Urban warfare in Berlin, by Peter Dennis © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Campaign 159: Berlin 1945.
Tankers lived and fought in close proximity and crews often became extremely tight-knit. With so much ordnance specifically designed to kill them, they knew that they had to work in unison to get the most out of their machines. While they were limited by the capabilities of their vehicles, a seasoned crew often meant the difference between victory and fiery defeat.
This section expands on the base rules for vehicle crews given in the Bolt Action rule book. Specifically, it provides a set of optional rules that allows crews to gain experience and skills from one game to another.
USING THESE RULES
Since these rules are entirely optional, both players must agree before a game begins whether to use them or not. If you wish to field your vehicles with experienced crews, you must agree this with any opponents beforehand so they know what they are getting into.
When putting together your army, if you plan to use the crew experience rules, you may only purchase inexperienced vehicles, to represent them at the beginning of their (hopefully long) combat career. The exception to this rule is if there is no inexperienced option for a particular vehicle. In that case, you may purchase the regular version and the vehicle starts with two skills, generated as explained below.
CREWS
While the exact make-up of crews varied somewhat from one vehicle to another, these rules concern themselves with the three core crew members of any vehicle: the commander, the gunner and the driver.
It is important to note that it is the crew that is gaining experience and not the vehicle itself! Even if a vehicle is knocked out, as long as its crew survives they bring their expertise to their replacement vehicle for the next battle. Furthermore, the crew gains experience as a unit, so you do not have to track experience for each individual crew member.
M5 Stuart
J IS FOR…
The Allies had learned the hard way in North Africa that the German pioneers were experts in mine craft. They developed a range of mine clearing vehicles which ranged from the usual American pragmatism to some most unlikely looking devices. Perhaps one of the strangest looking vehicles of World War II was the awesome T1E3 mine exploder, popularly known to the troops who used it as ‘Aunt Jemima’. The name came from a colourful painting on the box of pancake mix on sale in the USA at the time, whereby the troops thought that the huge rolling steel disks looked like a stack of thin round pancakes, and hence the name stuck.
It first saw action in 1944, 22 of the contraptions being built. It was a cumbersome machine, the tracked chassis pushing in front of it many tons of steel in the form of ten giant disks in bundles of five, which rolled the ground ahead of the advancing tank. Posing a huge target and with a speed of 3mph when clearing, it was unwieldy at best. It worked, to a degree, but it was not the answer to mine clearance.
EXPERIENCE
The more fighting a crew takes part in the more experience it accumulates in the form of Experience Points (XP). There are two ways a crew can gain XP:
• Destroying enemy units: Whenever a vehicle destroys an enemy unit, it gains XP equal to the points cost of that unit divided by 10 and rounded down. For example, if a crew were to destroy a Veteran Sherman 76mm (which costs 282 points), it would gain 28 XP.
• Surviving: At the end of a game, a surviving vehicle crew gains 20 XP.
• When one of your vehicle crews gains XP during a game, be sure to note it down on their entry in your army list, adding it to any XP already gained.
SPENDING XP
You can spend a crew’s XP during a game at the same time as you give that unit an order as described below under Gaining Skills.
XP is spent to gain skills. It costs 50 XP to roll for a skill on the tables below. Once a skill has been determined, note it on the vehicle’s entry in your army list. The skill is active immediately; the crew can use their new ability right away!
SKILLS AND CREW QUALITY
As already noted, vehicles using these rules start out as inexperienced in most cases. This gives them a base morale value of 8 and all the rules specific to inexperienced units. As a crew gains skills, its quality will improve. The number of skills a crew has earned determines its quality as shown on the following chart.
A Burmese village now in Japanese hands
• 0–1 skill: Inexperienced
• 2–3 skills: Regular
• 4+ skills: Veteran
Whenever a crew gains a skill, its quality is adjusted immediately. So, once a crew gains its second skill, its quality is immediately elevated to Regular and its morale value goes up to 9. It also gains all the other benefits for being Regular, which normally means the crews’ chances of scoring a hit improve too.
