I'll be running an East Front scenario meeting engagement between German Panthers, Assault Guns and Tiger I's against Russian T-34/85's, IS-2's and SU-85's using 1/144 scale tanks and terrain. This will be similar to the game at Kublacon. Players can run four tanks each.
Treadheads is still a WIP and the last few play test sessions have resulted in some redesign of the status sheet and simplifying the acquisition, gunnery and engagement process. I've gotten the best suggestions from novices. Here is a link to the latest info, rules and game concepts: link
Location and time information:
Saturday, 13 June 2015
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church – Fellowship Hall
12770 Saratoga Ave., Saratoga, CA
If you just want to get an idea of the acquisition and engagement process like over watch and opportunity fire keep reading the detailed and verbose example below:
Opportunity Fire and Over Watch
The hardest thing for new players to grasp is the open ended almost real time feature of the game. As soon as you finish one action go on to the next one. If you just shot figure your time for your next shot right away. Don't wait. As soon as you see something on the battlefield that is within your LOS out to maximum spotting range you can attempt to react right away. You can think of it as an "interrupt" but you are actually not interrupting the opponents turn at all, just determining what you will do. So if you saw a threatening enemy unit come into LOS you can take a Situational Awareness check at that moment, there is no waiting for a "Spotting Phase". If the check is successful you can take action by moving or firing. To move put a movement marker in by your vehicle showing the general direction it will be moving. To fire generate the amount of time to get off a First Shot.
To over watch an area of likely enemy activity just point your vehicle and gun at it and have the best chance to detect it as soon as you get a LOS. No special orders or markers are needed. Your engagement time will be minimal because your turret and gun will already be on the target so you should get the "opportunity" to fire before he does. Once you have sensed a target and engaged it there is no need to make additional checks to retain sight but you will need to if engaging a new target. No guarantees.
Here's how a typical Opportunity Fire or "Shoot Out" might occur. It is currently Turn #34. A player with a static and camouflaged T-34/85 in an over watch position with an unbuttoned tank commander notices a moving German Panther come into his LOS in his right 60 degree arc at 1100 meters and wants to take immediate action against it. Looking at the Situational Awareness image (not shown here) he needs to roll a 12 or less to take action in the current 5 second increment (turn 30-35). The German player has a tank commander that is unbuttoned and wants to take action also and the enemy is in his 15 degree arc needing a 16 or less to notice and take action.
The T-34/85 rolls a 14 and fails to notice the Panther right away. The Panther rolls a 10 and notices the T-34 and wants to stop and get a shot off. He could shoot on the move but most likely it would be a miss at 1100 meters. The Panther is traveling at 25 kph and slows down at 10 kph/second so will come to a stop in turn #37. Turn #36 is the start of a new 5 second increment where units can perform a Situational Awareness check so the T-34 tries again this time rolling a 5 and successfully notices the Panther that has surprised him and is slowing down coming straight at him. He sees the Panther is in a better tactical position to get off a first shot. He could take evasive action and choose to start moving by placing a movement arrow in the general direction of movement but he decides to get off a shot as soon as possible.
The T34/85 needs to generate the amount of time to get off a First Shot at a range of 1100 meters. The Gunnery Chart for the 85L52 gun (not shown here) firing APCBC at 1100 meters will take 12 seconds to get off a first shot (Base time performing ranging, gun laying and Time of Flight for the round to arrive). The Panther is fully exposed and large making an easy target to acquire with an Exposure of -2. The T-34 needs to rotate his turret 60 degrees and with a rotation of 25 degrees / second will take 3 seconds (always round in favor of the defender). The random acquisition D6 roll results in a 0. No other modifiers apply. It will take a total of 13 seconds to get the shot off. The T-34 can trim up to 5 seconds off the shot with a +1 accuracy letter for each one (+ is bad – is good). The base accuracy for the 85L52 gun at 1100 meters is an "O" which is a 10% chance to hit a 2m x 2m target. He sees the Panther is in a better tactical position than him and fears the Panther will shoot first. He decides to quicken his shot from 13 seconds to 11 seconds with a decrease in accuracy to a "Q" and a 6% chance to hit. He adds 11 to the current turn of 36 so the round will arrive at turn #47.
The Panther comes to a halt on turn #37. The 75L70 gun will take a Base Aim Time + TOF of 11 seconds to get the First Shot off. The T-34 Exposure is a -1 to acquire. The T-34 is camouflaged and static making it harder for the gunner to acquire with +3 seconds longer. The Panther turret turns at 15 degrees per second but only needs to spend +1 second turning as when he was coming to a halt he lined his vehicle up for the shot. The D6 random Acquisition roll result is a -1 second as he has a Veteran Crew. There are no other modifiers putting the shot at 13 seconds with an accuracy of "L" and a 22% chance to hit the T-34. He can choose to quicken his shot but decides not to. Adding 13 seconds to the game turn of 36 means the shot will get off on turn #49.
The one second time slices allow the interaction between opponents, seconds count in tank combat, even time of flight. The decision of the T-34/85 to get the shot off quicker means he'll fire first but will have a lesser chance of hitting. Things like Over Watch and Opportunity Fire do not need specials rules or exceptions to make them work. Even though the Panther started off in a better tactical position and noticed the T-34 first the T-34 is still able to get the first shot off by trading accuracy for speed while the Panther needed to take precious seconds to come to a halt first. The camouflage of the T-34 took an additional 3 seconds for the gunner to acquire and aim. Since neither player knows the decisions of the other there is a good simulation of Fog of War without additional rules or mechanics. The Panther could have quickened his shot by shaving 4 seconds off the aim time and fire with an accuracy of "P" at 8% chance to hit and gotten off the first shot.
It takes much less time to perform these actions in a game than it does to explain them and all of the options. This example is basically what the game is all about once the shooting starts.
Wolfhag
