Have you heard of Tank Battle? I’m pretty sure that over the years I have clued you all in that I love board games. Having said that I’m not referring to the latest games like Fury of Dracula or Dead of Winter. Working at the arcade offers me ample opportunity to also delve into our growing vintage board game collection. Case in point Milton Bradley’s Tank Battle which was originally released in 1975.

[Via] My Saturday M0rnings

While I certainly enjoy staying after work to play the newer board games. Even jokingly calling it Board Meetings. There is just something about once again being able to play 1984’s Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Or everything from Welcome Back, Kotter to 1979’s THe Black Hole! Of course my enjoyment comes from a healthy dose of nostalgia but I would also argue that the games are well made too.

As if you couldn’t tell from that commercial up above. This is definitely set in the period of World War II as the rules plainly point out. At the arcade I chose to play the American tank battalion with my esteemed opponent playing the Germans.

Image courtesy of BoardGameGeek.

Besides looking awesome the cardboard representations of your tanks also act as a shield, to of course stop your opponent from seeing your “scoring” platform.

Furthermore that platform keeps record of your anti-tank gun ammo. Which I might add you may only fire five times in the entire game. There is quite a bit of strategy at play in Tank Battle. As each player must guess where their opponents tanks will stop on the board before each round is played. In the case of your own super shots if your opponent ends a turn on where you “fired” it will blow up that tank!

The anti-tank guns also act as a buffer between your special playing pieces. Such as your fuel dump, ammo storage and HQ. If an enemy tank as it travels across the board comes into contact with you anti-tank gun you give the spinner a go. If by some small chance it lands on the “Tank Destroyed” you of course wipe out the enemy tank. The loss of one of your five anti-tank guns means you also lose one of your special shots as well.

I believe a very nifty aspect of Tank Battle comes into play if you take out those special pieces during a game. For example if you lose the fuel dump your movement pool will be reduced from 6 to 4 for your tanks. If you lose the ammo dump your fire power is diminished. If the HQ falls the mines you “placed” are lost.

Now the only way to win the game is to wipe out all 6 of your opponents tanks. This is done generally by tanks meeting each other on the board – going head to head. The tank strength is revealed and the tank with the higher number wins the tank battle. Naturally the numbers are ranged from 1 to 6. In the case of a tie however both tanks are destroyed.

Speaking of the tanks, their movement is restricted to forward and to the side. Unless of course a tank reaches the end of an opponents board. Then it gains a flag and can move forward and backwards, etc. The movement pool of 6 spaces must be shared between all tanks and none may use more than 3 spaces unless you have only two tanks remaining.

Consequently at the end of the night, of four games, I had in fact won three. I am sure this is a game we will be playing quite a bit at the arcade. If you are a fan of both vintage and strategy board games. I would highly recommend you pick up Tank Battle!

Now just in case you want further details on the rules of Tank Battle. Why not watch this video by Matt Wilkins?