K IS FOR…
The Canadians, like most armies in World War II, found themselves short of infantry, and needed to preserve their men in Normandy in the advance to the front. They dreamed up a plan to remove the howitzer from 102 of their Priest self-propelled guns, and instead fill the space with infantry, giving them good protection from small arms and shrapnel, if little defence from plunging fire.
This field conversion proved so effective that it was applied to the Canadian Ram tanks from then on. They could fit 12 men in each vehicle, more if pressed, and fitted the recently christened Kangaroo with a .30cal machine gun for local defence.
They were first used in Operation Totalize in the savage fighting around Caen where they were highly effective.
If a crew member is killed (as described below), the crew loses all skills that crew member had, and the overall crew quality is likewise re-evaluated and might decrease.
USING SKILLS
Skills represent special abilities associated with seasoned crews. Skills are once-per-game bonuses, which is to say a skill can be used only once by that crew during each game. The description of each skill tells you when it can be used, but its use is always optional. Whenever you use a skill, it is a good idea to make a tick mark next to it on your force list, so you’ll remember which skills have been used by which crews that game.
If, somehow, opposing players wish to use a skill simultaneously during play, the player whose unit is active must commit to using his skill first. The opposing player can then decide whether to use his skill or not.
Example: The US player gives one of his experienced Sherman crews a fire order, and wishes to use that crew’s ‘Deadeye’ gunner skill to increase his to-hit roll. The Tiger crew that the Sherman is firing at has the ‘Quick Reflexes’ driver skill, allowing the Tiger to make an escape move as a reaction to being fired at. Since the Sherman is the active unit, the US player must decide whether or not to use the deadeye skill before the German player decides if he wants to use his quick reflexes skill.
GAINING SKILLS
Whenever you pick a vehicle unit to give an order to, you can spend 50 of that vehicle crew’s XP to roll for a new skill on the tables below. Note that the test to gain a skill is made before making any order test that is required, before the unit acts upon its order or not, and regardless of whether the unit subsequently makes an action or otherwise.
Reduce the crew’s XP total by 50 and roll on the crew member table to see which crew member gains the new skill. Once the crew member has been determined, roll on that crew member’s skill table to see which skill he has gained.
If you roll a skill that the crew member already has, you may choose any skill from that crew member’s table.
If the crew member you rolled already has all six skills, you may choose either of the other crew to roll a skill for. If all of your crew members have six skills, congratulations – you should be a tank instructor! All crew with all six skills each is the best you can get.
• 1–2: Driver
• 3–4: Gunner
• 5–6: Commander
For simplicity, we have chosen to use the three key roles to derive our skills, but of course in reality some vehicles had more or fewer crew members. For suggestions on how to adapt this system to such vehicles, see ‘Unarmed Vehicles and Vehicles with Smaller or Larger Crews’ below.
DRIVER SKILLS
• Quick Reflexes: Play when an attack is declared against the vehicle. This vehicle may make an escape move, as if it had the Recce ability.
• Lead Foot: Play when you give this vehicle a run or advance order. The vehicle gets an additional 6” for this move.
• Crank Head: Play when you give this vehicle a run or advance order. The vehicle may make an additional turn of up to 90 degrees during its move.
• Eye for Terrain: Play when the vehicle ends its move at least 12” away and in cover from all enemy units. The vehicle goes hidden, as if it used the hidden deployment rules.
• Push Through: Play when this vehicle is given a down order die, for any reason. The die is turned from Down to Advance and the vehicle is given an advance order instead, even if it has already acted that turn. If the vehicle is pinned, take an order test (again), as normal.
• Bulldozer: Play when you give this vehicle a run order. The vehicle may assault another vehicle without the need to roll an order test, even if it is pinned. Furthermore, it automatically rolls a 6 for the resulting assault.
