"Pravda Vs. St. Gloriana's (15mm Girls Und Panzer match)" Topic

Wow, thanks, there is a lot there, it makes me realise how very little Japanese I actually know. The last thing in my notebook is the kanji for escape/run away, I can see that one quite a lot.
Looking at the preview pages on Amazon.jp your manga both look ideal, modern everyday Japanese, every word will be in any dictionary and you can find them easily with the furigana. While browsing I see Little Army has furigana, that may be a way to come across tank jargon in a form that can easily be looked up and noted before encountering the same kanji in Ribbon Warrior in their pure impenetrable form?

Well, at the very least, that's a very good excuse to buy more GuP manga!

I found Chi and Polar Bear recommended as great starting books on a blog.

MiniMo, my computer did NOT like wrestling with those word docs. It finally cooperated, and then I saved them as PDFs. Do you have CutePDFWriter? It's freeware that installs as a printer on your computer, lets you "print" a file and save it as a PDF. It's a godsend for things like this.

Yes, I can print/save as pdf, here are the links:

63rd Senshado Tournament PDF in 2 parts (those scans are gigantic images):
Part 1: link
Part 2: link

GuP Other Schools PDF: link

Have there been any hints in Darjeeling's conversations in Ribbon Warrior that St. Glo might bring their Mk.VI tanks into Tankathlon, or if they own any Tetrarchs?

The only new information I can think of is that BC faction's leader is Bordeaux. No mention so far of a St. Gloriana team or tanks. Darjeeling rang Katyusha and told her about Tankathlon which prompted Pravda to form a team. After the Burma match she had been watching with Maho and asks for her thoughts which is when Maho says that Kuromorimine will take part in Tankathlon and I think she has a delighted "all going to plan" look on her face (Vol 4 p.80). The only character she hasn't got on with is Yaika. Surely they will join in sooner or later.

Would they use a Boys anti-tank rifle?

Well, she already quipped that they should try Miho's trick of taking out the Maus with a Mk.VI going on top. I'ld guess 15mm Besa, but they could follow Anzio's lead and mount a Boys.

Other question, from looking at the pictures, it appears that Anzio fields only 1 of the CV.33 with the Solothurn, is that right? I've got 3 Solothurns coming (in a small FoW Italian Command pack on order at the FLGS), I'll fix those right onto crew figures, so they can easily swap in.

And looking at your stats, the basic Te Ke 97 would have a speed of 12", but the star tank of the series should get bumped to 13" with the 'Phantom' engine upgrade.

Their team is just introduced as eight CV33s, then there is no mention of their rifle until it appears and it does not say if that is the only one. Actually it doesn't mention Solothurns or anti-tank rifles at all in the text it is just shown in the pictures. I think it says;
(p66) Aun-san charges at Anchovy's flag tankette, (p.67) the crowd shout for her to crush it like a Burmese King's war elephant (p.68) !? (p.69) A-Ambush!? (p.70) no text. (p.71) "Match over." "The deciding crashing wave of Tategoto is pierced through by Anzio's accurate shot."
They promised Centipede-team they would disband if they lost and it then goes on to talk about that.

Looking back, after the phantom upgrade Rin says they can now reach 55kph (v2 p.159) and it has amazing new brakes. Perhaps they should be move 14 and able to 3/4 move and still count as stationary for firing?

Also, in Burma, they say, after the rain, the ground is slippery and it is easy to skid and drift. I thought that could be a new terrain type but haven't had any ideas for rules yet.

OK, I see the 55kph. That's much better once it's in and running than the 15% improvement quoted by the LeMans lady on p.143. So yes, 14" sounds right.

Extra short move also sounds good, and the lone tank needs star power. Since it needs a special note anyway, just say 10" instead of 3/4" so folks don't have to pause over maths.

Hmm, slippery terrain could also apply to frozen water or very icy conditions. Will have to meditate on simple rules.

Awesome, thanks!

Twig, here's my first draft of stats for Maginot (all painted and decalled, started writing up the blog post). Thought I'ld bounce these by you before just putting them into the google doc.

Looking at your Char B1 stats, I think the casement howitzer might be worth buffing up. Your classification of it as "Light; 4" Close Range" fits normal penetration statting. But googling it shows that the HE shells have a contact fuse, so penetration wouldn't be affected by range as long as the nose of the shell hits the target. So seems like calling it "Light" but giving it a super-long close range would fit better, or bouncing it up to Medium — thoughts?

I've bounced up the weight class of the FT and R35 for slow pre-war designs. R35 armour looks beefy enough to bounce up to Med.

