Better late than never AAR...
The first scenario had the Germans defending a fuel depot out in the corner of the field south of the barn. At stake was control of the armored car for the following scenario. Neither side started the event with Natasha or any “heavy expendables” like antitank weapons, AT mines or mortar rounds. Those had to be earned and/or stolen from the enemy. I grabbed my PPSh and Mauser and joined the defensive line. Right away I saw something worrisome. In an effort to keep our defenses tight, Garrick had deployed our right flank where I was stationed too far back. The Russians would have been able to walk right into the woods and occupy higher ground to fire down on us. I convinced him to let us move up 50 feet or so since the field layout meant that did not really cause a lengthening of our line. Now we could defend the edge of the woods and got a nice view of the open area between us and the enemy HQ.
Shortly after the scenario started, we spotted movement across the field on the hill above the Allied HQ. We quickly determined it was our recon patrol that had been sent out earlier. Medic Adam came across the open area to our position as a runner, talked to Garrick, then went back. The enemy could not fail to notice this activity, and very soon we heard a firefight at the other position. Our patrol fell back, eventually crossing the open area beside the barn to rejoin us. Not all of them made it alive. The main enemy attack was now developing, announced by AEG fire on our left flank as they tried to come in through the swamp. Ahead of us on the left, Russians advanced from the ruined foundation to the side of the barn. I was just far enough up to start plinking at them with my Mauser, but the wind was in our face and very gusty. It made my BBs short and erratic, while carrying incoming rounds well into my position. I fell back to another tree while long range skirmishing continued along our flank. Udo and another Russian rushed (haha) across to get up to the treeline where they were shielded by thick brush. To counter this I crossed right to the field boundary and moved up to flank their positions. I ran up behind the truck and old paintball tank behind the barn, which left them completely exposed. One was quickly eliminated, but Udo and I could see each other clearly through the vehicle’s rear window, and he put 100% of his attention into making dang sure I could not get a line of fire on him. Any time my head even thought about coming around the corner, he had a round already on the way. More than once I heard a BB whiz by my ear. Good show; time to change tactics. I yelled to Troy to put some pressure on Udo. This unnerved my quarry enough that he got up to flee, giving me the opening I needed to spray him in the back.
Garrick came up to check on our status, and I said we should occupy the two vehicles since they were a very obvious springboard into our positions. He thought that would put us too far out, so I fell back to my tree by the trail. Another hostile (American I think, perhaps Jason or one of the guys that came with him) was still at the barn. Clearly he felt safe at that range, for he was not hiding around the corner. I brought up my Mauser and managed to get a straight shot right into him. He saw it coming at the last second, flinching back around the corner, but a moment later I saw the dead rag some out. I love my rifle.
Somewhere around this time, we heard brush noises on the center-right. Shady was in the middle with his MG and had been engaging hostiles, but this was a new one. I saw something and fire, but the guy went to ground. A little while later Troy said he saw brush moving. He warned us that his brother Kevin was a crawler and that that was probably him. Sure enough, when the threat was eliminated, Kevin walked off
Now the Russians were coming back strong. Just as I feared, they quickly leapfrogged from the barn corner to the two vehicles, knowing we would have difficulty engaging them. Again I pulled back and went far right along the fence, but there was not enough room to pull the same trick. I saw Udo start crawling into the woods while Kevin lobbed long range shots at me. I plinked ineffectually back with my Mauser. Suddenly Chris managed to tag Kevin with his rifle, and I think another Russian was claimed by the firefight about the same time. This gave me an opening to sprint up to the trailer/brick pile east of the barn. I do not recall who eventually got Udo, but the threat was soon cleared. I decided to stay at the brick pile, as it was a perfect blocking position to prevent Russians from advancing to the vehicles again. It was not long until Troy was yelling that more of them were at the barn corner. I readied grenades in case I was charged. A couple times I moved up a bit, weighing the risks of storming that corner, but I never went for it. As time passed our right and center were getting pressed harder and harder. The guys by the barn decided to exploit this and go for the truck again. Their tactical judgment was in error, and I blindsided both of them with PPSh bursts. Sensing opportunity, I rushed up on the barn corner and lobbed a grenade around it. No one there. I called up Alban so he could make use of the wide open field of fire. The two of us would have been able to hold there quite well, but then the alarm cries from the other fronts went up. I hustled back to lend support. We were taking heavy fire from the center, and it was close. Quite a few grenades were being lobbed back and forth, though it looked like most were foiled by branches. I had difficulty locating targets to engage and got eliminated by a spray through brush.
