TONKS is a 15mm or 1/72 scale skirmish wargame by @apocrypha_now. The released PDF, while very colorful and slick, is hard to reference at the table. I’m compiling the pertinent rules snippets into this document so that I can reference them more easily during play.

None of these rules are of my own creation. Direct all rules questions to @apocrypha_now.

Equipment Required

  • Two (2) to four (4) tanks. 15mm or 1/72 scale, with moveable turrets.
  • A 24” x 24” playing area.
  • Three (3) rectangular obstructions approximately 4” x 2” in size.
  • Two (2) square obstructions approximately 2” x 2” in size.
  • Two (2) six-sided dice (D6) per player.
  • One (1) eight-sided die (D8)
  • Cotton balls or similar as blast markers.
  • One (1) tape measure, marked in inches.
  • One (1) ten-sided die (D10) for campaign play.

Setup

  1. Place each tank in a corner of the playing area, facing inwards at 45 degrees, with the rearmost parts of the tracks touching the board edges.
  2. Place terrain in the playing area. There are rules for randomly placing terrain with die rolls, or just take turns placing it somewhere that makes sense.

Your Tank

Your tank starts with 6 HP. Track them by placing a D6 next to your tank.
Your tank’s hull has four (4) facings.

  1. Front
  2. Side (left)
  3. Side (right)
  4. Rear

Your tank starts with the turret facing forward.

How to Play

Games are split into rounds. In each round, each player has a turn.

At the start of each round, each player rolls a die and adds their number of HP. Players then act in order of ascending score (lowest acts first).

On your turn you may perform any three (3) actions in any combination or order. You may repeat actions during your turn. You must verbally declare which three actions you are taking before you take them.

  1. Move forward up to 4”, or backwards up to 2” in the direction your tank is facing, then you may turn up to 90 degrees at the end of the move. Rotate about the center of your tank. Your turret moves with your tank (stays facing the same face of your tank as it was at the start of the move).
  2. Fire your tank’s gun at a visible target that your turret is facing, if you do not have a blast marker. Firing generates a blast marker that you place near the tank’s gun barrel.
  3. Reload to remove a blast marker from your tank.
  4. Rotate the turret of your tank to an adjacent face (relative to the face it is currently facing).
  5. Special actions are sometimes defined by rules or damage results.

Moving

Tanks may opt to not travel when taking a Move action, allowing them to turn on the spot.

Tanks may not move through other tanks or obstructions. If a tank’s path takes it into contact with an obstruction, it halts and loses 1 HP. Turning on the spot or reversing away when in contact with an obstruction incurs no further loss of HP.

If a tank’s movement or rotation takes it into contact with another tank, it halts and you must roll a D6. On a roll of 1-3, the tank that moved into contact loses 1 HP. On a roll of 4-6, the vehicle that got hit loses 1 HP. Turning on the spot or reversing away when in contact with an obstruction incurs no further loss of HP for either tank.

Gun barrels do not count as part of your tank for measuring or for colliding with other tanks or obstacles.

Firing

Image showing target facing determination method

  1. Draw an imaginary line between the centers of the two tanks’ hulls. The face that this line crosses on the firing tank is the face its the turret must be rotated to. The face that this line crosses on the target tank is the face being shot at.
    • In the example above, the red arrow is drawn between the centers of the two tanks. The line crosses the right side facing of the yellow tank, and the front facing of the blue tank.
    • The yellow tank has its turret facing its right side. Since this is the same side the arrow goes through on the yellow tank, it can fire at the blue tank.
    • When the yellow tank fires at the blue tank, it will target the blue tank’s front facing (since this is the side the arrow goes through on the blue tank).
    • The blue tank has its turret facing its left side. Since this is not the same side the arrow goes through on the blue tank, it cannot return fire at the yellow tank on its next turn.
  2. Roll a D6 and place a blast marker on your tank’s gun barrel. If within 4” or the target tank, gain +1 to the die roll result.
  3. Determine hits based on result and facing being targeted:
    • Front facing is hit on a 6+
    • Side facings (left or right) are hit on a 5+
    • Rear facing is hit on a 4+
    • A roll of 1 always misses
  4. Resolve damage. A successful hit removes 1 HP from the target tank.
  5. Something Exciting Happens!. Roll another D6; on a 5+, something exciting happens! Roll a D8 and compare to the table below.

