The Commander’s heart rate quickens as he watches the Panther’s long gun barrel rotate past him and settle in on the T-34/85 on the hill. Unable to line up a shot on the Panther in time, he can only hope that the T-34/85 realizes the danger and moves, but they are too focused in on the PZ IV. The ground shakes as the Panther’s gun erupts in flame and smoke. The shot flies flat and hits the T-34/85 in its tracks. Smoke drifts out of the front hull from the impact. 

“Status T-34/85?”

“AD is KIA, we are on fire! Get that fire out before we burn up! Hurry! Hurry!”

From the front, the Stug and the PZ IV open up and two more rounds impact the T-34/85 nearly simultaneously! One appears to bounce off, while the other penetrates the hull.

“Get out of there!” The Commander shouts into his radio, though the words are hardly out of his mouth when he sees most of the crew bail out of the T-34/85 and take cover in the woods. Amazingly the T-34/85 doesn’t explode or erupt into flames, but it is out of the fight. Not good, we have lost 2 tanks already!

His SU-100 rocks backwards as the 100mm cannon fires – we finally have the Panther in sight! He watches the round hit the Panther in the turret! It appears the Panther Commander slumps over in his hatch but he’s still moving. Other than that he doesn’t see any other damage – “Reload, Fire!”

The air around him crackles and rumbles as a round roars past him – the T-34/76 behind him opens up and hits the PZ IV in the turret! Fire breaks out and the commander appears to be wounded… Finally, we inflict some damage! Hopefully that will knock the PZ IV out of the fight and off that hill.

“Where do you want us to go?” comes over the radio – another T-34/85 is joining the fight! The Commander thinks for a moment as he assesses the situation, trying to decide the best place for the new tank entering battle…

My thoughts on this turn:

Quite a bit of action, and Robata was very aggressive, pulling low cards for Initiative, which meant that all of my tanks went last. This was not what I had hoped for, and I paid for it. The T-34/85 took 3 hits that round, somehow didn’t have the fire go out of control, and I only lost the assistant driver. Robata made good decisions and loaded APCR when it could, and for the most part, when it should (such as the Stug failing to penetrate; APCR would help it next round). I’m struggling with card draws and the fact I am unable to knock out the German tanks when I hit them.

My attacks didn’t go very well, though I did do some damage, and the Panther and PZ IV are still in the fight. Losing the T-34/85 before I could have it attack the PZ IV was painful, and the discard of half my hand made it even worse. I am not in a good spot right now.

Overall, a fun round, but deadly. And more to come.

Game Mechanics

Time in Tank Duel: Time is abstract in Tank Duel, and handled in a similar manner to other card driven games – you play through the deck a set number of times. One change I like in the game is that you do not play through the entire deck before shuffling or ending the game, which adds quite a bit of tension to the game. And the rules are different for where the “SHUFFLE” Card goes and where the “GAME END” card is placed in the deck.

First, you determine the length of the game, in terms of the number of played through decks, by determining the number of tanks in the battle and referencing the scenario you are playing. This will tell you how many decks for a standard game. This can be modified by an additional deck if you want a longer game, or one less deck for a shorter game. Players will play through the Battle Deck this predetermined number of times, adding the Game End card during the final shuffle. In this game, I decided on playing through 4 decks, so the 4^th time the Shuffle card is pulled, I will place the Game End card in the final deck. A game of Tank Duel ends when the Game End card is drawn during the Draw Phase or Pulled from the Battle Deck during a Tank Action.

For decks where the “Shuffle” card is used, the deck is shuffled, split roughly in half, and the Shuffle card is shuffled into the lower half of the deck. This means the Shuffle card can come up halfway through the deck, or all the way at the end (as I had happen in this deck).

Once the predetermined number of Shuffles is complete, in this game 4, the Game End card is then shuffled into the ENTIRE deck. Now, it may come up very early in the deck, or very late, or somewhere in between. This adds a lot of tension as the final Deck is created, as you don’t know when the game will end. Games tend to pick up the action quite a bit as you burn through the decks and realize time is running out.

Order Icons (OI): Some Battle Cards have 1 or 2 Order Icons in the top left corner of the card as shown below (with Play test art). Cards containing Order Icons can be revealed from the Active Player’s hand and discarded to enhance player actions during the Administration Step and Tank Phase.

Order Icons may be revealed and discarded during the Administration Step or Action Step:

During the Administration Step, the Active Player may play:

• 4 OI during a Fire Check to automatically extinguish a fire.
• 4 OI during a Morale Check to automatically remove a Broken condition.

During the Action Step, the Active Player may play:

• 3 OI to extinguish fire instead of a Tank Action
• 2 or 4 OI with a Move or Fire action to improve the tank’s Move or Fire Level by 1 or 2 respectively, for the duration of the action
• 2 OI during a Spotting attempt to pull an additional Battle Card
• 3 OI with a Fire action to quick load/unload an APCR round

There are times you may have to discard a good card in order to use the OI, and they can have a big impact on the game. At first I didn’t use them that often, but as I play more they can be very useful.

Start of Round 4

Peril and Initiative checks: Stug Peril 0, passes. Pulls a 7 for initiative. PZ IV peril 0, passes, 5 for initiative.  Panther peril 0, passes, 3 for initiative! Robata being very aggressive this turn and all three of Robata’s tanks will get to go before me (my best card was a 21). Not a good start to this turn and it could be a disaster.