A US M10 tank destroyer with a great field of fire
GUNNER SKILLS
• Deadeye: Play before you roll to hit. Add 3 to a single shot’s hit modifier. Remember that a result of 1 is a miss, regardless of modifiers.
• Snap Shooter: Play after a target attempts to react. The target of the shot cannot react to being targeted, including abilities like recce.
• Hair Trigger: Play after this vehicle makes a run move. The vehicle may shoot after making a run move.
• Adrenalin Rush: Play after you fire this vehicle’s main gun. The main gun may be fired a second time this turn, but must target the same unit as the first shot.
• Skill Shot: Play when you give this vehicle a fire order. The Pen value of the vehicle’s main gun is increased by D3, including HE.
• Long Shot: Play before you select a target for this vehicle’s main gun. The range of the main gun is doubled.
COMMANDER SKILLS
• Lucky: Play when the enemy is about to roll on the damage results chart against this vehicle. The roll is not made and the vehicle does not suffer any further adverse effects from the hit.
• Strict Discipline: Play before you give this vehicle an order. This vehicle loses all of its pin counters.
• Eagle Eye: Play when this vehicle is nominated as a target of a ranged attack or assault. If this vehicle has LOS (line of sight) to the attacker, it may react by shooting at the attacker with any one weapon that has LOS to the attacker.
• Motivational Leader: Play when you give this vehicle an order. When you use this skill, choose one of your driver or gunner skills that you’ve already used this game. You may use it one more time this game. If your crew does not have any gunner or driver skills yet, you may choose to re-roll on the Commander skill table instead of receiving this skill.
• Battle Awareness: Play after both sides have deployed. If both players wish to use this ability, roll off to see who goes first. You may reposition this vehicle up to 12” away from its original position, but still abiding by the deployment rules.
• Follow Me!: Play before you give this vehicle a run or advance order. Choose a friendly vehicle within 12” and LOS of this vehicle. If it has a down order, put that die back into the cup.
L IS FOR…
Perhaps considered the most handsome of tanks in World War II – if a tank can be called handsome – was the light reconnaissance tank the Lynx, or Luchs in German. Developed from the venerable Panzer II, the Lynx was remodelled extensively to give the Panzer divisions a fast, well thought-out scouting vehicle, and it served in small numbers from 1944 to the end of the war in Russia and in France.
Small, but fast, it could attain 32mph on a road, and had 30mm of armour.
UNARMED VEHICLES AND VEHICLES WITH SMALLER OR LARGER CREWS
Some vehicles lack armament, and by logical extension also lack a commander and a gunner. In this case, these vehicles automatically roll on the driver skill table whenever they gain a skill. Since these vehicles cannot destroy enemy units, they only gain XP by surviving battles.
Similarly, if you are rolling for a vehicle that in reality had fewer than three crew, adjust the roll on the charts accordingly. For example, if you know that your light tank had only a crew of two, and the commander was also the gunner, keep in mind that one model is accruing both the commander and gunner skills; if he dies, then the crew lose both type of abilities.
The Italian Ariete Division attacks south of Ruweisat Ridge, by Howard Gerrard © Osprey Publishing Ltd. Taken from Campaign 158: El Alamein 1942.
On the other hand, where in reality vehicles had more than three men, we normally just assume it has three as far as the rules are concerned for the sake of simplicity. However, if you prefer to come up with your own set of skills for radio operators, loaders etc. please do so and do share them with us on our forums.
Panzer II
OPTIONAL RULE: FIGHTING CREWS
If you prefer a more narrative and exciting finale for your battles, which gives your crewmen a chance of taking a more active part in the game, you and your opponent may agree to use the following rules for the surviving crew.
When a tank is knocked out and the surviving crew is moved 2D6” towards their own edge of the table as described above, do not remove them. Instead, place the tank’s Order dice next to the crew, showing Down, and from then on the crew forms an infantry unit of its own, operating normally. Note that the vehicle still counts as destroyed where that matters from the point of view of victory conditions, and that the surviving crew now counts as a new infantry unit in your army, worth the same as a unit costing 50 points.
