2009 Tangler @ Engler

AKA Operation Scharny Shield

It’s funny how the weatherman always gets it wrong the week before our battles. Early in the week the forecast was for 80’s and sunny with little chance of rain. The day we left the forecast changed to 70’s with a 50/50 chance of rain. It’s not a regional if it does not rain, stupid rain. I always hope for a forecast of rain before a battle, that way it will be sunny. Tyler stopped by my place as I was packing; I also discovered I had a leak in my stern accumulation tank. Packing stopped to fix the leak. We headed out in the morning and picked up Peter then drove down to Farmington. We had a little detour in Iowa and hit some really bad traffic in St Louis, it took two hours longer to get there then it should have. All the captains got into the hotel Friday night and went out to dinner. Saturday morning we all got out to the pond early so we could get 3 battles in during the day. It was decided to do one day of Axis vs Allies and then a day of Region 1 vs All Other Regions. The Allies would put out to sea with: USS Washington (Bob H), HMS Barham (John B), USS West Virginia (Tom P), HMS Tiger (Randy S), USS Salt Lake City (Rick W). The Axis were able to muster a fleet of: TMGBC (Peter E), DKM Scharnhorst (John S), SMS VDT (Mark R), SMS Derflinger (Tyler H), SMS Derflinger (Kevin K), DKM Lutzow (Jim K). The first battle was the start of operation Scharny Shield. Peter and John planed to suck up all the Allied bbs while the Derflingers & VDT sunk the Allies with side mounts. Part of the plan worked to perfection as The West Virginia was put down in the first sortie and Peter’s TMGBC also hit the bottom. Jim’s Lutzow had a new pump motor that was wired backwards and also sank in the first sortie. The sinker’s patched and came back in for the 2^nd sortie and continued with Operation Scharny Shield. This phase of operation went much better as the West Virginia sank again, but this time with out the loss of a Scharny. Most of Tom’s damage came from Mark, all weekend the two slow ships locked horns with Tom taking most of the sinks. Scores were: Washington 23-4-13, Barham 50-1-12, We Vee 84-8-23 sink x2, Tiger 21-2-11, SLC 5-0-4 vs TMGBC 50-10-31 sink, Scharny 25-3-6, VDT 81-10-30, Derflinger (T) 24-6-4, Derflinger (K) 62-5-17, Lutzow 26-1-6 sink. An Allied victory 9,855-7,355.

Kevin Hovis came by to visit and we gave him The Sister of The Bike (AKA the SOB) We also had a young prospect come by the pond, Seth took out The Bike the rest of the weekend and is looking forward to getting his own ship. We patched and started the 2^nd battle with the two cruisers added to the Allied fleet. Operation Scharny Shield was back for Phase 3. The lessons learned from Phase 1&2 were now applied with great success. Randy tolled Tyler he wanted to play sidemounts and Tyler was more then happy to play. Once again Mark tangled with Tom and sank him. The Washington and Tiger played with John’s Scharny and sank it midway through the 2^nd sortie. Bob was going after Peter and found himself rolled and over and sunk with very light damage. I’m not really sure what happened but I know it was not the damage Peter handed out. Scores were Washington 33-7-13 sink, Barham 18-1-5, We Vee 41-7-25 sink, Tiger 28-1-23, SLC 6-1-3, The Bike 12-1-3, SOB 14-0-2 vs TMGBC 62-7-22, Scharny 66-11-14 sink, VDT 22-4-4, Derflinger (T) 20-0-7, Derflinger (K) 28-0-4, Lutzow 26-5-6. An Axis victory 7,870-6,765.

We broke for lunch and patched before the rubber match battle #3. Since some of the captains did not have a 3^rd set of batteries they were allowed to use one set for the 1^st sortie and another for the 2^nd without penalty. This way each battery would have 3 sorties on it. This battle ended up being 3 sorties so the batteries were stressed to the fullest. Operation Scharny Shield was at its peak. Both ships went down, Peter’s with very heavy damage. Mark got the Daly Double sinking Tom twice, again. Tom totaled up 5 sinks in one day. Scores were: Washington 59-6-31, Barham 47-4-11, We Vee 75-7-25 sink x2, Tiger 28-7-17, SLC 10-0-0, The Bike 33-9-4 vs TMGBC 98-14-51 sink, Scharny 68-4-12 sink, VDT 33-6-20, Derflinger (T) 46-2-1, Derflinger (K) 33-3-10, Lutzow 23-2-4 sink. An Allied victory 10,685-9,745. After the battle we sat around and talked about casements and looked at the casement ships that were at the battle. This discussion went on until John Bruder reminded us we needed to eat. We packed up and headed back to the hotel and out to the Warehouse BBQ and their all you can eat buffet.

