"The last Battle of Tank 66" Topic

Been trying to find your fb page mate – the only Kyoteblue page I can find belongs to a young lady who doesn't seem to be a wargamer – any clues? Perhaps a link? facebook.com/sparker.rn.3

Does the superior equipment of the M1s for spotting have any impact, for night attacks?

Note, there are no penalties for either tank firing at over 16" for either tank, due to their laser rangefinders.

I don't have the rules, so am just referring to the cards, and to the old BF 3rd Gen. QRS for an overview of the combat sequence (it may have changed for TY, but doesn't appear that it has, for tank combat, as far as I can tell).

Not sure if that is an option for the M1 player, since I haven't seen the scenario, but the M1 can spot unhindered through night and smoke, while the T72 has a less capable IR system. Perhaps there is a difference in spotting ranges at night, or through smoke, with the rules. Both say to roll 2 dice, and pick the highest die (whatever that does).

The ROF of the M1 while stationary, and/or moving is 2.

The T72's ROF is 1 for both. While moving, you also add a +1 for it to hit it's target, if it is moving at tactical speed of up to 14", so it will only hit the M1 on a 5+, while the M1 can hit the T72 on a 3+ (no firing penalty for the M1 while moving at that speed).

M1 has a longer gun range of 40" vs. the T72's 32".

Not sure how you determine if tanks are firing AP, or HEAT in the rules, but the M1's side armor is 16 vs. HEAT rounds, and the T72's is 13.

Hope some of that helps.

My guess is the major issues are the T72's lower to hit chance on the M1, when it is moving and firing, and the M1's ROF, which is twice that of the Soviet tank.

Perhaps another option is for the M1 crew to seek cover, and go hull down, to make their tank harder to hit. Not sure how that works with the rules, but is worth considering in most tactical situations, especially if the rules don't make moving targets harder to hit as they are in real life.

In fairness the "actual" engagement was with 3 T-62s and 66 was destroyed with Ortelli being killed early on. The crew bailed and were picked up by the remains of the mech platoon and carried off to Link. Even the "real" crew lost that fight.

So the question is how many did you get before you bought it? And remember, you're facing much tougher opponents than the "real" crew did. I think you can still claim a win if you take down 2! 3 is a total victory.

I played this out (not having the scenario details, so don't know how it really goes) last night, three times, and two out of the three the T-72s won.

In the second game, the M1 had a good chance to win, but rolled poorly when shooting.

In the final game, the M1 squeezed out a win, barely, by killing one T72 at a time each turn, while the Soviet crews rolled poorly when shooting.

I started the tanks head-on, at 48" for the first two battles, with the Soviets moving and activating first, and 60" for the last one.

I don't think the range difference helped in the last battle, for the M1's win, but it does provide some tactical opportunities for it to use.

My guess is that if the T72s are separated, the M1 should try to get out of range of one or two of the Soviet tanks by moving while firing, and take out the closest one.

Using concealment and hull-down would be an option too.

Do you get bonuses above 6 on a D6 To-Hit in TY?

A moving T72 hits on a 5+ vs. a M1. 6+ if the tank is concealed. Perhaps 7+ if the tank is concealed and in cover (hull down), assuming the modifiers are cumulative.

I've seen some rules where a 7+ is made by the attacker first rolling a 6 on a D6, and then having to roll 4 – 6 a second time, on another D6.

Does FOW/TY do that?

If so, how is 8+ passed?

Also, how do the spotting rules work for TY, for vehicles in the open, and/or in cover, and/or at night, or in smoke?

I see the IR equipped vehicles need to roll 2D6 and they choose the highest die roll to pass. Same goes for Thermal Imagers, though presumably those make peering through smoke and night like daylight, in TY, based upon the M1 card back details.

That is a good point, TG, so perhaps give the M1 crew a hit on 2+ vs. the T72s to reflect inferior Iraqi crew quality, instead of the 3+ usual when firing against the Soviet crews.

Can a tank that fires twice switch targets if it destroys the first tank on its first attack?

That's the way I played my above engagements on paper last night.

Cool, thanks Kyote. Of course, we could do with some pics posted on this site ;)

I didn't know you could play FOW/TY with such small numbers. I thought it was more of a company-level game.

V/R,
Jack

It is pretty much, if you want the battle to last more than a few minutes.

I "played" this out last night, on paper, three times, in about 15 minutes, and that included writing down notes on the action as well (presumably that time would be roughly equivalent to moving real models on the tabletop).