For this week's club meeting, we did a multi-player game of What A Tanker in 15mm. This had big 'Girls Und Panzer' vibes, in that we cheerfully mixed tanks of different nationalities and periods. Each player was allowed three tanks - one from Level 1 or 2, one from Level 3 or 4 and one from Level 5 and 6. You didn't have to stick to the same nationality in your selection, although some people chose to. You started with your lowers Level tank on the table, at one of the short edges. The aim was to drive off the other end - a distance of 12'. If your tank got destroyed, then you respawned with your next highest level vehicle. Seems simple? It was. Except that to win, each player had to also destroy at least one enemy tank, and also visit the pie-shop in the village in the centre of the table. This meant that you couldn't just do a straight run down the middle without fighting.
Anyway, this was the table - desert terrain close to the camera, a mixed woodland/urban terrain in the middle and some frozen wastes at the far end. We had eight players in total, with Ralph (the scenario designer) keeping things running. A few players hadn't played before.
Everyone selected their three tanks, determined which end they would start from and then Ralph gave us all the briefing.
This was my selection: My lowest level tank was a Panzer II (because I wanted to try the Rapid Fire autocannon), my next level an M5 (using my Haunted Tank element from my HOTT Weird WWII American army) and finally a T34/85 as my top-level tank. The latter was purely because I happened to have a model in my collection of random bits.
My Panzer II got off to a cracking start on the desert board; I rolled a load of Drive or Wild dice, and being fast could convert another dice to a Drive dice too. So I got five movement actions on my first turn, and whizzed down the table. Given the movement-based nature of the mission, fast tanks were popular (all three of my selections rated Fast).
At the other end of the table things started more violently, as the players rolled fewer movement and more shooting actions. Theo started things off with a bang, rotating his Crusader on the baseline to fire a killing shot at a nearby Panzer III.
From that point we got heavily into the game and I stopped taking photos for a while. My Panzer II carried on its fast drive, but was pursued by Caesar's Fiat (not sure what model - it was a small Italian tank, OK?). Needless to say I got shot at, and damaged; damage to my drive gear, specifically, slowing me down. That was pretty much the only shooting at our end of the table - Stuart and Nathan (running a Crusader and a Panzer III respectively) advanced more slowly from the start and stayed hidden from each other, so didn't line up any shots.
My plan was the quickest possible visit to the pie-shop, then a run for the finish, hoping to kill a tank from the frozen end of the table on the way through, maybe via a rear-shot after I'd whizzed past.
So here I am - I've been to the pie-shop and am heading out of the village. At the top right you can see Theo's Crusader coming down the road from the other end of the table.
Things caught up with me. This was the position later in the turn with Stuart and Theo's Crusaders heading for the shop, and Caesar's Fiat still chasing me. It looks more dangerous than you might think; there was a no fire zone within a certain distance of the pie-shop, which meant that none of us could actually shoot at each other. This was to have a major effect on how the game played out, as you will see.
The frozen end of the table, showing a Hetzer and something Italian. The Hetzer killed the Italian tank, which respawned as a Panzer IV behind the Hetzer - you could respawn within 18" of your previous tank's position, so long as you weren't any further forward.
Caesar rolled a load of Drive dice and got ahead of me whilst we were still in the ceasefire zone. He was engaged by Colin's Crusader, and badly damaged.
More to the point, his gun wasn't pointed at the Crusader; it was still trained on my Panzer II. I came out of the ceasefire zone and also started shooting at him, inflicting some minor damage as well. Caesar shot back, but my Small trait, mixed with some outrageous luck, meant that he kept missing. Caesar was shaping up to be my kill ...
At that point it became academic. Theo had made his kill on the first turn, and had visited the pie-shop as well. Then he simply drove off the table through a desert zone devoid of opposing tanks. The only other tanks he encountered were in the ceasefire zone - so no-one could shoot at him.
So Theo got a good, solid win, with a kill, an escape off the other end and doing it with his lowest level tank. My view was that the ceasefire zone was probably too large (or could have been removed) and led to a situation where, at the point where people had the best chance to start shooting and getting kills, they couldn't do it. I suppose that each group of players could have fought at their own end of the table before coming into the central zone, but that would have led to two four-player games, and less fun.
That aside it was a great scenario, and I hope we get to do it again sometimes. All credit to Ralph for putting it together, to Colin for loaning me a Panzer II and to the other players (including Nathan, who visited the club whilst passing through Wollongong on holiday) for keeping it all entertaining.
52 Games - Game 68
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