First off, this series is being done as a bit of a lark as wargaming has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas so if anyone is offended, please just stop reading now.

On the 5th day of Christmas War Gaming my true love gave to me…

5 Sherman Tanks

Sherman Leader is a solitaire only game based on ground operations during World War II. The player is in control of an American group of tanks, armored cars, trucks, half-tracks, anti-tank guns and infantry and is involved in various length campaigns, measured by weeks, against either the Germans in Europe or the Japanese in the Pacific. The various campaigns include North Africa 1942, Saipan in 1944, all the way through the Fall of Berlin in May 1945. As a game that is designed as a solitaire experience, the game involves well developed AI charts and tables that decide the enemy movements and attacks, via a die roll that can be modified based on various conditions, and provide very well defined explanations of these actions. The AI is pretty simple and sometimes takes actions that make you scratch your head but it works. As someone that doesn’t play a lot of solitaire games, this one is great because it is pretty “dummy proof”. The game can be played at your pace with each campaign involving a certain amount of weeks that play out. The setup isn’t difficult and can be done in 15-20 minutes. Weeks of the campaign can take upwards of 45-60 minutes, depending on the number of enemy units you must destroy to obtain victory.

One of my favorite parts of the game is getting to choose your units by spending your Special Option (SO) Points to build your command as you go after various objectives. In this campaign, I was playing a Battle of the Bulge scenario and chose to include several Sherman Tanks in my initial choices of armor units. There are 3 different types of Sherman Tanks in the game and each provide a slightly different benefit to the table. The M4 Sherman is your workhorse and is the standard for the armor type with the best High Explosive Attacks while also maintaining good defense and movement speed. The M4 Sherman Jumbo gains some additional defensive armor and improves its Antipersonnel Attack and is a better front line unit against heavy German Tanks like the Panzer IV. The M4 Sherman 76 MM is the same as the standard M4 with slightly improve AP attacks. The Sherman tank was the most commonly used American tank in World War II. More than 50,000 Shermans were produced between 1942 and 1945. They were used in all combat theaters—not only by the United States, but also by Great Britain, the Free French, China, and even the Soviet Union. And in Sherman Leader, they are a very good option for any commander.

Here is my video review of Sherman Leader:

If you are interested in Sherman Leader: The World War II Ground Combat Solitaire Strategy Game there are a couple for sale on the Board Game Geek page at the following link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/216865/sherman-leader

You can catch up on the posts in this series to date at the following links:

A Spotter in a Smokestack – Saipan – The Bloody Rock

2 Bridges Blowing – Holland ’44: Operation Market Garden

3 Blockade Runners Running – Kaiserkrieg! The Great War 1914-1918

4 Moudjahidate Defending – The Red Burnoose: Algeria 1857

-Grant