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Battle #3 Summary
A new scenario was tried for Battle #3 which was a variant of
Capture-the-Flag. In this case, two action figures, The General and
The Harlot, would serve as the flags. The General would start in the
position of one team, while The Harlot started with the other. The
objective of the game was to take position of both figures and
deliver them safely to the "motel" (the triangular groups of barricades
in the middle of the field). The figures could ride on top or inside
of any vehicle, but they could not ride on any vehicle entering Home Base,
nor could they ride in the same vehicle as the other figure. If a
vehicle was destroyed while carrying a figure or it wanted to enter
Home Base, the figure had to be dropped immediately.
With the rules explained, the following sides were chosen randomly:
Blue Team: Tiger, SU-100, KV-1, Goer
Red Team: T34, Panzer IV, Hetzer
Throughout the battle, the T34 and Hetzer would be driven by
various people including Steve's father Art, his nephew Shane and
Joe's friend Kent. The General would start with the Red Team on
the eastern front and The Harlot would start with the Blue Team
on the western front.
The First Date
First dates are always a nervous time and it is no different in
R/C tank combat. The Red team rolled out of their Home base with
The General riding on the back of the Panzer IV. The Panzer would
take up his normal long-range shelling position just outside the
Red home base, making it difficult to capture the General.
On the other side of the field, The Harlot hopped a ride in the Goer,
hoping for an extended and safe stay in the Arden Forest. The SU-100,
Tiger and KV-1 took up positions in the middle of the field to guard
The Harlot and approach the other side. It didn't take long, however,
for Tyng's T34 to bully his way past the defenders and plunge into
the forest in pursuit of the Goer. The SU-100 had gun problems and
had to return to Home base, while the KV-1 had some some of breakdown
near the motel. That left the Tiger to chase after the T34. With
too much of a lead, the T34 quickly found and destroyed the Goer,
grabbed the Harlot and head straight for the motel yelling
"Bring the General". Even though the Tiger was chasing as fast as
possible and shooting on the run, the Harlot made it to the motel in time
to meet the General. True love ensued and the Red team won the first round.
Love Is Hard To Find
It was clear from the first date that the T34 was tough to stop one-on-one
and that something had to be done to shake up the Red team. Therefore,
the Blue team came up with a devious, but legal, plan to hide the Harlot.
As in the first date, the Goer headed straight for the Arden, but this
time the Harlot wasn't riding along. Instead, she was riding inside the
turret of the Tiger, which took up a commanding position inside of the
motel. From the motel, the Tiger could keep the Panzer and Hetzer pinned
on their own side of the field and could run out to grab the General
if the Panzer got killed or needed to reload. The KV-1 and SU-100 were
then free to engage the Panzer and Hetzer to push the battle close to their
home.
Initially, the T34 decided to attack the Tiger in the motel, but couldn't
get into a good position to hit it because of the barricades. When the
T34 tried rushing the motel, with fire support from the Panzer, the Tiger
scored enough hits to send the T34 back for a re-incarnation. After that,
the T34 decided to push into the Arden again and find the Goer, which he
thought held the Harlot. Knowing that Steve would soon discover that the
Goer was a decoy, Frank pulled the Tiger out of the motel and moved towards
his home base so he could reload. Unseen by the Red team, he dropped the
Harlot in the grass about 30 feet from the Blue home base. After reloading,
he returned to the same spot just as the T34 came out of the woods, having
killed the Goer. The Tiger sit directly over the Harlot and waited
to engage the T34, but the T34 ignored the Tiger and pursued the KV-1
instead, probably thinking that its tall turret held the Harlot.
Feeling that the Harlot was safe in the grass, the Tiger went onto the
Red team's side and sought out the General. After skirmishing with the
Panzer IV, the Tiger eventually killed it and grabbed the General.
With the Hetzer in pursuit, the Tiger drove toward the motel yelling
"Marty bring the Harlot" (a phrase often associated with Marty).
The Goer came out of the Arden and moved to the location of the Harlot, just
as the Tiger arrived. The General was transferred to the Goer and the
Tiger picked up the Harlot again. Both vehicles drove to the motel, true
love ensued and the Blue team won the second round.
Fool Me Once, Shame On You
Knowing that the same deception wouldn't work twice, the 3rd date started
with the Harlot once again heading into the Arden on the Goer. This time,
however, Marty would hide the Harlot in the forest and drive around elsewhere
to keep the Red team busy. The Red team, on the other hand, once again
placed the General on the back of the Panzer, which kept close to home base.
With the T34 and Hetzer operated by novices, the Blue team decided to take
the battle deep into the Red zone.
Surprisingly, they didn't have to
move far because the T34 (operated by Shane & Art) and the Hetzer (operated
by Kent) were barreling towards the Blue team vehicles at full speed.
With no fear and little experience, they engaged anything and everything,
swiftly moving to and fro. At first, the blitz was serving in their
favor as the Blue team scattered to protect themselves. But, eventually
the more veteran battlers began to win back the advantage. At one point,
after the Hetzer took on the Tiger single-handedly, the Tiger got in behind
the Hetzer and chased in a complete circle around the field before killing
it. Nonetheless, the rookies were scoring hits and all kinds of action
was taking place on the field.
With the Hetzer and T34 either engaged or re-loading, the Tiger decided
to attack the Panzer IV deep in the Red zone in order to grab the General.
The Tiger scored some lucky shots, killed the Panzer, grabbed the
General and headed for the motel. Marty recovered the Harlot from the
forest and headed towards the motel with the Goer. Unfortunately, the Goer
hit a large rut and couldn't free itself. By then, the Panzer had
re-incarnated and was shelling the area from long-range. The SU-100
moved in to give assistance and just as the Harlot was transferred to the
SU-100, the Goer was destroyed by a long-range shot from the Panzer.
Soon after, the SU-100 pulled into the motel along with the Tiger, carrying
their precious cargos. True love ensued and the Blue team won the
third and deciding round.
A Rookie's First Thoughts
Kent was asked about his first thoughts when given the controls
of the lethal killing machine known as the Hetzer. "It's a hell of a lot
harder driving than watching", he said with a sigh of relief. "You've got
too stay fairly close to the vehicle so that you can shoot straight, but
then you have paintballs flying past you all the time". He thought
that he would cleverly drive around and out-flank the other vehicles, but
soon discovered that it is a lot harder to aim and hit anything than
he originally thought. Finally, when asked about his tactic of standing
toe-to-toe with the Tiger, he said that he was thinking the whole time
"this is a pretty stupid move".
Battle #3 Photos
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