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RE: Russkies in Oklahoma!
TURN 8
I've been trying out a new IPA tonight (ThunderHead. Not bad.), have had a day, and have a little time. So, fasten your seat belts and extinguish all smoking materials. We going for a little stream-of-semiconsciousness ride.
When they remake "Scarface" (And you know they will. It's one of the signs of the end times in Revelations.), the protagonist will no longer be Cuban, but rather African-American.* (Straight to the core audience.) And in this reboot, I posit that his trusted lieutenant, or at least an associate, will be a member of the Russian mafia. So that, when it comes time to growl those epic words, "Say hello to my little friend," Scarface will not swing into action the underslung M203 grenade launcher with its puny 40mm round, but rather something like the Soviet-designed RPO Shmel-M RFT thermobaric GL.
According to SPMBT, this is the squad support weapon of aforementioned end times. My problem (You know I have one. I usually do.) is: If the durn thing is so spectaculimous, how come I've *never seen it used?* Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia: The Soviets have fought their share of video wars. Best I can figure, one in three Viet Cong firing a Chinese knockoff RPG-7 got caught on film. Number of flamethrowers from hell seen getting the job done in real life: zero. I'm just saying ...
Anyway, this is the Soviet special edge in SPMBT, and as I predicted Epoletov armed some of his troops with it. That's OK, because he'll need all the help he can get in My Game. Which is to say, I suspect that a lot of us take particular pride in a singular aspect of this very multifaceted game. For instance, I would hazard that the Walrus takes pride in his "pick and pop" expertise with armor; he's a diabolical master at getting off two good shots and allowing no return fire. In Vesku's case, I suspect, it's timing that he holds most dear. He's a patient clock-watcher who brings a unit with just enough time to kick your ass, but not enough for you to muster the forces to return the favor. The player with the highest ELO rating in this game, Narwan, is a spam master. He understands that cheap, crude, plentiful units can be handled artistically, thus becoming cheap, plentiful, and deadly effective. Volodia ... um, he's too busy biting the heads off flaming bats and ramming APCs full of cutthroats into you to really think in terms of ... well, OK, for thinking in general. ;) (Where are you, boyo?)
Me, I refuse to be beaten in close quarters infantry combat. Absolutely won't let it happen. (So, of course, it's happening in a current match with Splintex, the Russian hordes and their endless artillery support wearing my stormtroopers down. Pretty much a worst-case scenario for which I graciously allow myself a bye.) I'm a firm believer that an army consists of infantry and its supporting elements, and that winning the infantry battle is four fifths of the job. The messy, brutal, chaotic business of nose to nose bullet-slinging is where I feel like I play my best game.
In my last turn, I pushed a single Ranger squad forward into stone building hex 102,40. Epoletov brought a rifle section the other way, got it shredded, then decided to teach me a lesson, which ended with three shredded Russian sections. (It really, really helps to have the meanest SOBs on the field ...) On my turn, I blew back the single section still in contact, then tried to bring some support across the street. A Shmel opened up at 200 meters. No losses---lucky, in my experience---but it inflicted suppression 31(!) on troops that pound six-inch nails through hardwood planks with their ... positive attitudes. Nasty, nasty weapon. The problem for Epoletov was that the ambush only worked setting up in the street. I z-fired a few units, ran a Ranger unit north, and ground his 47-point Shmel rifle section down to two effectives. I daresay the judges will score that round in my favor.
The turn as a whole had begun well, to boot. Given the AA revelations of the last few turns, I decided to risk my Warthog on a quick-hitter into Vesku's rear. It fireballed an ammo carrier and caused a Nona crew to bail. (Nice! Giant beard trimmer powers, activate!) For the second turn in a row, however, it refused to follow its V-shaped flight path and flew straight out into the Russian goblinwoods. Again, Epoletov's penny-pinching saved its hide. You gotta have AA in this day and age. It's like the diptet that way. (Bonus points and name-dropping for whoever IDs that reference first.)
The boys at the Mom & Pop Shop found the scout unit from turn 4 (IIRC) and killed it with no losses. No other Russians showed themselves. It looks like Epoletov pulled a hit and run on the VH, which means I'd like to move a few units up to the Shell Station. Problem is that pesky ATGM ~117,157. It there's only one, it only has two rounds left (I neglected to mention another brewed up APC last turn), but I don't want to lose two more APCs to prove it. Its LOS is quite the nuisance, cutting straight through the southern corridor as it does. If I didn't have so many artillery pieces and paratroops that needed killing ... but everything has to wait its turn in life. And death, I suppose.
Speaking of dead paratroops, the Apaches kept on keeping on at Mt Acme, but killing Russian paratroops is like cleaning up after my boys. As soon as you finish with one mess, you discover another. Two (Maybe three. It's been a while now, and did I mention it's a pretty good beer?) more units bit the dust, but three more showed up scattered around the hill trying to be very, very quiet. It's going to take time and 30mm rounds, that's all.
The only question left in the round was what to do with my armor. I mentioned before that Epoletov's paratroop gambit got caught wrong-footed in this match. Things go a little differently, and it's me that's the one constantly trying to catch up to his initiative. Conversely, I have a theory that initiative is a zero-sum game. That is, every advantage creates an opening, if your opponent is only shrewd enough to discern it. In this case, it's my Abrams. I have something like 3,500 points invested in them. They were real handy, but far from essential, in obliterating the first paratroop foray. Now, what are they? I suspect that Epoletov doesn't have a single T-80 or T-90 on the field; he spent those points on Antonov air transports and ammo carriers, instead. An Abrams is a fine, fine weapon ... for killing tanks. Lacking those, it's a single slipup from costing you 517 large for your negligence. Ten HE rounds does not make an infantry-killing wundermaschein.
I'm at that point in the game where I'm well enough ahead that I don't really have to seize any more initiative. Mostly, I don't *need* to push those Abrams forward to provide one easy ATGM shot's worth of drawing even for Epoletov. Against that, I loathe the prospect of giving up the initiative. And a lot of my firepower is concentrated in the things. It's a quandary. In my experience, making these really fuzzy decisions in the lateish midpoint of a fight can create a huge swing in the end results.
Finally: I'm actually learning a lot about this game by organizing** my thoughts*** for this blog. I would imagine that Epoletov is learning tons by seeing his opponent's thinking in real time. But the most interesting thing is recording events and thus seeing more of the anomalies in the game exposed. Case in point: On Epoletov's turn, he fired an RPG at my Fox at 95,35 from 200 meters. The replay sort of suggested from the south, but then the explosion for a missed HEAT round always is kind of off center. Unit view for the Fox showed only two hexes in the north that it could see at 200 meters. I moved it, moved a unit into its place. The new unit could not spot the RPG, but also could only see two northern hexes at 200 meters. I advanced a Ranger squad to the south. It spotted the RPG-29 team ... in hex 95,39 to the south. It seems that hex 95,39 could see hex 95,35 but not vice versa.
That's ... huge. And a little unsettling. Of course, we are the U.S. of A. Whatever the funkiness, we will overcome. ;)
-- 30 --
*Those of you who have seen the finest television series ever made, "The Wire," would have to agree that Michael Kenneth Williams (Omar Little) would rock a Scarface that Al Pacino could only feverishly dream of aspiring to. And, they'd save on makeup. Plenty of scar and face ready to roll.
** Insert snarky comment.
*** No, really, I heard you the first time.
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