Like I mentioned in the most recent episode of BAR (August! - Judson), I recently got a Tank War game in. This was my first outing with an all tank force since getting Tank Wars, and since the changes to how pins affect tanks. There was not a ton of planning involved in this game; we finished a standard game early and had some more time to kill, so dropped a dozen tanks on the board. It was quick and dirty.
I brought an all veteran American force, this worked out well for me because I was able to make full use of stabilizers and ignore hits from my opponent's armored cars.
US Army
M10
M4 Sherman
M5 Stuart
M4 Sherman w/76
M4 Sherman w/76
Andy took an all regular German force and had two separate platoons.
German Force
Panzer II
Marder III
Marder III
Panzerwerfer 42
Sdkfz 222
Panzer IV L
Grille
Hetzer
In the opening shots of the game two of my tanks became immobilized.
My M10 lines up a shot from behind this ridge.
German tanks form a battle line.
One of my tanks get sneaky and tries to outflank ze Germans.
First kill of the game is the Panzer IV.
My Sherman basks in the glory of watching a panzer burn.
One of Andy's Marders returns the favor and takes out the M10.
The armored car and Panzer II sneak past the piggies. (Behave, Lachlan. - J)
With two tanks immobilized and one knocked out it's not looking for the old US of A.
Finally a result from my creeper, who immobilizes the Grille.
Then another hit on a Marder, who loses a track as well.
The Panzer II commander directs his tanks from the shade.
Not very happy with my Americans putting dents in his toys, Andy immobilizes another US tank.
Then the creeper gets some revenge by taking out a Marder from the side. Stabilizers are paying off.
It's carnage all around.
The next turn the creeper takes out the Grille.
The Panzer II tried to score a side shot on the Sherman with its auto cannon.
The Hetzer duels-it-out with the immobilized US tanks.
The Panzerwefer 42 werfs my Sherman.
Taking him out.
I responded by taking out his Panzer II. We called the game after that. We had lost track of how many turns we had played (they went quick), and almost every tank was knocked out or immobilized. Since we didn't throw any objectives down there was no point in continuing. We called it a gentleman's draw.
My thoughts on all tank games is you have to have objectives otherwise it turns into my line of tanks shooting at your line of tanks and there is almost no incentive to move. Also, I would encourage people to play with 1500 points and take infantry. This will help mix it up some more, so the game isn't tanks abreast firing at each other. Tank War has a lot of potential to be fun, you just have to put together a better game than we did. I look forward to getting my next Tank War game in, but in the future I'll be making those changes.