The Panther goes first and chooses to shoot at the T-34/85@1000m. Robata has one success and one Fire 1 card, which will cancel out the negative modifier from the Mud card. 56% chance after mods. Pulling a card results in a Hit! (I drew a 51!) Pulling another card reveals a 0, which is a Track hit! Track hits can be very nasty in this game, I don’t like them when they happen to my tanks. Armor value of 1, so penetration is almost guaranteed, and they can cause a lot of damage! In this case, there is light damage due to the black penetration mod number. Pulling a damage card results in the Assistant Driver KIA, and a check for fire. The pulled Battle card has the fire icon and the T-34/85 is now on FIRE! Referring back to the damage card, the crew breaks! The Panther’s secondary action has him load APCR. The Panther does not acquire as he also has the T-34/76 spotted, which no other Robata Tank has spotted. The Panther gets +2 VP for killing the Assistant Driver.

The Stug goes second. Does not have a HQ shot as net penetration before pulling a card is below -1. Going down priorities, Robata will take the LQ shot (makes sense to me) at the T-34/85 he has it acquired. 63% chance, and the pulled Battle card results in a hit! The next card determines that the round hits the Hull, but it fails to penetrate as I pull a -4 penetration modifier on the next Battle Card! The Stug decides to load APCR as a secondary action – I agree as the Stug is going to have a hard time penetrating the T-34/85’s armor otherwise. Robata has 2 command cards exposed and decides to attempt to conceal twice. Both card draws fail so the Stug fails to conceal. Finally, the Stug flips the Acquire marker over and it is now at +20 for the next shot.

The PZ IV is up next and has also acquired the T-34/85. Robata has a HQ shot and fires at the T-34/85. The revealed Battle cards show 1 success and a fire 1 card, with APCR loaded. 800m, good chance of hitting…Pulled card results in a HIT! The next card reveals the round hit the hull, and the next pulled card is negative but the round penetrates easily as the APCR makes the difference. Black penetration mod number so light damage. The Pulled Damage card reveals that the driver is wounded and there is a fire check. 

If I pull a card with a Fire icon, the Fire will grow out of control, forcing the crew to try and bail out of the already burning T-34/85. I get lucky and the Battle card does not have the fire icon, so the fire does not get worse. Checking the damage card, the crew does not break a second time so they stay in tank. For the second action, the PZ IV attempts to find a hull down position in the field (very low chance) and fails. Lastly, I flip the acquire token to +20 now. The PZ IV gets +1 VP for being on the hill.

I finally get to respond. 

The T-34/85 is hit by three rounds this turn and is on Fire with a Broken Crew! The T-34/85 receives +1 VP for being on the Hill. I really don’t want to lose another tank already so I choose to discard cards containing 4 Order Icons to put fire out automatically, but I will still have to draw a Damage card to check Morale as I do not have enough to rally the crew. The Damage card shows a break symbol for the crew experience level, and the T-34/85 fails the Morale check. Since they were already broken, the crew bails out and hides. Since the PZ IV was the last tank to penetrate the T-34/85, the PZ IV is awarded +5 VP for the tank being eliminated. I have to randomly discard half of my cards, but I still have Fire cards left! 

The SU-100 is up next. I decide to have it shoot at the Panther in the mud, and I have a fire 1 card so +20 overall to the To Hit number. Robata fails the tactics pull, so I have a 90% chance to hit! Pulling a card – Hits! The next pulled card results in a Turret hit. For penetration, I start with 16 penetration for the SU’s cannon and subtract 13 for the Panther turret front armor, resulting in a net+3. Anything but a -4 or B on the penetration modifier will result in penetration! I pull a Battle Card, and the modifier is a black 0, so penetration would be light but since the SU-100 cannon is a large caliber gun (100mm), it is automatically heavy damage! Pulling a Damage card, I check and the result is not as good as I hoped – Commander wounded, fire and explosion checks. Pulling Battle cards results in no fire, no explosion! I choose not to acquire as it’s a very good chance to hit and I’d rather be able to keep my other spotting markers.

During the damage check I pulled the “Shuffle” card. Per the rules, I completed the action and now it is time to shuffle the deck, completing deck 2. This deck was long – only 1 card was left to draw. Only 2 more decks to go!

T-34/76 is next. I use a Fire 1 card at the PZ IV on the hill. Robata fails tactics, so 66+10-5=71% chance to hit. Hit! Pulling a card reveals that the shot hit the Turret. For Penetration, 7 for the shot, minus 1 for shooting up hill, minus 6 for the armor of the PZ IV, plus a pulled card of 0 = 0! Penetrates, but barely, with heavy damage. Loader KIA, commander wounded, fire check results in a Fire! Crew does not break. I choose to have the T-34/76 acquire the PZ IV. +2 VP for killing the Loader. 

NOTE: The PZ IV has to reduce its fire level by 1 for the KIA Loader. I forgot to do this and didn’t catch it until this write up. 

The Reinforcement T-34/85 rolls in from the rear. Reset the T-34/85 tank mat to 800m, healthy crew, no spotting markers.

End round 4. Robata 23, Russians 9. Robata holds one hill, Russians none. Lots going on now.

---

Previous Article in this Series: Tank Duel Scenario 2: Hold the High Ground – Round 3

Next Article in this Series: Tank Duel Scendario 2: Hold the High Ground – Round 5