Tuesday 31 January 2017

Mouthy by Moonlight


One of the main draws to Armored Warfare for me has been the community. For the most part, the people that play this game and post on the forums are not nearly as negative as I have seen in other places, such as World of Tanks.

Granted, things on the AW forums can get a little out of hand, but the moderation team does a not too bad of a job of getting things either back on track or locking down a thread that has spiraled out of control.

The way people conduct themselves in the game itself, depends which mode you select to play. In PvP, emotions can run high, since the pressures to perform in an optimal 15 on 15 human opponent environment can and have bring out that "highly competitive" mindset. Producing outstanding results, which can turn into bragging rights, can be very important to some folks.

However, it's those players who are no longer part of the active game, since they managed to get themselves killed by either being outplayed, outnumbered or not aware of what was going on around them, are found to be the most vocal. The title coined for them is called "Armchair Generals." More often than not, they don't offer much in the way of encouragement or positive advice to the remaining players as they try their best to finish the battle with a victory in the team's favor.

In PvE, all you have is a five person team versus the onslaught of AI controlled adversaries. Unlike PvP, the PvE mode offers up clear objectives and the known element of where those opponents are going to come from. While the battle is played out with a linear tone, the action can take place as the players choose. I have observed on numerous occasions the players in PvE are a lot friendlier, not overly burdened with pressures to perform, since the smaller team is able to accomplish a lot, given the scripted environment.


All of this brings me to this particular battle.

From my perspective, there were a few things done wrong during this engagement. I know I played my thinly armored AMX-10RCR perhaps a little too aggressively, but I wanted to bank up some credits and reputation and playing passively wasn't going to produce results I would have been thrilled with. Two of my team members, in thicker armored, top tier vehicles, decided to camp up in the hills and didn't like being called out on their location and lack of actions.

Then, I made a comment that touched a nerve....


Monday 30 January 2017

Stepping up and getting knocked down


Although I don't play Final Fire as much as other games in the same genre I have, I believe it could really be a nice alternative, if it wasn't for the language barrier. Despite receiving a Steam Greenlight almost two years ago, it is still only available in Chinese. However, experienced players of World of Tanks and Armored Warfare can still navigate around the menus, using the visual queues to make "best guess" selections.


Nevertheless, I have made modest progress and now have arrived at the Type 69. In reality, the Type 69 (also known as the WZ-121) is an evolution of the Type 59 and credited as China's first homegrown developed tanks (USSR and China relations had deteriorated in the early 60's to the point the technology sharing and sales was cutoff altogether).

The first Type 69 prototypes were built in 1964 and the model would be produced in three major variants, ending with the Type 69-III (also known as the WZ-121D/Type 79) sometime in the 1980's. Type 69's would see combat in the Iran-Iraq War, the Gulf War (Operation: Desert Storm) and the Iraq War of 2003.....


....where most didn't survive engagements with Coalition Forces. Kinda like how my first battle with mine turned out....


Sunday 29 January 2017

No fight for the rooster, part 3



In World of Tanks, the only Chinese vehicle I have is the premium, tier VI Type 64 Light Tank. I never bothered to start playing this nation, since all of the early vehicles are nothing more then borrowed and re-rendered versions of existing models.

In other words, stuff I have already played before and not really interested in doing again.

China doesn't get a vehicle they can call their own until tier VI, with the 59-16 Light Tank, a prototype for the WZ-131 at tier VII (the premium and seldom available Type 62 can owe it's roots to the 59-16 as well). Even to use the shortcut and acquire the premium vehicles that are offered, can get very expensive....


....the "did it ever really exist?" tier VIII T-34-3 comes in around $65.00 dollars in my part of the world (before any kind of sale or other special promotional offer).

However, I did get rather lucky and was able to purchase the Type 64 at a discounted price during the  Christmas 2015 sale. Although I don't have very many battles in mine and never have invested real world money to speed up crew training, I am not doing very well in mine.

