75mm/76mm Shermans, and a Pershing/Super Pershing, though only one of the Sherman Vs is painted, and still assembling the rest

 

[Chief]

Just one or two hey

I've got 6 Sherman Vs, 2 Fireflys, a Comet, 3 StuGs, 2 Panthers/Jagdpanthers, 2 M4A3 75mm/76mm Shermans, and a Pershing/Super Pershing, though only one of the Sherman Vs is painted, and still assembling the rest

Hehe.

I don't know anything about the various tanks or the period really. But Wings of War with tanks sounds fun.

 

[NTRabbit]

I know plenty! This is what I've been doing when I can, the British shermans are from an old copy of the Open Fire! Flames of War starter, and are the horrible old minis with soft details that don't go together properly. One M4A3 Sherman at the back is the only new kit I've assembled so far, night and day.

 

[NTRabbit]

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i106/zap123_photos/queue9_zps2bfa0da4.jpg

A lot of those vehicles aren't in the game yet, but I can tell you that's (T to B, L to R) , a Bergepanther mit Pz.Kpfw IV Ausf.H Turm als Befehlspanzer, a Porsche Tiger, 2x Panzerjager Tiger (P) Ferdinands, a Panzer III Ausf. N, a Panther Ausf.G; 3x StuH 42s, 2x Flakpzner IV Ostwind; 2x early StuG Ausf.G, 3x Jagdpanzer IV, and 3x Panther Ausf. D or A.

The first two are extremely rare, the Bergepanther is so rare that only a single one ever existed, and it was a field conversion, so I doubt it'll get rules any time soon, especially since the gun on top was a dummy

 

[Chief]

Dunno, that's a snapshot of the stuff he was painting at the time a couple of years ago.

Assume that is just a sample. In any case, there will be a bit of tanky-blowy-uppy stuff happening.


On iPhone using BigFooty.com mobile app

 

[NTRabbit]

I was just showing off; the Panthers and StuGs have rules, and the Panzer III can easily sub for a Panzer IV in a friendly game; can probably pretend the Porsche Tiger is an IS-85/2 and the Jagdpanzers Su-85/100s along the same lines

 

[Chief]

I was just showing off; the Panthers and StuGs have rules, and the Panzer III can easily sub for a Panzer IV in a friendly game; can probably pretend the Porsche Tiger is an IS-85/2 and the Jagdpanzers Su-85/100s along the same lines

I would show off more but they aren't my pics

 

[NTRabbit]

Fininshed making all the ones I had left last night, turns about there's not enough parts in the Pershing kit to magnetise and swap it like the others, there's only one turret bottom and one gun mantlet, so I built it as a regular Pershing, and I'll need to get another if I want a Super Pershing

Old Open Fire! kits on the left, new stuff on the right demonstrating the plastic colour coding