Freelance Traveller - Doing It My Way

The Fury Tank Battle

by Ewan Quibell

This article originally appeared in the March/April 2021 issue.

This MegaTraveller tank battle scenario was designed as a test of the combat and design process.

Overview

The Panzerkampfwagen VI Ausführung H, given the nickname Tiger, is one of the iconic German heavy tanks of the Second World War. While expensive and “over engineered” its production run of 1,347 Tiger I (and 492 Tiger II) tanks accounted for at least 10,300 enemy tanks, and 11,380 AT guns and artillery pieces during the conflict.

In the film Fury, one of the iconic scenes is when a camouflaged Tiger takes on four Allied Sherman tanks and loses.

In a MegaTraveller context, the Tiger stats are provided in 101 Vehicles (Digest Group Publications, 1988) as vehicle number #3, the TL6 D’Wor-class tracked tank, corrected in the Consolidated Errata by Jake Collins. As corrected, those stats are:

CraftID:

D’Wor-class Heavy Tracked Tank, TL6, Cr 103,000

Hull:

2/5, Displacement=2 (+10% turret), Conf=4USL, Armour=26B Front/Side, 22B Rear, Loaded=42.73 tons, Unloaded=37.93 tons

Power:

1/2, Imp Int Combustion=0.52 Mw, Duration=3 hours

Loco:

1/2, Tracks, P/W=12, Road=45 kph, Offroad=14 kph

Comm:

Radio=Continental (5,000 km)

Sensors:

Headlights×2

Off:

Hardpoints=1, Weapon Stabilise=20kph

	Ammo	Rds	Pen/Attn	Dmg	Max Range	Auto Tgts	Dngr Spc	Sig	ROF
8.5cm HiV	HE	100	14	12	Dist(17)	-	20	M	10
	KEAP	-	29	10	Dist(17)	-	-	M	10
LMG×3		1000	3/3	3	VLong(1)	2	-	H	60

Def:

Smoke×6

Control:

Enhanced Mechanical×13,

Accom:

Crew=5 (Driver, Gunner×2, Commander/Gunner, Loader), Seats=Cramped×5, Env=basic env

Other:

Fuel=0.1 klitres, Cargo=3.3 klitres, ObjSize=Small, EmLevel=Moderate

Comment:

From Digest Group Publications 101 Vehicles for MegaTraveller
Corrections by Jake Collins in the Consolidated Errata
Modifications by E. D. Quibell

However the original 8cm gun from the DGP listing does not differentiate enough between the reality of the Tiger vs Sherman in the real world. A quick look at Striker from Classic Traveller gives us the 8.5 cm bore gun so I adjusted the specification slightly using those details. I also differentiated the armour between the front/sides and rear of the tank.

The Sherman M4 stats were provided by Mr Scott “2G” Kellogg in his designs posted to the Traveller Mailing List in 1991. These were detailed as:

CraftID:

M4 Sherman-class Medium Tracked Tank, TL6, Cr 57,161

Hull:

2/5, Displacement=2, Conf=4USL, Armour=22B, Loaded=29.61 tons, Unloaded=27.2 tons

Power:

1/2, Imp Int Combustion=0.373 Mw, Duration=5 hours

Loco:

1/2, Tracks, P/W=13, Road=45 kph, Offroad=23 kph

Comm:

Radio=V Dist (50 km)

Sensors:

Headlights×2

Off:

Hardpoints=1, Weapon Stabilise=20kph

	Ammo	Rds	Pen/Attn	Dmg	Max Range	Auto Tgts	Dngr Spc	Sig	ROF
7.5cm HiV	HE	100	12	11	Dist(15)	-	20	M	10
	KEAP	-	26	9	Dist(15)	-	-	M	10
HMG		500	6/3	3	VLong(1.5)	3	-	H	80
MMG×2		2000	3/3	3	VLong(1.5)	3	-	H	80

Def:

Smoke×6

Control:

Enhanced Mechanical×11,

Accom:

Crew=5 (Driver, Gunner×2, Comander/Gunner, Loader), Seats=Cramped×5, Env=basic env

Other:

Fuel=0.1 klitres, Mag=1.51 klitres, Cargo=1.4 klitres, ObjSize=Small, EmLevel=Moderate

Comment:

By Scott “2G” Kellogg
Modification by E. D. Quibell

Again, in the original stats listing, the 8cm gun provided would have given the same stats as the DGP D’Wor (Tiger), so another check to Striker provides the 7.5cm bore gun providing slight adjustments.

The extra bore sizes for the weapon stats for addition to the MT weapons table (Referee’s Manual Page 77) are shown below:

High Velocity Guns
							Rate of Fire by TL
Bore (cm)	Vol	Weight	Price	Set up	Ind Fire Range	Sig	5	6	7	8	10	12	14	16	18	20
7	0.54	0.54	40,000	45	Distant(13)	M	11	12	13	14	15	15	15	15	15	15
7.5	0.6	0.6	46,000	52	Distant(15)	M	10	11	12	13	14	15	15	15	15	15
8.5	0.79	0.79	60,000	62	Distant(17)	M	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	15	15
9	0.93	0.93	68,000	65	Distant(19)	M	6	7	9	11	13	15	15	15	15	15

And KEAP ammunition for the different bore sizes table (Referee’s Manual Page 77) are:

KEAP Ammunition for High-Velocity Guns
Bore (cm)	Volume	Weight	Pen	Cr	Dmg
7	0.01	0.01	25	40/42	8/9
7.5	0.012	0.012	26	47/51	9
8.5	0.018	0.018	29	71/88	9/10
9	0.022	0.022	30	87/95	10/11

The Set-up

The set-up is there are four Sherman M4 tanks in line formation travelling a road completely unaware of a single camouflaged Tiger hidden in a copse of trees and bushes to their right flank at a range of 700 meters across a level open grass field.

The Tiger has surprise, clear line of site, is under cover, and may engage. For the 2nd round the Shermans should check whether they are still surprised; if not, the Tiger will be visible.

Victory conditions:

The Tiger wins if it destroys all four Shermans
The Tiger wins a partial victory if any working Shermans retire from the field
The Shermans win if they destroy the Tiger and have at least one tank still operational
The Shermans win a partial victory if the Tiger retires from the field and at least one tank is still operational

Options

The time of the war is significant to the experience of the crew in the relative tanks:

For the start of the war play the same scenario with the Tiger having an experienced crew and the Shermans having an inexperienced crew.

For the end of the war play the same scenario with the Tiger having an inexperienced crew and the Shermans having an experienced crew.

Inexperienced Crew
UPP 777777
Driver (Tracked Vehicle-0)
Gunners (Heavy Weapons-0, Mass Driver-0)
Commander (Forward Observer-0, Heavy Weapons-0, Leader-0)

Standard Crew
UPP 777777
Driver (Tracked Vehicle-1)
Gunners (Heavy Weapons-1, Mass Diver-1)
Commander (Forward Observer-1, Heavy Weapons-1, Leader-1, Tactics-0)

Experienced Crew
UPP 777787
Driver (Tracked Vehicle-2)
Gunners (Heavy Weapons-2, Mass Driver-2)
Commander (Forward Observer-2, Heavy Weapons-1, Leader-2, Tactics-1)