As I walked back to respawn, I noted that Shady was MG-less and acting as a tree decoration with his pistol. This was clearly unacceptable, so immediately upon returning to life, I handed him my Mauser and a spare magazine. Two soldaten with one weapon each was better than one with two. The enemy was close enough that the PPSh was my better choice anyway. Shady got several good kills with the rifle and made sure everyone knew it. I moved back up the trail on the right and joined Robin in a bunker. We had too many people there, so an effort was made to spread out. I held the position, firing on anything that in any way betrayed itself. Plenty BBs came back my way. Time was short; this one was coming down to the wire. Then came about the last thing we wanted to hear, an urah charge on our right. Since we no longer had the high ground there, the enemy was able to make inroads and cause casualties, though not without plenty of their own. I think I mowed down at least two, though we had enough guns going that actual credit could be anyone’s. This was not the time to be on the wrong side of attrition though, to which I was delegated when a round clipped my service cap. Arrrrrg. With under five minutes of gameplay left, I would not be able to respawn, so I got back out of the way and watched. As time rapidly expired, neither side mustered a final desperate gambit to gain possession, and the scenario ended with the fuel dump surrounded by both sides but not controlled by either. Huh, a tie. That almost never happens.
For round two the roles were reversed. The Allies were ensconced in an ammo dump west of the village. This time the winner would gain access to “heavy expendables,” which would make dealing with Natasha a whole lot easier. And to up the ante, Troy decided that since the first scenario was a draw, the second was now double or nothing. To the victor would go the armored car AND all the best means of dealing with her. No pressure.
The Germans were slow moving out from their HQ to their infield respawn. While we waited for the stragglers, several of us formed an ad hoc recon group to scout the next door village. As Otto expected, we ran into resistance. While the structures were clear, the enemy has positions just behind them. Gunfire was quickly exchanged, and I moved up to the building next to the (village) barn. As I checked the corner, an automatic abruptly opened up on me, and I narrowly avoided death. I was lucky. Had that gunner been a little more patient, I would have moved around the corner and been completely exposed. It took long moments to locate my attacker; he was well dug in. I made a second near-fatal error as I backed off slightly. Tommy fire raked between the buildings, and again only my ninja/pioneer skills saw me through. Alex was behind the outhouse, making quite the nuisance of himself. I trained my sights on the structure, waiting for him to stick out again, which he did. The American fell to a weapon of Russian design, but one of his .45s hit my arm. Arrrg, sani! The rest of our recon patrol had been beaten off, so I suddenly felt very vulnerable. My “komeraden” seemed content to stand up at the stone gryphons and watch, but finally Wellnitz came down to heal my injuries. Now we got to stand around waiting for the higher ups to do the planning that should have happened before our scenario clock was ticking. By the time the gruppe finally moved out, we only had about an hour left to take the objective.
Most of our force attacked on the right, pressing through the village and around it to the north. I was up front since I knew the location of the guy that attacked me earlier, and with the increased German pressure, his position was quickly made. He had good cover though, and held us up briefly until I was able to thread a Mauser round through the branches. I think it was a head shot, sorry about that. We pressed on, running into stiffer resistance and taking casualties. I got another Mauser kill, but before we could extinguish a strongpoint manned by Kevin and others, I was hit.
With the Russian left flank anchored on a field boundary and our attack on it seeming to lose steam, I headed more left after respawn, following the trail before moving in toward the enemy center. With their attention elsewhere, I was able to creep and crawl unseen to a tiny pile of branches just within range of the objective. From here I sniped at whatever presented itself with my rifle. I felt a bit exposed, but it did not take long for other Germans to come up beside and behind me. Piper took cover by the shed and got into an extended engagement with an American, Tom I think. I tried and failed to tag him, having recently been forced out of my position by automatic fire. Eventually the enemy was eliminated or fell back. I returned to my bunker for more plinking, but my position had been made. I exchanged fire ineffectually for a while until another elimination.
