Scratch-building Chain Link Fences

My scratch-built aluminum fence sections surrounding my scratch-built basketball court

As my 28mm urban terrain began to grow, I knew I would needed fences to enclose my basketball court, parking lots, playgrounds -- whatever I think will look better with something around it. I thought I would try my hand at scratch-building chain link sections with easy-to-obtain and common materials. Sure, I realize somebody probably already makes them for purchase. I enjoy the modeling part of the hobby, though. And if I can do them cheaper, it means I can do more of them!

The black mesh called "plastic canvas" which -- when rotated 45 degrees -- looks like a chain link fence

I started with a plastic mesh screen called "plastic canvas" that you can buy at craft or fabric stores (I believe they are used for needlepoint). I chose black as the color so that I could dry brush my aluminum color over it to give it more of a worn look. The mesh is horizontal/vertical. Chain link fences usually have their wires running diagonal, though. So, I simply rotated the mesh 45 degrees. To make sure I was cutting it uniformly straight, I first cut out a thick cardstock template that would equal the size of the fence section that I wanted. I rotated the mesh, placed the template down, and used a sharp X-acto knife to cut along it.

My 6" bass wood sections with holes drilled 1 1/2" from each end for the nails to be forced through

I ended up with lots of segments left over, but I may go back and use those for gates, smaller sections, or whatever comes up. Next, I cut out the bases out of bass wood. In hindsight, I would make the bases wider. I chose bass wood slats that were too narrow and the fences seem a tad top-heavy. I then measured so that if I lined up several sections end to end, the poles would be evenly spaced. With a 6" long base, I needed to measure in 1 1/2" from each end along the centerline of the base. That meant that each pole would be 3" apart. I marked the spot and drilled it to accommodate my fence posts.

The nails, which become fence posts, pushed through the bottom of the bass wood base through the hole drilled for them

I used aluminum nails for my fence posts. My idea was to use a flat head nail and drive it up from the bottom through the bass wood base material. Unfortunately, I did not notice that my chosen nails had a slight, irregular, material bump on the end of each nails flat head. That meant they did not truly lay flat. I thought this could be easily fixed by simply gluing MDF "bricks" -- tiny rectangular pieces that were left over from building construction. I did this, but then found that the base was even more wobbly and unstable. The next attempt to salvage the bases was to epoxy metal bases on the bottom in the center between the two posts. The weight of the metal allowed them to finally be more bottom heavy and stand up more straight. Still, I wished I had gone with wider bases.

The styrene rods placed atop the points of the nails to be the horizontal poles

The next step was to cut the styrene rods that I had bought at a local hobby shop into six inch sections. I measured 1 1/2" in from each end and marked the spot. I then took the sharp point of an X-acto blade and spun it to make a hole at the marked stop. I widened it so that it would fit over the tapered point of the nail. The rods would become the horizontal poles atop the fence sections. Once I had all the poles cut out and drilled, I simply epoxied them onto the nail points.

The size of styrene rods I bought from the local hobby shop

It was at this point I discovered I had made another miscalculation. When I drilled the hole through the bases, I had not done them uniformly straight and perpendicular. This meant the nails did not point up a true straight up and down, and the styrene poles would not look straight. In the future, I would probably find truly flat head nails and simply epoxy them to the base, rather than drilling them up through the bottom. Lessons learned!

The materials all ready for assembling

Next, I coated the horizontal styrene poles and the vertical nails with a line of epoxy. I took each precut mesh screen and placed it onto the epoxy, angling the piece at an angle so gravity would force the screen against the epoxy. This step went very quickly, and I soon had a bunch of 6" chain link sections. I was mostly happy with how they'd turned out.

My first attempt at making the bases more stable. I would later add two metal bases in between the nails for weight

The two gates were a bit more fiddly to make. I cut styrene rods to be the gate posts, and epoxied them onto the base. It took some bracing and use of bluetack while the epoxy was drying for them to stay upright. I glued an appropriate bead onto the top of each post to look like the filial caps you usually see on aluminum fences. I glued on more styrene rods for the gates side and top poles, but otherwise, the steps were very similar as constructing the straight fence sections.

