What a Tanker - King of Hill 101, in 15mm

Yesterday saw a rather epic Too Fat Lardies "What a Tanker" scrap, held at my house for a change. This involved 7 players and a shed load of 15mm tanks!

The object of the game was to seize and hold Hill 101 (centre table). The three German players started on the far side of the table as viewed and the four Allied players on the near side. Both sides had ~120 points worth of vehicles, but each player could only bring on a single vehicle at a time, chosen by random lot.
The Germans were lucky in the initial draw, pulling out a Tiger 1E, a Jagdpanther and a Mk IV. The Allies pulling an Achilles, a Sherman Firefly, a 76mm Sherman and an M5 Stuart, so things did not look too unbalanced. However, the Jagdpanther took up centre table position, fairly quickly despatching the Achilles, after it bravely poked its muzzle through the hedge. While the Panzer IV and Firefly conducted a fruitless firefight around the village, the little M5 dashed through the village, to plant a solid flank shot on the left side of the Jagdpanther, which it only just shrugged off.
Meanwhile a Sherman replacement for the Achilles, was nosing around the burning Achilles, to have a pop at the Jadgpanther, however it was not long before this too was burning. This was too much for the little M5, so it streaked through the village and onto Hill 101, swinging around to land another solid hit on the right side of the Jagdpanther! This seriously distracted the Tiger at the far end of the table. Up until now, the Tiger had been playing Cat (sic) & Mouse with a 76 Sherman, but frantic cries from the Jagdpanther about the pesky little Stuart, caused it to slew the mighty 88 onto the little M5, piling its second round into the rear of the brave little tank.

Things were not looking so good for the Allies, but the distraction of the Tiger worked in the Allies favour, as the 76 Sherman managed to land a really good hit on the Tiger, sending it up in flames. This caused the Germans to have to call in their first reinforcement, a Panther!! Was there no end to their luck!?
But, as the Panther lumbered onto the table, the 76 Sherman, buoyed up by the success against the Tiger, climbed hill 101, to have a pop at the exposed flank of the Jagdpanther. Another good hit and the Jagdpanther was burning!
Meanwhile the scrap in the village was turning nasty! The Firefly had lost its short range gunfight with the Panzer IV. The replacement (a 75 Sherman) was faring little better and the Stuart's replacement, a Cromwell fell to the gun of another Mk IV, replacing the Jagdpanther. On hill 101, the heroic 76 Sherman fell to the gun of the Panther. Its replacement, a Churchill, while better equipped armour wise to take on the Panther, was not able to seriously threaten it gun wise.

At this point, the Allies decided to concede hill 101. The Germans had accumulated the lion's share of the hill 101 occupation victory points. They also had a massive bag of 'kill' points and still had the points for the unused off-table reinforcements, a Stug III and a Panzer III. Although the Allies had accumulated a substantial kill total, from the Tiger and Jagdpanther, they had nothing left off table and had only half the hill 101 occupation points that the Germans had. So, in the end a German victory, but perhaps at a cost they could ill afford?

What a Tanker - Dust Up in the Desert

Last night's scenario saw the Afrika Korps line up a Panzer II, a short barrelled Panzer IV and a slightly 'out of time' long 50 Panzer III. Against them was a Matilda II, a Honey and a captured M13/40, crewed by some mad Aussies! The objective being to capture and hold the compound in the centre of the table.
The game opened with a curiously one-sided long range exchange between the Panzer II and the Matilda, neither really landing a blow. In the mean time,  the Panzer IV crashed into the orchard opposite the compound, while the Panzer III and the Honey started a race for the wadi on the right flank, just stopping for the odd fruitless pot shot at each other on the way.

Just as the Panzer III and the Honey squared up for a short range slugging match, the Panzer II dashed into the orchard behind the Panzer IV and managed to plant a catastrophic flank shot into the Honey.

On the left flank, the crazy Aussie crewed M13/40 dashed forward from the cover of the Oasis, to crash through the compound wall.

However, spying the Aussie move, the Panzer IV prowled around the left of the compound, trying to get to the Aussie M13's rear. Having had the Honey kill stolen from him, the Panzer III decided to tackle the M13/40 head-on, but neither could really land a blow because of the obscuration by the compound wall.

In an attempt to relieve the hard pressed Aussies, the Matilda eventually lumbered around the right of the compound, trying to get to the rear of the Panzer III. However, their concentration was seemingly thrown off by the Panzer II redecorating the front of the Matilda with repeated 20mm AP strikes!

Deciding the being meat in the M13/Matilda sandwich, the Panzer III crew decided to just crash through the  compound wall, to get a better shot at the M13. This rather startled the Aussies and they failed to land a shot on the now dusty Panzer III, but the Panzer III crew showed no such hesitation, drilling a 50mm round straight through the M13.
At thus point the dust trail of the supporting Afrika Korps infantry could be seen in the distance, so the Matlida decided discretion was the better part of valor and withdrew, leaving the field to the victorious Germans.