July 2025

Cid the Slayer put on an excellent game of Forgotten Ruin. A squad of Special Forces troops move to close down a fantastic shimmering portal from which various horrors are emerging.

The Special Forces were divided into two fire teams, each of which had a specific extra support element. My team had the squad leader with a direct link to an off-table mortar element. The other team had a stealthy sniper capable of pinpoint precision shooting.

Massed Russian tanks face the behemoth that is the German Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger I. Three Russian players started with fast T70 light tanks to try and flank the Tiger. It an intentional asymmetrical match up and the Tiger should devour the T70s for breakfast. That's why, for game purposes, as each Russian player is destroyed they get to come back on table with a slightly better Russian tank; initially Valentines, then T34/76s and then the might ISU-152. The player with the Tiger just has to survive. 

Game one saw some appalling dice rolling which just dragged on with all players scoring plenty of hits but failing to land any knock out blows. At one point it looked like the T70s would win just by managing to wipe out the crew of the Tiger through successive hits. However, an initial T70s fell at virtually point blank range, soon followed by a second. Any suggestion this might be the beginning of a trend for the Tiger was soon put to bed when a lowly Valentine actually managed to land a knock-out blow from behind.

Game Two was to be a different affair from the offset. In the very first phase the Tiger destroyed a T70. This hastily converted into just a demonstration and the game restarted. This time it took until the second German phase for the same T70 to be destroyed. Followed by another. As the Valentines entered the game things still looked promising for the Tiger. One Valentine was brewed and a T34/76 came on as replacement, followed by another. However, the more powerfl tanks were able to make short work of the. A total of three games were managed in the afternoon session.