Operation Lionheart 84

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Comment: For those interested in Cold war gaming using rules such as Team Yankee there is a lot to enjoy in this the first of what are 10 videos on U-Tube. 

Swedish Tank - Stridsvagn 74

Came across this interesting (light/medium tank that the Swedes used to operate up until the mid eighties.  I'm thinking of getting a platoon of them for my Swedish Flames Of War Team Yankee 10/12mm force.  No one makes the actual model, but I'm thinking that a USA Walker Bulldog looks like the closest model I can find, made by both Minifigs and Pendraken,
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This a great bit of vid of one in a military museum collection.  (Link here in case the U-Tube vid doesn't embed properly)
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Team Yankee Review

There is quite a fair review of the Battlefront Flames of War Team Yankee rules on the Boardgame geek site by a guy called Matt  Link 
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King Tiger at Militracks 2018

Some fantastic footage here of the French Kingtiger at Militracks  2018.

Team Yankee - Musings

Well I've been lazy and haven't posted must this year but I've still been getting plenty gaming in.  Of recent as I mentioned in my posting on 29th September I've been sucked into playing Flames of War Team Yankee with the rest of my group.  I've been and invested in some Swedish tanks from Minifigs.  There is a real shortage of Swedish unique vehicles so I'm having to substitute a few other suitable types instead.  I've contacted Butlers Miniatures to see if he can produce any, but he seems to have a huge wish list of other vehicles to worth through at the moment.

Anyway here are a few photos from recent games since I last posted :)

French AMX tanks.

 My Swedish S Tanks on the prowl :)

My Swedish IKV-91 Tank Destroys moving at speed down the edge of the battlefield. 

Dutch Leopard IIs conduct some long range fire against an East German unit.

Swedish BpvV302 Command APC hangs out in the town whilst the HQ observe the battle from the top of the building to their right. 

Beevor on Arnhem - Podcast

Guys
I've taken to listening the BBC History Extra podcasts whilst I'm out walking my hound on an evening.  I found this one very interesting:   https://www.historyextra.com/period/second-world-war/beevor-on-arnhem/ about the battle for Arnhem in WW2 - highly recommended :)
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Flames Of War Team Yankee At The Harrogate Wargames Club

Most of my gaming group at the Harrogate Wargames Club club are into Flames Of War Team Yankee using 10mm (1/444th) scale vehicles.  Over the last couple of weeks I've been watching a few games, and after some deliberation I have decided to join and get my own army.  Years back I used to do modern gaming with 1/300th tanks (mainly Heroics and Ros) with a Swedish army.  I still have a real soft spot for the old S-Tank, so I think that is army I'm going to get in 10mm.  I shall post more in this subject as my army develops.

In the meantime, here are some pictures I took over the last two games that were played.

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RETURN TO DRAGON RAMPANT

Well after about two months of pretty much solidly playing What A Tanker! my gaming group has  returned to an old favourite of ours, Dragon Rampant by Daniel Mersey.  Whilst I was I was really rusty on the rules, a quick speed read through them and the latest version of our club House Rules (link) quickly refreshed me.

I dusted off my Orcs and here are a few pictures of them in action.  The opposition (last picture, far side of the table) had a Hydra with mystical armour that just would not die, so a defeat for my Orcs, but an entertaining game nonetheless :)

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King Tiger Tank - Restoration In Switzerland

There is a King Tiger being restored in Switzerland.  They obtained it in 2006 and have been posting videos (12 thus far) from time to time showing how they are progressing.

They make fascinating viewing are are recommended viewing for any WW2 tank enthusiast :)
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Annoyingly the video link is now dead, but the tank has its own web site, which I would encourage you to visit :)

http://www.koenigstiger.ch/english/story.html
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WHAT A TANKER! - Puma Outing

Had a fun game the club on Thursday.  Myself, Andy B and Simon A as the clean living Axis players took on John E and Theo as the Soviet peasants.

Andy took a Panther, Simon a Tiger I and myself a Sd234/2 'Puma'
Theo had a ISU152 and John took an SU100 and a KVIS
Due the points different the Axis had 5 cards (Andy had 1, myself the other 4)

Fighting over our usual 8' x 6' we had a reasonable amount of manoeuvre room for our 20mm / 1/72nd vehicles.

On the Axis side we decided to that the Panther and Tiger would concentrate on the ISU 152 whilst I tied up the SU100 and KV with my superior speed.   This cunning plan almost went badly wrong very early on the ISU152 spotted me in the open and successfully lobbed a huge shell my way.  Lucky rolling on my part meant I only took two damage which I was able to recover straight away with one of my cards.

I then powered into the town and with some good die rolling surprised the KV with a shot into its rear.  Annoying, due to its heavy armour (and bad rolling on my part) the round only lost the KV one command die.  He successfully reversed and firing back hit me the turret causing two permanent damage and damaging my optics (+1 to hit).

Meanwhile the Panther and Tiger and had been skirmishing with the ISU and shells were bouncing off all over the place.

