Seref Games

ooc: Event thread for the 1971 Tank Biathlon. Standard deal: Players can send two crews and one tank to compete in a timed race combined with a shooting element. Targets will simulate enemy units as decided by Niobium. An obstacle course component will also be included. It is assumed that, even if at war with one another, nations will not shoot at the competition with their vehicles.

In your post, detail the following:

- What tank you are using
- Anything that could give your tank and crewmembers an avantage, such as recent combat experience, prior intensive training, higher maneuverability, etc.
- Name at least one crewmember and provide a short background

Once enough participants have joined, I will begin rolling. Use the time in between to interact with other nations and their tanks.

Central Mexico was a land of beauty and incredibly tall mountains, with a vaunted history of supporting hideout remnants of the Mexican Civil War and ambushing imperialistic powers like the Americans and French in their expeditions to claim the jewel of Mexico, Mexico City. Near Veracruz, however, a massive tank competition course has been constructed as both a vanity project for the Mexican Emperor and to show Mexico's best face to the world. After all, any nation that can beat the Koreans and Chinese at the Tank Biathlon deserved to win and host the next one.

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The first lap is a simple timed lap, wherein the main obstacles will be sandy dunes near the coast and numerous rivers.
Lap two consists of engaging targets at 700, 900, and 1,200 meters at varying heights and distances.
Lap three challenges tank crews to negotiate narrow dunes, multiple rivers of varying depth and a simulated urban environment.

The Romanian team sends their T-7 once again.

The Soviet team sends a prototypical tank called Object 172.

Germany sends the l.KpZ V (M41 copy).

Mexico brings their latest tank, the Jaguar 1 (Leopard 1).

India sends the Varaha tank (Type 59 clone).

Japan sends the Type 61.

Panama sends their M48 Patton.

Chad sends their AMX-30.

France sends the AMX-30.

As the heavy transport planes laden with the other nations' entries touched down on the runway, some kept their eye out for the approach of the Chinese entry. It was said that not only did they have an upgraded model of their Type 48 Main Battle Tank, but that the RoCAF had adopted a new type of heavy lift transport as well. Surely if they were bringing their updated MBT, they'd be using their new heavy transport plane as well. It wasn't as if a tank could be carried any other way.

...which was why nobody was expecting the Z-2 Helicopter that swung over the mountains, and touched down right next to the space allotted to the Chinese team.

After the novelty wore off, few of the observers kept their attention on the descending transport chopper. It was carrying an advance team, or the spare crew perhaps. As impressive as the Z-2 was, it couldn't carry a tank, not even a light tank.

Yet as the helicopter's engines spooled down and the whine of its turbines wore away, a low, buzzing growl remained, coming from inside the transport chopper.

The chopper's ramp dropped, and the growl rose to a roar.

A dark shape shot out of the helicopter's transport bay, like a race horse out of the starting gate, its radio antenna whipping back, the three-feathered guidon of the 3rd Dragoon Guards fluttering behind it as it made a tight circle around the lot, at a speed which frankly, should have been impossible for an armoured vehicle.

The tank - it was pretty clear that it was a tank now - did two circuits of the lot, allowing neither incline nor obstacle to stop or even slow it down. At last, it slid to a stop, drifting across the pavement like a sports car.

The engine's roar died back to a growl, and then to silence.. Then the commander's hatch popped open, and a figure pulled himself out with one hand, carefully stepping clear of the turret, using the the slim barrel of the high velocity 30mm autocannon as a handhold. Finally, he lowered himself off the hull, stepped onto the ground, and he reached out with his other hand to set a single steaming clay teacup on the yellow Mexican earth.

"Not a drop!" Warrant Officer Zheng declared, with a look of no small satisfaction. "Tell Senior Sergeant Liu he owes me five yuan!"

OOC wrote:The Republic of China brings a Type 60 Dougou, the equivalent of an FV107 Scimitar.

Sergeant Gabriel Malillos, who had been overseeing the unloading of his own tank, was more than thoroughly distracted by the arrival of the Chinese entry. The trance was only broken by the Warrant's finishing flourish. He flashed his reserve counterpart a bemused look before going to confer with his gaggle of corporals. The rankers were out in force this evening, a whole lance of them assembled near the tank - the combined crews. The left Master Corporal, his gunner, greeted him lightly before the nearer First Corporal, the reserve driver, filled him in on what they were thinking about that... thing. It was minutes before Malillos realised they were missing a Corporal. Upon raising the question, the other First Corporal piped up - he'd gone to snoop on the Chinese 'tank'. Ah hell. The Sergeant didn't have time to chide them for letting him go, as the most pressing matter was to go and collect his loader before he made an ass of himself. Again.