Respawn two and back to the same area I was before. German soldiers were closing in now and had the target pretty well surrounded. I claimed a bunker and sat there for a while picking off the odd Russian, holding, seeing them respawn, picking off another here or there. This continued for a while as the clock counted down. Looking around, it seemed like we had significant manpower assembled, so after a few more Russians bit the dust, but before a fresh wave could respawn, I charged up another two bunkers to get into an assault positions. We need to storm this place I thought, so I yelled “Soldaten! Angriff!!!” Since that rarely seems to inspire the needed assault without someone going first, I did. I charged up to a precariously close bunker that offered me only the most minimal protection from two angles of Russian fire. I think one guy gunning for me was hit, so I took advantage of it. Stick grenades came out and I moved up. Instantly I saw an enemy in a bunker draw a bead on me, but fortunately I had only to duck to the side slightly to put the jeep between us. I roadie rushed up to the vehicle and lobbed two grenades at the Allied bunker. Goodbye Charlie. Of course, a moment later I joined them, claimed by Russian fire. As I stood with my dead rag and collected my grenades, it was all I could manage not to yell for everyone to move up. The bunker was basically deserted, plenty of Allied dead at the respawn and numerous Germans in the area. Walking back to respawn I did not get to see what became of the assault I had hoped to inspire, but I was in luck for I got back in time for the very last respawn cycle. Four of us moved out double time, and I was able to leapfrog up to the ammo dump where a furious firefight was taking place during these last desperate minutes. Two Germans were in the position, kissing dirt, while rest of us did our best to prevent Russians from feeding them a grenade. I made my way to just outside the bunker, wanting to be in a position to reclaim it if a grenade did clear it. From there I bobbled back and forth firing madly at everything that moved. Attrition seemed to be favoring us as the enemy died in large numbers. I know I got two or three as they tried to approach or crawled through the brush. More than once I am pretty sure I hit faces because they were all I could see. Much apologizing. Huddled in the objective bunker, Troy counted down the time, and endex arrived with Germany in possession of critical munitions
And to top it all off as we trudged back to our HQ, Shady informed us that he had raided the enemy HQ and swiped all their intel. Icing on the cake.
Scenario three was a Troy adaptation based on an idea I had posted a while back on our forum. A Storch recon plane had been shot down. The pilot needed to be saved, as did any intel that he might have on him. Troy outdid himself with props for this one. The field already had a plane carcass painted in German colors (which was what sparked my original idea), and parachute material was draped in some trees to show where the pilot came down. The pilot himself (unfortunately now a stiff) was a dummy dressed in a Luftwaffe uniform, and there was a camera in the plane wreck.
I think Shady situated his mortar to fire into the open field. Our recon patrol hurried back, hoping an enemy patrol had not seen us, and it was time for the main event. A few of us carried some AT, but it was not much of a priority since Natahsa was our instrument of terror. For this event if a vehicle was knocked out, the other team could capture it by having their drive get to it, change the magnetic markings and start driving. I got to be turret gunner for the first time, with Wellnitz as internal medic and rear gunner.
We started by driving across the field back to the plane wreck where Matt had noticed the camera inside earlier but neglected to mention anything. That claimed we moved toward the trail that led down into the village. Here we ran into the advance elements of the Allied army. We proceeded cautiously, supported by infantry. The enemy was lacking in AT, but that did not mean they had none. A molotov cocktail would ruin your whole day. Troy made a push for the village as I shot at everything I could see. We parked near the barn, and he spotted Belka hiding nearby. I had seen nothing, but it only took one of us. One less Russian, and the others were falling back, clearly broken by our armored assault. Our infantry took the village and began searching it for the pilot. Chris located him and soon he was safely back at our HQ. We now had pretty much everything of value from the field, so we headed back. As we drove back onto the field we caught two US players in the open. One ran for his life while the other tried to duck behind the Russian truck. He fate was sealed. Troy drove around it in a leisurely circle until I had a shot. The Ami kept trying to scoot away, but with German infantry coming up behind us, he had nowhere to go. Though the other one got away, it was a heady feeling to see people flee from you in abject terror. Mwahahahahaha, I could get used to this.