The Type 64 is big and slow. With very little armor to speak of, it's not a kind vehicle that forgives many mistakes. I do realized with a better crew, some of this can be mitigated in my favor, but I just can't quite grasp a successful playstyle with it, despite my attempts.

Nevertheless, here is the third and final battle to commemorate the Year of the Rooster, which started with Armored Warfare, then Final Fire and now, World of Tanks....


Saturday 28 January 2017

A fight for the rooster, part 2


After inspiring myself with a Chinese New Year's battle with my premium Type 59 Legend in Armored Warfare, I decided to load up Final Fire and see if I could replicate a similar outcome.

Queuing up at 6:50 pm, Pacific Time, I didn't have to wait long for events to unfold....

 

A fight for the rooster


My nod to Chinese New Year, a not-so-great premium Type 59 battle in Armored Warfare.

Friday 27 January 2017

Festive Themes?


Last night I logged into Final Fire and was just too tired to play. However, I did capture part of their celebrations for Chinese New Year's Day with this themed garage. The full musical score (garage theme) can be downloaded in mp3 format from here.

Thursday 26 January 2017

鸡年大吉!


I might be posting this a little early, but according to the Chinese Horoscope, this will be of the year of the Fire Rooster, the last one was in 1957.

An unscientific analysis claims Fire Rooster people are trustworthy, deeply value personal loyalty and have a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility at work, since they are career-oriented activists. The claim continues with they are also impatient in life, always have this feeling that  something missing if a task goes uncompleted and encounter all kinds of difficulties when it comes romantic relationships, especially for the men.

Technically it begins on January 28th (depending on which source you use), but it would seem others are starting festivities off sooner too. Armored Warfare announced their Chinese New Year special here.


Since Final Fire is made in China, they are having a special too, I just am not too sure what it is.

And, yeah, I know what the title says through Google Translate.... 

Tuesday 24 January 2017

Frustration and disappointment from above, for the last time.


Yeah, your eyes aren't lying to you, that is arty.

I don't have a lot of battles (this last one makes it to the count of twelve!) in the tier IV 2S1 Gvosdika and for good reason. It has been just about a year since I wrote about my first battle and thoughts about it here and the last time I took it out is here. Since then, it has been nothing more than a forgotten dust collector in my garage.

With the big changes coming up with Update 0.19, the artillery playstyle as it has been will be gone forever. Some will rejoice with the fact that this indirect fire, hidden enemy will now have to fight in the same fashion as every other vehicle in the game. Their complaints cross over from World of Tanks to Armored Warfare, since the mechanics are similar, but not exactly the same. With the removal of the current way artillery is used in the game, a small portion of the playerbase must be just salivating with the prospects of rolling through the battlefields with near impunity, no fear from falling skies.

That is, until they voice their "concerns" of the next class that fills the vacuum, I am willing to bet it will be Tank Destroyers. 

Long time arty players will either adapt to the new designation and role, move on to a different class all together or just leave the game. I can empathize with them. To spend all that time, effort (despite what the popular opinion is, there is effort required to be somewhat successful with arty) and in some cases, real world money, just to have this drastic of a change take place.

Sure, there will be a compensation package and an option to reset all of their progress, but still. It's a shame, really.

Nevertheless, I decided to break out the Gvosdika and take one final spin. It wasn't a great battle by any means and even with a background program popping up and nearly ruining the video, I lived and my team won. Check it out for yourself.

ERC? Yeah, you know me!


After playing Main Battle Tanks for so long in Armored Warfare (and a few other games), I still find the handling characteristics of wheeled vehicles (like Tank Destroyers) to be a little quirky and the tier V Panhard ERC-90 F4 is no exception.

While the AMX-10 RCR premium tier VIII wheeled Tank Destroyer has something known as skidsteering (meaning, by locking the wheels, it can perform no-momentum, zero-radius turns, much like a tracked vehicle), I forget all of the others in this class require a forward/backward movement to make a turns, especially for evasive maneuvers.

