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One of the most enigmatic armoured fighting vehicles of the Second World War... The subject has the fairly innocuous designation VK100.01 Porsche Type 205 yet to any serious student of WW2 AFVs this subject is better known as the Panzerkampfwagen VIII Maus (Mouse).
This example of late war German imagination may be named after a tiny rodent but it is anything but mouse like. Weighing an astonishing 188 metric tons the Maus still holds the record as the heaviest fully enclosed armoured fighting vehicle ever built. Unlike the majority of the so-called ‘paper panzers’, advanced German tank designs which only existed in technical schematics and project documentation, the Maus was actually built with two prototypes almost complete and perhaps as many as 9 others under construction when Hitler cancelled the programme in late 1943.
Historical Vital Statistics:
- Produced: 1944
- Number built: 2 (of which 1 incomplete)
- Weight: 188 tonnes (207 short tons; 185 long tons)
- Length: 10.2 metres (33 ft 6 in)
- Width: 3.71 metres (12 ft 2 in)
- Height: 3.63 metres (11 ft 11 in)
- Crew: 6
- Expected Operational range: 160 km (99 mi) (road) 62 km (39 mi) (off road)
- Expected Speed: 20 km/h (12 mph) (maximum)
Armour:
- 220 mm (8.7 in) (turret front)
- 200 mm (7.9 in) (turret side and rear)
- 200 mm (7.9 in) (hull front)
- 180 mm (7.1 in) (hull side)
- 150 mm (5.9 in) (hull rear)
Main armament:
- 128 mm (5 in) KwK 44 gun L/55 (68 rounds)
Secondary armament:
- 75 mm (3 in) KwK 44 gun L/36.5 (co-axial) (100 rounds) 7.92 mm (0.31 in) MG 34 machine gun (co-axial) (1,000 rounds)
Using the Maus in Bolt Action
Whilst the Maus may not have entered combat during WW2 there is no reason why you cannot field this mighty vehicle in your games of Bolt Action. Of course any operational Maus prototype would have fought during the dying days of the Third Reich.
The Panzer VIII Maus may therefore be taken as a Tank choice in the 1945 – Last Levy force selector found in the Armies of Germany book on pg.95.
Note: The Maus should always be affected by the ‘Fuel Shortages’ special rule.
Bolt Action Statistics for the MAUS
Official Update 29 Jan 2017
PANZER VIII ‘Maus’ (Prototype Version 2)
Principal Service 1945 (Conjectural)
| Cost: | 570 pts Regular; 684 pts Veteran |
| Weapons: | 1 Turret Mounted super-heavy anti-tank gun with co-axial light howitzer and co-axial MMG |
| Damage Value: | 11+ (Super-heavy tank) |
| Special Rules: | |
| • | Slow |
| • | Tiger Fear |
| • | 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. |
| • | ‘Mobile Fortress’. To fulfil its role as a breakthrough tank the Maus had extremely heavy armour. There is no penetration modifier for hitting a Maus from the side and the penetration modifier for hitting a Maus in its rear arc is reduced to +1. |
| • | 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. |
When firing the turret mounted weapons you may fire only one. You have the choice of the super heavy anti-tank gun, the light howitzer or the MMG.
Models supplied unassembled and unpainted
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This example of late war German imagination may be named after a tiny rodent but it is anything but mouse like. Weighing an astonishing 188 metric tons the Maus still holds the record as the he... "Pin It")
