West End's Tank Leader Series

Tank Leader, published in three games in 1986-1990, is simply the best platoon level armor game ever, still decades ahead of Panzerblitz, Panzer Grenadier, Blood & Thunder, and all others I've seen. Another John Hill masterpiece. The third game in the series, Desert Steel, won the 1990 Charles Roberts Award for best WWII boardgame.

Note: The links to the WFTL and DS variant counters have been removed, as well as to the EFTL counters with normal values. The EFTL counters with Panzerblitz-scale range and movement values remain downloadable.

Card manifestos

List the cards, the units, quality, experience, morale/morale modifier, plus sometimes the unit ratings. (ASCII format)

Tank Leader Scenario 16

This follows the lines of the classical "Panzerblitz Situation 13" by providing a set of guidelines for developing self-made scenarios by purchasing units. Actually, players purchase formation cards, whose experience, morale, and C2 ratings all influence the cost. Also, unlike Situation 13, the purchase of formations automatically provides proper historical unit mixes. Can be used with EFTL, WFTL, and Desert Steel.
  • Scenario 16 (PDF format)

    Scenario Playtime Estimators

    Like my October War and Panzer Grenadier lists, the tables below show the relative size of scenarios, enabling a guess at playing time, using the simple measure of turns times number of units in a scenario (T*U). Also includes sizes of the converted Panzerblitz scenarios (in progress).
  • EFTL scenario sizes.
  • Desert Steel scenario sizes.

    Converted Panzerblitz Scenarios

    Literally the only advantage that the old Panzerblitz system has over Tank Leader is the larger number of scenarios (although the three TL games together provide a respectable 45 scenarios - I certainly have not completely fathomed that set). I've always been interested to see how all these Panzerblitz situations would play out with a system that truly captures the relative capabilities of both sides. The files below permit playing the classic Panzerblitz scenarios as Tank Leader scenarios in two ways. Either by playing directly on the PB maps by adapting the TL scale, or on new maps that represent the PB terrain in TL terms and at TL scale. In the former case (which I refer to as Retroblitz Tank Leader), you merely need the adapted chart sheet with the PB terrain descriptions (in TL terms) and the adapted terrain modifiers. Note: the sheet has all the information for plaing the scenarios with Desert Steel rules and includes modifiers for moving fire and flank effects. Also note that the PB maps, with modernised graphics, are available on the Imaginative Strategist site, so that you can play the scenarios without owning PB. The scenarios are provided in textual form, and in the form of the typical PB situation cards.

    All distances in the scenario descriptions are given in Tank Leader scale and, in parentheses, in PB/Retroblitz Tank Leader scale.

     Panzer Leader scenario conversions to WFTL may follow, given time.

    Playing Retroblitz Tank Leader (the Chart)

    Note: When playing on Panzerblitz maps, this chart replaces the standard EFTL chart sheet and together with the situation cards contains all the information that you need to play the PB scenarios.

    Optional counters for playing the Panzerblitz scenarios

    All the PB scenario descriptions above were designed with the standard EFTL countersheet in mind and I made minor adjustments to the OOBs to accommodate that. However, for those who don't mind mounting their own counters, I have provided the set of additional counters that will enable you to play with all unit types that occur in the standard Panzerblitz scenarios. All the sheets are available as PNG images in 200 and 300 DPI resolution. (I'd have preferred PDF's but have no good way of generating good quality PDFs that are not of monstrous size.)

    Playing on Tank Leader Scale Maps

    For people who prefer to play on Tank Leader scale maps, below are the three original PB maps converted to Tank Leader hex scale. They can be downloaded using either a PB-style colour scheme, or a more naturalistic colour scheme (a reduced size version of map 1 is shown below, in both versions). Be aware that these need quite a bit of table space, they measure roughly 34.5"x12" each (not my choice, this is simply what the scales and PB map size dictate). Note: resolution is limited to 150DPI to keep the file size down.



    EFTL variant counters

    I have provided two sets of sheets. One set simply is a full colour replica of the original EFTL counters (this set is also available in a vehicles-only version for those who just want the colour vehicle icons but are happy to continue playing with the original EFTL infantry and weapons counters). The other set is for the people who want to play the Panzerblitz scenarios on the Panzerblitz maps and consider mapping the movement and range values to Panzerblitz scale (using the table on the chart sheet) too much of a hassle. The counters come with movement and range values reconfigured to Panzerblitz scale.

    Note that the full countersheets have been shown to have a number of minor errata; the versions sold by Kerry Anderson have had them corrected. The versions below will be corrected if I get around to it.

    Countersheet 1, Front

    Countersheet 1, Back

    Countersheet 2, Front

    Countersheet 2, Back

    WFTL variant counters

    Only available in 300 DPI. Since there are currently no converted Panzer Leader scenarios, there is also one set of counter values. I have provided two versions of the reverse side of the countersheet: one has the attack values in faded down tones, one omits them altogether.

    Desert Steel variant counters

    Only available in 300 DPI. Since there are no Panzerblitz compatibility issues here, there is also one set of counter values. I have provided two versions of the reverse side of the countersheet: one has the attack values in faded down tones, one omits them altogether.

    How to play TL solitaire without losing the command differences

    Solitaire chit/card system description, the chits. Note: If not registered on consimworld.com, press "Guest Access" button.

    3D Maps

    These pictures show my 3D versions of the EFTL map

    Other links

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    Last modified 18.10.2023