Another Wandering Matilda

Once again an Australian Matilda tank finds itself alone in a Japanese village in 1946 (see previous post:  link  )

The Japanese (me, playing solo) planned a coordinated three sided attack by “lunge-mine” soldiers while the Japanese sniper would force the tank commander to button up making acquisition of his compatriots more difficult.  “Ieko” one of the Japanese attackers would be stationed in the temple and ring the bell within to indicate the tank has gone beyond the building commencing the attacks.

"Village of Machikoro, 1946"

The Australian tank commander now realizing his infantry support was, well, not in support, had no intention to blithely move thru the village [ and I rolled no Move Dice! ]  While looking about above the hatch, he ordered his gunner to shoot into the nearest building. [ I did roll the appropriate dice so he could do that!]  

“THAT should bring out any skulkers!” 

Ieko, observing through a slit in the window covering, noted the turret gun turn in his direction.  He rang the bell and took cover!

Teppo, the sniper, took a position around the corner of the building and fired. But to no effect. the Tank commander did not become aware he was being shot at.  Kenso, seeing the tank stop well outside a distance he could be expected to run (and that in front of the tank! ) decided to make his way thru the paddies to a position to the flank or rear of the tank.  

Editor note: For these games, I take the situation the miniature has at hand and try to make a logical and prudent decision of action before rolling its Command Dice.  This decision is often negated as the dice do not allow such, so I go with what the dice can allow. In this case I rolled three Move Dice and having no need of a Wild Die, also turned that into his run.  As the distance to the tank was considerable  so he went the other direction.  But of course the rolls I made for the distance would have had him safely to the tanks glacis and into the attack!  But that is 20/20 hindsight!

Ieko in the damaged building was immobile with shock (I rolled no Move dice for him) 

Meanwhile, the hull gunner was alert and spotted Teppo the sniper and opened up with his hull MG.  Poor Teppo was shredded with bullets as the main gun was reloaded.

Ichiro, crouching around the building’s corner having seen Teppo become chopped suey decided to move the OTHER way to in behind the now ruined temple. However with the dust of the explosion he too had no idea of the tank’s position [ no acquisition dice were rolled] 

The commander still ‘unbuttoned’ with his head above the hatch, demanded “Gunner, fire at the next building where the body is”.   “Ah, the damned *** again!” was the reply.  No shot could be taken.  “Move ahead” the CO allowed.  “There’s a bugger. Turn right and take him” as the tank had acquired Ichiro. But perhaps slowed by some building debris (?) but the tank could only go a very short three inches.  [ I had rolled a paltry 3 on two dice!!]

Meanwhile…. in his fast pace, Kenso had gone beyond a 90 degree visual range of the tank and so failed to see it move off away from him.  However, Ieko recovered and had a chance for an attack.  My roll for the Japanese soldier was 1,1,2,3,4,4 meaning he could Move 1D, Move another 1D, Acquire the tank, Aim ("ready himself") and Fire (press the lunge mine detonator against the tank).  It is lucky he had two Move dice as I rolled two 1s but as the tank was literally at his door step….For his life , he caused one permanent and one temporary damage to the hard shell of the Matilda. 

Immediately after Ichiro plunged his weapon against the frontal glacis of the tank. The explosion blew the commander out through the open hatch and destroyed his tank….the extra strike dice from being ‘unbuttoned’ proved fatal.  

Ichiro would turn to deliver his attack on the tank while the temple continues to smoulder

