Tank Charts

Wargame Rules Review

Tank Charts Rules for WW2 by Brian F. Stokes Tank Charts was designed to allow players to see the defensive and offensive capabilities of their vehicles without having to refer to long lists of figures. The angle on every piece of steel plate on each and every vehicle has been used in determining what the actual effective armour is in each location of a unit. Each penetration has been checked and re-checked both with those authorities which have published to date and by comparison analysis of the raw physical data of each shell; its muzzle velocity, shell type, shell weight, and much more. Suffice it to say that the laws of physics have been applied a great deal to this set of rules and, not suprisingly, the written histories of the various battels tend to support these laws, as they should.

All the weapon and vehicle data the player will need is provided in a standard layout called the Tank Chart. Tank charts for nearly all the tanks and guns of the Second World War are provided at the back of the book. The author intended each player to have a copy of the appropriate tank chart for each vehicle or weapon under his command during the game. In order to keep the price of this book within reasonable bounds, the charts have not been printed on separate cards. Therefore, the publisher grants permission to photocopy all the pages of tank charts. The chart for each weapon should be cut out and mounted on an index card, or laminated.

Title: Tank Charts
Period: World War Two
Type: Tactical Skirmish Wargame at Company Level
Time Scale: 1 turn = 20 seconds
Ground Scales: 1:3935 (1 inch = 100 m)
Troop Scale: 1 figure = 1 man
Basing: single figures (1:76 scale), or fire team stands (1:300 scale)
Casualty rate per minute at 100 meters range: (unmodified)
- Rifleman (Bolt Action): 1,4 hits
- Rifleman (Garand): 2,4 hits
- Rifleman (StG44): n.a.
- Light Machine Gun: 2,4 hits
- Heavy Machine Gun: 5 hits
Author: Brian F. Stokes
Format: 60-page rule book
Language: English
Publisher: GHQ, Minneapolis, MN
Published: 1984

Chapters

Introduction
Artillery Determination Phase
Specific Search Phase
Movement Determination Phase
Movement Phase
Observation on the Move Phase
Infantry Fire Phase
Infantry Anti-Tank Phase
Tank & Anti-Tank Fire Phase
General Observation Phase
Tank & Anti-Tank Fire Phase II
Morale Phase
Airpower
Cost Table
Tank Charts
Aircraft Data

Opportunity fire allows a unit to fire at an oncoming vehicle prior to Fire Phase I, although a vehicle with a better fire factor may return fire while moving, before the effect of the opportunity fire is calculated. During anti-tank fire the Angle Determination Tool is used to find the strike angle and hit location of an anti-tank round. Vehicles in hull-down positions, and small targets like dug-in anti-tank guns can be very difficult to hit with direct fire.

Penetration is Eliminiation

In Tank Charts games, vehicles are considered destroyed if the armour is penetrated, irrespective of the actual internal damage and crew morale effects resulting from a penetration. Other skirmish rules like Panzergranate provide an Internal Damage Table with pentration effects ranging from "no effect" to "main gun damaged" or "vehicle on fire, crew bails out". In Panzergranate, an AFV crew checks morale every time the vehicle is perforated by an anti-tank weapon, or if it is immobilized by damage or accident. AFV Crew Morale Test results may range from "carry on" to "fall back to nearest cover" or "abandon AFV, retreat on foot or surrender to nearest visible enemy".

Opponent Finder

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The Tank Charts wargame consists of 28 pages of rules, and 32 pages of detailed tank and aircraft charts covering American, British, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, and Russian equipment. Romanian vehicles like the Tacam T-60 tank-destroyer are not covered, but can be extrapolated from data covering the Soviet T-60 light tank, the superstructure of the German Panzerjäger Marder II, and the Soviet 76.2 mm L.54 ZIS-3 Anti-Tank Gun.

Frequently Asked Questions

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