How the West was lost: An OFP tale

Monday is gaming night for the Landed Gentry Club, and the game of choice for several months now has been OFP. I hated this game until we found the MFCTI mod, then it suddenly became interesting to me. Without getting into the details of the game, I will just say that it is an addicting blend of first-person action, with a full complement of vehicles and weapons, and real-time strategy. The RTS elements are adequate, but certainly not what you would expect from a traditional RTS game.

A typical gaming session starts at around 6:00 and ends as late as 1:00 or 2:00 AM. Keep in mind that we are all 30+ year-old working stiffs, so the idea of taking a pause from blowing each other up to watch the sun rise is a little extreme for us. Our minds and bodies just don't function without sleep anymore. Regardless of the time invested, we always seem to get a good return, and last night was no different.

With Zeb fleeing the cold weather for warmer climes and family festivities, the matchup for the evening was the C&C Music Factory (just came up with this last night... the losing team members' names have been parodied for their own protection) against the almost always dominant Mechanized Nightmare (again, a little play on the initials of the players for the sake of anonymity... mostly to protect a certain individual from his wife). As expected, the Nightmare handed C&C their tank turrets on a platter in the first two games, at which point half of the Nightmare had to leave to head home. The real fun was just beginning, though.

Now I'm not one to judge my fellow combatants' commitment to victory, but last night was just a pathetic, insulting display of ineptitude. The arrogance and hubris that preceded C&C's defeat was nothing short of revolting. The way they found to lose is just not something you can make up. You almost had to experience it to get the full effect of how shockingly, profoundly, and, well, stupidly they gave victory away. Before I go any further, let me explain that these are not just sweet, emotional guys that would have felt badly for pounding me into oblivion. I say that as a compliment to them and their competitive nature. Maybe that's why I was so shocked at the conclusion of last night's final match.

Space won't really permit a full after action report, so let me try to condense the timeline a little. It was a 2v1 matchup, which is very difficult for the "1" typically, but the game seemed to start well for me. Three fairly quick towns, decent income, and I was the first to put a chopper in the air. Playing the East, I knew that helicopters would be my only hope since the M1A1 is still ridiculously "ubered" in this game at least in comparison to T-80B's. After locating the enemy base, I invested all I had in an fully-armed attack helicopter. I made a decent run, but failed to find and destroy the enemy MHQ, which had been moved to a new location. The middle game is a little fuzzy to me, but I do recall quickly losing my MHQ in a helicopter attack and soon thereafter discovering an M1A1 ravaging my base. Destroying this interloper was a frustrating experience because it required at least half a dozen AT4's. After surveying the damage, I realized that I was left with a heavy factory, light factory, and barracks. Not bad for having endured an M1 attack. I also lost a newly built Ka-50 in the attack, which seemed to be the fatal blow.

I knew the enemy was down to no more than one or two light/heavy factories and perhaps a barracks as I had made a very good chopper run shortly before the M1 hit my base. During the run, I managed to take down the MHQ and a number of buildings, but with a large number of "mini" bases (two or three building clusters) scattered around the southern coast, I just didn't have the ordnance to finish them off. Although they were in as bad a condition as I was, I figured the M1 horde would soon descend on me and end my suffering. I built as many puny T-80's as possible and was determined to lead the charge myself when I made a shocking discovery.

When resources allow, I usually build two helicopters at once so that if the first attack fails, I can quickly return in the second bird to complete the devastation before the enemy has time to recover. During the M1 assault, I tried to build a Ka-50 and get it off the ground before it could be destroyed, but I wasn't quick enough. What I didn't realize at the time, though, was that my "extra" bird from earlier was sitting just downhill from the aircraft factory, undamaged. I'll give my opponents the benefit of doubt and assume that they just overlooked it in the chaos, but whatever the reason, it was there and secured my victory.

Of course, my opponents offered up a weak, "We were just toying with you," to attempt to interdict the oncoming wave of boasting and gloating, but it was quickly overrun. I have no doubt that they could have ended the game sooner if they hadn't been so arrogant, but they instead chose to try to do silly things like take all the towns on the map, confine me to my barracks, and build profitable beachfront resorts. I could almost swear that the enemy commander was playing golf when I chased him down and blasted him. At least those looked like golf clubs sticking out of the back of the Humvee...