One Hour Skirmish Wargames: Plan Tortue Scenario (Just tanks!)

I was eager to try out my ideas for an all-tank game using One Hour Skirmish Wargames, so I grabbed the Plan Tortue scenario from the book an(French resistance vs Germans with some vehicles) and modified it for my purposes.

Somewhere in Europe, 1944, a weakened German tank troop is en route to join its battalion. The Allies have set a trap with a minor road block (a large downed tree) to slow the advance and a troop of Shermans to take out the German armor.  

The Germans win if they get the Tiger off the board (it should be one vehicle, but I decided the Tiger had to do it),  the Allies win if the keep the German armor from leaving the board, either by delay or destruction. There are 6 turns allotted for the scenario.

To clear the road block, a German tank must make contact with it, and then spend movement points, up to 3 per phase, until they draw a face card.

I setup  long was on my 3' x 5' kitchen table - tracked vehicles move at 12" so the extra length felt necessary. I don't have a lot of trees,but the trees on each side of the road are considered to block line of sight. The field is not harvested and blocks LOS as well.

Overview of the battlefield.

From the Tiger's point of view.

Two Shermans wait in a field.

Another waits in the open (but shielded by trees).

The column, such as it is, is off.

The Shermans advance but the column ignores them to race by.

The Pz IV demolishes the barricade.

Things don't look good for this Sherman but they survive.

And then team up with their fellows to unleash a torrent on the Tiger. And were totally ineffective.

The Tiger escapes. German victory! The Allies take a parting shot and brew up the Pz IV, but small consolation.

*****
The tanks on both sides were either horrible shots or the armor did its job for almost the entire game.  I allowed the Allies one card draw after the Tiger escaped and finally someone did some damage - and they brewed up the Panzer in one  hit! So, I never got to test my ideas from the previous post.

That said, the game played quite well without them and I was never quite sure if the Germans would make it or if the Allies would succeed.

For a 'beer-and-pretzels' type tank game, it was quite a bit of fun - there were a number of choices to make. For instance, I opted to get the Panzer off the road so the Tiger could get off the board, but that used up the points on that particular turn, and the Tiger had to sit for one more Allied phase and risk destruction.

I think the barrier card draws worked well - that's in the original scenario. One thing that I thought of doing instead was allowing HE fire to blow up the barrier, maybe by treating it as a regular target. That is, the tank would draw a shoot card and the barrier a defense card.

Forty-five minutes from start to finish, and I barely needed to consult the book once I got going. I only turned over one Joker, so it was two turns, but 5 or 6 phases for each side. I didn't have to let the Allies have their last phase but I figured 'why not' since no one had done any damage. And, of course, that's when they decided to be effective.