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R/C Tank Combat

1st Monkton Crusade

Battle #1 Summary


Team Selection
The teams for the first battle were chosen by selecting two generals, Will and Joe, who then chose teammates, resulting in the following teams:

Gangsters
Ed (Hetzer), Steve T (Cromwell), Chris (T34), Rick (Leopard), Steve E (Navarone), Tom (UN), Joe (Fred Simms)

Knights
Will (SU100), Frank (Tiger), John (Comet), Paul (KV1), Karl (Jagdtiger), Marty (Flak88), Sean (Goer)
Joe would hand control of the Hetzer to his son Ed and he would take control of Fred Simms. Remarkably, Fred Simms and his amazing quadricycle would actually participate in this battle, shedding his image as a coward (although he would continue to use the "yellow" ground frequency).


Fixed Artillery
After choosing teams and sides of the field, the fixed artillery pieces were deployed by each time on the opposing half of the field. This would make the supply lines as long as possible to make it harder for supply runs. The artillery operators deployed their troops at a distance of 10 feet from their guns to serve as targets. When all three were hit, the artillery piece would be considered destroyed and would have to re-incarnate at home base. At that time, the troops and an initial supply of 40 paintballs would have to be brought back to the artillery piece by a supply vehicle. This would be the first time such a rule was used and it worked quite well, with both artillery pieces being destroyed twice during the battle. Interestingly, Steve E deployed his troops in places where Marty could hit them with his artillery piece on the other side of the village. Needless to say, Steve moved them after his first re-incarnation.


The General and His Wife
The game format selected by the generals for the battle was "The General and His Wife" a variation of capture-the-flag). In this game, the general and his wife (two 12 inch figures) would start at opposite ends of the midfield line. Each team would race to pick up one or both of the figures. The figures could ride on any vehicle, but only one figure per vehicle. The object of the game is to get both figures, on two different vehicles to the church at the same time. One thousand points would be awarded for each successful run and then the figures would be placed back at their starting positions. Team tactics, strategy and deception would be important for both sides.


Limosine Service
As soon as the battle began, the Knights blew out of their home base and raced towards the General on the east side of the field. Amazingly, the Gangsters were all still in their home base, working on each of their vehicles. When the Knights were about halfway towards the General, Steve Tyng revved up the 24v engines of his new Cromwell and literally flew across the field. He not only made up the distance, but reached the General first. Unfortunately, he was unable to pick up the General because the Tiger had closed within 20 feet and began shelling the position. With more Knights on the way, the Cromwell backed off and eventually the Knights picked up the General. In the meantime, the Gangsters picked up the General's Wife and the game was in full motion. The Knights took the General to a safe location and commenced to attack the Gangster vehicle holding the General's Wife. After a number of vehicles were destroyed, the General's Wife was eventually picked up by the Knights and was taken to the church where she met up with the General, scoring 1000 points for the Knights. Througout the battle, the Knights would show a particular knack for driving the General and his wife around the field, completing a total of 5 missions.

At one point during the battle, the General's Wife was perched on top of the venerable Tiger-1 (one of her favorite rides), but the Tiger-1 had 3 hits on it and was feeling kind of vulnerable. So, the Tiger retreated to a position behind the Knight's home base. Knowing that Tyng's Cromwell could scream across the flat, barren field at any moment, the Tiger sought a more suitable lair (Tigers don't like open terrain). A full size pickup truck served just the right purpose, allowing the Tiger to drive underneath the truck to stay out of sight of the Gangsters. Eventually, the General was claimed by the Knights as well, and the Tiger raced out of it's lair towards the church ... mission accomplished.

The Gangsters had their fair share of opportunities to get both parties to the church. In fact, at one point, they got with a few meters of the goal. The Hetzer had the General and pulled up next to the church, with the Cromwell driving fast towards the hoop. But, before the Cromwell could deliver the General's Wife, John's new Comet scored the final hits on the Hetzer, forcing them to immediately drop the General and return to base. At that moment, the Cromwell screached into the church and promptly spun around (I think he was shooting at everything in sight as he spun) and got out of Dodge city before the entire Knights team poured into the village. The entire episode took only seconds, with about 6 tanks in a 10 foot circle and shots flying everywhere ... massive confusion, lots of carnage and total fun.


Speed Kills
As the old adage goes, speed kills. But, in the tank combat hobby, in kills both ways. Steve Tyng's latest engineering marvel, the Cromwell, has pushed the technology envelope of the hobby. With his new Cogged-TTS (CTTS), Christie suspension and 24v EV-Warrior, proportional drive system, he has speed, power and reliability in one package. Using a 9:1 gear ratio and a proportional speed control, he can literally "get some air" when going over a bump. His top end speed is about twice as fast as most other tanks, which he uses often for high-speed attacks.

Steve's legendary "in-your-face" battling style is well suited for his new vehicle and the first battle proved the match. Steve engaged a large number of foes, mostly at close quarters, moving from one foe to another as fast as he could. If he ran out of paint or was destroyed, he also went back to home base flat out, in order to get more battling time.

All of the Knights were well aware of the Cromwell's speed and kept a close watch on it. In fact, the Cromwell didn't go anywhere without one of the Knights calling out its position and direction. Shouts such as "Tyng on the right" and "Tyng going back to home base" became part of the normal chatter amongst the Knights.

