My RLHO (real life human opponent) and I managed to get together for a game and being time constrained opted for what a tanker.
No the cat was not my opponent-it just stomped off once it realised there was nothing worth chewing.
In the end we managed three games.
The board was a small table which speeded things up.
And then I insisted on bringing my early war/useless tanks while my opponent opted for late war kit.
Having teased him about always deploying German kit because it games so well, he deployed Russians in the first two games.
The opposition consisted of a t34/85 and a SU100? Well that’s what he paid for.
My points tally was a bit lower for my three tanks – I paid for a honey, mk1 Churchill and an M3 Grant so I upped the Churchill to a later mark to get equal points.
Of course “what a tanker” is a giant dice throwing game and I brought my loaded dice – heh heh.
He couldn’t find his buildings and I had just brought one for the hell of it.
Out of the blue a road down the centre of the board suddenly became a canal.
Just maybe I could isolate one of his tanks for two against one opportunity…..
Oh yes no problem except my loaded dice tend to fire ones or the wrong command dice combos and definitely not multiple fives and sixes.
The M3 Grant survived a few turns and then died in one dice bombing quickly followed by the Churchill.
Meanwhile the honey lasted a few rounds before again a dice bomb killed it off.
Definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting a different outcome……
The canal became a road and the Churchill deployed to dominate it. It was the same set up with two powerful Russian tanks versus three allied tanks albeit the Churchill was a later mark again.
It made no difference the Russian dice bombs returned yet this time the Russian dicing bombed – especially the saving throws! and I finally did manage to do damage. So much so he ran out of tanks so to speak.
Quantity has a certain quality after all.
Victory to the allies
I had picked the first scenery set up so my RLHO swapped to “capture the hill” and out rolled some late war German armour.
An M18 was added to the allied pile. It made no difference though.
My honey tried to soften up the jagdtiger Later the jagdtiger having shrugged off the honey took out my Churchill on the hillThe Elefant killed the M3 Grant while the jagdtiger took out the M18 – classy camouflage on the part of the jagdtiger
The allied tanks had all stuck around for at least a few turns before German dice bombs struck quickly and efficiently.
One scene – two battles – thats efficiency for you.
Monochrome provides a unity of its ownBut our world loves colour – sort of – the unity is lostWith my regular “What a Tanker” opponent I took the allies and a makeshift bunch of tanks – churchill, stuart, grant and a “shy” firefly Surprise surprise the german mechanics and fuel operators were on top gear – out come a tiger, a panther and a sturdy PzIV – needless to say flashy turrets were also on display. Its a pity there is not a special rule in WAT for complicated tech risk due to supply and logistics problems….. but this is just a table game like monopoly.We took the long table set up with tank groups arriving in diagonally opposite corners – here the germans creep into the centrerather brazenly the churchill and firefly just drive up the main streetThe weaker allied tanks stayed out of townThe churchill caught a sight of movement – fired and took out some buildingsThe stuart caught the PzIV in its sights and firedDespite hugging the old mill house the the stuart was spotted by the panther but no fire………The king tiger broke ground and took the Churchill head on……..And it was all over in a tick.The firefly got a line on the King tiger The stuart was now being targetted by both the Panther and PzIV – no one was getting any hits on anything except a barn doorFinally some allied success – the Grant crept up on the King Tiger – in my last WAT game post the Grant had been the “dark scary dog” for the big german cats.not this time – those roller bearings and cogs? (Frank Tank Rants has fantastic tank tech data to keep you happy for hours) were well oiled as the Grant failed to fire……Another allied tank gone Meanwhile the Stuart was holding its own against the “B” team of the Panther and PzIV. The problem was the Stuart was hitting its target without any impactIf that was not enough the big tiger with two kills already turned up Retreating – the stuart almost escaped before a fatal shot landed.The Firefly finally put in an appearance but was nochantly disposed of by the king tigerThe Firefly was last allied tank standing – game over. This one was quite quick which was useful as my regular opponent does not get much game time. That is why WAT is an excellent pick up game. Also I had time and the idea to get almost all my model buildings on the table.The buildings are a right old mix – some date from the 1970’s complete with enamel paint through decades old paper buildings where the damage is due to little insects! when in storage – ok the steeple was down to straight crushing. and some are ceramics from germanyThe next battle involved Austrians and Piedmontese/French so I got good use from the temporary set up.
