So this Russian diagram is correct:
The Chieftain was a medium tank, much to my surprise.
Retro Alternative Rules Discussion
Retro has basic infantry combat rules for ASL / Squad Leader in 6 half-letter pages, which is excellent. Tank rules are a bit on the thin side.
New rules should be less than 1 page, and highly simplified.
Retro Additional Tank Rules
Button up - This allow give the tank commander a bonus for sticking his head out, but at a risk of injury, which is realistic and interesting in game terms.Tank Leader - This is a very simple method of representing crew skill.
Turrets - Tanks have turrets for a reason, fast turrets give effective fire over a wide radius.
Guns vs Infantry- A Retro Stewart 37mm gun kills an entire squad on a 9 or less with 2 D6, 0-6 hexes, no modifiers. This is very unlike Squad leader. The new rule would require a 3 or less for the Stewart (Crescendo Of Doom requires 3 or less for 50mm on the IFT, column "6/50mm", see below), but an ISU-152 does kill an entire squad on a 9 or less. But now the "kill" is 36+ on the IFT, a kill on 7 or less, otherwise probably broken.
So this is close in effect to Crescendo of Doom, and easier than Retro. You just say "37mm, is 4cm, so diff is 4". You don't have to look up the gun factor for 37LL.
If you enemy is Crew Exposed you can shoot at the crew as an infantry target. So a 150mm howitzer has a good chance of stopping a CE vehicle.
Hulldown - This is just behind a wall. Wargamers say "What about reverse slope?"
Reverse slope leaves you silhouetted against the skyline, with a huge blind spot in front of you. This is suicide, unless you are in a well planned defensive position. Driving to the top of the nearest hill is great in PanzerBlitz, not in real life.
The Wall token lets you add a prepared hulldown position for your Golan Heights scenarios:
Retro Modern New Rules
HEAT weapons and ATGMs have to be modelled. New vehicle counters should have HEAT and non-HEAT Armor and Gun Factors.
New rules should be about 1 page.
1) HEAT Gun Factors are essential postwar. HEAT armor factors come in in the late '60s with the T-64. These numbers should be squeezed onto the counters.
2) ASL/COI has a box or a circle around numbers to give the turret a bonus or penalty, but 2 number with a line in the middle allow turret armor upgrades, like Leopard-1.
3) ATGMs have vague minimum and exact maximum range, hit probability on live targets doesn't vary much with range:
4) We can keep the Retro Panzerfaust and Bazooka rules for modern squad antitank weapons.
5) Heavier infantry AT weapons such as SPG-9 RCL can be double range Bazookas.
6) If you move to encounter an enemy tank it always shoots first, and it may have a 50/50 of killing you, so move and fire at a penalty seems reasonable, with stabilized guns giving an advantage. This is move, stop, fire rather than fire on the move.
6) If you move to encounter an enemy tank it always shoots first, and it may have a 50/50 of killing you, so move and fire at a penalty seems reasonable, with stabilized guns giving an advantage. This is move, stop, fire rather than fire on the move.
7) Part of the frontal armor may have reactive blocks, which may or may not get hit:
Here we have a new tank counter.
The Gun Factor is in red, "31" is front armor. "7" is side armor.
"1" is a 1-column right shift on the Armor Combat Table (optical rangefinder).
"42h" is the HEAT Gun Factor, which the firer can chose instead of the red number.
The "31/42" is the HEAT front armor factor Turret/Hull.
There is no HEAT side armor value, since any HEAT warhead will work on the side.
The ASL counters don't have the gun factor on the counter, so this is easier.
Stabilized guns get chevrons for gun stabilization, a right shift on the Armor Combat Table for each chevron.
There are Generic Recoilless guns and Generic ATGM classes, since there are a hundred of the things. You can make specific Milan-2 Counters if you like.
Retro Modern New Rules
( Vehicle means any armoured vehicle )
1) Turret/Hull: If either attack roll die is a "6" the turret is hit. The suggested counters will have separate Armor Factors for hull and turret.
2) HEAT: If the firer's gun has a HEAT Attack Factor (White , with a "h") the firer may announce "HEAT" before rolling the dice, and use the HEAT Attack Factor instead of the normal (red) Attack Factor.
If "HEAT" is announced, and the defender has a HEAT armour values on the left of the counter (White , with a "h") , use the white HEAT armor values instead of the black values on the left. (This represents special HEAT-resistant armor).
3) Fire Control: The white number on the right is a left shift bonus on the Armor Combat Table, representing rangefinders and computers.
4) Move and Fire: Retro does not allow this, but if you expend 3 movement points or less in the Movement Phase, or change facing, you may fire in the Fire Phase with a penalty. The penalty is a 3-column right shift on the Armor Combat Table. If the counter has a chevron to the left of the tank image, it is a 2-column shift. If the counter has two chevrons to the left of the tank image, it is a 1-column shift. This represents gun stabilization and computers. No ATGM.
5) Infantry AT Weapons: Just rename the weapons, Panzerfaust -> Disposable LAW, Bazooka->RPG7, allocate regardless of nationality.
6) RCLs: Generic 1960-ish AT support weapons, representing Carl Gustav, SPG-9, M-67 and similar. They use Retro Bazooka rules, but they have double range and use the 12 column of the IFT.
They require 4 portage points (gun + ammo).
Optional: They cannot kill against an armor factor of over 30 (use the HEAT value if there is one) on the vehicle facing hit. Use "Turret/Hull:" rule in Additional Rules.
