Played a quick game of Axis & Allies Miniatures with a budding AAM collector/player at the local game shop.
"Bud" doesn't have a large collection, yet, so I thought it best to keep the scenario small and we played without any year restrictions. It was a standard 100-point German (me) vs. British (him). I'd given him a spare Spitfire Ace plane after our last game and he wanted to use that.
I therefore knew he'd have a plane so I decided to field the Flak 88 with gun shield, figuring it could do double duty for AA and AT work. The bulk of my points were spent on a Tiger I, and I filled out my army with two Mauser 98kar regular infantry, one veteran paratrooper and a "Grizzled Veteran" German hero.
As expected, the Brits had the Spitfre Ace, an Inspired Lieutenant, two Vickers MG teams, a 6-pounder ATG and the following armor: One Cromwell, a Crusader and a Stuart.
The battle started off badly as the Tiger' shooting was poor. It could hardly fail to damage the light UK armor, of course, but there were no quick kills. Meanwhile the Spitfire Ace made short work of the 88 and the machine gunners took care of my infantry. The German Hero was also gunned down by the Spit, while he only disrupted the plane in return. By Turn 4 it was the Tiger alone, facing almost the entire British force. The Inspired LT was down, but that was it, although two of the three tanks were damaged.
But British Bud found out how frustrating dealing with a Tiger I is. The paratrooper arrived and shot down the Spit when it attacked, and then he took out a Vickers team before going down himself. Meanwhile the light British guns could make no impression on the Tiger, even at point-blank range, and the Tiger dispatched the Stuart and the Crusader in turn. Time was running out, however. The surviving Vickers was sitting on the objective, so the Tiger ignored the damaged Cromwell yapping at its heels and made for the objective hex. Luckily it made the movement roll to enter the wooded objective, disrupting the Vickers with its Overrun special ability and then killing it in the Assault phase.
Finally the Tiger turned on its tormenter and KO'd the Cromwell for the win. The sole surviving British piece was the ATG. It was a near-run thing, however, because it would only have taken one lucky combo of shots to change things around. The Tiger I is a tough egg, but my basket only had that single egg in it. The Flak 88 was a disappointment. Even though it got a defensive fire attack on the Spitfire Ace, which incautiously bored in for a close-range shot, it's roll wasn't even close. I doubt I'll take one of those again in a small battle.
It took about 75 minutes to play, including army construction time.
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