Flames of War - Tanksgiving 11/20/11

What: Tanksgiving Flames of War

When: Sunday, November 20th, 2011

How much: $5

Points: Late-War, 2000 points per army. Players can play more than one army.

Mission: Team game

Check In: 12:00 pm

Player List:

Axis:
1. Ethan - Germans (3 armies)
2. Tom - Germans (2 armies)

Allies:
1. Luke - Soviets and Germans
2. Mike - Fins
3. Don - USA
4. Anthony - Germans

If you have any questions, contact me at 305-606-5026. Please let me know if you plan on attending, so that we can plan the game size.

Tanksgiving

RULES AND REGULATIONS
All players may only bring companies in which their combat platoons are rated as tank teams. A platoon must have at least half of the teams rated as tank teams.
All players may bring up to two companies not to exceed 2000 points. Each company cannot exceed 2000 points and a new company must be purchased if your company exceeds 2000 points.
Each player may only bring one infantry platoon per company and as many platoons that are rated as gun teams as are legally allowed in each company.
All artillery platoons may use the Across the Volga special rules located on page 225 of the main rulebook.
No player may have air power in any of their companies. Special Rules for air power are provided below.
Each side calculates how many total companies they have and compare that to the total number of enemy companies.
This scenario uses the Battlegroup Morale, Prepared Positions, Mobile Battle, Ambush and Tanksgiving Reserves(see below) special rules.



PREPARING FOR BATTLE
Decide on a start and ending time for the game. You will probably need half an hour plus an extra half an hour for every 1000 points on a side. Make sure you have an extra hour available after the end time so that you can finish both players' turns.
Mark out the center line on the table. This should run the length of the table.
Total up the number of companies each side has and the side with the most companies are the attackers. If each side has the same number of companies then the side with the most German companies will be the attacking force.
Starting with the attackers, both players place an objective on the attackers' side of the center line at least 12” from the table edges and the center line.
Starting with the defenders, both players place an objective on the defenders' side of the center line at least 12” from the table edges and the center line.
Starting with the attackers, both sides place an objective within 6” of the center line.
Each defending player may hold one platoon in ambush. The player must announce which platoon is being held in ambush. All of the normal ambush rules apply with the following change: You may reveal your ambush in your own deployment zone as well as in No Man's Land.
The attacking side now has up to five minutes to plan their strategy and an additional 20 minutes to deploy their armies including Independent Teams, but excluding Reconnaissance Platoons. The attackers are only allowed to deploy the same amount of companies that the defending players have. The remaining companies are held in Tanksgiving Reserve.



They may deploy anywhere on their side of the center line as long as they are at least 12” from the center line.



All teams in a Combat Company must deploy within 32” of their Company Command team.



The attackers may chose to keep any platoons they wish in Reserve. Any platoons not completely deployed within 20 minutes must be held in Tanksgiving Reserve.
The defending side now deploys under the same conditions and restrictions, but must also deploy any Reconnaissance Platoons that are not held in Tanksgiving Reserve at this time. Each defending player may hold one platoon in ambush.
The attacking side now deploys any Reconnaissance Platoons that are not held in Tanksgiving Reserve.



Reconnaissance Platoons may deploy up to the center line as long as they are at least 16” from all enemy teams.



BEGINNING THE BATTLE
Both sides start the game in Prepared Positions, so their troops are in Foxholes and Gone to Ground.
The attacking side has the first turn.



ENDING THE BATTLE

The battle ends as soon as both sides have had the same number of turns and the agreed upon ending time has passed.



If the game has reached a critical moment and both sides want to see what happens next, give each side another turn or two to find out.



DECIDING WHO WON

At the start of a side's turn when you normally check victory conditions that side gains one Victory Point for each objective that it holds. An objective yields a Victory Point to the side that has taken it every turn that they hold it.



It is a good idea to keep a running total of Victory Points scored as you play the game. At the start of each turn add up the Victory Points you score this turn, and add them to the running total.



A side starts the game holding all objectives in their deployment area. They hold any objectives that they have taken (even if all of their troops have since moved away) until the enemy takes it back or contests it by having troops that could take it within 4”.