The plastic mesh is epoxied onto the aluminum nails and styrene rods - ready for priming!

Once all dry, I took the sections outside and spraypainted them with Krylon black primer acrylic paint. I followed this up with a coat of 50/50 mixture of black paint and water. They dried overnight, and then it was time to turn them into aluminum. I searched around to find a silver that looks more like aluminum. I purchased a jar of Vallejo Liquid Silver "White Gold" because it looked the most like aluminum of all the paints I'd found.

The painted and flocked gate section with a fence section on either side

My original intention was to drybrush the silver on over the black, leaving some black in the recesses as shadows. This paint is very watery, though, and wanted to cover the area completely -- running into crevices. I decided to go with the flow, so to speak, and cover the poles and fence screen more completely. This went VERY fast, and I really liked the bright color and how it reminded me of aluminum.

A good look at the mesh and how it simulates a chain link aluminum fence

Once dry, I flocked the bases with medium brown ballast, and followed it up with Turf Earth, and finally blended green grass (leaving some sections bare earth). A couple sprays of clear coat and my fences were done! Everything did not go exactly as planned, and I will certainly be making some changes on future fence sections. However, I liked the way it turned out, and actually bought a second section of black plastic canvas tonight to do more fences!

Some of my 28mm urban gangs get ready to rumble on an inner city basketball court surrounded by my fence

These fence sections were quick and easy to create (and cheap, too!) If you follow in my footsteps, don't make the same mistakes that I did! See my blog entry above...

Bitter Tribal Warfare in the North of Britain

Steapa, at bottom right, encourages his Saxon warriors to exact revenge on their Viking foes across the field

I have always been fascinated by the history of Britain during the Dark Ages. Long ago, I painted up 28mm Vikings, Picts, Saxons, Britons, and Irish for use in skirmish games. I've used them with Song of Blades and Heroes rules, Saga, and most recently with Tribal rules from Mana Press. Enough of our Sunday evening gaming group enjoyed them to say they were interested in playing them more often.

In the center, Keith (left) and Joel count up their winning card exchanges to determine which unit won that clash

I pitched the idea to them of a series of games, with players controlling the same faction in a series of battles. We would keep track of Honor Points -- Tribal's ways of judging victory -- over the course of the games. Our forces (and leaders) would get more skilled, and hopefully a storyline would develop. I didn't want to necessarily call it a campaign, because there would be no map and no control of territory, or anything like that. Neither would it be a League, in which players are free to play multiple factions for the sole purpose of one-on-one competition. Ostensibly, the player's forces would remain the same faction.

The Townsfolk of Camelon rally to defend their fields from a horde of inebriated Norse-Irish

Since nearly all of my 28mm Ancient/Medieval stuff is for Dark Ages Britain, I encouraged the others who own figures for it (Keith and Mike S) to also field armies from the north of Britain. That accomplished, I've decided to give it a bit more of a framework. The factions would be from an area known as Gryme's Dyke, formerly the Antonine Wall -- an earth barrier constructed by the Romans before they pulled back to the location of Hadrian's Wall. Thus, in the Dark Ages, this could be the haunt of Picts, Dal Riatan Irish, Britons, as well as invading Saxons and Vikings. Our six players involved in the games so far represented the following factions:

• Caithill's Norse-Irish (Keith)
• Steapa's Saxons (Me)
• Picts (Allen)
• Vikings (Mike W)
• Vikings (Mike S)
• Local Townsfolk (Joel)

A band of Franciscan friars rally to the defense of the townsfolk, ready to use their staffs on the godless heathens!

 For our second set of games, we decided to use three of the four scenarios from the Tribal rulebook (#1 Revenge, #2 Raid, #4 Destruction). I used the order of Honor Points earned from the first game to let players choose their spot on the battlefields (attacker or defender on which designated battlefield). I skipped over myself and took the remaining spot.

The drunken Irish approach the stalwart monks, none too steady on their feet (judging by the cards they'd draw!)

