Re: [WW] how do vehicles work?

[PEGHopler@aol.com]

The movement system for vehicles is a simplified version of the system in 
Star Wars. Each vehicle has a combat speed which is its basic movement. It 
can move up to four times that number as its top speed (plus an extra 50% if 
its moving on a road.)

A driver must spend an action each round to keep his vehicle under control. 
Unlike Star Wars, where you need to make a driving roll anytime you do 
anything other than drive in a straight line, you can pretty much maneuver 
your vehicle as you like within the speed the driver chooses. The only time 
you need to make a driving roll is when you perform an "extreme" maneuver 
like making a turn of over 60 degrees or performing a bootlegger reverse or 
when there is a chance that the vehicle could bog down (a tank in a muddy 
field). There are also a few special maneuvers that require rolls like taking 
a tank over a low obstacle or through a wall.

As far as combat goes, the easiest way to explain it is to give a short 
example:

A platoon of four American tanks are advancing through some rolling farmland 
in western France. There are three Sherman 75s and a Sherman 76. Unknown to 
them, there is a camouflaged King Tiger waiting in ambush on a wooded hill 
1000 yards away. 

The Shermans are advancing cautiously so the 76 and one 75 find a small rise 
that allows them to go partially hull down (this requires a Search roll) and 
take up overwatch positions. The other two Shermans advance up the road 
toward the hill, planning to take up a position there.

The King Tiger has a somewhat experienced crew. We'll give them a ranged 
attack bonus of +7. They wait for the advancing Shermans to get within 400 
yards and then let loose on the lead tank. Since the Shermans didn't detect 
the Tiger, we'll say this first shot happens during the surprise round. The 
Sherman has an AC of 15 (AC for ground vehicles is based on size and the 
slope of the vehicles front armor). The Tiger's gun has a 200 yard increment 
and the Sherman is within 400 yards so, this incurs a -2 penalty for range. 
The Tiger''s gunner rolls an 11, +7 is 18, -2 is 16, a hit. 

The Tiger's gun has a Penetration Value of 170/6 when firing AP rounds. The 
first number is how much Armor the round negates, the second number is how 
quickly the penetration falls off with range. In this case, every full range 
increment reduces PV by 6, so the actual PV of the attack is 164 . Rolling 
for hit location on the Sherman gives an upper hull hit. The Sherman's Armor 
in this location is 90. This is easily reduced to 0 by the 88mm round. The 
shot does 8d12 damage. We'll use average damage in this example, which would 
be 52 points of damage. The Sherman has 75 Damage Points, so the damage alone 
is not enough to knock the tank out. However, whenever you score a critical 
hit that causes damage or a regular attack causes more than half the 
vehicle's Damage points in damage with a single shot, there is a chance of a 
critical damage result. Rolling d100 on the Hull Critical Table gives a 
result of 77, but since the Sherman had a nasty habit of catching fire 
easily, it adds +20 to all critical rolls. This bumps it to a 97, which is a 
brew up result. The tank explodes in a ball of flame and the crew takes 5d10 
damage (which kills them).

The surprise round is now over and everybody rolls initiative. The lone 
Sherman on the road gets a 19, the Tiger a 17, and the two tanks on overwatch 
both get a 10. The suddenly alone Sherman goes first, the commander makes a 
spotting roll to spot the Tiger, fails, and then pops his smoke mortar, 
safely hiding his tank from view (full concealment) for 1d6 rounds. 

The Tiger turns its attention to the other two tanks. At a range of 1000 
yards I'd require the gunner to make one hell of a spotting roll to notice 
the muzzle brake on the 76, so we'll say he fails and picks one of the two at 
random. He fires at the 75. The tank is in a partial hull down position, this 
grants an AC bonus of +4 and means the lower hull and suspension cannot be 
hit. This means the Sherman has an effective AC of 19. At a range of 1000 
yards, the range modifier is -10. That means the Tiger needs a 29 to hit. He 
rolls a 24 total and misses.

The King Tiger has an AC of 12 (lots of armor with a moderate slope, but the 
King Tiger is a Gargantuan target). But it's fully hull down (only the turret 
visible), so this increases its AC by 7 to 19. That means the US tankers also 
need a 29 to hit. We'll say they have an attack bonus of +5. The 75 misses, 
but the 76 rolls a natural 20--a hit and possible crit. He rolls again and 
gets another 20, a critical. This means the round does double damage. The 
only possible hit location is the turret, so that's where the round hits. The 
Tiger has an Armor rating of 190 on the turrt front. The 76's cannon has a PV 
of 85/3. At a range of 5 increments, this drops the the PV to 70. This 
reduces the Tiger's effective armor to 120. The 76 does 8d10 damage, so 
assuming a roughly average damage roll, doubled for the critical, it inflicts 
100 points of damage. Subtracting the Tiger's 120 armor from this damage 
means the round bounces off without doing any damage to the German tank. The 
76's loader slams a high-velocity tungsten round into the cannon (PV 215/12).

New round. Under cover of smoke, the forward Sherman begins to back away at a 
speed of 14 yards per round. The Tiger fires at the 75 again, gaining a +2 
bonus for firing at a stationary target on consecutive rounds, but misses 
again. Both the 75 and 76 fire, also gaining a +2 for firing at a stationary 
target, but also miss.

Round 3. The front Sherman is now backing away at 28 yards per round. The 
Tiger fires, this time with a +4 bonus (max of +6 for continuous fire at a 
stationary target) and this time rolls an 18 + 7+4= 29. A hit and another 
Sherman goes up in flames. The 76 misses again and is now down to only 2 
tungsten rounds.

Round 4. The mortar smoke disappears, but the lead Sherman planned for this 
and loaded a smoke shell on a previous round. It plunks this down right in 
front of the Tiger, effectively blinding it for 1d6 rounds. 

Round 5. The 75 and 76, knowing they are completely outclassed at this range 
and without any significant cover to maneuver for a flank shot, beat a hasty 
retreat.

That's how vehicle combat works. Allied tankers are going to have their hands 
full against German armor. The King Tiger, Tiger, and Panther completely 
outclass most Allied tanks and the Panzer IV is about an even match for them. 
Official British tactics at the time called for 5 tanks to engage a single 
King Tiger and only of those tanks was expected to survive.

Grognards out there may notice that the Armor and PVs look similar to real 
life ones. They are. The Armor ratings are the actual thickness of the tank's 
armor in millimeters adjusted for the armor's slope and rounded to the 
nearest 5 to make the math simpler. The PVs are also based on real life 
numbers. A real 88L71 (the King Tiger's cannon) can penetrate 220mm of armor 
at close range, this drops off to around 160 at 2000 yards. The AP round does 
8d12 damage, which gives an average of 52 points of damage. To find the game 
PV you subtract the average damage of the weapon from the actual PV (220-52= 
168) and round to the nearest 5. This means that on an average damage roll, 
the round will cut through around 220mm of armor (not that it needs to, the 
best Allied armor is around 155mm). The secret of playing an Allied tanker is 
not getting hit in the first place.

That's all for now.

John Hopler