There wasn’t an empty seat on the plane. I studied the men across from and on either side of me. Some were studying their maps, some looking straight ahead, some looking around as I was. There was idle chatter, but I was too nervous to talk. This was going to be my first combat jump.
To calm my nerves, I pulled out my own copy of the map and studied the layout of the town again. There were five command posts spread around the city, supported by an army base. Our mission was to capture and hold the command post in the east depot. The troops on the ground were encountering heavy resistance and were having a difficult time getting inside the town. If we paratroopers could accomplish our mission, our brothers-in-arms would be able to establish a foothold in the eastern part of town.
The jump master yelled for us to get ready, so I put my map away and gripped my weapon. The plane began the descent to jump altitude. Shortly after the pilot leveled off, anti-aircraft rounds began exploding around us.
“Go, go, go,” cried the jump master.
The sound of the plane’s engines swiftly faded away as I drifted downward. The city was still a bit north of me, but the momentum was carrying me toward it. Shells were still exploding and tracer rounds were flying through the air. I could see the infantry below, trying to advance. As I drifted over the southern edge of town, I could make out Nazi infantry dashing through the streets, or firing out of windows. I looked ahead, trying to judge where I would land. I began to get anxious as I realized that I was going to be well off target. I was heading for the heart of the city, to a location not far from the army base full of Nazi infantry and tanks.
I felt a sense of relief as I realized that I was heading directly for the blasted ruin of a building. The roof was gone, but the broken walls were still standing. I couldn’t have found a better point of landing had I been able to pick one. The ground rushed up and I touched down inside the walls. I quickly cut free and scrambled to my feet. A quick examination of my surroundings showed me the building was even more perfect than I had realized.
There were two windows and a door in the west wall. The other walls were solid. Looking out the window, I saw a wide plaza. On the north side, less than 50 meters away, was the central command post. To the south was a row of two-story buildings. There were only two ways into the plaza: one was directly west of my little building, the other was from the north, between my building and the CP. I had a perfect field of view of the plaza. Anyone coming from the west would be in my sights immediately and anyone coming from the north would be visible before they reached my door.
I took all of this in at a glance as there was little time for much else. Gunfire was coming out of the CP. A quick peek showed me one Nazi infantryman in a first floor window and another on the second floor, firing through a big hole in the roof. Neither of them was looking at me. I took aim at the one on the second floor first. He would have the clearer shot at me if he did notice me. One short, three-round burst and he fell. It took a few more bursts to get the one in the first floor window, since he was at a bad angle. But get him I did.
When I was sure that there were no more of the enemy in any of the CP openings, I looked south to see what had drawn the attention of the two I killed. All of the buildings had bomb damage. Smoke was rising from the second floor in one of them, its north wall blown away. Through the smoke I could see the distinctive uniform of one of my fellow paratroopers. He was face-down and still. I hadn’t killed the two enemy infantrymen in time to save my companion’s life. There was no way to tell who it was from here. But there was no time to dwell on it either. Two more enemy grunts were coming round the corner at the west end of the plaza, both headed for the CP. One fell as soon as I pulled the trigger. The other made it as far as the CP door, but he never got inside.
I lost track of time. One Nazi soldier after another came around the corner. Each of them fell victim to my gun. The army base was to the southwest, on the other side of the row of buildings. They must have been coming from there. I wanted to leave, to move east and meet up with the rest of the jumpers. But my shelter was also a trap. Because the only door in the building opened up onto the plaza, with no cover, I would be an easy target for anyone who happened around the corner as I exited the building. And I had no idea what the situation was like behind me, how many of the enemy were in the streets and windows between my location and the east command post. All I could do was wish my brothers well and take out as many of the enemy as I could before they got me.
I emptied one magazine after another. The bodies were piling up in the plaza. More than once I drew attention to myself by firing my last few rounds. I’d get one target, but the other would drop and fire in my direction while I reloaded. One came within a few feet of my little building. But they all came from the west, which gave me enough time to reload while they crossed the plaza. Had any one of them come from the north while I was reloading, it would have been over for me much sooner. Still, it had to end eventually.
He rounded the corner alone. Unlike the ones who had come before, he dropped to the ground as soon as he saw the bodies scattered around the plaza. His quick reaction caused me to miss my initial burst. He quickly zeroed in on my location and started firing. He was a rifleman, not a machine gunner, so he could only fire one shot at a time and had to manually work the bolt after each shot. Not much to worry about. I ducked below the window and reached for another magazine. There wasn’t one.
