As I’m sure you are aware earlier this year warlord released its first ‘paper panzer’ the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus!

This beast of a tank is rumoured to have seen limited combat at the very end of the Second World War and is still the heaviest tank ever produced, warlord did an excellent write up of its history here. But of course we are now in 1947 and a very different world and here at KO we feel this beast needs a weird war update.

First the kit it’s self is lovely, it comes in 2 main sections a single cast hull and turret section both of which required minimal clean up. The fuel barrel on the back is a separate piece as well as the guns and turret cupola. I approached it thinking it might be a tough assembly job but the kit is very well cast and was very simple to put together. Only minor mod I made was due to the weight I pinned the main gun as it’s a heavy piece on a small contact point.

As you can see I’ve decided to add a turret MMG and begun to add the Zimmerit (I now that’s not strictly accurate as they would have likely stopped using it in 1947 as they did in real life, however it looks cool!) will post up more pics when it’s completed.

The Bolt Action rules can be found here

However this is 1947 so we’ve updated it some what and present the Maus Ausf B
With the advent of rift technology the Wehrmacht began to move away from traditional fighting vehicles to the walkers that were proving effective in combat. However with the Maus development so far down the line it was decided to continue on and use rift tech to overcome some of the technical difficulties.

The resulting tank was a monster weighing in at 190 tonnes with an operational range of 150 miles and the largest weaponry available to the Wehrmacht its operational debut against the Soviet Union made an immediate impact. However it’s slow speed meant it was easily outmanoeuvred and despite heavy armour it’s lack of anti infantry weapons proved costly.
To counter this the Pintle mounted MMG was added and the Wehrmacht started moving the Maus with supporting Schrekwulfen, the wolves kept infantry at bay and let the guns mow down enemy armour. But this didn’t overcome the speed issue and after 2 were lost to outflanking attacks the Maus was limited to defensive operations unless part of a well supported German advance.

Despite its limitations it was popular with its crews and the scientists of the Wehrmacht found it a very adaptable platform for experimental Rift tech weaponry. So although slow, production continues with so far 11 delivered to the front and 3 in the rear for rearguard and research purposes.

PANZER VIII ‘Maus’ Ausf B
Principal Service 1945 onwards
Cost: 570 pts Regular; 684 pts Veteran
Weapons: 1 Turret Mounted super-heavy anti-tank gun with co-axial light howitzer, co-axial MMG and pintle mounted MMG.
Damage Value: 11+ (Super-heavy tank)
Special Rules:

• Slow
• Tough
• Unreliable: If the Maus suffers one or more pin markers as a result of an enemy attack it automatically suffers one additional pin marker.
• 128mm KwK 44: This gun was almost as effective at long ranges as at short range – so does not suffer the -1 penetration penalty when shooting at targets over half range. It counts a full +7 penetration bonus at all ranges
• Co Axial Main Gun: Although the Co-axially mounted 75mm KWK44 L36 would in any other tank be a respectable anti-tank gun, it was fitted on the Maus to provide dedicated HE fire. For the purposes of these rules it is classed as a Light Howitzer
• Large turret the sizeable turret the Maus was fitted with to accommodate the crew and enable all its weapons to fire effectively also presented a good target for enemy fire. When calculating penetration bonus for side armour or rear armour you may use the turret facing to determine if this bonus is applied.
• All weapons on the maus maybe fired at the same time however the 3 co-ax guns must be at the same target

The Maus proved to be a popular test bed for experimental weaponry and you can add the Schwerefeld Projektor 47. This upgraded trial version ramps up the power of the gravity field it may take 4 shots and the bonus penetration is doubled (so +2 for targets with armour 8-9 instead of +1 etc) this replaces the super-heavy anti-tank gun with co-axial light howitzer.

So there you have it our trial rules for the Maus in K47.

These are of course totally unofficial but we’d love to hear if you try them out!