LUEshi's Rangers/Campaign Journal

A Concise Account of Malton

LUEshi's Independent Company of Rangers on Campaign

Journal of Captain Loup Garou

The Beginning

I've spent the vast majority of my time in Malton as part of the undead. I started as a fireman and was quickly killed due to incompetence and, because of further incompetence, I didn't know I could be revived. That's what it is to be a newbie. But after a number of years of that including stints with the RRF, the LUE horde, and LUEshi's Undead I found myself combat revived. I became proficient with every survivor skill and thought I'd give killing humans as a human a shot. It was the most fun I'd ever had in the city. People just don't get into the zombie-human conflict as much. Nobody really blames humans for shooting zombies or zombies for chewing on humans. It's just what they do. But, if you shoot another human? Things explode. I remember this one guy and I played cat and mouse for weeks. He'd kill me, I'd kill him, he'd kill me again. I learned the standard PKer tactics by accident at this time. Using them, I succeeded in killing him 4 times in a row after which I never saw him again. I figure he had left the suburb. I also picked up a few less-than-admirable traits at this time (I found it amusing to report myself to the Rogues Gallery).

I did this for months. I racked up an OK bounty with the Rogues Gallery. I learned a few things. First, while being killed was inconvenient, I rarely had trouble getting a revive. Second, bounty hunters were simply not capable of dishing out enough retribution to cover the damage I inflicted. Part of this was simply that the vast majority of survivors did not utilize the Rogues Gallery. Eventually, I decided I wanted to found a group. I put out a posting and attracted old LUE members as well as some new ones. Of course, a small fraction of those who responded actually showed up for duty but those who have added their strength to the company are invaluable.

LUEsers naturally make good player killers. Like Something Awful goons, drama and butthurt is like crack to a LUEser. Nothing generates ill will in Urban Dead like player killing. It's rather peculiar.

The best morale boost for the Rangers are radio broadcasts decrying us and our war effort.

The Caiger Campaign - August 04th, 2010 through August 13th, 2010 - Ranger Defeat

Caiger was selected as the location for our genesis for a variety of reasons. It's history made it a fun challenge. Even if that history has been somewhat tarnished by Caiger now falling like every other mall. It's also a target-rich environment. A busy mall in a busy suburb that did not currently have much in the way of zombie menace. It was a good ground to practice and refine our procedures. We did some good work here. My Rangers never failed to exceed my expectation at each outing.

I want to say our biggest success at Caiger was the body count. We appear to have been about keeping pace with the Rolt Heights War and with 1/2-1/3 the numbers there at their peak. But, that's presumptuous and I'll leave that to others to estimate. Our greatest success seemed to be psychological. I don't know that I've seen this much butthurt in awhile. I can understand the frustration. Not posting our members makes things that much harder for them and nobody likes to wake up dead. On the other hand, writing a page built around insults, none of which have any basis in anything the Rangers have said, only spurs us on. LUEsers like Lulz. As much as that page tries to marginalize us, all it does is cement how much we've done to Caiger. They actively try to hunt us down. Even if our knocking out the Necrotechs didn't put them out of commission for much time, it still warranted a radio warning trying to get support to them. Every strike we made infuriated the Caiger survivors even more.

The campaign codified our early tactics and procedures. Each engagement was a learning experience and we added making pinatas to our skillset. We took 101 heads and suffered 15 or so retaliatory casualties tops. We found our direction and purpose. The most entertaining part of this entire campaign has been reading anti-LUE tags and radio transmissions. Every engagement shows us how to refine our process and I think subsequent campaigns will be even more successful.

Our first battle went about as well as any group's first battle. Numbers were high. Everyone was fresh. Nobody was headhunting us yet so we had free reign to attack. We're a smaller group, so we didn't post the high kill counts of, say, the Samhain Slaughter events but I think we did all right. The reactions were priceless.

