Refight of the Battle of Château de la Jumellière, 10th May 2018

Having fought an interesting game of What a Tanker, in the luxurious surroundings of Château de la Jumellière, in the Loire Valley, using 15mm tanks and some easy to transport, ‘flat pack’ 2D terrain, we decided to be lazy this week and simply repeat the exercise, but this time with 3D terrain.

So this was an “Angles” game, fought from each corner of the table. The aim of the game was to keep more friendly tanks within 12” of the objective (centre of the table) than the opponents. At the end of each turn, each side would get 1 point of each friendly tank within 12” of the objectives they had more than the opponents.

The sides were;

Germans: Panther, Stug IIIG, 2x Panzer IVH

Soviets: SU-100, SU-85, 2x T34/76

There were 6 players, so each side would bring on 3 vehicles, with one in reserve which could be used to replace the first loss.

The Soviets (Tony, Chris & Phil) elected to bring the SU-100 on in ‘overwatch’ mode, while the two T34s made a dash for the South of the village/objective. The Germans (Dave, Mal & Rob), only having the ‘fast’ Panther, set the Stug to watch the right flank of the village, the Panzer IV to watch the left flank, while the Panther dashed for the village.

After a little long range probing between the SU-100 and the Panther, the two T34s were soon mixing it up in the village with the Panther. First blood went to the Panther when Rob drilled Chris’ T34s. However, the other T34 quickly scooted round the Panther’s rear and hammered the Panther down to a single Command Die (only some good defending rolls keeping the Panther in the fight). Suffering damaged optics and a sticking turret, the Panther attempted to limp out of the North side of the village, only to fall foul of Tony’s SU-100.

After finishing the Panther, Tony’s SU-100 commenced a strange ‘cat & mouse’ gun duel with Mal’s Stug on the Northern edge of the village. Meanwhile, Dave’s Panzer IV attempted to force the South side of the village, against Phil’s surviving T34, now reinforced by the reinforcement SU-85, driven by Chris. Despite a bold and brave advance, this fight was only going one way and soon the Panzer IV was burning.

With 2 tanks down and Rob in the replacement Panzer IV yet to get into the fight (you have to some roll 1s or 6s Rob!!), the objective points were racking-up too fast in favour of the Soviets and the Germans decided to call it a day, yielding the field to the glorious Red Army!