81 replies to this topic

[schoon]

That's an amazing table! Are you playing with 1:285 scale minis?

[Peter M. Skaar]

Hi schoon!  Thank you very much! The table is made with GHQ Terrain Maker and all the minis are 1/285th scale GHQ.

[Kenny Noe]

Looking forward to seeing this "play out"!!  LOL

 

Thanks Peter!!

[Peter M. Skaar]

Let's get started on this "Tutorial" for Mein Panzer.  Some of you have asked for a tutorial to help you learn some of the rules and I will do that here while playing a solo game using the Advanced rules using tanks only to introduce the basic concepts.  I will have lots of pictures for this tutorial including the game in progress as well as some of the charts and equipment that will be used.

In my previous post, I showed the basic layout of the game board.  Here are the charts and some equipment that will be used.

 

                                    The Advanced Charts side 1


                                    The Advanced Charts side 2


 Some of the necessary equipment including tape measure, 20 sided dice, white cotton to indicate kill, black polyfill to indicate a brew-up, plus optional dice tray.

 

                                              Game Markers

Other equipment that is handy is a laser pointer or "string of death" to determine line of sight obstacles when it isn't obvious.  I will show some other play aids in my next post.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Don't forget the Mein Panzer rules and Data Book.  You will definitely need these to play the game.

I put mine into three ring binders.  Both my binders have seen better days, especially my Data Book which got some water damage due to a flood in my old house in 2019.  I do need to replace some of the pages in this one as well.

 

 

[Kenny Noe]

Registered copies of all ODGW book give the gamers access to PDF copies to DL and replace worn out (water damaged) pages as well as any updates published.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Thanks very much, Kenny!  I have a Mein Panzer CD which has the rules and Data Book on it.  I will be making some new pages for my book plus getting a new binder. 

[Kenny Noe]

Oh lordy,  I totally forgot about the CD version!!  Before, internet and downloading.....    hahahahaha

 

Nice.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Here are some more pictures showing the forces involved in this game.  The Germans have a reduced mixed company of Panzer IIIs and Panzer IVs. The Germans may also get some Panther Ds and Tiger Is arriving later as determined by the Umpire (me).  The Russians have 2 full companies of T-34s for this game.

I also made up the Data Sheets for the vehicles as well.  I opted to type them out instead of use the supplied blank Data sheets and fill those out.  Note that the MG stats are not present on my Data sheets as MGs will not be a factor in this game.

 

 

[Peter M. Skaar]

I decided in this game that the Germans will start on the terrain board and get an additional free move prior to the actual first turn.  This is something of a meeting engagement although the Germans are trying to hold the bridges and the river line in order to slow down, if not stop, the Russian breakthrough.

I gave the Germans a mixed Panzer III and Panzer IV company.  The Panzer IIIs were on their way out but not yet enough Panzer IVs had arrived to take their place.  The Panthers and Tigers were only deployed in pretty small numbers and could not be everywhere at once.

If you look at the chart for the Panzer IIIL/M you will see that it is a pretty mediocre tank.  It has average speed, inferior armor, and an inferior gun to the T-34 which will be their Russian adversary today.  They do have a ROF(Rate of Fire) of 2. This will give the Panzer IIIL/M 2 shots per turn.  That will definitely help.

There are also 2 Panzer IIINs in this unit as well.  The gun is the short 75mm so the tank is basically lobbing the shells rather than firing with any great velocity.  I have opted to give the Panzer IIIN plenty of HEAT rounds for this scenario.  The 75mm HEAT round is not affected by distance as are the 50mm and 75mm standard AP rounds.  If it hits, their are no potential modifiers to degrade its performance.

The Panzer IV is a decent tank and the best the Germans have at the start.  It too has average speed, a little better armor than the Panzer IIIs, and the 75mm L48 gun can handle the T-34 pretty well.

The 2 Russian tank companies consist of T-34/76 M1943 models.  The T-34 is an excellent overall tank and matches well with its main German opponents, the Panzer III and IV.  It has superior speed, slightly superior armor, and the 76mm main gun is decent and can handle the frontal armor on both the Panzer III and Panzer IV.

