Cold War "What a Tanker"

[SJWi]

During lockdown, WAT became a staple of our groups Thursday night gaming. Not many assets on the table, plus the inability of the players to have a god-like view on the table made it perfect for a Zoom game featuring the claustrophobic world of the tanker. We even found a set of modifications on a Forum with stats for the Middle East and so various "Yom Kippur" games were tried as well. Last week I thought about 1980s Cold War but thought this may be pushing the system too far.  Then I found "Cold War Tanker" by Joe Legan on Wargames Vault. For the princely sum of $1 you get a 10-page Pdf which has some nice ideas in it, including the role if infantry.

I would say it is a "work in progress" rather than a finely crafted, fully play-tested set of mods.  But that for me is the interest . Personally I am wary of tweaking rules, as you can easily unbalance the game that the author has created. I have no such compunction here, and will be adding my own ideas over the next few weeks.

We played them last Thursday, and found they worked quite well, albeit some refinements are needed. That said having a group of missile engineers playing a game featuring weapon systems they have actually worked on was never going to see a meeting of minds.

Worth a look for $1!   

   

[Easy E]

I would love to see some screen caps/pictures of the events. 

I also toyed around with the idea, so am interested in what you have put together.

[Mako]

Sounds neat.

Would love to see some pics of your Cold War games.

I'm toying with 1950s - 1980s, and bought his set too.

I disagree with some of the values, but they are a start.  There are some other ratings on-line too.

Thought I'd run a couple of games of WaT at the next opportunity, and considering doing one in WWII (pretty obvious there), and then a Cold War game too, just for grins.  Just need to decide on the era for that, but it will be for control of Western European real estate.

[SJWi]

Mako, you can see photos and a write-up on our club blog. Just Google “Black Wolf Wargames”. Lots of write-ups of our weekly games!

 If you haven’t played WAT there are an alternative set of points available, plus some ideas for Arab-Israeli wars. I think these may be on the Two Fat Lardies forum.

 As you will know WAT is a “beer and pretzels” tank vs tank game. No infantry or anti-tank guns. The Cold War mods try to add infantry armed with LAWs and ATGM teams. The debate we have in our group is how much complexity to add without risking “breaking” the inherent simplicity and playability of the original rules.

[thequestingvole]

Thank you.  I picked up the rules for the Cold War mods.

They look interesting.  I was thinking of subbing in the M113 stats for my FV432s.  Looks like it could be fun. 

I was actually wondering.  What's the largest game you've run with these rules?

Regards,

CK

[Mako]

M113 stats should work for the FV-432 just fine.

I haven't played in any large games, but have heard/read that 8 players is about the max recommended, and/or four players with two tanks each, since otherwise the game bogs down.

[SJWi]

CK, I would agree with the previous post about Stats. At the end of the day this is more at the "beer and pretzels" end of the spectrum rather than an accurate simulation of modern armoured combat. We normally play via Zoom with 2 players per side, each with 2 tanks. Zoom doesn't particularly slow gameplay down. Such a game takes 1.5-2 hours.  I guess you can scale up if you have more time!

Enjoy the game. 

[Sarmor]

Apart from the Cold War Tanker there's another fan expansion for post-WW2 gaming on the WAT Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/934280466751499/permalink/1760690227443848
In addition to the hypothetical "Cold War gone hot", it covers real-life conflicts up to the Gulf War. The vehicle list seems more extensive and the special rules are different.

Not that I want to discourage people from using the Cold War Tanker - buy it, compare the two and choose the one you like best (or mix them!). 

[SJWi]

Thanks. Just applied to join the Group. Hopefully I will soon be reading with interest.