Tanks for the Memory

Available from the Wargames Vault (not sure about printed versions in the UK) and look like a ton of fun!

Way back in the days of my youth, when Airfix ruled the world and liquid poly, enamel paint and banana oil were ‘bang on trend’ I dabbled, along with a good many others gamers ‘of a certain vintage’ in WW2 games that inevitably featured tanks. Usually a lot of them. I can recall many exciting games fought using unpainted Airfix polythene Pattons and Centurions - doubling as whatever we needed them to represent, in true Hollywood style - and Charles Grant’s Battle: Practical Wargames as the rules of choice. The polythene 25pdr and Quad tractor served as whatever anti tank gun was needed and the sole SPG Airfix produced usually served as the venerable Stug in all its various guises. Of course as experience and disposable income grew then kits became obligatory - I can remember being properly thrilled when Matchbox launched their range and had great fun building Chaffees and Jagdpanthers - an unlikely combination for sure!

The games I played back then were fun and probably more hysterical than historical but nevertheless were an important part of my wargaming career, so to speak.

Fast forward to today and purely by chance I now have the wherewithal to be able to tap into the armoured carnage of yesteryear on a trial basis but with a veneer of respectability. 

Dan Mersey needs no introduction from me - his Rampant series is well known and extremely popular - and so when I discovered that he had written a couple of set of rules (actually one set but available for two theatres) specialising in armoured warfare my only question was ‘where do I sign?’

Armoured Storm is designed for battles with 15 to 30 tanks a side with infantry, artillery and aircraft etc very much in the supporting cast. At first glance it looks cheerfully gamey and so will doubtless offend the purist but hey ho - this is designed to be a tank game pure and simple.

It looks a blast and the scale is very much at the commander of an armoured formation rather than individual vehicles. Tanks have varying abilities and the game centres on using these to their best advantage - it would not be possible to do everything with everything at once so careful planning is needed. This captures the flavour of WW2 tank combat nicely - move then fire, fire then move, manoeuvre to cover etc - so the game becomes a real tactical challenge. I have more than enough materials at home to give these a spin but curiously enough the one theatre I am lacking anything for is the Western Desert. At least I was, until now…. 

Oh Yes Indeedy! Gotta a love a tank or two!

I freely admit to be a ‘desert loving Englishman’ and so the prospect of pitting Valentines, Matilda’s, Crusaders and others against an assortment of German and Italian armour has a real appeal. To me it is armoured warfare in its purest form - no inconvenient cities or industrial sites to hamper movement - just sand, slopes, wadis and sundry other natural phenomena. The two volumes you see above look at the war in the desert from the perspective of armoured warfare and how this evolved over the course of the campaign - both from the tactical and technological standpoint.

I shall look out for a copy Tank Battles in Miniature: The Western Desert and also Mr Mersey has a title on the period which, if his book on the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 is anything to go by, will be a helpful volume for sure.

One of the best accounts of the desert war in tanks  is called Brazen Chariots and it is also on my to get and read list.