We emplaced as a bunker for a while at our HQ, letting Natasha cool down and consolidating our forces. We had all the cards, so the Allies would have to come to us, but it did not take long before we became antsy and wanted to mess with any plans the enemy might have. Troy fired up the engine and together with some additional troops inside, we departed for a raid. On the way out, our driver spotted a lone Ami hiding behind a tree not far from our base. The brush was heavy, so I sprayed and sprayed. I did not think I had gotten a hit, but he was not moving. We circled around, momentarily uncertain if it was a friendly, until we had a clear view. Definitely American and definitely out of luck. With a muzzle trained on him, the wounded American wisely decided to heed our order to surrender. A trooper dismounted, shoved him in the back, and we drove our prize back to base.
Now the real raid could take place. With two additional infantry crammed in back, we took off around the barn, so we could approach the enemy HQ from open ground. They got busy in a hurry once they heard and saw us coming. Gryphon now had a panzerfaust, and we spotted him in their main bunker. Troy was unwilling to make a close pass, so we turned up another trail and parked ourselves near the top of the hill. We wanted to see if we could bait some of them to come after us. They did, but slowly and cautiously. When we saw Gryphon moving around the flanks, we pulled ahead to above the village and deployed our two troopers. Light skirmishing continued, but the Allies were unwilling to close on the armor, and we did not have the infantry support to push back. That was fine. The name of the game was delay and disruption, which we were achieving. Eventually headed slowly back to base, Matt and Adam still on foot.
There was a period of calm while we waited for the enemy to organize and attack the HQ. A large number of infantry were seen crossing the field onto our left flank, and they were moving aggressively. We motored out to the field so we could sweep in behind and pin them against our entrenched defenders, but the hostiles had gone to ground and we did not see a single one of them. Troy parked next to our defenses as a pillbox, causing that sector to get quiet in a hurry. After a while we started hearing some noises, then seeing movement through the thick brush, but engaging with airsoft was difficult. Robin lay prone behind us to pick at them with his rifle. After cool down, we decided to make another loop, this time on the driveway to get a view into the deeper part of the woods south of our HQ. Otto was looping around behind the defenders, so the noose was closing. Once in position, I kept my eyes peeled as we slowly advanced. Suddenly a Russian leaved out from a tree. I thought he threw something at us, but Troy yelled “Panzerfaust!” It was Gryphon, but he was having back luck with branches. Before he could reload, we rolled forward and eliminated him. That was a close one. Nothing could be see in the woods, so Troy began the slow process of backing down the driveway. Suddenly there was another enemy with a panzerfaust behind us. The kid threw the lever, but nothing happened. I am guessing he forgot to crack the CO2. He ran behind the tarp over the firepit, and I kept him covered. He jumped out and fired, but his aim was hasty and the shot went wide, probably into the parking area. He did not survive to try again.
We returned to HQ and went to reinforce the right, but, “mysteriously”, that front too fell quiet as soon as we arrived. Time ticked away. As it grew short, we returned to the field to see what else we could harass. The enemy was inside the treeline to the north, but we were keeping a safe distance from any panzerfausts that might be lurking. It was rather amusing. We would approach, and enemy infantry would flee. As soon as we turned around, they returned to their previous positions, so we would loop back again and repeat the process. This action was coordinated with a push by Ulrich’s group from our right flank, which seemed to break the momentum of the Allied advance. As the last few minutes went by, we friendly infantry came up around us so Troy drove deeper into the woods, and we killed or displaced the enemy. M14 kid was stranded behind the jeep and tried to lob a grenade. Troy shot him in the arm, and we had our second prisoner, though we “freed” him since there was not enough time left to respawn, much less serve a 15 minute POW sentence. Germany was victorious once again.
