Monday 30 April 2018

Yesterdays game

Board of play
Somewhere in Northern France 1940
All pics taken without me leaving my chair!
Before I talk about that I just want to say it is too damn cold in the bloody garage to build terrain. Feel free to call me a wimp but I do not want to be too cold to work properly! Therefore terrain post will get pushed back yet another day.


I had 2 A13's(White and Blue)
Graham and Tim were my adversaries
They each had a single Panzer 2 each.
Points were equal.
Ok here we go. Yesterday at the club we had a game of "What a Tanker!" by Too Fat Lardies. Graham had set it all up before I arrived so it was too late to through a hissy fit and say that I did not want to do France 1940! The electrician was supposed to be coming to the club to give us more lighting...... he did not turn up!

Realising that if I could divide them I stood a better chance
I went right to face Graham.

Tim started to flank me
so I countered as Graham was playing hard to get
the tease!

I was able to trap Tim with the terrain
and some bad dice by him and him not
knowing the rules at all.
Graham had read them, I just watched Youtube videos!


I was able to reduce his command dice at first.
all the while Buttoned up and Graham
using Rapid Fire with a 20mm auto cannon.
Tim reduced Blues command dice as well

But Tim was not able to move as much as he wanted
he was still acquired by both of my tanks
An Aim, a Fire and 3 hits (2 of which were crits)
and Tim brewed up


Graham spent several turns Moving out of cover shooting and
moving into cover BEFORE I could fire back
The result was that while he did nt penetrate my armour he did force me to retreat.
and I retreated backwards into a building
Tim finally arrived and with a Panzer 3 this time.
he fired at my blue tank.
It missed.
So I returned fire and he failed to save with any armour
dice. the consequence is that 2 turns on the table
And Both of my tanks were on one kill.

I was still taking "temporary " damage and losing command dice
But I was holding on.
Time was lucky and managed to bring on a Panzer 4
I was now up against it.


I managed to retreat back but was out flanked.
Blue had slipped down to only 2 command dice.

Things looked bad for Blue Tank!

Tim Fired and it was a Hit on Blue.
But not a penetration and I was forced to retreat yet again!
I did ask them where they wanted me to go
And they both said off the table!

So with 1 tank against 2 having lost 50% of my tanks I conceded the game
AND WON!
 




















































































































































Conclusion: The British had destroyed 2 German tanks. While the Germans had only damaged 1 British tank. (Tracks and Optics) Yes I had conceded the French village but I had not taken sufficient damage to result in a loss of tank!

So each of my crews get a kill ring and if they each get 4 more (total 5 each tank) they become aces. A long way to go but a very good start.

Aftermath: Now I am faced with a dilemma. Do I Carry on doing the German and Russians, OR do I swap to German and British? 2 kills is not a start I would chose to give up easily. However Russian Zvezda tanks are cheap and to me that makes a difference. In the tying of this I think I have made my mind up but I would still like some input from you.

Until next time Take care have fun and paint if you get the chance. All the best Clint






29 comments:

  1. Looks like you had fun Clint, would be tempted to do British as you two kills is not something to pass up in the long run

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    1. Thank you Dave. I intend to be posting some more tanks finished soon. (two extra now done but not shown yet!)

      I have changing horses mid stream, but then again I have very little to loose by a change at this point!

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  2. If you collected Matilda II tanks and painted them up fairly generic, you could get away with using them for both the British and Russians. That could be an easy solution. I just don't know the year the Lend Lease Matildas were shipped over to the Russians, if you were sticking specifically to 1941 Eastern Front.

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    1. Thank you Roy. In Answer to your question! Matilda II's and Valantines were shipped and fought in 1941, M3 lee's and M3 Stuarts 1942,1943 saw the first Sermans and Churchills shipped, Everything shipped tank wise (that survived) lasted until the end of the war if shipped from 1943 or later.

      By that answer you may guess I have looked into this already. It was one of the things that attracted me to the Russian Front for this project. It is of course all still valid, in addition Italian tanks are a possibility. (and some French in the late war) as well as Finnish (early war) and Hungarian and Romanian. But let us be honest Italian French, Romanian, Finnish and Hungarian tanks were not developed as much as British, American Russian and German tanks wer so they tend to be forgotten!

      But I do very strongly take the hint!

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    2. I just had a look on Google at the Zvezda Matilda II models for some't to do. £3.50 was the first price I saw and the model is in 8 easy parts. How many models do you need to play What a Tanker?

      Rules. Two or three tanks. Basic flora and landscape terrain. It could be quite a cheap and easy club game to get into.

