Tanksgiving 2010

Introduction

On the day after Thanksgiving comes another holiday that is near and dear to every war gamer's heart: Tanks-giving! This year, I volunteered to run the game for my local store, Eagle & Empire. I decided to use the Spearhead rules that came out in the June 2010 White Dwarf, as these rules make it easier to bring tons of tanks. That being said, I did come up with a custom scenario that involved genetically mutated turkeys, as it seemed appropriate! 

Here is the mission briefing: A week ago, a distress signal was received from Meleagris III, a major agri-world that supplies vital food stuffs to several hive worlds in this sector. Since that time, there has been no further communication with any Imperial authority on the planet. The message was garbled, but from what we were able to recover from the astropath before he went completely insane indicates that an incident may have occurred at the Adeptus Mechanicus research facility located in Meleagris Prime, the planet’s capital and only major city. The Tech Priests have been as tight-lipped as usual, but it is rumored the Mechanicus was conducting genetic experiments on a species of fowl known as the “turkey.” This curious beast apparently traces its roots back to Holy Terra itself, and has been raised on Melagris III for thousands of years. But, if the rumors are true, the Mechanicus were attempting to engineer a strain of this bird that would be large enough and hardy enough to provide sustenance for more primitive Imperial worlds. Now, it seems, the Tech Priests experiments may have back-fired… with fatal results! Your mission is to take your forces into Meleagris Prime and reclaim the city for His Most Glorious Imperium. For the Emperor!

The scenario had 20 turkey markers scattered around it that could be captured if a friendly unit was within 3" of it at the start of their movement phase, and no enemies were within 6". These objectives were worth 3 victory points each. However, players could also score killpoints as normal, and each kill point was worth one victory point. Here is the table we were playing on. It was three 5'x5' tables put together, for a total 5'x15' of playing area! The players had a triangular set-up area on each of the two end tables. The center board served as a kind of "no-man's land" and contained a model of the AdMech facility along with a section of ruins that represented Melagris Prime.

Here is Michael's IG list, featuring a tank hunter spearhead with 3 Vanquishers and a Stormlord!

Here is Alan's Ork army. He was my ally with my IG list.

Here is my and Alan's set-up. I brought my Baneblade, along with a Manticore and a Basilisk for some long-range fire support!

 Michael's ally was Alex, with his Blood Angels. A couple of Baal predators and a trio of Dreadnoughts were sure to cause us trouble!

Ready to start!

Alan used the Mechanized Assault spearhead to outflank his Orks right by Mike's Vanquishers...

...While I used my Mechanized Assault spearhead to bring my Chimeras (loaded with Veterans and a Company Command Squad) in amongst the Blood Angels' tanks.

The Orks get to krumpin'!

Michael's IG and the Blood Angels lose several vehicles, but then swing into action. The Mega Bolter on the Stormlord takes a terrible toll on the now exposed orks, while the Blood Angles dreadnoughts make my Veterans pay for the loss of the Vindicator!

The Dreadnoughts destroy one of my Chimeras, and force the squad inside to go to ground in the wreckage!

The Orks that survived the Stormlord's shooting then went on to assault Michael's Demolishers.

Here comes trouble! The Nob Bikers advanced up the flank of the board, and were now within strking distance of the Stormlord!

The Blood Angels arrived, and immediately tied up the nearest Ork squad in combat!

The Nob Bikers destroyed the Stormlord, while the veterans in the Chimeras finished working over the Predators.

At the end of Turn 3, we decided to call the game. The loss of the Stormlord and much of the Blood Angels armor was a cripling blow. The Mechanised Assault spearhead is a very powerful tool! Being able to out-flank a lot of anti-tank infantry deep in enemy territory is hard for opponents to deal with. Interestingly, much of the rest of my army wasn't able to get into the fight, thanks to the fact that they had 5 feet to cross, and our outflanking units neatly tied up our opponents! It also didn't help that my Baneblade suffered a Drive Damaged result from the initial penetrating hit it suffered from not staring in reserve. This reduced its movement to a measly 3 inches.

Overall, this was a pretty fun game. While it would have been better if we had more people playing, the four of us that did play had a great time. I'm already looking forward to running this event again next year!

Site by: Andy Rucker. All rights to original content are reserved by the author.