The Russian commander looks out from the cupola of his SU-100, surveying the ground before him. His orders are to advance to the low hills approximately 400m away and hold them against a suspected German tank force in the area until reinforcements arrive. An uneasiness grips him, for he knows the Germans also want to capture the hills a bit further away, and that whoever holds the high ground will have a commanding view on the neighboring areas and be able to halt any further advance.

He knows this area well, having fought here just a few weeks ago. There are a few buildings, brush and woods in the area, crisscrossed with shallow gullies here and there. With the recent rain, some areas will probably be mud – he will need to keep an eye out for that. The Hills are a mix of brush and woods, finding cover will be key to helping fend off the Germans. 

The commander looks to his right and left, confirming that a couple of T-34’s are there to protect his flanks. Excellent, we have a T-34/85 in addition to the older T-34/76. He’d like some infantry support as well but none are ready to move out now. He looks over and gives the command to start engines, load ammo and prepare for action…

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Hello! I’ve been playtesting Tank Duel over the last 9 months or so, and recently we started playtesting the solo rules, referred to as Robata in the game and in this write up. I wanted to start a series of posts reflecting on a game I am currently playing solo. I hope you are able to find this entertaining and get a glimpse of this very cool game.

This article series will provide a short narrative for each round, followed by some details on the game mechanics behind the narrative. I am not planning on going into all the details as the development team is still refining how Robata plays, but will try to address some mechanics as I can. I also plan on posting a few development images from the VASSAL module. Please note that the images were recreated after the first few rounds were complete and therefore may contain a few inconsistencies as I was trying to recreate some of the early rounds. 

My overall impression is that Robata is challenging, takes unpredictable actions, and is a worthy opponent in the frame of the game. So far in Tank Duel, the games have run from being a blowout from one side, to coming down to the last draw many times. It’s the nature of the system and luck of the draw is how it goes sometimes. But all the games have been enjoyable and fun to play!

As of this posting, I have not completed the game, so it will be interesting how this narrative goes!

That said, let’s get to the set up for Scenario 2, Hold the High Ground!

In this scenario, there are hills located on the battlefield, 400 m on either side of the center line between the opposing forces.  Per current rules, there is 1 fewer hill than there are tanks, and holding a hill results in additional VP’s during the game (at the start of each tank’s turn in each round) and at the end of the game (if you hold hills and the other doesn’t, you get extra points). 

Hold the High Ground is turning out to be a fun scenario that I have played a few times.

The combatants for this scenario:

3 on 3, which I really enjoy playing.

Russians:  T-34/85, SU-100, T-34/76

Robata: PZ IV G, Panther A, Stug III

Game length:  Planned at 4 decks, but I may go 5 depending on how this game is going.

There are 5 Hill cards set aside for capture (per the scenario rules, 1 fewer than the number of tanks in the battle).

Each tank (and tank destroyer) starts at 800m from the center of the battlefield as none are heavy tanks (which would start at 1000m)

For this game I am not using infantry or anti-tank rules. Robata does not support infantry but we will be playtesting AT guns in a future scenario.

The attached image shows the set up but there is one error that I didn’t catch until round 1. I mistakenly gave the Russians an extra T-34/85 instead of the T-34/76 that I am using in my printed version of the game. This was fixed in Round 1. Also note that APCR counters are absent; again fixed in Round 1. Finally, I am only playing 3 on 3. I used the same tank mats as in my printed game, hence the gaps between tanks.

In the next article, I will present Round 1.

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Next Article in this Series: Tank Duel Scenario 2: Hold the High Ground – Round 1