30 June 2023

Big Kats rule the day

Earlier this month, I was able to actually meet up with Stew (His fab blog should be a must follow) whilst my wife was away in Oregon with her sister, visiting family. It's been a few years (And Stew had added two new children to his family) since he and I had managed to hang out and play a face-to-face game so I was eager to travel up to his home and see what he had set up. Stew's old gaming pal, Paul was also invited and upon arrival I was pleased to see a typically well laid out table to represent "somewhere" in the French countryside, circa 1944. 

"What a Tanker" by Too Fat Lardies was chosen as game of the day (15mm scale), where Paul and I would take control of the Americans against Stew and his dastardly German Panther tanks.
We played for a goodly time, with many hilarious moments of crappy dice for us American players and consistently good dice rolled by Stew controlling his heavy German tanks. 

In the end, the day ended as a German victory with the Allies well and truly stumped, even though they had greater numbers. The pictures that follow illustrate how the game fared:

The table set up, using Stew's lovely 15mm terrain on his home made gaming mat. The multi-coloured slides at the back I'm sure were where the Big Kats played when not destroying Allied armour. 

Initial American set up. Paul and I each took identical teams of 2x Sherman and 1x M10 Tank Hunter

Stew had command of 4x Panthers. Somehow in the rules this was a force equal to our own, but as the game progressed Paul and I did not agree!

Early game Panther shot took out Paul's M10.

Hiding in the town, this is the Big Kat responsible.

Stew sent two Panthers down the lane, I moved my M10 to the West in an effort to support Paul's solo Sherman mid-left in the field.

Not much has changed about us since the last time we hung out. Well, aside from Stew getting greyer and I got better looking - of course!

Paul's Sherman sits, waiting at the hedgeline for a good shot at those panthers in the lane. He and I wasted a lot of our shots trying and failing to penetrate the Panther's thick front armour in lieu of using our mobility to try and get side shots. Hindsight...

A Sherman (Mine? I forget) pays for crappy dice rolls and an inability to move away

Darn it, there goes another!

That Panther Commander is going to get a medal for this.

Panthers in the middle and right menacingly moving on the American positions while Paul moves his Left most tank using the woods to shield him from that 4th Panther in the wheat field. It was at this point that Stew felt sorry for us and brought on some reinforcements for us to add to the mix. I couldn't count how many times Paul and I would manage to hit our targets and fail to do any damage up until that point and with 3 allied tanks brewed up the game was in effect over without these reinforcements. and so we carried on!

M10 & Sherman trundle up the lane, whilst a 2nd M10 comes in from the east 

Newly arrived M10 and sherman both sight their targets and.... again fail to damage. Yikes.

But somehow the German tanks also begin to suffer poor luck and Stew's dicerolls get everso suddenly cold!

My M10 has outflanked the Panther in the wheatfield. The Panther at this point is pretty much a bunker with a turret after a couple lucky shots during the game have affected it's mobility. Can  the Allies manage to get their first kill of the game!?

Paul's Sherman offers support on this shot from a safe distance. This Sherman was Paul's mvp - it didn't kill anything as his shooting rolls were awful, but the poor crew managed to see Panther shot after Panther shot "ding" off it's hull due to Paul's wonder defensive rolling. I believe they survived to game to it's end.

Still more missed shots 


Panther at the bottom goes to hunt Paul's mvp sherman. And misses. Lots.

My M10 in the trees missed it's killshot and Stew only needed to roll a 4 to be able to shoot back BUT, he rolled 4x 2's instead. The M10 is given another chance to try and brew up that Big Kat

Completely against the grain, Paul's Easternmost M10 finally manages to pop a Panther! 

With Paul destroying a Panther (See last pic) and my M10 finally managing to kill the Panther in teh Wheatfield we called it a day. In the end, Stew won really. 

This was my first time playing What a Tanker and I really liked the simplicity of the rules set. We had a good discussion on how the game might play in 28mm and ended up agreeing that really, there'd be so little room to manuever at that scale so 15mm was the right choice. The convo then moved on to the new Too Fat Lardies Western rules, What a Cowboy and how both Paul and Stew had Western projects outstanding so maybe in the near future, there might be another meet up where we can see dusty streets, tumbleweeds and hear the sounds of six-shooters?


