Saturday September the 8th was the
first day of New Bastogne's Second Annual Tank Rally. Inspired by the "World of Tanks"
computer game, the event was sometimes called "WoT2." The event was
sponsored by New Bastogne's 1. Armee, in addition to Patrick Paspund,
JessicaBelle Dayafter, and Sunshine Juneberry. Fox Cheri acted as an umpire
for the event.
The Tank Rally differed from normal ground combat
in the New Bastogne area. There would be no infantry involved, only
heavy, medium, and light tanks. The combat tags normally worn by
soldiers and tankers would not be used, although tank damage was dealt
and recorded using the VICE system. Participants from both Allied and
German factions were randomly placed into red and blue teams. So each
usually had a mix of Allied and German tanks, sometimes a mix of Western
Allied, Soviet, and German. Participants wore the flags of their teams,
red and blue, on their backs, which poked out through the tops of the
tanks.
At one point the participants were greeted by an official
looking figure in a tricolor sash, "Heil pour le Maréchal Pétain! … I
am the new mayor, Etienne Vigée, nice to meet you." He stated that
before long, there would be an election with at least one opponent. It
was not mentioned whom would be voting.
The tank battles were
fought in both countryside and urban terrain, taking a little time for
the forces to meet. But once the battles were joined, the action was
usually fast and furious. The first round was in hilly country, with
Fatalitywolf Firehawk, Vickster Khun, and Ayane Sauber on the red team.
Killingowl, JessicaBelle Dayafter, and Toscha Vayandar were on the blue
team. Both teams rolled out from their bases. But when they met, red
team had their guns pointed right at two of blue, whom were driving
across their line of sight. Vickster soon took out two, but
JessicaBelle's light tank avoided the red team's fire and soon took out
one. But her computer crashed, and so the match was declared a red team
victory.
Round two took place in mostly urban terrain. Red
team's Toscha Vayandar destroyed all three blue tanks. Round three,
which took place in central Bastogne, started with the two bases not far
apart, and the teams soon met up. This time Toscha's luck did not carry
over, and his red tank was blown apart without a kill along with Blue's
Crymson Serenity's. Blue Team's JessicaBelle was the winner with two kills,
with Ayame Sauber having one. Red team's KillingOwl and Fatalitywolf got
a kill each before their tanks were disabled.
The fourth round
was in New Fallout, normally the home base of the Soviet team. The
terrain here was hilly, with trees, boulders, and some trenches. Red
team had Vickster, Ayane, Toscha. Blue had Fatalitywolf, JessicaBelle,
and KillingOwl. Meeting up, Fatalitywolf and KillingOwl fell to Vickster
and Toscha after several rounds of cannon fire. JessicaBelle once again
was outmaneuvering the Red team, but her tank ended up caught in a
ditch and without mobility was quickly smoked.
Under the point
system, Vickster was the winner of Day One of the Tanl Rally with 1800
points. JessicaBelle was second with 1200 points. Toscha was third with
1100. Ayane Sauber was fourth with 700. They along with others who
scored received Linden cash prizes. Vickster as the top tanker also won a
new tank of her choice. There was also a raffle, in which the winner
was due a second tank, along with a new plane from Dayafter Productions and a new uniform from Sunshine. The
prizes just for this first day exceeded 6000 Lindens, two tanks, one uniform and one airplane.
The points will be accumulated throughout the Rally until the end.
The Tank Rally goes on in New Bastogne every day to next Sunday, September 16.
"Play hard, and play to win!"
Bixyl Shuftan
