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DarkCloak β€” River crossing

Published: 2008-01-01 00:55:59 +0000 UTC; Views: 23086; Favourites: 283; Downloads: 109
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Description This drawing is based on a fictional battle in a campaign me and my brother are playing. I drew it mainly to practice with backgrounds, and to practice a bit with writing After Action Reports.

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The battle report:

Birdy forces had long been planning a massive attack on Cloak held positions in the area along the Nal River. The original plan had called for a two hour preliminary artillery barrage to soften up the Cloak defenders who had dug in along the southern bank of the river. The Divisional commander rejected this idea, as they had wanted the element of surprise. Instead of an artillery barrage, the massive 105mm guns would be brought up along the northern bank of the river during the night. Cloak soldiers could hear the guns being moved into place during the moonless summer night and reinforced their positions along the opposite bank, setting up improvised machine-gun bunkers, stringing barbed wire and laying mines. With a reinforced rifle company, they were expected to repel any Birdy assault.

General Brady, commander in charge of Birdy forces had planned for the assault to commence a half an hour before sunrise, giving his men time to assemble and cross the river while still under the cover of darkness. Once his men had made it to the other side, his forces would establish a perimeter and await for the light of daybreak before commencing with the attack. The 105mm guns would remain on the opposite river bank and provide direct fire overwatch.
From the start, the plan ran into problems. Birdy soldiers, while attempting to get their little rubber assault boats into the river, made such a racket stumbling around in the dark that the Cloak forces could clearly hear them from across the raging river. And just as the men had begun to ferry themselves across the river, a flare went up and lit the night sky. All along the river, Cloak machine guns opened up with a hail of fire, their bullets shredding the little rubber boats.

It seemed as though the assault was going to fail before it even truly began. General Brady, watching from his command post several hundred meters from the river, jumped up in horror and immediately ordered a retreat. But just as Brady gave the order, the 105mm guns which had been covering the amphibious assault, opened up with a deafening volley. This direct fire barrage proved to be the turning point. You see, the Cloak machine gun emplacements hadn't time to properly range their weapons, and as a result, they chose to use tracers to improve their accuracy. These tracers in the twilight sky, though devastating to the amphibious forces they were aimed at, revealed the position of each Cloak strongpoint, which the Birdy 105mm gunners could sight in on. After five minutes of constant shelling , all the Cloak forward positions had been silenced. General Brady pressed the attack forward.

By sunrise, General Brady had pushed two battalions of Light infantry across the river, and began to set up life lines. His casualties had been light, having only lost 22 men in the initial crossing. Cloak forces, on the other hand, had lost all their company's heavy machine guns, with 16 dead, 20 wounded, and 6 missing, including their artillery forward observer, a loss which would effect their performance for the rest of the day.
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Comments: 49

Odstriman [2017-09-18 21:57:16 +0000 UTC]

Running With Rifles right?

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22raven2002 In reply to Odstriman [2018-02-08 14:25:22 +0000 UTC]

dude... running with rifles came out 8 years after this drawing was made

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madness3200 [2015-03-21 06:55:19 +0000 UTC]

What game were you two playing?

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iIsMe95 [2014-09-03 11:30:02 +0000 UTC]

Other people asked already, but I haven't seen an answer, so now I'm gonna ask! Β What game were you playing for this?

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TtheLeviathan [2013-05-27 15:54:29 +0000 UTC]

Looking back through my favorites, this is the kind of stuff that makes me want to learn how to draw. It is like Men of War was put into an awesome drawing.

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AlexTJ10 [2012-08-28 14:26:35 +0000 UTC]

What is this game. It is on PC?