Lastly, there actually has been a little hobby done recently! No pics as yet, but images of very small, very light pieces of armour might be gracing the  blog in a post in the near future.... Watch this space!

Stay well all, 

- Dai










21 comments:

  1. Hi Dai, Stew sent me. Well not exactly but he did say what a nice guy you were and what a great blog you had, so I thought I’d check it out! I notice there was no suggestion of finishing the game you were playing when you’d obviously lost, and then starting again after swapping sides? I mean that would have been the decent thing to do, right? Lol.

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    1. Hallo mate, thanks for stopping by!

      You know that may well have been a bit more of a logical option? But we were having fun and in the moment I guess "reinforcements" was the choice.

      Stew is not a decent man btw. Not at all. LOL

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  2. What, two German players with a couple of Panthers each against Solo Stew and the "mighty" Sherman's....that doesnt sound very balanced either, JBM! As I noted on Stews AAR, I think there is a problem with the rules if these are supposed to be equal sides, I would think the Allies need at least a two to one advantage ( eg one less Panther in the above scenario ) to have any chance of a win!

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    1. That was most definitely mine and Paul's opinion on the day! But as I briefly mentioned above, Paul and I did kind of play perhaps too timid and not use out advantage in numbers to surround the panthers and try to take advantage of their side and rear armour, which with our M10 and their Tank Hunter ability may well have offered a different result on the day.

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  3. Woooa! Really great looking game with cool tanks!

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    1. Thanks mate. Stewart certainly does put on a good game and I’m lucky for it.

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  4. Excellent AAR, Dai, and what a stunning table to play on! Glad you had a good time despite the whipping LOL!

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    1. Thanks Matt! Stew likes to distract his players with pretty tables so we won't catch him rolling dice like a demon.

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  5. Even though I read this on Stewarts blog, I really enjoyed reading it from your point of view as well Dai, hopefully you'll all be able to meet up again for the Wild West game.

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    1. I know, it's a bit redundant for folks who follow both blogs, but at least you get to read my own not-so-witty take compared to Stew's own excellently written effort.

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  6. Wonderful posting, Dai. I'm well into my WW2 tank warfare currently, as you know, so thoroughly enjoyed this. Plus, it was clear that you were having a top time with an old mucker - which is really what this hobby is all about, imho. Great stuff.

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    1. It most certainly is. Made me realise that I miss spending time with the silly old bugger too.

      Looking forward to reading up on more of your ww2 tanks soon!

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  7. What two handsome men in that picture. One is eternally youthful and the other one needs a hair cut. 😀

    As MY report was posted first, that’s the account that will stand as everyone knows that the first story has more acceptance and history is written by the winners. 😀

    It was super great to see you face to face again and to catch up with life. I hope it won’t be as long until the next time. Definitely won’t be any more kids on my end. Glad you had fun.

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    1. Always excellent to see people called Stewart win.

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    2. Mr Zzzzzz might be biased here. :)

      Twas a most excellent day of fun mate. I am hoping we will be able to get another in before the end of the year - this time at my humble abode.

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  8. Dai, seeing you and Stew get together for a game is great! Stew set a very fine table for you guys to fight over. The armor distribution, I reckon, favored the host...

    I certainly enjoyed my remote game with Stew. He is a very funny fellow.

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    1. I think the distribution of armour was Stew punishing me for not being able to attend his many offers of game over the past 2-4 years!

      He is a funny chap indeed. I'm lucky to know the man.

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  9. As I said on Stews blog I think you were lightly stitched up but it sounds like tons of fun! Intrigued by your last picture, for some reason I want to do a destroyed armoured train as a bit of winter scenery, not sure why but it keeps whirring around in my brain!
    Best Iain

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    1. Not being the only person to say as much, I have been convinced and am now ready to confront that clearly cheating rotter of a man.

      Whilst I will always encourage my fellow hobbyists to embark upon new and exciting hobby projects, I have to point out that this is not at all an "Armoured Train". It is in fact far smaller than that and I hope to have a post up on the topic soon!

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  10. Always great to get an opportunity to hang with old gaming chums! Looks to have been a great time for you with a nice game table & I see he was kind enough to 'lend' he crappy dice for you to use. Ugh, I keep hearing about What a Cowboy...the temptation is there for sure!

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