Bonus Day

Background

With the 2011 Mid-Atlantic Fall Battle cancelled because of a freak Halloween snow storm and the 2012 Mid-Atlantic Fall Battle threatened by overcast skies (and lots of hype) preceeding Hurricane Sandy, any battles actually conducted would be considered a bonus by all of the attendees. As it turned out, not only were some good battles fought, but everyone had tons of fun playing some new scenarios.

In celebration of the day and in honor of both Tiger T001 and Hetzer T010 battling over 50 battles each, the attendees decided that it would be appropriate to award all attendees with extra Bonus Points. An initial proposal made by Frank "Obama" Pittelli called for Triple-Bonuses for all union members, but it was quickly determined that no union members were present. Another proposal, made by Will "Bernake" Montgomery, called for 1,000,000 points to be given out to everyone in the hobby, whether they had battled or not. Such a proposal was considered too inflationary and was voted down. Joe "Professor" Sommer suggested that all battlers receive a 20% yearly increase in points for the next 10 years without holding any battles at all, but nobody was listening. Paul "It Takes a Big Trough" Pittelli thought everyone should receive a 2.3% cost-of-living-increase and more vacation days, but admitted that he really didn't know how the whole point system actually worked. John "Mr. Retail" Pittelli suggested that every battle be issued coupons that would be redeemable at some point in the future using some unspecified process, but it was deemed too complicated.

After much discussion and debate, it was unanimously decided that all attendees would receive 5,000 bonus points as part of the Bonus Day festivities.

The following attendees were present:

     Frank Pittelli (T001), Joe Sommer (T010), Will Montgomery (T026),
     Paul Pittelli (T077), John Pittelli (T079)

The first battle would be fought using a new "fox-and-hounds" scenario, in which each participant took a turn as the fox, while the others were the hounds. The fox was allowed to start anywhere on the battlefield and was given unlimited ammo, with hopes of lasting a full 15 minutes. The frontal exemption was waived for all hounds, allowing them to be destroyed by frontal hits from the fox. Once destroyed, a hound was out of the sortie. The fox would receive points for destroying each hound and bonus points for surviving the entire 15 minutes.

Battle Summary

Quite an interesting event. As the hounds, chasing and bringing the fox to bay was quite fun. It required beating the brush, since the fox was allowed to conceal itself out in the field before the pursuit began. When it was my turn to be the fox I hid in the farthest region, on top of the hill , on the rearward slope. The tall weeds allowed the commander (myself) to dismount (lay down in the weeds) and observe the hounds. I watched as Paul came up the middle of the field all alone. I waited for him to come into range. Alas, I was being flanked by the Tiger. And that's when instinct, albeit incorrect for the situation, took over.

The proper play was to engage the Tiger in the weeds head-on since the hounds were vulnerable to frontal fire in the scenario. So, forgetting that, I ran straight down the hill toward Paul. Again forgetting the frontal advantage I worked to flank him. Succeeded, but I was sitting on slightly higher ground and could not depress my barrel enough to score quickly. That allowed the Tiger to close. He chased me into the trees, when I finally remembered the frontal advantage. I whirled around to face him, got off 4 shots just as Frank finally landed the kill shots on me. I'm pretty sure that I lasted longer in the fox role than anyone else. Speaking of which, hey, where are those points? I did not see them allocated. How about posting the times also?

I look forward to doing this game game again. It was hard breaking years of "crap he's behind me" and running. Rather than "good he's all alone" and just charging.

Editor's Note: All points are correctly allocated below. T079 scored a total of 8 hits made, 4 of which were against T001 in that sortie. Bonus points were awarded in the Mission Pts column for all participants as per the agreement.

Battle Score