Sunday was our Region 1 vs the World battle. Peter, Tyler & I always battle against each other and like to team up when we get out of town. Fleets were: Region 1 Washington, We Vee, SLC, TMGBC, Derflinger (T) & Derflinger (K) vs The World Lutzow, Barham, Tiger, Scharny, VDT & The Bike. Operation Scharny Shield was now split in two. Tyler & I decided to take down their shield first. We chased John’s Scharny around the pond and put here down with some heavy damage. Then we started after the other John but had a hard time playing with his Barham. Man those little QE’s are hard to sink, maybe I should get one. Inbetween chasing the John’s we stopped by the “Mark & Tom” show to toss a few shots at Mark. In the 2^nd sortie we started to play with the Barham again but could not get a lot of quality shots into him. So we went back to the Mark & Tom show. This time things were going better for Tom. Mark was chasing his haymaker and taking some holes for his trouble. Tom sank again but Mark was in pretty bad shape. Seems TMGBC is not only a shield but always has some bit. Peter hit Mark’s port bow with a few triple salvoes and made two nasty holes in his bow. A little prop washing from the Washington and hit was all over. Mark was able to pour out the water and float again but could not run a lot or take any prop wash without sinking. Region 1 Rules! was heard around the pond at the end of the battle. Scores were Washington 62-6-10, We Vee 47-10-17 sink, SLC 2-0-0, TMGBC 49-3-18, Derflinger(T) 58-3-2 & Derflinger(K) 35-3-1 vs Lutzow 18-2-3, Barham 43-5-14, Tiger 13-9-10, Scharny 59-9-36 sink, VDT 48-8-25 sink The Bike10-1-0. A Region 1 victory 9,460-6,555.

The first battle went very quickly and we started getting ready for the 2^nd battle. Several spectators stopped by and we handed out some flyers hopping to find a new prospect for Kevin to turn into a battler. The Region 1 fleet selected Randy as the next target. But he was an elusive target. We spent most of the battle chasing him around and taking more shots then we gave. He’d run far enough from shore where we’d give up and find someone else to play with until he came back. At one pass the Washington hit a casement and blew it up into the air, a very pretty shot of superstructure removal. The Mark & Tom show was back for another run that had both of the ships sinking. The VDT was again finished off with some well placed prop wash. Late in the 2^nd sortie we were surprised to see the Tiger settling and sink. She was not shot up that bad but had a couple quality holes at and below the waterline. Scores were: Washington 47-5-13, We Vee 56-7-11 sink, SLC 0-0-0, TMGBC 35-6-8, Derflinger(T) 15-0-2, Derflinger(K) 71-15-13 vs Lutzow 31-0-1, Barham 25-2-12, Tiger 21-9-12 sink, Scharny 39-5-13, VDT 56-15-29 sink The Bike 1-0-2. Another Region 1 victory 7,555 to 6415.

The 3^rd battle would match up the same fleets, doing a lot of the same battling. No one sank in the first sortie but there were a couple getting close. Mark’s VDT took a beating at the end of sortie one but made it off 5. Early in the 2^nd sortie Tyler & I were chasing the Scharny and he collided head on with the Tiger. You could try a hundred times and not get the two ships to slam into each other bow to bow. The hit was so hard it knocked Randy’s pump out of commission and he sank. Tyler also burned out a pump motor and sank. This left Kevin & I to finish off the Scharny, which we did towards the end of the sortie. The VDT was still holding on and had the last of the Region 1 sidemounts dumped into her to drive the little ship under one more time. Scores were Washington 53-10-16, We Vee 36-4-6, SLC 9-1-2, TMGBC 11-3-9, Derflinger(T) 18-0-2 sink & Derflinger(K) 14-1-0 vs The World Lutzow 39-3-5, Barham 26-1-9, Tiger 16-2-0, Scharny 41-14-6 sink, VDT 60-17-54 sink, The Bike 7-0-1.

We packed up and headed back to the hotel and out to the Chinese Buffet for dinner. John told us all that he knows nothing about things that he can’t tell us about. We learned there are no dead aliens at Area 51, just live ones that clean the place at night. After dinner several captains came by the room to watch the battling video we had taken during the weekend. Turns out Seth’s mom is pretty good with a video camera.

Randy & John B. came out to the pond Monday morning to watch the first sortie and say goodbye before their long trip home. John S changed his ship to the brand new Westfalen. The little pig boat stole the trips from the Scharny and a gear from Bob’s box to get on the water, after a little delay to start the battle. With the two missing ships we split up the fleets so Mark & Tom could shoot at each other and Tyler & I could sink Kevin. We had several good runs with our guns early in the battle. Kevin lost control of his rudder and became harder to hit on his out of control five. We pumped a few more bbs into him and had him close to sunk near the end of the sortie but he made it to fight another day. Kevin soldered a new connector on a spare servo and made it back in for the 2^nd sortie. Just as we headed down to the pond a police car pulled into the parking lot. We gave the officer some safety glasses and he watched the battle. All of us worried he was sent out from some complaint or would shut us down. Turns out he was just driving by and wanted to see what was going on. He was interested in the ships and took a flyer home. Maybe we’ve hooked another one. Tyler and I started the prebattle maneuvering waiting for Kevin to call battle. When he did the shoots started flying. He soon found the bottom of the pond. Jim rammed his low and pointy Lutzow stern into TMGBC and got stuck in the balsa as Peter tried to bring the sinking BC into shore. I started to chase after Tom with the last of my sidemounts. I got target lock and vapor lock at the same time and sank as I was shooting the We Vee. The battle wound down and we pulled the ships out of the water. The gear was packed up, the last goodbyes were said and that was the end of the Operation Scharny Shield, a success measured by any means. Scores were: Washington 34-2-14 sink, SLC 6-1-1, Derflinger(T) 39-3-11, Westfalen 20-5-25, Lutzow 17-1-15 vs Derflinger(K) 63-12-44 sink, TMGBC 54-5-23, VDT 20-3-6, The Bike 11-3-2, We Vee 59-5-5.

Best of Class awards went to: Class 6 Bob H., Class 5 John B., Class 4 Kevin K., Class 3 Rick W. Most Feared went to Mark R and Best of Scale went to Kevin K.