My current preoccupation with a sideline project about the inter war years (between ww1 and ww2) has led to the acquisition of “armour”. To be specific, armoured vehicles and not some renaissance suit!
As it happened I was a bit slow on this aspect of 20th century warfare having focused on the infantry who appeared in my scenario Observer.
The idea was also that infantry heavy weapons would follow. And then finally the armour. The heavy weapons are still in the painting queue. The armour is on the factory production line………or maybe in the repair shop.
And of course the next problem is how do you fight armoured vehicles using infantry with no heavy weapons or anti tank kit either?
Use “What a Tanker” of course!
What a Tanker (WAT) by Too Fat Lardies is a game that only uses tanks and in my case some armoured cars – or rather thats all you need and actually you only need a 4-6 to play a game.
I have suddenly thought you could probably play 1 tank a side if the scenario was sufficiently rigged to stop one tank simply moving off table to end the game prematurely.
Maybe you could play a really powerful tank which is unable to move versus a much less powerful/armoured tank which has to try and manoeuvre to get in its killer shot before it is picked off.
In my next post I will explain the armour on show which is a story in itself. Suffice to say it is not what WAT is aimed at. WAT lovers I suspect lean towards the back end of the war with greater variety and dare I say it the more impressive bigger tanks.
I have got into WW2 only because of my interest in inter war era mechanisation and some various blogs that promote the Spanish and Russian Civil Wars plus 1941 Vichy middle east etc. In other words, variously considered marginal theatres in the journey from the WW1 tank invention to the great tank battles of WW2.
First up I am using armoured cars which don’t even feature in the ruleset.
I simply took a look at the values and had a punt. So this game was in a way a test of the rules to cope with weak kit. Would the game even work. Actually the secret is in the Japan tank table where some really weak options can be chosen. And I think TFL(Too Fat Lardies) really test their rules hard.
The Reds had three Renaults
2 Renault FT17’s – they got armour of 2 and strike of 3
leading this pack was a Renault NC29 apparently exported to Japan by a France that straight after world war 1 had the largest tank army in the world and led tank development. Armour 4 and a whopping strike value of 5 was given.
The Blues had
One Crossley 6 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 3
One Marmon Herrington 4 wheeled Armoured Car armour 2 and strike 4
The Blue force was led by an M3 Stuart or maybe its a Honey Armour 4 strike 4
As WAT abstracts heavily WYSIWYG does not have to apply and I was the only one looking so that was fine. Apologies to the purists.
I put the two big tanks in the centre opposite each other.
No scenery was provided so it was a straight knock out.
looking more like insects you get the drift some homemade counters I made for the WAT dashboards
I belatedly got the camera into action so what follows is a truncated record of the action.
unfamiliar with the rules meant an untidy table! The FT 17 at the top of the board raced past the Marmon Herrington while the M3 did the same on the NC27. The two opponents at the bottom of the picture just got the wrong dice – you can’t see them tinkering with their faulty engines……….abstraction opens up so many possibilities!
I have only played WAT a few times properly and spaced out over time – end result was I could not remember the rules. I played the “long ball” set up – with three vehicles per side – set up opposite each other. Points were not the priority so absolute balance did not matter..
A “rushed to the front” (no time to paint it let alone apply camoflage) Stuart M3 catches a Renault NC27 side on and fails to make a kill! Poor dice left the NC27 a sitting duck
The Renault NC27 succumbed but so did the Marmon which seeking to support the M3 left the FT17 behind only for the dice to roll very kindly for the FT17. The FT 17 simply took the Marmon in the rear.
Meanwhile the other FT17 eventually destroyed the Crossley and returned to the remaining action just in time.
The Stuart M3 busy failing again to take out another Renault tank – an FT17. The Stuart M3 is caught in the rear by a second FT17 – ok I had the wrong gun pointing at the time! plus sometimes the dice roll for you.
Luck was running out for the M3 Stuart and so it did. It failed to quickly destroy the FT17 by the Marmon and so the two FT17’s were able to slowly kill it with some good dice throwing.
a final strike and its all over for the the Stuart M3.
So the M3 Stuart was first deprived of its weak armoured car supports and then finished off by the FT17’s. Thats Fauxterre 1930+ for you – what a tanker style.
For the soloist, looking into the eyes of an opponent and not via a screen is a surprise – a nice surprise.
