Down Range
Woohoo! Another monthly match! I trucked up to Jon's Saturday night for the next day's IPSC match. How did we kill time Saturday night? Watching movies? Hitting the clubs? Shooting pool? No! We killed stuff! On an old Gateway computer that was my third computer 10 years ago, we played Steel Panthers II--Modern Battles, a battalion-level turn-based game we haven't been able to top since. I've long since opined that I'd rather not play against Jon, a real whiz at wargaming, so we always play cooperative games. The visiting player (me) takes on the role of battalion commander and picks the first half of the units. Jon bought the other half. We used our geeky D&D dice to determine what army we played (Egypt), what army we faced (Spain), the type of engagaement (Meeting), year of conflict (1972), map size (large), and lighting conditions (noon). We've been doing this for years and hope we can find a more advanced version that'll play on modern computers. In case you're curious, we crushed the Spanish with the most heroic sorties of Il-28 bombers and some very tough infantry. My armor sucked at range warfare, so I closed with the Spaniards in the smoke and ripped them to shreds, many kudos to Jon's mech infantry and BMP infantry fighting vehicles. An extra cinnamon bun for each artillery nug who pinned the Spanish Sparty from the very beginning (that's how we cheat...the computer almost always puts their Self-Propelled Arty (Sparty) towards the back of the map, near a road hex.
After a coupla beers and a shot of Bushmills or two, we decided to play another. Who needs sleep? The color drained from our faces when we saw we were playing the Army of India against the US Marines. That's usually "Game Over, Man!" Things looked up when the dice determined we were fighting a delay action in the dead of night (No Moon) in 1962. Nobody without night vision eqiupment could see further than two map hexes. The goggle guys consisted of Jon's three T-62s...my infantry company and extra light machinegun and bazooka units just laid as low as they could in the rough terrain. Our only artillery was four 120-mm mortars from my company. Thank Vishnu for the terrain. After a platoon of M-47s blundered into my platoon covering the southern secondary road--and died, some modern M-48A1s with infrared sights lit off Jon's tanks...his only return shot disabled one tank, effectively removing it from the battle. With no armor to oppose them, the computer drove into my infantry. Fortunately, Indian infantry units were augmented with Super Bazooka teams, so squashed the Marines before they could reach the objective areas. Jon was disappointed--with the points he saved by buying the cheap Soviet crap, he purchased an engineer platoon. When these guys attack tanks with satchel charges and flamethrowers, it's usually fun to watch (if you've got a good imagination). All this from a game ten years old!
Despite having a comfy bed to sleep on, I slept fitfully, often visiting dream scenarios where I was called back to the Air Force. I should have drunk much more, but I've had dehydration and nervous stomach issues at matches before, so I laid off.
During the night, I was wondering whether Jon's swamp cooler was responsible for the whooshing/gurgling sounds I heard (well, it coulda been! This is Phoenix, Arizona!). Turns out, it was the torrential rains. Hmm...is there gonna be a match? Fortunately, Yes! We stomped through the muddy range thankful that the rain had stopped. I had some odd magazine problems with the Glock, blazed through carbine with the Bushmaster (but schwacked two no-shoots in the meantime), and had a ruinous day with riotgun. That'll teach me not to clean it after two matches!!
Update: Match results posted today. Jon and I were the only shotgunners and only one other rifleman showed up. And I beat him! The long gun events are the most fun for me, but I wish more competition would show up.
After a coupla beers and a shot of Bushmills or two, we decided to play another. Who needs sleep? The color drained from our faces when we saw we were playing the Army of India against the US Marines. That's usually "Game Over, Man!" Things looked up when the dice determined we were fighting a delay action in the dead of night (No Moon) in 1962. Nobody without night vision eqiupment could see further than two map hexes. The goggle guys consisted of Jon's three T-62s...my infantry company and extra light machinegun and bazooka units just laid as low as they could in the rough terrain. Our only artillery was four 120-mm mortars from my company. Thank Vishnu for the terrain. After a platoon of M-47s blundered into my platoon covering the southern secondary road--and died, some modern M-48A1s with infrared sights lit off Jon's tanks...his only return shot disabled one tank, effectively removing it from the battle. With no armor to oppose them, the computer drove into my infantry. Fortunately, Indian infantry units were augmented with Super Bazooka teams, so squashed the Marines before they could reach the objective areas. Jon was disappointed--with the points he saved by buying the cheap Soviet crap, he purchased an engineer platoon. When these guys attack tanks with satchel charges and flamethrowers, it's usually fun to watch (if you've got a good imagination). All this from a game ten years old!
Despite having a comfy bed to sleep on, I slept fitfully, often visiting dream scenarios where I was called back to the Air Force. I should have drunk much more, but I've had dehydration and nervous stomach issues at matches before, so I laid off.
During the night, I was wondering whether Jon's swamp cooler was responsible for the whooshing/gurgling sounds I heard (well, it coulda been! This is Phoenix, Arizona!). Turns out, it was the torrential rains. Hmm...is there gonna be a match? Fortunately, Yes! We stomped through the muddy range thankful that the rain had stopped. I had some odd magazine problems with the Glock, blazed through carbine with the Bushmaster (but schwacked two no-shoots in the meantime), and had a ruinous day with riotgun. That'll teach me not to clean it after two matches!!
Update: Match results posted today. Jon and I were the only shotgunners and only one other rifleman showed up. And I beat him! The long gun events are the most fun for me, but I wish more competition would show up.
posted by Cowboy Blob @ 8:14 PM
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