... 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.

Test for WWII gaming

 Two weeks ago, the Hamilton Road Gaming Group of London, ON ran a split-table set of games using Iron Ivan's Disposable Heroes WWII small unit skirmish rules. Both sides of the table used German troops vs. Canadian troops. Andy games-mastered one side of the table while I handled the other. My side saw the Canadians under Rob and DJ defending against an attack by SS troops under Bear and Tyler. Andy's side had Mark and Kevin pushing the Canadians while two young friends of Mark's handled the German Wehrmacht.

Actually I had expected a one-large-table game with the Canadians attacking the Germans, but that was not to be. Since I'm not sure what was going on on the other side of the table and the game on my side is pretty much a blur, I'm just going to post photos and comments. (For the record, I've had what my physician thinks is a little bit of pneumonia. No fun there.)

Andy's side of the board. The "fields" are cut up door mats which look a lot like standing grain. Mark is preparing to measure something at a bit of a distance. The troops in the woods (the light green felt) are in foxholes or slit trenches (represented by short lengths of dark brown felt.)

Rob grins idiotically while the troops are set up. (It's okay; he's my son; I can say that.)

Panther (Warlord Games Bolt action range) and a Hetzer (plastic model.)

Tyler lines up a shot with his PaK gun. Ya gotta get down to eye level to set up the shot!

Panther, Hetzer, and the front of a Tiger I with SS troops advancing.

DJ's vehicle park. M3 halftracks, an armoured car, a Churchill tank and an M4 Sherman.
DJ has set up a Canadian armoured/motorized platoon.
The 3-inch mortar in the foreground is considered to be in a weapon's pit
since it sits on a chunk of charcoal coloured felt.

This beast is DJ's as well and it was leant to the SS...

... for a while.

The Canadian larger mortar in weapons pits. Mortars are usable for smoke in DH, but little else. There is little chance of hitting anything with the thing, unless you run up and club somebody with it.

DJ's favourite. I call it the "Chicago Piano" even though I know it's not correct.
Quad .50 calibre heavy machine guns on a halftrack platform can ruin your day.

DJ's Humber A/C - his latest addition. He finds these Dinky Toys at local flea markets and second-hand stores.

On of the halftracks is down and out, but it now becomes cover and a line-of-sight blocker.

Bear's SS sniper team lurking in the field. Plastic models painted in the "Pea pattern" cammo by your humble blogger.

Measuring for either the Hetzer or the HMG. In the game, the MG42 HMG (tripod mounted) has a range of 75 inches and a rate of fire of 8 shot per turn! That's hard to beat and hard to stand up to.

Canadians entrenched along the wood line.

Meanwhile at the other end of the table...

A Canadian PIAT team in a foxhole. I don't think the PIAT (Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank) gets the respect it deserves. The thing is spring-launched with a rocket motor kicking in after the spring kicked it out. It's probably the only late-war anti-tank weapon that could be fired in an enclosed space; the blow-back from the bazooka, Panzerfaust, or Panzerschreck would really mess up a room. The Russian anti-tank rifle was too bulky and long to use without a stadium.

 

Mark and Kevin's Canadians hold the bridge with the assistance of a Sherman 75.

A German squad takes cover in a wooded area. The two red bingo chips indicate that the unit has failed morale ("guts") twice and has had to fall back. A third failure caused the unit to bolt, although it can be rallied.

A few more photos to close:

The Tiger I assists the SS advance through the grain field. Rob painted the tank and I painted the figs for Bear... except for the Panzerschreck team, which is part of my collection.

A stubby Pz. IV and a PaK 40 use the smoke to hide out or maybe the smoke was laid down by the Canadian to keep the two things from firing. Take a guess; you'll probably be right.

Canadian sniper team in a foxhole. As you can see, they vibrate so fast, they're hard to see.

Speaking of Tigers, I got to see the movie "Fury" not too long ago - not a movie for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. In my opinion, the real star was the Bovington Tank Museum's Tiger I - the last running Tiger tank in the world. It is an impressive piece of equipment, although further reading shows that the series of tanks like most German vehicles were powerful and dangerous, although over-engineered, finicky, hard to repair, and not as well supplied as they might have been. Still wouldn't want to face any of them.

Rob and DJ's squads occupy the houses in the centre of their side of the board. One of the squads were commando figures in the green berets, a second was in shirt-sleeve order for Italy, and the third in standard battle dress.
I'll use whatever figures I have.

All in all a fun game. I just need to be sure of the table conditions before setting things out from now on.