"Ambush in Provence, a What a Tanker scenario for RECRUITS" Topic

Hi, all. I attended virtual RECRUITS over the weekend and sat in on a What a Tanker game run by Jay and Chris Arnold. Had a great time. Here's a quick AAR. This game runs surprisingly well over Zoom.

Here's the Link: link

Thanks for your attention.

Sounds like an interesting scenario, with a rather quick play-through.

Good to hear that Zoom works well for this.

There were effectively two major points of action-- TC 3 (my role) and TC 4 on the right (both M4 Shermans with 75mm guns), moving down the West side of the table and seeking cover where we could find it. We were facing a StuG (1) that was hunkered down in an orchard sighted down the road. I advanced on StuG 1 early on, got two shots in on him (that were not lethal) and he backed out of acquisition range. My platoon mate in TC 4 drove down the road and passed the StuG without firing a shot, and drove off the board. I engaged one more time and he saved. At that point I could stay on the board by myself or leave.. it was still up in the air.

On the other (East) side, shots were exchanged and I was under the impression that both sides scored hits on each other. However, it didn't seem that signficant. Both sides got into a position to really damage each other in a three way stand off between TC 1 and 2 versus StuG 2, but nobody rolled a critical SHOOT result (4), so they kept trying to line up with each other until one of the Sherman TCs said "the heck with this, we're out" and drove down the road and off board.

What would I have done differently? Convinced TC 4 to fire on StuG 1, maybe just once. He was in a big hurry to leave the battlefield. Both he and I never even took a scratch so I was more than willing. StuG 1 never even fired! StuG 2 fired more but I think people were just getting impatient. So I shrugged and left the battlefield-- that's what turned a minor victory into a draw.

Just a thought, next time, give the Germans some A/T mines, and/or a roadblock, to make things a little more interesting.

I was thinking the exact same thing. It was far too easy to just drive around them, even at the risk of taking damage. On the right flank, after he took four hits early (permanent and temporary combined), his options were greatly reduced. If there was a hidden minefield on the extreme right edge, that would have been it for me.

Yea, straight up the middle, on the road seems like the obvious option to eliminate.

A few A/T mines properly place would certainly get someone's attention And prevent that.

A panzerschreck team, and/or a couple of guys with panzerfausts would as well.

Thinking about it, part of the issue to me seems to be the initial placement of the StuGs as well. If they were further back, they might have had more time to acquire and fire on the Shermans too, albeit with a lower chance to hit, depending upon if they were using the standard range bands for the scale of armor in use, or optional ones for their main guns.

I agree… WAT! is a tanks-only game, which seems like it's missing an important feature of small unit warfare, but I can kind of see the point that TFL is making here.. if you want a small unit game with infantry and anti tank weapons, I suspect they'll recommend CHAIN OF COMMAND to you.