Destruction featured five of my 28mm Acheson Creations Dark Ages buildings that Allen's Picts would be attempting to defend from an invading force of Vikings (Mike W). The attacker's goal would be to have a unit or figure spend an activation card adjacent to a building, which would represent setting them alight. Allen's placed his Pictish defenders in a forward defense, forcing the Vikings to go through them to get there. The drawback of his strategy was that, with half his forces not arriving till he end of turn 3, he would be outnumbered by the Norsemen. As it turned out, the Vikings did win the battle 13-7 in Honor, but managed to fire only one of the buildings.

The ending stages of the game sees the Irish force scattered and being mopped up by the Townsfolk

Since the games were being held on St. Patrick's Day, Caithill's Norse-Irish were full of enthusiasm to go out and raid the outskirts of the town of Camelon, near Gryme's Dyke. The battlefield represented one Dark Age hut and three fenced pastures with horses and pigs. The Irish goal would be to spend an activation card either in, or adjacent to, each of the structures to represent stealing animals or supplies. Led by a local group of monks, the townsfolk of Camelon were ready when the raucous (inebriated from celebrating St. Patrick's Day?) Irish arrived. The Irish would have to attack and drive them away from their herds to attain any loot. Keith was certainly missing the luck of the Irish that night and was soundly thrashed by the stalwart countryfolk and well-fed monks who guarded the pastures, 15-3. The Norse-Irish fled in disgrace.

In the far game, Jarl Mike W (left) grinds down Allen's Picts, while in the middle Keith (left) and Joel count their dead. At bottom right, Jarl Mike S patiently shuffles his deck and waits for me to finish taking pictures!

The final game pitted my Saxons (named after the Last Kingdom's character Steapa) seeking to avenge a wrong done to use by the Vikings of Mike S. Perhaps a band of Viking young men had stolen into our territory and perpetrated an atrocity on our Saxon womenfolk. I was to secretly designate one of Mike's units as the ones marked out for our revenge. I chose his one unit of hand weapons (figuring he would think I would pick one of his leaders). I deployed my three units of Saxon warriors across my front, each of them backed by a character -- my chieftain in the middle, and heroes on either end.

At top, Jarl Mike S's Vikings (including the Ravers just to the left of the monastery beehive huts) charge into my Saxons

I noted that Mike deployed the ravers we wanted vengeance against opposite my right. I then began to refuse my left flank with my unit of spears, and crept the other units over to the right so they would all be able to gang up on hand weapon unit. The characters also stalked forward to be within movement range. As it turned out, Mike attacked first, driving off one of my units with those very same ravers. They then followed up their success against my hero with the fearsome skill. Mike's early luck with cards ran dry, and my hero pulled a number of high black cards. With each wound dealing an extra, my hero cut down the over-confident (dare I say "cocky"?) ravers in one turn of combat.

Another look at the Raid battlefield with its pastures

Each of us had our successes and failures elsewhere on the battlefield. However, I had the upper hand in numbers and a clear lead in Honor. I could have attacked and possibly destroyed another damaged unit or two, but decided that honor had been satisfied. I offered Mike a chance to withdraw, and he took it. Steapa was successful in his second battle, as we revenged ourselves upon the Vikings, 16-7.

After weeks of games, here are the "campaign" Honor Point (renamed Legend Points) won by each faction:

1. 27 Steapa's Saxons (Mike D, 2-0)
2. 23 Townsfolk of Camelon (Joel, 1-1)
3. 22 Vikings (Jarl Mike W, 2-0)
4. 15 Picts (Allen, 0-2)
5. 15 Vikings (Jarl Mike S, 0-2)
6. 14 Caithill's Norse Irish (Keith, 1-1)

 With the next set of games, we're going to introduce a new feature to the games: Card pools. These are drawn at the start of each game and can be substituted for a card that has been played by the player or his opponent. I am planning on each player beginning with one card in the pool, earning an additional one with each victory. So, for next time, here's the card pools:

• 3 - Steapa's Saxons
• 3 - Jarl Mike W's Vikings
• 2 - Townsfolk of Camelon
• 2 - Caithill's Norse-Irish 
• 1 - Allen's Picts
• 1 - Jarl Mike S's Vikings

And finally, the Honor Points in each player's pool are also accumulated as Experience Points. Unlike the Legend Points, which simply accumulate and "rank" players, Experience Points are meant to be spent. Players can spend 15 points to purchase a permanent skill for one of his units or characters. Alternately, the can save them up to purchase a two point skill for 60 points. Purchased Skills will be "free" in future games -- over and above the normal Honor Pool which they can spend on Skills. However, this free skill cannot be changed from game to game, but is a permanent feature of the faction's armed forces.

