"And... here we go," Leon whispered to himself as the others connected.
"All right! The Dash has arrived!"
"Humble as ever, Rainbow Dash," Luna said, but she sounded amused.
"What can I say, it's me."
"Leon, did you contact Edward?"
"Yeah, I did. He's out with the flu today. And his parents are strict when it comes to dealing with sickness."
"Curses. I would have enjoyed the Civilization; Beyond Earth bonanza we would livestreamed later."
"Me too." Leon sighed. Although an ocean away from the Briton, he felt quite close to him... and to Luna and others. "I hope he recovers, and soon. I've had the flu a few times, and it's not fun, to put it mildly. We still have this time to play, though, and don't think he'd like us to just sit here doing nothing while he recovers." He knew Eddy well enough to know that was true. The Englishman could be quite crude in regards to language (though now that he thought of it, Leon knew the same applied to him) and he might be easy to anger (another trait they had in common), he was a true blue friend.
"And just what are we playing?"
"R.U.S.E. A World War II strategy game," Leon answered. "It's pretty good, though sadly the follow up Wargame series never touched the Xbox, or any console. Which is... well, a gaming console is designed entirely for entertainment. Computers have to balance between programs for work, security, and play. They're missing out on a good sale, that's for sure."
"Thanks for the description, but I already know what it is. I've got it."
"Regardless of marketing, I think it's good enough as it is for us to play," Luna added. "I'll invite the party to a game."
Leon accepted the invite when it came. He arrived at the set up screen.
"Now, the Xbox edition of this game unfortunately does not have 3v3 battles, which is ridiculous. But we only have four players who will be here in the end, so that's fine. I'll invite... er, who would be a good candidate?"
"Shining Armor?" Leon suggested.
"No; sadly, he's out on assignment," Luna said regretfully.
"How about Twilight?" Rainbow asked. "She just got on."
"That would work. I'll do it."
After about thirty seconds, Twilight did, in fact, join. "Hi, everypony!" she said cheerfully.
"Good evening, Twilight Sparkle," Luna greeted her. "It is good to hear from you again."
"Sorry that I haven't sent any letters over the past few days," Twilight said, apologetically. "I've been busy with Nightmare Night preparations."
"Understandable." Luna giggled. "I can't wait to make my appearance this year. Anyway, we'll be playing on teams, not free for all. It's harder to beat up on one player that way, and makes it impossible to establish makeshift, disposable alliances. The question is, who is going to be on each team?"
"I'll play with Leon," Rainbow said. "I don't think we've played on a team much."
"And I'll be go with Princess Luna," Twilight confirmed.
"Right. That takes care of that issue. We'll play on the map Center of Gravity, if there are no objections. Now we have to decide which era to go for."
"We could go nuclear," Leon suggested.
"No," Luna said firmly. "I still remember the last game we played on that setting. I'm not eager to try it again."
"1939?"
"There's jack-all to play with," Rainbow protested. "I vote for 1945."
"I think that's best too," the Princess agreed. "And the game time..."
"I think sixty minutes would be okay," Twilight said.
"Alright. All that's left to do is pick our nations and start the game."
Leon chose France. France was very defensive, which was perfect considering his preference for defense. Their armor wasn't too bad, either, though Germany undoubtedly had the best. In 1939, the B1 Bis was superior to the Panzer III, as it's armor was generally sufficient to allow it to survive long enough to inflict massive damage. Of course, a German player could always throw Stukas at the problem...
He was surprised to see that Rainbow went for Italy. Italy stereotypically had the worst units in the game, although they were cheap to produce, and their upgrades weren't half bad. It wasn't the most optimal to build an air force; that fell to Germany and the United Kingdom, which was unlike Rainbow, as she loved to build air units.
Luna chose to play as the British; Twilight opted for Germany. That didn't surprise Leon; she loved to have the best units on the field. German units were very expensive, though, so a German player was vulnerable to running low on money if their economy was attacked. Luna's choice for Britain was solid enough, though British armor wasn't as good.
"Is everyone ready?" After receiving confirmation from everyone, Luna went on, "Then I'm starting the game."
Leon hit start, as did the other players; he also switched to game chat. The image switched to a loading screen for a moment, then he was watching as the camera went around the map a bit before focusing on his headquarters.
"Alright, Rainbow, what are you going to do?"
"Well, I'm kinda new to Italy, but I heard that there was this really great thing called the Italian tank rush."
Leon nodded. It was a good idea... when R.U.S.E. was new and in beta, when people were just discovering what was in the game. Italian M13s were garbage, but they were cheap, as were the tank they could be upgraded and replaced by, the M15, which was considerably better. It was easy to build a dozen of them at the beginning of the game, along with an Autoblenda, which was a recon unit. The more tank-constructing buildings you built, the faster they could be made. A Soviet player might have one KV-1 out by that time; it would wreck two, maybe three, M15s, but the rest would pound the tank into scrap metal. It would be the same thing with most nations; the USA could rush out a mess of Stuart tanks, and the Japanese could spam Ha-go tanks, but the latter were even worse that M13s; in fact, they were arguably the worst tanks in the game, which explained why the could be bought for only five dollars, as opposed to the M13 and M15's 15 dollars.
