Tanking in Normandy

 Today we had a couple of games of 'What a Tanker' at the club! It was my suggestion so the others got to choose the tanks!

Phil fancied using Tank Destroyers, so as they were the only ones I had, we used a couple of M-18s, and I used a Stuart light tank to make up the points! - We fought three Pzkw IVH's (well, one was a 'G' but who's counting!)

The Germans, run by my Solo System.

Our TD's and my little tank!

The table for today!

The first game was 'Angles' - so fighting along this axis.

The G Pzkw IV probed forward cautiously.

Phil's Hellcat did likewise, albeit slightly faster!

The M-18 has a great gun and speed, but is even more of an eggshell than my light tank! 

The 'G' advanced, keeping to as much cover as it could.

I tried to get to the wood, and relative safety, but my dice fell short!

An 'H' came rumbling through the wood in question!

The other 'H' was stalking Lawrence's M-18.

Back in the centre, the 'G' saw Phil's M-18.

The first shell missed...

...My tank was jumped by the Pzkw IV in the wood...

...Phil, too...

...took a direct hit!

Lawrence, wisely, decided discretion was the better part of Valour!

The Second Game- we kept the same vehicles...what could go wrong?

This time we fought the 'Fat Man' scenario, side to side.

I (overexposed, sorry!) was at least in cover this time!

Phil was to my right...Lawrence on my left.

The Germans were set up as spread out as us.

The 'G' probed forward again.

The left hand 'H' moved towards a gap between a hedged field and a wood.

The right hand 'H' cautiously looked for targets.

Lawrence got an amazing lot of Command dice, with the additional change of one as the M-18 is 'Fast', he got 6 movement actions!

I was struggling through the wood, being 'Fast' didn't help a bit!

Phil raced down the road!

The central German moved up to the road.

Phil and Lawrence were now exchanging shots with 2 of the Germans.

Phil got first blood...

The Panzer in the gap got toasted.

Lawrence withdrew after some near misses.

The 'G' responsible was forced to retreat by a return from Phil.

Phil was having a good day!

Lawrence moved round the wood, trying to outflank the Germans.

He reached a good position!

My little tank got fed up and came out of the wood to play!

The Panzer IV Lawrence had tried to outflank turned to engage him.

The TD was lucky, only Temporary damage.

The Panzer took damage back...

It took damage to its running gear!

I was moving round the flank, keeping to cover.

Phil was lucky to survive a near miss!

Yikes! - at least only Temporary damage!

The Panzer was in a good position.

Then, my little tank appeared! Shot into the flank of the Panzer!

...it bounced off harmlessly!

Phil fell back to break the Panzer's aim, and fired as he went.

A lucky hit brewed the Panzer!

The other Pzkw made for the table edge.

Ah well, one each, but both fun!

There's no place like Rome?

 Today we returned to the Punic wars with Midgard, which is producing some excellent games! Sadly, Lawrence hasn't been able to add more figures to his bases since last game, but they did just fine!

This game we had 4 players so chose sides by dice, I got the Roman command with Rhod as my allied general, Phil sided with Lawrence in charge of the Carthaginians. Being something of a fan of the Punic Wars, I decided to ignore the deep formations Lawrence used last game and use a more Scipio Africanus deployment, would Midgard reward my innovations?

 The Romans looking across at the Carthaginians.

The view from the Carthaginian side, Lawrence had set his African Spearmen on the right with Spanish Scutarii behind, whil Phil had the Numidians, Elephants and Gauls on the left.

The Carthaginian horse moved to outflank Rhod, so he sent the Allied Cavalry supported by some Velites to match them.

Facing the Gauls, I moved a Cohort of Hastati behind my Roman Equites.

Phil obviously fancied using his Elephants aggressively!

Lawrence's Spearmen advanced slowly.

I decided to attack the Elephants with Hastati--Unfortunately the Elephants got to counter-charge!

The Carthaginian horse seemed willing to wait for infantry support!

The Elephants, no surprise, won, the Numidians began a series of advances, throwing Javelins at my Roman Cavalry, while I tried short charges to drive them away.

Our Velites moved forward to skirmish with the advancing Carthaginian line.

The Carthaginian Cavalry charged and wiped out the Allied Cavalry, only their supporting Veles remained...

In the centre, the Carthaginians had left a gap, which I pushed a Velite unit through, to their left, another Velite unit was caught by Two (!) African Spear units.

The Elephants continued to trample my Hastati!

I swung my Triarii onto their flank.

Rhod charged two Hastati units to support the poor Velites.

Rhod turned some Principes and Triarii to fend off the blown Carthaginian Cavalry.

My Hastati had destroyed a Gallic Warband, their Principes engaged another with my Consul in tow!

Rhod's Velites died, but elsewhere the Legionarii did ok.

Having destroyed my Hastati, the Elephants threw Javelins at my Triarii...!!!

There went my 'Spears as Tribute'!

Sadly one of my Hastati units got destroyed by good dice from the Gauls.

Phil's Elephants attacked the Triarii, but rolled appallingly.

The Triarii got a good number of hits!

The Hephalumps were no more!

My Velites who had helped Rhod destroy an African Spear unit now shot a Spanish unit, which recoiled, and their Hero died!

Another Princeps unit fell

On Rhod's side, the Triarii and Veles destroyed the Carthaginian Cavalry.

Phil had brought his Balearics up to support his Numidians, who never failed to evade my charges, and together, they destroyed my Roman Cavalry!

The last Gallic Warband fell...

My Triarii joined them to kill the Hero, who couldn't leave due to the poor Reputation state--of both armies!

My Veles helped Rhod destroy a Spanish unit.

Rhod's Principes also beat the last African Spear unit!

We totaled up the negative reputation and Rome won by 7 (I think) - it was sooo close, i started the last turn with 2 Reputation, I think, and we both took a lot of Reputation losses during the turn. I think we felt the Romans lost less badly than the Carthaginians!!!

Fun game!