In this case it was a “live” wargame for a soloist. What to play? Time of the essence – it had to be quick. Although Neil Thomas is invariably a draw, it was “What a Tanker” (WaT) by Too Fat Lardies that won the decision.
with a bit of notice a suitable scene was created – the crossroads was supplied by Coritani at the Fiasco Show
I set up a congested scene after a recent solo run out of WaT had proven to be a bit too much of a target practice event.
Points tally was dictated by wanting at least 3 tanks a side playing wide across a 6’x4′ or 1.8m x 1.2m board. And with one gamer wanting big German tanks to figure, we ended up as follows.
Germans (43pts)
1 Pz VI Tiger I 21pts – armour 10 and strike value 10 with slow moving turret and heavy armour
2 PzIV E-F1 9pts – armour 5 and strike value 4
3 PzIV H-J 13pts – armour 6 and strike value 7
they were up against
British (45pts)
1 M3 Honey 9pts – armour 4 and strike value 4 Fast
2 M3 Grant 10pts – armour 4 and strike value 6
3 M4 Sherman 12pts – armour 6 and strike value 6
4 Sherman Firefly 14pts – armour 6 and strike value 9 slow mover
The British were so short of tanks the Honey had to be sent into action in bare metal (ok plastic) and some white primer!
The scene was near a destroyed bridge with a village of sorts clustered around a crossroads.
What a Tanker requires scenery classification.
The starting points were random. The tiger was in one corner. The M4 Sherman was opposite. The weaker PzIV EF and Grant were at the other flank. In middle the Honey and Firefly faced off the other PzIV HJ.
Everything was a minor obstacle except for some tough hedgerows which being MAJOR obstacles required extra effort to cross. These were my recently completed “sponge hedges”.
Victory conditions for this game were destuction of all enemy armour.
The hedgerows at the top of this photo drove both the German PzIV EF1 tank and its M3 Grant into the village with mixed results.
The Germans were a bit sluggish yet the Tiger took out the fast M3 Honey even before it moved. Things were not looking good for the British. The M4 Sherman (in the wide open) and opposite the Tiger had maxed out on moving (getting lots of drive dice to use in its first turn) and also rolled high (you roll dice for inches of movement). It promptly raced for the relative shelter of the village.
The Firefly was soon engaged with the PzIV HJ and stayed on the west road exchanging light damage.
The Tiger struck again and the Firefly was no more.
The Firefly succumbs! as later does the PzIV HJ – west street was littered with destroyed tanks
The odds were still stacked against the British. Fortunately the Tiger failed to get “drive” dice and the remaining M4 set about the PzIV EF1. Meanwhile the M3 Grant which had struggled to do anything useful managed to get on the north road despite halting in line of sight of the Tiger which this time failed to “acquire” dice for an easy target ( the tiger was at one end of the board, the Grant at the other – 72 inches away).
The Grant then scurried into south east wood before heading north!
Finally some better luck for the British as the M4 took out the PzIV HJ – striking at its weaker flank. Yet the Tiger was now hunting in the village.
The Tiger stalks the M3 Grant at very top left – it really is there! – but it is just a glimpse as the M3 scuttles away
Now the Tiger was really on the move and almost caught the tail of the M3 Grant. Random movement allowed the Tiger to then reverse back onto north bridge road to confront the M4 Sherman that had carelessly decided to chase the action.
The Tiger reverses back onto north road to deal with that “2 kills” M4 Sherman
The M3 Grant continued to skirt the east side of the village arriving at the north end of the village at exactly the right moment – what a journey!
Finally the M3 Grant arrives at the actionNo fire dice? with Tigers you can simply crush the opposition………..
The Tiger dice were thrown and they were “drive” dice and no “fire” dice. The Tiger simply drove straight into the M4 Sherman and then – nothing – it failed to crush the M4.
Failing to crush the M4 Sherman led to the M3 Grant getting a free shot at the Tiger’s slightly weaker rear armour.
At that point the M3 Grant had completed its own circumnavigation of the village and acquired the weaker armoured rear of the Tiger 1.
At last the dice really went with the British and another lucky shot destroyed the Tiger 1.
really lucky dice by the unfashionable M3 Grant
Game over!
Gaming tools include measuring sticks, tape measure, dice and dashboard indicators for loaded, aimed, target acquired and buttoned
This game had all the twists and turns WaT offers. After the early dice rolled well for the Germans, luck ran out later on as the British crucially threw two sets of “tank destroyed” dice.
Great fun and we even gave the “oldhammer” measuring sticks a run out.
The Wargaming Erratic 