What a Tanker, France 1940

 

•  One Renault R35 & One Hotchkiss H35 (Phil)
• Two Hotchkiss H39s (Steve)
• One Panzerjager I & One Panzer II (Mal)
• One Panzer IVB & One Panzer II (Rob)

This was a small cluttered field. Phil’s H35 was first to enter, attempting to reach the shelter of a row of houses, on the left flank of the French table edge.

Rob responded by dashing his great Panzer IV forward to the centre of the table, opening ferocious, yet ineffectual fire on the small H35.

Steve then pushed one of his H39s up the road, splitting the attention of the Panzer VI. Over on the French right, the two German Panzer IIs started to manoeuvre for position, against the remaining Renault R35 and Steve’s 2^nd H39, but this was real ‘handbags’ stuff. Lots of dice rolling, but to little effect!

Back in the centre, the Panzer IV was beginning to suffer from the attentions of 2 then 3 French tanks, being reduced to 2 Command Dice. Even the support of Mal’s Panzerjager I was not enough to save the Panzer IV, which was forced to withdraw.

The Panzerjager I too was soon forced to withdraw and just snipe Steve’s 2^nd H39, on the far side of the crossroads, while the Panzer IV limped back from the centre of the table, only to be chased by Phil’s diminutive R35, pumping rounds into the exposed flank of the Panzer IV until it was burning.

Meanwhile the swirling fight on the French right, resulted in the positions of the two German Panzer IIs & French tanks being reversed. Steve’s 1^st H39, having driven off the Panzerjager I, dashed into the fight with the Panzer IIs, giving 3 fairly well armoured tanks, vs the lighter, auto-cannon armed German tanks. This was not going to end well, especially when Rob’s Panzer II failed to inflict significant damage from 2 rounds of fire into the rear of Steve’s H39!!

This left Phil’s H35 to deal with the damaged and demoralised Panzerjager I, closing on the tank destroyer’s flank at point bank range, until the white flag appeared!

What a Tanker, 22nd Jan 2025 – “Panther Hunt”

We decided to dust off an old Lardies favourite, “What a Tanker”, for our Wednesday Zoom game.

Instead of my usual 15mm WaT scale of choice, as we were playing over Zoom, I opted for 28mm, in the hope that the bigger vehicles would be more visible over Zoom. Taking on board the observation that urban WaT game was more fun than ‘open field’, this would be a struggle for a village crossroads.

A Panther, backed up by a diminutive Hetzer, (commanded by Rob) took on two Sherman M4s and two Cromwells (commanded by Mal & Steve). 82 points a side, on revised points scheme. The objective was to either eliminate the other side, or have the only vehicles within 12” of the crossroads, for 3 consecutive turns. Both sides had one dummy blind.

Rob’s Germans opted to send the Panther South and the Hetzer North. The Allies (Mal & Steve) opted to send the M4s North and the Cromwells South.

The Hetzer scooted forward to take an overwatch position, just North of the Church. It’s first target was an M4 attempting to flank the church. A hit, but no damage, just driving it back. The second M4 then edged forward, to take a shot at the Hetzer, a miss! The Hetzer returned fire, driving this second M4 back, before a second shot brewed it up.

Meantime the Panther had taken up position at the South end of the church. One of the Cromwells rashly exposed itself, flanking to the South of the village. Bang, one shot, one burning Cromwell! The Panther then swung out, to take out the second M4, which was trying to flank to the North of the church.

The second Cromwell then showed itself, attempting a flank shot on the Panther. Another miss, double 1!? The Panther pivoted, but no Aim dice!?

Having dealt with the second M4, the Hetzer dashed down, to try to get around the rear of the last Cromwell (bravely completely ignoring the Allied blind!). Steve’s Cromwell was having none of this and backed straight over the hedge, just South of the Hetzer. Reversing on, the Cromwell briefly slowed, to take a pot shot at the flank of the Hetzer. Another miss!?! Allied gunnery today was appalling!

By now the Panther had joined the Hetzer, but suffered the first German miss of the game! The Cromwell driver rammed it in reverse, only to be hotly pursued by the Panther, at which point the Cromwell hoisted the white flag!

Fun game. 28mm vehicles are visible over Zoom, but do take up a lot of table space. But still a cagey and tactical game.

Celles II – What a Tanker, After Action Report

 This was a rerun of a Bulge based ‘What a Tanker’ game, run a couple of years ago. The tanks were changed around a bit, but this was an excuse for a lightweight game and another chance to try out some rule mods. These rule mods are unashamedly cribbed from John Savage’s excellent ‘What a Cowboy’ rules, plus a couple of things from our own experiences with WaT.

The vehicle line up was;

·        Panther (Rob)

·        Panzer IVH + Stug IIIG (Steve)

·        Cromwell + Sherman M4 (Mal)

·        M10 Achillies II + Churchill IV (Dave)

The objective was to secure the bridge (South West corner). This would be achieved by having an operational tank within 18” of the bridge, while denying the opposition from having an operational tank within 18” of the bridge, for one complete turn. The minimum game length was 4 turns, so no easy dash to win.