The second battle of the campaign is harder to analyze. For the purposes of this journal, I'm lumping together the 5 straight days of engagements that occurred from the 09th to the 13th and labeling them the second battle. The fighting on the 09th-11th focused on 5 Necrotechs near Caiger. By the 11th we had managed to pinata each at least once. They were back up in working order nearly instantly but it's the thought that counts and the lulz that ensued. The primary engagement was on the 10th with a small pre-game operation on the 09th and sporadic fighting in Latrobe throughout the day on the 11th. We geared up for a full strike on the 12th and executed a decent raid. We struck again on the 13th with less results still. I'm surprised we managed to successfully fight for 4 days straight. By the last raid, everyone was simply out of bullets. We gave them hell for 5 straight days and I consider it a great success. Our kills tapered down to about 10 on the final day but this was a product of being out of ammo and not taking time to revive our fallen more than anything else.

Re-examination of the Campaign 11/12/2010

Of late, I have gone back over the results of the campaign and have decided to reclassify it as a defeat. Though, I want to temper that by noting I still believe we did fantastically well for our first outing. We have never since matched the rate of kills we achieved here: At least 10 a day throughout the campaign. We were a new group but we were largely composed of veteran players which takes the wind out of the sails there a bit.

In the neutral category: With no clear goals beyond 'kill a lot of people,' we were setting ourselves up for a no-win situation. That sort of goal is one that cannot really be met in a satisfactory manner. It is unfocused and indirect and has no vision to it.

For why it was a defeat, I had to review the reasons we left the suburb. We were out of bullets. We were getting spread too thinly. We were being actively hunted. The zombies had not yet come to the area. The real reason we left was because they forced us out. We needed to go to a quieter location. Excuses are excuses but ultimately we ran away. We left the field of battle. We fled. By any measuring stick, it was a defeat. We were forced out of the suburb.

The Siege of Calvert Mall - August 18th, 2010 through August 20th, 2010 - Ranger Victory

Whether or not this was the 'first' mall pinata is not my concern. I'll let the junior Rangers squabble over that 'honor.' The things I am most pleased with about this battle are: The opening attack featured a record number of Ranger participants. We had about 20 men lighting up the mall. The second was that it was a success. The Caiger Campaign could only be called a success in that we out-killed the Caiger survivors by a wide margin and managed to operate fairly well. However, the Caiger Campaign had no real objectives. It was simply a convenient place to meet and it provided a target-rich environment with which to hone our skills. We came to Calvert with the goal of making the place in to a pinata.

The opening battle went well. We had record Rangers ready to attack. It would seem, however, that our average wasn't keeping up. We killed in the mid to high 30s with just 15 Rangers in the opening battle of the Caiger Campaign but with 5 extra Rangers our total kills don't seem to have gone up proportionally. This can be traced to 2 major causes: The first being that most Rangers are switching to a majority-pistol kit so they can fight for 2 days straight (this is why our second day of battle had significantly higher kills than the last time we tried a 2-day affair) and that at least one Ranger in attendance during the siege was wielding a fire axe as his sole weapon. We learn new lessons with every battle.

The second engagement also went fairly well. We managed to polish off the mall, if just barely. Many Rangers were drawing their knives and axes by the end of the fight. The second day of battle was thrown together as an ad hoc assault. We didn't expect such a successful first battle and couldn't give up the opportunity to press our advantage. Calvert was a very welcome host. We suffered almost no retaliatory kills.

The fact that we suffered less retaliatory kills is probably more reflective on the area we were fighting in than it is on us. Caiger was under siege so those who were out for our blood there were disinclined to pursue us North. The Calvert area doesn't seem to have as many dedicated groups as Caiger does. I was personally claimed by Erica Rackham of The Saints during the Caiger Campaign and one Ranger was killed by a regular of The Preston Arms. We didn't really see any of that at Calvert. Alternatively, it may have been simply because the entire siege was over in 3 days.

The final battle I was not present for. My Lieutenant ably organized and directed the battle and personally pinata'd the mall. The Rangers involved were definitely using knives and axes to finish the fight. It's gruesome work and certainly wasn't a glorious battle like the first day's fighting was but it was a fitting cap to the siege. My Rangers gave their all and dragged the mall in to ruin.