By now, though, people had figured out how to counter attacks like that... and were learning how to make better rushes. Infantry could be spammed into forests and towns to counter them, and anti-tank guns could be positioned in forests to pick off any tank that came too close. Even adding a recon unit to a rushing army couldn't make the offensive invincible, though at times they came pretty close. And, if the enemy so chose, they could hit the advancing tanks with dive bombers; it was one reason why Leon hated Stukas, unless, of course, they were on his side. Their attack was made all the more annoying by the fact that they would look as if they were going to crash into the ground, but almost never did, unless they were destroyed in the act of diving by anti-aircraft fire.
"Just be careful. Twilight knows you even better than I do, and she has Stukas," he said aloud as he placed some Supply Depots and an anti-tank factory.
"I can rely on you for air cover, can't I?"
Leon sighed through his nostrils. The French weren't the best off when it came to aircraft; they had a fighter, which could be upgraded, as well as a light level bomber and a moderately good dive bomber. Their firepower was mostly ground-based, particular in their anti-air/anti-tank bunker and their Maginot bunker, which were both strong against tanks.
Then again, acting out of character can surprise any enemy... "I can, but my air force isn't the best for ground support. I'd do better supporting from the ground myself."
"Don't either of us have one of those things like the Germans have? You know, one of those tank things with flak cannons."
"You mean Flakpanzers?"
"Whatever."
"Well, yeah, as a matter of fact I have a super tank that has anti-air guns, but they're too expensive for the early game."
"Rats. Well, can you build paratroopers?"
"Too risky without already having scouted them first. I'll build Somua 35s. They're part artillery."
"Okay."
Leon camouflaged his base, and saw that Rainbow had done the same. He set up a tank base of his own, and began researching the Somua 35, which was able to act like light artillery, as he'd said. Rainbow had built three supply depots as well as two tank bases. She was staking her chances on an early, winning blow.
"We went to a rodeo that came to town today," the blue pegasus said. "Applejack was competing in it, so we went to watch her."
"How did she do?"
"She won quite a few blue ribbons, but they were pretty close. After she won, she challenged the crowd, asking if any of us were willing to compete against her."
"Let me guess; you were the first to volunteer."
"Heck yeah! I couldn't let her think it was a one horse town. Unfortunately, I kinda forgot a few of the things that were required."
"Such as?"
"I had to wear horseshoes, as in the ones that have to be nailed on. Not that it hurt at all, but it don't like ponies touching my hooves. I also had to wear a saddle, which was so uncomfortable! I mean, I'm a pegasus! And that thing covered my wings. Do you know how it feels to basically have two of your limbs tied up?"
"I thought you'd done that before, though."
"Well, not like this. Actually, it was more that they were entirely covered than just tied up. Even with ropes around them, they could move a little; with this, I could hardly move them at all. Last, but not least... I had to wear a bridle. That felt... humiliating, or at least embarrassing."
"Guess it's not easy, considering you don't wear them much. And knowing you, you were a pretty good match for her anyway. All you would have needed were some reins, and you would have been going full tack."
"Yeah, and... hold on, I am no human's saddle horse. I will never sit there and ask kids if they want me to give them a ride on my back. Got that?"
"Okay okay!" Hoping he could divert her anger, he asked, "Why were you reluctant to agree to go with the horseshoes if they didn't hurt? I saw the episode where you cringed at the spa when a mare went to file your hooves."
"Well uh... Okay, I guess this had to come out sometime. But you have to promise not to tell anypony."
"I promise." Leon looked at her army. So far, four M15s had rolled off the assembly line. As Rainbow had initiated radio silence, the enemy wouldn't know what kind of units she was producing, though anyone could make a guess.
"This one time, I went down to the spa as a filly, before we all became friends and all that. I was still an... active child then, but I wanted to try it out."
"And?"
"Everything went fine, until they got to the hooficure part. They. Messed. It. Up. Big time! I was left with something resembling... I don't even know what, and I probably don't even want to know. I was so embarrassed, I went and bandaged my leg up and made up a story about how I'd broken my leg in a hoof fight."
"You basically tried to erase the whole thing from your mind."
"Yeah, but that day when my friends invited me to join them, it came rushing back. And, P.S.; if you ever tell this story to anyone, I'll find you."
"Wow. I didn't think you'd be willing to kill me for something like that."
"What? No! I wouldn't go that far! But you really wouldn't like what would happen. Trust me."
"Alright. FYI, you could have had me Pinkie Promise."