Cursing, I fumbled for my pistol. The end was near, but I wasn’t going down until I had nothing left to fight with. Once all of the pistol ammo was used up, I still had a knife to fall back on. I raised back up, pistol in hand, scanning the plaza for the enemy. He had moved while I was out of sight. I had expected him to, but I wasn’t down long enough for him to have made it to the CP. A bullet ricocheted off the edge of the window. The sound of the shot came from the plaza, but where? I felt sick when I realized that there were so many bodies out there that he was probably hiding amongst them. Another shot, another miss. This time, though, the movement he made while working the bolt caught my eye. I quickly took aim and fired…
I saw the flash of his muzzle a split second before mine. I was on the ground, staring at the ceiling. My vision was fading, but I saw him when he rushed through the door. The muzzle flashed one more time.
When World War II Online first launched, it did so to horrid reviews. The press was so negative that I didn’t bother even visiting the web site. Instead, I got wrapped up in Dark Age of Camelot and forgot all about it. Last year I was looking for something different to try. I was surprised to find that WWII Online (now known as Battleground Europe) was still kicking. The client is available for download, so I figured I’d give it a try. I’ll admit that my expectations were low, but I actually had a good time.
I played only briefly because I didn’t have as much time to spend on it as I would have liked. So after nearly a year I decided to come back. The frame rate still leaves a lot to be desired, but there have been a few improvements since I last played. I recently reached a high enough rank to be able to participate in paratrooper missions. The story above is an account of my first jump. It was a blast!
What I like most about the game is that, unlike other MMOGs out there, you don’t need to put your real life on hold in order to play. I didn’t really realize it last year in the brief period I tried it, but there’s no extensive time commitments required. I really don’t have much time for gaming anymore, so to be able to log in and play for an hour, or even 20 or 30 minutes, and not feel like I’m missing anything, is a huge plus. There’s almost always an attack or defense objective that’s seeing some action. Yesterday, I took a 15 minute break from a project I’m working on, spawned into an allied town that was under an intense Axis attack, killed three Nazi grunts who were trying to get into town, and logged out.
WWII Online is not a casual game in any sense of the word. It’s just that the game play works in such a way that you don’t need to play for hours at a time. The fights go on with or without you. You get points for killing enemies and capturing command posts and, in turn, gain more rank as you gain more points. With more rank you are able to use a wider variety of vehicles and weaponry, or gain the ability to use binoculars or create missions. The highest ranked players are able to play as OIC (Officer in Charge) and can issue attack and defend objectives. But there’s no game-induced pressure to gain rank as quickly as you can. Some players want to, but there’s no need to. The core game play is the same no matter your rank: kill the enemy.
Another great thing is you don’t need to find groups. There aren’t any epic encounters, no ass-numbing quests that take ten hours and fifty people to complete. When you log in and choose a mission, you are on your own. Sure, you’re part of a bigger team. And people can, and do, work together to achieve a common goal (”Hey, I’m running a truck from the fire base to the town, if anyone needs a lift or a tow!”). But in the thick of battle, where you move to, where you take cover, who you shoot at, whether or not you want to try and capture a CP or stick around and guard it from the enemy… all of these decisions are yours. The officers make requests (”I need a guard in that South CP!”), but it’s more of an organized chaos than anything else.
The graphics are a bit dated, but I don’t care. The renderer doesn’t work as efficiently as it could, but my system is hefty enough that it runs at a playable fame rate. Some people do have issues with the frame rate making the game unplayable, so there is clearly room for improvement graphically. There are also issues with lag. There’s been more than one occasion that I shot at an enemy who wasn’t where I saw him, only to find myself dead instead. But quirks aside, the game play is just awesome.
If you’ve never given WWII Online a go, try it. They’ve got a free, 14-day trial. If ground combat isn’t your thing, you can fly a fighter plane, or a bomber. Perhaps you are more of a sailor and would prefer to work on a Destroyer. Or maybe you like driving tanks? Whatever you prefer, you’ll find yourself in a world of Axis and Allies, played by real people, fighting for control of a virtual Europe one town at a time.
Technorati Tags: World War II Online, Battleground Europe, MMOG, games
{ 5 } Comments
Have played this game for a long time and enjoy it a lot.
good to hear you enjoyed your experience with WWIIOL this time around. i am in a strategic bombing squad and fly fighter escort for them on bombing raids to the German factories, I actually posted my own AAR in the games forums last night about our last mission, so if you don’t mind i will also post it here to give people a chance to see what other types of gameplay are available.
Wow that was an amazing flight, best in a while. We had 5 DB7 bombers with 1 P38 + 2 Spit IXc escorts. We had 1st contact with a 109 about 25klm from monchen gladbach who was at grey circle range behind the flight. Juvenal one of our Spit IXc escorts broke off to intercept, he was able to make a pass but unable to shoot the 109f down, by this time hte 109 was much closer tou the flight so I dove in at very high speed and was able to get a few cannon hits on his rear before pulling up again. By now there was a further 109f below the flight and climbing and a Fw190 was also in the fray.