The siege was a clear victory for us. We accomplished our goal and the butcher bill we paid to do it was extremely light. However, Calvert lacks the famous nature of Caiger. It seems few there are willing to defend it bitterly the way they will Ackland or Caiger. So, the defenses were comparatively light. However, that's not to say it was easy. We expended full loads of ammunition and fought tooth and nail for 3 days straight and killed 68 people to do it. The company did a lot of growing in terms of skill during the siege. If we were to have swung back around and attacked Caiger again with the same tenacity, we would have definitely left them with a severely bloody nose. Our losses would have been quite a bit higher but losses have never stalled us much at all. Caiger losing 70 of its roughly 100 survivors (during our campaign there, anyway) in a few days would certainly be felt, even with Caiger's greater ability to reclaim its losses. We can proudly claim victory at Calvert and keep our heads high after the defeat in the Caiger area.

The Siege of Joachim Mall August 29th, 2010 to September 08th, 2010 - Push

We've finally wrapped operations in the Joachim area and it feels as though we leave things unfinished. I was not present for the first battles of the conflict. My Lieutenant organized and led the Rangers to his second straight victory as officer in command of an attack. The battle brought us less glory. Joachim was sparsely defended and only resulted in about 2 dozen kills. Retaliation was weak, as expected. We lost maybe 2 Rangers to counter attacks. Under my leadership, we executed a second successful attack and took out the mall as well as a nearby necrotech. Then began our real goal: holding territory.

We wanted to see how well we could hold the mall in ruin. I also wanted the Rangers to practice acting autonomously as opposed to coordinated attacks. We only had 2 days of practice but we put Joachim back out of commission right after it was put back together. Unfortunately, 2 days isn't a good test group. It doesn't put strain on our reviving, manpower, and ammo needs. We did well but I would have liked to take it further.

Part of the problem was the loss of momentum in our bid to join the battle at Blackmore. A sizeable chunk of our force, myself included, journeyed to Ridleybank as zombies to join that fight. We arrived just in time for it to be over and then had to walk back to Joachim. This put a lull in our operations by splitting our focus.

We can't call the campaign a defeat in that we were accomplishing our goals and it wasn't the survivors of the area who forced us out. But calling it a success is surely just as wrong. It's not as decisive as Calvert and we had clear goals here so we can't get a weak pass like Caiger. It seems we played to a draw. It's very difficult to leave the suburb but with it on its way to ruin there's no much point in us staying.

The defenders of Joachim were probably only aware of us peripherally. They probably didn't realize a fight was on. That's part of the trouble we've had since Caiger. If we attack a large enough target, we become semi-local villains at best and we don't get the fight we're looking for. Not to say we ought to be a big deal but the targets should react more to mass murder. Regardless, due to zombie interference the campaign was a draw.

Pole Mall, Retreat and Redeployment September 09th, 2010-September 24th, 2010

I wasn't initially going to do a write up of our activities at Pole Mall but leaving a gap that sizable in this record doesn't sit well with me. After the Joachim area became nearly uninhabitable, we advanced on Pole Mall. We started operations and issues began to show. Recruit retention is at an all-time low. We're having trouble maintaining the steady numbers we bolstered at Calvert and Joachim. As a result, our casualties inflicted were very low. Despite this, we received some especially stiff resistance at Pole Mall. A group called The Cleaning Crew even mounted a counter operation that took out 5 Rangers, myself included (of course, all 5 were revived in time for the raid that evening where we killed twice as many Pole survivors but, it was interesting).

In response to the stalwart defense of Pole's survivors we retreated south to Buckley Mall, planning to reload in relative safety and return in force to Pole. Once again, zombies swept through the area and ruined our chance at continuing hostilities there. It was decided that the zombies at Pole would not wait long before turning south and assaulting Buckley. As such, we once again marched out of the combat zone. Our initial target was the site of our first battle: Caiger Mall.

We had only the barest of information on Caiger's supposed reconstruction. I was with the advanced scouting party and among the first to arrive on the scene. Counter to the intelligence we had received, Caiger had not been successfully recaptured and was in ruin. We scouted North to find Calvert alive but falling quickly. At this point, a large amount of chaos set in. It had been quite some time since we had shed blood. While I scouted ahead at Stickling Mall, my lieutenant organized a small raid on Calvert. Calvert was being regularly invaded by the zombies and we only wanted to give it a parting shot before they took it completely. The raid inflicted some losses on Calvert and we were again on the move.

