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| I really like this pic of WillB's "Cyclops" crossing my new bridge - see previous post- |
Another fun battle of “What a Tanker!” armour combat rules with WillB providing his collection of Sicily-appropriate Canadian tanks and a few German opposition. I provided the terrain (probably more desert than Sicily but that is all I had Italian…) and, of course, using my new bridge. That did not surprise WillB. The scenario was a ‘rescue’ of a immobile Valentine but functioning “Harry” by the intrepid C Troop of Canadians consisting of Shermans “Chief”, “Cyclops”, “Corvette” (a Firefly with a 17 lb) and “Cobault”. Against these Allies were a PaK 35 waiting behind a stonewall, a Beutepanzer StuG M42 / Semovente 75/18, and, well, a big bad Tiger I.
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| The battlefield with the PaK35 fifth in line to activate and WillB's tanks in the far corner. "Harry" the track-missing Valentine is off-camera to the left and the Semovente to the right near the foremost clump of rocks. |
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| C troop after 'Cobault' (left) was brewed by the Tiger. |
WillB’s troop had a bit of rough time of it as the scenario had them bunched together and needing to crossing the bridge. After the usual fits and starts and stops of WaT, the Valentine was destroyed and my Tiger finally took out a Sherman (poor “Cobault”) but “Cyclops” proved to be the star crew as it took out the PaK 35 (squish!) and distracted the Tiger. At one point, I had positioned the Tiger for a nice close flank shot on the Sherman but had not the dice (yet) to shoot. But “Cyclops” was in a position that, if it got initiative first, to move behind the Cat. The Kitty did not get to go first and so lost sight of the Sherman. It was not “Cyclops” in the rear but “Corvette” and its powerful 17lb which took out the German beast. That left the crew of the Semovente to call it a day and depart thus giving the area to the Canadians.
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| The low profile Semovente tank-destroyer hull down on the hill was a hard target to hit |
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| "Cyclops" (lower left) on the move to deal with the PaK. The other Shermans offer support. |
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| just after 'Cyclops' moved behind the German Kitty which was unable to respond effectively and would be shortly shot.... |
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| .... and destroyed by the 17lb. Yes, I was still "unbuttoned" but WillB had way more hits than I had armor saves! The extra had got did not matter.... |
"What a Tanker!" is an easy, fun game. OK, it can be frustrating at times:
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| Yes, that was one of my command rolls!! For WaT it means I can REALLY aim but little else. |
but of what I read and have learnt of tank combat, it is not far off the mark if you add a bit of narrative into each turn of play. Things happen, things get FUBAR'd, commands are misunderstood, etc, etc. all this in a span of actually only several minutes of combat. It has scratched my WW2 need in any case.