"And how am I supposed to know you're actually going through the motions? I can't even see you. And, in my opinion, it's just not the same as when somepony makes a Pinkie Promise in person."
"I can understand that." Leon began building his own tanks.
"Why don't you just build B1s? They have better armor."
"And they are slow. S, L, O, W, slow. If this were 1939, I'd build them anyway, because one B1 is worth several Panzer IIIs, but 1945 is just way too late. And even in 1939, they're vulnerable to Stukas."
"Yeah; I just love using those things."
"I have a different opinion. And air units require too much micro management for my taste."
"Yeah, I guess. But being on the ground is like having a giant bulls eye painted on you."
"If some of those bulls eyes are on Flakpanzers, you'll have your work cut out killing them."
"Heh. I hate having to go up against those things. Hmm, how many tanks do you think we'll need?"
"Twenty each, I'd say, but mine are more expensive."
"Okay, well, I'm halfway there. I can't wait to... wait, I can't see her face. Darn it! But still, I want to surprise her, real bad, at least once."
"And why her in particular?"
"Because she's so smart, and thinks she knows everything there is to know; she acts like a mastermind, you know what I mean?"
"You mean like someone who manipulates the enemy into doing what they want?"
"Yeah! For once, that's gonna be me."
"We'll see about that. At least you're making tanks fast, so that's something."
Rainbow giggled. "They're gonna be so shocked when I just plow through their one or two tanks and wreck their base!"
"Don't be surprised yourself if it doesn't go that way. By now a lot of players have figured out that Italy equals a rush."
"That won't help them if I throw more than they've got at them."
"Well, we'll see."
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"Well Twilight Sparkle, what do you think our strategy should be?"
"Princess, you're the one in charge of running a country. Shouldn't you make the decision?"
Luna couldn't help smiling a little. "Your reasoning is flattering, but please do not consider me a Princess here; just think of me a friend. And besides, your brother married Cadence, which ties you into the royal family. You have as much right to make decisions in the game as I do."
"Umm, okay. Well, Rainbow usually loves to build air, and she's... well..."
"Aggressive?"
"Yes. Her first reaction to being attacked is to hit back. So we can count on her to attack, persistently if not blindly. I was surprised she chose Italy, considering their air force isn't as good as Germany or the UK."
"Tell me, Twilight, if you wanted to build a lot of cheap units very quickly, which nation would you chose?"
"Probably Italy. Or Japan, considering their armor isn't very good either and therefore comes cheaply as well. So I'd bet on a rush."
"That is what I was thinking. M13s, or perhaps M15s. And what of Leon?"
"I'm not so sure about him. He's not so obvious. He usually tries to do what his specific nation does best, but he can sometimes pull off a big surprise that catches us off guard. I'd advise caution, and build reconnaissance planes."
"Yes. The fact that they've already camouflaged their bases makes the job of finding out their plans rather infuriating, especially if they decide to put anti-air units and bunkers in positions to counter our reconnaissance."
"I'll start building anti-tank guns."
"I'd advise building Panzer IIIs as well. When you're in a cheap tank battle, every unit counts."
"I'll do that. But she'll be able to build as much as I can, if not more. And I know she'll probably go after me. I'm the town 'egghead' after all." That last was said with some irritation.
"Trust me, Twilight Sparkle, there is nothing wrong with being intelligent. We all have traits that are sometimes difficult to overcome when faced with certain traits of others, but you've done it time and again. Given your success recently in protecting Equestria, I'd say you've largely defeated that problem."
"I know, but it's so frustrating sometimes. Nopony wants to date somepony with brains."
"I know the feeling. It is a sad factor in life, but fate shall one day bring you success. Be confident, Twilight."
"Okay. Thanks, Princess."
"You are most welcome. Now, about the problem at hoof..."
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"I'm going in," Rainbow reported. "Cover me."
"With pleasure. Remember to keep radio silence on the regions we cross."
"Please, Leon, I'm not as forgetful as you."
"Forgetful!?! Who do you think you're talking to?"
"Eh hem..."
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Flashback
"This rocket will NOT fail to get into orbit at least," Leon said.
"It looks pretty well put together," Eddy admitted.
"That thing looks like a giant bundle of asparagus," Rainbow Dash said, giggling. "I'd eat it."
"Ha ha. Well, you can laugh out the other side of your mouth," Leon replied heatedly. "Jeb isn't going to die this time."
He activated the rocket, which did actually start to rise... without the outer three engines, which all took off in different directions. Rainbow laughed loudly as the four individual rockets raced into the atmosphere.
"You forgot the space tape, didn't you?" Rainbow said between breaths.
"So what? The contract says I just have to-" Leon stopped as the engines overheated and exploded, leaving him with no propulsion whatsoever.
"Uh oh," Eddy said.
"Come on, come on! Detach, detach, detach!" Leon mashed the spacebar desperately as the rocket began to lose altitude.