7) ATGM: Instead of a huge list of weapons, we go generic. Support Weapon, Max range 60 hex, IFT column 8, Portage 4, and these values:
| Generation | Minimum Range | HEAT Penetration | ACT column |
| 1 | 13 | 40 | G |
| 2 | 10 | 60 | F |
| 3 | 5 | 100 | E |
You use the same Armor Combat Table column for all ranges. Tandem warheads ignore Reactive Armor, Top Attack always hits the side armor. Infantry vehicles firing ATGM are Crew Exposed. You can't fire the gun and the missile in the same turn.
Optional: Accuracy fiends may Google the real weapon stats. Sagger range 13-75 hex, Milan-1 6-50, TOW-1 2-94. TOW Portage is 6. (3pp no penalty, so 1 square move).
8) Reactive Armor: If your tank is killed from a front HEAT hit, but you have reactive armor, and the red dice is 1-3, you are saved. Ура!
9) Infantry counters: A US WW2 10-man squad has probably much the same firepower as a US Bradley 6-man squad. Just play with the WW2 counters.
Alternatively, you can use the Retro Unit Values Table, but everybody is American. So (6-6-6) for armoured infantry, and +1 firepower (7-6-6) for truck mounted or static infantry. Every squad would have 2 Panzerfausts (LAW) or a Bazooka (RPG). HMGs still exist, they represent a lot of ammo and spare barrels. Optionally, every squad has an LMG, no counter needed. SMG squads were largely gone post-Vietnam.
Second rate countries (you decide) get a -1 range and -1 morale (6-6-6 => 6-5-5) for all units.
Third rate countries (you decide) get a -2 range and -2 morale (6-6-6 => 6-4-4) for all units.
Third world peasant armies get an additional -1 firepower due to ancient equipment.
Retro Additional Tank Rules
Counter Art
Retro Additional Tank Rules
Optional Modern Armor rules for Minden Retro
1) Button up: Tanks are buttoned up, unless they have a "CE" (Crew Exposed counter, placed or removed at any time in the vehicle's Movement phase). If a tank is buttoned up and rolls doubles when firing, it did not fire. A buttoned up vehicle pays a movement cost of 1 on roads, rather than 1/2. A "CE" tank is vulnerable to infantry and ordnance fire with a +2 DRM on the IFT. Hulldown does not help. A "KIA" result forces the vehicle to move as quickly as possible offboard in the direction of its own lines each movement phase, since the crew are wounded.
2) Tank Leader: A vehicle gets zero or more "Tank Leader" counters. A vehicle may exchange 1 counter to reroll one die roll. This will either be on its attack roll or an attack roll against it. Most tanks get zero counters, a tank ace might get 2.
Rotating Turrets: Fast Turret tanks have a big white circle on the counter, Slow Turret Tanks have a big white square. There are no turret counters.
Fast turrets have no restrictions. Normal turrets suffer a 3 column right shift on the Armor combat Table when firing to the rear. Slow turrets suffer a 3 column right shift on the Armor combat Table when firing to the side or rear. Hull MG don't rotate. |  |
4) Guns vs Infantry: XI. ARMOR COMBAT (3) and XII. ORDNANCE - VEHICULAR TARGETS
On the Armor Combat table use the caliber in cm (round up) as the "Diff" row, instead of the Gun Factor. Apply modifiers. If you get a "kill", that becomes a 36+ attack on the IFT instead.
Add -1 DRM per Tank Leader counter on the vehicle. Double caliber for full automatic cannon, such as Wirbelwind or Bradley.
5) Hulldown: A vehicle is "Hulldown" if line of sight goes thru a wall, and the firer does not have a height advantage. The scenario may allow only the defender a number "Wall" counters which simply add a permanent wall to a specified hexside, max one per hex, placed in the setup phase. If hulldown, and either attack roll die is a "6", the shot hits the wall harmlessly. Otherwise the vehicle is hit on the turret.
Retro Modern New Rules
Retro Modern
Retro Modern
| Modern Wargame rules for Minden's Retro, ASL, Squad Leader. Retro Modern? Hey, I used to be in Military Intelligence, you get used to oxymorons. And those pesky East German models following you around. |
Modern Armor rules for Retro
Retro Additional Tank Rules
Retro Modern New Rules
Counter Art:
1956
1960
1976
1961
1961
1967
1956
You can use the Centurion as a drop in replacement for the Cromwell, ignore the "32h" HEAT value, no new rules, just alternate history.
Or make life more complicated......
The Leopard 1A1A1 Front turret armor 25, front hull 14, side 6. HEAT Front turret armor 40, front hull 14. No side HEAT value if it is less than 20, since the lowest HEAT Gun Factor is 30.
1971
BMP-1 has a rocket gun with HEAT/HE only, and a2 column shift accuracy penalty. The Sagger ATGM has a range from 13-75 hexes, penetration 40, use the G Column on the Armor Combat Table at all ranges. You can't fire both at once. Sagger gives you about a 40% against an M60. The Marder Autocannon is great at stopping infantry in the open, but it really needs the ATGM against other vehicles.
NATO gets M-735 105mm tungsten APFSDS with Gun Factor 33 in 1978, replacing the "29" value. In 1981, M774, Gun Factor 42.
The history is interesting, the T-62 is a match for the Centurion and M60, then the Chieftain outclasses the T-62 in 1966 as the T-64 arrives, then T-64/T-72 outclasses the M60 until the Abrams arrives in 1980, and the Abrams M1A1 in 1986.
| |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)