[Bryn-gwlad] Gulf War Tales - Kansuke's Perspective

[Andrew Benton]

I took part in a few pick-up one-on-ones, and two big battles: a  three-path bridge battle, and an open field battle with three lay-ons.
  
  The bridge battle, as so many are, was a real grind. The Bryn Gwlad War  Company got traded over to Trimaris to even up the sides. We simply  decided not to fight other Ansteorrans, so the Trimarans put us on a  bridge facing the "Kingdom of the Middle" (I think). It turned into a  great waiting game, while fighting raged on the two smaller bridges to  either side - we just held the line. I kept hoping for somebody to  attack... I didn't care who. I was fortunate, in that I did a lot of  switching out for when spearmen started to get tired of standing and  holding a spear at guard, so I actually got to trade a few jabs with  the other side. Mostly it was just swishing at the other side's spears,  and once in a while pretending to throw a shot. When I finally got  stabbed (I got careless) by some guy in purple on the "Ansteorra and  Allies" side of the bridge, it was a kindness.
  
  The open field battle was really cool, in contrast. Bryn Gwlad was  selected by our leaders to be the left flank, deployed about 20ft ahead  of the main body. Our job was to rush up and seize a vital bit of real  estate and hold it at all costs, to be the anvil for the right flank's  hammer - it felt a little like being on Little Round Top at  Gettysburg...
  
  Colonel Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain:  [Chamberlain is addressing his junior officers before the Confederate  assault on Little Round Top] "Gentlemen... the 83rd Pennsylvania, 44th  New York, and 16th Michigan will be moving in to our right. But if you  look to our left, you will see that there is no one there. It's because  we're the end of the line. The Union army stops here. We are the flank.  Do you understand, gentlemen? We cannot retreat. We cannot withdraw. We  are going to have to be stubborn today."
  -Gettysburg (IMDB)
  
  Glorious enough... how did I personally do in the field battle? You  know me, hey diddle-diddle, right up the middle. In the first rush, I  went in with a glaive right behind the front/center shieldman, killed  two or three people (plus one or two that didn't die right away...),  then got clobbered up good. I was so in the thick of it that I spent  nearly a minute kneeling down next to a dead Trimaran until we could  get away from the brawl. The second rush, we got a little spread out,  and archers hit us pretty bad. I went down in the first volley to an  arrow out of nowhere - that sucked, but I've shot enough people with a  bow that I had it coming. Oh well. On the final rush, I swapped my  glaive for my new 9' spear. With that, I killed four or so (plus one or  two that didn't die right away...). My spear got so tangled up that I  couldn't parry with it, so I actually had to drop it and pull out my  dagger! I was able to get my spear back up and stabbing, but finally 
 got skewered and had to call it a day.
  
  Bryn Gwlad did Ansteorra proud, though. Three times we rushed out and  took that little patch of line, and three times we held it. On the  third lay-on, we were facing House Bloodguard, who I am told are quite  a hoss group - Trimaris moved them over to face us specifically, and we  still held it, despite a tough fight. After I'd been slain the second  time and was awaiting the next reset, I overheard a Trimaran fighter  ask "who are those guys?". When told "Bryn Gwlad", he replied "Damn...  those guys fight hard". You can't ask for a finer compliment than one  from your foe.
  
  I'm definitely going again next year, and I'm going to stay for longer.
  
  My Meager Collection of Gulf War Pictures
  http://www.flickr.com/photos/15625703@N07/tags/gulfwarsxvii/
  
  In Service,
  Kansuke
  
       
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