Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Monday, June 12, 2023. It’s a hot early summer day (85°F/29°C). It’s sunny, humid, and with no rain in the immediate future, it’s bound to get hotter still. Today’s forecast for the Tampa Bay area calls for mostly summer skies and a high of 92°F/33°C – not a “go for a walk to invoke the Muse” day.
My Sunday Wrapup
As I wrote in yesterday’s post, I resisted the urge to even tinker ‘round the edges of the manuscript for my novel. I wasn’t in the mindset of working anyway; I needed to relax and at least try to have fun (even though that is not as easy as it used to be, for a million reasons).
Predictably, my options for “having fun” were:
- Read for enjoyment
- Listen to music/watch a concert performance on DVD or Blu-ray
- Watch a movie/TV series episode from my extensive DVD/Blu-ray collection
- Play a computer game
And wouldn’t you know it, I did – or at least attempted to do – all four of those leisure activities.
Of the four activities listed above, I spent the most time playing Regiments, a Cold War-turned-hot war game set in an alternate version of 1989 where glasnost and perestroika fail and, in the aftermath of a failed mutiny by an East German armored division, the Warsaw Pact invades West Germany and starts a war with the U.S.-led NATO alliance.
Regiments is produced by a small game studio, Bird’s Eye Games, and released by the reincarnated MicroProse, and it is a simulation of late 1980s land combat – although players can call in air strikes, Regiments focuses mostly on armored and mechanized infantry – that allows players to command regiment-sized units from either the Warsaw Pact or the NATO alliance, along with “tactical aids” such as artillery barrages, the aforementioned air strikes, and – depending on the task forces a player selects – occasional recon overflights from Division HQ to spot enemy units beyond the visual range of his/her units.
As of late, I have been playing the Attack skirmish (single battle mode) titled Runway (in which the attacking player must capture and hold eight Objective Zones (OZs) within a preset time limit (30, 40, or 60 minutes) around what looks like a U.S. air base in West Germany. (If you’re a NATO commander, your mission is to liberate it from the “Ivans” or their Pact allies; if you’re a Warsaw Pact commander, your mission is, of course, to capture it ASAP and prevent the Americans from launching A-10A Thunderbolt IIs against the glorious Red Army.)
I had to try the Runway scenario several times during the afternoon; I was making too many mistakes at the start of the skirmish and, as a result, taking heavier-than-expected casualties in attempts to capture OZ Alfa – the first enemy position my unit (the 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division) must capture before advancing on the air base itself. Even though I know it’s just a game, and even though I’m aware that losing vehicles and soldiers is a reality every combat commander must deal with, I hate it when I start a Skirmish (especially the Attack variety, which usually gives the defense an advantage in the beginning) and I lose one or two platoons to enemy antitank guided missiles (ATGMs) or accurate fire from hidden tanks shooting from carefully sited and camouflaged defensive positions.
I don’t remember if I aborted three or four attempts to play the Runway scenario. I do recall being annoyed with myself at being such a lousy commander and finally resolving to play one more game, this time to the bitter end, no matter what the outcome was.
In the end, I acquitted myself well. According to the screenshot I took of the “after-action report” that follows the end of a battle in Regiments, the 1st Brigade, 3rd Armored Division:
- Captured all eight of the OZs in the scenario
- Killed 114 Soviet troops, wounded 389 more (plus, the Reds also listed 14 men as missing)
- Destroyed 68 vehicles (a mix of tanks, armored personnel carriers, recce vehicles, and mobile anti-aircraft artillery), one attack helicopter (Mi-24 Hind-D), and six ground attack aircraft (Su-25 Frogfoot)
- Lost 38 soldiers killed in action (KIA), 99 wounded (WIA), and two missing (MIA)
- Lost 13 vehicles (tanks, infantry fighting vehicles/cavalry fighting vehicles, and Vulcan air defense systems), and four attack helicopters (AH-1F Cobras)
In addition to playing Regiments, I also listened to music on my Amazon Music app, read little bits here and there from several books, and watched part of John Williams/Berliner Philharmoniker: The Berlin Concert (2022) on the big TV out in the family room. (I wanted to watch the whole concert, but I must have started watching it later than I should have because I got drowsy after one of my favorite pieces – the March from Superman: The Movie.
Action This Day
This being Monday, I plan to work on my novel this afternoon. I don’t know how many words I will write today; it’s already midday – hey! I’m a slow typist! – and I haven’t even looked at the “scratch sheet” file where I write my rough draft of the manuscript. I must do that before I do anything else, such as decide what part of the timeline will be the setting for Chapter Ten (1983, the high school bit, or 2000, the narrator’s “present day” bit) or even make edits.
Also, since I have been up since 6:4O AM and ate breakfast before 8:30 AM, I’m a bit hungry, so I’m off to have a bit of lunch before I begin working in earnest.
So, on that note, I’ll close this post here. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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