Extract 1

"When people die, it's so cool."

Her mouth was next to my ear now, so the words worked their way inside me along with her warm, moist breath.

"Why's that?" I asked.

She put a finger on her lips as if to seal them.

"No questions," she said. "And don't open your eyes. Ok?"

My nod was as small as her voice.

She took her finger from my lips and placed it on my wrist.

"I wish I had a scalpel. I'd cut it open and look inside. Not the corpse...The lump of death. I'm sure there must be something like that. Something round and squishy, like a softball, with a little hard core of dead nerves. I want to take it out of a dead person and cut it open and look inside. I've always wondered what it's like. Maybe it's all hard, like toothpaste dried up inside the tube. That's it don't you think? No, don't answer. It's squishy on the outside, and the deeper you go inside, the harder it gets. I want to cut open the skin and take out the squishy stuff, use a scalpel and some kind of spatula to get through it, and the closer you get to the centre, the harder the squishy stuff gets, until you reach this core. It's sooo tiny, like a tiny ball bearing, and really hard. It must be like that, don't you think?"

She cleared her throat a few times.

"That's all I think about these days. Must be because I have so much time to kill every day. When you don't have anything to do, your thoughts get really, really far out - so far out you can't follow them to the end."

She took the finger from my wrist and drank down the rest of her cola. I knew the glass was empty from the sound of the ice.

____________________
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle No.1.
Selected extracts for EE.

Just maybe

I may have picked the wrong thing to be good at.
----
I have more respect for Herrick and Jin Yu.
----
I may also have strange dreams.
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This is the life Jonny.

A manly utterance indeed

"They taught us that anywhere a tank can go is tank country - even the tops of mountains."

The trouble with the world spinning round is that we always end up back where we were.

Well, at least we get to know the place a little better.

animu fest 08

I'm finally blogging something that isn't a random thought or CoH.

I wish a couple of things: that I had gone for the first day and that I had a better camera. Actually my bro has a better camera, but I don't know how to use it properly and it isn't nice taking it without his permission or at short notice.

Narrowly avoided death by chicken nugget in the morning. On the way to Suntec, I dropped by the War Memorial Park and sat around a while, then moved off. Overland around that time is much calmer, more my kind of place than Citylink; only two other people in the park besides me, and they were taking photos.

There wasn't much of a ticketing queue around by the time I got to the hall, so I just picked mine up and walked in. The ticket was slightly reflective and I wondered how they were going to keep track of the pass holders who went in and out. I supposed it was a stamp-like thing, which was right. There were a couple of cosplayers hanging around, but not as many as later. A few I couldn't recognize, but I wasn't surprised since I don't consider myself into animu hardcore-like anyway. The place was smaller than I had imagined, but still pretty big and noisy still.

I was supposed to meet JY, but he didn't respond for the moment. Not that I didn't have anything to do on my own. I walked around the booths, took a look at KKnM, took a look at its queue, and went somewhere else. Had my eye on some figurines in the meantime, but couldn't decide whether to buy them or not. I don't like to spend money on a whim. There was a nice Shining Wind one, but it was $90, and I had $100 for everything including meals and the slightly shiny $5 red ticket. There was a figma Rin, which I would get later in the day, but of course I didn't know that at 10.32am. So I spent an hour browsing for would-be loot. Also walked through the Sky Crawlers and Genius Party sections. The planes thingy looked interesting, but I forgot to look it up at home. A few minutes was spent in front of the Toradora TV. There were some domo-kun shirts and some CDs at the far right end, near the prints, but I suddenly lost interest when I saw the Odex logo. There were figurines to be bought with the money in any case.

