Tuesday 1 December 2009

More Copplestone Tanks...

Apparently the next addition to Copplestone's interwar tanks will be a Vickers Independent:


Who can say no to FIVE turrets?!

5 comments:

  1. Thanks for your last few posts Mr Al, sir.

    I have to say I'd find it terribly hard to use a tank in VBCW especially as it'd be very one sided (much like playing the ancient Romans!). I wondered if you used one, what you would do to even it up or what scenario would you use?

    Thanks,
    Consul.

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  2. Dear Al
    I see a bloodpact tank coming on. John

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  3. Consul,

    Tanks can certainly be tricky in this period. It's before the availability of the major anti-tank weapons and they can simply end up being invulnerable machine gun platforms if you aren't careful; however, this is a problem that needs consideration in real periods like Spanish Civil War too.

    Generally the way I would even things up would be to make things trick for the side with the tank - so limited fuel, ammo, reliability etc., few unbroken lines of sight and plenty of actual (Boyes) or improvised anti-tank weapons (Molotov Cocktails, Blacker Bombards, Northover Projectors, Sticky Bombs - with VBCW you can have a field day with what ifs).

    If you look at the Winter War and SCW you can see some great improvised anti-tank techniques having been developed which can make the tankers life pretty risky.

    You can also limit communications between the tank and the infantry when the tank is buttoned up. So they can either co-ordinate and be vulnerable to small arms fire or operate on their own (pretty risk if there's any sort of cover and no infantry support).

    Hope that gives some food for thought!

    Al

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  4. Speaking of the Winter War and anti-tank measures, the film Talvisota shows some of these. I found this clip on youtube that might interest you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M8_hS0gqU8)

    Thanks for the advice, it's very helpful indeed! Have you gotten to the point of armour yet in your games? Have you made any rules up for them?

    How would you factor communication into the rules? If it's the same player playing as both, surely he has his own agenda in mind anyway?

    Thank you very much for the help!
    Consul.

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  5. Consul

    It depends which rules you use. Obviously having separate players and not allowing them to confer is the easiest with any. With TooFatLardies sets you can prevent a Big Man from activating the tank with the infantry. With Two Hour Wargames it is more difficult but you could certainly prevent it being part of a group (not certain that's allowed anyway actually!) but it's certainly more problematic. Or you could add some artificial impediment - only move on these dice throws etc.

    Al

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