Our second Tanker's Challenge game of the year was fast, fun, and unpredictable. As usual, outrageous reversals of fortune and stupid-brave tactics were the rule rather than the exception. The game began with Phil Willows, who always does very well in these games, killing every German tank in sight. Phil's Sherman tank was able to lord it over the light early war German AFVs. But of course the heavy panzers would eventually show up. Both Charlie Keller and Bill Harris rolled onto the board in shiny new Tiger IIs and all the allies ran for cover. All except Kirby, of course. He sent his Chafee into a suicidal charge. Making good use of his gyrostabilizer he drove between the Tigers as they desperately tried to slew their slow moving turrets in his direction. Firing at point blank range he destroyed Bill's Tiger before being eradicated. Charlie's Tiger managed to drive clear across the board, killing as he moved, before being immobilized on a hill. Kirby drove onto the board in a new tank, delivered the coup de grace, and moved into the lead. His score would grow to an incredible 564 points when he got the chance to command a Jackson and destroyed his third Tiger II of the night. Meanwhile Phil's luck had deserted him and he was barely able to get off a shot as his tanks were destroyed again and again. Phil had to leave early but his incredible early success was still good enough for second place.

The other players had their moments in the sun. Caesar played schoolyard bully by destroying four German armored cars before he found an immobilized panther and graduated to tank killer. Charlie made good use of his Tiger II and finished a respectable third, first among German players, despite leaving the game early. Tom's best moment naturally came at Kirby's expense. After Kirby's Stuart rudely disabled Tom's main gun Tom retaliated by charging through a hedge and ramming the little upstart. Undaunted, Kirby finished off Tom's tank before bailing out.

In this game we used a new rule suggested by Kirby. When a player received a new tank half the value of the tank was subtracted from his score. So a player fortunate enough to get a powerful tank had to do a lot of killing to earn back those points. Overall, the new rule seemed to work well.

What's next for the Tanker's Challenge? Next time we'll include tanks from other nationalities: British, French, etc. I can hardly wait.