Tank versus Tank action with Achtung Panzer!

 

One of the best aspects of being in a club like the Devon Wargames Group is that we are a club that is definitely among the 'early adopter' group, a term so beloved by marketing managers across the various retail sectors, but an aspect of the club that means if there is a new or relatively new set of rules out there we are likely to see someone bringing it along for a game.

So it was that one of our younger club members Charlie, and one of our not so younger members, his Dad, Jack, offered to host a game of 'Achtung Panzer!' launched by Warlord Games last year, a World War II tank combat game using 28mm scale models and focusing on platoon-level engagements.

To quote the Warlord Games folks when describing their new game system;

'Achtung Panzer! is our brand-new game of in-depth 28mm WW2 tank combat that lets you fight exciting close-quarter battles in dense terrain, and experience the effectiveness of armoured fighting vehicles and their crews in WW2, with enormous customisability and a rewarding campaign system.

You’ll control a small number of tanks, and using a unique initiative order system do battle through heavy terrain on the tabletop. Detailed spotting and destruction mechanics will require you to first identify your targets, then line up the perfect shot before you fire. The action and event card system ensures that no two games are the same, and the linked campaign system allows you to see your crews and tanks progress over the course of numerous battles.'

Now as a bit of an 'Old Grognard' who in my fifty-two years in the hobby has seen just about most things in wargaming, I try to vary my diet of games now and then, just to make sure 'I'm down there with the kids and keeping it real', and of course to sit down to a lovely table, terrain and marvellous collection of WWII vehicles in 28mm or should I say 1/56 scale, is always a pleasure, and so I prepared to see what Warlord Games had come up with this time with their new tank game 'Achtung Panzer!'

I don't usually play WWII in the larger scales, having in my own collection a large selection of 15mm tanks and infantry from Battlefront, mainly set up for Western Europe 1944-45, and I have used them using I Aint Been Shot Mum (IABSM), and occasionally Chain of Command (CoC), both from the Too Fat Lardies.

More recently I sat down to have a go with a more recent Lardy incarnation, and similarly scaled for small tank actions, 'What a Tanker' (WaT), and I have to say that these tank on tank rule sets probably inspired by the online 'World of Tanks' game have not really grabbed my enthusiasm in that I probably prefer more of a simulation, all arms set of rules like CoC, where infantry and anti-tank capable troops keep the tankers on their guard among the close terrain of NW Europe in the later years of WWII.

However, putting all my pre-conceptions to one side I decided to see what sort of game could be had with 'Achtung Panzer!' and paid close attention as Charlie explained the basics to our group of rookie tank commanders as we prepared to battle it out among the houses and hedgerows of a typical Normandy hamlet circa 1944.

As you would expect from Warlord, the game comes with some nicely produced components to compliment the vehicles and terrain of your table with an example of one of the vehicle status cards above and some of the chance cards each tank commander can hold and play when the opportunity presents, but always with the threat of a counter card held by ones opponent.

The game sequence is driven by a series of chit draws determining which particular model tank can activate to move and fire, and we managed to play two games during the day with the first game very much on the 'learning curve', with myself commanding a Panzer IV alongside another such tank, a Panzer III and StuG IIIG, facing off against an assortment of Allied types including a Sherman, Cromwell, Sherman Firefly and Stuart.

Both sides were tasked with controlling a small village between our lines, and so with the Panzer IV's attempting to get into a covering position it was left to the StuG and Panzer III to get into the village, whilst the Allies seemed content to sit back on their ridge line and take pot shots at manoeuvring German tanks in the fields below their ridge overlooking said village.

Not surprisingly the Firefly drew most German return fire, forcing it to reverse into cover to make repairs allowing the lighter German tanks to use the respite to get in among the buildings to lay claim to controlling the hamlet.

In our second game we had the German force fielding some big cats including Tiger and Panther alongside the Panzer IVs and with the Allies attempting to storm our position on a ridge as they looked to present multiple targets in the hope that one of them would be able to close for a fatal flank shot.

The German big-cats won the day though smashing up the advancing Allied armour with a few tense moments of card play and dashes between cover to spice up the play, before the Germans got the drop in the important exchanges of fire.

So rather than giving a detailed blow by blow account of Achtung Panzer! I thought I would offer my very personal impression of the game, very much similar to that of What a Tanker, in that these games are much in vogue at the moment along with skirmish games in general; with it seems a new generation of historical gamers less inclined to build and field big collections of miniatures, requiring the time to play the larger battle, with all its added complexities of command and combined arms tactics, but rather the low-level skirmish game focussed on the minutia of which armour piercing shell to stick in the breach and how good is my driver at performing a high speed reverse.

So what's wrong with that you might say, to which I would reply nothing, if you enjoy that kind of game, combined as here with the terrain and vehicles to compliment play, and that said, I enjoyed this break from my normal diet of play, but I don't think Achtung Panzer and other similar offerings have enough nutrition to satisfy my personal hunger for historical simulation, similar to the choice between a MacDonalds and a gourmet three course dinner with wine.

If nothing else, WWII land warfare generally marked a return to combined-arms warfare, where infantry, artillery and armour worked best when brought together in combat teams, specifically arranged in quantity for the task at hand; and with the array of anti-tank capability in the hands of the poor bloody infantry, the tanks tended to often enter battlefields, as seen above, like shy debutantes stepping onto the ball-room dance floor, only too aware that that hedgerow in front could easily be shielding a Panzerschreck or PIAT team waiting for their opportunity to cause absolute mayhem.

Thus the infantry screen for such armoured advances were a necessity, whilst the armour, proof against machinegun and most artillery, particularly the more common mortar round, offered the infantry heavy support in the face of such threats, often being used to shoot the infantry onto the target such as a large wood or village.

There are of course occasional actions that come to mind where this type of tank v tank engagement with the occasional anti-tank gun on the scene was an event and actions such as SS-Unterscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann at what became known as Barkmann's Corner and SS-Obersturmführer Michael Wittmann at Villers Bocage readily offer themselves as potential historical scenarios playable with these rules. 

During the brave engagement often called "Barkmann's Corner", 

SS-Unterscharfuhrer Ernst Barkmann pictured, destroyed approximately 

nine Sherman tanks and many other various vehicles with his lone Panther tank.

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/gen5.htm

I can easily see the attraction of these 'Tank Heavy' games and for Warlord in particular, with models to sell, the rules make perfect marketing strategy, and I rather hope they prove to be the entry-drug required to attract a new generation of wargamer into the historical gaming arena, and in due time a desire to replicate the history that these sort of games should inspire further reading to produce.

So in closing, I think Achtung Panzer! is a well produced game of tank versus tank action that gives a tense skirmish 'knife fight' of a game playable to a conclusion in a few hours of play, but for the WWII aficionado perhaps just a light interlude to their normal gaming and to the new student of WWII warfare a set of rules and game that should hopefully encourage further exploration into other rule sets that produce an equally fun game with all the complexities and challenge of combined arms warfare that WWII tanks were but a part.

Thank you to Jack and Charlie for my first game of Achtung Panzer! and to Stephen, David, Nathan and Owen for the fun we had trading APDS among the hedgerows.

JJ