"You forgot the parachute," Luna noted.
"No, no, NO!" Leon started to panic as the rocket started to approach the ground. "Well, time for an EVA if ever there was one." He quickly had Jebidiah go out on an EVA, hoping he could save the pilot from being destroyed with his craft and relying on the Kerbal's jetpack to put him on the ground safely.
It didn't happen. The jetpack did nothing but slightly slow Jeb down. He crashed into the ground and exploded into a green puff.
Rainbow was now coughing from laughter. Luna was giggling, clearly trying to hold it in. Eddy had joined Rainbow and was guffawing loudly.
"Ha ha," Leon repeated. "Let's see you guys do any better."
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End of flashback
"Okay, twice in a row in the space of a few minutes doesn't make someone, quote unquote, 'forgetful'. It's not like CKII, where people have traits posted on them like medals."
"No, but that was hilarious. Next time, remember the space tape!"
"Fine, fine. Now do you want me to support you, or not?"
"Yep. Just bring your tanks along with mine."
"I think it would be best if I tried to tackle her base from a different direction. That way, she'll have to break up her forces, and we'll crush her."
"Oh, come on, if we hit them with a big, united force, we'll crush them anyway! It's not like artillery can pick off tanks in this game."
"...fine. Just don't blame me if this doesn't work." With that, Leon sent his tanks to help Rainbow's.
---------------------------------------------------
Twilight carefully set up some Pak 36 anti-tank guns in the woods near her base. She was rather interested in the history of the units in the game, and was surprised to learn that the Germans had come to call that particular gun a "door knocker" in their language, and hoped they would be able to do some good here.
"So, has anything happened in Ponyville recently?" Luna asked.
"Oh, yeah! Today, there was a rodeo in town. Applejack competed in it, and she got quite a few blue ribbons."
"I imagine there were a few humans there?"
"Oh, yes. Some of them offered to be participants in the bronco buck." Twilight giggled. "Most of them were surprised to be dismounted so quickly."
"Hmm. I know that some ponies are nervous about humans, considering that horses in their world are used daily as riding animals and livestock, and fear that some of them might try to use us the same way."
"If any of them have, I haven't seen it or heard of it. Most of them were good sports about it; they were largely from the American state of Texas, and had a great deal of experience in their own rodeos. Like I said, I don't think it prepared them for a rodeo where the mounts in the bronco buck were as smart as they were."
"I hope any that were in the crowd were of similar make."
"They were; they were mostly the families of the Texans."
"Ah, good. For the most part, humans have given us the same level of respect as we give them, but sometimes, I worry, given their own horses and ponies."
"Well, again, they haven't done anything like that yet. And, moving on, if I may, Rainbow couldn't help going into the ring against Applejack. She wasn't impressed with all the required gear, but she went along with it."
"Ah. Which of them came out better?"
"The jury is still out on which of them is the better athlete; it was pretty much a draw, given the time available."
"I hope neither of them got hurt from their horseplay."
"No, but both of them got a lot of dirt on their fur. Rarity was careful not to get too close to them afterwards."
"And how is Fluttershy been recently? I haven't heard from her, and she isn't the most consistent gamer."
"She's been nursing a family of baby birds that lost their mother," Twilight said, her voice becoming somber. "She's been hit really hard by the mother's death, even though she did everything she knew how to do."
"Ohhhh," Luna hummed in sympathy. "Did you tell her that she has to stay strong for the young ones?"
"Yes. She did buck up a little after we told her that, but it was still a downer to see her so sad."
"Death is a sad subject. Believe me, I can sympathize." There was a sorrowful tone in Luna's voice. Something told Twilight it went beyond the birds' mother. "Yes, well... can you see any of their units?"
"Uh... No. If they built any, they must be using radio silence."
"That's worrisome. And since we don't know which sectors they activated Ruses in, we can't be sure just where their units will be."
Twilight suspected Luna had changed the subject due to some other reason than the game, but she wasn't going to argue with that. "I could send up a recon plane. Maybe they aren't going to- Oh," she said as an Italian tank came into view. three more tanks came after it, along with an Autoblenda. "Uh oh," she said, with some measure of worry as more tanks came into view; one of them was a Somua 35.
"Indeed," Luna said. "The attack has begun."
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Uh oh, they just detected the tanks," Leon said as their units stopped looking transparent.
"Big deal. They couldn't have built anything that can stop us."
"You sure?" Leon asked as several anti tank guns in the woods, now exposed by the Autoblenda, fired, destroying the forward-most tank.
"Aw, rats. Still, they'll be gone in a minute. We have enough to keep hittin' 'em. It would have nice if you'd gotten more than seven or eight tanks of your own."
"The French are better defenders than attackers. I didn't expect you to try rushing them, I thought you were going to harass the heck out of them with your air force, like you usually do. You love the units that are fastest."
"Yeah, well, I wanted to try something new. Don't judge me!"
