British Mark I Tank 1916 (Male)

Just out of curiosity (and the possibility of expanding the game), I thought I'd try my hand at creating stats for the First World War British Mark I (Male) tank, the first to be used in battle.

My rationale for the stats I've chosen are as follows:

Initiative - The tank was a new development and the crews were poorly trained in its operation - hence the low score.

Fire Power - The Mark I (Male) was armed with 2 x 6pdr guns, the same calibre as the Crusader. However, the primitive sighting used and the difficulties in bringing the gun to bear on the target means that it only has the same fire power as the Crusader.

Defence - The armour on the Mk I was, at its thickest, 15mm and could even be penetrated by machine gun fire. Since I did not want to give it a negative value, I've set it as 0.

Armour Points - see above.

Special Rules

Slow - the top speed of the Mk I was only 3.7mph. To avoid players having to divide up the movement arrow, I've given it the slow rule and low initiative.

Sponsons - the Mk I was armed with 2 x 6pdr guns mounted on either side of the body. While it had a slightly better arc of fire then an assault gun, I've limited it to 90 degrees to reflect this.

Split Fire - the two sponson mounted guns meant that the Mk I could fire at 2 different targets simultaneously, hence the fact it can make two attacks, each at half dice, or a single attack at full dice.

Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.

Looking very good, I like it a lot!

To clarify, instead of the usual assault gun rule that you'd draw the line parallel across the front for possible targets, this would be like a pizza slice of possible targets in front of the tank?

Also, if I was going to use this for a Mark IV, would you suggest any changes? Maybe increase the initiative as the crew would have more training and familiarity with the tank?

Interesting idea - expansion into WWI, like the work, vote up inbound. I think this should prove an interesting project as well. However, the problem with tanks of this era - breakdown sickness. They were bloomin' unreliable, in some operations leading to total disasters from the point of view of how many reached contact with enemy (thinking of battle at Flers-Courcelette for example). A third reaching objective was considered a good thing. So maybe if you would think beneficial something along the lines of:

"Unreliable drive-train: Before every move roll a dice. On a 1-2 the tank does not move this turn, but it may fire however. If you roll a 1 next turn after failure, tank becomes permanently immobile, but may still however continue shooting

This however may not be favorable from the gamer perspective, so I leave this to your discretion.

The other problem from doctrinal perspective, tanks were almost exclusively infantry tanks that time, and were used for piercing stale-mates on the frontlines. Some sources, that to my disgrace I can not find currently, even quoted that these beasts needed directions from troops outside to maneuver - visibility was extremely poor and the driver was almost completely blind. I will continue the search if it catches your fancy. However, this point can safely be ignored - we are having fun here.

So to summarise, great job, interesting to see the expansion to WWI, and impatiently do I await what the next WWI developments will be. You also gave me an idea - I may think of going to "Moderns" with these rules (think Korea, Arab-Israeli wars, Africa and the sorts - i.e. Cold War era).

OCDPaul wrote:To clarify, instead of the usual assault gun rule that you'd draw the line parallel across the front for possible targets, this would be like a pizza slice of possible targets in front of the tank?  

I like the way you've put that. It's not something I've thought of myself but it seems to describe the situation very well.

OCDPaul wrote:Also, if I was going to use this for a Mark IV, would you suggest any changes? Maybe increase the initiative as the crew would have more training and familiarity with the tank?

I haven't thought that far ahead yet but it's certainly an option to consider.

Tenente wrote:"Unreliable drive-train: Before every move roll a dice. On a 1-2 the tank does not move this turn, but it may fire however. If you roll a 1 next turn after failure, tank becomes permanently immobile, but may still however continue shooting

I had given thought to adding something like this but, as you yourself hinted, it doesn't really work from a player's perspective so I left it out.

With regard to giving the MkI the 'Semi-Indirect Fire' rule, I was thinking about a comment I had seen where the fact that the gunnery was only really accurate when the tank was stationary. The primitiveness of the gun sights along with the vibrations in the Tank caused a large number of problems with aiming the guns. However, I didn't want to hamper the Tank's offensive capabilities too much so...

Anyway, I suppose it's time to look up some German Tanks for them to fight against.

On hindsight, what you may consider is developing a supplement rule-set, in which you can include an optional "universal" rule to all tanks reflecting the engine unreliability. Just imagine the battle-field strewn with cursing tank crews and clumsily failed attacks.... seems just fun!

Just something for the others, for people like me, who just love doing careful and intricate plans before the battle, following Sun Tzu and the 36 stratagems and all that bells and whistles of artsy-pansy philosophical approached to planning with a cuppa of "mate" tea (or any other fancy tea you think of), just to have it all crash and burn into an epic and explosive fail because a unit decided to go looking for daisies (read: not arriving from ambush or flank march ), or decide that they had enough of the battle and go to the nearby town to "Cherchez la femme et vin" (read: rout ) or decide to pick their noses and drool 'till being hit by a spike (read: fail or decide not to take orders ). It adds that funny element for those interested... but, as always, just a thought to consider.