As a group we have liked the “Too Fat Lardies” games systems especially Chain of Command. With the release of “What a Tanker” we decided to give this a try for the first time last night.

Although there are familiar elements to Chain of Command the system works quite differently.

Despite the large 72 page rule book we found the game went smoothly, was easy to understand, fun to play, and very intuitive.

Even our lack of knowledge of the rules did not slow down the game as what was required during each turn phase was well laid out and easy to understand. We liked it a lot and it will probably form part of our standard menu of games systems.

We decided to start small with just one early war tank each. As I concentrate solely on the early war in North Africa we used a British A13 Cruiser tank commanded by Algernon Abercrombie (AA) the Third.

AA and his A13

His Italian rival was Giuseppe Gianerelli (GG)the 4th in a Fiat M11/39

Giuseppe and his metal steed suffering a near miss.

(For the purists I know this is not a Fiat M11/39!!!)

The irony for these two aristocratic warriors was that a thousand years earlier they would have been charging into battle side by side in the defence of Christendom against the infidel. Now the considered each other the infidel.

After a short while jockeying for positions the GG was able to unleash the opening shot which hit but only forced AA and his metal stallion backwards.

The return fire from AA also hit with a similar no result.

AA refusing to go “hull down” tried to maneuver for a better shot.

GG was able to counter this placing himself ready to fire as soon as AA pocked his head around the field.

Getting sick of this game of maneuver AA charged forward and was lucky to win the initiative for the next turn and fire first.

There could only be one winner in this close range firefight and this time Algernon was victorious, blowing the turret clean of the tank.

Alas Mussolini lost one of his finest warriors as no one survived the carnage.

Revenge was swift as in the next game Giuseppe Gianerelli (GG)the 5th was able to revenge his father’s untimely demise and captured the stunned Algernon has he emerged from his destroyed tank.

As I said in the opening a quick, fun-filled fast play game. A subsequent re-read of the rules with the experience of a couple of games showed that we played a few of the rules incorrectly but these did not effect our enjoyment at all.

Looking forward to commanding a troop of tanks next time.