Situation Map at start of Round 2:

Round 2

As the SU-100 Commander looks around the battlefield, trying to spot other enemy units, the roar of the T-34/76’s cannon makes him flinch – the first shot of the battle has been fired! Looking at the Stug in the distance, the SU-100 Commander sees the shell impact into the side of the STUG superstructure, just below the German Commander. The German Commander is blown out of his hatch, and there’s some smoke coming from the superstructure! Great shot! The Russian Commander hopes to see the Stug burst into flames, but as he watches the Stug, the smoke stops and the Stug starts to retreat, eventually climbing into some Rubble. The Stug is still visible, barely. The T-34/76 still has him flanked – come on, reload and fire!

His attention is quickly pulled to another part of the battlefield, as he spots a PZ IV heading up a hill, stopping in a field in a very advantageous position… but without… BAM! To his left the T-34/76 rocks from an impact, quickly followed by the roar of a cannon. The T-34/76 explodes, forcing the SU-100 Commander down low in his hatch as shrapnel fills the air. Where did that shot come from? Find it! 

From inside the SU-100, his loader yells out – “Panther! 10 O’clock. Medium range. In the open!”

This is not good – we need to move! He spots a gully over to the right – “Driver, move forward to the gully at 1 o’clock, find cover then stop!” As the SU-100 moves, ever so slowly towards the gully, the Commander notices that the T-34/85 has raced up to a hill and entered a wooded area, disappearing from view! Good move, hopefully the Germans can’t seem him either.

At last, we are in the gully! We should be very hard to spot with our low superstructure and the surrounding terrain. Now to choose a target… there are plenty to choose from.

To his rear, the Commander notices another T-34/76 joining the battle. Whew, reinforcements for this area. We sure do need them if we want to dislodge the Germans from the hills…

Game Mechanics

Tactics cards: When the player plays a Tactics card, or attempts a Fire, Flank or Spot action, or when the player tries to play Terrain on a moving Robata tank, Robata attempts a Tactics reaction by Pulling a Battle card. If the pulled card has a target number below a certain value, or if the drawn card is a Tactics card, then Robata plays a Tactics response. As the game goes on, Robata is more likely to play a Tactics card based on the current play test rules.

Fire Actions: Robata does not determine if it can Fire based on an exposed Fire card, but based on Successes as defined before. However, any exposed Fire card can modify the To Hit chance, with a preference for the best value possible (and only one Fire card can be used to modify the to Hit percentage). If you have two successes, Robata can choose where the shot hits, otherwise hit location is per the usual procedure. Other modifiers apply as in the multiplayer game. One important note: If Robata is moving but decides to shoot, the Robata tank automatically stops moving so it can shoot from a stationary position.

Shot Hit and Penetration: To determine if a shot hits, the player takes the base To Hit Number based on the range between the two tanks, modifies it for any played Fire, Leadership or Tactics cards, and subtracts out the enemy tank’s cover and size modifier. Additional modifiers apply if either tank is moving or in mud. A Battle card is Pulled, and if it is less than or equal to the Final To Hit number, the target is Hit. A Pulled card with a number between 96 and 100 is an auto miss, so even a sure shot may not hit. If the shot hits, and the player did not use two Fire cards, another Battle Card is pulled to determine where the shot hits. If Two fire cards are played (or two successes for Robata), the player can determine where the shot hits.

If the shot hits the target, the player needs to determine if the shot penetrates. The penetration value of the firing tank (for the appropriate range) is determined. This value can be modified if Special Ammo was loaded prior to the shot. Next the Enemy armor value is determined, based on hit location (Turret, Hull or Track), and position (Front or Flank). A Battle card is then pulled, and the penetration modifier at the bottom of the card is added to the Penetration value of the firing tank. So, Negative numbers are bad for Penetration modification! 

If the modified Penetration value of the firing tank is equal to or greater than the Target tank’s armor value, the shot penetrates! There are cards that have a “P” or a “B” on them – “P” means the shot automatically penetrates, and “B” means the shot automatically fails to Penetrate! So, even if you hit, and have a massive advantage in penetration, there is a chance the shot will bounce off the target. It’s not fun to pull this when you are the firing tank, but it sure is nice when you are on the receiving end!

Damage Cards: This is where a lot of chrome and detail comes out in the game design. Depending on the penetration value color, a shot may result in light or heavy damage (with cannons > 85 mm automatically causing heavy damage). Each Damage card has a section for Turret, Hull, Track and Critical hits. You look at the appropriate section to determine the damage caused to the hit tank. Heavy Damage is not always worse than light damage, adding an element of chance. In addition, there are many different damage results, from wounded crew to special ammo hits to Catastrophic hits that explode the tank and kill everyone on board! Those cards are not my favorite unless I am doing the shooting! See the sample, using Playtest Art, below:

Crew Bail out: The Crew can voluntarily bail out, even on fire, and all crew will survive. However, if a Fire grows out of control, or the tank explodes, the player needs to pull Battle cards to determine if each crew member survives. You draw one card per crew member, or two if they are wounded, and look for either the fire or explosion icon in the upper right corner. If the corresponding icon is present, that crew member fails to bail out and is KIA. If you draw two cards, only one of them needs to have the icon to result in a KIA.

