We have played several games from Draco Ideas and they are always very interesting and unique takes on historical subjects. Some of our favorites have been games like Tetrarchia and 1212 Las Navas de Tolosa. They also have another series called the SCOPE Series that deals with various historical battles during WWII including SCOPE Stalingrad and SCOPE U-Boot. They now have a 3rd entry into the series called SCOPE Panzer and are offering the other 2 as add-ons. We reached out to the designer Juan Nácher and he was more than willing to discuss the new game.
If you are interested in SCOPE Panzer, you can back the project on the Gamefound page at the following link: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/draco-ideas/scope-panzer
Grant: First off Juan please tell us a little about yourself. What are your hobbies? What’s your day job?
Juan: I am a Vocational Training teacher; I teach Electronics and Automation. I like to do a bit of everything, I have quite a few hobbies, I like surfing, longskating, walking with my dog, spending time with my friends, hiking, martial arts, learning history and, of course, board games.
Grant: What motivated you to break into game design? What have you enjoyed most about the experience thus far?
Juan: I have always had this restlessness and creative hobby. Since I was a child I always liked “tuning” my board games, inventing new rules to expand or improve aspects that I didn’t like. I remember some house rules that allowed you to play a tank that the Space Marines from Star Crusade could ride on to shoot with more firepower and even go through walls by creating holes in them.
It is very gratifying to see your idea come to life, to be able to hold in your hands the finished product of the game you have imagined. But without a doubt, the best of all is hearing the positive comments from people who have had fun playing with your games. At game fairs and demos, it is very much enjoyed in this way.
Grant: What is your upcoming game SCOPE Panzer about?
Juan: SCOPE Panzer recreates combat between tanks in the European Theater of WWII. One player leads a squad of American tanks, which faces off against a squad of German tanks commanded by the other player, in a forest battle of ambushes and close-range encounters.
Grant: What are the hallmarks of the SCOPE Series?
Juan: Games in the SCOPE Series are fast, abstract tactical card games that recreate, with easy and thematic rules, three exciting episodes of World War II, in which concealment plays a determining role. In addition, the SCOPE Series games also have advanced rules for the most demanding players in order to be more appealing to new gamers as well as veterans.
Grant: Why was this a subject that drew your interest?
Juan: What I like about historical games is that they teach about real events in history. They put you in situations that real people actually had to deal with. World War II has some very interesting elements about the combat and particularly with tanks.
Grant: What is your design goal with the game?
Juan: The main goal here is that people have fun playing the game. But as an underlying objective, I like to abstractly tell details and particularities about the episodes that each SCOPE Series game recreates, what is called procedural learning, from the game experience.
Grant: What research did you conduct to get the historical details correct?
Juan: Learning history is one of my hobbies so I spend a lot of time reading. My main sources of information are websites, blogs, podcasts and YouTube channels of people who understand a lot about the subject and share this love of history. I give my most sincere thanks to all the people who dedicate themselves to collecting and sharing so much historical content on the internet in an enjoyable, interesting and rigorous way.
Grant: As a card game, how does the game utilize cards?
Juan: SCOPE are actually area games, played on a playing field formed by the cards as a game board. No shuffling, no cards in hand, no cards to draw. The cards actually represent areas and units on the playing field. We use cards because they allow very affordable products and because they are very appropriate for concealment for games like SCOPE.
Grant: What type of tanks are included on each side?
Juan: We have tried to include the most characteristic tanks of the German and American side in the Second World War. Including light, medium and heavy tanks from both sides. We have sought to enable players to be able to play more or less symmetrical battles, but we have also added asymmetry in some units, so that players can recreate the different doctrines of both sides. This faction asymmetry is enhanced with the advanced tank rules.
Grant: Can you share a few examples of both American and German tanks and explain their anatomy?
Juan: SCOPE Panzer units only have two values: their firepower and armor, the tank’s point value is the sum of these two.
For example:
M18 Hellcat: Firepower 2, Armor 1, Value 3
M4 Sherman: Firepower 2, Armor 2, Value 4
M36 Jackson: Firepower 3, Armor 1, Value 4
M4A3E2 Jumbo: Firepower 2, Armor 3, Value 5
Panzer III: Firepower 1, Armor 2, Value 3
Panzer IV: Firepower 2, Armor 2, Value 4
PzV Panther: Firepower 3, Armor 2, Value 5
PzVI Tiger: Firepower 3, Armor 3, Value 6
In addition, with advanced tank rules, a few tanks also have special thematic rules.
Grant: How are cards used to form the playing area?
Juan: The Terrain Cards are distributed forming a grid whose size and proportion depend on the chosen scenario. They represent forest or bocage terrain from the European Theater of WWII. The cards allow the hidden displacement of the units that are only revealed when firing or when they are discovered by the enemy.
Grant: What different types of terrain are included on the cards?
Juan: With the basic rules it is played only in forest terrain that allows the concealment of the units. With the advanced rules though, other types of terrain are added such as lakes, meadows, mountains and hills.
