Tank-Giving, a second helping

While visiting family in Lincoln, NE I had the opportunity to join a fine bunch of gamers for their annual Tanks-Giving game.  Compared to ours last weekend, this was freakin' huge!  Twenty players, each fielding a mid-war tank company of 2000 points!  To help compensate for the Tigers and Panthers and Elephants (oh my!) everyone was allowed any and all of the mid-war monsters that were planned but never executed.  Victory points were earned from holding any of the six objectives at the start of your turn, eliminating a platoon, or two points for seeing a company fail their test.  The lull before the storm:

By roll off the Germans won and elected to be the defender.  This allowed each company to put a platoon in ambush.  I had five Tigers and two 2cm SPAA.  The "Tiger Ace" rolls for my commander were re-rolling misses and ROF3.  Sweeeeet.  A platoon of two Tigers were impassioned to fight for the Fatherland.  The platoon in reserve had ROF3.  Each side started with priority air for their side of the table with as many 5+ you rolled equalling the number of flights coming in.  Air power could be devastating at first, with a dice subtracted for each turn or attempted intercepts.

So that's what 40K points look like?  No, not everything was on table yet, but mostly in place.  From here on, primarily pictures with little commentary.  Hugely significant was the failure on turn one for the Allies (one British, three Soviet and six American) to get ANY aircraft.

In the foreground six of the nine T-34s or KVs my Stuka killed.

KV-5 "land battleships" with a naval gun.  "Togs" in the foreground.

No idea what these were, but they had a 12.8cm gun and little armor.

Note the good-spirited duel between Czech 38s and Stuarts.

We begin the counter-attack on the left with ambushing MkIII and IVs. 
My ambush platoon of Tigers still waits for their moment.

Our own battle of the "Wheat field" raged on over Teddy Bear fur.

 As they say in a famous movie, "oh, the carnage!".  At the end of turn 4 I had to excuse myself due to family commitments.  Substitute Tigers were found, though I forgot to tell the guy about the ROF3 status.  As I left the score was Axis 24, Allies 20 as I recall.  The Allies had made some lucky company morale checks that turn.  I came back later this evening to find that the final score was Axis 54, Allies 25 so I guess things went downhill fast.  I wonder if my ambushing platoon ever got into play?

As I said, a fine bunch of fellows and one lady.  All in good spirits, mature behavior, and a positive attitude.  The coordinator/judge Hobie did an excellent job keeping the game flowing and his command of the rules meant there were no discussions needed, just the occasional question.  Stop in Gauntlet Games on S. 13th street next time you are in Lincoln.  Thanks for letting me join in!