Tanksgiving 2020

Last Saturday I made the trek down to Waycross for our annual tradition of Tanksgiving at Mike's place. Covid be damned, right?

I took Cold War Commander this year, seeing as though tanks were on the menu. It's a simple enough system for inexperienced players to wrap their heads around. I set up a scrum in Northern Germany in the mid-1980's. A bit of the ol' 99 Red Balloons. We had three Polish battalions attack a town held by West German army and USMC forces. As the GM, I let the others choose their forces. the Marines were left over so I got to command them. I'm not going to do a detailed play-by-play, but will touch on some of the highlights (and lowlights).

Here's the layout. My Marines are off to the left of the town, dug in, ready to greet the visitors from the east. Wayne's Germans (mechanized infantry and armor) are in the town. Across the table, left to right are Ziggy's T-72 battalion, Mike's OT-64 motorized infantry battalion and finally Naval Assault infantry in OT-62s commanded by Trevor. Trevor hadn't played a whole lot of micro armor in his 15 years, so this would be a fine intro game for him.

Here's a shot of my mighty Marines, deployed dug-in. Primarily infantry with some M60s and a TOW launcher. I also had a FAC who could call in a Harrier.

And my German allies! Similar, with mechanized infantry and Leopard 1s. They had a Phantom available for attack runs.

Here's that Harrier making its first appearance. Not terribly effective, but fun nonetheless.

The T-72s crest the hill and begin unloading on my position. After a couple of successful activations, Zig rolled double ones and got a double activation. He fired again, crushing my battalion then moving back out of line of sight. At that point, I was pretty well out of the game. 

Ziggy gloats while Mike moves Polish APCs forward.

Over on the right flank, an Mi-24 swoops in and unleashes a volley of rocket, gun and missile fire. Luckily for Wayne, there was enough cover to keep his troops safe.

The Marine AGC finally managed to recover from suppression and found a target. Unfortunately for the Harrier driver, Polish AAA was plentiful and accurate. Curses! One more claw gone. 

My Marines consolidated into the town. I left my remaining M60 platoon out in the field, dug-in figuring they'd be tough to kill and, well, they could still kick out some worthwhile firepower. Things were pretty desperate on the left - I'd only killed a single T-72 stand, maybe two.

German tank crews locate and destroy Polish T-55s in the distance!

And then the skies opened up! The Luftwaffe F-4 streaked in and the side of hill 331 erupted in gouts of flame! In the blink of an eye things really changed for the Polish.

A turn later though, when the Phantom returned, the AAA was ready, and Fritz had to hit the silk after two ZSUs and an SA-9 launcher found their mark. 

My last remaining fighting stand, a platoon of America's finest, charges up hill 331. Somehow, they managed to survive the defensive fire and got to duke it out with the boys from Krakow. The stands wiped each other out, but at least I killed one more!

The following turn, Wayne botched his morale test to remain on the table. We'd been past our breakpoint most of the game so it was really just a matter of time. Here's the NATO command fleeing before the wall of T-72s.

We fared better than expected. Two more kills and the Poles would have been at their breakpoint (18!). The F-4 getting shot down was huge. One more good run by it would have gutted the Polish mechanized troops. My Marines hung in there, battered as they were. The Germans fared much better but had less dangerous opponents arrayed against them. We all rather enjoyed the battle and it was a great first micro armor game for Trevor!

Next up was Wayne's Battletech Alpha Strike game.

We left the scenery pretty much as-is, since it's a 6mm scale game too. Wayne set up a game for six players, two mechs each. 

I drove these two.

Our mission was to stomp across the table and kick it at the communications station in the far corner. In all honesty, it was a tall order since we were pitted against an equally powerful force who simply had to chill out and wait for us. Like good soldiers, we bitched and moaned the entire time. Considerable blame was placed upon the dropship pilot who landed a damn country mile away from the objective. 

In no time, my light mech was one-shotted. This was shaping up like the last game. :/

Enemy commander Lee watches on as my Wulfen burns.

Teammate Max watched on as my Wulfen burns. Note the miserable dropship position (our starting position).

A blurry selfie of the action. Left to right that's Lee, Trevor and Sara, then yours truly at the bottom working the camera.

My Warwolf skulks back, next to the farmhouse. I was in fighting-retreat mode as we were getting worked. The Warwolf did however destroy two enemy mechs. Wayne mocked me for fleeing but seeing as though I was the death-dealing destroyer from the stars and Wayne was just the GM, I chose to ignore him. My pilot lives to fight another day.

An entertaining game, made more fun with the addition of loud music and wine. Battletech was a raucous affair to be sure. I'll always cherish the memory of Queen's Don't Stop Me Now blaring as Ziggy and I smashed two mechs back to back. That was without a doubt the military highlight of the battle since we did get pretty well mangled aside from that.

It was a great day of gaming. I came out on the short end of the stick in both games but enjoyed every minute of it. Already looking forward to the next one! Be well and good gaming everyone.