The crew are armed with either pistols, rifles or submachine guns, as depicted by the models themselves.
They are a normal infantry unit in all respects, except that they can always move off their own table edge if they want.
As well as being good fun, the advantage of leaving a crew on the table is that you gain a new combat unit that can even capture objectives and the like, but on the other hand you might give the enemy some extra points and, if you are using the crew XP system, you risk losing crew members and their skills along with them.
M8 Scott
M IS FOR…
World War II saw all manner of strange weapons, some of which reached the front line, while others were too extraordinary in concept to have any chance of success. The Maus, Panzer Mk VIII, was developed by the Germans in 1943 as the ultimate breakthrough tank. In concept it was breathtaking, a 188-ton monster with frontal armour of 200mm and mantlet armour of 460mm. It was to be equipped with a 128mm main gun, with a coaxial long 75mm gun. After some consultation, an anti-infantry mine thrower was included, and a machine gun and side ports for close-in defence.
It seems incredible now that such a white elephant could have been seen as feasible, let alone desirable, but the stresses of warfare and a totalitarian regime ensured that good money, time, and energy were wasted on making two nearly complete working models.
Its vast bulk and weight meant that it could not cross bridges, so it was designed to be submersible. Fortunately for the crews, more so than the Allies, both tanks were destroyed by their own side, though the Russians completed a model and it stands today in the wonderful Kubinka tank museum. However, it always remains a great ‘what if’ for the wargamer.
CREW SURVIVAL
If a vehicle is knocked out, roll a D3 to determine how many of the crew managed to escape. If the vehicle was an armoured vehicle that was knocked out by a Massive Damage result, or in any case if it was a soft skin, apply a -1 modifier to the roll. If the crew is Inexperienced, you roll two dice and pick the lowest result, while if the crew is Veteran you roll two dice and pick the highest result.
After determining how many crewmen have survived, move these survivors 2D6” towards their own edge of the table. At the end of that turn, any crew member that is still alive will escape and is removed from play.
In addition, you must determine which crew members survived. Roll a die for each surviving crew member on the crew member table above. If you roll the same crew twice, re-roll one of the dice until you roll another crew member.
KV-1 heavy tank
N IS FOR…
The Nimrod was an unusual Hungarian self-propelled gun with an open turret, based on the light Toldi 1 tank chassis. An elegant looking vehicle, it was hoped that it could be both a tank destroyer and an anti-aircraft gun. This 10-ton AFV had a crew of six, light armour and a 40mm Bofors automatic main gun, and normally operated in platoons of two. It served well in the Hungarian armoured divisions, but it was quickly relegated to anti-aircraft use, as the 40mm gun had poor results against the heavy Soviet armour. To help in those circumstances the Hungarians produced a HEAT round that would fit over the muzzle and give the Nimrod some chance against heavy armour.
If a crew member doesn’t survive the battle, the crew lose all the skills that crew member possessed. This may also affect the crew’s quality, as outlined above. As long as at least one member of the crew survives, the crew keeps any unspent XP it has.
Polish 7TP
OPTIONAL RULE: NAMING AND KILL MARKS
While not universal by any means, often crews did give their vehicles colourful names. In Bolt Action, giving your vehicles names serves as a useful reminder of which ones are experienced, as well as personalizing the story of each tank crew’s exploits.
A vehicle doesn’t get a name until its crew has earned their first skill. Try to think of a name that embodies something about how the tank performed in battle – for example, if it was a tank that somehow survived two direct hits, you might name it ‘Double Down’.
Once you’ve decided on a name, paint it on the side of the vehicle. If that vehicle gets knocked out, you can always add a Roman numeral after it to represent the replacement vehicle. ‘Double Down IV’ tells quite a story!
Likewise, it’s gratifying to paint kill marks on the side of vehicles to commemorate your successes. Using hash marks, or even silhouettes (for the ambitious!), paint them somewhere on the vehicle’s hull.