Gentlemen:

The plan was a V base capture and we all took off as a large

group of heavy fighters from A27 and headed east into Bish

country. As we got to the target V22 we found that some other

Knights had already partially porked the base but we took out

the remaining 1 or 2 VH's easily and killed the ack. MILT and

RTS then went for troops with MILT in a goon and RTS coming

up in a troop carrier ( LTV?). As luck would have it another

Knight was already almost at the base in an M3 with troops

and he managed to get the capture just as RTS and MILT were

making their approach.

I suppose all's well that ends well and we did get the base, but

I was hoping for an all-Specialist operation.

I decided then that we could run the same mission plan over in

Rookville on another base V34 that I had scoped out earlier.

So we all upped from A81 on the eastern part of the map with

heavy fighters, but this time we also had Fuze bring along a

goon while Skeksis and Seal got in tanks just south of V34

and started moving up from there.

As the air group was making it's way to the target we heard

from Skeksis and Seal that the Rooks had a Lanc of all

things flying around in the valley and evidently watching

the spawn point. I have never heard of a Lanc doing spawn

camping, especially in that tight canyon, but I guess there's

a first time for everything. The Lanc spawn camper got both

Seal and Skeksis, which effectively ended our ground campaign.

The rest of us attacked V34 and we did manage to take out

the VH's, but unfortunately the Rooks were not giving up the

base easily. A large ground battle was taking place in the

canyon just north of V34 where a number of Knight gv's were

moving in. Also by this time the Rooks had multiple aircraft

in the area which kept us busy as well.

All of us got a number of kills but I don't recall anyone landing

them due to the endless supply of bandits attacking us.

Fuze patiently landed his goon in the canyon south of V34

and safely away from the action. He had to play poker with

the drunks while we tried to suppress the defenses enough

for him to safely come in for the capture.

We did have the support of two Knight Tiger tanks who

were well positioned on the south side of the base. They

tried to kill any gv's heading south and provided valuable

recon information. At one point we did have the base completely

de-acked and altho the VH's had popped back up it was

decided to try and bring Fuze in with the covering fire

from the Tigers. The Rook gv's were mainly still engaged

in the ground battle to the north. About the time that Fuze

moved up for the troop drop I was killed in a dogfight

and had to re-up, so I didn't actually see what went down,

but we did not get the base. I'm sure Fuze can provide the

gory details.

At that point about half the Specs had logged for the evening

and the rest of us, MILT, Sku, Swoose, and myself stayed

involved in the ongoing air battle above V34. We did fairly

well for ourselves with all of us scoring multiple kills but

they were tough to land with the Rook airbase being so

close. Also by that time the Rooks had really mobilized and

they began rolling up our bases along the coast. They

were coming in very large numbers, swarming the base

and taking it quickly. We upped from a base under attack

and went after the incoming fighter/bombers. We managed

to fight valiantly but we soon felt like the Spartans in

"300". Before long they were attacking our port P7 so we

upped from a nearby cv to try and assist with the port

defense. After a couple of runs over the port and a couple

of kills we all decided we had had enough for the night.

It was an excellent effort by everyone, and I learned the hard

way about having a capture team along with the main attack

group if there is a chance of dropping the base early on.

I just hope the next time the goon driver doesn't have to wait

as long as Fuze did last night.

Well done Specialists! <S>

Joker