Tank Commanders

[FM_Van_Horn]

I was wonder what people thought of Tanks that are commanders too. Imagine this

T-34/76 Unit Commander

Speed 4
Defense 5/5

Inf. 7/7/6
Vec. 13/11/10

Transport
Superior Armor 2
Initiative +2
Gun Transport (yes i do mean this unit could have tank riders and transport a gun at the same time)

What do you think?

[Jay_Gatsby]

The first thing that pops into my head is a T-34 towing an AT gun while a Cossack Captain stands on top giving every soldier within 100 yards a "bring it on" look. Needless to say, my critique of this unit jumped the shark at that point and therefore I can offer no further evaluation.

['panzer' Mayer]

drop the gun transport

[shermanM4A1]

What's the point cost? If it's a high enough cost, then it should be ok. But then, ppl might not want to use it. If the cost is too low, it will be exploited by power gamers. I agree with panzer mayer in saying that the gun transport should be dropped.

[Rick]

Drop the gun transport ability.

Make command give the unit a +1 to every die roll; like the Vet. Tiger unit.

Make that unit applicable to every tank year, restrict it to ONE Tank commander per game. The unit would NOT be represented by a plastic figure but by a simple sticky note placed on the tank unit's card....

Cost.... hummmm...... 10. NO AI attack. NO AP attack.

allow for a die roll should the tank be killed... IF he rolls a 4,5,6 on a six die, then he survived and can 'run' to another tank and transfer his ability to that unit instead.

And, yes, tank commander could survive their own tanks being shot out from underneath them. I believe the German Tanker Ace Michael Wittman survived like eight of his tanks being wreaked under his command.

Rick

[Krautcommander47]

Without the gun transport, it looks like a good tank.

[Imaclone76]

oh hell yeah this would shake things up a bit sounds awsome mmmmm.......put a tank commander in a KV-1 i like the sounds of that even IF historically i cant do that, having a tank commander in a T-34 is still gunna be a nasty thing to see on the field mmmmm........pt cost i rekon maybe 38pts (28 pts for t-34 & 10pts for commander) or maybe 15pts for commander i mean if people are playing 100pt games even 38pts is a big cost taken out but i agree only have the one tank commander in play & hell yeah give it the +1 on att rolls good thinking RICK

[5thGurkha]

allow for a die roll should the tank be killed... IF he rolls a 4,5,6 on a six die, then he survived and can 'run' to another tank and transfer his ability to that unit instead.

And, yes, tank commander could survive their own tanks being shot out from underneath them. I believe the German Tanker Ace Michael Wittman survived like eight of his tanks being wreaked under his command.

Rick

I particularly like / agree with this point (in addition to 1 per army and making them expensive). A couple of years ago I read a book on the 1982 Falklands War between UK and Argentina. It was written by a reporter for the London Times, and 1 of his stories was about walking out toward the battle front and seeing a man walking down the road the other way. When they came together the reporter saw it was an British armour officer in a rather scorched uniform. It turned out he was going back to the landing beach to pick up another Scorpion light tank as his previous tank had been blown out from under him. The officer was apparently in a rather foul mood,

[Richter von Manthofen]

What is the purpose of a tank Commander? - To enhance friendly tanks.

The T34/76 is a 28 point tank - a commander could/should have the same abilities as the basic tank. Then add +1 initiative (after all it is a tank commander and not a basic commander) and an ability to enhance tanks - Maybe all other adjacent tanks get +1(+2 or +3) Attack-dice against other vehicles. (I prefer +2).

An average commander costs around 7 points with sometimes average at values himself and +2 init and a good abilty) So this Commander T34/76 should have added 4 points to its cost for a total of 32 points (after all he cannot shoot a second time and init is worse AND you loose the commander with the tank)

(It is not the officer who makes the tank commander, but the combination of equipment and the person)

How about this?

[polish_horsy]

are all these tanks I have commanderless? So all the T-34's we own are just commanded by someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Bah. This is kind of silly. No tank commanders needed that suddenly make a T-34 go from having a 17% chance to disrupt the front of a Tiger to a 56% chance.

So the hapless private commanding a British tank sees some commander chap and pulls over... "oh hop in sir. we've have a devil of a time shooting straight. what? you have to aim? Jolly good then show us how eh."

[Richter von Manthofen]

You could ask the same of Starts and Stripes or PT coommader abilities.

Yes each tank has its own commander ;) ,but a tank commonder is meant to be a tank that leads a Platoon/company (better radio equipment, coordinates the other tanks...) And as such could have an impact at the performance of other tanks nearby. Your numbers on the Tiger are fearsome, so maybe only a +1 die would be OK too :D - but the second tank must be adjacent which limits the use of the ability (easier flanked, smaller zone of controll...)

[boersma8]

I'd like to see a "hero" T 34/76 with a special ability of "ram" allowing it to move into an enemy's vehicle's hex ( yes, thereby breaking stacking limts (!)), roll a die and on a 4, 5 or 6 BOTH tanks would be destroyed IMMEDIATELY. On a lower die roll the T 34 would have to be placed in a LEGAL adjacent hex. Of course this might also be called a "commander tank" ( initiative +1)

[FM_Van_Horn]

The spirit of the idea is not to show that your old T-34's or other tanks are commanderless but this is very true in Russia but Army's do have a one guy that is in charge of to whole squad. I'm saying put that guy in a tank not on a tank like we have been doing before. The point of gun transport was, and i guess i was trying to kill two birds with one stone, but i've receictly seen pics of t-34's, t-70's, and su-76's towing guns and we don't have that recented in the game at all.

What about instead of gun transport or +1 per die what about giveing friendly tanks flanking attack like the hellcat?

[Rick]

are all these tanks I have commanderless? So all the T-34's we own are just commanded by someone who doesn't know what they are doing. Bah. This is kind of silly. No tank commanders needed that suddenly make a T-34 go from having a 17% chance to disrupt the front of a Tiger to a 56% chance.

So the hapless private commanding a British tank sees some commander chap and pulls over... "oh hop in sir. we've have a devil of a time shooting straight. what? you have to aim? Jolly good then show us how eh."

Of course every tank has a commander in it. It's just in this game, it's assumed that every commander has the same ability. Which while it may be a general truth, it is also a truth that SOME commanders showed exceptional skill in the tactics of handling not only there tank, but in knowing the enemies tactics, use of terrain, and the specific weakness' of an opposing tank.

You combine all those skills and you have a tank commander that can produce remarkable results. IE Michael Wittman at Villers Bocage in Jully of 44. That's what would justify the higher abilities (ie save rolls, to hit die rolls and such like)

Just some more random thoughts.

Rick

[Canuck_Captain]

Ive thought about Tank Commanders for awhile now and even did a thread on the subject a long long time ago but I love the idea, the fact that I love fielding mechanized and amoured builds wouldnt have anything to do with it ;)

[boersma8]

I would give a "commander tank" the SA of: Inspiration: In your assault phase any friendly tank can roll an additional die ( if this unit has line of sight to the target). ( this unit being the tank commander...). The tank that gains the additional die would have to have LOS too........