Here are a couple of pictures of the German at start positions.

 

 

The Germans have just arrived in the "nick of time"  The company consists of 2 platoons of Panzer IIIs and 1 platoon of Panzer IVs.  There are also 2 Panzer IIIs in the HQ element, the CO tank and the XO tank.  The 1st and 2nd platoons consist of Panzer IIIs with 2nd have the 2 Panzer III Ns.  The third platoon consists of 4 Panzer IVG/H. The CO with 2nd and 3rd platoons is on the main road while the XO is positioned right behind 1st platoon on the other road.

The second picture turned out slightly blurry in places but hopefully you can see what is going on.

This is the situation at the very start of the game.
 

[Peter M. Skaar]

Here is a picture of my somewhat crudely drawn Activation Chart for this scenario plus a close-up of the Command Distance Chart for both sides.



Mein Panzer uses an impulse system rather than an I-go U-go system.  Each player is fully engaged during the turn so there are no big lulls for either side while the other guys are doing their moves.  In order to keep track of the impulses in a turn, it is a good idea to make up an activation table prior to the start of play.  As you can see, it doesn't need to be really fancy, just functional.

For this game, the Germans have 3 platoons plus the 2 Company HQ tanks.  The Russians have a total of 6 platoons with each of the 2 companies having 3 platoons plus 1 Company HQ tank for each company.

Although I am playing this solo, the Russians will operate as if 2 players are playing their respective companies while the German will operate as a single player.  The Activation Chart represents this with the Russians getting 2 activations per impulse, 1 per company, while the German gets 1 activation per impulse.

Keep in mind that the HQ tanks activate with one of the other platoons during the impulse phase so do not get a separate activation. 

Here is the closeup of the Command Distance Chart for this game.

 

The Germans are rated as veteran so I have chosen to give them a greater command range as per the optional Command Rule.  The Russians are regulars so have the standard command range as outlined in the rules.  The Command Rules can be found in the Command Chapter of the Mein Panzer Rule Book.

HQ vehicles cannot be targeted unless they are the closest vehicle.  Hint - Keep your HQ vehicles behind other vehicles or under cover to prevent their loss.

Units or individual vehicles that are Out of Command lose their bonus move. 

For this game, the CO will be considered "In Command" at all times.  There are rules in the book that require a Company HQ to be in range of the Battalion HQ.

I will not be using the Morale Rules for this game.  Instead, each side has a break point of 50% at which point things can get bad but not necessarily.  I decided that the two sides will not "fight to the death" as historically this did not happen very often.  Usually the survival instinct kicks in at some point.  I will outline how this works as the game moves along.

[Mark 1]

Lookin' good there, Pete.  Following it alll step-by-step, word-by-word ...  with growing anticipation.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Getting started.  After the German initial deployment I gave them a free activation prior to Turn 1.  The German chooses to use his activation AND bonus move to try  to head toward the two hills flanking the main road.  The plan is to seize the high ground and force the Russians to attack uphill to eject them from their positions at a disadvantage.  No additional actions are used, just movement.

In Mein Panzer, During the activation portion of the impulse there are a variety of actions you can do - Fire, Move, Evasive Move, Overwatch, Hide, Spot, Search for Hull Down, Recover From Suppression, Remove a Misfire plus some others.

There is also a Bonus Move which is an extra move that can happen before, DURING, or after the standard action.  Moving a stand during both its standard action and bonus move effectively doubles the stands movement but it will not be able to do anything else during this turn.

When moving on a road, the whole activation must be spent on the road to get the road movement rate.  If at any time during the activation, the unit leaves the road then it is considered cross country and the lower movement rate applies.

The three pictures below show the German dispositions after movement.  In this example the bonus move was used to move along the road at the road rate.  In the standard action part of the impulse, the Germans start to move off road so use the cross country rate to start up the hills with the Panzer IIIs.  The Panzer IVs have not yet crossed the bridge.

 

Solo Game - 2022 #17 by Alex Skaar, on Flickr

 

 

 

[Kenny Noe]

Peter,  Looking good!