Day two, scenario four. 0630. I was up early enough, but did not get to our HQ quite earlier enough to join the recon patrol, so I joined the slooooowly assembling base defense detail. We already had M14 kid at a prisoner though. All was quiet until we heard Troy yelling from all the way across the field. No one else could make out what he was saying, but I heard him calling for German reenforcements at the barn. Four of us quickly double timed it toward the barn, where we found several Russians around the vehicles firing into the woods. No doubt our guys were in there. I did not have my rifle, so long range fire fell to Wellnitz. The enemy sprayed at us, but we stayed out of range. I was just about to try my luck rushing up to a better position and maybe a grenade charge, when the enemy became unnerved by hostiles behind them and fell back. We were able to link up with the remains of our patrol, which now consisted only of Troy and Matt. Light skirmishing continued for a bit. I seem to recall Gryphon taking shots at us with a rifle, and Russians were at the barn corner. Troy decided that was enough of that and ducked into the barn to fire up Natasha. THAT sent the rest of the enemy scurrying back to their HQ. I asked Matt if he wanted to grenade charge the barn corner and gave him one, but when he got there, it was empty. Oh well. We all loaded up in the BA-64 and drove home. Troy’s patrol had managed to attack the enemy HQ, kill several of them and steal a bag of molotovs. Score. My only regret is that I did not get more of Robin’s pancakes and bacon. Yum.
Sunday got into full swing with the fifth scenario. Natahsa was “disabled” in the open field, and both sides would race to claim her. At game on we hurried into the field, but an advance Allied party beat us to the car. Two of them got there early to hold us up while the rest of their team was brought to bear. I held back just out of AEG range, putting Mauser rounds downrange. M14 kid was prone behind a tire. My fire forced him further and further back until he decided to charge me at an oblique angle to close the range. I sprayed with the PPSh and fell back to Mauser range, continually putting shots on him until he fled back to Russian lines. Shady kept trying to drop mortar rounds on the enemy, but was having problems with consistency. By now there was a fierce back and forth going on at the car. Germans had claimed it, but they were all dead or wounded. I rushed up to help, not realizing I was the only unwounded soldier present. Ulrich and I crawled through the driver’s door, and I took to the turret. Unfortunately the Soviet horde had already enveloped us. I shot two, including Udo at short range, as well as bang killing two others point blank. Kevin cut my killing spree short by dunking a molotov into the turret. It burns! Back at respawn, I heard Natasha start up and drive away. Not good. Since the objective was to possess the armored car, I figured the winner would just park it at their HQ until time ran out. Possession would roll over to the next scenario as well.
I might have been a tiny bit defeatist at this point, but not so much that I was not going to take to the field. I packed a wurfmine, gathered up my can of “anti-tampering devices” and loaded the Teller mines into packs hefted by Ulrich and another one of the Chicagoites. Back in October we had learned a valuable lesson that AT mines ARE useful on the offense as a means to restrict the movement of enemy armor, and we took that lesson to heart. The plan was to move out in force and mortar the enemy HQ, hoping to lure out the armor car and kill it somewhere we could capture it. Garrick’s squad went to the barn while Ulrich’s headed across the field to the stone gryphons. We heard Natasha moving, so we hurried the hell up. I deployed two mines where the trail exited to the field, but did not have time to rig them. The enemy was coming in force, so we fell back to defend the Tellers. I took the Russian truck, while the others deployed into the treeline. I was decidedly nervous, remembering what had happened to that American in my exact position yesterday. Still, we held fast as the Allies approached and spotted us. Skirmishing began, and Natasha continued to move up until they spotted the mines. Exactly as I had hoped, they stopped the armor cold, and we had enough fire covering them that the infantry could not clear them. Originally they did not spread down into the village, but now I heard their officer’s ordering such an action. That I figured was the end of our holding action, but as enemy casualties continued to mount, Gryphon instead ordered Kevin to turn around in the village and head back to their HQ. Success! Natasha withdrew, taking the last of the infantry with her. Or at least so I thought. M14 kid dashed from the woods, spraying from the hip and trying to get around my cover. Mr. PPSh saw to it he did not succeed, but an A for effort and almost catching me off guard.