Obviously, the current Experience Point pool is equal to the Legend Points: 27 (Mike D), 23 (Joel), 22 (Mike W), 15 (Allen), 15 (Mike S), 14 (Keith). After two games, five of the six players can purchase a permanent, 1-point Skill if they desire. Or they can wait and save it up for a 2-pointer! We will see how all these campaign additions affect the game as we progress. I, for one, certainly enjoy the scenarios better than a straight up battle. Tactical objectives always make a game more interesting! I am looking forward to the next time that bloody warfare resumes far to the north of the old Roman wall in the land of Gryme's Dyke!




 

Playground Equipment for my 28mm urban battlefield

3-D printed 28mm playground equipment for my urban battlegrounds

When I decided to begin collecting, building, and modeling for my 28mm urban gang warfare project, I started brainstorming what kind of scenery I could include besides buildings. Block after block full of buildings may look cool, but wouldn't be as visually exciting as mixing some other things. I thought of things like a basketball court, park, outdoor market, parking lots, and a playground.

28mm Slide and climbing bars from my friend Joe Merz's 3-D printer

My friend Joe Merz has a 3-D printer and had offered to print up terrain for me, if I could find the file on Thingiverse. I wasn't having much luck searching, so asked him, and he found quite a few things. He sent me some pics and I ordered swingsets, slides, teeter-totter, spinning wheel, and park benches from him. There was enough equipment to make two small playgrounds or one big one.

Members of the Bexley Block Watch keep an eye on their turf -- an urban playground

The first thing I noticed was that 3-D printed terrain has some serious flash in areas. I worked at it with an X-acto knife and made it more presentable. The fiddliest of bits to assemble were the swings. The seats did not attach easily to the ropes or chains hanging from the overhead bar. Otherwise, it all assembled relatively easily (or required no assembly at all). I based everything up on styrene plastic -- mainly because I wanted to model the effect of the grass being worn away to bare dirt in high traffic sections (like underneath each swing seat).

A rival gang - the Sons of Thor, German Village chapter - move in on the Bexley playground

I did a Google image search for pictures of playground equipment, and came to the conclusion that bright, primary colors was the usual look. I thought about doing some serious weathering and rust on the pieces, but didn't want post-Apocalyptic stuf -- just a little dirty. A dry brush of the lighter shade of the base color and a black wash would suffice for that, I felt.

Close up of one of the swingsets, including the difficult to attach seats

I really like how everything turned out -- especially the metal on the slides. I think it will make a good addition to my downtown. Now, I just have to find some modern 28mm kids to be clambering around the equipment. So, if anyone knows where I can find some, feel free to let me know!

Rhodesian Bush Wars at Cincycon

Rhodesian G-car flies over a ZANLA encampment in a Fire Force scenario at Cincycon 2019

It is interesting that one of the more interesting conflicts of the 20th century "Bush Wars" -- that of Rhodesia fighting to maintain its minority rule -- is also one of the most challenging to game on the tabletop. In particular, the Rhodesian Fire Force missions of helicopter-borne and paratroop dropped assaults on insurgent camps can be a thorny scenario. The casualty ratio between the Rhodesians and the insurgents is so lopsided that for a long time I considered them not worth trying to stage on the tabletop. I mean who wants to play a side that loses casualties at an 80-to-1 rate vs. their opponent?

