Questions regarding rules

[Ralph Bennett]

I play bolt action and have a decent sized army (in 1 to 72)

I have recently purchased a Maus and wanted to try it so had a game arranged for Wednesday 20th, however, there seems to be some discrepancies as to which army units one can attache the said tank to and the points costs of the said tank and the special rules for the said tank

Please can you clarify whether the said tank can be fielded as inexperienced, regular and veteran and the points costs for each and also which army formations one can field the said tank in and also to the special rules

 

I am also looking to add some special vehicles and would need points costs, effects and possible uses for the following: –

 

Schwere Gustav – railway gun

K7 railway gun

Pz 1000 ultra heavy tank

Thor – mobile heavy duty mortar

 

Thank you

[Stuart Harrison]

The Maus is in Campaign: Road to Berlin, p112.

costs are 464/580/696

The only selectors it’s available in are the Generic Reinforced Platoon, and the Last Levy selector (the Gotterdamerung rule and the Last Levy fuel shortage rule are the same, you only roll once not both if using it in that selector).

Special rules cut and paste from Easy Army:

<b>128mm KwK 44</b>
This gun was almost as effective at long ranges as short range – so does not suffer the -1 penetration penalty when shooting at targets over half range. It counts a full +7 penetration bonus at all ranges

<b>Co-axial light howitzer</b>
Although the Co-axially mounted 75mm KWK44 L36 would in any other tank be a respectable anti-tank gun, it was fitted on the Maus as a co-axial weapon. When fired instead of the main gun, this allows the Maus to fire indirectly HE(2″) rounds or 4″ smoke rounds.

<b>Götterdämmerung</b>
Roll a die every time the vehicle completes a move:

• 1: Broken down/out of fuel: The vehicle is immobilised for the rest of the game.
• Breaking down/fuel low: The vehicle may make one more move after this one, then runs out of fuel and is immobilised.
• 3+: OK: Continue as normal, rolling again after next move.

<b>HE (2″)</b>
(p68) PEN: +2, PIN: D3 (D6 if in building) – Infantry and artillery can go <i>down</i> to halve the hits taken

<b>HE (3″)</b>
(p68) PEN: +3, PIN: D3 (2D6 if in building) – Infantry and artillery can go <i>down</i> to halve the hits taken. 10+ hits on building collapses it and kills all inside.

<b>Howitzer</b>
(p71) Can either shoot directly at a target drawing its line of fire ‘over open sights’ in the normal way, or it can shoot indirect fire. When using indirect fire, a howitzer has a minimum range; when firing over open sights it has no minimum range.

<b>Mobile Fortress</b>
To fulfil its role as a breakthrough tank the Maus had extremely heavy armour. There is no penetration modifier for hitting a Maus from the side or top, and the penetration modifier for hitting a Maus in its rear arc is reduced to +1.

<b>Slow</b>
(p119) A vehicle designated as slow has a basic move rate of 6″ when Advancing and 12″ at a Run

<b>Tiger fear</b>
All enemy units that are within 18” of, and have line of sight to, one or more vehicle with the Tiger Fear special rule (see the vehicles section of this army list) suffer from Tiger Fear. Note that the 18” range is measured AFTER you have declared which order you have given to the unit. Units suffering from Tiger Fear count as having one extra pin marker on them when taking any Order test, except if ordered to Fire against a vehicle causing Tiger fear. Test on -1 morale if they have no pin markers (page 17).

In the Last Levy selector on Easy Army it shows a different entry, ‘Panzer VIII Maus (Prototype Version 2)’ – I can’t find anything supporting that entry.

The Pz 1000 ultra heavy tank is too late for WW2, (possibly Konflict 47 but I don’t play that).  You’re unlikely to find official rules for the other vehicles – they’re more like terrain features for Bolt Action’s purposes.

[Ralph Bennett]

Thank you for the reply, this is as I thought, however the oppoent refuses to play by anything except the last levy

[Stuart Harrison]

Ask your opponent to show you the entry supporting the easy army Last Levy Maus.

I think I’ve found what it’s based on, but if it’s this one it’s not only unofficial – it’s for K47!

Maus in the house

[Ralph Bennett]

He is even doubting your veracity saying you have just taken these from easy army and saying your view is not official

[Stuart Harrison]

Which part of my veracity is he doubting?  The part where I quote the page number in Campaign: Road to Berlin for the Maus unit entry, the costs from that page and the selectors that entry tells you it can be taken in?  The special rules I cut and paste from Easy Army German generic reinforced platoon Maus entry after cross referencing with that unit entry in Road to Berlin, or perhaps the unofficial K47 fan page I linked to which looks to be the source of the entry he wants to use (which even states it is ‘totally unofficial’) ?

