WWII Tanks!
a Tabletop Game
by
Ishan Juluri
My interest in WW2 started when I did a project in 4th grade on JFK. His service in WW2 piqued my interest, and fast forward a couple years I became immersed in the world of tanks. Because, well, big armor boxes with guns are really, really cool.
One thing that bugged me as I educated myself more and more on tanks and tank warfare in World War 2 were how many misconceptions were present and how popular media continues to spread these false claims. Many of these claims all fall into the realm of Nazi apologism, spreading the lie about how Nazi Germany was truly the technically superior nation, and should’ve won. Well, that is completely false and I wanted to create a way to convey this information in a fun manner.
For the first prototype, I based some of the concepts of games such as WarHammer 40k. Yet, I put my own twist on it. I integrated my own mechanism to create a sort of campaign. I wanted to create an overarching narrative campaign that focused on purposeful deployment of tanks, preservation of tanks, and allocation of limited resources: mirroring actual tank warfare and logistics. I also intended to give each nation a specific strength and weakness, focusing on trying to convey actual historical limitations each nation faced.
Playtests with my friend revealed certain problems with my initial ruleset. I didn’t account for the size of the maps I had made. In addition, the campaign system I had designed was very clunky, and wasn’t fully fleshed out. However, the overall idea and basic mechanics were enjoyable.
Recently, a new printed roll out map was updated with trees and rocks to better represent the line of sight in a theater. The newest edition of my rules streamlines the movement process, along with adding a reinforcement stage, which allows a more fluid battlefield strategy, along with allowing players a better deployment of forces. I also added a card mechanism and am working on a research tree to represent technical innovation and supply production during the war.