Teamster Turmoil

Scenario - Hauling Trash
The second battle would be waged in an area with many rows of large, dense pine trees. Each side would be responsible for placing 5 "dumpsters" (represented by orange cones) on their side of the field, along with their fixed artillery pieces. The objective of the game was to haul as many dumpsters from the opposing side back to your home base, using your supply vehicle. Given the short supply runs to the fixed artillery and the defensive positions taken by both sides, any such trash hauling runs would be difficult.

Team Selection
The teams were selected as follows:

Soprano Family

Steve Tyng (Cromwell), Frank Pittelli (Tiger), Will Montgomery (Panther), John Pittelli (Bunker Comet), Doug Conn (Hummer), John Marlow (UN)

Dumpster Divers

Marty Hayes (Leopard), Joe Sommer (Hetzer), Paul Pittelli (KV-1), Bob Amend (Navarone), Amir Tahvildaran (Flak88), Sean Marlow (Goer)

Battle Summary
The battle began with a clear difference in strategies: the Dumpster Divers created a very strong defensive position, with their two artillery pieces on each side near their home base and all the tanks in the middle, behind some obstacles. All of the dumpsters were inside of the defensive perimeter. On the other side, the Soprano Family placed their dumpsters in the open to entice the opposing force to go for them, while they focused on pushing the battle to the other side.

For the most part, the strategies determined the battle, with the Sopranos pushing deep into the Dumpster Diver territory. The Sopranos would use the speed of the Cromwell and the cover of the pine trees to their advantage. If any Dumpster Diver moved out of their defensive perimeter, Frank would call for "clean up in center aisle", at which point the Cromwell would shortly appear behind the opposing tank and quickly dispatch it back to home base. Clean up left, clean up center, clean up right ... the Tiger and Cromwell would pop in and out of the aisles, keeping the Dumpster Divers constantly searching for them. Meanwhile, Will's Panther all but locked down the right side of the field by occupying the town from the first battle and dispatching anything that came out of the woods.

The fixed artillery on both sides were constantly busy. With short supply runs to their home bases, they basically had unlimited ammo. John's Comet Bunker was sending so much paint down the left aisle that Frank and Steve had to dodge rounds themselves to move around. Whenever any Dumpster Diver tank appeared on the left side of the field, an endless rain of paint filled the aisle. Bob is no stranger to laying down paint either (he used to play on a sponsored paintball team) and he kept the Navarone barrel hot with constant barrages at the Cromwell and Tiger. But, the most active artillery piece was the Flak 88 operated by Amir. He had to deal with the Panther on his left the entire time, the Tiger making probing attacks constantly in the middle and the Cromwell streaking in and out of the trees. All of the artillery operators proved to be pesky opposition and kept all the tank operators on their toes.

After making a number of attempts to retrieve a dumpster close to the Navarone Gun, the Sopranos found themselves with both the Cromwell and Tiger returning to base, with the Panther and Hummer on the right side of the field. With the Soprano left flank vacant, the Dumpster Divers sent Sean and the mighty Goer into the Soprano neighborhood to retrieve a dumpster before John's Comet Bunker could unload on them. They made it about halfway back to home base when the Cromwell pulled alongside and sent the Goer home. However, the dumpster was now closer to their home base and the Divers went back to work looking to haul in the trash. They eventually got the dumpster back to their home base, giving them the lead in trash hauling. The Sopranos doubled their efforts to acquire a dumpster from the other side, but the were too well defended and the clock ran out before they could acquire one. Even in the last moments, Sean and the Goer were pushing hard into the Soprano territory to pick up another dumpster. But, the Tiger and Panther would have none of that and the Goer was sent home without further success.

Scoring
The Dumpster Divers successfully grabbed one dumpster during the hour, while the Sopranos grabbed none. Despite the shouts for "10,000 points per dumpster", they earned 2,000 points for that dumpster. However, in order to successfully haul trash, Sean Marlow had to reduce the number of ammo runs and expose the Goer to more hits. On the other hand, John Marlow made more supply runs and got hit less, essentially making up the difference in points represented by the successful trash hauling. With a slight edge in hits made, the Sopranos earned exactly the same number of points, resulting in a tie.