What a Tanker Golan Heights

After last week’s titanic clash between the armoured night of Palmyra and Rome, attention turned last night to events in October 1973 .  A game of WAT saw the armoured spearhead of the Syrian Army trying to break through the Israeli defences on the Golan Heights.  6 T55s took on a trio of Centurions supported by a lone M51 “Supersherman”.
 
The Syrians rolled onto the table at speed.  The Israelis were slow off their start-line but recovered to take up defensive positions.  However the “Supersherman” soon realised that “Super” referred to its gun, not its WW2 era armour plate. Cue one dead M51. Now with a  2:1 numerical advantage the Syrians continued to advance, and even managed another kill.  At that point Israeli reinforcements arrived in the guise of two M48 Magachs. One joined Phil, the other Rob. The much-vaunted Israeli gunnery  proved disappointingly ineffective. Lots of hits but little damage caused.
 
The Syrians continued to advance but against a now much more cautious Israeli foe, who was proving adept at “shoot and scoot” from the crestlines back into cover.  

The Syrians found their poor optics a problem, exacerbated by a few hits which removed activation dice. Eventually the Israeli gunnery told and two T55s were left smoking hulks.

 
Tony charged forward against Rob and Phil rashly charged round to try to outflank Chris or even get a rear shot. Poor dice left Phil’s Centurion in flames but Chris’ smart 180 degree turn to despatch him left his T55 open to a rear shot from the Magach lurking below the crestline.  

The battle north of the  village saw tank carnage.

 
With time running  out darkness intervened and it was declared a draw……albeit only thanks to the Israeli reinforcements.        
 
So, what did everyone think? Everyone seemed to enjoy the game, and I think the simple  rule modifications worked well.  The points of the various adversaries did feel wrong but this was suspected from before the game.
 
Most pleasingly for me the battlefield actually did look at bit like photos from the Golan heights during Yom Kippur. Some individual tanks smoking in the distance but evidence of brutal close-quarter engagements .
 
Next up the Egyptian Front….
 
Simon

Game 3 for the Palmyrans

 And so, after a well-deserved week’s R&R our dedicated war reporter ventured Eastwards to the Nile delta to witness a real TTS “ grudge match”, with the so far unbeaten Palmyrans taking one the fancied challenger, being the mid 3rd century Aurelianic Romans. 

 
The Romans had adopted an either inspired or tactically inept deployment, with effectively no left flank. They presumably planned to smash the Palmyran left with two forces hoping their own centre would hold.  Tony played his Strategem and advanced three units two boxes forwards. His intentions were clear….”Charge…!!!”.

 
Dave leading the Palmyran right advanced swiftly forwards against scant opposition. Rob’s Palmyran centre advanced more cautiously but did make the first “kill” of the game destroying a unit of Auxilia….or “auxila” as Tony insists on calling them.
 
Tony’s plan to overwhelm the Palmyran left got into gear slowly, but eventually did start to make progress.  All seemed to some to fruition when a disordered Cataphract unit was charged in the flank by a Legionary unit. Destruction seemed inevitable……but it wasn’t.

 
Back with Dave. He swiftly annihilated the Roman units protecting the main camp, but couldn’t muster to attack the camp defended by Legionaries in ORBIS. 

Rob joined in the attack and soon the Roman centre had effectively disintegrated, leaving Tony almost alone to press the attack on the Palmyran camp. All seemed to be going according to Tony’s plan except for the destruction of the rest of the Roman army. Chris master stroke was to bring on his flank-march of light cavalry and capture the 2nd Roman camp and take all the victory medals .

 
Victory number 3 for the mighty Palmyrans.
 
Next week sees out reporter remaining in the Middle East to report on an Arab-Israeli WAT game.

Simon

What A Tanker, Germany 1945

From our own correspondent….
 
Last night witnessed a WAT game set in  Germany 1945. Elements of an American armoured “Combat Command Buchanan” had orders to clear a German village, defended by a hastily formed armoured formation known as “Kampfgruppe Threlfall”.  Prior to the battle Herr Threlfall had written that he predicted disaster for his small command, but had gallantly refused reinforcements. O ye of little faith!.
 
The Americans advanced swiftly onto the table. And were soon half-way across and into the build-up area.. The Germans were slower off the blocks. Malcolm’s Stug seemed to have mechanical problems and wasn’t moving at all .Or had he lost his nerve and needed a noose and a street light? No such problem with Chris’ MkIV which rolled onto the table straight into the firing arc of Rob’s M10 .One dead Panzer.

Down to three tanks and with the Americans now across the open ground, things looked grim for the Germans, especially with two of their vehicles being turretless tank-destroyers. 

 
Tony however helped out rashly charging a Sherman out of cover and into a hail of cannon fire. It didn’t end well. Ditto the charge of the Stuart. Yes it managed a flank shot into the Stug, but no effect. A swift 90 degree turn and the Stug blasted the M5 into oblivion from point blank range.

 
The battle to the north became a game of cat-and-mouse as Phil’s Hetzer tried to survive, at one point being almost surrounded by three US vehicles. He did despatch Dave’s M4 which had been “running point” , and then with some deft manouevering escaped the clutches of the Yank armour. Even Chris got his MkIV eventually action putting paid to Rob’s lightly armoured M10 with a shot from the rear. That was  never going  to end well.

With the Yanks down to two M4s things were looking grim .  They turned disastrous when the Hetzer planted another rear shot into Rob’s Sherman.
 
The crew of the final Sherman decided that discretion was the better part of valour and decided to bail out and surrender. A big mistake as Chris’ bow gunner cut them down in a hail of machine gun fire . See you at Nuremburg Herr Banks!

Nest week some light relief as the British Celts try to resist the remorseless advance of Rome in a game of TtS.   

Simon