Tanks Special Ability to Remove Defender hits!

2 infantry have double the attacking power of a tank.

2 infantry have 6 times the defending power of a tank.

2 infantry can absorb one hit while still leaving a unit that defends any tt gained at 3, while a tank defends at 1.

2 infantry cost the same as one tank.

2 infantry can defend 2 areas simultaneously.

Then don’t buy tanks or houserule them Flashman.  I for one, think its a cool change to have a unit ‘protect’ another and will be buying tanks to lessen the damage when I attack.

No house rule, I’m quite happy with the rule as it stands. As long as the other sucker falls for the cool tank minis every time I’ll be well pleased as I wipe them out every time with my all-infantry counter-attacks.

Tanks seem like they would be most effective against the Ottomans and the Italians. Theaters of combat that will relatively low on troop numbers and large scale infantry reinforcing just isn’t going to happen, so protecting whatever initial units you have will be a priority. I can just it now, “The 3rd Austrian-Hungarian army breaches the Tuscany Defensive line under the cover of a heavy artillery barrage at dawn. Itallian troops were shocked to see armoured monsters ignoring their bullets and tearing through the defensive line of barbed wire!”

Another thing that will be interesting to see is the battle for air-supremcy, something which could make a huge difference on the western front. Obviously large scale fighter battles likely won’t happen unless a lot of spare IPC is around, but the strategic use of fighters will be most interesting.

So the tanks can absorb a hit. How does a tank die? Once it absorbs a hit, will it die on the next hit?

Hmm.  You know how sometimes people retreat from a territory and leave one Infantry there ‘so you can’t have it for free’?  All you would need is a Tank and a few attacking units and as long as you get one hit on the roll, your force is invulnerable-

Yes, the counter attack could be deadly, but perhaps you only use the tank in small skirmishes or a decisive battle?  I mean, the tank can block a hit EVERY round of combat, correct?

Correct as far as I can tell (it would be silly otherwise). The tank basically acts like a battleship…only on land…very fitting for the time.

But there is only one round of combat. That’s the point.

And yes, a single tank attacking a single infantry is a walkover; but I’m not sure you can attack any land area without at least one infantry.

In any case, the tank kills the infantry, but then defends at one next turn.

Mind you, with Africa the way it is a single tank transported there could do some serious damage…

@Flashman:

2 infantry can defend 2 areas simultaneously.

How so? I’m fairly certain this is not the case. Do you mean one unit is in one territory and the other is in another territory? If so, yeah, that makes sense.

I was literally going to write about this tomorrow. Scooped.

Did you ever get around to using tanks all that much in your game Djensen?

@djensen:

I was literally going to write about this tomorrow. Scooped.

Go ahead and write it up anyway. Some people may not visit the forum or this specific thread.

I know lots who don’t, they come here for the articles and just to check up on news. That’s what I did for a good 2 years (off and on) before finally signing up here on the forums.

@DarthShizNit:

Did you ever get around to using tanks all that much in your game Djensen?

I bought a tank once. The math just doesn’t work out. Tanks might be scary in a large group however.

Another factor here is multinational armies. I don’t know how common these will be, but perhaps a pattern might be:

1. Only France buys tanks, in a fairly large stack.

2. France makes a tank attack, breaking through the enemy lines to capture a tt, but having to take inf and art as casualties.

3. The UK moves in large numbers of inf and art to defend the area (and the vulnerable tanks) from an enemy counter-attack.

4. France has to move up its own stacks of inf and art to prepare for the next attack.

The problem with this is that you have to spend a whole turn in between bringing up fresh troops to support the tank breakthrough. Far from speeding up a drive towards the enemy capital, tanks actually slow it down.

Perhaps, if you’re camped outside the enemy capital, the one tt you need to win the game, it will pay to build tanks for the final push; but in general game play I think 2 inf will always be the better buy.

I still stick to thinking that tanks will be a valuble weapon in the lower econ battles of the east, but planes are going to the arms race on the western front simply because they buff artillery so much, which along with infantry make the most sense to buy. Unless America just wants to go all in and buy a shiz ton of tanks lol  :mrgreen:

Go ahead. Make your opponent’s day.

It’s America, they do what they want cause they’re coolz like thatz……that said the American infantry sculpt is simply too good not to use.

With only 20 IPCs and being at the edge of the map, I think the US would be better off reinforcing the defences of a territory rather than attacking. Plus, they would only be able to afford 3 tanks a turn, as opposed to 6 infantry a turn.

The big problem with the tank special ability is that it only works on attack. If it worked for defense, then it might start to make sense.