What a Tanker II

Down at Black Wolf last night, what was going on?

First off, Tony and Dave played a nice looking “Maximilian Adventure” Sharpe Practice 2 game.  I understand Tony’s Mexican peasants gave Dave’s Frenchies a good stuffing. So what’s not to like!!

Across the way was a game of the new To the Strongest ECW variant. Again a nice looking game in 15mm. Strange how players used to a melee hitting on a 6, get thrown by looking for an 8, even if you get 2 goes. The probability is better, but it doesn't seem that way!

Elsewhere we had “What a Tanker”, this time in 20mm.  A Sherman troop including a Firefly vs a Tiger 1 and Panzer MkIV.  We used a bit more terrain than last week, which did produce a more tactically challenging game. On the Allied left, Malcolm's M4 tackled Chris’ Panzer IV, while Simon and Phil went Tiger hunting! A real (big) cat and mouse game!?
Malcolm and Chris stalked each other around a wood on the Allied left, but eventually “killed” Chris' Mk IV, after driving it back by a series of flanking moves and non-penetrating hits.

In the centre, Phil's Firefly was stalking Rob's Tiger frontally, while Simon's M4 tried to work around the Tiger's flank. Rob's command rolls were not great and the Tiger consequently was unable to get a good shot in. After Simon's M4 started to work its way around the Tiger's flank, Rob started to pull the Tiger back. To keep the Tiger distracted, the Firefly popped out and planted a series of non-penetrating hits on the Tiger, but in reply, Rob's Tiger landed a telling blow on Phil’s Firefly, brewing it up.

The two remaining 75mm Shermans kept up a brave fight, sniping at the Tiger's flanks and rear, but were never able to land a decent hit. The laws of probability are rather against a 75mm armed Sherman killing a Tiger even from the rear, well not against Rob's armour rolls! Not quite Kelly's heroes!

What a Tanker and Legion Come to Black Wolf

Well, lets face it, "What a Tanker (WAT)” was never going to be Greg’s cup of tea! Too much “friction”! WAT is not deep intellectual stuff, but once you get the flow of the rules, it has the potential to be a fun quick game that lets you get those nice tank models on the table. Some immediate lessons from last night's game;
1)      Don’t give players more than 1 tank – probably run a “king of the hill system” where knocked-out vehicles are replaced as reinforcements.
2)      Only play cross-wise on the table when there is at least 3 pieces of obscuration, otherwise the game just settles into a static slug-fest (thanks Chris!)

A brief summary of the WAT game, involving an M5 Stuart, 2 Shermans and a Cromwell VI, against a Tiger I, a Panzer IV and Stug III;

On the allied right flank Phil’s M5 Stuart failed in it’s attempt to scoot behind the woods and was brewed-up by Chris’s Pzr IV almost immediately. On the allied left flank, Dave’s two Shermans made heavy work over Tony’s single Stug III. Quickly the lead Sherman being reduced to 1 Command dice and then a burning wreck.

Dave’s remaining Sherman then decided to try it’s luck against Greg’s Tiger, that had lumbered into the centre of the table. However, Tony’s uncanny dice rolling allowed him to slip his Stug around a wood and plug a 75mm round into the exposed flank of the Sherman, leaving that too burning.

In the centre of the table, the Tiger was getting a slow start (Greg and command dice don’t get on!). It was being tackled by Phil’s Churchill VI, but the Churchill’s 75mm rounds were pinning off the Tiger’s thick hide. However, one round did damage the optics on the Tiger’s turret, further frustrating the killing power of this ‘king of the battlefield’.

But, by then Chris’s Pzr IV then turned up on the Churchill’s right flank, forcing it to turn to face this hopefully easier threat. The Churchill and Pzr IV then indulged in a short range duel. Well actually the Churchill’s gunner was rummaging around in the base of the turret, looking for an AP round! In the meantime Chris’s Pzr VI landed 3 rounds onto the Churchill’s thick armour and while unable to penetrate, it did force the Churchill’s driver to start backing up. At this point, the absence of any radio chatter on the allied net caused the Churchill to decide now was a good time to disengage!

Tony sporting his kill rings....shame it was only a trial game!

Across the way, we had Rob and Fred with the latest Star Wars "Legion" out for a trial game.

Fred's preliminary thoughts on Legion;
- The game looked great. Lots of nice painting from Rob.
- The shape and structure of any new game will take a while to emerge during the first run-out or two, but in truth the paraphernalia, mechanics and symbology of the game seemed a little  bewildering.
- the closest approximation appears to be Mantic’s Warpath.  A similar alternate activation system with each unit having two actions, with a cluster of special modifiers and extras depending on command cards (equivalent to the command dice in Warpath).
- Appears to have no rules for overwatch / opportunity fire.
- Melee rules not tried, but it is compressed game due to the 3' wide table, where game play will be in the form of firefights with units getting hammered before they get to close combat. Manoeuvre may also be very limited.

But, it's Star Wars!