Another tank exploded. Leon directed his own tanks at the enemy guns. The cannons of the French vehicles pounded the site. One of the anti tank guns blew up, followed by another.
"Planes!" Rainbow shouted in warning.
Leon quickly turned his camera. Luna had launched several twin engine planes... but they weren't bombers. Instead, they began dropping men in a town that ran through the forest.
"Aw, nuts," Leon groaned. Tanks couldn't drive through forests, though they could shoot into them. The tanks had no choice but to proceed through the town; as the view range of ground artillery was limited, the paratroopers Luna had dropped would have the first shot on the tanks, while Leon's own units wouldn't be able to fire on them until they were spotted. The only other option would be to take a detour, which would take time and allow Twilight and Luna to build more units and counter the attack. "Well played, Luna, well played," he added, half in frustration, half admiring.
"Yeah, but what do we do now?"
"Full speed ahead. I'd say delay would be even worse than the immediate losses we'd suffer. Every second we give them is one they can use to train more units, and we don't want that."
"Okay then, going for the town."
Of course, Leon hadn't been completely idle while the army they'd built went forward. He had set up an airbase, and was researching paratroopers of his own. It would take a minute or so, though. He also gave orders to set up an artillery and anti-air base, hoping to get some artillery out. It wouldn't come in time to help the current battle, though. Hopefully, the rush, regardless of whether it succeeded, would give him and Rainbow enough buffer time to build up a considerable economy and army.
Sure enough, the first of Rainbow's tanks to drive through the town square was vaporized by PIAT fire from British Paratroops. The second and third met similar fates. The fourth was able to fire once before being blasted as well. But by now, more tanks were coming into the square, and their combined fire, along with those of Leon's own tanks, wore down the morale of the British units, which finally began to die off. They died hard, but they died.
"Ugh, that was a bummer," the blue pony sighed. "Lost about one tank in every four before that was over."
"Well, we're through it now," Leon said. "Maybe they don't..."
A plane dropped out of the sky, releasing a bomb from it's swept back wing design. An M15 went up in smoke.
"What the...!"
"Twilight must have an airbase somewhere," Leon noted. "We have to hurry before flocks of these things start coming down on us!"
"Hurricane!"
"I know you played that part in the pageant, but I don't see h- oh," he finished deadpan as a British Hurricane fighter-bomber attacked the column with rockets, destroying one of his own tanks. "That kind of Hurricane."
"Yep. Come on!"
Pickett's Charge, re-enacted by tanks, Leon thought as they continued on.
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Oh no, this is bad," Twilight said in a panic. "I thought that would have delayed them longer than it did."
"Me too. I had my hopes that elite infantry in a town might stop their offensive."
"What do we do now?"
"Do not panic. We have fighter-bombers now. That will even the odds. And our own tanks will be ready to engage them."
"I hope you're right," the lavender unicorn said as Rainbow's tanks found one of her Supply Depots and destroyed it.
-------------------------------------------------------------
"All right! Got one!" Rainbow cheered.
"That's great, but don't forget... Uh oh."
"What? Oh," Rainbow said as she also spotted the oncoming force of Panzer IIIs. "Well, we can take 'em! Come on!"
The Panzer IIIs were good starting tanks, but against M15s, they weren't as good as they might have been. Three of them were taken out in quick succession. Still, there were a lot of them, and they began landing hits of their own before long. An orange flame lit above them; Twilight, or perhaps Luna, had activated the Fanaticism Ruse. The enemy tanks could still be destroyed, but they couldn't be routed. While individually no match for the M15s, there were enough of them to start inflicting casualties. A number of tanks on both sides blew up. In the meantime, Twilight and Luna sent fighter-bombers to attack while the two Tricolor nations were stuck in combat.
"They're using the tanks to distract us!" Leon cried out.
"Disengage your tanks; I'll keep them busy," Rainbow said. She too activated Fanaticism, and she sent her tanks into a full on, all out brawl.
Leon, with three tanks left, slipped around the battle. Perhaps the other team were too distracted by the main battle. Maybe they thought that three tanks weren't a threat. Whatever the reason, Leon succeeded in dodging the battle.
"Finally," he muttered as Twilight's base came into view. He smirked as he saw the airbase, with all the planes on it refueling and re-arming. This was going to be fun.
---------------------------------------------------------
"What the?" Twilight exclaimed as she received notification that her planes were being destroyed. "How...? Oh, that sneaky little baaaaaaattle lover," she finished lamely.
"Thank you for refraining from using profane language," Luna said. "Although it was sneaky, I must admit."
"Never mind that! What do I do now?" Twilight asked in a panic as Leon's tanks destroyed her airbase completely.
"Hold on. I have Hurricanes heading your way. Just pay attention to the tank battle, and build some tanks and anti tank guns to counter Leon."
