What a Tanker in Sicily : back in the North

After a week or so travelling I’m back in the North, and back to some hobby activity. Having been to Salute and seen some impressive ‘What a Tanker’ games it got me thinking about my Sicily collection. This coincided with me purchasing some extra American armour.

The table setup plenty of cover and blocking terrain, the Americans would advance from the this end the Germans from the far end.

The Americans arrive, 2 Sherman’s, an M10 (new) and a M5 Stuart 

The Germans have a PzIII a STug F8 and of course Tiger, 

Both sides jockey into position, the damaged buildings count as heavy cover but don’t block line of sight

The Stug starts firing at long range against the American M10 which finds itself slightly out of position by the far bridge

The M10 takes some damage reducing its speed slightly

Forced to turn to try and get out of the firing line the M10 takes another direct hit and is the first casualty

The Tiger advances but is struggling with poor command dice. It takes a couple of hits which bounce off its front armour…….

Until rolling 6 dice the Sherman gets a crazy 5 strike hits ! The Tiger fails to save a single strike causing it to immediate explode 😥

It was lunchtime and we allowed both sides to bring on some reserves. Both sides slug it out 

Eventually the Americans get the upper hand as they drive the PzIII back causing considerable damage. A fun game which we return to again in the future.

Some recent purchases saw their first action in this game.

I had been looking at getting an M10 for the Americans, but I found a hard to resist deal on eBay and ended up purchasing 3 these were painted quickly so they could take to the field immediately

I’ve also painted up some more 10mm Austrian Dragoons for the SYW

Also completed a couple of rather fancy heavy cannons for the ECW although I see these perhaps getting used in a future Thirty Years War battle ?

As mentioned I have been away for a few days. First in London……

British museum to see the Samurai exhibition

A lot of interesting history, plenty of armour so worth a visit

I visited the Household Cavalry Museum, quite small but really interesting with just a few lovely artefacts,  the stuff in this case from the Napoleonic era, the eagle is a replica, but the small bugle was one that sounded the charge of the heavy cavalry brigade at Waterloo !

A trip to the portrait gallery mainly looking at the historical portraits !

A trip to the Wallace museum, after a suggestion from Iain a fine collection of Armour 

I did like this one, my only criticism is the labelling is generally poor

After London I was out in the Home Counties. Belvoir Castle, spectacular but too heavily rebuilt for my liking

Berkhamstead Castle closer to London, the other extreme, although a fine fine example of a Motte and Bailey design

We had a trip to Bletchley Park which was pleasant but I gave up at the display which actually tried to explain how the codes were broken, way above my brain level

They do have a lot of enigma type machine and lots of interesting stories

Our final trip was a real surprise in a good way ! the Shuttleworth collection. An absolutely fantastic collection of early aircraft, all in working order, although we weren’t there on one of the special flying days the planes were still really impressive.

I am guessing but this may be the largest such collection in the World ?

As well as bi planes several working WW2 planes as well.

So many planes, they also do flying days which I might consider in the future ?

So some hobby time and a few busy days, somewhere in here I also visited Salute, a fun day, catching up with a few people, but I bought very little and took very few photos.

That’s it for now I have been painting some more stuff and more games planned for this week.

Thanks for checking in

Matt ❤️