Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So I wanted there to be a game-mode/expansion that really focused on tank-battles, instead of just being apoc-lite. There wasn't one, near as I could find., so I whipped up some.
Here are the initial ideas.

Teams are:

Imperium:
Sisters of Battle
Assorted Spehss Marines
Imperial Guard

Xenos:
Dark Eldar
Eldar
Tau

Orks:
Orks

Chaos:
Chaos Space Marines
Imperial Guard (some special rules like possession perhaps)

Special Rules:
Armourbane, Fleshbane, Deep Strike, Lance*, Missile Lock, Outflank, Power of the Machine Spirit, Preferred Enemy (All), Scout, Strafing Run, Tank Hunters,

*Applies to one weapon only.

At the start of the game, declare one of your tanks to be your Commander, Commanders are subject to the following rules.

Commanders can receive one of the three special rules, and buy up to two that weren't selected for another vehicle for 40pts each.
Commanders can buy +1BS at 40pts

Your Commander must choose one of the following traits:

Focused Fire
The Commander and friendly tanks within 12 inches of him get to re-roll 1s to hit when firing at a target within 6 inches of an objective.

Lead by Example
Every kill made by your Commander is worth an additional victory point.

Night Fighter
You can choose to have Night Fighting be in effect when the game starts

Art of War

After all deployment has been done, including scout and vanguard movement, you can redeploy d3 of your tanks anywhere within 12 inches of their current locations

Tides of Battle

While the Commander is alive, you pick between one of the following options at the start of your turn.
Your opponent receives a -1 to reserve rolls
You receive a +1 to reserve rolls.

For a tank with transport capacity, you can buy infantry units from your team's troop or elite sections as detailed in the relevant codex. These models start the game in their transport.

Tanks are always bought individually, there are no squadrons ever.

No Tyranids and Necrons?

Sir I am disappoint.

And yes, Tyranid MCs can totally play at this tank warfare game.

Ah, right, Necrons, I knew I was forgetting something.
I want to include Nids somehow, I'm just now sure about the exact rules yet. They would probably need their own list of potential special rules and such.

Carnifexs for Nids. move the Orks under Xenos same with necrons and Nids. Make it a two team game and make Humans vs. Xenos if you want to make it less teams.

Well yes, Nids would probably use the Carnifex, as well as the other Monstrous Creatures.
I wanted to keep the teams kind of fluffy, certainly Nids wouldn't work with anyone else.
I might make another team that's Orks and Tau, seeing as how the allies matrix suggests that could be a thing.

Main nid monsters,

Carnifex, Tyrannofex, Hive Tyrant, Tervigon, Trygon.

I am aware of what monsters Tyranids have. I'd rather flesh out the core concept before rejiggering the whole thing to fit Nids in.

The T-fex could be a heavy tank, the Carnifex an MBT, the Tervigon an IFV, the Hive Tyrant and Malanthrope a command tank, and the Trygon a "specialist" tank.

For the necrons: The ABarge is definitely more of an autocannon carrier than a true MBT. The Monolith is a rolling (well...floating) deathbunker but can function as a heavy tank. The Doomsday ark seems to be the closest thing to a true tank, although to me it strikes me more as a tank destroyer. The tesseract ark is definitely a heavy tank given it's durability and firepower.

The Tau do in fact have a little known Heavy tank with which to face the likes of the Baneblade on even territory.

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Swordfish#.UeWh6vkwdqU
And yes, those are twinlinked railguns.

I think it would be a crime not to give Nids the room to be Nids, so I want to give them like a seperate list of special rules to pick from and such. Considering their reliance on Monstrous Creatures, I might also do rules for Daemons at the same time. Not now though, right now I'd quite like some feedback on the actual balance and such of the ideas as presented here,

Are Walkers to be included?

I could see them being scouts fro an actual armoured column, since they'd be much faster over terrain (and a fair few can be fired from orbit/teleported in.)

you should also include the Wraithknight and Riptide, as they are walking tanks in themselves.

you should also allow the Mechanics to be included (Warpsmith, Techmarine, Spyders (out of ideas))

Orks would totally rule this no doubt cuz..

WE BE DA BIGGEST UND DA BEST WE STOMP AND CRUMP YE LOT ALL DA TIME!

Walkers will no doubt be included at some point, but because they move differently I'm holding off on thinking up rules for that until I've got someidea of how the core ideas work, or if they even work at all.

I like this, but I don't completely get it. Are you saying you can only take vehicles? And why are those special rules in?
Must say I really like the concept. I think tanks make the game more tactical, with flanking more important, and possibilities for smarter use of cover (the "no line of side to arc you're in" thing). Not to mention packing troops up with tank shock, but that's less important with an all-tank battle.

I really look forward to getting a scenario for this!

What Bahzakhain said. Not sure exactly what your proposing here.

It almost looks like a variation on the kill team rules, but perhaps vehicles only and naturally HS is no longer blocked (perhaps even unlimited slots)

The problem with tanks is that to do them really strategically you kind of need to use a different scale. Once you've done tank battles in 15mm you'll see what I mean. 40k Tanks are just so huge (and unhide-able) and have such enormous range that even with firing arcs the movement aspect is limited.