New Allies, the Stickling Mall Campaign September 25th, 2010 - October 06th, 2010 - Allied Victory

Many Rangers got lost in the trek from Pole Mall to Caiger and then from Caiger to Stickling. One of our members, during the Pole Mall battle, splintered off and revived the LUE zombie horde. Our numbers were holding steady at around a dozen. We attempted our usual style and failed to inflict significant casualties. During this same amount of time we began skirmishing with a group called The Exclave.

During our opening campaign at Caiger, the second in command of the Exclave, a man known by the handle of Savaer, shot and killed one of our Rangers. I happened upon him during my scouting run of Stickling Mall and, thinking it just luck, took him out. This became one of the key stumbling blocks in the campaign. The Exclave's commanding officer Jacen Brazeau retaliated for Savaer. After getting revived I found them both in the same building and killed them both. We traded shots for a solid week. Spending time and bullets on them became a chore and detracted from our raids on Stickling Mall.

I'd like to write that my Rangers brought the Exclave to heel and they came to the table first. In truth, in the last exchange I used a quote from Tombstone as a pre-death line. Brazeau was, perhaps justifiably, weirded out by this and noted it. I used the chance to open a dialogue between our groups. I did some research on the Exclave and discovered I'd been gunning down people who, if they were not wearing another tag, would feel right at home in my Ranger company. I extended the offer of a cease fire and they took it. I negotiated through Savaer and Brazeau at the same time and the consensus was clear: Our shots would be better utilized on those in Stickling mall. I don't know if the agreement could be called an alliance but we certainly struck a mutual-assistance and non-aggression pact. It was sort of amusing that within a few days of killing him, Brazeau was healing me.

At the same time, we also formed an alliance with the new incarnation of the LUE horde. The new LUE horde is significantly smaller than its progenitors and with my own Company's recruitment problems it was decided that combining our forces was the best move. My Rangers slid into their new role as harassers, skirmishers, and scouts admirably. The zombies became the hammer of our operations while we greased the wheels of their warmachine.

Our first strikes were, as noted, somewhat pitiful compared to our glory days. We brought 8-9 Rangers to each fight and inflicted about 25 total kills in 2 days of fighting. The next several days were spent chasing The Exclave around the suburb. All in all, not our best work. But when the alliances were laid down, we found our second wind.

The mall strike was a mark of bad survivor conduct. The zombies entered the mall with our help and we slowly picked off the survivors over the next two days. The zombie force was small but it pushed methodically through the mall almost unimpeded. The small force was sorely outnumbered by survivors inside by very little headway was made to dislodge the undead. Bellows were let out but I do not think it attracted a significant number of ferals. Any Rangers killed in the course of the operation were simply cycled in to the zombie ranks while they waited for a revive. We pushed through the mall with virtually no speed bumps and the humans have failed to regain much of a foothold in it while we remained in the area. I do not know the extent of The Exclave's involvement in the final attack. If I can get word of it, I will include it later. They supported the operation vocally and Brazeau did heal me in the middle of it.

For the meantime, we will continue working in conjunction with the LUE horde. I will keep tabs with The Exclave whenever possible for events in Shearbank and, if we had an opening in our schedule, I would like to assist them militarily when we can. The 'independent' part of our designation is a bit fuzzier. We still operate on our own but we have forged an alliance and attached ourselves to a zombie horde. Ultimately, it allows us to keep dishing out the butthurt even with our decreased numbers.

Return to Caiger Mall October 10th, 2010 - October 14th, 2010 - Allied Victory

It was decided that we would return to Caiger Mall. We carried out small raids against it but the main driving force was, again, the zombies. This siege was won more by survivor cowardice than anything else. Just under 3 dozen zombies toppled a mall of over 100 defenders.

