The Mass Pikemen played an action-packed game at our February gaming session. The game was a What a Tanker© game for my Battle of France, May-June 1940 scenario. This also served as a final play test of the scenario before using it at upcoming gaming conventions (TotalCon 34, HAVOC, and HUZZAH!).
At the start of the game, each side gets 200 points to buy tanks and armored cars as well as Bonus Attack cards if the vehicle has a radio (all the Germans have radios, many French vehicles do not). The French are defending and have the ability to deploy at secret positions known only to their side and the GM. The French forces are divided – with half of the battlefield being under the responsibility of cavalry tanks, and half under infantry tanks.
The Germans are exiting wooded areas on two congested roads heading to two bridges over a river. The German mission is to cross the board and exit the other side (and head to the English Channel) – and gain points for doing so. There are also several possible fords over the river that are minor obstacles.
The French player may also spend points to wire either one or both bridges (or none) for demolition. This status is also known only to the French side and the GM. The French side may attempt to blow a bridge at any time, but failing to blow the bridge or allowing any Germans to cross makes subsequent demolition attempts more difficult. If a bridge is blown while a vehicle is on it, that vehicle is destroyed. Any side that destroys a vehicle gets points for that action as well. As GM, I only announce who is ahead at the beginning of the turn, and I do not share the score so as to maintain a fog of war for the players and try to maintain a crew-focused battle.
At this point the game ended, and the French had a solid victory with the score being 158-112. The French also got bonus points for no German being able to traverse the board. The Germans made a couple of unsuccessful Luftwaffe attacks which hindered them as well as the early casualties.The scenario is pretty solid and the gamers made key decisions that affected the game. I did run this scenario and three other games at TotalCon 34. I will share the results of what happened at TotalCon 34 on a future post and things went differently!.
Thanks for looking!
Mark A. Morin 
Looks good, Mark! Sounds like the scenario played out well. It’ll be interesting to see how other games go! 🙂
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Thanks John – gonna catch up soon!
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Good to see you having fun again Mark. Looks like you had a great game and I enjoyed the write up as well as looking at the board. 😊
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Thanks Dave, got a few more to write about so stay tuned!
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The game looks like fun. Makes me wish there was an active gaming club near by. Keep up the post, I really like the battle reports!
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Happy you liked it Eric, will be a few more soon. I lamented the fact that there was no club nearby, so I started one.
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Another great game mate, looks like the gang had fun and I do like your smoke.
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Cheers Pat!
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Nice. How does the mechanics of blowing a bridge up work? In terms of, the French had rigged it to blow. Is this a special ability or a scenario rule that they can rig one crossing?
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It’s a scenario rule. Prior to play starting each side secretly chooses their vehicles from a menu and buys (unseen) Bonus Attack cards. The French also secretly decide to wire one, both, or neither bridge for demolition. This must occur before any play. Only the French and the GM know if a bridge had been wired. The French can attempt to blow a wired bridge at any time (even during the Germans’ turn), and normally come to the GM and secretly roll two D6 – needing to roll a total of 6 to blow the bridge. The Germans do not see this roll. Depending on the roll, as GM I announce if the bridge blows, or if it seems like it might have been partially destroyed, or if nothing happens. This is important because the French also have a pair of “dummy explosion cards” that they can use to come and roll a secret and fake demolition attempt to make the Germans think that a real demolition attempt was made somewhere. Of course, to the Germans, a dummy demo roll would look no different than a failed real demo roll as I would announce that “nothing happened “. A failed attempt can be retried on another turn but gets +2 to attempt per try – so a needed 6 becomes an 8. Also, for each German vehicle crossing a bridge, the attempt gets +2. Again, the decision to wire the bridge happens before the game starts, but the decision to try blow it happens during the game. Hope this is clear and helps!
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That answers exactly the question I was trying to get to in my rambling, roundabout way! Thanks for explaining. That’s a very cool mechanic.
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That looks like a great game. I like the table set up.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thanks Pete!
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Looks awesome mate, and thanks for the clarification on the demolition ruling – I’ll add that idea to my GM bank 🙂
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Cheers Alex. Anything that adds a fog of war characteristic to a game is right up my alley.
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Awesome Mark. Sounds and looks a fun game. I wanna see more orange smoke though haha
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Love these Batreps, Mark. Thanks for posting them up! Might be time for some solo batreps of you running through the Aztecs expansion 🙂
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Glad you liked them, I think they are fun to write up. Will have to do some Aztec reports when I play – but I have a couple hundred more figs to paint first. Hoping to do 48 per month, so this will take a while!
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Ouch! That’s some producuiotn rate if you can manage it….
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