Found JY, or was found. Went and watched Melty Blood a while. But fighting games aren't really my type, so I resumed walking around some more after watching the same guy beat coms and random challengers with Nanaya Shiki, trying to come to some sort of decision about where my money was going. Got some general advice about figurines from JY, which will most probably govern my choices in the future. I got the figma Rin when Ian and Dian came, putting an abrupt end to the need to decide if I was going to get a more expensive $90 figure. A decent buy, well within the budget, and great with the lighting where I have it at home. Well-positioned yellow light, dark backdrop and dark wood flooring makes most figurines look good. I'll take a photo with my bro's camera some time. After lunch, Ian, Joel's and Dian's departure, stoning near the Melty Blood corner was the order of the day. I tried reading Paddy Clarke Ha^3, but dozed into half consciousness for about 15 minutes. Guess I shouldn't have played CoH automatch and slept at 2 the night before (and got up at 7). I did win though, against a Brit player who went too heavy on the anti-infantry and died when I did my tank call-ins and vetted my infantry. On hindsight, I could have ended the game earlier by playing less conservatively, like flaming his centre mortar pit, calling in the StuH sooner and sleeping earlier.

Dneo came later, and after some walking around again and purchasing an A3 Hatsune Miku print, which is still waiting for a place on my wall, I watched him play Melty Blood. He played pretty impressively and beat more or less everybody who came around. But he said he wasn't really that good. My eyes and hands are untrained at fighting games anyway. He offered to let me play on his credit, but I didn't want to embarrass myself. I'm content with feeling secure with CoH and RTS anyway.

I felt awkward when Dneo and JY were walking around with me, pointing out things that were cool, while I could only respond with a 'mm' or raise an eyebrow, even though I did think those things were pretty nice. Some really nice figures in the display section. Noticed how they did the lighting. I had seen some of the pieces while browsing online before, like Alter's Chua Churam and a gigantic angel-thing that looked really cool and expensive too.

I don't really need to say much about the May'n concert. One of the first actual concerts I'd gone to that I had taken an interest in. As I looked around, I saw more hardcore fanboys/girls. There was a scary lady, who was jumping up and down. Alas so much for no photography. I liked the songs, loved them Live. The bass sort of reverberated through me and the crowd. And I thought my subwoofer was pretty good. It's striking how much difference in the sound quality there is when you bend down into the crowd to reach your bag.

Got more animu-smart thanks to JY and Dneo yay. Too bad Herrick wasn't around. But I'm sure he's doing good work in Sabah. Next year, we'll all be free from IB. More chalet and more conventions.

=)

Combat Skirmish Post-battle analysis Part 2

w.r.t topography of previous post.

Gametype: Rubix Assault
Each team has a Rubix Cube in a certain strategic location:
Red: Wishing Well
Yellow: Outside 5.17
The first team to solve their opponents' Rubix Cube wins. Otherwise, the team with a Cube in a visibly more completed state will win at the end of the time limit.
Red and Yellow swapped bases, with Yellow beginning in the IB block, and Red at the Old Audi.

One major difference between Round 1 and this round: Lives are henceforth expendable. The last round depended on inflicting more casualties than those taken, hence truly aggressive play was curtailed by the requirement of survival. Such a criterion is removed in this round, and as a result, the ability to take and hold ground is now of a higher importance than survival. This is because the objective (i.e. solving the Rubix Cube) depends on infantry (since that's pretty much the only basic unit around, save for perhaps support units like MGs or snipers) holding the area around the Rubix Cube long enough for the 'engineer' to solve it.

The most significant action in the early game took place at the IB bridge, with the bulk of Red and a significant mass of Yellow forces engaging there. Yellow committed fewer forces to the bridge, as a decent number, at least 10 were seen in the vicinity of the Admin Office. Another action which would have an impact on later game map control would be Yellow's occupation of the level 4 IB balcony (near 5.1, otherwise known as the Sniper's Nest): 2 MGs, 1 Sniper and 1 SMG.

As with the previous game, the firefight at the bridge produced a similar stalemate in the early stages, but once a base of fire had been established at the Sniper's Nest, Red started taking fast casualties, as there was no cover where Red infantry could simultaneously take cover from the support fire and resist Yellow's infantry on the bridge effectively. As such, the bridge control began to swing in Yellow's favour. Yellow's sniper was delirious with an almost sick kind of pleasure.

Despite the intense early-game action at the bridge, the main theater, if you may have it, of concern would have been the Spaceframe, the control of which would give either side a springboard to solve their opponents' Cube. Unfortunately for Red, the MG/Sniper positions at the SN ensured that any of Red's attempts to exert control over the Spaceframe would be blunted, at least until the SN was cleared. Which it was never, save for one possible close-call instance around mid-game.

