90th anniversary of the tank!
P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Tanks were first deployed for the battle of the Somme on September 15, 1916. The BBC has a very informative article ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/5339280.stm) on that event, and tells me something I didn't know, that 'tank' was the code-name for the new "mobile machine-gun destroyer".
This geeklist is my own celebration of tanks in wargames both heavy and light.
I'd especially like to see if I've missed any 'plastic toy tank' games in this list. I tried to hit the main ones.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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This game focuses on first conflicts of the tank. Can't say I own or have played it though.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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A recent effort from Against the Odds issue #11. Interesting to see the return of squares in a formal wargame.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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After WWI, the most memorable uses of the tank were in desert warfare, captured in this well received wargame from Avalon Hill...
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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And a new revision, from Critical Hit. I haven't had the pleasure of playing either of these.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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The blitzkrieg was the form of war introduced by Germany in WWII, relying on tanks to punch through defensive lines and storm rear areas in a 'lightning'-quick fashion.
This is one of Avalon Hill's early games on that style or warfare, though actually set in fictional countries.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Panzerblitz is one of the widespread games of tank-vs-tank WWII conflict.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Panzer Leader was a compatible expansion to the Panzerblitz game.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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The German word for armor, panzer is a rather popular word to put in tank battle games. One of which is the notorious Panzer Pranks, which was WWII "as it was fought in the movies". If I recall, this game explicitly repudiated the Avalon Hill standard rule that "movement can not be saved from turn to turn" so tanks could gather up a considerable amount of speed...
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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The first tank wargame I ever purchased for myself was Eastern Front tank leader. I recall being swayed by the "realism" claim that the Tank leader system would better model the realities of the eastern front, where the Russian tanks had superior armor and firepower, but the German tanks had better command and control (radios in most tanks, etc). Many prior wargames gave the German units historical superiority by giving them better attack or defense factors.
Tanks Leader used a card based system that rated unity by their C&C factors and allowed units with better C&C to trump units with worse.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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As I was playtesting SFB in college in the late 80s, I also gave one of Steven V. Cole's less famous efforts a shot, playing the Armor at Kursk microgame a try.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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This game and the one below are both intriguing simulations of another 'heavily gamed' conflict from WWII involving tanks, the Battle of the Bulge. I don't own this one...
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Or this one either, but I'd like to.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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I did buy this one once, but never played it...
From Steve Jackson Games, publisher of...
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14.
Board Game: Ogre
[Average Rating:6.87 Overall Rank:586]
P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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This I've played a lot. Even owned a lot of miniatures for it at one time.
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15.
Board Game: G.E.V.
[Average Rating:6.87 Overall Rank:833]
P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Along with G.E.V. (Ground Effect Vehicle).
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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One of the most fun things about the era of gaming we're in now is the abundance of wargames WITH LITTLE PLASTIC TANKS to play with!!! (if you check, you'll see I've played this a lot
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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I spent a great deal of time in college playing this one. This wasn't the first game with plastic tank pieces apparently, but it's one of the more popular.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Tactical tank battles with miniatures (as commercial games at least) seem to go back to this one.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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There's also this one, which uses HO scale model tanks. 2 Tiger tanks vs 4 Shermans. Is that fair??
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Here's an older one, but I don't think it qualifies as a tactical simulation
"Each player spins for a color tank and a starting space. Players move in only one direction for each spin except diagonally. Only one tank per space and no tank can be jumped. If your tank lands on an enemy space, you must fight by spinning the spinner for the outcome. The first tank to reach H.Q. wins."
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Set in a more modern era, this seem to be the current descendant of those kind of games.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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And the collectible games have a representative too. Really emphasizing the 'neat plastic tanks to play with" aspect of the game genre.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Tide of Iron is rumored to have plastic tanks in it when it comes out. For now, this play-test uses cardboard chits.
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24.
Board Game: MBT
[Average Rating:6.54 Overall Rank:2035]
P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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Modern Tank warfare was represented by Avalon Hill by this entry. I never heard very good things about it, though i didn't play it myself.
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P Duggan
United States
Philadelphia
Pennsylvania
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What of the future of the tank? The massive nuke-throwing Ogre cybertanks have already been references. Helltank was another pocket game of tanks battles. Future or Sci-fi tank games run the gamut from...
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