"Alright." Twilight forced down her panic. Come on, it's not like battling Changelings and magic-sucking monsters, it's a game.
Why do I feel so emotional about it then?
---------------------------------------------------------
Leon targeted the anti-tank base. He chuckled as it went down.
One of his tanks got hit by a newly-built Panzer III. At the same time, one of them was destroyed by a Hurricane. He sent the remaining two to kill the Panzer III, which they did, but another tank was lost to air attack.
"Aw, crud," he said as his last tank exploded. "At least they had a good run."
"What, did you die?"
"Yep."
"Haven't seen any Stukas for a minute or so. I can't give you a thumbs up with hooves, but I could give you a thumbs up flag I guess."
"Unfortunately, I don't have anything at the front to help you. I'll try and bring in Paratroopers, but..."
"It's okay. I think I might be able to... blast, there's just too many of them, and Luna has her own tanks coming now!"
"Retreat. It's the best you can do at this point."
"Errrrmmm, well, alright, but I don't like it."
"There's nothing more we can accomplish here. We put a dent in their economy and wrecked their units, along with some of their buildings. I'd say that's a success."
"Yeah, but I wanted more."
"You can try to get more, but your army is going to die off fairly quickly."
Rainbow tried to withdraw. The main problem was that, even though Leon had produced a French fighter and had sent it to help, there were too many British fighter-bombers attacking, and some of them attacked the fighter, forcing it's withdrawal. The Panzer IIIs followed much too aggressively to allow Rainbow to disengage, and her last tank finally brewed up.
"That was a waste," she said. "I was hoping we could have wiped Twilight out of the game."
"Our tanks didn't get there fast enough, and we spent too much time setting up," Leon observed. "Next time we should build what we can in the first two or three minutes and then go."
"Yeah. Whoa, I have over four hundred bucks to spend."
"Didn't you just swear?"
"No. I don't know why you humans think that the word buck would be a swear word. I mean, yeah, it's one letter removed from one of your curse words, but our bad words are mostly the same."
"And you have mothers threatening to wash your mouths out with soap."
"Heh heh. Yep. My mother did that a couple of times."
"I thought one day for some stupid reason that my mother would find it funny if I swore in Breton. Apparently not; she didn't like it, even though it was a throwback to her birth country."
"Ha ha! Well, what do we do now with the money we have?"
"Prepare for the long run, I guess. We delayed their development, but unless we take advantage of it, it won't matter. I'm building some of my Fortified Position bunkers. Combined AA and AT."
"What about that really big French bunker?"
"It's only anti-tank and infantry; it'll do nothing against air power."
Leon went and built the bunkers, as well as a prototype base. Unfortunately, as he had been busy building his base when not focused on his units, he didn't have anywhere near as much money as Rainbow did. Of course, that meant her base wasn't as well developed, but she went to work, building a couple airbases and a couple bunkers of her own to protect them. She built Italian fighter-bombers (which were reasonably good) and sent fighters out to protect a forward base she was building around a Secondary Headquarters.
"Be careful that you're not overextending!"
"Oh, lighten up! It's in easy range of a couple Supply Depots, and I'm building these Italian bunkers all around it. We need a base close to them, and this is how you go about it. You're too defensive minded."
Leon opened his mouth, then shut it. She was probably right, he considered. Not that he was willing to admit that.
-------------------------------------------------------
"Good, that's that out of the way," Luna said. "Now, for our own plans."
"What's your plan?" Twilight asked.
"I was expecting that you would have come up with something," Luna replied in a mildly surprised tone.
"But you're-"
"A fellow player," Luna interrupted. "Here, my rank isn't anywhere as important as the company I keep. You have a brilliant mind; I would like to see it in action."
"Well, okay. We're building up a lot of air power, so bombing and ground support are probably going to be decent to focus on."
"I wish we had more money to work with," Luna said. "Their rush, though it failed, required us to spend more money repelling it than I am comfortable with."
"Yeah. I don't have more than eighty dollars. Hmm."
Twilight decided to rebuild the Supply Depot that had been destroyed, as well as building a Secondary Headquarters beyond the forest that shielded her base; it would make a decent forward position.
"I am going to build toward the center of the map," Luna said. "Can you help protect it?"
"Oh, sure! I can do that."
"Good. We'll need to control the center if we're going to control the map and the battle."
Twilight sent out a recon plane to spy out what the other team were doing. "Oh, darn, it looks like Rainbow is thinking the same thing," she muttered as Rainbow's forward base came into view.
"Then we'll have to dislodge her quickly, before they build up a considerable position there."
"All we have are our air units and some of our starting tanks."
"Think of what they have left after their rush."
Twilight did, then nodded. "If that's the case, it might work. but they're building bunkers around that place."
"Hmm. Try to spy on her main base."
She did. The plane started taking fire from a ground position and was shot down before it could get out of range. The unicorn sighed, but the plane had revealed something important. "She isn't protecting her initial base very well."
