The Trouble With Tanks

I’m a big fan of Bolt Action, and aside from maybe Grimdark Future (and excluding Solo gaming) it’s likely the game I’ve played most.

The issue with Bolt Action for me personally (as it’s not an issue with BA at all really) is that it slightly and only slightly takes up too much time. The majority of our games are on a Tuesday night after work, starting around half 6-7 and finishing up between 9-10, preferably as near as 9 as possible. The days work has drained most mental capacity and so the only tactic I can really muster is to tell all my units to advance and keep shooting.

Grimdark Future is a better option in this regard, it plays in a fraction of the time, gives that nostalgic Warhammer game feel, and still has enough tactical nuance to keep you interested.

The problem with Grimdark Future is tanks.

Well, the problem with using Grimdark Future to play out WW2 games is tanks.

As far as 40k is concerned a Lasgun could potentially damage anything, since we don’t really know how powerful such a weapon is or how tough the target is. All of these variables exist in someone’s head at Games Workshop and they probably disagree with their colleagues. So when that Lasgun is translated into Grimdark Future the fact it may have a 1 in 18 chance of damaging a vehicle is acceptable.

It’s less acceptable when that Lasgun is a M1 Garand damaging a Tiger.

This is all due to how Grimdark Future works, it’s essentially a two roll game. Roll to hit, saving throw. So even in the worst case scenario – hitting on a 6 and the target saves on a 2+, you’ve still got a 1 in 36 chance of doing damage. If you’ve got 10 elite Russians all armed with SMGs, they’re likely to take at least one wound off of a Tank regardless of what it is.

There is no ‘Tank’ or ‘Anti-Tank’ rule in Grimdark. I suppose this is because it would be rather difficult to create a points system that contains a unit that can only be harmed by certain weapons. If the unit is not up against those kinds of weapons it becomes basically unkillable. other systems do manage this (obviously) however I don’t think they manage it with the scope of Grimdark Future. A system which allows you to stat and play with anything in a relatively ‘balanced’ game.

It’s an issue any modern to sci-fi future game designer has to face. I spoke about it on a previous post regarding Ghost Legions.

Regardless I put together a list for Soviets in Grimdark Future utilising the army builder that’s been made available by One Page Rules. I kept Tank saves to 2+, and given them all multiple wounds. I’d almost given up on the prospect of playing WW2 with Grimdark Future, until I remembered one important fact. The game only lasts 4 turns. So you could pile four turns of SMG fire into a light tank, but you probably won’t destroy it, and you’ll waste a lot of points that would be better spent shredding infantry.

I think this is the sort of thing that needs to be played out to see if it works, but I also suspect this is the main reason for a lack of WW2 lists for Grimdark Future (I was only able to find a couple of early war ones).

I just need to write the German list now and okay some games.