Tanksgiving 2019

Last Saturday Mike hosted his annual Tanksgiving get-together down in Waycross. David, Ziggy and I journeyed down to be part of the day of gaming. Mike was setting up a game of Ogre miniatures using Dystopian Wars minis when we arrived. With six players, it looked a bit crowded, so I opted for and intro game of Command and Colors Medieval. I'd never played C&C and read so much about it so it was nice to get an opportunity to play.

I helped command the Byzantine Roman army with Randy (the game's owner and our teacher). Our Hun opponents were Wayne and Max. Max also has experience with C&C so we weren't facing two greenhorns.

Our opponents. Wayne and Max.

Randy and me, fumbling through a selfie.

We Yin-Yang'ed for a bit, both sides pushing on their left flanks and exchanging bow fire.

Then a bit of success on our right, although the marauding heavy infantry over there (with leader) eventually wound down. It's fine, they served well.

So we were dealt the card to make the left flank go bananas, and bananas we went. We out-Hunned the Huns and our cataphracts stormed forward.

Smash, smash, smash. Super Heavy Cataphracts + Leader + appropriate cards to lay down the smack = loads of dead Huns. General Flatus and company go legend.

Comidus Flatus clears the flank.

Towards the end of the game... We'd done a fine job of corralling the invaders from the steppe. I think our heavy infantry off to the right actually bagged the ninth kill kill for us. A resounding victory for Rome!

I rather enjoyed Command and Colors. It's easier to like a game when you have a very successful first outing but it does a fine job of ticking all the right boxes. C&C (any flavor) made it on my Christmas list after this outing.

The next game was Rate of Fire. This was a re-fight of the battle Ziggy and I played a few weeks prior. Mid-1943, Germans trying to capture a road intersection with plenty of Soviet resistance. I GM'ed. Wayne and Randy took command of the Germans while Max handled the Russians himself (with a little advice from me).

The German recce elements get a move on.

Amusingly, the 8-Rad gets hung up in the concertina wire, but does manage to locate the Zis-3 ATG gun the hard way! One survivor bails out.

Ze Germans appear in force. Stugs, halftracks and panzers, oh my! They're much more spread out than the way Ziggy played it.

The Zis-3 claims another victim! A Panzer IV is taken out. Towards the bottom of the frame, infantry begin exchanging rifle and machinegun fire. Wayne's hand of cheese commands the truck driver to park his Opel Blitz in front of the Russian machinegun position to block its line of sight! The truck and driver are disabled in short order.

The halftack in the center next to the Stug gets barbed wire wrapped up in it's running gear. Smirk. The Stug is smashed by a shot from the ATG and the gunner and assistant are killed. It can only move and spot now.

Max's first two reserve rolls hit paydirt and by turn five he's got two T-34s added to his mix, like he needs it!

And in no time, another Panzer is taken out! The driver survives.

The other T-34 immobilizes another Panzer IV. It's a bloodbath!

Many infantry reveal themselves. Gross. The Panzer driver (upper left) hails an Uber in the form of a Schwimmwagen.

The stationary Stug gets its act together and take out a T-34.

The craziest group of Germans you're likely to meet charges forward! The reds have four firing units that can blast away at the grenadiers. They only take a few casualties but of course are suppressed, preventing them from assaulting the machinegun position in the woods which was of course their goal.

The Panzer with the fouled running gear takes out one of the Russian tanks!

The Grenadiers on the left flank shoot up the Russian mortar team. Meanwhile, the Uber has arrived at it's destination - the Stug that's got no driver. The Panzer driver hops out of the Schwimmwagen and offers to drive. I allow it.

The lone survivor of the most recently destroyed Soviet tank gets his dander up and rushes the nearest German infantry squad. He kills one with his pistol and causes the squad to become suppressed! Chuck Norris, eat your heart out.

I didn't take any action shots, but the little Russian field gun killed a halftrack then got wiped out by angry return fire. The Stug pushed out of the wire and the Russian infantry that had been in the woods next to Stug ran towards the intersection.

That was the end of ten turns. The Germans had just run out of time, a Soviet win! The Russian infantry in the woods nearest the intersection were the squad holding the objective and I couldn't rationalize an unoccupied halftrack being able to contest it.

Wow, what an amusing game. I did allow a few Hollywood moments for the sake of awesome. The Poor German players made no friends of the dice and suffered some miserable fortune much of the game. German artillery was successfully called in ONE time in ten turns, needing a 3+ each time. Russian morale stayed reliable enough to eke out a win.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was nice being able to show off the 1/72nds to folks who've never played with them. Wayne may be a convert - he's been looking for a good WW2 skirmish scale and let's face it, 1/72 has EVERYTHING and is budget-friendly.

Thanks Mike for hosting and I look forward to returning the favor next Memorial Day!