FoW: Choosing Tanks and Tank Types
Today’s Flames of War article hopes to make some sense out of the absolutely bewildering number of choices a FoW player needs to make when choosing armored vehicles for his company.
Tanks are an inarguably essential part of Flames of War. Some forces do not include any tanks, but these are a small minority and generally are trying to stand out from the crowd. If they think they can stand out by excluding tanks, then I don’t need to tell you how common tanks must be!
Motivation
The game’s rules are very permissive as far as what tanks can and cannot do on their own. Tanks generally are not hesitant to enter enemy infantry positions without their own infantry, generally do not withdraw when under artillery fire (unless it is very heavy), and do not fear losing crew/turret motors/tracks/drive wheels/etc. to weapons that cannot otherwise penetrate their armor, none of which were necessarily true in real life. Conversely, your usual infantry fear tanks in all situations, and find them difficult to assault, even in dense forest or urban environments where infantry typically excelled, unless they start their turn within 4″ of a victim tank. And even then, they’re still afraid.
Of course, any good infantry player will tell you, with a hint of pride, that were things any other way, FoW would be basically unwinnable for tank companies; yours truly is not suggesting any changes. What the above does mean, however, is that tanks are much more common and much easier to use than was historically true. The point is, everyone playing FoW needs to know either how to drive tanks or how to fight them, and most people need to know both!
Selection
If you want to include tanks in your Flames of War force, the decision obviously depends on which vehicles are available based on your briefing. However, you should also consider what the role is that you want the tanks to play in your force. The more roles you want them to be able to perform, the more points you will probably pay for them; FoW will let you have single-purpose vehicles for a song, but units that do it all (like, say, the IS-2) cost a bundle. The first thing to know is that tanks fall into three broad categories – historically light, medium, and heavy were used, but in FoW that distinction is not as useful as thinking of tanks as being divided into categories based on what they’re good at.
Anti-infantry (“light”) tanks, or assault tanks
“Light” tanks are the best choices for taking on enemy infantry. Note that “light” is in quotes, as the tank does not need to have the Light Tank rule to be a light tank! These tanks are sometimes designed specifically as light, fast murder machines, but almost always the case is that a “light” tank in a particular war period is just a medium tank from a prior one! With armor and weapons insufficient for taking on more modern tanks and guns, these vehicles usually don’t cost many points; however, given that MG’s and tank assault are what kill infantry anyway, they’re just as good against infantry as they ever were!
Examples of this tank class obviously vary by period, but in general you will know them when you see them. In the popular Late War period, light tanks include Stuarts, Panzer IIs, T-70s, and others. Some light tanks are really only any good for infantry assault, like the Luchs, whereas some are better-armed and can be relied upon to gang up on artillery guns and suchlike, like the Stuart.
General-purpose (“medium”) tanks, or battle tanks
Medium tanks in FoW are a hard class to exactly define, but essentially they are anything easily able to defeat a light tank without being a heavy tank. Historically the Germans classified their Panther as a medium tank, but in FoW terms (remember, it’s a points-based game) at ~185 points each in Late War, they are definitely heavy.
Medium tanks are often multirole tanks. They have more armor and better guns than light tanks, but not so much armor or such large guns that they are priced out of the infantry-assault ballpark. They are usually capable of defeating any enemy, but the downside to this is that they are not especially good at defeating any one enemy. The compromise that medium tanks draw between cost and effectiveness means they are second to none, however, in firepower against dug-in soft targets that cannot (or should not) be assaulted yet. They are the only tank class with a prayer of quickly reducing dug-in infantry or guns without assaulting them.
Shermans, Cromwells, Panzers III and IV, and T-34 are all varieties of medium tank in the Late War period.
Anti-tank (“heavy”) tanks
Heavy tanks in FoW, unlike mediums and lights, differ wildly by nationality. German heavy tanks are long-range anti-tank machines, outfitted with excellent guns and frontal armor, but priced out of all possibility of infantry assault. In some cases these behemoths are so expensive that if they have a particularly poor game they won’t even kill their points of their favorite prey, the medium tank. Needless to say, while definitely a threat to light tanks, they are ill-suited to dealing with them as, while the Germans continue to attach bigger guns to tanks, they do not attach more.
Soviet and British heavy tanks are usually much cheaper in points, with very heavy armor but not much more ranged AT capability than a medium tank (whether due to middling AT value, or good AT value but ROF1). This suits them just fine, as they are still very able to take on enemy medium tanks by virtue of the difficulty that the mediums will have in hurting them (even if they aren’t hurting the mediums much faster). This does mean, however, that Soviet and British heavy tanks are not the answer to German heavy tanks; other solutions must be found. On the upside, they are often quite capable of infantry assault thanks to their lower price and (sometimes) rear-facing turret MGs or heavy breakthrough guns.
Conclusion
Generalizations will only get you so far, and the best way to learn which vehicles suit your needs is to play games! In general, though, it is hoped that looking at vehicles by role will help players to select the tank that best fits their force. King Tigers are great and all, but if you’ve got 20+ stands of Tank Assault 4 infantry in your force already, enemy heavy tanks may not be exactly what you should be most worried about!
Good luck out there officers, dismissed! If you’ve got a vote for the best tank in each category, lets hear it broken down by early/mid/late war along with why.