Somua S-35: Type – Md, Armour – Md, Move – 12″, Gun – Md, Close – 5″, +1 Side Armour.

Renault R-35: Type – Md, Armour – Md, Move – 8″, Gun – Lt, Close – 2″, -1 Rear Armour.

Renault R-40: Type – Md, Armour – Md, Move – 8″, Gun – Md, Close – 4″, -1 Rear Armour.

Renault FT-17: Type – Md, Armour – Lt, Move – 6″, Gun – Lt, Close – 2″.

Just looked at your Tankathlon notes and see you statted the R35 differently. Must meditate on the differences.

Overall, I like the Tankathlon updates, and might as well just fold those into the main rules.

Hahah, it makes me happy to see you all having so much fun. Not my thing, but still I am happy you are all happy!

I could not find much online for the R-35 and I thought some stats questionable, I have a figure of 21mm penetration at 400m for the gun but only 15mm at 500m. Going with the 400 figure would make it the same as yours. 43mm armour but I couldn't find front, side, back figures, good to know it is -1 rear. Speed 20kph, same as a Churchill = 10. I classed it as light because it is such a tiny little thing but thought it needed a no jumping rule. How about calling it medium but sneaky?

With an anti-tank rifle in Ribbon Warrior I was wondering how to do a bazooka or Panzerfaust and thought something like range 12, close range 12 could work. We could try that for the B1 perhaps, keep it at Light but with a close of 12?

Last under 10 ton only game we tried trebling close ranges and moving most tanks as medium and only under 5 ton ones as light and sneaky (Type 97, CV-33, and TKS, but we don't have any TKS yet) which worked well.

Sweet looking Centipede Te-Ke! Next week, folks from our club will be putting in a combined order with OG15s, that's when I'll get my Te-Ke, M22 Locusts, and the whole Tategoto team of Ha-Go's.

Currently en route from QRF are the whole Bonple team (I'll convert one of their TP7 to a TP9), most of the Waffle team (already have the PSC Shermans, and a couple of Mk.VI's and a Tetrarch for St. Glo's Tankathlonning.

Since the entire Bonple Senshado roster is 10 tons and under, as well as most of Anzio and Waffle, the rules for Very Light tanks should be folded into the main rules.

For the howitzer on the B1, presumably the gunner has better sighting equipment than a bazooka does. I was thinking 16" or 18" short range?

Yeah, I saw the R35 43mm front armour, and a general mention that the side armour is "good. So I went with medium armour for front and sides, and the -1 rear to bring it down to normal light tank rear armour. Taking a closer read of the Tanks Encyclopedia now though, they mention under the Design text that the sides and rear were 40-30mm. So actually, just keeping it at medium armour all around would work fine.
link

Speed is 20kph, so I also followed your statting note about bumping slow pre-war tanks up a weight grade. But re-reading the Design notes for this and the AMR today, the suspension system looks pretty beefy.

It's also right on the edge of the 10-ton limit. Web sources all list it as 10.6 tons, but the tank profile at the end of Maginot Vol.1 gives its GuP stats at 9.8 tons.

So, question remains for either:

* Light but no jumping, allows for better turning.

* Medium but sneaky, worse turning.

Right now, I'm leaning towards the Light option. If the FT-17 is bumped up to Medium, then the R-35 can outmaneuver the FT, and that seems right. Medium but sneaky for the FT?

@KTravlos, yes this is a lot of fun!

18 close for the B1 then, sounds good. The Hotchkiss H-39 is going to be another pre-war slow light tank, but tiny. I would be happy to bump all 3 up to medium but make them sneaky. Looking at Wikipedia the H-39, FT, and R-35 are all as short or shorter than a Stug even though they have turrets, and they are all pre-war and slow. To make an R-35 more manoeuvrable than an FT we could say Great War designs get bumped 2, would it be ridiculous to have something as small as an FT as a Heavy but sneaky? The AMR-35 is pre-war but really quick, light seems fine for that one.

It would be good to hear what you think of the QRF TP7s when you get them, I will need some. I have replaced my Battlefront Chi-Ha with Skytrex ones that are considerably smaller and actually look like the cute little tanks from the film.

Hmm, the Ft is so slow to start with, making it Heavy for turning seems cruel. Also, watching this video, it actually seems pretty nimble after all, so no need to hamper it: YouTube link

Also watching the rear of the FT in motion — the back end is such a narrow profile, the armour on sides and top is so sloped, and with the tail skid, it looks like a +1 (maybe +2?) Rear Armour would be in order!