Perhaps cowardice is too harsh. It is simply be good tactics. I don't believe the 3 dozen zombies and my Rangers killed even half of the mall's occupants. I believe the defenders saw the writing on the wall and, instead of defending the building, fled to the relative safety of the surrounding buildings. Why shouldn't they? The mall can be rebuilt. Hordes prize malls as targets and, usually, they will swiftly leave the area once it is ruined. Why stick around? They want to go to the next meal. Dying for 4 blocks of consumerism is silly. Especially since you can wait it out a few blocks away, come back a few days later, and get the place back up and running in no time.

So, then, the lack of barhah is attributable to our forces. We, as do most zombie hordes, topple the mall quickly and scamper off to the next mall. Some sustainability and street fighting might be the solution. It's more interesting than flying on auto-pilot. The Battle of SantLUEville was a heated contest on both sides. Fighting house-to-house is very difficult and rewarding for each piece of territory you take and hold. My Rangers attempted holding territory back at Joachim and Calvert but fighting alongside our undead brethren has added urgency to our movements.

The other significant note of this fight was that we finally noticed the Cleaning Crew had been stalking us. We had been attacked sporadically by them before but it clicked that they seemed to be actively seeking us out during this operation. We struck back, taking out one of their members on each of the two days before we moved out. A pittance compared to the dozen or so casualties they've inflicted on us since they first began taking us on back at Pole Mall. I will give them ample credit. They were difficult to find. They do not maintain a brazen presence on the wiki nor do they seem to have a message board. We know of 3 of their members though they may have more. They can consider this an open challenge. If they want to have it out, we will be more than happy to play. Alternatively, they may NOT have been following us and our 3 separate run-ins with them now may have been pure coincidence.

Also of interest was that we discovered the Creedy Guerrilla Raiders in the area. Pleasantries were exchanged. We did not directly coordinate but the CGR tallied 30 kills in the area and were likely of great help in the battle. A small force of zombies and zombie-allied humans managed to upturn a mall of over 100 defenders. The mall defenders likely pulled out for sunnier spots but, hopefully, we can turn back to fight them again soon.

Calvert Mall 2 and Bale Mall October 15th, 2010 - October 20th, 2010 - Inconclusive

After the Caiger battle a brief stop was made at Calvert Mall. The battle was over quickly and we pressed on to Bale Mall, the next target of our aggressions. My Rangers went into independent mode. We assassinated old enemies we found in the area and sniped a little bit. The fight was a slow one for Vinny Mendoza's zombies until a large horde moved into the area and crushed the mall quickly. Our forces did not participate much in the fighting and, as such, it was not much of a victory for us nor much to write about. At the conclusion of this campaign my Lieutenant took a temporary leave of absence.

Battle of the Preston Arms and A Third Trip to Caiger October 26th, 2010 - October 29th, 2010 - Allied Victory

This is more of a footnote in our history than a real battle. When myself and one my Rangers killed a Cleaning Crew member in the Preston Arms I noted two people who had attacked my Rangers during the original Caiger Campaign were PA regulars. I made it a goal to come back and shoot up the place in utter disregard for their attempt at being 'neutral ground.' The Rangers believe that the fighting comes to everyone regardless of their location. Also, we didn't believe the bar should be able to function as an effective hiding place for our enemies.

As per usual, our numbers were low. But, by the end of the night we had nearly managed to clean the place out. We got our 2 old enemies and killed most of the PA regulars. Many of them were revived in time for us to kill them again on the second day of our strike.

Shockingly, we received no retaliation. Near as I've been able to gather from reports from Rangers, no retaliatory attacks were attempted. No bounties were posted on the Rogues Gallery. They let us get away completely clean. Perhaps they are exercising the tactic of not giving PKers the attention that they want. Arguably, it's an effective tactic. They seem to have an extremely efficient revive network so their deaths were a minor inconvenience at best. If they had sallied out and attempted to headhunt my group we would have been much more obliged to continue assaulting the bar. As it is, the place seems rather boring as a target. Evidently, "Turn the other cheek" is an effective defense policy. Perhaps we could have stirred them to anger had we been more relentless. Or, perhaps, they simply couldn't find us. I'm leaning more toward the former as with a dozen or so Rangers spread out over the area sleeping only a handful of blocks away from the target, they should have been able to take out at least ONE of us.

