Pity the poor bloody infantry :)
Posted: 04 May 2005, 06:17
I haven't found the first-person camera view to be of great use from a tactical standpoint, but I must give it its due in one regard at least; it's been great for letting me finally understand some of the feelings of all the poor doomed units I've sent off to their destruction over the years in TA.
The newly-minted army's selected and given a move order, most of the units that make it up are no more than a few minutes old. They have no idea why, or what lies in store along the path, but without any question or argument they all just engage their drives. They slowly stretch out into a column as they move along, bumping and jostling slightly due to the rough terrain. Suddenly, up ahead at the front of the column, there's explosions and the sound of other units returning fire. The units in the back can barely see a thing of what's happening ahead. Maybe they can recognize what some of the flying debris used to be part of - both friend and foe - but it's not enough to tell who's winning, just that lots of units are dying. The column keeps on pressing forward, since no orders have come down from on high to do anything else. This must be a part of the Great Plan, whatever it might be.
Eventually the units in back have moved up to the front by attrition, and if they're lucky they can see what they're up against. A whole row of HLTs behind dragon teeth and a crater-churned field choked with the debris of comrades that had headed the charge. A target in range! The turret turns, a plasma shell is loaded, the tank makes ready to fire the first shot of its short life.... BLAM! A shell from an artillery turret somewhere way off behind the HLTs blows the tank to smithereens, it never saw it coming. The tank right behind it shudders slightly from the blast and rolls on over the shards of metal to take its place.
Finally there's a tank with no other tanks behind it, and then after it dutifully takes its turn striving to gain just a few more meters of ground through the impenetrable defences there are none.
Poor things. I never realized, all this time with my camera being so high overhead. Perhaps I should try my hand at some TA fanfic, or build a little "war memorial" structure in honor of fallen units. :)
The newly-minted army's selected and given a move order, most of the units that make it up are no more than a few minutes old. They have no idea why, or what lies in store along the path, but without any question or argument they all just engage their drives. They slowly stretch out into a column as they move along, bumping and jostling slightly due to the rough terrain. Suddenly, up ahead at the front of the column, there's explosions and the sound of other units returning fire. The units in the back can barely see a thing of what's happening ahead. Maybe they can recognize what some of the flying debris used to be part of - both friend and foe - but it's not enough to tell who's winning, just that lots of units are dying. The column keeps on pressing forward, since no orders have come down from on high to do anything else. This must be a part of the Great Plan, whatever it might be.
Eventually the units in back have moved up to the front by attrition, and if they're lucky they can see what they're up against. A whole row of HLTs behind dragon teeth and a crater-churned field choked with the debris of comrades that had headed the charge. A target in range! The turret turns, a plasma shell is loaded, the tank makes ready to fire the first shot of its short life.... BLAM! A shell from an artillery turret somewhere way off behind the HLTs blows the tank to smithereens, it never saw it coming. The tank right behind it shudders slightly from the blast and rolls on over the shards of metal to take its place.
Finally there's a tank with no other tanks behind it, and then after it dutifully takes its turn striving to gain just a few more meters of ground through the impenetrable defences there are none.
Poor things. I never realized, all this time with my camera being so high overhead. Perhaps I should try my hand at some TA fanfic, or build a little "war memorial" structure in honor of fallen units. :)
)
