A What a Tanker operation Zitadel sideshow

Another game of What a Tanker courteous of Chris. During the current pause in Operation Zitadel small elements of the defeated communist forces are attempting to carry out local offensives. The Germans are to proceed to a small village/farm and hold the line until further orders.  An insignificant Russian force is believed to be heading to the area.

The Germans entered the table from the left with the Russians entering on the right.

The dastardly Russians deployed T34s into the woods and took pot shots at the advancing Germans.

Unfortunately the advancing Germans forgot to use their best armour in the lead and the Marder III quickly died. Although the crew managed to bail out.

Meanwhile in the North the Germans created a car park behind cover...

whilst the Russians continued their advance.

Having killed the Marder the Russians raced across the table as they were only faced by a solitary Panzer III.

Being fast the T34s raced behind the poor panzer and chased it out of the woods...

and quickly brewed it up. The Germans were now rapidly running out of tanks as the second Marder III had also succumbed after brewing up a T70.

With only one Panzer III and two Stug IIIs left against three T34s and two T70s things were getting a bit sticky for the Germans. Blue 5 (Stug III) managed to dispatch two more T70s but his mate didn't manage to fire a shot before being hit in the rear by a T34, resulting in a brew up. As Rob had now run out of tanks I decided to give him my Panzer III, but Rob doesn't have much luck with What a Tanker as this quickly succumbed to a rear shot.

The game was called with a Russian victory at this point as the Germans hadn't captured the village and the final Stug was being chased by three T34s.

Meng Toon tanks for What a Tanker

After our recent game of What a Tanker using the Meng Toon tanks I thought I would take the opportunity of introducing the cast.

Greg's T34

Phil's M5 "Honey", Pz V "Panther" and M4 "Sherman"

Phil's Pz VI "Tiger"

Rob's Pz Tiger Ausf B "Konigstiger"

and lastly Chris's KV2 after having been weathered by Phil

Capturing Caesar's Camp Campaign (Part 2)

Today we played the second scenario of the campaign, with the German deployment limited to the village in the bottom left of the table. The British objective was to push the Germans out of the village.

The British deployment points were mostly at the top of the table but had one on the road in the bottom right just in case an outflanking manoeuvre was required, whilst the Germans were restricted to deployment in the village.

The  British quickly deployed two sections into the wheatfield and poured fire into the German section immediately to their front. Men went down and it wasn't looking good for the Germans as the British pre-game barrage was effective for a change and was keeping the heads down of any reinforcements. To make matters worse for the Germans the British were advancing down the road as well.

The forward observer got his finger out for a change and brought in an accurate mortar barrage onto the village whilst a section advanced out of the wheatfield towards the village. Things were looking very bad for the Germans.

The Germans ended the turn and thus the British barrage so that they could bring up reinforcements but the British took this opportunity to assault what was left of the German section. Each side rolled a bucket of dice with casualties about even on both sides but the Germans were wiped out.

The Germans deployed their final two sections desparately hoping to prevent the British from taking the village.

However, the British had been sneaky and had an extra infantry section which now meant that the Germans were severely outnumbered.

This extra firepower was telling as the section in the north of the village was outgunned and soon reduced to just the MG team...

and then just the NCO...

and then nobody. At this point the German force morale had failed so they retreated off the table leaving the village in the hands of the victorious British. 

A hard fought game that looked to be over very quickly for the Germans, but they tenaciously hung on.

 

Kelly’s Anti-Heroes: What a Tanker with Meng Toon Tanks

In the closing days of WW2, some of the last reserves of Nazi gold were being held in the bank of Wesminzer, in a small town in Germany. However, an Allied air raid had gone wrong, destroying the bank and scattering the gold around town (the RAF did not realise that V1s were also being stored there!). The gold had been guarded by Hans Doune, in his Tiger II, who now wondered what to do? But before he could organise anything, it seemed that rogue elements of the German, US and Soviet armoured forces were closing-in on the town, intent to take the scattered gold for themselves!

This was a ‘free for all’ battle, with every tank for itself. No national sides. The ‘gold’ was represented by 8 Red Poker Chips, randomly distributed around the battlefield and could be collected by the tank being adjacent to the chip at the end of the player’s turn. To even things up (the German tanks are worth so much more than the Allied tanks), each Allied tank received one Tanker Deck card and the German tanks were deemed low on fuel. So at the start of the game they had with 2 Black Poker chips. If a double is rolled when moving, one Black ‘fuel’ chip was surrendered and if the player had no Black Poker chips, then the tank is out of fuel and immobilised. 6 more Black “fuel” chips were randomly distributed around town and could also be collected, if the tank is adjacent to a chit at the end of a player turn. The King Tiger also started in the centre of town, with the expectation that everyone would gang-up on it.

However, game one was over quite pretty quickly, as the players squabbled with their nearest neighbours, around the edge of the table and the King Tiger snarled and dished out 88mm presents all round! The highlight was Simon’s Panther and Greg’s T34 playing ring-a-roses around a house! Game two saw people realising that there had to be a little bit of team work, in order to oust the King Tiger and once this was worn down, the widespread tank killing resumed, with Greg in the M5 Stuart dashing through the mayhem, grabbing bullion chips. However, Tony in the Panther was waiting, smashed the tiny M5, pocketed the M5’s loot, along with his own and dashed off the table to win!

