Strike Three ‐ Verkhniy‐Kumskiy

Still the battle around Verkhniy‐Kumskiy is raging as the Soviets try to stop the Germans from pushing towards Stalingrad. This scenario (number 11 from the Winter Storm campaign) is again an all tank battle. Since there were no special scenario elements (a straight meeting engagement) we didn't play it using Chain of Command rules but used What A Tanker. Because of the number of tanks we replaced the initiative roll (due to the expected frequent re-rolls required) by the draw of a card (regular deck of cards without jokers). Increasing the chance of taking the initiative was possible by sacrificing a Wild Dice for an extra card, allowing the player to choose the highest (or lowest) card.

The "who takes which side" dice roll left me in charge of the Soviet force: 3 T34-76's and 2 T70's. They would be facing 3 Pzr III's and a Pzr IV.

An unsteady hand of the guy in the spotter plane blurred the aerial photograph of the battlefield somewhat.😉

Germans on the left, Soviets on the right

With this number of tanks on the (6x4) table and little intervening terrain, both sides immediately blasted away at each other, moving forward to gain a better firing position.

My T34's were taking hits and already suffering permanent loss of command dice. Then my opponent's Pzr III scored an overwhelming number of hits on a T34.

 And retreated into the scrub.

The German Pzr IV succeeded in taking out another T34 by total permanent command dice loss. Only one (damaged) T34 and 2 as yet unscathed T70's left. 

But the German force was also taking punishment. One Pzr III was first immobilized and subsequently put out of acting by total permanent command dice loss.

My remaining T34 was crippled by running gear damage (-2 pips on movement dice) so I maneuvred  the T70's around the flanks in an attempt to get a shot at the side armour of the German panzers.

This fortunately paid off and after taking one Pzr III out by total permanent command dice loss the little T70 managed to blast the Pzr III to bits.

Unable to take the risk of exposing his flanks to the firepower of my remaining T34, the Pzr IV was caught in a pincer of 2 T70's firings at its side armour.

The Pzr IV crew finally surrendered, ending the game in a victory for the Soviets.

The game took longer than a Chain of Command game with the same forces and (nearly) the same terrain. I think this is mainly due to the mechanism that in What a Tanker you almost always can do something with a tank in its turn (which will always come) while in Chain of Command tanks can only be activated with the right dice roll. But when they are activated they can do everything (move and shoot), while in What a Tanker you have these (sometimes frustrating) situations where you can't fire because you are missing an aim dice or are unloaded and missing a load dice or something.

I got the feeling that this game was more dynamic (more movement and maneuvering) than the Chain of Command all tank games.

Anyway, it was an entertaining game. Next scenario will feature combined arms (bot sides have a tank platoon and an infantry platoon) and we will play that again using the Chain of Command rules.