Yeah, looking at the height of them next to the StuG, sneaky is in order for the lot. I don't have a Hotchkiss yet, but Viking does drive some H-35's. They'll be part of my next Peter Pig Order. PP will sell bags of the different turrets on request!

I'm trimming up the Quality Casting Chi-Ha's now. They are delightfully delicate. The back wall of the tread pieces is pretty thin, so I'm just carving that right out so the suspension is all open.

More FT in action here, it can bang a u-ey pretty well!
YouTube link

I have watched the videos and now understand how wrong it is to bully the FT.

How about we leave the stats as you originally had them just changing -1 Rear Armour to Sneaky for the R-35 and adding Sneaky to the FT? I can change the tankathlon sheet to match.

Sounds good.
FT is tiny enough all around to be sneaky.
Slow, but sneaky ^,^

And 18" for the Howitzer is fine by me.

Now to post my Maginot blog entry…

Not that it really matters in terms of game stats, but I'm feeling pedantic today; Technically speaking, the first video miniMo linked to shows a Six Ton Special Tractor M1917, the American licensed version of the Renault FT. Performance is similar, but the American tank has a Buda engine rather then the Renault engine (which the Americans felt was unreliable).

A motion for pedantry is always in order, it makes Yukarin happy =^,^=

Agreed. One must keep Yukarin happy.

QRF order arrived today, and I am quite happy with everything. The only real weak point was a known factor — scale gun barrels, grr. the spaghettiest ones will get replaced with brass wire.

The TP7's have smooth not-bolted armour as shown in the manga. On the single turret version, the turret hatch is a separate piece which can be glued open or closed, yay! Lines are very crisp, better than Gaming Models tends towards, (and GM has over-sized bolts). Detail could be higher res; Arctic Skunk goes much higher res, but also much higher cost. The detail on all the other models from them stands out a bit stronger than the TP7.

Those TKS — Squeeeeee!

Also quite happy with the makings for Waffle, Tetrarch and Mk.VI's on speculation for St. Glo, AMR's for BC, and the R1 to complete Count.

Umm, R2 to complete Count's Senshado roster, and also an R1 to add to their Tankathlonning.

Wow guys, that looks like a blast! nicely done

Kita! Ribbon Warrior Vol 6 has arrived.
Orange Pekoe's Tankathlon Chindits;
Light Tank MkVII "Tetrarch" Type-Light, Armour-V.Light, Move-16, Gun-Med, Close-6
Light Tank MkVIII "Harry Hopkins" Type-Light, Armour-Med, Move-12, Gun-Med, Close-6

A bit of a delayed response, but I think I can resolve some confusion:

It's also right on the edge of the 10-ton limit. Web sources all list it as 10.6 tons, but the tank profile at the end of Maginot Vol.1 gives its GuP stats at 9.8 tons.

Both are correct, actually. Metric tons are 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds) while Imperial tons are 2000 pounds.

10.6 Imperial tons = 21200 pounds
9.8 Metric tons = 21560 pounds

Oooh. My vol.6 shipped from CD Japan last week, not arrived yet;, on the slow boat for cheap SAL postage.

I did pick up a Tetrarch and a pair of Mk.VIc tanks on spec for St. Gloriana when I put in a bigger order with Old Glory 15s in their Decemeber sale. They did mention they should try taking out the Maus with a Mk.VI in the season finale.

Light Tank MkVIII "Harry Hopkins" — wow GuP once again expands my knowledge of WW2 tank design! Tachikoma, I think that's a job for Shapeways, I don't think anyone is producing that in 1/100.

Twig66, a few weeks ago I sent you some email to the address linked in the google-docs, don't know if you saw those. I've been developing some 5'x7" player's aids. I've tweaked them a bit since the first drafts I sent. They worked great at TotalCon this past weekend.

This week I'll try to catch up on my blogging for events already run at Arisia and TotalCon. Kuromormine, Ooarai, and St. Gloriana's teams modelled now. And play aids — the cards, and katakana SFX tokens to mark movement and fire ^,^

Following Twig66's post yesterday I began collecting references on the Mk VIII. Harry Hopkins will be available through Shapeways, though it may be a week or two.

I would be in the queue for a Shapeways MkVIII Harry Hopkins too, please Tachikoma.

I hope the convention games went well, I have just seen your e-mail now and replied from the address I actually check, sorry about the delay. The player's sheets look really good.

I hope the Shapeways FAMO recovery vehicle is coming along too!