After that, we rendezvoused with our undead compatriots who were all ready inside Caiger with another horde of zombies. We played our usual role of cleaners and harassers. We scored a few kills and many of us were taken down as the zombies spilled out of Caiger and in to the surrounding buildings. With our work done, we packed up and prepared to move on.

The Penny Heights Campaign November 05th, 2010 - November 22nd, 2010 - Ranger Defeat

There's a lot to say here. It was our longest campaign yet. It brought us in to conflict with what could be the successor to the New Malton Colossus. It was long road. Like most road trips, it started off with the shine of something new and of encouraging early victories. Also like most road trips, by the last day we were ready for it to be over.

The campaign can be divided into two phases. The first and our most successful was the battle for Joachim Mall. It was a great morale boost to finally pinata a mall again after so long. We really needed that. It didn't boost our numbers now but I think my group has dwindled as much as it is likely going to. I have a solid core unit. We will not be able to fight on the scale we did in our early days but we are more than capable of taking small-scale operations and will continue to wreak havoc out of all proportion to our numbers.

Our initial strikes held promise. The mall was only lightly guarded but we toppled it with some effort. We managed to hold it for a brief period and keep it contested for a while longer. We were not as successful as we were last time we were here. But, the battle also lasted longer so who's to say our first trip to this mall would not also have gone the way this one did? The zombie group we've been fighting with quickly lost interest. The place was sorely underpopulated and they needed more fertile hunting grounds. Though, their leader did join us in a few of our early battles and pinata'd Joachim at least once.

The comedy of campaign was provided by one thorn in our side named Nickoli. I do not exaggerate when I say we killed him well over a dozen times during the entire campaign. I don't even think he shot at us. He simply snitched on us and, in killing him, provided us with endless hilarity. Some excerpts:

Nickoli said "We have a PKer just next door to us in Rumler Way School comrades, his name is //CENSORED BY DEPARTMENT 
OF HOMELAND SECURITY//. Run from him, or kill him, before he kills you." (3 hours and 36 minutes ago)
Loup Garou said "Nice to see you, Nickoli. You must have gotten one of my Rangers some time ago." (2 hours and
14 minutes ago)
Loup Garou killed Nickoli with a fire axe. (2 hours and 13 minutes ago)
The lights went out in another corner of the building. (1 hour and 56 minutes ago)
Nickoli rose from the dead as a zombie. (1 hour and 32 minutes ago)
A zombie said "Agarn? Rra?" (1 hour and 32 minutes ago)

And thus began a beautiful relationship.

* Nickoli said "Thanks for the revive comrade, you probably recognize me because I've been in Penny Heights for a few 
years now. I keep getting PKed though, by a whole bunch of zergers, I'll give you all the list of people who PKed
everyone in the Mall about a day ago..." (14 hours and 24 minutes ago)
* //CENSORED BY DEPARTMENT
OF HOMELAND SECURITY//" (14 hours and 22 minutes ago)
* Nickoli said "There could have been more, I don't know since I kept getting PKed in the Mall but not dumped, so I'd 
stand and get revived, then PKed again. So there could have been more, but those bastards killed atleast 2 people per
person while I was standing." (14 hours and 21 minutes ago)
* Nickoli said "They were hanging around the school just west of the Mall, but I'm sure they've scattered all over
the surrounding area. I expect to be PKed, again, in my sleep, again, but if they wonna kill the guy who refuels gens, 
whatever." (14 hours and 20 minutes ago)
* Mr Bleak2 said "Welcome back Marquis!" (14 hours and 20 minutes ago)
* Nickoli said "We need some help though, because with over half a dozen active, organized, gorilla tactics PKers so 
close to the Mall, any place could get wiped out in a day, from the inside out." (14 hours and 19 minutes ago)
* Mr Bleak2 said "Oh yeah, the PK and GKers all seem to hang out in club Fortescue or whatever its called" (14 hours 
and 19 minutes ago)
* Nickoli said "Someone send in for some backup, we're getting our asses handed to us." (14 hours and 18 minutes ago)
* Mr Bleak2 said "I'm low on AP. Have a list of names? You should report them and put bounties out." (14 hours and 18 
minutes ago)
* Mr Bleak2 said "http://wiki.urbandead.com/index.php/PK_Reporting" (14 hours and 17 minutes ago)
* Loup Garou said "Hey, Nickoli! Glad to see you're back on your feet so I can knock you off them again." (12 hours 
and 14 minutes ago)
* Loup Garou killed Nickoli with a pistol. (12 hours and 14 minutes ago)
* Nickoli rose from the dead as a zombie. (12 hours and 4 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Rrh ha rh mran? Agarn an agarn" (12 hours and 4 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Hra rh rh rh grh rh arrrn hrrrh....." (12 hours and 4 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Ana.... Mrh?" (12 hours and 4 minutes ago)
* A zombie gestured at itself. (12 hours and 4 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Mrh rarh?" (9 hours and 3 minutes ago)
* A zombie gestured at itself. (9 hours and 3 minutes ago)
* A flare was fired 8 blocks to the west and 2 blocks to the south. (6 hours and 55 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Mrh?" (6 hours and 34 minutes ago)
* A zombie gestured at itself. (6 hours and 34 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Brh hrh rh rn rh rmbarrarng...." (5 hours and 56 minutes ago)
* A zombie said "Grrh rh rh agarn..... Mrh?" (3 hours and 27 minutes ago)
* A zombie gestured at itself. (3 hours and 27 minutes ago)

