Tuesday, January 14, 2014

All Tanks: Disposable Heroes goes Heavy Metal

Hi Kids,  We decided to try something new, Disposable Heroes without any infantry.  One of the lads bought a couple early war British tanks and wanted to test drive them, so I gathered a few Huns tanks to see what would happen.  Since they were Matildas I had a pretty good idea, but maybe I'd get lucky...  you never know.

 The two Matilda's are showroom fresh, haven't even been painted yet! Poor guy's paints are out on loan!  Backing them up are two Schneider P16's, one of the sexiest halftracks ever! (Although with a snub-nosed 37mm gun they are almost useless.)  IIRC all these are 1:56 from Company B.
 Facing them across the table are two Pz38T's from AGN and two Pz4's from Westwind.  I know, I know, I still have to build the Pz4's with the snub-nosed 75mm gun.
 The long view: Huns will start at the far end, the Brits at the foreground.
 The 38t's head for the high ground, the 4's go into the ruins.  Green chips signify that they have already been activated for this turn.
 The Brits spread out as well.
 Climbing the central hill, the Matilda slows down to 2 inches a turn....
 Setting up with some good lines of sight....
 First blood to the Huns!  A P16 catches fire!
 Revenge!  A 38T takes some return hate mail.
 Three weeks later, the Matilda finally reaches the top of the hill, where nearly every Hun vehicle can see it.  And hit it.  Which happens many times over the rest of the game.
The Hun tanks start blasting away at the Matilda, all to no effect as its armor is hugely thick.

 The second Matilda sneaks through the village and blasts a Pz4!  On the right, the 38T starts accumulating hits, most of which penetrate.  The triangles denote penetrating hits.
 Same shot but slightly wider, showing the two Matildas.
 The P16 sneaks around the flank while the ground floor Matilda closes in.
 A violent death seems imminent for the 38T, as it has suffered 6 penetrating hits, is immobilized and has three dead crewmen!
 After bouncing 7 or 8 hits off the Matilda on the hilltop, the sole surviving Pz4 switches targets to the P16 closing in.  In early war even the P16's gun can cut through the side armor of a Pz4.
The end of the game, all the Huns have been killed, three by the Matilda on the ground floor.  I'm telling ya, early war is a lot different from what all the Nazi propaganda would have you believe!  There's nothing wrong with a Matilda, its armor is super and its 2pdr gun is pretty good!  Just goes to show you want the counterattack at Arras could have accomplished!

1 comment:

John Lambshead said...

The Matilda II is a pretty fearsome tank in Bolt Action as well.