Let me start by ruining the suspense...the USMC lost the round to the PLA 8 - 0. But why?

Interstingly, as we came out of a blow-out round of Kashan-32 some fellows on TS were suggesting that the teams were stacked, that the server needed to be restarted to even things up. Afterall...one team had no 'TG tagged' players...except me. (Dirtboy and I who were Admins at the time decided to let it ride)

Now what about this "stacked team" business? Well according to my screenshots the USMC had 2 'TG tagged' players...myself, and one other. The PLA had 4 'TG tagged' players plus 6 'KTA' tags. Also, I recognized several guys who don't wear the TG tags but have played in our scrims...on the USMC side I recognized a handful of names. I will maintain that the PLA may have had more than it's share of TG vets, but I'm not prepared to say it was stacked. Why...well, once again, look at the ending of this story, 8 - 0. Now onto the main event...

But wait! The suspense has already been ruined...we know our USMC heros fall in defeat to the evil PLA...so why not state the moral of this sordid tale up front as well. As you all know intimately by now, at TG...

- You must follow SL and CO orders
- Teamwork and Maturity REQUIRED

...and that simply is the moral of this story. 11 simple words:

At the beginning of the round I applied for USMC Commander...was accepted, and gave some quick orders. A couple squads out to Mine quickly, the rest to Government Office. Set-up a command post, spawn a support truck and head for G.O. (thanks to dowagiacmichigan for that essential assistance early in the round).

In short order our USMC team had Mine and Government Office capped. We were threatening Fishing Village and secured it soon after. My orders to the team at that point was that we were going for Estate...ignore Local Temple. We took Estate...again, relatively quickly. Also, with a 6:2 flag advantage I knew I could get a ticket-gen advantage over the PLA with a couple bunkers and a firebase up...being at least 1 base up on the PLA...so a bunker at Government Office, a firebase southwest of G.O., and a bunker at Estate we were in good shape. This 'TG-tagless' team was looking not bad so far.

As you can see from this screenie...the USMC has the territory advantage, and the score is basically even. What happens next is a fine highlight as to why those 11 simple words are king here at TG.



It became a war of attrition. The PLA would obvioulsy be dug into Local Temple like a starved tick on a deer. My orders to the team...we'll test Local Temple with an assault by two squads, but EVERYONE else on defense up at Estate. The war of attrition was working for us and we stretched ourselves into a 40 point lead...but then people started to run low on patience and discipline (maturity?).

I then had SLs defying orders and going to attack Local Temple. Then, some of the cooperative squads began to literally ask me to be next to go attack Local Temple. Repeatedly I said we would defend Estate, and give up on Local Temple. Every squad that tried for Local Temple got wiped out. All I wanted was a tight defense at Estate with a couple squads defending forward in Bravo/Charlie-5. The team could not abide this strategy however. Is it boring to defend? Would we rather attack? Regardless, teamwork broke down, and insubbordination became more frequent. I failed as a CO and as an Admin to reign this in.

Eventually Estate was overrun, and Fishing Village fell quickly after that. By this time it was a free-for-all around Government Office and the PLA masterfully snatched victory from a 40 point deficit. Now...I am clearly criticizing my team. But I'll be the first to criticize my self: I made numerous mistakes including not getting maximum bunkers/firebases down, letting squads get out of control, not coordinating better anti-armor defenses, and not kicking a couple players (but that's a different story). But let me also be the first to say that the PLA did an awesome job on the comback and just plain beat us. Many kudos to that team.



Also...I have to shout out to some SLs that made the round remarkably enjoyable for me...I may have this wrong as it's hard to know who's who when your CO but: ML101, {-BaH-}LilPiccolo, Dragoon_DForce. These gentlemen performed superhuman feats.

I have seen once again here at Tactical Gamer how teamwork can make your game, and the lack thereof can break the game. The USMC should have won this round. I'm convinced the USMC would have won this round had those 11 simple words been foremost in our minds.

- You must follow SL and CO orders
- Teamwork and Maturity REQUIRED

Cheers,