Battlefield Valkyria #02 — Tilting at Windmills

April 11th, 2009

 

Great work, Don Quixote.

Impressions:

I’m sorry, I can’t take this show seriously. It’s trying, or at least, I think it’s trying, but I’m not certain these writers have any clue what they’re doing. War is hell! People die! And now, here’s a tank POWAA SLIDIN’. The tactics remained just as bad as last week too. The enemy forces were taking potshots at unoccupied windmills with their own infantry right in front of the bloody things. They weren’t even close enough for snipers to be a worry. Also… they had TANKS. Meanwhile, Alica’s side decided that with six tanks approaching and them only having three tanks, the best thing to do would be to send out the infantry, then one crappy tank, then the tank that reflects shells fired from other tanks. You have a tank immune to other tanks. It didn’t have a shell explode on it and then emerge from a dust cloud, a shell hit it dead on and the bloody thing bounced off. I’m pretty sure that means that they were driving around in a Metal Gear while happily sending their countrymen to die.

Given that this was very much not an improvement on the first episode, I’m not sure I’ll continue with it beyond this episode. It could be fun just to point out all the ridiculous military nonsense, but I’ve already got Regios on Saturdays and perhaps Polyphonica too, which I’ll get around to eventually. After Miami takes out BU. I hope.

Preview:

 

New squad, probably advocating a direct frontal attack on an entrenched enemy.

Posted in Anime | 20 Comments »

20 Shouts From the Peanut Gallery

  • Anonymous says:
    April 11, 2009 at 8:44 pm

    Seems that when the player doesn’t control how the battle is ran they really don’t know how to fight a war.

  • Fumika says:
    April 11, 2009 at 8:57 pm

    Um.. tank shells bounce off of tank armor in real life too you know. Sometimes tanks can be so well armored that opposing tanks can not penetrate your tank at any range.

    E.g. In WWII Axis Tiger tank was almost completely immune to the early Allied sherman tank.

    It’s not as if tank shells = 1 shot 1 kill.

    • Anonymous says:
      April 11, 2009 at 9:05 pm

      The issue is that they used that tank after sending out the infantry and their crappy tank. They should bring out the big guns right away.

  • longhaul says:
    April 11, 2009 at 8:58 pm

    you actually can power slide in a tank
    skip to just before the 3 min mark
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0s5Kf3iocT0&NR=1

  • Yue says:
    April 11, 2009 at 9:26 pm

    The people above are right!

  • Aroduc says:
    April 11, 2009 at 9:56 pm

    Tanks are allowed to power slide. They still look extremely silly doing it. Especially when they rush between two other tanks to do so.

  • Anonymous says:
    April 11, 2009 at 10:34 pm

    this anime have any romace ?????? please answer me

  • Lollerman321 says:
    April 11, 2009 at 10:40 pm

    Sorry for BU’s win over Miami. Still, even the game didn’t play so hard and loose with the way the war was fought.

  • Griffin says:
    April 11, 2009 at 11:19 pm

    Which military has demonstrated worse tactics and discipline so far, Valkyria’s or Shangri-la’s?

  • Anonymous says:
    April 12, 2009 at 2:45 am

    Actually it has been stated in the show itself why they didn’t send out the tank. Two of the tank still need repair and they don’t trust Isara the Darcsen enough to send out Edelweiss.(Why they didn’t took Edelweiss could range from them not trusting Darcsen tank, Isara refuse to let them pilot it or the fact no one know how to pilot Edelweiss because its a new model.) The infantries were meant to buy time for the tank to be repaired. Due to the lack of trust, both Welkin and Isara got ordered to sit there. Yes the old guy in command is an egotistical jerk but that is actually a point in the story… The reason why imperial took out the windmill could be perhaps they intend to send infantry ahead and want to hold the tank in check so it doesnt just charge ahead and gets taken out by infantry anti tank weapon. (which Bruhl force did shown to have a few.) In this case taking out the higher ground and possible fortification would be beneficial. As for Edelweiss’s capability people above already made commented on it. I will also add that the deflected shot pretty much just scratched the turret and didn’t really hit Edelweiss. Also it was exaggerated somewhat to more dramatically distinguish Edelweiss.

  • Aroduc says:
    April 12, 2009 at 4:32 am

    Yeah well, that didn’t make any sense either.

    “We don’t trust you, despite you living in our village and driving up to us in a tank that could destroy all of us and handing it over. Oh, your weapons? Yeah, sure, keep those. And you’re free to do whatever else you want too, like run up behind our lines fully armed. Okay, we’re going to go plink tanks with peashooters now. Hope nothing bad happens. Ciao.”

    I preferred it when the goal was “defend this wall while Alicia shoots grunts in the face.” In fact, there’s been entirely too little face shooting.

  • Ipsod says:
    April 12, 2009 at 5:24 am

    I can’t help but feel that this show is just giving me ‘Minami-ke: Kana in Gallia’ vibes.

    I’ll watch it anyway because I’m a whore like that.

  • tylon says:
    April 12, 2009 at 11:05 am

    Rounds deflecting off a tank is possible if the round is “small” (fr. a light tank) and the armor of the defending tank is of a “heavy class” category.
    Theoretically, the round is not able to penetrate the armor. At most, it will create a dent. Scary?

    A tank is fast enough to perform a power slide… It is possible.

  • shio says:
    April 12, 2009 at 11:09 am

    I can understand qualms about the pacing, especially since in the game you can skip right to the action bits if you’d like.

    Like the unnamed poster above mentioned, it looks like they’re playing up the Alicia-Welkin romance in this show, perhaps over the warfare. Ah, Spring!

  • Fumika says:
    April 12, 2009 at 12:10 pm

    Also, in urban combat, sending the infantry first is actually not completely unheard of. Tanks are extremely vulnerable to handheld anti-tank weapons such as the panzerfaust or panzershrek in WWII (since this is an alternate WWII story) The leader of the town had something resembling a panzershrek as well. In an urban environment, there are more than enough spots for infantry to sneak up on a tank with a limited viewing cone and hit it where it hurts.

    O and windmills were the primary way that land infantry could get a bird’s eye view on things in WWII. They were of extreme tactical importance, as a person from up there can see everything that’s going on and direct forces accordingly. It makes perfect sense that they would destroy it first.

  • ximpa says:
    April 12, 2009 at 1:07 pm

    You’re looking for a sense in something that doesn’t have it, but that’s common to all anime, so I don’t see why the “selective thinking” just to Valkyria.

  • TJ says:
    April 12, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    Super-tank to the rescue!!! Seriously though, the combat didn’t make sense, so like many I’m hoping for some romance.

  • Irie says:
    April 12, 2009 at 8:18 pm

    I’m not too sure we are supposed to take the military parts serious. The amount of relaxed talk going on during a pitch battle was a little unrealistic. To be kind. I’m watching this for the building relationships and I’m a little glad the military parts aren’t too realistic. This looks like a romantic comedy and a parody of those well produced military shows.

    If I’m wrong, the writers need to rethink the type of projects they chose.

  • Hibiki says:
    April 14, 2009 at 3:19 am

    Alicia hates the town defense leader. She wants him dead. Thats why the uber tank goes last