“I’ve got a clean shot on the Panther!”

“Fire!”

The Commander braces himself as the SU-100 cannon roars again. He watches as the shot impacts the Panther’s turret and the Panther Commander is blown out of his hatch! “Great shot! Reload!”

Nearly simultaneously, the T-34/76 fires and the PZ IV erupts in a massive explosion! Finally, we’ve dislodged the PZ IV from the hill!

The Commander’s attention is drawn back to the Panther, which despite two hits to the turret and no commander is advancing up the hill! What is it going to take to kill that Panther? We need to flank him!

The replacement T-34/85…. I forgot to give him orders… it’s just sitting there! “T-34/85, I need you to…”

The Commander’s vision blurs, the ringing in his ears threatens to drive him insane. His chest hurts from impacting the cupola, shouts are coming from inside the SU-100 but he can’t quite make them out… “Fire!” … “Give me the fire extinguisher! Hurry!”… “We need to bail out!” “No, it’s not that bad, not yet! I think we can…”

The Commander shakes his head and looks around as his vision clears. They’ve been hit, lower hull, across from the driver. Thankfully no serious injuries but there is a small fire and his crew is panicking though they are trying to put the fire out. We need to do something fast!

Looking at the battlefield he sees that the Stug fired the shot that hit them. The Panther is still on the move, its cannon pointing in his direction… they may stop and fire again! It appears the Stug is starting to move and is going to try and flank them while moving up the hill… they are well coordinated, I can only engage one at a time. I need support!

“Status! Can we move or engage? How bad is the fire?” The Commander knows he only has moments to decide to try and stay in the fight or bail out before the next round impacts…

Game Mechanics

Robata Personality Cards: The game designers sent the play test team new personality cards for Robata. There are different personalities in use now, starting with Basic (ie, nominal), and there are cards for Aggressive, Bold and Timid. Each has different primary and secondary priorities, parameters for determining a high or low quality shot, and different in Peril values.

At the start of a game against Robata, all tanks start as Basic, but that may change when they go into Peril. At the end of an In Peril tank’s turn, a new personality card is randomly drawn, and could be any of the above. I am hoping to try this out in this game, but in general tanks do not go into Peril that much and it may not happen.

On to Round 5:

My goal this round is to go first and try to eliminate a couple of Robata’s tanks, primarily the Panther and the PZ IV. I play low cards in an attempt to get the initiative.

Peril checks and initiative: All three Robata tanks pass their Peril checks, and for initiative I am in good shape as two of my tanks get to go first and I have some good cards to play, while Robata finally doesn’t draw low numbers! I need to make the most of this opportunity.

The SU-100 goes first. I play a Fire 1 card at the Panther, which gives me a +10 to hit. I also play a Leadership card which gives me a +20 to hit. Range is 1200m. Robata fails the tactics draw and does not counter the Leadership card, resulting in an overall “100% chance to hit.” Note that you still need to pull a Battle Card because there are “Auto Miss” numbers, so even this sure thing is not guaranteed! I like how this is set up. I pull a Card and the result is an easy Hit – I did not pull an auto miss. I pull anther card and it shows that I hit the turret. Next up, determine if it penetrates: Penetration 16 -13+1 (pulled card) = penetration, and it is heavy damage! Pulling a Damage card shows that it was not a critical hit, the commander is killed, and I need to do an explosion check! Pulling a battle card does not show the explosion icon, and the Panther does not explode. Referring back to the Damage card, the Panther crew breaks. The SU-100 gets 7 points, though I was hoping for more – a lot more! With a KIA Commander, the Panther loses all spotting markers.

The T-34/76 goes next. I choose to have it use a Fire 1 card and target the acquired PZ IV, for a +20 to hit. Robata fails the tactics draw and I have a 1000m shot, with a 71% chance to Hit. I pull a card and it is a Hit! The next pulled card shows that it hit the Turret, and the pulled card for penetration is a red 0: Penetration 7-6-1(because the PZ IV is on the hill)+0 pen mod = penetration (barely)! Heavy damage, I pull a Damage card – Catastrophic Kill! – No survivors! The T-34/76 gets +17 points for the kill. 

The Panther is up next. Robata pulls a card to see if the crew breaks again, but they pass the morale check. The Panther crew then rallies per the rules, and per priorities attempts to move towards a hill since it is the closest one to a hill now that the PZ IV was blown up (and the Panther has no one spotted). Robata has 1 success and will move 200m. (NOTE:  but in which direction?  In this case the mission priorities over rule the movement flow chart, which would have had it retreat). The Panther advances out of the mud, up the hill and stays in motion in a field as Robata did not pull a cover (terrain) card. 

The Panther spots the SU-100 as a secondary action. T-34s both spot the Panther as it moved.

The T-34/85 up next, rolling in from the rear as a reinforcement…only move cards in my hand, with no cover so I discard a card and wait for better cards. I really hoped to do more this turn with this tank.

The STUG is up last this round. Robata draws 2 fire cards, including a Fire 1, and a leadership card! Great pull for Robata. Checking the priorities for the Stug, the Stug has a HQ shot due to the exposed cards, and is farther from the hill than others, so Robata will take the shot. Robata has 1 success so fires at the SU-100 @ 1400m, 68% chance. Pulling a card results in a Hit! Next pulled card shows a Track hit, which is almost guaranteed to penetrate. I pull another card hoping for a bounce but do not get it. Light damage, and I pull a Damage card – ASSIST Driver KIA (there isn’t one, whew!) and check for Fire. Pulling a card results in a Fire! The Crew breaks per the Damage card! Not what I was hoping for. The Stug reloads APCR as its secondary action (Robata never runs out of APCR!!!!). No VP yet, but that doesn’t help my plan!

Finally I reset the destroyed PZ IV to 800m, crew all ok, no spotted markers – it is joining the battle.

End of Round 5. Russians 33, Germans 23. And like that, the score reverses. Until the next tank is eliminated!

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