Tank Wars

Friday night gaming, but with a twist...

Having painted a Panther, Pak40 and some trucks... along with Dallas having a Tiger and many other German vehicles... there was a burning desire to get them on the table.

What better way than with a Tank Wars game!

So, the scene was set. Dallas, Ian and I would be on the German side. Lee, Brent and Andrew on the Allied side.

Lists were:

Barkmann	Vet		496
Wittmann	Vet		519
Panzer IV H	Vet	Tank Ace skills, schurzen	342
Panzer IV H	Reg	schurzen	245
Wirbelwind	Reg		240
Puma	Reg		160
Pak 40	Reg		110
105mm Howitzer	Vet	Spotter	100
10 Man Gren Squad	Vet	1x smg, 1x lmg, 2x faust	173
Halftrack	Reg		89
Truck	Reg		39
Truck	Reg		39
Kubelwagon	Reg		21
		Total	2573

Pool	Vet		304
Abrams	Vet		314
Sherman (75mm)	Reg		195
Sherman (75mm)	Reg		195
Churchill VII	Vet	Tank Ace skills	572
Comet	Reg		355
M5 Stuart	Reg		135
6pdr ATG	Reg		75
12 Man US Inf Squad	Vet	1x smg, 2x bar, atg	193
Forward Air Observer	Reg		75
Carrier	Reg	lmg	70
M3 Halftrack	Reg		99
Jeep	Reg		21
		Total	2603

So, the Allies would have the advantage. But only seemed fair with Wittmann and Barkmann on the German side.

Set up:

Spot the one drinking... ;-)

With that it, it would be kill 'em all. 

And the first units started arriving... the Allies spreading over their deployment zone.

But, soon the German schwerpunkt became obvious - the left flank (Allied right) would be the main point of attack.

This was to avoid the US Forward Air Observer... although why Dallas decided to go after him with the Puma... I'll never know. Oh and Wittmann (Dallas) went alone on the Axis right...

Lucky that the Wirbelwind was in range. Bye bye USAF.

And then first blood to the Axis - a 6 to hit and a 6 to penetrate causes 2 fires and ultimately the destruction of the Allied Comet. A significant early blow.

Wittman, Abrams and another Sherman bounce shells of each other...

 But many of these are rolled...

Mostly by Dallas. Andrew is actually rolling like a demon and immobilises Wittmann effectively neutralising him for the entire game!!

Meanwhile on the Axis left, the advance is slow and steady. The Allied forces are whittled down or immobilised with plenty of turret jams for good measure :-) The US character Pool also bites the dust.

But the fight back is strong. Another air strike removes the Puma and a sneaky Stuart gets the Wirbelwind.

A brave Panzer IV H charges forward past an immobile Sherman (turret also jammed) to engage the Churchill at close range...

A couple more German losses see the game swing back towards the Allies, but a faust into the side of the immobile Sherman destroys it and some lucky mg dice knock out the British 6pdr. This gives the final win to the Axis.

Overall an interesting experiment, but the game felt flat. Too large and too many skills / characters for our first crack at Tank Wars. 

A bit of debate ongoing about this one as a game overall. Tiger Fear certainly had an impact and some of the challenges of the game overall (limited die rolling - only 1 shot per tank) lessened the enjoyment. 

But, still good company and very cool to see all our tank toys on the table!

I'm sure we'll be giving it another go some time :-)

Bolt Action Carnage

Friday night gaming was on.

1000pts Bolt Action was the call... (or so I thought, but more on that soon).

Plenty of big talk through the week from various parties, but probably instigated by me.

I decided to go a little different list wise (after my first list was rather disappointingly disallowed). I would field (with the expectation of facing 1000pts of US in a non-city fight I might add)..

2nd Lt + friend
9 Volks Gren (all with assault rifles)
8 Vet Gren (7 with smg)
251/1
251/10
Puma
Wirbelwind
Sniper

Volks are Irregular. All vehicles and Lt. would be Regular. A few panzerfausts were also sprinkled around for good measure.

So, vehicle heavy, but a load of firepower!

I arrived first and only to find, to my horror, that we were going to be in another city fight. Sorry, not a city... just a town. Apparently it's different. But it was not what I was lead to believe!

And then I found out why... the traitor Von Dallas had switched allegiance to the Allied cause!!!

He would be fielding a US force to combine with Lee's US and Ian's French.

I would be bolstered by Andrew's Italians. Mamma mia!

IIRC lists were along these lines...

Andrew - Italian

First Lt
2 Squads
1 Squad Black Shirts

Lee - US

Lt
2 or 3 Infantry Squads
M8 Greyhound
Bazooka team
Mortar + spotter

Dallas - US

Lt
2 Infantry Squads
Bazooka team
Jeep
M3 Stuart - until I shot it, then it become an M5 with reinforced armour... wysiwyg anyone ;-)

Ian - French

Lt
1 Squad Goumiers
2 Squads
M8 Scott
Sniper

May have been a couple more Allied units, but I'm not sure.

Game on! Just kill 'em all..

The Puma comes on. Crack! Fires a long range shot at the M8 Greyhound which misses... but then here comes Mr Stuart (after much dithering and "no you can't do that" comments for all other players..). The Stuart fires!

A roll of 1. Much appropriate with all the antics prior to the final move and shoot...

My halftracks make a dash down the road.

But into the sights of the M8 Scott and a cheeky bazooka team hidden in a hidden Jeep...

Bazooka shots go astray... M8 Scott shots hit once at least and pile some pins onto my 251/10... This effectively neutralises the 251/10 for the entire game.

The Stuart & Puma go toe to toe at point blank range..!!

Nothing! Nothing goes Kaboom. This is just getting ridiculous.

But apart from Dallas rolling only 1 & 2's every turn for the Stuart and his Bazooka team... that was just funny :-)

Infantry are getting stuck into each other though.

Sniper vs. sniper sees my sniper die and his spotter run away.

The Volks Grens poor on some fire and do a bit of damage only to be destroyed by return fire (Inexperienced hurt here), but the Vet Grenadiers extracted some revenge through a rather successful assault.

The Italians are also being whittled down. Particularly the Black Shirts who turn out to be Shirkers (Andrew maintains his rolling 1's ability). The Black Shits are quickly broken.

Otherwise casualties seem light?

Until my Wirbelwind (which hadn't done much all game other than terrify my opponents) spotted a US unit in the woods and just unleashed! One US Infantry unit disintegrated. I feel good :-)

But still no Kaboom! Why can't the US hit with any of their AT weapons (not that I'm doing much better!). My Puma & 251/10 must led charmed lives :-)

A couple of key assaults by Allied forces seal the game in turn 6 though.

So game over. We may have had heaps of firepower, but it couldn't really be bought to bear effectively. Needed to have more boots on the ground for this one.

A long 6 turns.

The US never hit once with a bazooka, the Stuart or M8 Greyhound. At least the Puma finally immobilised the Stuart. But that was the extent of it. Not one vehicle was destroyed in the entire game. How does that happen!?!

Fantastic game, amazing set-up and great banter as always.

Not so many photos. I was just too tired from a long stressful week at work to focus on taking many - particularly of the table set-up (didn't even photograph my Wirbelwind!). I must also apologise to Andrew, my mind wasn't really focused on the game other than destroying as much as I could.

As for the list, an interesting list to field as I've always wanted to field infantry all mounted in half tracks, but so expensive (points wise). Just not really the right battle to try it out with. I'll be keen to try the list again in a different scenario though. Next time!

Thanks for reading.