Yes, the con games were a blast. Most recent sheets sent. Looks like I should be able to start catching up on the blogging this afternoon.

My SAL package arrived a few days ago. My reading knowledge of reading Japanese is still only up to understanding the SFX.

Is there any text description of the story behind the badge on St. Gloriana's slouch hats? A dog with a birthday cake?

From the pictures, looks like they are driving 1 Harry Hopkins and 4 Tetrarchs — is there more enumeration?

That looks like Rukuriri in a Bonple uniform at the start of chapter 24!

The dog is a Chinthe, they talk about Orde Wingate and The Chindits a bit, the cake must be the pagoda it is guarding. link
I thought there were probably 4 tetrarrchs, I don't think they say exactly, I was going by the little tactical diagram on p.109. I don't think it says how many Harry Hopkins either, I have only "read" that bit without a dictionary so far.
I will e-mail you the identity of the disguised person, it is written to keep you guessing until the last page.

And p.104 looks like a column of 4 Tetrarchs.

Well Uszka would reveal who she was talking to later in the chapter. The hint is that ruse name she came up with to bluff Jajka.
Harry Hopkins comes in a later chapter when Darjeeling finishes picking her mask.

"A bit of a delayed response, but I think I can resolve some confusion:

It's also right on the edge of the 10-ton limit. Web sources all list it as 10.6 tons, but the tank profile at the end of Maginot Vol.1 gives its GuP stats at 9.8 tons.

Both are correct, actually. Metric tons are 1000 kilograms (2200 pounds) while Imperial tons are 2000 pounds.

10.6 Imperial tons = 21200 pounds
9.8 Metric tons = 21560 pounds
"

Actually, you have added to the confusion to anyone who grew up in a metric country, given that "ton" is NOT a metric unit. Tonne is a metric unit, while ton refers to the British or Long ton, or the American or Short ton (neither are those two interchangeable).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton

The metric tonne is 1000kg, 2204lbs. The Imperial ton ("long ton" in North America) is 2240lbs, and the short ton ("ton" in North America) is 2000lbs.

In Vol.7 Darjeeling just created a new tournament called "The Cauldron", featuring twenty teams. Can't wait to read it tomorrow when I get my copy!

Will be fun to see The Cauldron! My copy from CD Japan will be awhile in arriving.

Once I catch up on my blogging, I'll have a belated AAR shortly from Huzzah. I've gradually developed a solid multi-plyer format for big convention games. Each player gets a team of 5 tanks and their own flag tank. Teams divided into two sides. You have to take out all the opposing flag tanks to win. During initiative movement, all of the players on one side move a tank or group.

Keeps everyone engaged all through the session and the game moves along at a good pace.

The latest clips released by Bandai from the upcoming GuP das Finale show crews from BC Freedom.

CHANGL09 posted a link to the trailer on my blog last night, and I posted a thread here, but the thread hasn't appeared out of the ether yet.

CHANGL09, where do you order your manga from? My pre-order hasn't shipped from CD Japan yet.

Oh, and Tachikoma, I post some pix of the Dragon and Scammell transports on Shapeways. They will also feature in the upcoming AAR — sweet addition to the game!

@miniMo I buy them on Amazon Japan online and read them on Kindle. Can't fit too many books in my 1DK apartment :-(

Saunders' new tank, M1 Combat Car.

So far Cauldron's new rules are:
(1) Each stage has a different mission (for example Maho played King of the Hill against Takegoto).
(2) Teams consists of 1 to 5 tanks.
(3) A team can only call in one outside tank to assist.
(4) Called-in support acts on her own will, thus you could have someone backstab you or even have a three-way battle.
(5) A team that lost its match is absorbed into the winner's side, forming bigger and bigger teams along the way.

Squee!

Tachikoma makes an M1 — how many do they field?
link

My hard copy shipped today;it will be several weeks on the SAL slow boat.

Three in total, although Flying Tigers only fielded one tank.

Looks like Bonple in das Finale as well!

Pre-order info today from CD Japan included listings for GIRLS und PANZER der FILM Symbol Magnets for both BC Jiyuu Gakuen School Insignia and Bonpuru High School School Insignia.

Hmm it seems that those came out in May and was for Der Film. It should be a set of 16 magnets for all schools that participated in the 63rd tournament.

BF has announced that they will do M13/40 and Semoventtes in plastic! Finally I can do some decent Pizza tanks.
They have also removed all of their Japanese tanks. Either the moulds have worn out, or Chi-has are gonna be a plastic kit soon as well…