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FantomMasterOfSouls In reply to AlexTJ10 [2014-07-31 07:42:18 +0000 UTC]

LOL,znalazΕ‚em ciΔ™!Β 

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AlexTJ10 In reply to FantomMasterOfSouls [2014-07-31 08:26:14 +0000 UTC]

Witoj

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TerraRossa-1389 [2012-07-25 05:18:23 +0000 UTC]

Amazing...the depth of the scenery is so strong and god damn those trees look amazing

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TtheLeviathan [2012-07-22 04:41:20 +0000 UTC]

You should get Men of War: Assault Squad, it has an easy to use (once you get used to it, use youtube tutorials) building system, and you can either use the wide variety available in the game or even re-skin or mod in your own units, weapons, and vehicles. It is a very realistic RTS game and... well, it is just epic xD

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DarkCloak In reply to TtheLeviathan [2012-07-22 13:31:35 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, many a sleepless night has been spent playing Men of War: Assault Squad. I sort of wish it had more co-op missions or skirmish maps.

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TtheLeviathan In reply to DarkCloak [2012-07-24 05:41:09 +0000 UTC]

I rarely skirmish, Gem Editor for me xD. Have steam btw?

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DarkCloak In reply to TtheLeviathan [2012-07-25 12:02:19 +0000 UTC]

Yeah, I have Steam, but it's a family account. So, you're more likely to catch my sisters than me. It's Reshig.

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TtheLeviathan In reply to DarkCloak [2012-07-25 20:55:30 +0000 UTC]

Kay den, talk to you on steam, and all of your artwork is the kind of stuff I like to have imaginary battles about xD I actually have my own imaginary factions with a notebook full of uniform, weapon sketches, military manuals, etc
TrastlobΓΌnstovakia, auf dem WΓΌnderreichs, Der WΓΌnderreichs ist der reich ΓΌber stimmt! xD

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human72 [2011-11-30 13:00:51 +0000 UTC]

Looks like a WW1 pic to me. Almost a WW1 pic.

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SgtPossum [2010-09-01 22:18:10 +0000 UTC]

Love the after action report, too. Describes a very realistic combat situation.

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iBenyBoy [2010-03-01 15:30:00 +0000 UTC]

what game were you playing may i ask, great work

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Horanzon [2009-10-15 17:32:25 +0000 UTC]

Oh shit!!! Great work dude!!!

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WWII33 [2009-06-18 04:19:33 +0000 UTC]

Great work man! It kind of looks like the Rhine River crossing during WWII. Anyway, sweet artwork!

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MrLovelessss In reply to WWII33 [2014-03-15 00:04:39 +0000 UTC]

That's what i thought it was before i read the action report.

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RalphMarx666 [2009-05-05 16:32:44 +0000 UTC]

DUDe i lov yur art style

mind blowing man, among other things that ARE happening in the picture

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warman707 [2008-11-08 02:04:37 +0000 UTC]

I like the feel of this, it has a WWII feel but like a futuristic feel at the same time. Nice work, the background looks cool as well.

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zaku0909 [2008-06-12 21:49:07 +0000 UTC]

do you have any tips on drawing poses like this or big battle scenes you could tell me?

and it looks great by the way.

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PeachBum [2008-03-04 01:19:46 +0000 UTC]

Good work, I am impressed as always

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Csp499 [2008-01-15 08:10:45 +0000 UTC]

Aucking Fwesome...

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Poor-Judgment [2008-01-11 20:11:42 +0000 UTC]

Ah, I've missed your work.

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jailgurdnegative [2008-01-08 10:21:11 +0000 UTC]

amazing!!!!!!!!!!!! thats super cool!!!!!

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RBL-M1A2Tanker [2008-01-06 06:31:26 +0000 UTC]

Not looking good for the Cloak forces.

I love the emotion of the piece. Definitely get a sense of the battlefield, just before a really dramatic moment happens, such as when the guy throws the grenade.

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MrLovelessss In reply to RBL-M1A2Tanker [2014-03-15 00:05:51 +0000 UTC]

he doesn't look like he's gonna throw it...

