Sitrep(FOW): Tanksgiving in Portland USA

Oh my

Nearly a month and no blog updates tsk tsk. In my defence I have been a bit too busy the last month. In November, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Portland US and take part in the Tanksgiving festival which runs around the same weekend as some turkey eating contest in America.

A great game store in Portland

Tanksgiving ss a FOW tank themed event where players must enter with tank themed armies and spend the day pitting their wits against each other competing for bragging rights.  I suspect there would be an event in Portland but did not know any of the details. Fortunately it turns out that Mike (aka Fingolen on WWPD) whose blog mini-ordnance-review I follow is based on Portland and he posted about a tanksgiving event he was going to in Guardian Games Portland, so that filled in the blank details. 

view on the left hand side of the entrance

I had a tough choice of what list to bring. I would have liked to have come from Germany with a German list but I could not put together the required heavy armour in time due to a hectic schedule. In the end I opted for a tried and test American 7th Armour list. I think having seen the file Fury around the time of the evnt may have influenced my choice. The list is probably one of the best tournament list around but in the current climate might be showing its age when Germanyheavy tanks (Kingtigers and Jagdtigers)  lists designed to crush the list are coming into fashion.

View of the right hand side from the entrance 

Round one was against Mike no less. Did I mention he is the assistant writer for Battlefront literally wrote the book for his army list.  Mike rolled in with the 501st scwhere panzer abeiltung (heavy panzer battalion). The mission was fair fight but Mike had brought enough Kingtigers to cover both objectives. I think the allies estimated  they need a 5:1 ratio in armour to take on a King Tiger I had about a 3:1.  The initial recce/spearhead moves saw the Americans move to deny lines of sight to the big cats and overload the German weaker flank. The Germans got the first turn but the fire was not has strong as expected with little to no losses. Interestingly the German infantry failed to dig in leaving them in the open against a lot of American MG guns.  The American return fire was also weak with most tanks opting to smoke the big cats to limit their big guns. The VMGs gunned down any German infantry range and add to the pressure of the attack.  Fortunatly one of the big cats guarding the threatened objective bogged down leaving the flank vulnerable.  A Sherman platoon  with the 1iC and 2iC screamed in hoping to destroyed the weakened infantry platoon guarding the objective and capture the bogged down King Tiger in the process. 

A rather blurry picture of the 7th Armoured getting ready to start its engines on round one

After a couple of pretty tense rounds of combat the platoon was beaten back. This was the high water mark of the American attack as in the following rounds try as they might the Sherman’s just could not dodge the German heavy guns long enough and both platoons failed their first motivation test despite Patton being able to make them fearless. The American attack petered out but was so intense the German attack never really got started. In the end both sides counted losing the engagement. The Americans losing two tanks platoons to the Germans losing an infantry platoon.

View of the German lines in Round one

Round two was a defensive mission against Zach with no Kigntigers or Jagdtigers is sight. This allowed the 7th Armoured to do what it does best, blitz an objective and get an early win. The game ended on turn three with the Americans holding the objective and German kompanie broken and fleeing the battlefield. I must be getting slow since normal the game should be over in turn two but Zach opted to fight it out hoping for some reinforcement to at least bag a platoon before the end. Fortunately the game was over quickly and it was possible to get another game in which was a bit longer and more entertaining for both sides.

Round one: A recce platoon probes German lines 

Round three was against Daniel in Counter Attack. Again King Tigers made an appearance, , 6 this time. To make thing even worse the objective does not go hot until turn six meaning the Shermans have to the dance of death with the King Tigers for potential six rounds before an objective can be captured. On the plus side this game some of the King Tigers have to wait in reserve before rolling on. Naturally, the three reserved King Tigers rolled on turn one right on the flank of the American attack.  But fortunately, their arrival was not as bad as it could have been. The American infantry tried a frontal assault against some pinned German infantry.  The platoon commander was heard asking mid way through the assault if the Germans were rifle teams or MG teams. It turned out they were MG teams and defensive fire forced the Americans back.  

Round One: American Armour plays hide an seek with King Tigers

The Americans finally got a break when an outflanking easy eight put a round a piece into a platoon of King Tigers to destroy the platoon and open anobjective.  The remaining American poured in and over ran the objective. At this stage, although I did not release it at the time I was in with a chance of a three way tie for first place with fourteen points. But the Germans forgot to work out some shooting.  In the end we decided to roll it out and the last surviving team from a recce platoon, M8 armored car took an 88 round hit. Only for the King Tiger to fail its fire power check (Hurrah). Then the armored car failed it morale to be destroyed any way (Boo). At the end of the day the 7th Armored had thirteen out of a potential eighteen points. On table one Mike’s scwhere panzer was against Ryans’s US 3rd armored. The German won the game but took heavy damage. In the end the 3rd Armoured did enough damage to get fifteen put of eighteen points to claim the win for the Allies. While I end up in a three way for second with the two axis players

Some Panzer IVs on the move in round two

Portland tanksgiving fest was an absolute blast. Thanks to SteveM for organizing it.  I recommend anyone visiting Portland to visit Guardian Games and try to hook up with the Portland players. I also recommend checking out Mikes Blog, for some great hints and tips on modelling and gaming which can apply to any system.

Panzer IV lurking in round 2

That is all for now tanks:) for stopping by.

A rather clever turn counter