What A Tanker! An actual game.

And not only an actual game, but with an actual real live opponent.

Yes, I was able to play WaT against someone, my partner, who has never played the game before. Anyway, it was a chance to play a game and introduce her to the rules. The location was our dining table, suitably converted into a wargaming table with the addition of three 4ft x 2ft sheets of MDF and a cheap playmat, which is actually a piece of fake grass sold by Lidl a few years ago. 

We played with three tanks a side, the British with two Cromwell Mk IVs and a Sherman Vc and the Germans with a Panzer IVH, a Panther G and a Stug IIIG. We rolled for where to start and then rolled again to see who would be on which side. I ended up as the German player, entering from the left side of the table as shown in the first picture.

The Cromwells made good use of their speed, with one attempting, and succeeding in a flanking manoeuvre on the British left.

The two big hitters got into a short range standoff either side of a line of bocage, with the Panther reversing back through a gap it had previously made in the hedges.

One of the British Cromwells targeted the Stug III but was unable to cause any damage other than to the targeting optics.

The Pather went stalking after the other Cromwell.

The 17pdr Sherman made short work of the PzKpfw IV. First blood to the British.

Before long, the Panther got revenge by brewing up the Sherman.

One Cromwell got totally immobilised and had its turret so knocked about that we decided the crew would have to bail out, but the other Cromwell took out the Stug III with a sneaky attack in the rear. However, after a fair amount of cat and mouse, the Panther knocked out the last Cromwell.

After the game, which my other half enjoyed, despite losing, we decided to keep the table set up for an introduction to Chain of Command tomorrow, using today's game as a recce mission by the British in advance of an attack by Infantry. We have left a couple of tanks on the table, but have assumed that the victorious Germans have retrieved their knocked out vehicles, as well as the immobilised Cromwell.