Robata Crew Morale and Tank on Fire checks: During the tank’s administrative check, a Battle card is drawn if the commander is KIA / Tank is on Fire. If the crew fails this check, they bail out. If not, the crew puts out the fire and auto rallies. This is intentional and makes Robata harder to defeat.

Tank Actions, in order of Initiative:

Initiative / Peril Checks: All German tanks pass their Peril checks and remain operational.

Tanks presented in Initiative order below:

The T-34/76 goes first and decides to take a shot at the Flanked Stug, in mud, with a leadership card. The Stug Pulls a card and succeeds in playing a tactics card to negate the leadership card. This results in a decent chance to hit, but not as good as I hoped. I pull a Battle Card and Hit! Location pull results in the Turret (superstructure on a Tank Destroyer). I pull another Battle Card and after calculating the penetration value, it’s positive so the shot penetrates! Heavy damage, as the penetration modifier was red, and it turns out to be a Critical hit! 

The Stug Commander is KIA, Gunner wounded, Fire x3. Pulling 3 cards and looking for the fire icon, only one card has it so the Stug is On Fire but it doesn’t grow out of control which would cause the crew to bail out. Instead, the crew Breaks. With the Commander KIA, all spotting markers are removed and the Move and Fire Levels are reduced by 1. In addition, in future rounds Robata will draw 1 fewer card during the Stug’s tank phase. The T-34/76 Acquires the Stug and loses spotting on the PZIV as they focus in. 

The T-34/76 gains +5 VP for killing the Stug Commander.

The Stug was just behind in initiative and paid for it. The Stug crew does not bail due to Commander KIA. They put the fire out and rally. Following Robata priorities, the Stug decides to move as one of the two revealed Battle cards is Rubble (far better than mud!). The Stug has 1 success, and the movement flow chart instructs the Stug to retreat 200m out of the mud to try and get away from the T-34/76. Pulling a card, the Stug fails to remove the flank marker and enters Rubble. Concealment fails and the Stug does not Bog. For a secondary action, the Stug spots the T-34/76 again.

The PZ IV goes next. Robata decides to have the PZ IV leave the gulley and capture a hill at 400m (had 1 success). Robata has a field card and stops on the hill, but exposed in a field. This could be a problem in future rounds, but the PZ IV is on the hill and if it survives to next round, will start earning 1 VP per round during its administration phase. For a Secondary action the PZ IV attempts to spot the T-34/85 and fails. 

The Panther is up next and takes a shot at the T-34/76 (1400m), and the 3 card draw results in 2 leadership cards (but can use only 1 in a turn) and a Fire 1 card! Great draw for Robata.  Robata has 1 fire success, meaning that Robata can take the shot, at ~ 80% chance to hit. The T-34/76 plays a Tactics card, and Robata fails to draw a counter to the Tactics card, resulting in a ~60% to Hit. Robata Pulls a card and the result is a Hit! Pulling another card shows that the shot hit the T-34/76 Turret, and Pulling another card results in penetration and a Heavy Damage result! Pulling a Damage card indicates no Critical Hit, and a Heavy Damage Turret hit results in the Gunner being KIA, the Loader wounded, and an explosion check – the T-34/76 Explodes as I pull a Battle card with an explosion icon on it! 

All of the T-34/76 crew die trying to escape the explosion – the wound to the loader does him in (In this case, the first card didn’t have the explosion icon, but the second one did, resulting in the KIA). 14 points to Panther. 

(NOTE:  in the images of the game I am using a SPOT III counter to keep track of Kills for each German tank, since there is no Russian Tank with ID Number III. I like to track how many kills each tank has (even if it is destroyed, I track the total killed by that tank card))

I remove the Spot II counters from any German tanks since the T-34/76 was destroyed and a replacement hasn’t entered the field of battle yet. The Flank II counter is removed as well from in front of the Stug.

(NOTE:  I made a mistake here. I was supposed to discard half my hand at random after the T-34/76 was eliminated and didn’t realize it until later. I leave this as it is. It would have meant the SU didn’t move this turn as either a Move or Cover card would have been discarded)

The Shuffle card was pulled during this action, so it is the end of deck 1. Cards reshuffled with the Shuffle card randomly shuffled into the lower half of the deck.

Next up, the T-34/85… 3 move cards and woods and gully are left in my hand. The T-34/85 moves 400m onto a hill with woods and successfully conceals in the woods! No other action, but I will get 1 VP next round during the Administration step if it survives.

Lastly the SU-100 moves 200m to 600m, and gets into a shallow gulley. Successfully Conceals and does not Bog. Whew…got a couple of good card pulls there!

During the Reinforcement Phase, reset the T-34/76 Tank Card to 800m, no spotted markers, all crew back in position. I like how this plays as you are never down a tank and the battle rages on.

End of round 2 (and completed 1 Deck): Robata 14, Russians 5. Robata and Russians each occupy a hill. A T-34/76 is a smoldering ruin on one of the hills. The Stug is smoking but not on fire, with a tough crew that is hanging in there despite their Commander being killed. Fun round.

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