Plus, I am also used to playing these types of vehicles in racing games (since they do drive like cars and everyday trucks) with a controller. Keyboard and mouse driving hasn't worked out too well, thus far, but trying to aim with a controller has been equally frustrating (both on PC and console games, I just can't get a good handle on it). IS it muscle memory, an unbreakable habit or a subconscious stubbornness that just comes with old age? Meh, who knows....

Another thing I forget at times is just how thin the armor is, if one could even consider they really have any. There have been occasions where I remember this, much too late to make any difference with continued participation with the engagement I was currently in at the time.

At any rate, here is a rare battle where I was able to not only stay alive, but collected on a payout in the end that just doesn't make sense to me....


Sunday 22 January 2017

Cours d'hiver


To be perfectly honest, until I saw the AMX-10RCR in Armored Warfare, I didn't even know it really existed. Looking back over the years, I recognized the vehicle from seeing it in pictures and some TV footage from news coverage of the first Gulf War (Operation: Desert Storm), but never paid close attention to it nor bothered to find out more about it.

Although there are better sources for content on the history of this vehicle all over the internet (and a few old, dusty books), here is my brief presentation AMX-10RC/RCR.

Originally designed as a wheeled, amphibious, light reconnaissance vehicle, the AMX-10RC (RC stands for Roues-Canon, or wheeled gun) began it's service with the first production vehicles delivered to the 2nd Regiment de Hussards, Armée de Terre, starting in 1981. Two years later, it would begin first combat operations in Chad, during the French intervention known as Operation Manta, beginning August 1983. During the Gulf War of 1991, 96 AMX-10RC's were deployed in Opération Daguet, the French codename for their participation and didn't suffer a single loss to enemy actions. Later, it would see operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.

Starting in 2000, 256 vehicles would be upgraded to RCR (RCR stands for Roues-Canon Renové, or wheeled gun, renovated) designation and the first deliveries began in 2005.


Twenty-one AMX-10RCR's were put back into action during Operation Serval, the name for the French military action in Mali, beginning on January of 2013 and continued through Operation Barkhane, the follow up campaign starting in August 2014. By last account, 256 remain in service with France, 108 in Morocco (ordered new as early as 1978) and Qatar with 12 RC's (originally acquired in 1994 as French surplus). The AMX-10RCR is expected to be phased out by 2020-25, the fate of these vehicles beyond that point isn't fully known.



I bought the premium, tier VIII AMX-10RCR for Armored Warfare back this last December and have been slowly learning the Tank Destroyer playstyle. Speed and stealth is vastly different from the much slower and nearly impenetrable armor usage associated with Main Battle Tanks. However, I do keep trying, sometimes with surprising results....

Tuesday 17 January 2017

I saw it in a movie once, Atlantic Rim (2013)


It first glance, you might be confusing this with the better known, 2013 Hollywood produced Pacific Rim and that would be exactly what The Asylum, makers of movies labeled as "mockbusters", are hoping to cash in on. There is no coincidence that both films have "Rim" in the title, with giant, human controlled robots (or mecha, for you other folks) battling monsters (kaiju for you same folks). And that's where the similarities pretty much come to an end.

One had a budget of around $190 million and it shows, the other might have crossed the $500,000.00 line....maybe, after parking and meals.

Well written, with amazing special effects and directed by Guillermo Del Toro, Pacific Rim feels very much like an homage piece to both mecha (think along the lines of Michael Bay’s Transformers with people inside) and kaiju (Godzilla and all those other "what the heck are those things?" oversized monsters) movies.

Atlantic Rim felt like it was a hastily written first draft, all the scenes were shot in one take and heavily used Adobe After Effects for everything else. Directed by Jared Cohn, it's kinda hard to gauge where they were trying to go with this movie, be serious or make fun of themselves? It was sad to see Graham Greene in this film, kinda like an indicator he had fallen very far from grace (I first saw him many years ago on an episode of North of 60, a long running Canadian TV series and many movies afterwards).

Having said all of that, I am a sucker for "bad movies" and I watched Atlantic Rim. Although I wouldn't chalk the experience up as "OMG, I will never get that time back in my life!", but more like "Been there, done that and moving on", with a bit of a frown.  
 