Most of the mid-game was composed of pushes and retreats on the part of Yellow at the Spaceframe, likewise with Red, the main difference being the deeper advance of Yellow and hence greater success at solving the Rubix Cube. Effective leadership on the part of Yellow also ensured that pushes were made boldly and regularly. For Yellow, there were 2 components aiding in the success of their advances: Infantry and Support. Groups of about 8+ Yellow ground infantry would contest the Spaceframe, supported by the Support MGs and Sniper in the SN, the latter having a very large field of vision (and consequently, number of easy targets) due to their elevated position. The Spaceframe would be relatively easily taken, as MGs took out what they could see in the Spaceframe and shot at the legs of those at the Wishing Well, aiding the ground advance. Once inside, at the Wishing Well, the ground advance was on its own, unable to receive any support from the SN. Coupled with the ever-increasing numbers of newly respawned Red troops, I imagine it wasn't easy solving the Cube. Nevertheless, at the end of the game, Yellow's Cube was in a more completed state than Red's, thus winning the round. This success in pushing the advance forward came at the cost of more casualties among the assault troops of course, who as in the previous game seemed to all come back to respawn at the same time.

Inevitably, after a Yellow retreat, came the Red counterattack. However, despite the temporary advantage in numbers, Red pushes were not as effective in getting to its objective (the Red Cube). Also, when Red defeated the Yellow blob around the Wishing Well Cube, it inevitably came into line of sight for the SN's support fire crew, who blunted Red's advance at the Spaceframe with volume of fire, giving time for Yellow's ground troops to regroup and push again. In this way, Red barely got to their objective Cube, except for one instance when a small group of Red troops managed to get past the MGs to the General Office area, engaging 2 Yellow troops, including Yellow's SMG guard/close-quarters defence, causing the SN's support crew some short-lived panic.

This round was much more chaotic, and hence more difficult to assess map control as compared to the previous round, but the end found Yellow with a lead in the state of completion of their Rubix Cube. Frontlines kept changing with each push, but for the most part few Red troops managed to push as far as the IB Cube.

The strategic control the SN exerted on the battlefield was significant. The support fire crew at the SN had a full view of both the bridge and Spaceframe, essentially controlling all possible avenues of travel from the Red base to the IB Cube. This dominance was used to devastating effect at the sparse-of-cover, small bridge, with the bridge falling into Yellow's hands early on and staying there. On the Spaceframe side, it served as an obstacle to Red's advances, stopping or at least delaying the advances until Yellow could reinforce with ground infantry. Also, Red made few attempts to remove the SN, with only a few shots being fired at the general direction of its slightly high occupants. Few other vantage points in Red's possession could compare to the geographical advantage provided by the SN. One possible exception was the Old Audi windows, also on the 3.5th to 4th level, and these were used late-game to shoot at the Yellows on the bridge, inflicting some casualties. However, these snipers were spotted by the SN crew, who, mistaking them for dangerous counter-snipers, shot at them a lot, forcing them to withdraw.

Not to forget the ground advance of course, the basic point of playing aggressive and rushing infantry en masse worked yet again. Somewhat crude, but effective, especially against unsupported positions. Red displayed some excellent examples of localized diversion, where one member of the squad charged out as a distraction, while the others followed behind later to complete the killing.

Again, I have less of an idea how Yellow control of the bridge affected the game overall, though it is a high possibility that the action there tied up substantial amounts of Red's attention, easing the resistance encountered by the Spaceframe attacks.

Combat Skirmish post-battle analysis Part I

Unfortunately, this most probably won't be as objective as the word analysis belies, but that's always been a problem for war historians, or for that matter any sort of historians. To remedy that, there's always the comments section. Nevertheless, today was, as a friend put it, quite a lesson in tactics.

It's generally politically incorrect to label a winning and losing team, but then this discussion wouldn't get awfully far with the mindset that the losing team needed to be tricked into believing they didn't lose, or that it was a tie. More than a complete ignorance of the actual results, it'd be a disservice to their actual merits and the parity of average combat skill, which unfortunately was trumped by various factors, resulting in, from my humble perspective, clear defeat for Red and victory for Yellow.


