Trials of a Casual War gamer: 'Last Stand of Alpha 66'

'Taken from Tanks rule book '

I thought I would give Tanks a quick solo play to see how the rules play. So when I had a spare few minutes (well half hour or so) I tried the scenario in the back of the rule book 'Last Stand of Alpha 66'. This is taken from the book Team Yankee (A great read even though my home town gets nuked) and Alpha 66 is the main characters tank. The blurb in the picture sets the scene and you get told what forces to choose (Handily all in the starter set) A lone tank against two enemy tanks.
Here are the forces

The American M1 Tank

First up is the American tank Alpha 66. It has four crew upgrades (All characters from the book) and the Team Yankee platoon upgrade.
Next the Russians

Russian T-64s

The Russian have 2 tanks for this scenario but get noticably less cards in the starter box which will disappoint some players I'm sure. The game uses the book Team Yankee as it's main source it seems and as it's set from the American perspective I think there are less Russian characters (there is one Russian hero crew upgrade but it wasn't used in this scenario ). You get a platoon upgrade giving your tanks extra fire power when they get in close range.
That's the forces done into the map. The book tells you where to place the 2D scenary from the starter set.

A village to north is where the Russians are and Alpha 66 is in the southern area

The forces are on the table

Playing both sides was a new thing for me. I had the Russians hug the buildings and separate to try and get on either side of the American tank. The American tank hid behind the woods. In Tanks the lowest initiative goes first so the Russian tanks which has the lowest went first advancing forwards. Alpha 66 moved into the cover of the woods sonit could start shooting (the woods were blocking terrain unless you were inside them). Movement is done using a template and is really simple. Tanks can move twice but some vehicles can move 3 times.

Alpha 66 advances to cover

Russian tank A surges forward

Russian Tank B heads around to try and flank the American

Shots are exchanged but to no major consequence.

The Russians charge forward once more

As the Russian Tank A and the Apha 66 closed more fire was exchanged.

Both tanks sustain damage in the fire fight but Alpha 66 sustains a critical hit.

Alpha 66 is hit hard and the crew are stunned

The crew of Alpha 66 manage to shake off the hit (last phase of the turn you can repair some critical damage).

The Russians close in on the lone American tank

Russian and American hit each other at close range

The Russian comes off worse suffering 2 critical hits (though neither took off HP )

Russian Tank B moves up close out of the woods

Alpha 66 has took a beating now and has only been saved by some trully awful Russian dice rolls.

Alpha 66 surges forward to get out of the Russian grasp

As Alpha moved away it struck the Russian A tank

Alpha 66 ploughed forward to get away from Russians . A side shot struck the one Russian Tank causing engine damage.

The heavily damaged Alpha 66 makes for the village and vital cover. It misses the Russian Tank in the woods. The heavily damaged Russian Tank reverses hard

A deadly game of cat and mouse around the one building. The Russians damaged engine is not a help here

The damaged Russian engine allows Alpha 66 to get ahead and destroy the Russian Tank with a close range shot

Alpha 66 is riding its luck down to 1 or to 2 hit points, it still manages to take out Russian Tank A and now makes a desperate attack on the remaining Russian Tank which is on a lot better condition.