So, what does this have to do with a tank or combat vehicle? While I was watching, I could have nearly blinked and missed it all together. For a grand total of two seconds, this is what I saw....


Yeah, 47 minutes into the movie just to see that clip....yeah, another 78 to go for the end of the credits.

However, the vehicle itself is a Rheinmetall Leopard 2A4M CAN, in service the Canadian Army. 80 2A4's were purchased as surplus from the Royal Netherlands Army in 2007, of which 20 were later sent to Krauss-Maffei Wegmann of Germany and upgraded to 2A4M CAN standard by 2009. Five of these upgraded models would be deployed to Afghanistan.

The Leopard 2A4M is powered by a MTU MB-837 Ka501 turbocharged diesel engine, producing 1,500 horsepower and can reach a maximum road speed of 72km/h (55 km/h off-road), with a range of 550 kilometers. Primarily armed with a Rheinmetall 120 mm/L44 smoothbore gun, with maximum of 42 rounds carried onboard and a secondary armament of two C6 7.62 mm machine guns.

But, there was something odd with the scene itself. First, the movie was shot in Pensacola, Florida, so why would it show a Canadian tank (the Maple Leaf on the side of the turret kinda gives that away)? Was it stock footage from somewhere (trust me, I have been looking high and low for this) or was it CGI?


After conferring with an old "war buddy", the consensus was this was real footage of a Leo rolling through a parking lot....somewhere.

So, if you want to watch Atlantic Rim for footage of the Leopard 2, I just saved you a whole lot of time by posting an animated gif of the entire scene. If you really want to watch a bad movie that pales in comparison to the Hollywood blockbuster original, then....enjoy?

From Siberia to the Canadian Shield


Having reached my goal of acquiring the tier VIII T-90 Russian tank in Armored Warfare, I decided to halt any further progress down that line, until after update 0.19. With all the announced changes to the T-Series vehicles, I will sit and wait to see how the compensation adjustments are really implemented, before continuing on towards the T-90MS.




Instead, I have shifted my focus elsewhere. First, I am going to push up through the tier VIII Ariete, since I still have a long ways to go before I reach the next vehicle in that line, the tier IX Challenger 2. Although there will be some changes to the Shishkin line as well, they will occur below the level I have already reached and shouldn't affect my future progress.


Another line, er series, I want to revisit is the Leopards. Before my long break, quite a few months back now, I progressed as far as tier VI and just stopped. It was around that time I was playing with my friend, F50ACE, more and to help him out with his advancement through the Abrams line in Hard PvE engagements, I used the most durable and forgiving vehicle I had, the Challenger 1. I felt the Leopard not only couldn't keep up, but wouldn't contribute much to the battles, since it wasn't nearly "noob proof" as the Challenger turned out to be.


However, with very little changes planned for the my current and future tiers of the Leopards, it was time to go back to a vehicle I have a personal and real world connection.

Seems I have been away from them for far too long....

Monday 16 January 2017

A blast from the past


If you are old enough to remember this, thanks, now I don't feel so alone!

Back in 1983, if you wanted to have an armored vehicle combat experience in the realm of console video games, a person had a few choices to pick from. For the Atari 2600 there was Battlezone and Robot Tank (just to name two), the Intellivision had Armor Battle(also sold as Armor Ambush) and Battle Tanks (part of a three-in-one game cartridge called Triple Action) and ColecoVision offered Tank Wars. Although this is a far from complete list, feel free to Google for other titles that I have not included here.

In my world of time, history would record that IBM launched the Personal Computer XT, Micheal Jackson introduced his career signature move, something called the "moonwalk" and the Space Shuttle Challenger taking off for the very first time. My memories from back then consisted of the snow just starting to melt and the weather getting warmer. Also, my mother made the expensive decision to purchase a video game system for our household.

Why she didn't go with the more popular Atari 2600, Intellivision or ColecoVision choices wasn't immediately obvious to me then (of course, now I know that it was so she could watch our one and only TV and not have it tied up with me playing games), but for many years to come, I would have a lot of fun playing on that now mostly-forgotten system called Vectrex.