Down to 4 command dice now and at the back of the gaming table I came round behind the ISU and with some good rolling banged a round into its flank knocking it out.  As it was almost midnight we ended what had a fun game at that point.

For those interested, the stats I used for the Puma were:

• Armour Value:  3
• Strike Value: 6
• Slow Turret.  (it doesn't have a powered traverse).
• Fast  
• Fast Backwards.  [can go the same speed backwards as foward]   (has the same number of reverse gears as forward and a rear driving position). 
• Wheeled.  [Cannot cross major obstacles, and if on a road can convert any die to a movement die, but must remain in the road, cannot rotate on the spot]
• Total Points Cost: 10

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WHAT A TANKER! - LADDER TOURNAMENT

Having finished a campaign based on the one in the WaT rule book at my club I've suggested to my gaming crowd at the Harrogate Wargames Club (HWC) we try a ladder tournament.  The advantage of this structure is that:
a)  Players get to try out a large variety of tanks,
b)  The tournament is time-bounded.
c)  Kill rings are not awarded, so failure is not reinforced.
d)  Its easily adaptable for different lengths and periods.

HWC – 2018 - WHAT A TANKER – LADDER TOURNAMENT

1.            The tournament involves every player, playing in 13 games.

2.            There must be an equal number of players in the tournament (i.e. 2, 4, 6, 8 etc.)

3.            The winner is the player at the end who has the most kills.  In the case of a draw result, then a 14^th game is to be played by the respective players to determine the final winner.  

4.            The tournament starts with each player having 10 points with which to purchase a tank from the 1943, 44 or 45 years. They cannot select a tank less than 10 points.

5.            After each game the number of points available to each player increases as per the following ladder.

Game 1                10 points.

Game 2                11 points.

Game 3                12 points.

Game 4                13 points.

Game 5                14 points.

Game 6                15 points.

Game 7                16 points.

Game 8                17 points.

Game 9                18 points.

Game 10              19 points.

Game 11              20 points.

Game 12              21 points.

Game 13              22 points.

6.            Players may select a tank with less points than they have available and randomly draw cards from the tanker deck to compensate.

·         Example. In game 5, John selected to play with a Sherman Firefly, a 14 point tank.  He liked the tank so much that his next game (game 6) he opted to keep it and draw a Tank Deck card.  He kept also the same type of tank for Game 7, and so drew 2 cards.

7.            Players may not select a tank that is any more than three points less than the table above (i.e. you cannot select a 10 point tank in game 13).

8.            Players are free to change nationality from game to game, so for example there is no requirement for a player who started in a Panzer III to always have to fight in an Axis tank.

9.            The sides in each game must be always balanced, i.e.  1 v 1, 2 v 2.

10.          The sides must always be Axis versus Allied.

11.          Players do not get awarded kills rings as per the campaign in the WaT rule book.

12.          The terrain can be set-up to play however the players sort between themselves. 

13.          The starting side of the table, or corner should be determined randomly.

14.          The 12” spacing between players on set-up, does not apply in this tournament;  i.e. in a multiplayer game tanks may come on within inches of each other (as if they were a Platoon).        

15.          If there are multiple players in the tournament, it may not possible for everyone to play together in each round.  In those circumstances, those players missing need to play catch up games.  It is for those players to sort out at which level they are playing, some flexibility needing to be shown by players.  It doesn’t necessarily matter if each player doesn’t get to play at each level as long as everyone gets to play the same number of games overall.

16.          In multi-player games if one side loses half the number of tanks they started with, they have the option as per the normal WaT rules to immediately stop the game and withdraw.  However, if they choose not to do so at that time, they must remain in the game until either:

a)            They all get destroyed, or

b)            They destroy all the opposition, or

c)            The opposition exercise their option to withdraw (assuming they haven’t already foregone it).

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The Sherman Tank Site

A came across this site called 'The Sherman Tank Site'.  For the tank-heads out there, there is a lot to enjoy in the articles on there, well worth a look.  I especially found this article on Fire Control of interest.
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WHAT A TANKER! - PzKpfw II Ausf L "Luchs"

These last 5 weeks we've been playing What A Tanker! (WaT) at the club.  Thus far I've had a PIIIM destroyed along with its crew.  I then fought with a Marder IIIM, switched to StugIIF, then switched again into a PII Aust L 'Lynx'.  Sadly it got destroyed by a an M10 along with the crew, but I liked using the vehicle, so I came back into the campaign with another one and a new crew.  In 20mm scale they are quite a rare model, so I've ended up buying a resin Milicast resin one (not cheap).  It arrived yesterday (very quick service) and I'm assembling it this weekend.

Here's a great video I found of a restored one :)
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WHAT A TANKER! - 'HARDCORE' Variant

At my local club (HWC) we've been playing numerous WW2 games using the excellent 'What a Tanker!' rules written and published by the TwoFatLardies of Nick Skinner and Richard Clarke  If you haven't check them out yet, they are definitely worth a try as we have had such a laugh with them.