"Then we'll strike there. Build another recon plane. I'll build air; you build whatever armor you can manage at this point, and we'll hit them with a real army, not the tin cans they sent at us."
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Leon built several bunkers around his base, as well as three next to Rainbow's secondary base. He built several heavy artillery pieces, as well as numerous anti-aircraft guns to hold back any aerial assaults, which he was sure would come, considering the other side's superiority in aircraft.
Rainbow was doing her best to build up a massive air force of her own, She had three airbases, and well over a dozen aircraft of various types. She had all but forgotten her armor; having been thwarted once using tanks, she wasn't keen on using them again.
"Don't forget to send out recon!"
"Yeah yeah, mom, I got it," Rainbow replied. "Seriously, cool your jets."
"Interesting, considering neither of us chose a nation that uses jets."
"Whatever."
Leon sighed and kept building. He had built a Prototype factory and was building an FCM F1, the French mammoth tank he'd mentioned earlier. He had already produced an EBR, an advanced recon unit that could actually do some decent work against enemy tanks. It was currently guarding their left flank, but it was the only unit there. He'd asked Rainbow repeatedly to send a few of her own units there, but she kept saying she was too busy; she was too preoccupied in building up her air force.
His factory had just produced the monster tank when his EBR caught sight of an enemy ground unit; a Panther. And it wasn't alone; more Panthers and Flakpanzers followed it. An enemy recon plane started to approach that sector as the EBR fired, killing a Panzer III that was tagging along with them.
Eainbow Dash saw the danger and sent an upgraded fighter after it. That did no good; upon seeing the Italian plane coming, the recon plane skirted back behind the Flakpanzers, which quickly chewed the fighter up and destroyed it.
"Oh come on...! Well, have some of this!" With that, the cyan-coated pegasus sent an attack force of fighter-bombers and level bombers. The latter wouldn't do much damage, but they could influence the morale factor significantly.
The Flakpanzers, still moving forward, fired on the coming air units; they killed one before it could strike, but Rainbow had spaced them out so that most of their attacks would hit at the same time. Three of the anti-air vehicles went up in smoke; a battery of light artillery behind them got caught by the level bombers and were blasted to pieces.
"Ha! Easy-peasy." Rainbow stopped laughing when two of her fighter-bombers were caught by British fighters and shot down. "Okay, they really want to do this the hard way," she said as the recon plane came out again. It high-lighted the EBR, which was dispatched quickly by the Panthers.
"Shoot it down!"
"I can't! She'll just send it behind those anti-air tanks again, and there's more fighters coming to cover them!"
The recon plane came forward. Upon sighting the array of anti-air Rainbow had built up, it stopped, but from behind the line of tanks and Flakpanzers heavy artillery began to fire.
"Aw, crud," Leon muttered. "I hate that tactic. And every variant of it."
"What?"
"Using super tanks, anti air, recon planes, and artillery in that way. I know she's not using super tanks, but that's still pretty bad, and she's probably already building more at her base."
"What can we do about it, other than kick their teeth in?"
"it's designed to be an attack that'll counter everything you can throw at it. It's going to require that you throw away planes like crazy to beat it, especially with Luna's air cover."
"We'll see about that. Leave the air to me. I'm the only one on our team who actually has wings, after all."
Leon chose to let that remark slide. Instead, he moved his artillery more to the west. While the enemy units had disappeared after the EBR had been killed, he had a rough idea where they were. He was also sure what they were going to do, and why. It was too late to try to move ground forces to cover it; what he had was going to be slow, and Rainbow was mostly going air; Their few ground forces in the area would be no match for the army descending on them.
Leon sent up a recon plane of his own. After sighting the enemy force, his artillery opened fire. It would do no damage to the armor, but lightly-armored units accompanying them would be subject to their lethal shells. Rainbow attacked Luna's aerial units while her fighter-bombers hit the enemies on the ground. Three British fighters and a couple Panthers blew up, as did a Flakpanzer. However, she lost five planes doing this, and German artillery hit her base as the enemy recon plane returned.
Leon ambushed the enemy plane with two of his own. Luna sent three of her own fighters to kill his, but he did manage to destroy the thing before Twilight's artillery wrecked more than a couple buildings. He lost his own fighters in the exchange. Another British plane was shot down, by ground fire this time, but more were coming, including a British recon plane to make up for the one Twilight had lost. At least he got to see where the enemy cannon fire was coming from, and he had his artillery target theirs. Two of the enemy's own cannons died, but the rest refocused their fire on his own battery. A group of British level bombers blasted his remaining guns, reducing them to smoldering wreckage.