As you can see, a barrel of fun. We haven't been able to see the psychological effects of our raids since the Caiger Campaign. Nickoli did us a massive favor by creating an aura of fear around us. Making people think that we could topple any place at any time only increases what we can accomplish. Also, he clearly wasn't keeping good track of our numbers as both of these missives happened in front of one of my Rangers. Nickoli was the best thing we've had happen to us in a long time.

But, nothing good lasts forever. We were moving around too much and fighting too little. We needed stability. That's why we came to the area. Stability brings us in to more conflicts. Just before we executed a raid, we discovered Joachim's population had surged. We didn't know at the time but a group was moving in to town that would shape the second half of the campaign.

We killed quite a few in the battle given our numbers including a guy who literally wandered in 10 seconds before the shooting started. But, we also encountered something new. Somebody shot back and then ran. We've never had someone truly active during a fight before. It was new. I looked through profiles afterward and discovered the Skynet Defense Network under the very capable leadership of Bad Attitude Barbie was in town. I hadn't heard of them before (no offense intended, I don't much keep abreast of groups these days). I did some searching, taunted them through their own communications channel, and brought holy hell down on my Rangers. Skynet itself didn't fight back much. The trouble was when they called in their shitkicking squad Team Xtreme under the efficient and ruthless Josh Clark.

We initially did well. We killed a few Skynetters in the opening engagement and had some success at headhunting the next day. When Team Xtreme hit Penny Heights all bets were off. Their communications ability is simply unrivaled. Their scouting is top notch and the fact that they can communicate in real-time allows them to execute targets before they can get away. After the second day of fighting Skynet we were getting the short end of the stick.

At first our reviving was very efficient. We maintained our usual habit of keeping time-spent-dead at a minimum. But being killed daily (and in some cases twice daily) simply wore us down. We had two options: Find syringes to keep Rangers up and in the fight or find ammo to actually fight back. We choose needles and the last few days of the operation, save our last hurrah, were without any kills for our side.

On the 22nd we decided to retreat with some dignity. We pulled together a last hurrah and took out a few targets in the suburb. We could not find any Skynetters to terminate save Bad Attitude Barbie who, out of sheer luck, was gone when her assassin went to kill her. We shot Nickoli one final time and began the retreat in earnest. We tip our hats collectively to Skynet for fighting a good fight and making the campaign worthwhile and we are not ashamed to admit that they trounced us soundly. We can only offer a few excuses for our poor performance: Team Xtreme came to the fight relatively fresh when we had been fighting for 10 days and our zombie support needed to shamble away at just the wrong time for us. Hopefully, next time we meet we can give them a better go. Skynet Defense Network and Team Xtreme, we saLUEte you.