Landships: the rules

Here are the rules for the game landships that we played whilst at MK campaign 2012, run by Black wolf Wargaming. Big thankyou from the guys for these rules and I hope that some of you may be able to recreate this game yourselves.

Landships rules

You will need

Some measuring sticks marked in inches

D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 sided dice

Some identification markers, numbered for the terrain

Set the table up with lots of terrain for the Germans to hide in, leave about 6” between each terrain piece.  I leave 3 feet from the allied tank start line to the trench

Number each terrain piece, including sections of trench, I numbered each 12 inches of trench.

The allied player picks his tanks

The German player picks two grenade groups and out of a hat randomly picks two locations for them to be in.  Note the number of where they are on their playsheet.

The German player then randomly with the cards face down picks one extra unit from his pack of cards per allied tank in the game (listed below) The German player can position these choices where he likes noting it on the playsheet.

Our German pack of cards contained

8 grenade groups

1 tank

2 field guns

1 anti tank rifle

2 machine guns

Each unit should be allocated a card, which is then used to decide who goes in which order.

Turn the cards and each player does his action.  The allied tanks can

Spot into a piece of terrain using their spotting dice. Spotting can be done at the start of a turn or at the end of the move.  A tank cannot spot if in close combat.  I decided at the time which dice the Germans in the terrain would have depending on how close the tank was.  Roughly

Spotting a shell hole German uses D4 if close or D6 if any other distance

Spotting a flattened building or a wood German uses a D6 all the time

Spotting a flattened building German uses a D6 all the time

Spotting a damaged building German uses a D6 close up and a D8 if any other distance

Spotting a trench D8

Spotting a pillbox D6 close up or D10 at any other distance

Whenever a German unit fires it must be put on the table

Move

Tanks roll 2 D6 dice and move with the highest dice unless Whippet which moves the total distance on the two dice and adds 1” to each dice.  After the first two turns we said any double is a breakdown.  In the next turn roll 1 D6 and on a 4,5,6 engine is started and the tank can move again

German grenade teams MG teams and anti tank rifle teams move from adjacent terrain piece to adjacent terrain piece so the German player moves them by writing the new location on his sheet.

The field gun is located at the start of the game and apart from turning it may not move. 

Shoot

This is for tanks with a big gun only.  If you have spotted Germans or they have appeared by shooting you can fire at them.  The tank rolls its shoot dice, going down a grade of dice if it moved first (ie from D8 to D6) All Germans have an armour dice to roll against the tank.  This goes up a grade if they are in cover and up two grades if they are in pillboxes

Close combat

 this happens with Germans within 6” so grenade groups who have jumped out or field guns if you get close enough.  Each side simply roll their close combat dice and highest wins

Destroying the enemy

Whoever wins the shooting or close combat inflicts a hit on the enemy.  The winner rolls a dice and the loser reads the result from his list at the bottom of the playsheet

Grenade groups, mgs and anti tank rifles, odd numbers the unit is out of the game for good, even numbers they are removed but the German player pulls a new location for them at random.  Field guns and tanks take damage as per the list, after three hits in total they are overun and out of the game.

Germans hitting tanks

The German player rolls the following dice to see the effect of their hit

Grenade groups roll a D6, you will notice the damage they can inflict is mostly superficial but if they roll 5 the tank loses a track and can only spin round

Anti tank rifles and Machine guns roll a D8, they could kill a tank with a good shot

Field guns and tank guns from the German tank roll a D10, they have a chance to cause real damage

Useful information

Tanks

The tanks came from Airfix and Emhar plastic kits and from Early War Miniatures who sell quick build resin tanks (www.earlywarminiatures.com.)

Airfix and Emhar also sell WW1 plastic figures, a good way of getting into wargaming

The buildings were home made and card kits for railway modelling and some resin ones from www.lancerminiatures.com