Although the first game was built in (a title called Minestorm, very much like the more popular and better known Asteroids), more cartridges were eventually added to the growing library. Forgotten or even unheard of titles like, Clean Sweep (just like Pac-Man), Scramble and Web Wars, to name a few.
It would be this one game called Armor Attack that would hold me to the screen for hours and hours....


The premise of the game was simple enough, by using a missile armed jeep, destroy wave after wave of enemy tanks and helicopters while using the ingame environment for cover and protection. The first few levels would be easy going, progressively getting harder as the enemies multiplied and moved faster. The were no power-ups or upgrades of any kind, just unlimited missiles and modest speed to try and survive the onslaught.

It was an entertaining and challenging, single-player adventure. However, invite a real life friend over and plug in the second controller, now there was team based action with two jeeps running around!


As time went on, games were becoming harder to find on store shelves and the titles that were purchased were not very interesting to me (like a title called Blitz, a football game I would seldom play). Even the machines themselves stopped being available. It seemed as fast as Vectrex hit the market, it vanished just the same.


Eventually, I would move on to other gaming consoles (all the hype was surrounding this new at the time machine called the Nintendo) and titles on the PC, while my mother continued to play the Vectrex on occasion, right up to her passing. Surprisingly enough, our old machine is still around after all these years, now in the hands of my much younger brother. He claims it still powers up and plays just fine.

I wonder if he would be interested in shooting up some tanks and helicopters with me?

Up the Ladder and into the Crystal Ball


Thanks in a huge part to the X3 Reputation event that is currently active in Armored Warfare, I was finally able to cross over from the tier VII T-80 to the tier VIII T-90, through natural, albeit accelerated, progression.


Eager to get a first battle under my belt, I quickly swapped out the Commander and loaded up a single refit (for higher damage potential) and a Field Rebuild Kit (yeah, new tank and not knowing how well "we" are about to perform, it's like insurance).


Who knew I would have the opportunity to square off against a fairly smart, AI controlled tier IX T-90MS, that didn't show off any weak-sides...

Saturday 14 January 2017

Ariete Assault


While I am slowly inching towards completing my journey through the Russian T-Series vehicles in Armored Warfare ( just about to cross over into the tier VIII T-90), there was another line I was progressing up. More on that in just a minute.


This weekend (and a couple of more before the end of this month) there is a half off Winter camouflage special going on. As noted in the Balance 2.0 article, especially with the details on compensation, I decided to take a bold risk and spend most of the 500 Gold I had saved up. Although I won't be making really big returns, the balance should be somewhat favorable (not counting a few login bonuses for extra gold) once the update comes to the live server.


The last time I played the tier VIII Ariete with any regularity was when I was platooning with my friend, F50ACE. Sadly, he seems to either have dropped off the planet or real life activities have kept him away from the game, indefinitely.

Although I have dusted it off and taken out into a few battles, using the Ariete solo feels....lonely....


Vile Vigilantes


Having been back just a few days in World of Tanks, my short time has been fairly pleasant, only my own lackluster gameplay and slow reorientation to the visual and mechanical environment dulling some enjoyment. Up until now, I hadn't been a witness to what I would call "toxic chat" during my adventures and the ingame griefing has been minor and very tolerable.

Despite this being the internet, where people hide behind and take full advantage of using anonymity for their negative actions and poor choice of words, it's not an excuse to be "less human" and throw discretion out the window. And quite a few people try to let others know of these players and their actions.

Most online game forums have something known as a "No Name and Shame" policy. Their reasoning behind this is to empower a given title's administrative staff to review possible game infractions and quietly assign penalties or even more serve disciplinary measures.

Player posting screenshots and/or videos of what could be perceived as "bad behavior" on the public forums has been misinterpreted in a few instances in the past. This misinterpretation produced rather dire consequences for suspected players who were later exonerated, after an investigation by the title's staff determined the true cause of what was presented.

