As the Russian Commander prepares his crew to move out, his German counterpart already has tanks on the move. It comes as a shock when the Russian commander spots what looks like a Stug moving to his right in order to capture a hill, but it suddenly lurches to a halt before reaching it. Probably hit a patch of Mud… Lucky break for us, but luck only goes so far…To the Commander’s left, the T-34/76 moves forward and to the side to set up a flanking position on the Stug –nice maneuver though he hasn’t found any cover and stops in a field to set up a shot. The Commander’s SU-100 and the T-34/85 are still warming up their engines when another German tank is spotted moving towards the hills – a PZ IV, that drops into a shallow gully before reaching another hill. The Russian Commander’s heart starts pounding in his chest and his mouth is dry as he sees that the Germans are gaining an early advantage. He needs to be able to advance and find cover before the Panzers start shooting at him…  

Come on, we need to move! There are other tanks out there! Move!!!!

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Game Mechanics

Robata Initiative Phase: 

For games against Robata, Initiative is handled a bit differently. The player goes first and determines Initiative for their tanks as usual, then Robata goes. Starting with the lowest numbered Robata tank, 3 Battle cards are drawn. The Target number (from 0-9) on the first card is first compared to the tank’s Peril value, which is calculated from a list of items that increase or decrease Peril. This impacts the Robata tank because a Tank in Peril will act differently than one that is not in Peril, including determining initiative. If the Target number is less than or equal to the Peril level for that tank, the Tank is in Peril. This adds quite the variety to how Robata responds, and each tank Robata controls can act differently! Following the Peril check, Robata uses rules to determine which of the 3 cards to use for initiative for that tank. This can result in a wide variety of choices as the game will show. You then discard the two remaining cards and move on to the next Robata tank.

During Robata’s Primary and Secondary Action Steps:

During each Robata Tank phase, after Robata determines if that tank is going to Move or Fire, a base number of 3 cards are drawn to see if that tank can actually Move or Fire. This base number is modified depending on where the tank is at (range from center), if the commander is KIA, Crew is Green, etc. Drawing a Move or a Fire card does not necessarily mean that Robata will actually Move or Fire!  Instead, Robata uses Success checks. Depending on the number of Successes (0, 1 or 2), Robata may be able to move, or fire, or neither! It is hard to predict until the cards are drawn what Robata can actually do that turn. Much like in a 2 player game, Robata may know what it wants to do but lacks the cards to do it!

Success Check: 

Success checks are performed to see if Robata can actually Move or Fire. These Success checks use the Target number (0-9) of the first 2 cards drawn earlier and compares them to the Robata Tank’s Activation Level, which is defined as either the current Move or Fire Level as indicated on the Tank card. Some other modifications occur, and these checks can result in 0, 1 or 2 successes. In general, 0 successes means Robata can’t Move or Fire and you proceed to the secondary action step. One success means you can move up to 200 m (and maybe remove a Flank counter) or Fire but not specify a Turret or Hull hit. Two Successes means you can move up to 400m (removing a flank counter) or Fire and specify where it hits.

Robata Priority Cards: 

Depending on the state of each Robata controlled tank, there are different priority cards that will drive the action of each tank. See the following figure (using play test art) for examples of Priority cards for a Fully Functional tank and one in Peril. Note that these are in work and may change before release of the game. The High Quality and Low Quality shot definitions are used to determine certain movement choices depending on if Robata, or an opposing tank, has a HQ or LQ shot.

Tank Actions, in order of Initiative

The initiative phase had the Stug go first, followed by the Russian tanks, and then the PZ IV and Panther. I wanted to go last to avoid being spotted early, but Robata had better luck this round with initiative cards (and well written rules for what to choose for initiative).  

For this round, all tanks passed the Peril check and I present the tanks in order of initiative below. (I did not originally intend for this to be a running blog, so my notes for the early rounds are less detailed than later rounds. This also means there may be some minor errors in the images as I had to recreate them to match what happened in the earlier rounds). 

The Stug goes first. Robata priorities tell the Stug to advance towards the hill. Robata has 1 success, so the Stug moves 200 meters towards the hill, and stays in motion since there are no drawn Cover cards. A solo move card is placed in the Stug’s holding box. For the Stug’s secondary action, priorities have it try and spot a tank at random, in this case the SU-100. A card is drawn and the Stug succeeds in spotting the SU-100, ending its turn.

The T-34/85 is up next. I had only one move card in my hand that I wanted the T-34/76 to use, so the T-34/85 stays still and tries to spot the Panther. My draw fails, so the Panther remains hidden in the mist. For a field action, I drop a Mud card on the Stug. Robata failed the tactics response (by drawing a card Robata may or may not be able to respond with a Tactics card) and stays in the Mud. Mud (see the image of a play test Mud card) is nasty, -10 to hit when firing from it, and +10 to hit when being fired at. 

The T-34/76 goes next. I play a move card and move the T-34/76 200m forward, and used a flank card to try and flank the spotted Stug. Robata fails to counter (fails the Tactics draw) and the T-34/76 flanks the Stug, then plays a field card to stop and set up a shot next round. I wanted better terrain but since I only had a field card, I chose that. Even if I hadn’t flanked the Stug, I am not sure I would want to stay in motion because Robata automatically plays adverse terrain cards on any moving player tank if they are drawn during the active Robata tank’s phase, so there is some risk there. May pay for this though.

The SU-100 sat there, not wanting to be spotted by the other German tanks and with only a decent quality shot at the Stug 1400m away. Wasn’t worth giving away his position by firing now, and with no move cards, not much he could do but sit and watch the Germans advance. The SU-100 failed to spot the Panther as I didn’t draw any binocular icons.

The Panther wanted to move (per the mission priorities) but 0 successes so the move fails. For a Secondary action, the Panther tries to spot the T-34/85 but fails to draw a spotting card and doesn’t spot anyone besides the moving T-34/76.

The PZ IV goes last and moves 200m into a gully (had 1 success, so can move up to 200m, and drew a gully card). Spots the SU as a secondary action. Fails concealment so he is spotted by all the Russian tanks.

Here is the map, using playtest artwork from VASSAL, at the end of Round 1. Note that there is an error with the crew of the T-34/76 – the Commander is also the Gunner. I fixed this going forward but was unable to recreate this image.

End of round 1. No shooting, no score, but the battle is on!

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