The Brits got off to a flying start, with the Achillies dashing down to grab an overwatch slot at the back of the woods, near the bridge and the Cromwell making a sprint for the village centre. The Churchill & M4 brought up the rear, more sedately.

The Germans made a slower start. The Stug seemed to have trouble getting out of first gear and the Panther proved to like the woods a little too much!

Being in the van of the German forces proved fatal to the Mark IV, as it quickly succumbed to a lucky shot from the Cromwell. Seeing this burning wreck, the Stug decided to hang back, but then got into a long range, ineffectual slugging match with the Churchill, that had lumbered into the field to the North East of the village.

Deciding that the bridge had to be contested, the Panther pushed forward, to the South of the village. However, its advance was spotted and rapidly contended by the Achillies to it’s front and then by the Cromwell to it’s rear. When the M4 turned up too, the Panther decided to make a dramatic sprint around the M4, through the village and out to the West (what else do you do with three 1s and 2 6s?!).

While the M10 tried to hold the Panther’s attention to it’s front, the Cromwell dashed around the Panther’s rear. Easy shot! Missed twice!! The brave Cromwell crew paid dearly for these misses, as the Panther pivoted and blasted the Cromwell to pieces.

Sadly, while the Panther was dealing with the Cromwell, the Achillies was unable to exploit the exposed rear of the Panther, as it had become bogged down in the woods. So, it was left to the lowly Sherman to tackle the raging cat!

The Sherman bravely distracted the big cat, while the Achillies untangled itself, enabling it to slide into a firing position, from where it despatched the cat, with a well placed 17 pounder shell!

This left the Stug crew with a dilemma. Retreat with dishonour or charge on, to a glorious end?! After the earlier stuttering, the Stug was now positively flying! Passed the Churchill, despatching the Achillies, then around Sherman and into the village. However, the Sherman had other ideas and roared after the Stug and exploiting the flexibility of the turret, it despatched the Stug with a close range flank shot!

Another fun and fast game of ‘What a Tanker’ and another chance to test out the ‘bonanza’ style rule mods, which seem to add a little extra dimension to the game.

Encounter in Elsdorf

After a prolonged period of R&R our trusty reporter was back in the saddle, this week reporting from the West bank of the Rhine in February 1945. The Yanks had launched “Operation Grenade” which aimed to cross the River Roer and punch through to the Rhine bridges trapping the more immobile German troops in their wake to become POWs. Combat Command B of the 3rd Armoured had reached the small town of Elsdorf held by the mixed Kampfgruppe from 9th Panzer. Greg took the Germans and Tony the Yanks.

The historical battle was fought in the darkness of early evening, so we played initially using blinds to reflect poor visibility. Tony’s tanks moved painfully slowly, probably reflecting the actual pain Tony felt having done a vigorous workout with Chris the night before. If there was ever a reason for not exercising Tony was providing it! Greg responded with his Marder III covering the South, a heavy force in the North and a lone MkIV moving through the town down the main road. Suddenly Tony’s Hellcat raced across the road unleashing a single shot at the MkIV. A Catastrophic kill for the exposed Panzer.

Tony followed up with his own dash up the road to try and get behind one of the Panzers. When the tanks were revealed it proved to be a Stuart hunting a Tiger I with another MkIV trying to get in on the act.

Soon the Stuart was a blazing wreck.

Tony was still finding it difficult to manoeuvre into position but with an advantage in numbers and Greg’s Marder seemingly happy to hold ground, decided to concentrate on the German heavy armour. That said both his Shermans took damage, with one surviving two 88 rounds from the Tiger. A minor miracle. Tony still had Red 1 on a blind, when Greg remembered having read about Elsdorf and realised Tony’s unidentified tank was 99% certain to be an M26 Pershing.

Even the Tiger decided discretion was the better part of valour and began to edge gingerly back into cover. No such luck for the second MkIV as the Pershing swung round a corner into a firing position and destroyed the German tank with a single round.

Greg’s morale plummeted especially as his Marder saw multiple hits on both Shermans only inflict minor damage. I finally called a halt to proceedings declaring it an American win with two MkIVs knocked out for the Germans versus a solitary Stuart for the Yanks.

I hope both players enjoyed it. Back in the real 1944 the evening of February 26th 1945 had seen the first meeting between a Tiger I number 201 and one of the shiny new M26 Pershings named “Fireball” in the wreckage of Elsdorf. The Tiger had spotted the Pershing silhouetted by the flames of a burning Sherman, and then destroyed it with three shots. Unfortunately, the Tiger then disabled itself reversing into rubble and was abandoned by its crew and captured by the Yanks. “Fireball” was repaired and returned to service within two weeks.

Simon

What A Tanker on Tabletop Simulator

With Dave back and Mal away, we decided to return to the Panther Hunt Tabletop Simulator "What a Tanker" scenario. However, we added some oil barrels centre table, to act as a 'King of the Hill' objective.

Dave & Steve took the 4 Shermans, while Rob took the Panther and Phil took the diminutive Panzer II.