More often than not though, there isn't any doubt what truly happened, based on the evidence presented.

Since I am not governed by these rules here and have the freedom to post what I want, the following example is not for "Naming and Shaming" reasons. This video shows one of those situations where players feel they have the power and right to enforce some "unspoken" rule of how the game should be played and create a "toxic by proxy" environment....

Friday 13 January 2017

From fast and precise to slow and inaccurate


I can't say why I have decided to return to World of Tanks, but I have, for now. I am also not exactly sure how long I plan on staying, nor have any real goals in mind, more of a "sightseeing tour" to check out the changes from when I played here last, on a more steady basis.

Through my critical eye, some things have stayed the same. Horrendous reload times (on given vehicles), a high degree of inaccurate aiming and vehicles that move slightly faster then glaciers (once again, not all assets are like this). Based on really taking notice of the mechanics, I find it hard to believe I played this for so long, the first time around.

However, not to only say bad things about WOT, the graphics look fantastic (even for the SD client) and I was having some fun. Over the course of my session (I didn't keep track of the battles, win or loses) I was starting to settle back into the saddle, remembering some of the old sweet spots on the maps and which enemy vehicles to keep a careful eye out for.


Since the Christmas Season is still running in WOT, I made a half hearted effort to collect some of the rewards, since I am still unsure for how long I am going to stick around for.

Having said all of that, I will come to one of the better battles I was a part of today. Last time I spent any serious time WOT, I had started to focus more on casemate Tank Destroyers (the new Swedish line of these vehicles is intriguing and I have won a few unlocks along that series).

My last video featured the British premium tier VII AT-15a meeting a fiery demise, this one will showcase a mediocre performance by a statistically average player in a same tiered Soviet premium SU-122-44....


Thursday 12 January 2017

Complacency breeds Carelessness


Although the strongest rumors surrounding the next update for Armored Warfare is to take place in February, the above screenshot from the Public Test Server has me focusing a little more on completing the journey through the T-80 and put a T-90 in my garage, before the big switch-over.

I am almost afraid to ask if I would get the new tier VII T-90 and the re-designated, same tiered T-80U, just by having only the current version T-80 when the changes finally occur. Not even going to figure out the confusing T-90 to T-90A metamorphosis....


In the here and now, I will just push through the normal progression towards the T-90 and should last minute news comes up the big changes have been accelerated, I have enough Global Reputation to complete the task and more than enough credits to make the purchase.

I don't know just how tired or careless I was when I played this particular battle, but I admit I was very sloppy and seriously underestimated these bots during this Hard PvE engagement....


Wednesday 11 January 2017

I reconsidered one of my next moves


For some reason, Chinese vehicles have gotten a bit of a bad rap in Armored Warfare. Some claim they are nothing more than a copy-paste clones of the Soviet/Russian lines (to a degree, I agree, but only for the earlier models), while others are just calling them trash. I am not about to start a fight and  say anybody is wrong, they are entitled to their opinion. For me, these vehicles are working out very well.


With the big changes coming up in the next update, I made the decision not to advance up the line and get the tier VII Type 90-II. However, I took another look at the compensation notes and I reconsidered. If I am interpreting things right, I should get the down-tiered Type 98 with renown status, after the Type 90--II too take it's own trip into a lower tier. So, not only did I reverse that original idea, based mostly on what I perceived to be a credit loss....


....I am rewarded with a partial refund for doing so. Nice huh? Not only that, with news of both the Type 99 and Type 99A coming in the very near future, it will be less of a grind to finish out the line from Zhang Feng.


Needless to say, I am throwing the dice and hoping I have read things right and took out an untested vehicle, manned by an untrained crew into it's first battle....


Tuesday 10 January 2017

From the Modern Age to Alternative History


For the longest time, if a person wanted to play a decent, online tank game, there was only one real choice on the market. World of Tanks has certainly left a presence, both positive and negative, in the minds of current and former players and on the video game landscape for years to come.

