"15mm tank skirmish battles - which rules?" Topic

Hi there,

I have played WW2 land battle games for a while now, predominantly in 15mm, using either FoW or BKC2 rules and I collected some nice Russian, German and Romanian armies so far.

However, neither FoW nor BKC2 rules lend themselves well for Tank battles, at least IMO.

So what am I looking for?
- Tank skirmish battles
- 1 Tank should represent 1 Tank
- in 15mm
- covering Russia, Germans (and potentially Romanians)
- 1942 to 1944
- Scenario driven would be nice, but not a necessity

Thanks for your help and any feedback is welcomed!

I like Jagdpanzer for such. I don't know where one would get a copy, though. I've had mine for nearly thirty years.

TRACTICS, Tank Charts would work.

I ain't been shot mum copes very well with tank actions. Certainly up to a company of tanksper side

Jagdpanzer is my choice.
Try: jagdpanzer.com for the current (second) edition of the rules.

I started with 1st edition way back and have switched to 2nd edition – a much cleaner edition.

What kind of game are you looking for?

Hi there,

Thanks for your quick replies.

@Cesar: I am looking for a skirmish game, say between 3 and 8 tanks each side, playable in an evening. I am usually wargaming at my local club, so anything between short length up to 2 hours gameplay would be perfect.

Tigers and Stalins. It's written for 6mm, but taking into account that max gun range is 40" I think it would fit 15mm with no trouble….

The scale is 1-1 as you ask; it works off a point system, so you'll have to come up with your own scenarios. ….

Search TMP for threads about it, it's been well received here.

PM me if interested.

Dave

Tractics! (Is that still in print?) is very complex and full of error. Tank Chats looks like it is free:
link

I have only played it a few times, but with good results.

Jagpanzer (1st edition) I have played dozens of times and I have ran it at conventions. I find it very fast playing and enjoyable. I have not had a chance to look through the 2nd ed. yet, but I assume it is mostly improved formatting. The game mechanic is straight forward and intuitive and simple to explain. I have seen it used for huge games.

Give the following a look.

Chain of Command (with the big Chain of command freebie on the web). Nice bit of detail for this level of 3-8 tanks per side.

Fireball Forward. Squad stands and individual vehicles, even the largest scenarios are easily playable in an evening (4 hours).

Schwere Kompanie. Written for 6mm but double the measurements and you are good to go. Intro version on the web is a battle between T34s and Panzer IVs.

battleground ww2 tankers challenge.

I second Battleground WWII. It is great for tank on tank battles. Very detailed, but still easy enough to play.

It works great for infantry battles at platoon size, and it works great for tank battles. Where it gets slow is when you mix a lot of tanks with a lot of infantry.

NUTS works perfectly. In fact, there is a tank combat version of the game coming out next week.It's lifted from NUTS and includes ten tank-centric scenarios.

Will be followed up quickly with free expansions.

Here are some step by step AARs.

link

link

Another vote for Battleground WWII

Another vote for Nuts!

Nuts again!

If you want high detail (random hit locations, variation in penetration, keeping track of crew status, multiple kinds of tank damage) look at Battleground ww2 or Disposable Heroes. DH slightly less detailed but similar.

Another vote for Battleground.

I vote for jagpanzer as well. Here is a link to the second edition rules. These give a good representation of armor characteristics while maintaining ease of play.
jagdpanzer.com

Everyone's favourite game will work just fine :-)

Nuts is a lot of fun and will feel a bit more personal than some of the others though start with one or two tanks for the first couple of games. It really does play very differently from a lot of other games, but once you get used to it, you can field some pretty substantial armies

Gentlemen, many thanks for your replies to my question – most helpful!

I have had a quick look at the suggested rules and my good old wargaming excitement has already triggered purchases of two rule-sets. At least another rule-set will follow shortly before Christmas time ;-)

Again, thanks for your input. Off to shooting some tanks now!

If you are interested in realism and detail, have good space to play in, and are willing to put a little effort into it you should look at Final Combat by Britton Publishers…

link

… and the comprehensive Anthology of Armor:

link

Battlegroup Kursk/Barbarossa/Ovelord/Fall of the Reich

Fast moving,reasonably high detail and FUN!

There is also Panzer War, detailed and free. (Too detailed for me and I play ASL – but to be fair after learning ASL I'm not inclined to learn another complex beast of a game)

panzer-war.com

Thre is us :-

link

No points system so you have to write your own scenarios. You can make your own tank details from the easily avaiable specifications.
MG is unique (I think) in having a simple "driving" system that brings out the advantages and disadvantages of vehicals. You have toibe able to turn the turrets on the tanks. It lets you use hull down and turret down positions and pre-surveyed alternate positions (you need the free buletin 1 and two). With even 15mm tanks you need a realistic terrain density and an 8ft by 6 ft board idealy as tanks fight at 500 to 1500m (88 ground mounts) and it looks a bit odd if the terrain is too far out from ground scale. It is fine for a copany of tanks and we have fought a battlion of shermans vs a company of tigers but its a bit too big for normal play. It works well for germande vs 25 ponders as in Crusader. You will need those fast traverse bases for the 25 ponders.

Note to get the flexibility of tank battles MG is IGUGO so not ideal for multi player. However it is in my experience difficult to orcestrate a sensible battle with the average group of random players who have lkittle understanding or interestin tactics. You could have a chit for each tank and draw rendomly for who goes next but it is not ideal. Then again no game is perfect.

As always load the free item bulatin 1. If its not your thing it saves you spending hard earnt cash.

Fireball Forward. Its squad leader for minis, brilliant!