 

All,  We have gamer submitted modified version of the playsheet that is in MS Word format.  The advantage of this is it's editable and matches the table format in the databooks so a game master can copy past their forces on the sheet, print to had out to players.  I use these at conventions all the time.

 

I thought it had been uploaded to the private Mein Panzer Library, but a check failed to find it.  I will correct that when I get home from work tonight.   stay tuned.

 

Thanks

[Peter M. Skaar]

Thanks Kenny!  I may have to get MS Word for my computer one of these days.

 

[Kenny Noe]

Gents,

 

Tried upload the word doc but found a nit in the "allowed file types" option.  Seems we're a little behind on most current Office formats.  Have asked the web master to fix.   Once done I'll upload.

 

Peter,  Quick question, what are the troop types of your forces (both sides)?  (Green, Regular, Veteran)  Also what is their TQ.. This is the most important number in the game as it's the base to start all actions and resolutions.

[Kenny Noe]

Thanks Kenny!  I may have to get MS Word for my computer one of these days.

 

Pete,  You can convert the word file into any other format.  Open Office (free) should import word files.   I'm just trying to provide a file that is editable for players to play.  Although it can be a bit of an eye chart.  <grin>

 

I typically delete the tables I'm not gonna use (like the Naval table)  All the tables are included to give maximum flexibility when creating scenarios.

 

Use, change as you feel a need.

[Peter M. Skaar]

Here are just a few more things before we begin the actual Turn 1 of this game.  So far, we have discussed how movement is conducted and the standard activation vs. bonus move.

When hosting/playing a game, not just Mein Panzer, try to have any possible rules questions or house rules discussed before the game.  This will make the game go much smoother if all players are on board before the game begins.  I have a few house rules that I use and they are discussed here.  Feel free to ask any questions about these.  Of course you can ignore any house rules I come up with for your own games.

Terrain Effects on Movement and Combat:

1. I allow a tank in this game we are playing to be in hull down automatically if on the reverse slope of a hill.  These crews are experienced and should be able to find hull down defilade positions easily on the back side of a hill.

2. Elevation and hull down.  A vehicle that is at a higher level AND hull down gets a -6 advantage against enemy fire.  There is no specific rule for this as the Terrain Effects Chart lists vehicles at a higher elevation (-3) or hull down (-4) but not combined.  I have chosen to give any vehicle at higher elevation AND hull down -6.  If you disagree you can adjust accordingly.

3. Linear Cover.  This is -5.  We need to address what exactly is Linear Cover.  I say a stone wall would act as linear cover but a hedge of shrubs would not.  This gets into sort of what is cover vs. concealment.  In this case the stone wall may either stop or degrade the round sufficiently while the shrub hedge would not.  A hedgerow as in Normandy, being both earth/stone and vegetation would be good linear cover.

4. Woods.  In this game I am playing, woods are impassible except for the edge around the woods.  This edge will provide a soft cover benefit of -2 if the tank is in the woodline.  Tanks can drive along the edge of the woods hex but not through the hex.  The woods along the river are treated as woodline and not full woods.  For movement purposes, treat woodline as light woods so 1 additional pip for movement.

5. Fields.  The field in this game is a ripe wheat field.  I give it a -2 for soft cover for vehicles driving through it.

6. Buildings.  Buildings can't be targeted in this game.  They can be used as cover.  If 1/2 the vehicle or less is visible, give a -5 for soft cover.  If less than 1/4 of the vehicle is visible give -8 for hard cover.  That is how I am going to play it for this game.

7. Stream/River.  This is impassible except at bridges which act as roads over the river.

8. Bridges.  Cannot be destroyed in this game.   The main bridge is capable of handling any tank in the game for weight.  The smaller bridge will handle up to 30 tons which is sufficient for the tanks in this game UNLESS I decide to bring in the Panthers and Tigers (Probably not)  We will cross that bridge when we get to it. LOL!

When playing and some issues arise, try to be reasonable.  We are playing a game.  If agreement can't be reached, roll the die to determine who wins the argument.  Try to keep things friendly.


 

[Kenny Noe]

Apologies I don't mean to hijack the thread....   I'll open a new one for the play sheet stuff...

[Peter M. Skaar]

No worries, Kenny.