What a Tanker! First Game

I finally got round to a game of What a Tanker! this afternoon, playing against my daughter instead of my X-Box fixated middle sprog. She had a Panther Ausf D and I took a Churchill MkIII for a spin, somewhere on the Russian Front in Winter 1943. The game went on for a total of nine turns (!) before we packed up for tea, with neither side scoring a knock out blow. I was surprised it lasted that long but reckon I know why.

The Panther had an Armour dice rating of eight against the Churchill's Strike value of five, so more often than not the rounds just bounced off, while the Churchill's heavy armour rating of nine negated the Panther's Strike value of nine, especially when some dodgy dice rolling was factored into the equation. She even managed to roll a double 1 to hit dice at one point, which automatically ended her activation and lost her aim and acquisition markers.

In the end, the Soviet tank crew firing flank shots managed to inflict two temporary and one permanent damage hits on the Panther, for no damage to the Churchill. This handed a marginal victory to the Russians but only in the last couple of turns before night fell and the two sides withdrew. I really enjoyed the game and so did my daughter, who picked it up really quickly and played some clever command dice combinations at several points in the game. 

I only had one head scratching moment, which is unusual for me, when I had to work out if I needed to re-acquire a target that had hidden in partial cover. Other than that it was a breeze and moved quickly once we both knew what we were doing. I'll definitely set up another game soon using the 1/72nd scale tanks that I've been assembling. I do need some better terrain, however, so that will be on the to do list. Good fun!