Solo WaT in Japan

I had only a few full torso WW2 Japanese infantry left on the sprues and since a few weeks ago now I was still on the “What a Tanker” infantry anti-tank theme, I thought I use them to create essentially a suicide AT squad armed with some ‘lunge mines’ supplied. Two of them have those weapons on a long stick, one has his in the hand (I used the pole elsewhere!) and the fourth is using a rifle to keep the tank commander ‘buttoned-up’ making it harder for the target tank to see these infantry threats. So to explain these new Japanese warriors AND, more critically, the use of an old British Matilda tank, AND further, to show off my new Japanese Plasticraft building, I have this Alt-History story: April 1946, U.S. President Truman was not delivered the atomic bomb and so had to defeat the still defiant Japan the old fashion way. Operation Coronet is almost two months old with Tokyo and adjacent areas secured but pockets of resistance needed to be removed. While a relatively small part of this operation, the Australian contribution was tasked toward one of these areas. Sergeant Forlorn’s old Matilda tank had become separated from its infantry support and had entered a small village seemingly untouched by the destruction of war…. Inside the Matty stopped before the village, a conversation rages: “Where are the bloomin’ infantry?!” “lost them back a ways” “Why didn’t you bloody say?!” “you seemed happy looking at the cherry blossoms” “Well, step on it and get past this bloody village!”

The engine of the Matty sputtered and then roared to life (rolling doubled ones for first Move Dice followed by rolling 10 inches for the Second!). Hearing the tank, Ieko sprang from his position behind the house’s corner while yelling “For the Emperor!”, slipped on the wet ground [I only rolling 3(inches) with 2d6] yet reached the tank and aimed his thrust with the mine held in his hand to the side of the green monster.

His aim (double sixes! …my rather erratic and dramatic dice rolling trend continues…) adds 2 more Strike Dice to his attack.

“Its a Kamikaze!” is all the C.O. who was in the open hatch could say before the sharpshooter with the rifle put a bullet into his head. [ I must say my rolling of the dice in this case was perfect for this event to occur] The Matty is now down to three Command Dice but luckily the driver was composed enough [actually I rolled a Drive Dice] and the tank went into reverse and the gunner acquired the shooter but could not do more. Seeing that his chance to finish off the tank was fading as it slowly reversed away from him, Ichiro sprang from his hiding spot positioned behind the straw fence near the sharpshooter and ran up the road. “Bansai!” His sacrifice shook the tank crew further having one further Command Dice lost.

Kenso, in the door of the rice barn, needed to be much closer and so hoped to move into a better position without being spotted but his nerves …and my dice rolling…prevented his feet from moving.

Meanwhile the Matilda slowly moved backward from the village. Kenso finally called to the Emperor for help and I rolled a 1,2,3,4,5,6 combo! Kenso acquired the location for the tank, ran as few have [ I rolled 20 (inches) on 4d6 !] - having converted the Wild (6) into an extra “Drive/Move Die - which had him reach the distant tank and thrust his lunge mine [successful aim roll] but alas, the blast, while killing Kenso, did little to the armour of the Matilda.

The sharpshooter, lowered his rifle (not rolling the dice for him to fire) and mourned the loss of his comrades, as the green beast moved away….

Bringing a ‘faust to a tank fight……

“What a Tanker!” is a unashamedly tank vs tank game.
However, wargamers being wargamers,  can’t leave well enough alone and many have done much work to expand upon the original premise to include anti-tank guns and anti-armour infantry weapons.  While I have done so, I was surprised to discover that even the Two Fat Lardies authors have also done their own version!  [ LARD Magazine 2019 ]  Their rules had the panzerfausts/bazookas stationary while I have gone the 'more traditional ' route and play the mobile infantry carrying blasters of tanker hell more in tune with the original rules.

As a play test, WillB was given my 3D print Matilda II - a Lend-Lease provided by the British,  while I played the late war Germans. These are Warlord plastics painted by me recently and armed with the always popular panzerfausts for hunting the lost tank in a Russian village.

Because of the need of certain dice at certain times …and that not happening… it does mean the infantry don’t necessary have free reign and indeed at times became the hunted.  At one point the Matty rounded the corner of the church almost running down one of the Germans who was frightened stiff with fear (he did not get any ‘move’ or even ‘fire’ dice at the time).  The tank could not move any further unfortunately and the German finally turned and made his escape.

It gives me the opportunity to have the late war enemy tanks on the table without the need for me to build an additional tank model to face them ;))