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    3. You need at least 1 tank per player. I would start there to begin with. When you get to better know the rules multiple tanks are an option. Personally 1 tank was enough for me although I could (and did) cope with two. Needless to say Certain tanks are a lot more points than others. So a single Sherman against a tiger would be a mis match!

      I hasten to add the rules allow for any scale so if you already have a different scale that is OK. But for 10mm or 6mm I would use CM instead of Inches. For 15mm -28mm use inches. Above 28mm Heaven only knows, but I bet it is on a forum somewhere.

      So if you have 1/72nd scale tanks use them. Or 56th scale use them. Whatever you feel happy with.

      Terrain wise. Use what you have, it makes little difference. Remember though tanks have to fight on it. If there is little/ no cover it all comes down to who rolls the best dice first!

      I get the idea that the rules were written to be either a participation game at a show OR a club game with several players all at once. A decent Reff could peobably handle 6-7 players on the first outing IF they knew the rules well.

      I would have a look on Youtube, and watch a vid or two to get a better idea.

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    4. BTW you cannot start with a Matilda ii, anymore than you can start with a Pershing. In the casae of a Matilda two in 1940 British list you have to kill at least 15 other tanks without your crew dead once! So a Mattilda 2 is quite hard to get (and rightly so)

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    5. Oh right, I didn't know about the promotion levels to gain access to certain tanks. Sounds rather interesting. Cheers.

      I doubt I'll be doing this game. Dave D. Martin Cooke and James 'Mad Tin Hatter' are all into WW2 gaming at the moment, so I just wondered if this was something that could quickly thrown together for the gaming group.

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    6. The answer to that is Yes it can be quikly thrown together for a game. If they are into WW2 the chances are one of them will get the rules so there is reasonable odds that you will get a game.

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  3. Not a bad result! Forced off table and still winning the game!

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    1. Thanks Ray to be honest Only 1 tank was forced of the table. I just decided to preserve my two kills and concede the ground. As far as I am concerned a successful retreat is better than an over expensive win.

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  4. Congrats on your victory and I'd agree with you, better to run to fight another day than to stay and die. Two kills is still quite an achievement.

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    1. Thank you Bryan, I was always taught that well worn heels are better than a well kicked arse! Yep one kill each tank for no loss, OK the engineers will need to bend a bit of metal back in place and maybe apply some paint to cover the dings but overall a sound victory.

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  5. Replies
    1. Thanks Andy. I would expect to see the game at shows being a participation for a few years. Not by me of course.

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  6. Nice looking game Clint...not a ruleset I know probabaly good for a club night type battle which requires limited figures etc.....

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    1. Thank you Matt. The rules came out about 1 month ago so no reason to know it yet. I toughly agree perfect for a club night especially if little has been planned. Games can be quick (Although ours was not) and finished in an hour or so dependant on who knows the rules and what tanks are used.

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  7. I do like the sound of this game, it just looks like great fun.

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    1. Thank you Michael. It is fun as long as the people are fun. I can imagine it being played at a school for example, one evening or maybe even a lunchtime. But perhaps I am getting ahead of myself.

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  8. Excellent game mate. I'm gonna have to get myself more tanks and Zvezda are in my sights.

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    1. Thank you Lee. Zvezda do make some very nice kits. (Not had a bad one so far). Personally I think it would make a good "Reject" game as it would provide them something very different.

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  9. What a fun looking game and the promotion ladder to get better vehicles sounds like a cool idea.

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    1. Thank you Simon. To get a better quality tank you need to be an ace tanker. (5 kills). BUT if you go up a level you have to start again on no kills. You can of course go down a level (after you have achieved the upgrade and are treated as an ace again. So you have to decide if a new tank is worth the loss of ace status!

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  10. It looks and sounds like a very fun game and if it continues to be taken in that vein it does seem like a very useful 'filler', but not one I'd like to play frequently.

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    1. Thank you Joe. I think you are most probably correct. A game to be played when we just want a fun club game and ne messing about taking a LOAD of stuff.

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  11. Glad you liked it, of course if you just want one-off games you can play with any tanks. I'll probably be Star Warsing next meet, but if not I'd like to join in with this if you will be playing.

    Dave

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    1. Thank you Dave. I suspect we will be keeping at early war for now. If we play you will be more than welcome. I could have done with a hand!

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  12. Nice batrep, maybe I'll have to try TFL games one day.

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    1. Thank you Skully. Too Fat Lardies do some excellent rules. But with all rules you have to find the ones that suit you best!

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