Grant: What advantages or disadvantages do differing Terrain Cards provide?
Juan: Meadow: flat terrain, passable.
Hill: high ground, passable.
Lake: flat and impassable terrain.
Mountains: high ground, impassable.
High Terrain Cards block a units’ line of sight. Traversable Terrain Cards can be occupied by units, Impassable Terrain Cards cannot. In a meadow there is no hiding. And a unit on a hill (high ground) receives combat bonuses.
Grant: What is the makeup of the Firing Cards? How are they used?
Juan: There are 3 types of Firing Cards: Hit, Range Miss, and Armor Miss.
They are used to set the firing stats based on the attacker’s firepower, shot distance, and the defender’s armor.
Grant: How is the Firing Deck built each time a player attacks? How does range affect the deck makeup?
Juan: To prepare the firing hand, you take as many Miss (range) Cards as the distance between attacker and target. That is, 1 card if they are adjacent and 2 cards if they are at range 2. Also, add as many Miss (armor) Cards as the armor value of the defending unit and as many Hit Cards as the firepower value of the attacking unit.
The advanced firing rules allow you to remove Range Miss Cards with the firing correction and Armor Miss Cards in flank and rear attacks.
Grant: How are Points used by players to build their army?
Juan: You cannot choose more units than allowed by the chosen scenario. The Point Total of the selected units cannot exceed the Points per squad allowed for in the scenario. The remaining units are not used in the game.
Grant: What are the typical costs of the different tanks?
Juan: The tank’s Point Value is the sum of the tank’s firepower plus its armor. The values for both stats range from 1 to 3 for firepower and 0 to 3 for armor, so we have unit values ranging from 1 to 6. Medium tanks usually have 4 points.
Grant: What is the general Sequence of Play?
Juan: During the game, the players alternate turns starting with the American player. On their turn, each player performs only one action to choose between: Move, Explore or Search for Target. And so on until a player reaches the victory conditions.
Grant: How does concealment impact the game? How do players go about finding each other’s units?
Juan: The cards allow concealed movement of face-down moving units in a hide-and-bluff game. Units are only revealed when they fire or are spotted by the enemy. If they move again, they can hide again.
Grant: How is victory achieved?
Juan: The game ends when any player meets one of these victory conditions:
Destroy the Enemy Squad: the first player to destroy all units of the enemy squad wins.
Cut the Enemy Supply Line: if you control all the Forest Cards in the opposing player’s deployment row and have at least one of your units in this row, you automatically win the game.
Grant: What Advanced Rules are included? How do they change the game?
Juan: The Advanced Rules are divided into 3 blocks:
Advanced Firing rules: rules add more excitement and new combat strategies.
Firing Correction: each consecutive shot against the same tank removes a Miss (distance) Card.
Flank Attack: remove 1 Miss (armor) Card when attacking from the flank.
Rear Attack: remove up to 2 Miss (armor) Cards when attacking from behind.
Advanced Tank rules: emphasize historical asymmetry between factions.
Light Tanks (Armor 1): can move and fire in the same turn.
Medium Tanks (Armor 2): are balanced and have no special rules.
Heavy Tanks (Armor 3): cannot move the turn after firing.
Superior Armor: units with an Armor Value higher than the attacker’s Firepower can only be attacked if they are adjacent.
Special Tank Rules: some units have specific Advanced Rules.
Advanced Terrain rules: Add Terrain Cards that represent geographical features on the battlefield.
Meadow: flat, passable terrain.
Hill: high ground, passable terrain.
Lake: flat, impassable terrain.
Mountains: high ground, impassable terrain.
High Ground Cards block the line of sight of units. Passable Terrain Cards can be occupied by units, Impassable Terrain cannot. There is no concealment in a Meadow. And a unit on a Hill (high ground) receives combat bonuses.
Grant: What are you most pleased about with the design?
Juan: What I like the most is that it is an exciting game, fast, easy to bring to the table and with a lot of historical flavor. In addition, the final finish of the game is very aesthetic and minimalist. I really like the game.
Grant: What has been the response of playtesters?
Juan: During the testing, the experience was always very satisfactory. It is a game that excites players a lot due to the dynamics of concealment and bluffing. The semi-controlled randomness of the firing creates a lot of tension and you always have to take risks to achieve victory. It tends to amuse people by creating a light and fun experience.
Grant: What other games are you currently working on?
Juan: Right now, I’m working on a new line of light aerial combat card games. The first installment will deal with WWI and the squadron of the Red Baron. But we could expand it with other episodes of the story, step by step.
I’m not ruling out a new installment in the SCOPE Series either, I have some interesting ideas, but in the longer term.
As a fan of creating board games, I always have new ideas and prototypes to test in my games workshop.
hank you Juan for your time in answering our questions. I am very much interested in this simple yet interesting looking game. After all, who doesn’t like tanks?
If you are interested in SCOPE Panzer, you can back the project on the Gamefound page at the following link: https://gamefound.com/en/projects/draco-ideas/scope-panzer
-Grant
The Players' Aid 
On my radar to back this campaign.
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