ZANLA encampment prior to the Fire Force assault, with troops milling about in the village grounds

However, as I continue playtesting the air support rules for my modern skirmish rules set, Wars of Insurgency, my mind kept trying to solve the riddle of putting on a fun, playable Fire Force assault game, yet keeping casualty rates vaguely historical. One day it came to me: why not have the insurgents played by the GM? The players would take on the role of the helicopter-borne and paratrooper infantry attempting to corral the ZANLA insurgents and prevent them from escaping. Another player would take on the role of an Alouette K-Car (armed with a 20mm autocannon) and an Alouette G-Car armed with a machine gun as fire support. The players would be challenged, as the Fire Force historically was, to prevent the maximum number of enemy from escaping the board. I wouldn't have any ego issues watching large numbers of my troops become casualties, while inflicting few on the elite Rhodesian infantry.

Rhodesian K-car opens the engagement banking left to allow its 20mm autocannon to engage the enemy below

I intend to do another post on obtaining and getting the Alouette III helicopters ready. I ended up going with two different sources, a Heller 1/72 scale plastic model kit (which would end up being the K-Car), and 1/72 die-cast from Amercom (G-Car). The plastic kit would be the K-car because I would be chopping it up to have the door open and insert a gun to represent the 20mm autocannon. I wouldn't bother with sticking a gun in the metal die-cast helicopter. The die-cast rotor assembly was EXTREMELY flimsy, and broke while I was just sizing it up to see how the blades would fit. After consulting with folks on various Facebook modern military history groups, I replaced the blades with a clear plastic sheet to represent the spinning main rotors. I was extremely happy with the look.

On the ground, sticks of Rhodesian Light Infantry advance through the bush, determined to cut off the escape of ZANLA

One unfortunate aspect of running a cooperative, players vs. GM game is that it limits the number of player commands. This would be my smallest Wars of Insurgency game, yet, with only four slots for Rhodesian players. Both slots filled up at Cincycon 2019, though -- I was running Friday evening and Saturday morning. That's my usual trick to allow me to have to set up and tear down only once each. My first group of players were fellow HMGS Great Lakes members and a fun and laid-back group. It included fellow board member Randy Miller and his high school senior daughter, Emma. She has gamed with Randy through the years and has the reputation of being a deadly opponent. 

Due to the large numbers of insurgents, a G-car is pressed into gunship mode and prepares to engage

We had a blast in the first game. I particularly enjoyed the players reacting with alarm as insurgent groups neared the edge of the board as they called over Randy for fire support from his chopper command. In the end, 18 insurgents out of 120 made it off the table. The Rhodesians lost five casualties. Honestly, considering the wounded-to-killed ratio of modern warfare, that would mean only one or two KIA, the others being wounded and out of action. So, the ratio proved very historical, in my opinion. I asked for suggestions from my players and they said it was perfect -- not to change a thing!

The players picked up my Wars of Insurgency rules quickly, and were a great help in keeping the game moving smoothly

The next morning I promptly disregarded their advice and made a couple changes. Number one was allowing two friends to play the insurgents for me, letting me sit back and GM (and causing the game to move faster with two players moving and firing 120 figures!). The best side effect was that both Jenny and Mike S who played the ZANLA force said they had fun. They said other players would likely feel the same way -- as long as they're not hyper-competitive and aren't the type that need to "win" to feel validated. I think at DayCon 2019 next month I will offer those two slots to walkup players, briefing them on what they're getting themselves into!

Rhodesian Light Infantry advance through a village to clear it of insurgents in Rhodesian Bush Wars

The other change I made was rearranging how the ZANLA troops were organized. Friday night, they began with groups of 12 or so, while Saturday morning I chose 20-figure groups. The reason they were so large was because I was replicating the "bombshell" tactic of ZANLA troops when under assault by Fire Forces. The insurgents would scatter in multiple directions (bombshell). So, I made a rule that when a group of insurgents took casualties, they would split into two separate units next turn. Thus, a 20-man group would bombshell into two 8-9 man units. Then, they would further bombshell once more, into 4-5 man groups. From my research, this would be the typical size of small units fleeing through the bush to escape. It wasn't until a unit got down to the smallest size and lost further troops that they would check morale.

