AAR: What A Tanker: When Stuarts Don't Succeed, Try Something Bigger!

 

     This was the last game I got to play at Siege of Augusta 2021. Kalissa and I were telling some fellow gamers about What A Tanker from Too Fat Lardies on how easy of a game it is to play. I mentioned that you can still play this fair well even  drunk! I know, because I have and was nearly a tank ace during that game. So we convinced Dale and Thomas to play this game. Thomas and I chose to play as the Germans. Kalissa and Dale played the Americans. Now, in a normal game, I would tend to chose a little more balanced tanks to duel with for a first time game. Call it a "Beer-Induced" decision! We had a King Tiger versus Stuart III's. Thomas had the King Tiger. I went with a more tame option of a Panzer IV. The game turned in a simple goal for Dale and Kalissa: Kill the King Tiger! I was mostly a side thought. I lost my Panzer IV and came back with a Panther. The Americans went through countless Stuarts, Shermans, and then, to Hellcats to finally kill the King Tiger. The best part is that both, Dale and Thomas bought the rules for having so much fun! Great stuff! Here are the photos below!

AAR: Normandy Firefight: Behold the Power of Grenades!!!

                                      

           Right before Kalissa and I went to Siege of Augusta, I made it a point to make another quick board for her Bolt Action Tournaments, just to spice things up for returning players. Quick might be a little bit of a white lie! It certainly involved white fur. So for those of you who are wondering why I have not done any snow themed games, it is mainly based on a vision I have for them. I had my friend, Danny let me experiment with some left white fur he had found. I made a small snow board, but nothing that would work for larger games. Since I have been taking commissions for fur mats, I have not been able to get any white fur from my main source. However, I have had multiple requests for snow commissions. It was only recently I have been able to get white fur. Hence, a snow table for Kalissa's Tournaments!

    However, I did not get to play a game on my creation until after the first tournament. So Kalissa and I with two other friends decided to play Normandy Firefight, since it gave an excuse to play with my winter troops I had painted up. This is there second game being used ever! It was Thomas and Kalissa with the Americans versus Dale and I with the Germans. It was a silly game of patrols running into each other. I must say that my partner/teammate was rather rash. Charging the enemy with no hits and throwing lots of grenades. We lost more people to friendly grenades than being shot at. But it was fun, and that was what mattered! Here are some pictures. I will most likely do a tutorial for my snow mat in the near future. Enjoy!

Battlegroup: Sicily

 

  While I was free to walk about at Siege of Augusta, I was able to play some other games. In this case, I joined up in a Battlegroup game base during Operation Husky in Sicily. The gamemaster made up the scenario, but I was to hold the line against the advancing Americans. Now, I have, at this point played only four games of Battlegroup. I am not sure why is has been so little, since I have the rules along with several campaign books. Either way, I was remembered from last year playing my last Battlegroup at Siege of Augusta 2020. So for that reason, I was mainly left to fend for myself it this game. The American player never played one game of Battlegroup, so he got the main help, and advice, and options how to defeat me. I was not upset over this, because I was just happy to play. Challenge accepted! 

  I cannot say I remember exacted what the forces were against. The Americans had a Battle Rate of 30. My Germans had a Battle Rate of 24. I believe that the Americans had a three tank Sherman Platoon, Three Rifle platoons, two 30 machineguns, one 75mm pack howitzer, an HQ, one medic, one Jeep, one Bazooka team,  and a 60mm Mortar team. There may have been more. I had an HQ section, one artillery observer, a couple of Grenadier squads, one tripod M42, a PAK40 AT Gun, and a Stug III. A couple of units like the Stug III were held off table in reserves until turn 4. No problem! There was a lot of stuff to deal with, but I was inside buildings and dug in. 

    This game started with a lot of artillery call in's. The batteries on both sides must have been bored, because neither of us had any problem with call ins. By turn 2, I held two objectives. The Americans took the third one on a knoll closer to them. That is when I really open fired! The dice was hot on both sides of the table. There was a record number of "sixes" being rolled on this table. I was half tempted to take the folding table home for it's good luck statis. It was by mid-game, dice went cold. We must have rolled all of the "sixes"? The Pak40 was able to take out one Sherman through the trees before it was pinned for the rest of the game. I got the impression that the Pak40 was not expected to survive the whole game. It did! Despite a couple of very low order rolls (talking 4 orders for three turns), I manage to hold the line and win the game based on morale. The Americans got to 30. I happened to survive the game with 3 left before hitting my Battle rating of 24. It was a long game, but enjoyable! 

Siege of Augusta 2021 Bolt Action Singles Tournament

 

        The other tournament my wife, Kalissa ran at the recent Siege of Augusta was the Singles Tournament for Bolt Action. We had eight players for this one with much of the same people who played in the tank one on the Friday. It was a little more Axis heavy for forces, but there were a lot of even games. None of the lists that people played dominated over the other, which was nice to see. It was a clash of our Virginia tournament fans vs our Florida ones. Everyone seemed to have lots of fun with lots of prize support to had out, thus ending another success story for my wife! Anyway, here are pictures from this tournament.