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Friday 14 November 2014

Tank Trouble + WWII Wargame + Bolt Action

Wargaming has been around for a very long time. The game of chess is a simple form of wargame, first devised in India long ago. Risk and Battleship are other simple wargames. In historical wargaming, participants work with either historical battles, or historical armies in hypothetical situations. ~ The National WWII Museum.

Last Monday night Lewis set up a very special WWII wargame using a fog of war (two towels hung on a microphone stand) that involved setting up two separate tables with the same layout and pairs of tanks, one for each. You only saw your opponents tank on your table if you had line of sight. 

The original battle took place during the Battle of the Bulge, in the crossroads town of Eschfeld (more about Eschfeld here).

We fought at the crossroads where the germans had to be removed by the British to enable a fast approaching force of allied infantry to complete a flanking move.

Unfortunately the movement of said infantry would be impossible until the germans had been removed. Allied Intelligence reported several medium tanks sighted in the village, however it was up to the Tank platoon commander, Captain Hunter, to see if this was true. With his meagre force of 3 shermans and one firefly he had his work cut out for him.

Little did he know that Oberstrumphenum Keenankreig lay in wait with a couple of Panzer III's, a Stug and arriving later, a Tiger!

This was an experimental scenario with limited intelligence for both players. As Darcy commented, very much like "Battleships". ~ Lewis Morgan


I took photos and occasionally aided Lewis who was referee. Blair (Oberstrumphenum Keenankreig) and Dave (Captain Hunter) had an enjoyable if somewhat harrowing night guessing what lay in wait around the corner. I noted that Blair, though bold in his actions, played more on the defence, setting up an ambush early on. Dave was a timid attacker, testing the water before diving in. Losing a tank in one of the gateways was a severe setback for the captain. However, taking out the Tiger was a superb stroke of good fortune. Because of this, Dave was awarded a Pyrrhic victory.

As an aside, I have never seen Lewis work so hard. There was condensation on the windows!






































God Bless you and have a great week!





5 comments:

  1. I've been wanting to try out the Bolt Action rules, Wonder how the Tiger was taken down.

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    1. In a bold and not at all timid move, my Sherman firefly flanked the tiger and hit it in the side. The resulting fireball lit the heavens! The British rejoiced and said "good show old chap" and similar words of encouragement.

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  2. Timid? Sorry, my bad english! I obviously meant... tenacious!

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    Replies
    1. Yeah. Thought it must have been a typo. My firefly setting an ambush for the crossroads, while the Sherman's flanked around the sides, was a classic move. If only Blair had cooperated, by being in the right place.

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  3. That method of Fog of War sound's inspired! Being only a solo gamer though, it won't really work for me ;)

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