Russkies in Oklahoma!

[seabolt]

TURN 11

He's cut! He's cut! The Russian's cut.

We've already heard from the Kiwi kontingent about the merits of the Rocky series, and believe me I've done my share of mocking the ham-handed films. But there's a reason that they endure in the pop zeitgeist. One of the varsity linemen at my son's football practice the other day was wearing a T-shirt that at first glance seemed inelegant even by Nike slogan standards. "Toughness is hanging on when others let go," it stated. But there can be just a hair between prosaic and profound. Rocky's not a charming fellow, he doesn't possess the Super Saiyan Megacircumcise move, and the only person he's ever outwitted is himself. But what he does is hang on, take a punch, ride out the storm ... flat-out endure.

In short, he's all the man that most of us can ever hope to be. Maybe we can't even really aspire to be Rocky. Maybe the best we can hope for is to emulate the terrified old tar in "Master and Commander," the death grip--whitened knuckles of his right hand tattoed with "HOLD," those of the left with "FAST." Just don't let go. Keep it together and wait for the other guy to blink. Even God blinks.

Even the Russian war machine blinks. The turn started out promising, as my Warthog made another pass at that pesky Nona, and still couldn't kill it but at least *executed a midflight turn.* It's the little things that make my day. It also avoided some SAM rounds, which was interesting because the 60mm barrage intended to suppress said SAMs was set 0.1 earlier than the flight but arrived afterward. (Time to target delay? Or just shortcut programming because the Warthog was purchased before the mortar?) The follow-on CM rounds killed that Nona's ammo carrier, and another, and suppressed the guns deeply. Not bad.

At Mt Acme, the Rangers killed 3 of the 4 remaining spotted paratroop units, with the other being routed. Barring more uberunits popping up (unlikely), that battle is effectively over.

So, onward to claim VH 110,43. For all of their experience and high spirits, my Rangers have proven themselves to be doggedly myopic. I doubt that they could spot a hand grenade that was tossed into their mess tin, even as it hissed away covered in ranchero sauce from their MRE. But we've got 10-point snipers on our side, too! One of my dancers with death trotted up the street to spot a pinned HMG in front of the VH and a pinned rifle section just behind it.

I jigged around the overwatch Abrams on the road to the south, trying to establish LOS, then got a tingly sensation on the back of my neck. Moving the tank's outrider Humvee into the very next hex elicited an ATGM's fatal one-finger salute. Goodbye, little missile-catching buddy. You can join the legions of weak-ass marksmen and jeep drivers in SP recon unit heaven.

So, a little weak-ass z-fire of my own, and I moved up some Rangers to take out the HMG. This drew opfire from the MG, then something bigger and nastier opened up. And did it again. It couldn't be ...

... but it was, the sweet, sweet sound of 23mm AA fire, the only two AA guns to have fired in the east all match. In LOS. Oh, mama. Needless to say, Abramses came bolting out of their hideyholes like piranhas smelling a Nature Channel cameraman. Screw the VH. Much cannon fire ensued, and in short time Epoletov was down to SAMs, of which 2 were killed on Mt Acme, 1 disappeared earlier after 2 Paladins said howdy do, and 1 is catching mortar shells in the teeth. And all of which have been spraying much of their loadout in the Warthog's wake.

And me with 3 Apaches and half a map full of stuff that desperately needs killing.

I even remembered to do a drive-by and claim the VH, leaving Epoletov holding just 2 others. As interesting as this turn was, though, it's about to get a whole lot more entertaining for me.

It's a bad cut.

-- 30 --