OOC wrote: The Principality of Aragon sends their M60A1 Patton, with Top Loading Air Cleaner and prototype Add-On Stabilisation.

"So that's the little speedster we're supposed to be seeing with the armour-recce guys in future. Somewhat amazingly, it actually lives up to much of the fanfare."

Warrant Officer Kettering glanced at his gunner, amused. "And that's just the Scimitar - the Scorpion variant that's been tested get a short seventy-six, too."

Master Corporal Ryu grinned widely, sweeping his gaze over the assembled crews. "They are going to wreck this lot in time trials. We've got them beat on gunnery, though, unless they've done some serious magic to that gun."

Kettering side-eyed the junior NCO. "That confident of your shooting skills?"

"Dude." Ryu returned, gesturing at the K2 105mm gun at the front of Snow Leopard's turret.

"...he's got a point, Warrant." Corporal Kim-gyeong, a relatively recent addition to the crew, called up from the loader's hatch. "I mean, how many times has he missed in the courses we did before shipping over here? Twice. Exactly twice."

Kettering shook his head, ignoring the gunner's preening. "Just don't get a swelled head over it. Your ego gets any bigger, it won't fit through the hatch."

Korea has brought a 2M65A3 Leopard.

The SRA, unsurprisingly, sought to claim the victory it had long-desired but never achieved. 1971 saw the Socialist Republic Army's Armored Corps bringing forth the M65A1 main battle tank. Visually, it didn't differ all that much from the M65 seen at previous events or even in the SRA's propaganda films and frontline war footage. However, Captain Karolina Ingersleben knew that the differences were much more than what the eye could see. Had to be, if a fight like Cascadia was going to come up again. Then again, it could be worse - she could be like one of her former classmates, stuck slumming it in a Hancock. Those things were rumored to be deathtraps.

Maybe a deathtrap wasn't so bad, if the Chinese idea was to be believed. "Sergeant," she said, adjusting her gumdrop helmet just enough to keep her hair in place, "keep an eye on Group Therapy after we park. I want to see what the hell the Chinese are thinking."

"The Americans are coming,"

Senior Sergeant Liu looked up from Big Dog's engine bay to see that the Americans were, indeed coming. Warrant Zheng was already eyeing the SRA tanker crossing the yard with that patented stare of appraisal which every Warrant Officer in the National Revolutionary Army seemed to get once they finished their course at Huangpu.

"Keep staring at that American like that, and your wife'll be serving you divorce papers," Warrant Zhou called out off-handedly from his perch at the top of his turret, as he helped load a clip of 30mm shells for the Dougou's roboloader.

"A full Captain," Zheng noted, just loud enough for the chief mechanic and the gunner to hear. "They sent a Lieutenant in '62. Sent one in '65 as well, from what I've heard. This time they send a full Captain. I think the Americans are finally taking this seriously."

"How do you know?" Zhou replied, voice laden with that condescending tone of light derision that Warrant Officers always seemed to use to address one another. "The SRA has like sixteen different kinds of Sergeants, Maybe they made up a new one just for losing Tank Biathlons?"

"Nope, two silver bars, one to represent each year they've survived being an officer without getting themselves and their entire command killed," Zheng answered. "She should be able to hear us soon."

Zhou replied with the lightest hint of a smirk as he passed the clip down through the commander's hatch. "Then I guess we better say hi."

Zheng nodded, as he pushed himself off his tank's hull. "Guess we should."

Karolina held her head high - may as well with the damn gumdrop on - as she approached the Chinese "tank," if it could even be called that. Were the Chinese channeling the spirit of the '62 Romanian team? "Good afternoon, sir," she said in fluent, if slightly accented, Chinese, bowing her head slightly. "Captain Karolina Ingersleben, 1st Armored Division." Now that she had gotten closer, this definitely was channeling the Romanians. Light vehicle, light armament, light everything. If not in size, it looked about as well-protected as the M212s she had seen in California. She kept her face neutral, maintaining her best even-toned voice as she looked at each part of the Chinese tank. "Good day for armored operations. Is this the first time this thing's been taken out to the field?"

"The field?" Zheng replied, not sure if he should be amused, or merely bemused. "I guess if you want to call it that. You don't really know what a tank's capable of until it's been tested under fire. this is really just another mobility test, ma'am."

He inclined his head back by way of belated reply to the American officer's introduction. "Warrant Officer Zheng, 3rd Dragoon Guards. This is Senior Sergeant Liu, our gunner, and Warrant Zhou, our chief mechanic."