For each tank platoon destroyed, your side will receive 1 Victory Point.



The side that has the most Victory Points at the end of the game wins.



TANKSGIVING RESERVE

At the start of each turn, beginning on turn one, each attacking player receives a number of dice equal to the turn number. So on turn one each attacking player receives one die, turn two, two dice and so on. Each player must determine one of three actions they will perform with their dice before any dice are allocated:

1. Roll the dice for reserves (if they have reserves)

2. Roll the dice to call in air support (regardless if they have reserves or not)

3. Keep the dice and add it to their sides pool of dice for next turn.

Option 1: Each player that intends to roll for reserves must declare how many dice they will roll choosing from the dice they acquired this turn and any dice already in their sides dice pool. Roll the dice and any 5+ results awards the player with a platoon to bring in from reserves. Regardless of the results all the dice that were rolled must be given to the Defending players to be utilized in their next turn.



Option 2: Each player that has declared their intention to roll for air support must have miniatures to represent the proper aircraft. Each player must announce how many dice they will roll choosing from the dice they acquired this turn and any dice already in their sides dice pool. Roll the dice and any 5+ results awards the player with one air-ground attack just like the normal rules. Roll to determine how many planes and resolve the air attack using the normal rules. Regardless of the results all the dice that were rolled must be given to the Defending players to be utilized in their next turn.



Option 3: Each player that decides to keep their dice places them in their sides dice pool. This dice pool may be saved for as long as the side wants and after all players have declared their actions with their dice, players who are performing reserve rolls or air attacks may announce how many they are rolling and utilize the dice pool if necessary.



The Defending side only acquires dice when the Attacking side uses dice for reserve rolls or air attacks. All the dice they acquire goes into a dice pool and during the Start of Turn phase, the defending players may utilize the dice pool for reserve rolls and air attacks. Each defending player may announce one action (reserve roll or air attack) and must declare how many dice they intend to roll. Normal rules apply to reserve rolls and air attack rolls and if the defending players use the dice for reserves or air attacks then all of those dice are given back to the attacking side. The defending players may also choose not to use the dice in which the dice are kept in the defending players dice pool until they choose to use them.



You may not use dice to call in fighter interception.



At the start of any turn, once all reserves are on the table then for the rest of the game whenever the defending side rolls any dice for air support they are not passed to the attacking side rather they are removed from the game.

Tanksgiving recap. I ended up adding German armies to the allies to even out the sides and the Fins made a switch to the allied side (on a 5+ roll). So, we had 5 armies on each side with Ethan and Tom playing multiple German armies on the Axis side. The allies were made up of Luke with a soviet and german company, Don with US, Mike's Fins and new player Anthony with Germans. The game was set up on 3 boards placed end to end. Minimal terrain included a few hills, rubble, roads, forest, river, but not enough to slow the game down.

Both sides started with 2 objectives on each side. The Axis took an early lead by taking one of the 2 objectives in the middle and holding it the entire game. The allies had trouble taking the one closest to them all game since the ISU-122 closest always seemed to get bailed out before the start of their turn.

Tom's 'hero' Pzr IV somehow survived and soaked up many shots over several turns before giving up a point. The allies main thrust was right up the middle with tanks supporting Finish infantry. Axis King Tigers to the South owned the hilly area unopposed, but for a few dug in troops. To the far North, a mass of shermans and T-34's eventually overwhelmed a few Pzr IV's, but were held from taking the objective by dug in Panzerfaust wielding infantry.

Allied Elefants spent the game being barraged by a massive hummel battery to their final destruction. Sturmtigers hammered a platoon of Tigers early on. The Soviet IS-2's and ISU-122's took a beating from Wittman and his fellow tigers. What a bad day to be in a tank with less than 9 front armor.

The Allies at first had trouble killing off Axis platoons, so they were behind for the entire game. But, Wittmann was killed in the final turn by a barrage from Allied tigers. Fearless Fins launched a successful assault to take an objective... so, finally in the last two turns the Allies were able to take or contest objectives and get a few more kills to tie the game up.

As the day turned to night, things did not look good for the Axis, but tomorrow is another day.

Good game everyone... It was fun! Thank you very much Julian for running this and writing this