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Team Selection
When Will Montgomery and Frank Pittelli
arrived at the field, Mr. Tyng was sitting in a lawn chair, with
sunglasses on, listening to Steely Dan and asking "why can't everyone
just get along?" Despite their best efforts to engage him in technical
discussions or even just a little smack-talking, he was just too mellow.
Something had to be done!!
Unfortunately, not everyone had the same view of how to proceed. Some felt it
was best to just let Steve "do his thing" and others felt it was time for
some serious action. Accordingly, the participants were divided into the
following teams:
- The Enablers
-
Will Montgomery (SU-100), Steve Tyng (Cromwell), Joe Sommer (Hetzer),
Marty Hayes (Leopard), Rob Snyder (Flak 88), Andy Snyder (UN)
- Tough Love
-
John Pittelli (Comet), Frank Pittelli (Tiger), Chris Wacker (T34),
Paul Pittelli (KV1), Ken Kelly (Navaronne), Max (Goer)
The first battle would be fought as a standard battle, with each team trying
to destroy as many vehicles as possible. Destroyed vehicles could re-incarnate
after returning to home base, wiping off all paint and recording their damage.
Cruisin' Cromwell
The first battle began with both sides racing towards the town in the center
of the field. Chris Wacker's T34 arrived first for the Tough Love team, which
immediately caused The Enablers to slow-down and cautiously approach the town.
The main objective of Tough Love was to (a) quiet the pesky Flak 88 and
(b) give Mr. Tyng some tender loving care.
With the T34 in town, the members of Tough Love started to circle the Flak 88, hoping
to destroy it before The Enablers could engage with full force. To that end,
two soldiers guarding the Flak 88 were quickly dispatched, but the third held strong,
performing his best "Matrix" moves to avoid paintballs. Sensing a quick victory,
which would give them a strong central position, Tough Love pushed even harder.
But, they forgot one thing ... the Cromwell.
Initially off to the side of the field, the Cromwell waited for his chance to pounce
and then came screaming into the battle. He quickly dispatched one of the Tough Love
tanks that was focused on the Flak 88. Then, as Tough Love tried to retreat to
a better position, the Cromwell raced across the field to another tank. Taking that
tank by surprised, Steve quickly dispatched it back to home base with 4 quick blasts.
Finally, the Cromwell raced back across the field to engage yet another tank.
In the span of about 10 minutes, the Cromwell destroyed two tanks by itself, put
hits on two others and destroyed the Navaronne Gun next to the town. Clearly,
the effects of Amsterdam had worn off and Steve was back to normal!!!
Extreme Caution
Having been spanked by The Enablers, in general, and the Cromwell, in paricular,
the members of Tough Love decided to get back to basics. Members would stick
together for the remainder of the battle and would keep a constant eye open for
the Cromwell. Instead of trying to hold the middle of the field, they would
play a game of cat and mouse on the outskirts of the field, waiting to pounce
on any lone vehicle from The Enablers.
This strategy worked well, with the Cromwell being isolated by two or more
Tough Love tanks on a couple of occassions, both in offensive and defensive situations,
stalling his reign of terror.
The Little Tank That Could
Over the last year or so, it has become increasing clear that Paul Pittelli's
KV-1 has evolved into one of the most reliable tanks on the battlefield. It
definitely isn't the fastest (it may very well be the slowest), it isn't
the stealthiest (it may very well be the most noisy), and it still takes it's
fair share of damage. But, you can be sure of two things (a) it will
probably be operating all battle long and (b) it knows how to kill artillery.
In fact, Paul and his KV-1 have become the most feared opponent of artillery
operators. After Tough Love got spanked early in the battle, the KV-1 kept
up the pressure on the Flak 88, along with help from the Tiger, Comet and T34
on various occassions. In a typical engagement, the KV-1 clacks its way out of
home base (the attachment chain track generates a distinctive rolling sound)
on a bee-line towards the artillery piece. At a range of about 10-15 feet, it
starts sniping the soldiers, usually to a successful conclusion.
Dangerous Rookie
During the first battle, rookie Rob Snyder was operating the Flak 88
and he had a trick up his sleeve for the KV-1. After watching his soldiers
systematically killed during the first half of the battle, Rob decided to
fight back. After re-incarnating the artillery position (which wasn't easy
because of the UN vehicle demise), he started shelling everything that moved.
Once again, the KV-1 started moving towards his position in order to quiet
the pesky gun.
As the KV-1 moved closer and began focusing on the Flak 88's soldiers, Rob
moved towards the gun in order to reload. Seeing this, Paul moved his KV-1
quickly towards the soldiers to dispatch them once again. But, just as he
did that, Rob stepped back and blasted the KV-1 with 4 quick shots, successfully
pulling off a fake reload ploy. The KV-1 started back towards home base, as Paul
and Frank wondered what just happened. Needless to say, they would return to
destroy the Flak 88 another time purely for revenge!!
Makeshift Convoys
Although The Enablers had the early advantage, because of an electrical
breakdown in the UN vehicle, they were unable to make more than one supply
run with that vehicle. Therefore, they started using combat vehicles to
make supply runs, including the SU-100 and the Leopard. At first, it was
difficult to tell that the SU-100 was running supplies. It started driving
towards the town, but wasn't firing at anyone. Did it have gun problems?
Was this some sort of new strategy? Nope, when it arrived at the Flak 88
and pulled out an ammo load, it was clear that they were using covert supply
vehicles to make their runs. From that point forward, Tough Love was
looking to kill everything that moved towards the town.
Artillery Beware
The evolution of game shows that more and more sophisticated
tactics are being deployed with regard to fixed artillery.
When initially introduced such artillery was deemed "invulnerable"
and it became clear that they could easily dominate the field
when well supplied. Then, soldiers were added as a way to disable
the artillery with precise shooting. Attacks against the soldiers
continue to increase, as well as attacks against supply vehicles.
Such attacks are proving to be very effective and in this battle
each side had trouble maintaining their artillery positions.
In fact, both sides suffered a net loss of points by their artillery.
Score Correction
During the early part of the first battle, the Tiger and Cromwell were
tangled up in a lightning fast engagement with the Cromwell racing around
a spinning Tiger. At one point, the Tiger fired a rapid burst of four
shots which appeared to hit low on the Cromwell's tracks. Frank called
the hits when he saw the paint splatter and pointed out splatter marks
on the Cromwell roadwheels (any paint on the track would have already
been wiped off by the grass). Steve accepted the hits and returned
to homebase for re-incarnation.
Later in the battle, Frank saw similar "hits" while watching tanks
shooting through the high grass, which were clearly caused by paintballs
hitting the grass and bursting before they hit the
tank. Still later, while watching the battle video, similar "grass bursts"
could be seen as paintballs hit just short of soldiers and tanks.
Based on this information, Frank determined that the
four hits on the Cromwell were probably "grass hits" near the Cromwell
tracks and that the paint seen was simply "splatter", not a direct hit.
Accordingly, 4 hits have been removed from the Cromwell's score to reflect
the improper call.
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