The Commander Series Forum

In the Winter War, the Soviet invasion of Finland. It is reported that Tank breakdowns were rife. Has anybody got a house rule for this? I was thinking that before a tank is moved a D6 is thrown, on a 6 it has broken down, on a further 6 being thrown it has permanently broken down! Is this too harsh?

Thanks KW

Best try it and see

Sounds fine to me - would you allow the possibility of fixing tanks as well though, or are you meaning that a broken-down tank is broken for that turn only?

Would a permanently broken-down tank count towards breakpoint?

Couldn't the blunder and command rules cover things like this? If your tanks fail to move because you diced an 11, then maybe it's due to mechanical breakdowns.

Nik

A six on a D6 broken down for that turn, but then test if permanently broken down which another 6 will confirm.

It should cause a lot of frustration

I think a permanently broken down tank would count towards the breakpoint.

KW

Okeydokey - gotcha

I'd agree that they should count towards breakpoint as well

I'd suggest that the ones that broke down would be the ones that are missing from your order of battle, rather than breaking down under fire...

I would agree with the above. The units that have broken down would be covered by the rules covering the modified starting forces at the beginning of the game, based on scenario.

Maybe worth pinching something from CWC - early Chieftans take a -1 penalty to rolls for mobile deployment. So perhaps if a command includes 'unreliable' vehicles make them harder to motivate on a move action?

Good thinking, forgot about that

Keeps it dead simple, which I always like!

if you let them count towards break point then the opponent could win simply because you tried to advance with your poor tanks? Seems a bit harsh to have the count to BP?

It would seem about right for the Winter War tbh!

Interesting as I was thinking along these lines for the British in early North Africa for the A9 and A10's which regularly broke down.

I too thought of rolling a dice each movement, but I was thinking of a ten or twelve sided dice to allow for greater odds, but still a chance of a malfunction.