On viewing the map in preview mode, I don't think it's all that clear, but that's okay since most of my intended audience should know the place pretty well already.

Abbreviations:
SAA: Area outside the admin office, IB block.
NML: Assembly ground, wide open space
SN: Sniper's Nest, 'Balcony' area just outside 5.1
Yellow Cube: Yellow Team's Rubix Cube, outside 5.17
Red Cube: Red Team's Rubix Cube, at Wishing Well

First round was a deathmatch, team with more kills wins. Red occupied Team 1 base on the IB block side, Yellow occupied Team 2 base in the old block.

Yellow opened with a massive push toward the spaceframe, with a large part of the push later diverting to the bridge.
The existence of this action is quite well corroborated by observations from both Red and Yellow; I myself am pretty sure I saw this happening, in my role as defense fire support. My interpretation of this action and its results was that pressure was put on Red to rush reinforcements to the fronts at the Spaceframe and the bridge. The action was an initiative on the part of Yellow, in line with the aggressive strategy we were generally pursuing. This resulted in the bridge and SAA being contested, with Yellow holding slightly more territory than Red due to the aggressive forcing of the front by Yellow.
In any case, Yellow ended up with a slight advantage in map control in the early game, as well as quite a serious amount of casualties. A wave of dead Yellows came in for respawn right after we secured the bridge, setting a curious precedent for more or less the rest of the games: Yellow tends to push in waves, die in waves, respawn and rush back in waves. That's infantry good old WW1 style I suppose.

While such a high initial casualty rate was worrying in the beginning, on hindsight it did pay off by map control. By the end of the early-game, Yellow had a foothold on the IB block; an important foothold since the heavily-contested bridge would divert Red attention and forces from the Spaceframe and NML, and allow for the late-game encirclement and pinning of Red. In my estimation, the mid-game opened with action at NML (the assembly ground area).

Despite the seeming lack of cover at the Spaceframe and especially assembly ground, I'm inclined to agree with a friend when he commented that you more or less can always find some sort of cover when you're looking for it. Anyway, within the mid-game, Yellow crept up from the Spaceframe to the SAA (outside Admin Office). I say 'crept' because Team Red's resistance from the SAA managed to suppress the advance considerably, until Yellow flanked from the small side-lane near the flowers, and overran the SAA, hardly a blitz there.

There was a major Yellow spearhead led by an officer advancing along the buggy parking lots, and a smaller one of about 4, including myself, advancing along the flower lanes. Team Red had about 3-7 defenders at the SAA at any one time. The spearhead advanced slowly and for the most part, attracted the defenders' attention; so a major firefight enued between them there, accounting for why the advance wasn't too fast. Meanwhile, the Yellow team at the flowers had managed to attract some fire from a well-placed sniper at the stairwell, which led to us getting pinned down for some time. I'm not too clear on what lifted the suppression, though I'm guessing that the main Yellow spearhead with their close-range assault weapons had gotten too close for comfort and started putting pressure on them.

By now, at around the 16 minute mark when I checked my handphone time, late-game had started for a while already. What happened from here would from my perspective, be rather straightforward already. Once the SAA was cleared, the flanking team moved in and enfiladed the corridor, very bad for Red in a couple of ways:
1) Red pinned in corridor
2) Because the corridor is of course, rather narrow, it greatly increases the likelihood of TKing, which quite a few Red players reported.

In short, the corridor became a killing ground, whether or not from Yellow's MGs or TKing will be a question Team Red players are in a much better position to answer. In either case, there was plenty of killing. One thing I'm curious to know is whether Red managed to take back the bridge, or if Yellow's hold on it held for the entirety of the round. If so, that would confirm a few observations.

Nevertheless, it would seem to me that an aggressive strategy, while incurring high casualties in the beginning, was in the end a boon for Team Yellow. Pushing forward first and clearing opponents later does help, since, as a short post-battle discussion brought up, by taking a place and filling it with your infantry in a short time does cause enemy troops to naturally, fall back. Casualties are of course inflicted on your force, as can be seen, but the net result in this case was that territory is gained, and slowly the front is manipulated into a shape advantageous to your team, as can be seen in the late-game, where Red probably took most of their casualties from TK or regular kills.