The battle was heating up quickly. Leon looked at the center of the map. He would have expected a secondary assault from that area, as the anti-air in that area would interdict the British planes, but except for a few planes that strayed slightly and were fired upon there was no action there. It wasn't what he'd expected after the rush had failed. He had planned for a slugging match in the center; his units, mostly anti-tank guns, infantry to guard them, and tank destroyers, were positioned there. He was reluctant to move the, for fear that the enemy would attack from that direction at some point, but he could see that he had no choice. They would be slow getting where they needed to, but if the other team's advance could be Stonewalled, maybe they could arrive in time to repulse the assault.
That would be a challenge. The lavender unicorns was sending replacements for units she lost. Luna was adding to the problem by dropping Paratroopers into the woods on that side of the map, which spelled doom for the few anti-tank guns there, which had no defense against anything other than armor. Those guns were chewed up by machine gun fire from the elite British troopers.
"That's a problem," Leon said, calmer than he felt.
"Don't worry, I've got it," Rainbow said. She didn't though; she was losing planes at a terrible rate, and she was going to have more and more trouble replacing them, as the enemy was attacking her Supply Depots. Bombers were starting to hit her base, aiming for her airbases. She had to split her remaining planes between attacking the enemy ground forces and stopping the bombers, and it was becoming clearer and clearer that it was impossible to pursue both objectives at once.
Not that she was struggling alone. Leon had a couple FCMs out, and sent them to try to guard the pegasus' base. His own planes, what few of them there were, helped protect Rainbow's airfields. However, he was not a player who focused on air power; most of his population points were occupied by buildings, including bunkers, as well as slow though potent ground units.
Leon knew the fight was lost when he saw an enemy Supply Depot construct on a build site on the right side of the map (from his point of view, anyway). The other side had enough resources to replace casualties, while his own side did not. Regardless of the circumstances, he smiled in a cocky way. The enemy would win, yes... but they would lose a lot of units doing it, and he and Rainbow would get a lot of experience points from this battle.
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"We have them on the run!" Twilight said excitedly.
"We do," the Princess agreed. "That said, if this were a real battle..." She felt her mouth twitch as she regarded that thought. "Let's just be glad that this is only a game, nothing more."
"Yeah. How many more planes can you send? I've run into a couple Maginot bunkers and I'd like some help busting them."
"I can do that," Luna replied. "In fact," she added, smiling a little as she gave instruction to her bombers, "help is already on the way."
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"Come on, come on," Rainbow said as she sent in another strike of fighter-bombers. The planes succeeded in killing a couple more tanks and a Flakpanzer, but were shot down themselves. "Darn it, those were my last fighter-bombers. All I have are fighters now. I need help!"
Leon decided it would not be the proper time to tease the pegasus about her pride. A Panther stumbled into range of the bunkers he had built, hastily, on that side of the map; the four combined 47mm guns inside those bunkers tore the tank to pieces. "If this were a real battle, I'd say it would be high time to retreat. But as we can't do that..."
"We fight harder."
That wasn't going to pull of a win here. However, they could still get a couple surprises in. Leon smiled as his FCMs killed two Panthers in quick succession. A hapless Flakpanzer wandered into range as well and was reduced to scrap in seconds.
More tanks continued to pour through, though. While several of them died, enough got through that the FCMs started to get worn down. Air strikes by British fighter-bombers finally finished them off after about sixty second of combat. Level bombers and artillery finished off the bunkers, paving the way for the ground assault.
Leon and Rainbow did what they could, but their lack of proper expansion and economic buildings left them with too little money to get resources very easily. Now that the enemy had reconnaissance on the ground and in the air, their base in the center of the map was being hit by artillery; it would be gone soon. Luna and Twilight kept up the pressure on the air and on the ground, with the latter deploying jet bombers to complement her forces. Buildings were destroyed one after another.
Leon sent a pair of light French bombers to Twilight's base as his own base was destroyed. As he hoped, she was too busy pounding his own forces into the ground to notice... until the bombers blew up one of her airbases, along with several Stukas that were clustered up on it. He enjoyed watching the grounded planes explode with their base. Luna sent a pair of fighters and shot down the bombers, which no longer had anywhere to land anyway, but the damage had been done.
The game was over in the next two minutes. All the other team had to do was hunt down the remaining units, which, with air units hunting them down and the total lack of any cover or Ruses whatsoever, wasn't hard.
The results weren't as bad as they could be. At least the battle was considered a minor defeat by the game, due to the fact that the enemy hadn't all that many more points than Leon and Rainbow.
"Aw, horsefeathers," Rainbow muttered. She and Leon switched to party chat.
"That wasn't a bad match, all things considered," Luna said.
"You're only sayin' that 'cuz you won," Rainbow said in a very low voice.
"Oh, don't sound so sour," Twilight anwered. "You did good. Just build more Administrative buildings next time."
"Got you good in that minute or two, Twi," Leon said.
"You did. But it was too little, too late."
"Yeah yeah, let's move on to the next game in the agenda, huh?"
The rest of the night went on quite well, as the four players won some and lost some.