What this posting is about, is providing optional rules for the 'hardcore' tanker enthusiast who wants some extra detail in the game, a few of the inconsistencies in the data tables smoothed away, and the ability to use half-tracks and wheeled vehicles.  Feel free to:
a)  Use all the extra elements and amendments suggested, or
b)  Just use the bits you like, or
c)  Disregard completely as an utter waste of time of.....  LOL

I will shortly be placing all these into a single word document, in the meantime feel free to keep coming back to this page as I type up my hand written notes.


ACCELERATED CAMPAIGN 

If you want to play an accelerated campaign, use the following mechanism.
-  For each game played that your crew survives they receive a Battle-token.
-  Both Battle-tokens and Kill Rings can be cashed in to  Level Up.



EXTRA CHARACTERISTICS

Please note that for some of these new characteristic, a small amount of additional record keeping using either extra tokens or dice or written notes, will be required.

Slow Reload
The reloading action takes two Reload Order Die.  The activity can be carried on spread over turns.
Design Note:  Some vehicles due to the size of the rounds involved used two part ammunition,  i.e.  Soviet 122mm, Soviet 152mm, German 128mm.

NoCO
Vehicles with No dedicated Commander (NoCO) need one extra Acquisition die to acquire a target.
Design Note:  Some vehicles due to their small size only have a one or two-man turret or fighting compartment and therefore do not have a dedicated vehicle commander.

Half-Track
Cannot rotate on the spot.  Can only reverse over major obstacles.
Design Note:  The wheeled suspension is fragile.

Wheeled
Cannot rotate on the spot.  Can change any Order Die to Move Die when on roads (must remain on road for the movement..  Cannot cross major obstacles.

Fast Back
Does not suffer the normal penalty for when trying to reverse.
Design Note:  Some vehicles such as the German 234 range of armoured cars have two driving positions and the same number of reverse gears as they do forward (6).

Hot Shot
+ 2 to Penetration except at Long Range.
Design Note:  Some vehicles were issued with a full compliment of Tungsten Carbide cored rounds, USA and British tank destroyers in the main. Performance dropped off at long range however.

Very Slow
Vehicle can only use a maximum of 1 Movement Die per turn.


NEW RULE AND AMENDMENTS

Track On Target
The benefit of using additional order dice to aim at a target are not lost once the firer has fired.  They are retained for all follow on-shots (across turns if need be) until aim is lost because either the firer are target move or acquisition is lost.the next shots.  Additional Aim order dice can continue to be added.

Example:
Turn 1:  A Sherman acquires a target, and has two AIM dice. It's long range no cover in the way, so he needs a 7 modified down -1 to a 6.  He fires and misses.  He makes a note of his -1 Aim modifier.
Turn 2:  The Sherman rolls his Order Dice and gets two aim dice.  His basic 7 to hit is now modified down by a total of -3.


Point Blank
This is a new range category of 0 to 12" range.

Adjustments For Range - To Hit
Point Blank -1
Standard Range: No adjustment.   (as per existing rules)
Long Range: +1  (as per existing rules)

Adjustments On The Number Of Strike Die
Point Blank +1
Standard Range: No adjustment.   (as per existing rules)
Long Range: -1


Flank Shot Bonus
Vehicles from the flank have a bigger aspect than from the front or rear, as a result they are 1 die easier to Acquire and are -1 to hit at all ranges.


Point Of Difference Card
Sometimes it is not possible (or desirable) to have point balanced games.  In these instances for each point of difference between the sides a card is issued; this card, 'The Point Of Different Card'.  This allows the user to, once per game:
a)  +3 or -3 to their Initiative Roll
      or
b)  change two of their rolled Command Dice to a different number.
Note:
-  The cards must be distributed before the game starts.
-  Players can only play a maximum of one card per turn, although multiple cards can be played in a turn by one side (if multiple players are involved).

AT Guns
Anti-tank guns have the following Characteristics by default:
Small, Low Profile, Rapid Fire.  They may not button up.  1 drive dice allows then to change their facing, otherwise they count as immobile for the game.
They also count as TD, in that they can change any die to an aim dice, BUT this is for the first shot at a target only.  This limitation is to reflect the blast issues associated with gun barrels so close to the ground and recoil issues which disturbed the aim on many AT guns.


NEW VEHICLES THAT WILL BE ADDED

Here is a link in Dropbox to the current version of the Hardcore Vehicle Listing v18:  Link
Latest version uploaded on 31 Jul 2021.
It's currently work-in-progress...  The Germans are almost there, as are the USA.

NEW HARDCORE RULES & RULE CLARIFICATIONS !! 
I've written the Hardcore Rules up into a document that can be found here:   Link
Latest version 2-6 uploaded on 9 Jul 2021.

Let me know what you think below in the comments :)

MOVING THE JAGDTIGER

For the tankies out there here is an interesting read and watch of moving the Bovington Jagdtiger for the first time in 50 years.  Link
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