With the area now secure, I quickly rigged anti-tampering devices on both mines. Sonic alarms that would go off if the devices were carelessly lifted. They were my second evil surprise for this event. I had also placed on in our HQ on the intel box in case any hostiles tried to raid our camp. Ulrich’s squad pressed forward while I grabbed the other mine bearer and went to rejoin Garrick. Over by the barn, I deployed two more mines to cover that trail before six or so of us advanced to the enemy HQ without opposition. Enemy fire soon came from the hill, and our troops deployed into the bunker behind the Allied tents. Natasha started rumbling back our way. I heard later that Dave had managed to kill it with a stolen molotov, though no one was around to contest it, and the Russians quickly reclaimed it. I hung back, hoping to go unnoticed by staying away from the others and get an opening for a wurfmine attack. An enemy soldier opened fire at me from the top of the hill, but the range was long and I kept moving or behind brush. Return fire merely caused him behind duck behind his tree. Natasha was now beside the enemy camp, pouring fire on our troops and also at me. I ditched my ammo can and readied a wurfmine. Then in short order a couple enemy troopers were eliminated, and I think a lucky shot killed the Russian turret gunner. Ignoring the threat on my flank I rushed up to the tents and after a moment to feel out the threat level, ran up and earned myself another tank kill. In what has become a familiar sequence of events, I was lit up basically as the wurfmine left my hand. Kevin did not realize he was dead, and the armored car drove on, right past the bunker where Otto gave it double death with his panzerfaust. He likes to do that and then claim “shared credit.”
The situation was sorted out as I started the long walk to respawn, but it looked good for us. We had a strong position and Troy, our driver, was still alive right next to the dead car. Turnover?
Back at base there was some initial alarm as engine sounds approached, but I knew that meant we now possession. Sure enough, Natasha rolled in festooned with Germans, and much celebration ensued. Now it was time to recall the troops and did in. Road blocks were set up, and I deployed the last of my Teller mines, so that if the enemy did somehow knock out our car, they would have a more difficult time driving it away. Minutes passed as both sides got organized, then a significant push came in on our left flank. I initially moved up to help our few defenders there, but they said the enemy was crawling along the far outside, just along the road. I remembered a good tree that overlooked that position, so I circled back and came up on it. Two or three Russians were trying to crawl up the ditch but bugged out as soon as they knew their position had been made. The left was holding, but more enemies were arriving in the center. Garrick sent me to the right, which seemed quiet, to tell Ulrich to send two of his guys center to shore up our positions. The situation stabilized, and the threat level tapered off as scenario end neared. We knew what that meant. Gryphon was no doubt organizing the obligatory last minute urah charge. Meanwhile poor Adam had been waiting quite a while to respawn since no one else had been killed for a while. To fix this our glorious leader shot me in the back to get a second dead guy. Gee thanks. Fortunately for us the enemy seemed to have run out of steam. In the last five minutes contact was made on the right, but they did not seem to press aggressively. Nonetheless we cleared the trail leading out left so that if things went horribly at the last second, Natasha could just flee. No big charge developed, so no such action was required, and the Germans went into the final scenario with a captured BA-64.
Battle for Berlin, the final scenario. Stalwart German defenders took up positions in the village, quickly discovering that is buildings were far more suited to defend inward than outward. We spread out, and I quickly got to work setting up my Teller mines, again to help prevent Natasha from getting captured, but hostile fire forced me to abandon the task partially completed. Taking up my Mauser and PPSh, I headed to the tiny guard shack and put fire on the encroaching Russians. They were attacking us from the east, while the Americans were coming in from the west. This position worked well at first, though I was subject to a lot of fire. The Ivans worked their way around to approach from the northeast, which really started to put me in a pinch. They did not end up getting me though. I had glanced around cover to see several hostiles moving up, including one that was prone and exposed to me. I leaned around to spray him and left myself open for to long to the bunker up along the tree line. Respawn time.