A squad of lucky ZANLA troopers make it to the cover of the wooded hills near the board edge

For both games, I used a random aggression die roll when a ZANLA unit activated. I rolled 1d6 per squad. The higher the roll, the more aggressive they would be. So, if under fire from a Rhodesian squad and taking casualties, on a "5" or "6" they would move into cover and return fire. If not actively under fire, they would move to cover and advance towards the sound of Rhodesian fire. On low numbers, they would break off and scatter away from visible enemies. For rolls in the middle, I had them act in what I thought they would consider the most intelligent fashion. This type of simple AI for the insurgents works well in a game with a GM, and I was able to make most of my decisions without any questioning or complaints from players.

Rhodesians closes in on the village center,  firing from the cover of the trees

I was very happy with the outcome of both games. Number one, the players had fun and said how much they enjoyed the game. Number two, it felt like a historic action and had a realistic outcome, in my opinion. And finally, my air support rules worked very well, I thought. Although very little fire was directed at the helicopters, one G-car had to withdraw when it took accurate, damaging fire from the ZANLA on the ground. That also seemed to ring true with the players.

A shot I took before the game with the K-car above the native village, before placing troops

Fire Force will spring into action April 5th and 6th at DayCon 2019. I'll be repeating my times, with a Friday evening game and a Saturday morning games. DayCon is a fun, small convention that is growing rapidly -- come check it out!

ZANLA insurgents begin to scatter in the early stages of the Fire Force attack as a Alouette III G-car moves in

Tribal Clash - Orcs vs Celtic Humans

Orcs and Human chieftains slug it out on the tabletop in a raid on a troll village using Tribal skirmish rules

 A month since I've updated this blog? Okay, sorry about that! Stuff HAS been going on. It is just that reporting on gaming stuff has been shouldered aside by schoolwork. Never fear, a game in Keith's basement is likely to prompt an update to Lead Legionaries! This time, Keith wanted to get out the Tribal rules again, and do an Orc vs. Celtic Humans clash. The scenario had both sides getting word that the trolls in a nearby troll village had left their village, leaving it open for some exploratory looting.

One of my Orc warbands (old Ral Partha 25mm Orcs) spring towards a troll hunt in the search for loot

We had six players, with Allen, Mike S, and Brian being the Der Dadagh (not sure if I spelled it right) human tribes. Across the table from them were myself, Mike W, and Joel as the Orc raiders. Our goal was to loot the five troll huts and maybe even abscond with some pigs in the village pen. As it turned out, I was the closest to the pen and decided to ignore it in favor of hurrying forward to beat the humans to the huts.

The Der Dadagh beat my second Orc warband to the troll hut, while my hero (bottom right) gives them the stink eye

Tribal is a very simple skirmish system, with combat being decided by rounds of card play. There are modifiers, of course, with troops armed with long weapons getting bonuses when playing spade cards and clubs helping those with short weapons (like clubs, swords, axes, etc.). Keith threw in some of the skills, too, as this was our third or fourth time playing the game. So, some units had Agile, which allowed them to begin combats with the initiative, others had fearsome, which caused more wounds, and so on. I really felt the extra facets added a lot to the game.

A nasty surprise awaited the humans -- a magical Troll familiar -- who tore into them and drove the humans off

One unit of my Orc troops sprinted towards the Troll village and entered the nearest Troll hut. We found a stockpile of treasure (3 honor points). My Orc unit on the left was beaten to the Troll hut by Allen's Der Dadagh, who were surprised by a magical troll familiar. This fearsome rat-like creature drove off the unit of human warriors, but not before being wounded by them. On the next turn, my chieftain entered the hut and finished off the familiar, scooping up the magical item (1 honor). My Orc unit lined the slopes of the hill in case the humans came back to interfere.  Sure enough, the crazy Celt hero charged uphill into the face of my warriors, and was driven off with two wounds (heroes take five, warriors take only one each).

This was my hand when Allen charged me...thought I was doomed, but Allen's cards were even lower!

On the next turn, the my brave orcs charged down and dispatched the survivors who had been chased off by the troll familiar. Surprisingly, the Celtic hero chargecd into them as well, and was similarly dispatched. When you win a combat in Tribal, you get an honor point. When your victory destroys an enemy unit (or slays a hero), you take one of your opponent's honor instead of it coming from the central pool.

