The Broken Tank Scenario Report

The war rages on. The Gunman are the best British weapon. This men are all that prevents the German Mecha to conquer all France. The British try to expand the use of the Tesla Guns. They create a Tesla canon. Nothing more than a big Tesla Gun in a Mark IV. The result was less that perfect. The Gunman using the Tesla Canon isn't in a good fire position, the cannon hasn't enough power and the tank is having some mechanical problems. The crew hides it in a small half destroyed French village. Then the crew and the Gunman run away into British lines. A British unit of Paratroopers is sent to retrieve the Tesla components or to destroy the cannon with explosive charges.

Lieutenant Jones and his men gears up and go for it. Simple enough, one would say, but there are spies everywhere and some even possess psychic powers in this admirable new world of ours. The German high command is warned that a Tesla Cannon is free for grabbing in a village nearby. A squad is fast assembled to retrieve it. Ten fallschirmjager, strangely the same number of men the British committed to the task. One would wonder about this coincidence. A perfect setting for a scenario, and we should take this chance to recreate this historic feat.

The German squad advances speedily and moves boldly into the village. The British Lieutenant divides his forces in two five-men squads. The first will cover the other - the one who will plant an explosive charge in the tank. The British sees the Germans first and open fire with amazing effect, killing two of the German soldiers. The Germans press the attack and are able to kill one of the men who was putting the charges.

But the British covering fire seems enough to maintain the German under check enough time to let the skilful demolitions expert put the explosive charge. It is time to retreat, but the Germans aren't wiling to let that happen. The supporting squad advances a little and two well placed grenades force the Germans to look for shelter in a destroyed house. The British squad slips out of the village and a huge explosion is heard in the French plains for many miles.

Scenario Notes: I've played this scenario with myself. We had fun together, me, myself and I. My strategy was to divide the British into two smaller squads and thrust the Germans to take hold of the tank. Both tactics could work, but the Germans rolled worst dice and were forced to retire into protection. It was a very fun game and very fast. I was tempted to play it again, but alas, dinner needed the table.

The more I play FUBAR, the more I like the rules. I am now using another new rule in my games. Each player can decide to put his soldiers On Guard before players start trying to activate their soldiers. It works like a charm and the games become much more tactical.

The Rules and Miniatures
I am using the excellent FUBAR - One Page Rules - with some minor changes to work with my new universe. These rules are very easy and enjoyable to use. The major modifications are the psychic shields and the Vehicles (mecha and human energy powered tanks). These rules are presented in my previous post. I am using the very nice 28mm miniatures from Warm Acre Games, the Mecha are from Topo Solitario and the tanks are from Fiddler's Green. If you like paper models and want to play with 28mm very cheap vehicles, you should try them out.

Tank Assault

“As France became more and more a no-man's land and the armies became more proficient in combat tactics, strategy and psychic technology, the Boches were always one step ahead of everyone else in the use of new weapons and formations. Very early they start deploying their special troops behind our lines to harass us. They would attack convoys, lone vehicles or small garrisons, creating chaos and havoc everywhere. The worst of them were the Fallschirmjager, the German air transported special troops. In the first months after this new military approach by the German, we were very slow in taking counter-measures and things became very grim. Later we would use our own special troops and the new all women psychic units to counter this and to use it in their own terrain. The women were a life-saver, that's for sure, although it still pains me that we had to suffer the fact that we were saved by women.”

Captain Mark Bleihem

The Century War – 1933 Tech
The Century War is now in its fourth year (or in it’s nineteenth year if we start counting from 1914 as some historians do). After conquering much of France, the Germans are joined by Franco and war ravages also in Spain. The Germans and Italians attack the British possessions in North Africa and the Russian Civil War is at its highest carnage. New and strange vehicles work across the battlefields. As the nations investigate the new unleashed psychic powers, new ways of using them are being created. The most common was the powering of engines by human energy and the psychic shields, that every army used but nobody knew how “it” worked.

The Rules
I am using the excellent FUBAR – One Page Rules – with some minor changes to work with the universe. These rules are very easy and enjoyable to use. The major modifications are the psychic shields and the Vehicles (mecha and human energy powered tanks). These rules are displayed in previous posts. I am using the very nice 28mm miniatures from Warm Acre Games, the Mecha are from Topo Solitario and the tanks are from Fiddler’s Green. If you like papermodels and want to play with 28mm very cheap vehicles, you should try them out. The Opel Blitz is a beauty, and if you create an account, you’ll have access to 3 free models! I’m finishing it and soon I’ll show it here. Chip only has one WW2 tank (the Panzer III), but if some of you buy it, I think that he will add some more. I’m counting on you all! In this post I'm displaying the FINALLY!! painted Warm Acre German Fallschirmjager and the Fiddler's Green WW1 Mark IV with a rocket launcher taken from a British Mecha from Topo Solitario. The houses are all from Dave Graffam and they are excellent for gaming. Check them out.

Somewhere near Paris - France
The Germans were spotting the lone Mark IV from sometime now. It was coming back to the front. The Oberleutnant decided that his five men squad would be enough to stop the tank, so he set a trap in a small village where the tank would have to cross its main street.

In the scenario, the tank will win if he can cross leave the map on the other side. The Germans win if the can destroy the tank. They will use very well placed grenades to destroy it. So they must come adjacent to it.

When the tank reached the middle of the village, the German unit attacked. Taken by surprise, the tank failed to react on time and the Germans approached it easily. The tank commander moved the tank back to bear more of its Machine Guns against the German and it was able to put two soldiers out of action. But it was not enough. One very well placed grenade from the Oberleutnant himself brew the tank up. The German took off with their wounded and disappeared in the woods.

New Rules
Tank Assault. Infantry units can assault a tank, and try to disable it by putting a grenade in the tank's soft spots. This is a difficult operation. The infantry figure that makes this must roll against his activation and then make a expertise roll at -1. If he succeeds roll on the vehicle damage table one time for each point of success in the die above the expertise -1 value. Shields aren't used but the tank is entitled to an armour roll.