We managed to harrass the EA, making multiple passes at them but keeping speed and kept them off the flight, we succcessfully got bombs on target taking MG to 72% damage.
As we turned to RTB and headed west, there were 3 EA behind the flight and more also coming in from the south, by this point only Codguy in a P38 and me in my Spit remained to escort, we lost Juvenal during the fight, he was shot down by Ishi***a in a 109f.
On our way back it was a melee, there were about 5 EA behind the flight and 1 109f managed to dive in from alt and got amongst the flight whilst I was still keeping an eye on the trailing EA. He managed to take Ma’s DB7 apart before Codguy who had alt to burn, dove in on the 109f who was by now taking steady chunks out of Hiiamben’s DB7 ( Ben’s cries of get him off me guys!!! really didn’t help ) Codguy sprayed the 109 but was too fast and only got 1 pass on him before I was able to catch but the 109 was evading like crazy and also trying to follow ben’s DB7 and I could never get an effective solution on him, and managed only a few cannon hits. he eventually went into a spin and I left him behind as I tried to regain the flight.
i was now 15klm behind the flight with 2 EA below me I headed back to brussels and made 1 pass on a Fw190 managing a few hits before he rolled to evade. I regained alt for safety and headed back home.
As belgar and Main4ce were circling to land at brussels a 109 managed to sneak up and send main4ce crashing to the ground in flames.
Upon despawn i had 7 damages and 4 kills, which I was more than happy with after a gruelling flight I was just happy to be alive!
S! to the Luftwaffe interceptors, hope you guys enjoyed yourselves aswell and gave you a taste of what thr RDP airwar can be like.
[url]http://csr.wwiionline.com/scripts/se…=125235&page=1[/url]
Thanks for posting that. Anyone unfamiliar with the game will have difficulty with some of the terminology, but I think it still gets the point across
Anyone else with stories from the game, do feel free to post the short ones here, or post links to longer ones.
BTW, when posting links on any Wordpress blog (and most blogging platforms, actually), use HTML anchor tags, not [url] tags. Also, use complete URLs. I was going to fix it for you but the URL you used is incomplete.
Battleground Europe: Battle for Ciney August 2nd. The Allies were pushing hard with numbers to retake the “crossroads” town of Ciney. It is a city where many roads meet and inevitably the Axis and Allies fight bitterly over it. The Axis had held out but their supply and manpower was in jeaopardy. Within minutes the city would be in Allied hands, however this was not the end.. the Axis began moving in from positions behind the frontline to stage their immediate counter attack.
I quickly entered the scene as a specialized French infantry unit known as a “sapper” (engineer with demolition explosives capable of destroying enemy tanks.) Stalking enemy tanks is deadly business. They have extremely deadly machine guns and powerful optics for spotting threats. If nothing else, they will run you over with their tracks!
Moving into position the first Axis Panzers begin to apear on the hillcrest that I have chosen to defend. First a Panzer 3h. I moves toward me unaware as I’m concealed in thick hedges. He passes by me and rolls to a cautious stop to scan for targets. Luckily I’m fairly close and quickly sneak to his position creeping up quietly beside. I place the charge in a particularly deadly spot with a “click.” Within seconds his tank is a flaming heap of scrap metal. As this is happening another panzer can be heard approaching, unaware. Quickly moving to cover I wait. Amazingly he stops less than 100m away..presumeably to scan for danger and possible targets. This is a Panzer 3f..an early WWII tank but not to be underestimated. It could slice me to bits in seconds with its dual mounted machineguns. I repeat my pattern, moving closer, quietly until.. “click” I race away from the charge to avoid being blown to bits by my own explosives. Within seconds his tank is flaming. Soon other vehicles are moving past me. Trucks, halftracks, armored personnel carriers, tank destroyers. They can be destroyed but these targets are out of range. Soon a “232″ (German scout vehicle) and a STUG G tank destroyer move near me and stop. They assume they are safe as the others have passed through this area untouched. I move to the 232 first, placing a charge on his engine. Then racing as fast as possible to the nearby STUG G I place my final charge. “BOOM…. BOOOM!” Two more kills Back to back! The relief of a fourth and final kill put me at ease..but I relax too soon. As all this was going on a german rifleman has spotted me and moved to a concealed position. I move toward cover only to hear the distinct K98 rifle fire.. I fall to the ground.. dead in my tracks, but not without taking a few of the axis with me first!
National Socialism (Nazi) was a political party. Many ordinary Germans were members. Many weren’t. It’s offensive to label every German soldier with that tag. I couldn’t play the game, let alone the Axis side, if I thought I was playing “a Nazi”.
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