Airfix Battles – Armor on Armor Play Test.

This was a follow up game I have been meaning to run for quite a long time. I tried out Airfix Battles for an all infantry fight and liked how it flowed and the result. I have planned on an all armor fight, just to stretch the mechanics out.

It was the monthly game at my place, so I set up some terrain and pulled out the troops for both sides. Since I have cards for the Americans and Germans, I went with them as the forces. The idea would be a smaller elite German Panther platoon versus two Sherman platoons, somewhere south of Normandy during the exploitation to close the Falaise Pocket.

I went with the same each square equaled six inches of distance, like we did with the infantry playtest. I had three players, so it would also give us a chance to try out the multiplayer rules. Each side got their platoon and we got started. The Germans could set up anywhere up to the middle half of the table (we played the terrain long. The US forces would drive onto the table. Victory would be on points, with the US getting a bonus one for every tank they got off the opposite side.

The German player opted to group his Panthers on the left to use the town for cover. The American s just drove forward to the town and then split into two groups to pincer the town and try to get around the flanks. The German player moved to the right to engage the left flanking force, while the other forces swung to the right.

The Panthers got into the knife fight with the Shermans, which did not work to their advantage. Some bad shooting dice did not help! After a few rounds, the flanking Shermans got into position and began to pour flanking fire into the Panthers. They tried to back out of the trap, but it was too late and most of the platoon was wiped out. The remaining hero commander broke through to the right and attempted a valiant last stand. He was able to hold out until the end of the game. With the loss of most of the Panthers, it was clearly a US win!

The game played out reasonably well mechanically. There was a bit of an issue with the tank stats, with the Panthers only being slightly better than the Sherman 75s and about the same as the 76s. Overall, the multiplayer aspect worked well. However, the tank similarity made it a bit of a crap shoot. As such, I would say these rules probably should be left at home for armored fights, unless you have more equal vehicles. The tanks are definitely better as supporting arms! We will probably try another game with more balance forces to decide once and for all how they do as a pure miniature game. Stay tuned!

• Manteuffel