RUSSIAN RUMBLE

This past week the Wednesday Group played another Russian Civil War game using the Perfect Captain’s Red Action Rules. http://perfectcaptain.50megs.com/redactions.html

The battle had the Whites trying to locate and recover a cache of supplies located in a small town along the rail line. The Red’s goal was simply to prevent that occurring. The battle opened with the White’s cavalry sweeping in on the right flank along the rail line at a full gallop, speed being more important than combat. The Red’s were slow to make an appearance, with only a pair of Tchanca, MG’s in horse drawn wagons, guarding the village. White artillery quickly destroyed the first, while a fire fight with the cavalry forced the other to retire deeper into the town.

 

Whites Advance on the Town

After several turns of unopposed White maneuvering the rest of the Red army started to make an appearance. Red cavalry moved up to oppose their opposite number while their artillery and a meager number of infantry began advancing down the main road. By this time the White infantry had joined the cavalry in searching the town for supplies. Extremely accurate artillery fire from the Whites drove off part of the Red’s infantry, while a steady fire from their cavalry pushed the Red’s further and further back. By games end the Whites had discovered there were no supplies to be found. Having sustained few casualties, themselves and having eliminated or driven off the Reds the White army was declared victors of this encounter.

 

Whites Clear the Town

The Village Secured, but Where are the Supplies?

Our group likes these rules a lot and will be playing more of these games in the future. Battles flow back and forth with combat results being more prone to degrading and repulsing units rather than destroying them. Quality is rare in our games with most of the forces being mobs with only a few elite troops having the Storm and Specialist abilities. Best tactics are don’t ask to much of your troops and have a reserve ready.  

Toon Tanks Tangle

US tanks occupy the town. The Haunted tank on the left. 

Recently the Wednesday group played a game of What a Tanker by Two Fat Lardies. If you are not familiar with this game, it is a simple tank on tank duel using command dice to cover the various operations of moving, shooting, aiming and loading. Our forces for the game were 3 Panthers and a Hetzer on the German side, with 3 Sherman M4A1s, an M36 Tank Destroyer, 2 M4A4E8 Easy Eights, and an M5 Stuart as the famous “Haunted Tank” for the Americans.

 

US tanks enter the battlefield

Panther out hunting. US tanks can be seen in the far center behind the trees. 

Things started quickly with one of the Panthers being in a spot to both spot, aim and fire at the M36 doing some serious damage to the Tank Destroyer before it had even had a chance to do anything. The rest of the forces on both sides maneuvered around to gain cover for themselves and set-up to get sights on their enemies. The wounded M36 darted deep into a nearby grove of trees to break line of sight with the offending Panther and gain some much-needed cover.

Easy Eight in woods over watching the road

The following turn the M36 activated first, moved to the edge of the woods to fire on the Panthers and missed. It was rewarded for its trouble by being the target of a pair of Panthers that finished it off. Shortly after one of the Easy Eights got an amazing shot that destroyed a Panther, but the Panther commander played his Special card that reduced all damage to no effect and survived unscathed. With all the American tanks seeking cover around the village the Germans needed to maneuver to gain shots in the upcoming turns.

 

First Kill. M36 on fire

The third turn saw a standard Sherman take out a different Panther. This evened the odds back up. The rest of the American tanks kept to cover, while the Germans became impatient and started aggressively maneuvering.

 

US revenged. Burning Panther

The next turns saw the Germans taking shots on the tanks in the town. They damaged a few, but left themselves open for counter attacks. The Hetzer was the first to go down to the Easy Eight that had been sighted in on the main road. The Panthers then through caution to the wind. In order to get better shots on the tanks in town they exposed their flanks to the Easy Eight over watching the road. It proved a poor choice as another Panther went down in flames. With only a single tank remaining the lucky Panther that survived to first killing shot departed the board for safer hunting grounds.

 

The Hetzer goes down as the Panthers maneuver to engage the US tanks

The third Panther goes down to a flank shot as the lone surviving German heads off the battlefield

Overall it was a fun game with great looking terrain. I am sure there will be a rematch soon.