Jun 19, 2009

The Guns of Port Merrimac Take A Beating - or "The Most Fun the ol' Port Has Seen Yet"

Mars and Bacchus would have both felt at home in Port Merrimac last night as the Thursday Night Iron Melee hosted an event of a different sort. I shall let the Commodores (Dagger and O'Toole) give you the detail of the strategy and/or the After Action Reviews, but I shall greatly enjoy sharing my thoughts, photos, and some anecdotal evidence of a merry time had in scenario battling.

The general premise was that we would once again pit Red against Blue. Teams were chosen (self-identified) as the crowd gathered and learned what each would be doing. Red would defend the guns and port; Blue were to attack from Sea and Land.

"What's that?" you say.

Yes indeed - a landing party scenario. Or at least the first runs with the MMCS system used by our friends in New Brunswick.

We had an excellent crowd! By my count at the height of our participation we had 18 folks. Everyone was anxious to give the infantry battle a try along with the now normal use of the ironclads and guns on the dock.

We ran the scenario (variations on the theme) three times. Despite the casualties on both sides, at the end of each attack (Blue won all three!) we were friendly and ready for the next thing. No drama! Just so much fun that Bacchus would barely have been able to keep up with us. :) Why is that, I wondered briefly. But I think the reason is that the rules of the road are always clearly spelled out, and everyone knows the mission here is to have a good time, and to run generally authentic scenarios (i.e. one's gun does not work underwater in RL, therefore, we do not shoot guns underwater) for the time period. When the battle is over (or each round) then we are back to our "normal" SL selves.

Let me show you the evidence - and after you've read and viewed I'm sure you will want to join us next week. I'm in favor of running the same kind of scenarios next time since we are just scratching the surface of possibilities on this.

Blue Team prepares for the first round.
(l-r) Remington Pinion, Exrex Somme, Hotspur O'Toole,
that's me with my back to you (sorry), and Krystine Qinan

Oh - here I am. :)

For the first two rounds, I had the honor of gunning for Mr. Easterman of the Caledon Navy. We totally killed the mortar on the dock at least twice! Hee hee hee!

Red Team members: (l-r) Commodore Nabila Nadir, TotalLunar Eclipse, Tensai Hilra

We gather between battles.
(l-r) Alex Chadbourn, Eva, Nabila Nadir, Justinian Huszar

Oh the huge manatees! The Penzance and one of the cannon are aflame!

Lunar is down (round two)

MrBunwah, Dale, and Maxim

Group shots after round three.


And then things really got silly...

Climbing aboard Alex's "Happy Missile"
O-0

This was at least as fun as Cow Jumping at IBM.

Now don't you want to come play next week??
Thursday nights at 7pm SLT, Port Merrimac, Roatan.

BATTLE ON!

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