So, as I mentioned earlier, I’ve been having work done on my left wrist. Sadly this isn’t what it looks like:
Suffice it to say, 5 days post-op I felt good enough to not just press “publish” on posts prepped earlier, but to actually try my hand (ha!) at another game of What A Tanker! using our house rules.
I’m typing this one handed on meds, so I apologize if there are any typos that I missed when editing.
Scenario
Lucius and I decided to steer clear of some of the heavier tanks we usually play with and used 3 Pz IVs vs 2 Shermans + a Firefly.
The Battle
The Brits moved out, favouring the centre-right of the field, the Firefly holding the road ready to fire down the length of it, as a Sherman hugged the white manor house on the left and the final tank moved up near the church. It was at this point that I realized that I cannot use a tape measure! So out came a brightly coloured plastic ruler and on we went!
On my end of the table, my Pz Ivs got a bit bunched up as my movement dice failed on the first tank to activate. I wanted to fight for possession of the road, not realizing that it wasn’t a 75m gun at the other end. I need to brush up on my recce skills!
I ended up moving a tank clearly onto the road and acquired and aimed at what I thought was a Sherman. It fired. And missed! So I returned the favour and, like a true gentleman, missed as well before jockeying out of the line of sight to reload and figure out what I was going to do.
Now that I was pushing forward in the centre, the Sherman by the white manor house came out and shot my nervous Pz IV (on the left in the foreground above). Equal saves! So a quick move backwards.
I fired back but my shot bounced off and then I was then hit again. This wasn’t going well, so I moved the tank in the centre to help out as the Firefly had abandoned the road and was moving to the other flank.
On my left, I wanted to keep both tanks facing me guessing, so they couldn’t flank my tank in the middle of the table.
On the right, the 3 tanks slowly chipped each other’s armour, but didn’t do much. The British pushed up in the centre and seemed to be trying to get to the flank of the Pz IV at the crossroad. I moved forward as fast as I could on my far left.
The Brits win initiative. All of their tanks act before me. The Firefly moves to face the flanking threat as the Sherman seems to have seen something…
Well, that wasn’t good. That tank was soon D-E-A-D dead. I did, however, mange to get the drop on the Firefly on my initiative.
The fight was now somewhat even. My tanks were only slightly better than the Shermans.
The gunnery duel on the far side was resolved in a great shot that knocked out the Sherman by the manor house. Apparently slightly better is good enough!
The remaining Sherman only got 1 action on its activation so drove backwards to hide.
And so began a chase. I rushed after him, he ran away. My other tank, having a penalty to the activation roll due to damage, was really slow in coming up. You can see the chase below:
I finally managed to hit the Sherman, which had maneuvered carefully enough that I hit the front. It took 2 shots but it brewed up and that was it.
It was a fun game and Lucius was a good sport. He rolled well except when it came to strike rolls. 7 dice and only 1 or 2 hits was the norm for him. I personally think my lucky green field marshal’s baton was the reason. I shall use it in the coming games to test the theory.
We did decide to add an amendment to the rules for the next time we play: a +1″ per die rolled on roads. Roads are faster than fields, and Lucius drove a pretty big tank so I trust him on this one. It also will make the use of terrain more exciting. We’ll try it out next game and then add to our house rules if we like it.
So there you have it! Another game of WAT complete!