Negotiations

Meeting Preparation

Based on the number of attendees and a pre-meeting straw-poll to help determine the general direction of the negotiations, it was decided that three committees would be formed, two mobile committees tasked with securing a valuable object (a silver Diet Coke can) from a hidden place in the center of "Sommerville" and a third committee tasked with keeping the valuable object safe. Incentives (in the form of mission points) would be awarded to committees that finalized their agenda before the lunch break.

The "Mississippi Marauders" committee consisted of the following attendees:

     Frank Pittelli (T001), Joe Sommer (T010), John Pittelli (T079), Mike Mangus (T081)

The "The Graduates" committee consisted of the following attendees:

     Will Montgomery (T026), Steve Tyng (T040), Paul Pittelli (T077), Zack Johnson (T058)

The "Takes A Village" committee consisted of the following attendees:

     John White (FA003), Ryan ??? (FA007), Doug Conn (SV015)

Prior to the committee discussions, John White took it upon himself to form the "Forestry Sub-Committee" which proceeded to move a forest-worth of limbs and logs into the village to help fortify defensive positions and to make it more difficult for tanks to move through the small town consisting of the Sommerville Church and Tri-Pact World Headquarters (a scale-sized out-house). The artillery defending the village were given four soldiers each to guard their positions. Since the operators were rookies, they were also allowed to place the guards in some tricky positions (normally soldiers must be placed in open positions 10 ft from their artillery piece).

Meeting Report

The initial agenda for all committees became evident as soon as war was declared. Both mobile committees focused on removing the artillery guards, while keeping a wary eye on the other mobile committee members. Once the artillery was silenced, there was no doubt that the tanks would roll into town to find and secure the prize. The Navaronne's guards were knocked off first, with both mobile committees sharing in the kills. Then, either the Bofors ran out of paint or became in-operational. In either case, when that happened, most of "The Graduates" were back at home base (possibly nibbling on the breakfast buffet), leaving the village wide open for the "Mississippi Maruaders" to plunder. Frank's venerable Tiger 1 rolled into town, blew open the doors to both buildings, found the treasure and drove it back to home base to collect the reward.

After a quick reset of all assets, the committees once again convened some discussions. The mobile committees proceeded to opposite sides of the village, with the "Mississippi Marauders" going through the rough terrain between the trees. It was at this point, that one of the most tragic events in the entire history of the hobby occured ... Tiger 1 tore apart a TTS track ... leaving the track in the high brush. With only one track, the Tiger 1 could only turn in one direction. By going forward and backward at different speeds it could move itself into various firing positions, but it would be toast as soon as any opposing battler determined what was happening. Will Montgomery knew something was up, but couldn't determine exactly what was going on from his position. Nonetheless, he started hurtling paint at the Tiger (especially when it wandered out of the trees) and scored 3 hits. Then, Steve's Cromwell snuck up on the helpless Tiger (he didn't know it was helpless) and scored the fatal shot.

With the Tiger out of commission and Mike's S-Tank having teething problems, Joe's Hetzer and John's PzIIj had to shoulder the full load of the committee's agenda, with endless debate challenges being hurled by all four of "The Graduates". With 2-to-1 field supremacy, The Graduates were able to secure the prize and return it to home base, to end the second debate session.

For the 3rd debate round, Frank placed the crippled Tiger 1 in the village to serve as an artillery piece to help defend the prize. Defenses were beefed up and all artillery was placed to provide what was hoped to be some blistering cross-fire in the center of town. When the battle began, however, the mobile committees clearly formed some sort of caucus and approached the village as a single "super-committee". They quickly focused on killing all guards, but ran into problems when they couldn't figure out which guards went with which artillery (placed close to each other for that very reason) and they couldn't find a couple well-hidden guards placed by the rookies. Nonetheless, with bi-partisan agreement from both committees they controlled the battlefield, prevented the necessary supplies and eventually wiped out the defenses. Before the Tiger 1 was silenced, the Cromwell made a daring run through the center of the village, blowing open the door to the church and, after finding no treasure, drove up and over a barricade to avoid a barrage paintballs from the "Tiger Bunker". After the Tiger's guards were finally suppressed, the Cromwell (I think) returned to the village to find the treasure and return it to home base.

Battle Video

The following video, shot by Chris and edited by John, is from the first half of Battle #1. Some nice closeups of the Swedish S Tank, the Conn Tiger, Cromwell, PzII, Paul's, and the artillery.

From John:

More from that first battle session. The dialog is hilarious. Pay attention to when it dawns on Frank there is an unholy alliance , temporarily, of tanks versus artillery. Later, watch as Pauls PzII wades into a hailstorm of hurt. Love the dance.