Jim Frensham (MERCENARY COMMANDERS viewpoint)
As you may have worked out on the day the Mercenaries and the UN staff were one and the same! Under the collective name of Game Control Staff we flew around the site in our jeep changing bibs from UN ( for airstrikes) to MERCENARIES as requested by both sides, generally causing complete mayhem wherever we went.
STAGE 1 - Morning Session
First up I have to mention the North General's (Mark Blakemore) stroke of genius right at the start - I asked both Generals if they wanted to pre-book any strategic resources for the morning session and when he said he wanted to book the mercs for game start I assumed he meant us to break out and help his forces with the initial push. Imagine my horror when he said he wanted us in the trenches (Yellow 1) only about 200 yards from the south base - his plan being to hold the South forces in the Yellow sector until the North guys could reach us to back us up. I grabbed my rule book and couldn't find any reason why he couldn't do it so I had no choice but to agree. Now bear in mind there were 9 Mercs, yes 9 ! and over 300 South players. When the breakout came it was like the scene from Braveheart (or the Zulu film!) - this huge roar went up and they all came storming towards the 9 of us. Fortunately, the element of surprise was in our favour and we managed to shoot 60-70 players before being swamped and shot to ****! - we held the line for about 7-8 minutes though which gave the North guys enough time to reach us and take over, and because they now had temporary control of 75% of the whole Game Zone they also secured most of the Wealth Chests and Airstrike Weapons within the first 30 minutes! (5 x Airstrike Weapons @ 50 points and 3 x Wealth Chests @ 50 points) Definitely a master stroke!
The rest of the morning session was relatively quiet for us - both sides called an Airstrike and, although there were few eliminations (players RAN as soon as they saw the UN coming) they were both very successful in helping the relevant sides gain a territorial advantage. The South General deployed us BEHIND the North front line just before lunch in RED 3 and we attacked them from behind, pushed through until we met up with the South team who had pushed forward and what ensued can only be described as a complete rout of the whole of the North army on that side of the field, fortunately for them it was right on the stoke of the lunch break and the end of Stage 1 of the game.
STAGE 2 - afternoon session
The master stroke pulled by the North at the start of Stage 1 backfired on them big styleee at the start of Stage 2 - The South General (John Bonich) had learned from it and used the same tactic at start of play. So we found ourselves sitting waiting for 300 North nutters to come running at us when Game On was called. This time we didn't have the luxury of 1/ a lovely trench system OR 2/ surprise! We were in a line across the boder of RED/BLUE 2 and 3 which didn't have a lot of cover at all. We did manage to hold them long enough for the South team to reach us on one side of the field and they gained enough ground to secure both Nuclear Warheads, which was eventually to win the South the game as they were worth 1000 points each. Just like the start of the day though us Mercs took a severe beating after the North recovered from there initial slaughter.
We spent virtually the rest of the day alternating between administering Airtrikes and deploying as Mercs on behalf of the North (they had won virtually everything in the morning so had much more to play). However at one point the North tried to deploy us right back in Yellow 2 within site of the South base and wanted us to come in from behind, but as soon as the jeep pulled up the South players clocked us and when we peeled a corner of the canvas back on the jeep all we could see was about 150 players pointing guns straight at us from 10 feet away!!!!! Suffice to say we bottled it and didn't deploy - oops sorry I mean we made a strategic withdrawal! - we joined the North forces as soon as we came to their front line and led a very successful push down into the trenches in Yellow 3 so we weren't completely useless on that occasion.
The Souths only other Merc deployment (they only had 2 Wealth Chests in total) should also have been very telling. It had got to the stage where we couldn't deploy in secret as players were acutely aware of our jeep arriving, so when the South wanted us to drop behind the North at BLUE 1 and come in behind them again we had great difficulty in doing so in secret. We did manage to do so with a new tactic which Im not going to reveal here in case I need to use it in the future - suffice to say we deployed very successfully and made a right mess of the North in GREEN 1, unfortunately the South were unwilling to push forward from Yellow 1 to meet up with us (Generel Bonich was looking to hold his sectors and not give the North the chance to regain the points advantage).
Accutely aware that he was behind in points (due to the Nukes) General Blakemore in the North went all out to crush the South and gain as many kill points as possible to catch up. In the last 30 minutes he again wanted us to try and deploy just outside the South base in Yellow 2. He also had 2 airstrikes available. He requested the Airstrikes in Yellow 2 then Yellow 3, immediately followed by Merc deployment in Yellow 2. This obviously gave us a major problem - getting out of the jeep in Merc mode!! - We went to the area with our Merc bibs and battlepacks on UNDER our UN bibs and took our guns with us in the Jeep. After dropping the two airstrikes we wandered back to the Jeep in UN bibs and quickly pulled em off and grabbed our guns, one quick radio message to the South General "MERCS DEPLOYED" and we were off shooting RIGHT OUTSIDE THE SOUTH BASE. It was complete madness and the North team stormed forward to meet us and the whole South army was all but wiped out or pushed back into base right at the end of the day! A crazy adrenalin fuelled celebration ensued with all the North players screaming and emptying their hoppers into the air - unfortunately as we are all aware now this was a premature celebration.
CONCLUSIONS
Well, theres already been much talk about which tactics were good and which weren't. Theres also been questions raised about the legality of the initial Merc deployment by the North. I have to say that I feel I had a unique position from which to view the game as I was the only one who monitored both North and South comms all day (they were locked on 1 channel each and I switched between the two all day following the action) and I believe that if the North had not played this tactic then the South would definitely not have used it after lunch - and without it they would not have captured both Nukes. The Nukes were both placed at the lunchbreak after studying where the natural skirmish line lay all morning and were actually both in locations which had been held by the NORTH for about 75% of the morning session! - so those of you in the North that feel they were placed with a bias to the South are gravely mistaken.
The strangest thing is, although the North really pushed hard tactically in the afternoon (with 5 airstrikes and 2 merc deployments! it was inevitable), and seemed to be pushing the South back all afternoon, the elimination scores (645 to N and 758 to S) tell a different story - Mr Bonich shrewdly holding ground wherever possible and retreating at the first sign of airstrike or mercs, and his troops standing firm and picking off the advancing North army to actually finish ahead on eliminations for the afternoon despite being on the back foot throughout.
Well done to both sides for what was a fantastic day, congratulations to the South on their historic win. I have to say I think the Game Control Staff done a great job both as UN and especially as MERCS - They were mostly pro players who have played some of the biggest tournies in the world and, without exception, they all had more shots and bigger welts on them than they have EVER had in tournies!
For my sins, I was also the one who wrote the game scenario and First Orders. My major concern was to have a game which would be challenging and varied for such a large number of players. Its the first proper scenario game we have done and we definitely learned a few lessons. But the day went pretty smoothly and I think the scenario worked well, thanks for everyones input and you can expect to see a few enhancements next time!
Cheers
Jim Frensham