Although the high-speed vehicle clearly caused a tactical impact on the battle, causing everyone to take notice and be careful, it's not clear about the strategic impact. When the battle ended, the scores revealed that Steve clearly engaged in a large number of skirmishes, scoring a lot of hits on the Knights. In some cases, he dispatched the enemy single-handedly (Steve is a deadly one-on-one battler). On the other hand, however, the Cromwell was also hit a large number of times. In fact, the Cromwell was hit exactly as many times as it hit the enemy vehicles. Part of the reason for this was because Steve is still getting used to his new vehicle and he will certainly be improving that average. Another aspect is the fact that the Knights were looking for every opportunity to unload their magazines in the direction of the "White Knight". (Often times, the Cromwell was spinning so quickly that it was easier to simply shoot in his direction and hope for a hit instead of trying to place the shot.) Whenever Steve focused on shooting one vehicle (which was feverishly trying to stay away from the spinning devil), the Knights would start lobbing paintballs into the area from as many directions as possible.

The "White Knight" was quickly respected by all opposing operators and it will no doubt cause even more carnage in the future as Steve perfects it.


Hauling For Hire
Little did Sean Marlow know when he woke up this morning that he would have a close brush with immortality. Sean and his dad are in the process of building a Sherman tank, but since it's not far enough along for battling, Sean was prepared to simply watch the battle and snap some pictures. When the battle began, however, he was drafted into action by the Knights to haul supplies with the dependable Goer. Sean gladly jumped at the opportunity and quickly became proficient with the simple, yet contrary, steering system.

So, while the Knights armed vehicles were busy hauling the General and his wife around the field, Sean was busy hauling ammo out to Marty's Flak 88, which was virtually melting the barrel with shots in all directions. One trip out, one trip back, keep away from Tyng. One trip out, one trip back, keep away from Tyng. Sean was "in the zone", hauling ammo, sneaking around and keeping the fire fights going.

With just a couple minutes left in the hour-long battle, Sean told Frank that he had made 16 runs so far. Frank immediately informed Sean that 17 was the all-time record, currently held by Marty Hayes (who was standing a few feet away). With immortality on the line, Sean immediately drove the Goer back to home base and attempted to make one or two more runs. Unfortunately, at about that time, the Gangsters stormed the village and started pushing hard towards the Knights home base. That prevented Sean from making another supply run, getting short his bid for the title. Sean has vowed that Marlow Shipping will take the title away from Hayes Trucking Company when next they meet. Of course, they'll both have to worry about Tanner Express, one of the most experienced shipping companies in the hobby.

Although Sean didn't earn the record, he did earn 4,000 points for his team, propelling them to a land-slide victory. In fact, Sean earned more points hauling supplies then all of the supply vehicles on the other side combined. Good job, Sean.


Offical Scores for 1st Monkton Crusade Battle #1
Team Asset Operator Hits
Taken
Hits
Made
Runs
Made
Moves
Made
Steals
Made
Mission
Pts
Points
Given
Points
Earned
Points
Pct
Gangsters T005 Chris Wacker 8 8 0 0 0 0 2,000 2,000 0.500
  T010 Ed Sommer 18 4 0 0 0 0 4,500 1,000 0.182
  T038 Rick Schultz 8 2 0 0 0 0 2,000 500 0.200
  T040 Steve Tyng 20 20 0 0 0 0 5,000 5,000 0.500
  SV001 Ed Sommer 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.000
  SV001 Tom Tanner 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 750 1.000
  SV003 Joe Sommer 1 2 0 0 0 0 250 500 0.667
  SV004 Tom Tanner 3 0 9 0 0 0 750 2,250 0.750
  FA003 Steve Edwards 6 6 0 0 0 0 1,500 1,500 0.500
TOTAL 64 42 12 0 0 0 16,000 13,500 0.458
Knights T001 Frank Pittelli 8 16 0 0 0 714 2,000 4,714 0.702
  T018 Paul Pittelli 8 19 0 0 0 714 2,000 5,464 0.732
  T026 Will Montgomery 0 3 0 0 0 716 0 1,466 1.000
  T037 Karl Klusewitz 8 2 0 0 0 714 2,000 1,214 0.378
  T039 John Pittelli 8 10 0 0 0 714 2,000 3,214 0.616
  SV005 Sean Marlow 4 0 16 0 0 714 1,000 4,714 0.825
  FA004 Marty Hayes 6 14 0 0 0 714 1,500 4,214 0.737
TOTAL 42 64 16 0 0 5,000 10,500 25,000 0.704

Asset Type Net Points
SV005 M520 Goer 3,714
T018 KV-1 3,464
FA004 Flak 88 2,714
T001 PzKpfw VI-I Tiger 2,714
SV004 U.N. Peacekeeper 1,500
T026 SU-100 1,466
T039 Comet 1,214
SV001 M3 Scout Car 750
SV003 Quadricycle 250
T040 A27M Cromwell MkVI 0
FA003 16-inch Shore Battery 0
T005 T-34-85 0
T037 SdKfz 186 Jagdtiger -786
T038 Leopard -1,500
T010 JgPz 38(t) Hetzer -3,500
Operator Net Points
Sean Marlow 3,714
Paul Pittelli 3,464
Marty Hayes 2,714
Frank Pittelli 2,714
Tom Tanner 2,250
Will Montgomery 1,466
John Pittelli 1,214
Joe Sommer 250
Steve Tyng 0
Steve Edwards 0
Chris Wacker 0
Karl Klusewitz -786
Rick Schultz -1,500
Ed Sommer -3,500