I never said anything from me was official.  I have provided links and references to support what I say – what has he provided?  Where is the entry he is basing his opinion on?

 

[Ralph Bennett]

Everything, he is referencing an article from the warlord games webstore archives as his source and saying that anything from easy army is not an actual rule and also stating that anything shown here is a forum rule and not an actual rule supported by warlord games.  He is also saying that as a participant rather than a member from warlord games, your information is not valid.

[Jacob Carter]

Would you mind detailing the specific issue your opponent has?  I don’t really understand where he has reservations, is it specifically which theater list it can be taken in?

The rules that Stuart listed is virtually identical to the rules listed on Warlords product page for the MAUS, with the exception of having the unreliable rule and being a little more expensive in Road to Berlin (I’d even guess the reason for it being more expensive is because that version doesn’t have the unreliable rule)

[Ralph Bennett]

My opponent has issue with the points cost, the fact that I have included it in the reinforced platoon, the special rules, – basically everything

He is also calling into question anything that is not from an official Warlord Games spokesperson, saying that unless it is from said source, it is just forum rules and therefore invalid for use in games

• This reply was modified 2 years, 8 months ago by Ralph Bennett.

[Jacob Carter]

The way I understand it is units from campaign books are kind of designed to work internally and are tricky to bring into a base game.  I’d recommend the set of rules on the product page designed to go with the Last Levy force from Armies of Germany.  You will find it if you scroll down in the description.

Panzer VIII Maus super-heavy Tank

Is this a tournament or a for fun game?  If it’s the later, I’d recommend looking for another opponent.  If he’s gonna complain this much about a “for fun” unit I’d expect him to suck the fun out of most other parts of the game

[Ralph Bennett]

Fun game

[Stuart Harrison]

OK, looking at that webstore entry, he’s overlooking a number of things.

1.  The entry refers you to the Last Levy selector on p95 of AoG – that’s it’s page in AoG first edition, second edition it’s on p102-103.

2.  It has a line ‘Official Update 29 Jan 2017′.  Campaign: Road to Berlin was released 21 November 2017 and is an official Bolt Action book.

If he’s going to dig his heels in this much putting an out of date webstore page above an actual Warlord publication from nearly a year later, I’d be giving serious consideration to the point raised by Jacob.

[invisible officer]

To get xxxx about rules for a prototype that never saw service is a bit ….. .   The two prototypes shared a single working turret. 205/2 got that turret and both vehicles got transported to Kummersdorf testing range.   2 was blown up at Hindenburgplatz in Wünsdorf, there it was used as pillbox. The explosion threw the turrret away.

205/1 had the road wheels blown away at Kummersdorf by Feuerwerker Waldemar Weiher. Damaging part of the interior.

Post war the Soviets fixed the turret to 2  and did some tests. Today in Museum it is a hull only.

[HellRaiser 7]

Ralph, even though Easy Army isn’t an official Warlord App., the Gentleman (Greg) who runs it does a real good job keeping it updated with all the Bolt Action Army Books, Campaign Books, etc. You can tell your friend that if you read something on Easy Army, it’s copied right out of all the Official Warlord Bolt Action supplements.
If he forgets to update it or makes a typo on it (which he rarely does), I’ve written him several  times , he’ll update the site, and answer any questions you may have about it. He really knows his stuff.
Seriously, whether I’m playing a tournament or for fun, I don’t think I’d game with someone like your friend. I don’t know him, but to get so aggressive over a monster tank that may have never even seen actual Combat. The Maus is just for a fun goofy game, just for playing a scenario with a different flare is how I look at it.  I have one and it’s fun to get out play once in awhile. My favorite thing to do with it is to pretend Hitler is the Tank Commander of the Maus , and in a drugged  up hazed mind, he is going to lead the final assault to finally drive out the Soviets of his beloved Capital. (Might even use it as gaming event at some gaming con one day).

i would love to find some stats on Railguns.
i just purchased a Leopold Rail Gun. As I have an Armored train to go with it, I was going to use it more for eye Candy and objective for a big game. But I do run some City battles and campaigns where several rail guns were used by both the Germans and Soviets so I would really like to get some rules on them.
If you do get to finally run a Maus scenario, please update us  ( and include plenty of pics)

[Author]

Posts