TONKS!
A free multiplayer tank game by Apocrypha_Now. Everyone gets one tank, everyone shoots at everyone, and the last tank rolling wins. Any tank model will do.
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"My take on this one is coming soon."
What is TONKS!
TONKS! is a small, free tabletop game of tank combat by Apocrypha_Now. The rulebook calls it “multiplayer tank-to-tank kerfuffles,” which is about right. Each player gets one tank, you put a few bits of terrain on the table, and everyone starts shooting at everyone else.
It doesn’t care about history or technical accuracy, and it says so. Kitbashed tanks and loud paint jobs are encouraged, so whatever tank you have will do: a model kit, a toy, something you glued together out of spares.
It first came out in 2023 and is now on Version 3, a free 32-page PDF hosted by 28, the free digital magazine from the Turnip28 end of the hobby.
How it plays
Every tank starts with 6 hull points, tracked on a small D6 next to the model. The hull has four facings (front, two sides, rear) and the turret can point along any of them.
Each round, every player rolls a die and adds their hull points, and the lowest score goes first. Then you get three actions, and you have to say all three out loud before you do them:
- Move: up to 4” forward or 2” back, then turn up to 90°.
- Fire: shoot at something your turret is facing. Firing leaves a blast marker on your tank, and you can’t fire again while it’s there.
- Reload: clear the blast marker.
- Turret rotate: swing the turret one facing round.
You can repeat actions, so fire, reload, fire is a legal turn if you trust your aim. Terrain goes down at random from dice rolls, and it blocks both movement and line of sight.
Hits roll on a table called Something Exciting Happens, and that’s where the game gets its personality. Your turret can jam, the ammo can catch fire, or the driver can get knocked out (“They got Jenkins!”), in which case the player who shot you gets to drive your tank for a move. Lose your last hull point and the tank either becomes a smoking wreck that blocks the board, or it detonates and makes a shooting attack on every tank within 12”.
On top of the basic game there’s:
- Teams, if you have a lot of players.
- Tank destroyers, with no turret but a harder-hitting gun.
- A campaign where tanks earn upgrades and a TONK rating between games.
- Tonks of Legacy, a harder campaign that the book says needs “bravery, sacrifice and commitment” from every crew. Upgrades are permanent, damage can be too, and your tank has to be physically modelled to show every upgrade it has. Ordinary tanks don’t become Tonks of Legacy.
How to start
- Get the rules. They’re a free download from 28’s games page. The file is large (about 130 MB), so give it a minute.
- Find a tank for each player. Any tank from any era will do, and kitbashing your own is encouraged.
- Grab some D6s and markers. You need a small D6 per tank for hull points, dice to roll, something to use as blast markers, a tape measure, and a few rectangular bits of terrain.
- Copy the tank card. There’s a tank record sheet at the back of the book, and the rules tell you to photocopy as many as you like.
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Where to find it
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