Dieselpunk Tankmunda - Arrival

Modern MBTs are boring. It's pretty hard to tell one from the other, and they tend to use very similar weapons and equipment.  The "MBT" has been a staple since late WW2.

But back in the 1930s.... tanks were different.  It's a transitional era of warfare, where designers were trying out radical concepts, rather than merely refining the "meta."

Watching Mortal Engines has fired my interest in wacky dieselpunk vehicles, and a trip to Heroics and Ros quickly secured some 1:300s pre-war/early WW2 vehicles.

I'm going to use out-of-scale tanks to be the "landship carrier" motherships for squadrons of smaller tanks. This is a 15mm Landcruiser Ratte but I'll probably use 1:48 tanks with multiple turrets like the T-35.

Mordhiem/Necromunda-with-Tanks "Tankmunda"
I've always been interested in a tank-centric game; most times tanks are either in small numbers supporting a platoon-level game (Bolt Action) or can be present en-masse (division-level Cold War games) or merely are too generic (FoW).

I want a set of rules where tanks are the stars, where individual tank crews can "level up" and have unique special rules and character, and play linked games like a campaign.

This is a typical "squadron" carried by a mothership tank.  Two light tank troops (cavalry and infantry) as well as medium and heavy troop and logistics support.

I've discussed the idea here but by deciding to go dieselpunk sci-fi, I can use handwavium where needed. I want it to "feel" like a tank game but design-wise it will owe much to a RPG/MMO - i.e. tanks are classes with paper-scissors-rock distinct balance, almost like the mage-tank-dps from fantasy genres.

Basically, my rules will not attempt to be a sim, but merely a warband/Mordhiem-style game which (hopefully) "feels" like tank combat rather than infantry.

I've already started this in 15mm and have workable rules, (playtest here) but I simply cannot afford 15mm models like I could in the era BC (Before Children), so I have turned to 1:300 to allow myself to experiment with different tanks eras in an affordable way.

Some T-35 heavies escort some half-track cargo carriers.

Heroics & Ros 1:300
They are perfectly serviceable, affordable gaming pieces but are not particularly inspiring.  With the exception of some AMC.35s (which were rather nasty) they were reasonably free of annoying bits to trim off. I can certainly recommend Heroics and Ros if you want to explore 1:300 cheaply. (Yes, GHQ are much nicer but are 4x the price - almost as much as 15mm!)

 The AMCs I wasn't impressed with, seen escorting some S.35 mediums.  You can see a counter denoting an in-game status effect (mobility, crew, or weapon damage).




Given the low cost, I'll probably use H&R for two more projects: I want to do a dune-buggy game using modern wheeled LAVs (because I think up-gunned armoured cars are cool!) inspired by the Deserts of Kharak. I've already made a scratch-built land-carrier (using an upside-down 1:700 CV model with tracks added).

I like armoured cars. They just look awesome. And the French seem to be the most energetic proponents of them.

 I may also do a 1950s-70s set of rules where mercenary tank companies fight in Africa starring T55s, Centurions etc (i.e. Arab-Israeli/Indo-Pakistan War tech along with cobbled-together WW2 upgrades, without having to follow historical OoBs) or or possibly a WW2-in-1947 set where I can use Centurions & AMXs against King Tigers and weird what-if tanks.  I'll consider any era when I'm not refighting Normandy, Kursk or Cold War Fulda Gap which seems so beloved of every other tank gamer.

Anyway, more info to follow as I modify my existing rules and redefine the philosophy I want the rules to espouse.