Commander McTague, missions and good times... all on a school night!

Shaun (long time gaming mate, who has to suffer my game adhd) came over for more TANKS last night. We played 3 missions out of the rule book on my over terrained (for a standard game) table - we had bocage on there which we said blocked LOS unless against it, gave cover and a tank could only move once if they went over it at any point.

Three good games where we kept the same forces for all the games but had the chance for the attacker to choose edges. Shaun, from memory, had 4 M4 - one of them a 76mm with a few crew upgrades and I had a Jagdpanther, Panther and a StuG - Barkmann in the Panther and a precise gunner in the Jagdpanther which also had cammo netting.

My baby cats!

The first mission was the KILL mission and it was pretty close - some early BIG hits from the 88mm on the Jagdpanther meant it was always going to be hard work for Shaun to claw back - he nearly did but in the end I was winning on points after the allotted time.

A cat in the bush... bye bye Fury

 Second mission was 'King of the Hill' and the objective was the cross roads in the village.

Again a tense game, felt a bit like Villiers Bocage in the end but I managed to eek out another victory. Although my Jagdpanther was out of the game for a long while with a  broken track result which took a long time to clear! It came back in at the end and made sure that there was no chance for Shaun really.

Barkmann claiming the objective

Engine fire eventually got the StuG !

Third game we played the defense scenario which played into the US tanks hands in a sense as Shaun put an objective in both corners - forcing a wide defensive line, kept one side busy while concentrating on the other. A sound tactic but my cammo netted, in the wood Jagdpanther proved a tricky one to take out - my mobile reserve, in the form of the StuG went down fairly easily from being ganged up on and my Panther held it's side but a busted track meant I couldn't then nip across to help out on the other flank - well played Shaun !

Again - very impressed with the rules - three good, close games in 2.5 hours of play, who can argue with that.

After re-reading some of the memoirs and accounts of tankers I like the way the rules cover stuff I am reading all the time. US tanks knowing they are not going to penetrate went for longer ranged HE and even WP ammo attacks on the Germans hoping to disrupt them enough to get around the side. In TANKS this is basically what is happening with the lucky crits that get through to give the optic/busted track/stunned crew effects.

Roll on OP season...