... In the Forest of the Night

A few years back, Andy hit upon an idea to practise the procedures for tank combat in Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes. He called it a "Tiger Hunt." On a rather full table-top, each player would enter the table with a German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I tank, which would keep everything equal. This way we could learn and become familiar with the mechanics of that part of the game. Each player received a playing card and the referee had a deck of card made up of those cards that had been given out. When your card was pulled, it was your turn. Once your Tiger was "killed", you reentered the game with a Pz. V Panther. Once that was knocked out, you entered with a Pz. IV. Well, this ended up being so much fun, we continue to play it as is, with no infantry, artillery, or air power.

Our friend Mark asked us to set up one of these games and he was going to bring down a bunch of his buddies. Unfortunately, some had to change their plans and only Mike came with him. From the London area, Martin, Derek, Bear, Tyler, DJ, Katie, and your humble blogger joined in the fun. Andy refereed and Beth took photos. The photos in this entry are by Beth, Martin, and myself. Another table was in use by Wayne and Kevin with a WWI game Wayne has been preparing for the next Hot Lead convention.

Since the thing was a "free-for-all", there's no sense trying to describe the thing or do an After-action Report. Only Mike made it through the game with one tank, or almost all the way through the game. I ended up using three different chassis with varying success. Martin brought along his Armoured Recovery Vehicles which are "drones" that will fix any blown treads for any player. He also brought along his 1946 tanks from his "What if" scenarios.

Katie and one of the local library kids set up roads and houses for the board.

Andy briefs Mike and Mark on the mechanics of the game.

The field of battle with the first entries coming down the roads.
My Tiger is in the left foreground.

I'm making progress toward some cardboard houses. They'll still provide cover.

DJ's Tiger used the raised aspect of the bridge to pinpoint targets.
The bunkers meant nothing in this game. In other outings, Andy would put an 88 in the bunker near the bridge,
which would fire at anything and everything

Martian Lizardmen stalk around the board.  I told people they were "in the market" to buy some advanced armoured vehicles from the Germans or Soviets or whoever.

A Tiger "brews up" - the first in the game.

The Typhoon decorates Katie's Go-Pro camera.

The Go-Pro follows the Martians on their trek. The Typhoon remains a decoration.
If it were more than a decoration, the game would be over quickly!

Derek measures a shot from his Tiger to Martin's. Of course, Martin HAD to use the Porsche prototype model.
(That's the only Porsche he'll ever own!)

The friendly Bergepanther from CAA provides repairs for a blown track.

A lurking Tiger.

Martin's Porsche prototype Tiger. The white chit shows he's targeted someone. The blue bingo chips indicate a "penetrating hit." This means your tank is damaged/ventilated. Each penetrating hit adds a +1 to the damage roll.

Not the greatest vacation spot.
Terrain from Andy's and my collections.

Katie helpfully points out the destruction wrought by her SU-101, another of Martin's PanzerDisney tanks.
My daughter - how blood-thirsty! But so is my wife - on the table.

From the left - Tyler's son, Mike, Mark (smiling), Andy, DJ, and Bear. Derek is just barely seen on the far right.
We had quite a gathering. Our numbers help the library's stats and we're glad to have a good place to play.

A lone Tiger with a few hits on it motors away from the swamp, lovingly referred to as "The Rubber Vomit."

There he is! 4 penetrating hits, a blown track (the blue chip under the stand) and a chit showing he's targeted by someone. This will not end well. Most of the tanks are Flames of War models with some Peter Pig models and a few oddballs as well.

Quite a crowd around the table.

 

Katie had Tyler's son roll dice for her while Tyler looks on. Martin checks a point on the stat sheet.

When my Tiger was knocked out, I re-spawned with a KV-2 (a crappy remould I picked up at a convention bring-and-buy years ago.) It was knocked out fairly quickly, but not before spanking a Panther!

My final ride - The dreaded Maus, seen here with a Martian taking a test drive.

Tyler's son's second tank - an American M-103 heavy. He goes for the big ones.

Another of Martin's PanzerDisney tracks brews up.

This will not end well.

At one point, Martin fielded a T-44 with side skirts. I've always been partial to the looks of that tank.

Some of Andy's Panthers and Mark IV's in the bull pen.

Some of my collection of weirdness that I brought along - a Mark IV Male,  a Sherman 76 ("Fury"), a Japanese Type 97, a Sherman Firefly, and a Soviet T-35, which we sometimes refer to as the "Mobile resort." ("Sir, the billiards room is on fire and we've evacuated the auxiliary dining rooms.")

This Panther tried to get away from the Maus. Didn't happen. With a 128mm main gun and a 75mm coaxial gun in the turret, it can hand out major damage.

The T-44 sneaks around the town while one of the last remaining Tigers hunts it. (Foreground, behind the big tree.)

Somebody tried to sneak up on me from behind, but I got 'em.

The Maus' victims - Someone else got the Panther, but I got the Centurion and the T-54.

Katie's SU-101 faces off with the Maus... but not for long.

The ARV's dash away after doing their repair work on the Maus.
The pile of chips shows how many penetrating hits I'd taken.

Now I go a-huntin'.

An M-34 Taylor burns in the town along with a Tiger, a Panther, and the KV-2

The last face-off of the day - my Maus vs. Tyler's T-10 (or IS-10 if you're a revisionist)
We exchanged fire for quite a long time, but I finally knocked him out.
I'm amazed! I actually won the day!
Martin said Katie had reserved the Maus for me since she knocked me out last time with a shot to the rear by a Jagdtiger!

At the other table, Wayne and Kevin were fine-tuning a WWI game of Canadians vs. Germans. It involved gas, the Canadians finding Lee-Enfield rifles and trading their Ross rifles for them, and an assault on a trench system. They were using Iron Ivan's WWI rules.

An over-view of the game. The green stuff is gas, either clouds on the ground or gas pooling in shell holes.

Canadians in the trenches behind barbed wire.

How long will they stay with the gas that close?

Another over-view later in the game.

Kevin and Wayne play the game while Andy takes a break from the armoured chaos to watch.

Canadians defending a ruin

German stosstruppen move into the trenches.

Wayne told me the figures were all Revell plastics.

As always, even though the historical games often schedule a game for a certain weekend, this is not written in stone and other types of games are most welcome. Next week, I believe that a WWI naval game is scheduled for a few of us, using the Naval Thunder rules.