The Kursk of the Desert

Well not quite on that scale but the best we could manage between us. As we are still in the learning phase for V for Victory I thought it would fun and useful to zero in on the vehicle rules and have a game with all our tanks out and add some troop transports in as well. This did mean that the Commonwealth had a slight advantage in points (not making excuses for my performance!) but it also meant that we would be playing the with all the vehicle rules in a concentrated manner.

We set up with each side fielding all it's tanks, their platoon command in an APC and a infantry section in a truck. The objective was to secure and if possible drive off an abandoned truck laden with fuel. VfV isn't really designed with this sort of game in mind I think but the rules played well and didn't fall over at any point.

As we both had truck borne infantry the central objective was within easy reach of both sides so by the middle of turn one we both had it within touching distance. On my right the two heavy tanks settled into a long range shooting match which lasted the entire game. The Grant was firing twice as many guns but this was negated by the cover I'd managed to take with the Panzer III. In the end neither of us managed to get the roll to knock the other out.

On my left it was a bit more lively as the light tanks and armoured cars of each side faced off against each other. Both sides pushed forwards with the DAK letting off some reaction shots which had little effect.

At the end of turn 1 I moved one of my infantry teams into the fuel truck ready to drive it off at the start of the next round. We had agreed that the truck could be assaulted like a building in order to give each side a chance to wrestle control of the vehicle. It was a bit of a surprise then when the Indians opened fire on the truck from the Indian Pattern Carrier and destroyed it. This meant neither side could win but we could still kill the enemy. My Panzer II rushed forwards to try and kill the IPC but failed (only immobilizing it) and was itself killed by the Honey as it swept forwards.

The Honey also went on to kill the 222 whilst the infantry on both sides shot each other up.

The Indians certainly came out on top with the most kills so presumably could claim a morale victory as they walked back to camp having run out of fuel. A/T fire is reasonably binary with out much chipping away at health points, so vehicles tend to go from all ok to dead in one leap. I think adding in more granularity could be done but then you'd be adding time onto the game and it's probably better to be able to complete a game than have that extra detail slowing things down.