Greek retreat to the Black Sea

Having had a week off, actually playing a game (and losing spectacularly), our trusty reporter packed his Leica and solar topee and headed for the heart of the Persian Empire in 401BC. He was following the Greek mercenary survivors of the battle of Cunaxa, where the usurper Cyrus the Younger had literally lost his head in battle against his brother Artaxerxes II. Post the battle, Artaxerxes’ wily General Tissaphernes had managed to lure the Greek commanders to discuss a truce and promptly killed them. Well, they do say “all’s fair in love and war”. A young Athenian named Zenophon was elected commander and has started the long “up-country march” (aka Anabasis) back to the Black Sea and the Greek colonies there. With Tissaphernes in pursuit the Greeks turned to give battle.

Our own version of Zenophon (Malcolm) was not so young, and time would tell if Tissaphernes (Chris) was as wily and cruel as his historical counterpart...

The battle commenced with the Persian left being surprisingly hesitant, whilst the centre and right advanced. Was the stench of treachery in the air? The Greek hoplite centre rumbled forward whilst the lighter flanks prepared to fight off the Persian cavalry. Turn two saw the Persian left again inexplicably reluctant to advance, whilst the centre pressed on. The right advanced cautiously whilst the Greeks seized the initiative and attacked. Light infantry missile fire killed a javelin unit and the hoplites crashed into the lightly equipped javelinmen. Where were the flanking cavalry, allegedly the cream of the Persian army? “This cream has certainly gone sour” mused the Supreme Being...

Finally the Persian right charged the weakly held Greek left, only to fall victim to a devious stratagem which saw the initiative fail and a disorder inflicted.

With no support from the left the Persian centre began to crumble, and the hoplites began to kill more units and even turned the flank. A rare moment of elation saw a hoplite unit destroyed by missile fire and close combat, but the relentless Greek advance continued. The late Persian attack on the camp failed as the Greeks continued to smash the Persian centre. The rout of a light slinger unit only confirmed the Persians comprehensive defeat.

It was all over in one hour twenty minutes...

Tissaphernes subordinate commanders fled the field leaving their General the face the Greek music. Would he regret his treachery from the days after Cunaxa?

Next week our reporter has a weekend off leaving the write-up to his assistant. Rumour has it he is being posted to the Russian Front. Oh dear!

Simon

Capturing Caesar's Camp Campaign (Part 1)

Today we started the Too Fat Lardies "Capturing Caesar's Camp" "Pint-Sized" campaign.

After the patrol phase the deployment point positioning looked a bit odd as the British had aimed their patrol phase at being able to deploy from the right and containing the Germans to the left of the table. The reasoning behind this was for the British to recover the maps from the scout car on the road. The British also hoped to "punish" the Germans with some accurate 3" mortar fire whilst not receiving many casualties. As usual plans change at first contact.

The British deployed a bren carrier on the road and an infantry section into the small copse in the north east corner of the table which immediately came under sniper fire.

The Germans next deployed a section and an infantry gun opposite the copse and the British started taking fire. Things weren't looking good. 

At this point the British looked to the forward observer to put down a barrage but he was nowhere to be found. In desparation the British threw smoke whilst a second section deployed next to the advancing carrier.

However this drew the attention of the infantry gun and the carrier was soon out of action. The Germans deployed a second section and started picking on the infantry in the open. With NCOs diving infront of the hail of bullets the British force morale plummeted resulting in their withdrawal.

A quick game and major German victory with almost zero casualties for the Germans and a few for the British but these were mainly commanders, not great. However, the British did manage to recover the maps which will help in a later game. The game could have gone better for the British if the forward observer hadn't got lost.

Meales Onwheals hits the big time to see who is the Strongest

After another successful raid the Romans were getting a bit worried so they decided to call up the legion. However, Meales Onwheals put the word out and a few of his mates turned up to help punish the legion.

Meales Onwheals deployed the warband in the north with the legion looking on nervously.

The Dumnonii rolled forward at an imressive rate hoping to limit the manoeuvre room for the Romans. However, some were less enthusiastic and with a bit of deft manoeuvering Chris, on the Dumnonii left flank, managed to create a curious warrior stack.

 
Meales Onwheals' mate in the light chariots found the hole in the Roman line and headed towards the camps. The legion marched on and caused disorders and managed to kill a warrior group. Things were looking a bit dodgy in the Dumnonii centre. Tea was needed to bolster morale.

Clearly it was some magic tea as Meales Onwheals ordered a general advance on the right flank, with first one legion falling, then another and finally a unit of auxiliaries.

Simonus dismally surveys the rapidly collapsing Roman left flank. 

Meals Onwheals' mates run riot in the left flank Roman camp.

The Romans were down to a few victory medals so taking advantage of the hole in the Roman line the Elite Dumnonii warband looted the Roman Centre camp, after mincing the Roman artillery.

Tonious, with a curious portent of things to come, forms a defensive square on the Roman right, ready to cover a possible retreat......what did he know?!