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RBL-M1A2Tanker In reply to MrLovelessss [2014-03-15 02:52:02 +0000 UTC]

Looks like he's going to throw it to me.Β  Not that it matters in the end, it's probably going to end poorly for him regardless.

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richard9311 [2008-01-03 21:31:29 +0000 UTC]

Tight!

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VenomEXsoldier [2008-01-02 19:08:07 +0000 UTC]

glad to c your back with this awesome work

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Danny-Haymond-Jr [2008-01-02 17:08:51 +0000 UTC]

Cloak soldiers have no personal firearms? Oops Those guys fell in the river!

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DarkCloak In reply to Danny-Haymond-Jr [2008-01-03 02:45:04 +0000 UTC]

Oh, they're issued firearms, they just have this bad habit of not actually using them when under fire. Damn cowards.

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Danny-Haymond-Jr In reply to DarkCloak [2008-01-03 19:32:23 +0000 UTC]

lol. probably would just jam anyway from lack of PM!

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NicholasWatersArt [2008-01-02 03:31:32 +0000 UTC]

As always..really nice work.

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Shufly [2008-01-01 17:50:22 +0000 UTC]

great work man, sucks I came in to late before all the comments I wanted to say have already been said XD. Anywho great work with your story telling in this one. The colors remind me a lil of battalion wars for the gamecube (or wii). Great work!

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shinogami [2008-01-01 17:41:06 +0000 UTC]

a great piece with a lot of detail and depth, along with some great coloring--I really get drawn across the entierty of it, but the focal points in the foreground are still obvious (without being glaring)
the fiction accompanying is also just great!

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AIMASTER [2008-01-01 06:34:49 +0000 UTC]

Birdy was a coward, but had the right idea to pull back. It was more or less his troops faults: QUIET!

Not only that, I love your work, I need to type some short stories too.

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AIMASTER In reply to AIMASTER [2008-01-01 06:36:30 +0000 UTC]

Oh, and what sort of battle for what sort of game? If it's anything I have i'd love to play you sometime, COH is my best guess. 105's in that game can only indirect, but are WICKED banes, 3 in a barrage kill everything they fire at.

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DarkCloak In reply to AIMASTER [2008-01-03 03:06:55 +0000 UTC]

We're using a bunch of different strategy games for this campaign, depending on what type of action we're craving at the time. This one was played out with Combat Mission, but COH is on the list, as well as Faces of War.

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ComradeAussie In reply to DarkCloak [2012-04-11 13:58:05 +0000 UTC]

Damn.. sounds like fun.. I'll have to blackmail one of my friends into doing something similar

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DarkCloak In reply to ComradeAussie [2012-04-11 14:27:35 +0000 UTC]

It was fun. The hardest part was actually deciding which game we would play. I think we ended up playing Men of War the most though, because we were both at about equal skill level with that.

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ComradeAussie In reply to DarkCloak [2012-04-11 14:28:27 +0000 UTC]

I love Men Of war.. I think I kind of suck at it thought

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AIMASTER In reply to DarkCloak [2008-01-03 04:57:24 +0000 UTC]

Awesome, really should play you some time!

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PnzrKomandant1945 In reply to AIMASTER [2008-01-01 15:59:20 +0000 UTC]

I know,The Hummels are my favorite,But the editors really complicated,so I stuck with downloading things.

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AIMASTER In reply to PnzrKomandant1945 [2008-01-01 18:19:30 +0000 UTC]

Hm, so you play COH? I like the game, but against other player, it's almost worthless to make a dug in area: Bombardments, Grenades, ETC. but when you both give each other time, it can be a cool game WITHOUT tanks or Artillery. Hey, if you play it, MSG me your online name, I'll add you and we can tango sometime!

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twitchy01 [2008-01-01 06:29:26 +0000 UTC]

Birdy had the right plan

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Panzerfire [2008-01-01 05:30:58 +0000 UTC]

Looks that the guy with the grenade on his hand is ready to take the enemy CO in a kamikaze move.
Great work!

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