 

Meanwhile, Joel's Orcs were taking on all comers and dispatching them on our left

Meanwhile, in the wide open plains on our left, Joel was busy taking on all comers and driving them away. In three consecutive fights, one of his units drove off an enemy unit, killing four of its five figures in the unit. Joel and Mike W continued to get the upper hand on the center and right. It was a mournful day for the Der Dadagh. Although they won a few fights, the majority of them went poorly for them. Allen did manage to slay one troll found lingering in a hut, and Brian did win a couple battles against Joel later in the game. Nevertheless, the Orcs won a crushing victory in Honor Points earned.

Mike W's Orcs face down his human opponent, Mike S, across the table, eventually eliminating most of his men

I like Tribal's card system for deciding combats. There is enough decision making going on in when to play your cards in your hand, and how to take advantage of your unit or hero's abilities, that it gives melee resolution more flavor than simple dice rolling. I think the next thing I'd like to try is a free-for-all type game with each player actually designing their own warband, instead of the GM assigning them one. We could then begin to see how the balance in honor and skills plays out.

Either way, it was a fun evening, getting out the Tribal rules again and playing them. Hopefully, we'll get a chance to do more soon!

Lotta "What A Tanker!"

Keith's 20mm tanks stalk one another across a cityscape in What A Tanker! rules

Sometimes, I'm the odd man out in my group. For instance, many of my regular Sunday night gaming group love all things tank related. I've always abhorred tank games. Maybe I've been stuck in one too many chart-intensive, plodding micro armor games in my four decades of gaming. Whatever it is, my group knows I am not the biggest fan. However, Keith was insistent that we try out Too Fat Lardies "What A Tanker!" rules. He said they were not like most armor games.

Peekaboo! My Italian tank sneaks up behind Andy's British one and squeezes off a shot

Keith was definitely right. If I had to sum up the two things I dislike most about armor games it would be: (1) Their tendency towards dense rules sets that force you to calculate angles and thicknesses of armor; (2) Their unabashed love of anything German. Of course, that last one could be true of many World War II rules sets. More than one gamer has joked that if wargamers wrote History, the Germans would have won WW II. On that note, the French would likely have won the Napoleonic Wars, etc.

Our Sunday night gaming group engages in a swirling tank melee in a North African city

What A Tanker completely fixes those two things in my book. Tanks are given armor ratings, which is the number of defense dice they roll. With the tanks we've used, this has tended to be three to five dice. The rules fix the second thing I hate because a German "4" is no better than a British "4" (let's wait a second while the tank lovers run screaming from the room...). The way side and rear armor is covered is you needed different numbers to hit if you are shooting from that side (let's wait again, while the rest of the armor heads leave the room). Yes, no dense charts in this game at all!

Finding avenues of fire and playing cat and mouse is a big part of the fun of these rules

It IS a different style game, though. The dice dictate what happens and generate their own fog of war. You cannot do what you want to do some of the time...check that: MOST of the time. You roll a certain number of six-sided dice when initiative says its your turn to move.  The score on each dice lets you a different thing: 1's = movement, 2's = spotting, 3's = aiming, 4's = firing, 5's = reloading, and 6's are "wild," allowing you to use them as any number. So, yes, that means you may have a bead on another tank, be spotted, aimed, and ready to fire but roll no 4's. Your crew freezes, or random smoke has drifted across your vision -- whatever.

Joel and Brian check a ruling in this easy-to-learn set, while Mike S ponders his tactical situation

Although these pictures are from our third game, our first game featured me in a tank rated Fast, but not so heavily armored. I was able to race around and get on my opponent Brian's rear. Though my movement dice were fantastic, my shooting dice were awful. I fired away again and again, bouncing off his armor. Equally frustrated, he was unable to get move dice and get facing me. The game definitely works best with players controlling only one or two tanks each, we've found in our massive three games of experience. It also works best with lots of terrain, so you can play cat and mouse with the enemy. The dice provide the fog of war, so that your stalking doesn't always work out the way you wanted it to. I can recommend What A Tanker rules for anyone who normally doesn't like armor games. That said, my friends who DO like them also enjoy the rules. 

More What A Tanker action (don't ask me which tanks these are -- remember, I hate tank games! Ha, ha!!)