I came back to the fight and took up a position in the white building next to the outhouse. Medic Adam was in there much of the scenario as well. From here we continued to resist, though without a roof the building was badly vulnerable to grenades. It was also not an ideal location as the enemy kept moving up behind the machine shed, which quickly became their favorite springboard into the village. Fighting continued, and I took a burst to the back through the open door as I watched for Russians in the other direction. M14 kid had been harassing us persistently from the treeline bunker, and about this time he charged in and was shot down. Medic Adam lobbed a grenade too late and managed to friendly fire Dave. Way to do no harm Adam.
While waiting to respawn Gryphon came across the field and past us with the panzerfaust. He continued around to the American flank and for the next 10 minutes or so we would hear it fire occasionally, no doubt trying to knock out Natasha, which kept mostly static, but would putter around in the courtyard as situations warranted. Four of us came back alive and returned. I went to the same general area, but things had gotten hairy. This was the low point of our defense, with hostiles regularly penetrating to the outer buildings and making a murderous crossfire. They kept coming to the machine shed, and used every dirty trick in the book to get them out. Matt was inside one and pushed up a roof plank to drop a grenade on the other side. Another time Natasha drove over until the gunner was close enough to lob one over the top. Too bad we did not have clickers to track each side’s casualties. I am sure the numbers would have been impressive. About now, my PPSh, which had worked fine all weekend, decided to develop magazine problems and become worthless. Great, now I was stuck in CQB with a rifle and no pistol. Some Rangers penetrated inside the barn, and alarm shouts went up. I turned around, getting ready to grenade the place, but the enemy within must have known what was coming when I asked the other Germans “Is he still in there?” He bolted out the back. A short time later Tom lit me up from behind, and I joined an alarming number of kameraden at our respawn. Most of our team had to have been up there, and hostiles were in the village. Not many fortunately, we must have exacted quite the toll. Plans were hastily drafted for a counter assault. At the five mark we swarmed back in, guns blazing. Max and I hooked east as the area seemed clear for the moment. North of us an Ivan held us up briefly from a well dug in position, though he took out my SS friend. When he went down I moved right fast to get a shot behind the machine shed with my Mauser, which eliminated Robin. With that our little suburb of Berlin was re-secured.
Fighting continued until the bitter end, but some of the fight had gone out of our enemy. I am guessing the net effect of a long, hard-fought weekend and cumulative gun troubles. We held well until the end, though there were still some high points. Max and I sparred with Chris for a good while, failing to deliver the Mausery death he so rightly deserved. His tree was just a hair too skinny. Max would force him a bit to one side with automatic fire, and I would try to hit the sliver of him that stuck out the other. Reverse, rinse, repeat. M14 kid charged in again, getting all the way to my white building, where I just tossed a grenade out the window. In the end, the Germans retained their little patch of suburban real estate, for the moment.
All in all, a most excellent event. Many thanks to everyone that attended, and especially Troy for all the work that went into the field and props. I saw a pretty clean game. It is nice to see rifle hits taken so reliably (grumblemodernairsoftersgrumble). This game reminded me why I like WWII airsoft so much. And it did not hurt that this was the first event I have been able to attend since my knee surgery. Surely my enemies can attest that it did not slow me down.
Other notes:
I like two day events. My biggest regret was that I was not ready early enough to go out with the 0630 patrol, but being on the relief force that saved their bacon was the next best thing. We go crazy lucky with good weather. The night got cold enough that most people were forced into the barn or their vehicle. I shudder (haha) to think how bad it would have been two years ago at Porkhov. We certainly suffered from all the different airsoft attritions, player fatigue, weapon malfunctions and battery/ammo depletion.
My biggest gripe, even though it turned out well for my team, was the way the scenario reward had a “strong get stronger” setup. Win scenario, get armored car, get much better chance of winning next scenario, win more stuff, etc. It would have been better had the first two scenarios been flipped so that one side would not have gotten the armored car before either side got heavy weapons to deal with it. Had the Allied defenders had Natasha in scenario 2, it would have been pretty much unwinnable for us, like that one scenario last October. Natasha is awesome to play with, but she is a very big force multiplier, and care needs to be taken when deploying her in scenarios. By happy fluke, I think it worked out extremely well this event. The BA-64 certainly played a big part, but we had plenty of infantry-only skirmishes, which I felt balanced things out nicely.