Something Exciting Happens!

  1. Turret Jammed - Cannot rotate turret for the rest of the game.
  2. Ammo Fire - Lose another 1 HP.
  3. “They Got Jenkins!” - The tank immediately takes a move action, under the firing player’s control. If the tank is already unable to move due to other damage, reroll on this table.
  4. Engine Floods - The tank cannot move until taking a special action to restart the engine. If this occurs again while the engine is still flooded, lose another 1 HP.
  5. “We’re on Fire Sergei!” - Add a blast marker to the tank (in addition to any it already has). It can be removed by taking the reload action as normal.
  6. Thrown Track - Roll a D6. On a 1-3, the left track is damaged. On a 4-6, the right track. For the remainder of the game, you may still move forward and reverse. When turning after moving forwards, you can only turn in the direction of the damaged track. When turning after moving backwards, you may only turn in the direction of the undamaged track. If this result occurs a second time, the other track is lost and the tank is immobilized. If this result occurs a third or further time, lose another 1 HP.
  7. “Hang on Lads!” - Immediately take a single action of your choosing and regain 2 HP. This may not exceed your original number of HP.
  8. Shattered Optics - Firing rolls take -1. This is cumulative if this result occurs again.

Destruction

When you reach 0 HP your tank is destroyed. Roll a D6. On a 1-3, the tank is wrecked. Leave it on the battlefield as an obstruction for remaining players. Mark with some extra blast markers to indicate this. On a 4-6, the tank detonates. Make a shooting attack at all tanks with 12” and line of sight, per normal firing rules. Then remove the tank from the board.

Last tank standing wins.

Campaigns & Upgrades

TONK RATING = (games won - games lost) + (campaign kills / campaign players)

Calculate each player’s TONK RATING after each campaign game.

When your tank is destroyed and you lose a game, you roll on the upgrades table before you play the next game in the campaign. Should your TONK RATING fall below 0 after a game, you may choose an upgrade instaed of rolling on the upgrades table.

All players eligible for upgrades should roll for them simultaneously. Upgrades only last for one game.

  1. Smoke Grenades - Once in the game you may make a fire action that instead of shooting a tank deploys an approximately 4” x 2” smoke cloud up to D8” away from your tank, placed anywhere you would be usually able to shoot. For the remainder of the game this cloud blocks line of sight and may not be fired through or into by any tank, but can be driven through by any tank.
  2. Armor-piercing Rounds - You are equipped with D6 armor piercing rounds for the battle. These rounds add +2 to your score when rolling to hit, and this is in addition to the +1 for being at close range. You use these shells first and cannot opt to not use them. Once the last armor piercing rounds is fired you must place an additional blast marker on your tank.
  3. Toolkit - Once in the game you may make a special repair action. Restore D6 HP. This cannot take you above your original number of HP.
  4. Extra Armor - Before battle commences choose either your front, both sides, or rear facings. The “to hit” value for that facing(s) is increased by 1 for the duration of the game.
  5. Culin Hedgerow Cutter - When your tank drives into an opponent’s tank, you never lose a hull point and they always do. Also should you come into contact with an obstruction you take no damage.
  6. Incendiary Rounds - You are equipped with enough incendiary rounds to last the whole game. When you hit a tank and roll to see if Something Exciting Happens!, instead of the usual 5-6, if you score a 4-6 the result is automatically “We’re on fire Sergei!”
  7. Light Tank - You may now move up to 6” forwards and 3” when reversing. However, you start with 4 HP and have a maximum of 4 HP for the game.
  8. Powered Turret Ring - When taking a rotate action the turret may move up to 180 degrees.
  9. Coaxial Machine Gun - When you fire, even if you miss, check to see if Something Exciting Happens! to the opponent’s tank.
  10. Heavy Tank - You start with 8 HP and have a maximum of 8 HP for the game. All armour facings have the “to hit value” increased by 1. You may only move forwards 3” or reverse 1” when you make a move action.

Extras

See full TONKS rules for extras.