Veteran Rookie, Just a Newb [TANKS]

[Amir Tahvildaran <adt22-at-drexel.edu>]

After 2-3 years of on/off building, I finally brought T034 to battle.  A 
camera man no more, I took Friday off of work to prepare for my tank's 
debut.  By 3AM all preparations were made -- and as it turns out -- 
damage was already done.  Weary eyed, I reversed the polarity for my 
transmitter's battery pack and nuked it.  This wouldn't sink in until 
morning, when John Pittelli confirmed I was DOA.  Fortunately for me, 
the veterans are an awesome group.  They can fix almost anything in the 
field and are well stocked on spare parts.  Joe Sommer opened up his 
mobile tank garage and unloaded a number of tx's rx's and batteries on 
me and I was in the game!

For the first battle I ran as a supply vehicle, using just the hull of 
my tank.  The UN vehicle and my T34 prime mover made a number of runs 
and overall I was pleased with my mobility over the varied terrain.  
Towards the end of the first battle I decided I needed to get shot so I 
ventured into the fray and was promptly pummeled. 

After half-time I switched sides and the Pittelli logicians determined 
I'd be better off if I were classified as a tank, getting 4 hits.  So I 
popped my (still non-functional) turret in and went off in search of a 
flag to run over.  Not afraid to lay my tank down for the greater good I 
faced off with T001 in my first tank on tank encounter.  Frank suspected 
I was gimped and bluffing but still wasn't willing to present his sides 
to me.  While he and I squared off, Steve went around and scored a hit 
on him -- an assist!  Later on I plowed straight into the enemy 
encampment and drove around to stir up confusion.  My favorite quote of 
that game, "What are you doing?! The T-34 is right there!".  After I 
blew a fuse, Marty plugged me twice to finish what the Navarone had started.

During lunch Frank set me up with a C6C from the goer to use in my 
turret.  Still using Joe's pistol TQ3 controller for the hull, I was 
branded a "two-fisted tanker".  After acclimating to the pistol *and* 
ps2 controller mixing I started the second battle as a full fledged 
tank, but not for long.  I navigated to the road between the two camps 
and followed my general's orders to take up position behind him.  Not 
seeing the "easy" path to Frank, I ventured through the rough stuff and 
got snared on a large branch.  Steve's Cromwell smelled a beached tank 
and came in for the assassination.  While trying to navigate back to 
base, I uprooted a viscous vine that wound up wound in my chain -- 
eventually breaking it!  I somehow still had some mobility and made it 
back to base where I took desperation shots at any passers-by.  The 
post-mortem also suggested that I burned up a motor, but I haven't 
completed the autopsy.

Somewhat disappointed with my performance I was preparing to head back 
north to rebuild instead of staying for the second day.  But my tank 
support group wouldn't hear of it and convinced me to stay on.  While 
attempting to get me back in battling shape, Joe and Steve stifled their 
disgust at my unorthodox building techniques :) and got me running 
better than ever.  Just spending a few hours with them taught me lots, 
many thanks again guys! 

For the second day of battling I was "differently gimped".  This time, 
my hull was knocked out by an electronics malfunction of some sort (yet 
to be diagnosed).  So I ran as field artillery.  Although not without 
incident, I enjoyed lobbing some far shots with my flatline barrel.  For 
the second half of the first battle I was really into the swing of 
things and scored a bunch of hits and had a blast.

Steve let me run his Cromwell, the Rolls Royce (or perhaps Jaguar?) of 
rctankcombat, for the last battle of the season.  Its really an awesome 
machine - fast and great handling.  This last game was a free-for-all 
survivor, but alliances quickly cropped up.  Chris and I teamed up early 
on along with Joe and Marty.  We cornered the panther off the bat (his 
alliance failed him consistently throughout the battle  and I feel bad 
for pouncing on the jungle cat).  Eventually, Joe, Chris and I were the 
last ones standing and duked it out.  Finally Chris and I (notice, two 
Tyng built machines) went head to head.  There was a lot of sloppy 
jousting and awkward one-on-one standoffs because of my lack of 
experience but it finally came to an end with a lucky shot landing on 
the T34.  The last two brawls, saw me get knocked out early on, but not 
after forgetting my allegiances and taking Marty out ;)

Lessons learned:

1) spares - you need a spare everything, battles don't happen often 
enough -- come prepared
    case study 1: Joe - has a car-full of parts and doodads to get him 
(or others) back in the game
    case study 2: Will - has a car-full of tanks :)

2) Frank is right - even if he's wrong, he's right
    case studies attached due to size contraints

3) Don't drive Steve's vehicles - its the worst way to get an addiction 
to speed and handling. 
   case study: Its now going to take me another 6 years to build a tank 
to those standards.

Memorable moments:

1) Steve's surprise trashcan attack

2) Gunning for Will's tank but shooting a little high, landing the shot 
in his no-fly-zone -- and he caught it!

3) Hearing a horrific firefight coming from the beautiful 1:6 barn, 
turning around to realize Frank and Steve were head to head in there 
with 30 seconds left in the game and just let the paint fly.

Thanks again to all of you guys, as always it was a great time!

-Amir