I admit, I got swept up with the times and played the game rather steady during those first, few years. I cover my beginnings in brief through one of my early posts on this very blog and told a few sporadic stories along the way. To make a long story short, the reasons I stopped as of this last April was that I found (at the time) more of what I was looking for in Armored Warfare and spent most of my time there.

Plus, I felt the game itself had lost a bit of the original direction it had set out on, such as the inclusion of highly "dubious" blueprint designs to fill the voids that reality never created. However, being a hypocrite, I had enjoyed some of those "fake tanks" since there was a creative liberty that WarGaming could take and some of them are plausible enough for me to take a small leap of faith to accept.

After my long absence, the first vehicle I decide to take for a spin on the battlefield just happens to be one of my favored Tank Destroyers, the British AT-15a. The only thing that I have come across that gives this machine any kind of legitimacy is this copy of a design drawing held at Bovington Museum in Dorset, South West England....


....which would be modified and become a reality in this....


....A39 Tortoise heavy assault tank. Sadly, of the six prototype built, one complete and running example survives today (two others exist, but nothing more than empty shells used for target practice).

Anyways, back to returning to World of Tanks. I queued up in my tier VII premium and readied myself for the battle. Although I am not a competitive player, as others have been portrayed in other YouTube videos or the forums, I do remember the maps and know how one single vehicle can stall the action....

 

Proposal


With the New Year starting off not as nearly as well as Petre Sabri had hoped, this situation just added to an ever growing feeling of uncertainty and dread.

Just a few hours ago, he was sitting very comfortably in his office, reviewing the events of the last year and taking stock in what the Corporation was going forward with into times ahead. When he first sat down, he held onto this feeling of optimism and hope, but that slowly melted away as he took a much closer look at the details of recent events.

Recruiting had started off very strong, with news spreading about the Corporation and the Companies. Soon, it appeared that people from almost all walks of life came nearly running to get a piece of the action. Petre had found out that a cache of old British Chieftain Mk.6 Main Battle Tanks had been located, but who and how they were distributed became a topic of controversy.

Another cache was found shortly afterwards, this time with old Polish Puma Armored Fighting Vehicles. Failing to learn the lessons from the Chieftain, the cycle repeated itself.  Nevertheless, many came to take a chance at starting their new career in either one of these vehicles, most would be disappointed.   

Then, there was a series of European conflicts that drained the ranks, starting with Colonel Jacek Kowalski and Colonel Hans Krieger drawing swords on each other. From the barely trained to the battle hardened took leave of absences to join and fight with the Polish White Lancers and the German Hellhounds.

Few would return from the disaster known as Operation Arminius. Petre had met Erika Schepke from Lodestar GmbH on a few occasions and came to the quick conclusion he didn't like her very much. Eventually, word got out she was behind the White Lancers being wiped out and sending the Hellhounds running for their lives, he liked her even less.

A few months after the carnage in the Teutonburg forest, fighting broke out again, this time with names like Bulwark, the reformed White Lancer/Hellhound as the Remnant and Lodestar taking on the Maulers name. The Battle of Mattighofen put an end Erika Schepke's unchecked power grab and the Bulwark just faded away. Petre had to hand it to Sebastian Grimm, he never lost sight of keeping the Hellhound legacy alive and surviving Remnant members collected on a very handsome payout, thanks to securing a certain NATO installation.

Returning members and new recruits slowed from a run down to a leisurely stroll and faced a new situation. Battle hardened contractors were being saddled with less than proficient operators and the results from engagements were becoming worrisome. The more experienced lodged complaints that they now had to pull more than their fair share of the battle weight to achieve a more favorable outcome. Petre knew this came down from upper management and could do nothing about it, but just stand by and watch the ranks grow even thinner.

Now, with the major restructuring of just about everything Petre had come to know and accept about how things were, he stood there, holding a large, stuffed envelope, a proposal package in his hands and a mind full of doubts for the future.

From the shadows in front of him, a balding, middle aged man with a mustache pulled a drag from a cigarette. At his side and in his other hand, was a large rasp held by the handle, something of a personal signature that has become recognized by quite a few in the industry....