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.