A Busy Weekend

Saturday - Targe, Kirriemuir Wargames Club, 12/11/16

Twice the tables, twice the fun

 This Saturday past was another of the larger Scottish wargames shows. Targe, run by Kirriemuir Wargames Club, takes place every year in Webster's High School in the small town of Kirriemuir, on the East Coast.
 I was originally not going to be in attendance, with a few last minute emails and phone calls eventually securing myself a little table in the corner of a room to run games on.

My own little, professional looking corner

 In an effort to make my display tables look more professional, I had a banner made up to advertise the games I was running (see picture above). If any of you reading have read some of my older posts, you'll see from the pictures, that my tables used to be rather plain, simple and not entirely the way a representative's table should look. But now, with the banner in place, the table takes on a professional look and draws the eye.

Team Tankee?

  I decided to run a combination table of the two games I've taken to prior shows this year; Team Yankee (which I debuted at Carronade), and Tanks, which proved to be extremely popular at October's convention; Skelp! Sadly, I didn't write a report up from Skelp, but I can assure you I spent the entire day chained to the table, taking interested groups through fast paced games with Barkmann and his fearsome Panther.

Friendships are strained (not too badly) by intense and close run games

 Over the course of the day Tanks proved the more popular game, but that's not to say Team Yankee was ignored at all. Tanks was generally drawing players with young children that they could easily get into the game with its simpler rules and quick game-play.

A grandfather is taught the meaning of defeat by his grandson as the Russians triumph

  With both Team Yankee and Tanks taking off up here, it's encouraging to see that the different styles of game are getting equal amounts of love from new players and veterans.

Painting Prize, sponsored by Battlefront Miniatures

 Battlefront were kind enough to put up a prize for the Targe Painting Competition. First prize in the category of Armoured Fighting Vehicle, was a starter box for Tanks, and two blister packs to expand the winner's collection.

 

Ignoring the God-like glow that my camera is giving us, the winner more than pleased with his prize.

   Naturally, the armoured fighting vehicle doesn't always have to be a tank of some sort from a modern era game. Sometimes it can be something a little different, like the model that ended up winning.

Not exactly a Panzer, but an impressive model nonetheless

 And with that, Targe was brought to a close.

Sunday - Common Ground Games, Tanks OP 3

 There's no rest for the wicked, as I was straight back to it the very next day with the final OP session of the Normandy campaign for tanks. The mission itself was going to be a massed battle of four on four, with all three OP mats placed end to end to form a huge battlefield. Unfortunately, weather, trains being cancelled and prior commitments reduced our player pool a little, so we changed it up.

 We took the Caen mat and placed two together, forming a 6'x3' city mat, and placed an objective in the middle for our two teams to fight over.

Two mats placed together form a perfect battlefield.

 

 This time round we had four players; 

Lee - Fielding Americans. Front loading his points into a Pershing with a fully elite crew

Grant - Bringing the heavy armoured fist of 3 Panthers

Craig - A fearsome Jadgpanther with two Panzer IVs to engage close targets

Kenny - Trying out an interesting list of two Fireflys, with a Cromwell to boost one of their initiatives

Lee's Americans, and a good example of the interesting schemes you can get away with on your tanks

 I could go into great detail about the game. The half hour it took to place the minefields and bocage. I could tell you about the skillful moving and positioning the players went through to get into cover, take shots and avoid hits... or, I could tell you about the highlights of the game!

Highlight #1 - Pershing, Not So Super

A sad sight, but bravery and stupidity go hand in hand

 Lee's Pershing broke forward in the second turn, with the aid of War-Daddy Pool, to sit near the objective and score the first point of the game. Unfortunately, he also drew the wrath of every gun the Germans could bring to bear on him. An unfortunate 'Bailed Out' result from the first round of shooting followed by the crew deciding remounting their tank was a silly idea, led to the Pershing suffering another heavy round of shooting that eventually spelt the end for this 58pt war machine.

A round of crits put the Pershing down

Highlight #2 - A Big Kitty Feels the Pain

 

The beast is silenced by an impressive salvo from a Firefly

 Craig's Jagdpanther was fully kitted out with Michel Wittmann at the helm and Tungsten shot loaded in the breech. It was this tank that scored the massively impressive round of fire to put the Pershing out. It met a poetic end however, as a well-placed Firefly inflicted horrendous damage and sunk this 53pt sniper.

The Firefly, away off to the left, eventually puts the hurt on the Jagdpanther, spelling its end

The final

 With time getting on, and the sun well and truly set, the Germans snatched the win in the last turn. The plucky little Cromwell that had evaded them for a couple of turns being shut down, and no other allied tanks anywhere near the objective, the Germans took the win.

 Tanks has proven to be extremely popular in the clubs and stores up here. With the quick game-length and small unit tally. We now have to wait for the Red Bear to awaken, as the Tanks OP sessions will return soon with the Eastern Front Campaign. Operation Bagration.

 Once again, well done to anyone who made it through my rambling, even if it was just to look at the pretty pictures. I'll sign off for now, and leave you with a couple more.