MAIN EVENT VI! Red Devil vs. [hirr]Leto

[Der Kuenstler]

Here is a pic Leto sent and some of his thoughts while preparing orders for turn eight...



"It appears I have finally encouraged the Brits to show up for tea…

As you can see, RD’s forces are aware of my AT gun (most likely due to units he had spotting on that location from his delaying area behind it) as he has opened up with an 88 at over 1300m. No shells have even landed close, but this now tells me that there will be no blundering into its LOF, either towards the plateau, or towards my base flag until he feels this threat has been neutralized. I’ve decided to return fire with my own mortar, with very little chance of success. (DK's note: apologies - I missed seeing that earlier)

I suspect RD’s plan is to now sit back on his part of the rear plateau and continue to bombard my base flag and then move his troops up to storm it with infantry. That is what I would do anyways.

On the large part of the plateau, for some reason, my platoon of marders was behaving erratically, almost like T-34’s do when fighting panzers in Russia. Something must be built in to them to cower at the “superior” british armour. I am moving them back to deal with the flank move from the RD’s middle side of the map, and am moving up my PZIII’s behind a very large hill that has LOS across the whole plateau. I want to stay out of LOS of his second force at the back of the map and effectively cut them off, making RD decide to move them forward or attack my base flag.

I have to take extra special care of those marders, as they do not have ammo loads that can sustain long periods of fire on the long range open desert battle, so I am going to ensure that they do not fire unless they have good opportunities, and thus will keep them out of sight for any long range duelling.

I’ve also managed to scare up an op fire from an infantry unit in RD’s delaying flag area, after killing off his sniper this turn… hopefully I can pot this unit too. (DK's note: this is Randy's Vickers MG in some trees)

The only thing I have to worry about next turn is RD’s Honey’s getting up on the hill to snipe my retreating Marder… I’m hoping dust will help to conceal this retreat.

Cheers!"

[Der Kuenstler]

no more files until Tuesday - Leto is having thanksgiving holidays in Canada...

[Der Kuenstler]

We start with a look at Red Devil's 25 pdr - he is area firing a patch of dirt near Leto's platoon of Marders. Leto is trying to knock out this gun with his 81mm mortar, but it is so far away the rounds are falling very inaccurately.



The result of this area firing is large clouds of dust in front of Leto's platoon, which effectively blocks them off from joining in the battle with RD's Southern Stuarts. Afraid a stray round might land near his open topped Marders, Leto backs them up.



On the central high plateau, RD's flanking Stuarts from the East have achieved LOS and begin pumping lead into the side of Leto's other lone marder. At least five more rounds pump into the vehicle after it dies.



Back at Leto's setup area, he swings his AFVs around the West of town in order to meet the threat coming from the East.



Randy's Crusaders get into trouble here - they pulled to a halt right in the sights of Leto's 75mm ATG lurking in the rocks. They get a penetration as the minute ends - gun damaging one of the Crusaders. Below the gun is Leto's 81mm mortar trying to knock out the 25 pdr.



To the Northwest, one of Randy's trucks appears to be trying to get out of the small arms fire from the Oasis. A third truck is knocked out, leaving three trucks.

RADIO CHATTER:

RANDY: "here we go then - the drivers' women.. lamenting and wailing over the senseless slaying... have gathered in a money raising rally and a reward for your capture and eventual execution is growing daily.
of course no one is questioning the motives of the commander's decision to let them rot out there :)"

PETE: "There are several peasant ladies turnip and beet craft clubs in Russia that are at the head of the line… in 1941, a company commanded by the Desert Buttox (known as the Steppes Sonofabitch back then) attacked a small village and blew up the local cabbage factory, resulting in the deaths of all able bodied working men (the cabbage brine was super heated by the fires, effectively cooking the village men). As the Russian women ate the cabbage infused man broth with their soup hands, they furiously pumped their other hand at us in a fist action, swearing tasty revenge upon us…Perhaps a few of my panzermen have succumbed to that gypsy curse, as they seem to be swimming around in a broth of gas and flames… and making a crispy “popping” sound from time to time…Cheers!"

RANDY: "stus to the right of them, stus to the front of them... into the gully of death drive the crazed wurst fed gypsy lovers.."

PETE: "Yee haw. Finally get to put a few holes in something that isn’t a truck."

[Der Kuenstler]

Here is a shot to the Southwest. Randy is trying to back his gun damaged Crusader out of danger. We also see his M3 Grant continues to shell the heavy building in town containing Leto's MG 34. With the Grant's huge HE load it still has 116 shells left. We can also see the remaining two Crusaders to the West have popped smoke.



Leto's PzIIIJs have located two Vickers MGs in Randy's holding town and are area firing them - one has already panicked and the other pinned. Once they are dealt with, there will be nothing to stop Leto here but a flamethrower, an AT Rifle, and some mines.



On the high plains, one of Leto's IIIJs gets LOS to two of RD's Stuarts to the East. It fires once and misses as the minute ends.



At the Oasis, we see Leto's infantry are making progress down the rocky cliffs to reinforce. Randy's British forces are remaining still in the palm trees, which is about the best thing they can do at this point. The three remaining British trucks seem to be trying to escape although two are taking German small arms fire.



The battle is about 1/3 over and neither combatant has dominated. Although Leto has better position at the Oasis, Randy has him flanked on the high plains and can fire from two angles. Leto has lost two Marders and Randy has lost no AFVs - only one gun damaged. Someone will need to make a decisive move to win. Which will do it?



RADIO CHATTER (Both showing a little frustration with their AFVs' performance)

RANDY: "actually i don't think you even put a hole in it, just knocked some paint chips back into the shell extractor mechanism and now the gun won't eject the darn shell.."

PETE: "Well at least I won’t have to shell out any iron crosses for excellence in the battlefield to these mutts."

RANDY: "no Victoria crosses for these boys either..."

PETE: "I’m not surprised that you chose so many Honey’s in your kit. I have found that they are a match for any German panzer of the era, are well armoured, deadly accurate and quite fast. But when you plug em with a 75 AP round, they ‘almost’ always tend to blow up."

[Joonny]

They may well be frustrated with the performance of their gunners, but it should at least expecting, if your buying no better than regs to fight over these ranges you've got to expect most shots to miss.

[OWL]

Strange that 2 very experienced players have guns & mortars without commanders, so making them less effective!

greets owl

[Der Kuenstler]

I would have bought vet tanks myself, but then again I ALWAYS buy vet tanks. And yes, it is odd that neither commander seems concerned that their guns are out of command. Perhaps they felt their HQs were more needed elsewhere.

Today Pete sends a picture and comments on turn nine:



"All still is going to plan. I will continue to engage the Brits only when it is too my advantage and lay in wait for RD to make his moves. The loss of the two marders is unfortunate, but write that up to bad play on my part. Next turn I will get to park my tiny tigers on the crest and take a few shots at his armour moving over the plateau to the east of my delaying flag, and then another tiny tiger and 4 pz IIIJ’s to take on the 3 Honey tanks at a distance at the back of the map. The Marders will engage the grants and honey’s in the middle of the map if they attempt to move up (they cannot be seen by the Brit armour at the back of the map, so I shouldn’t have to worry about flank attacks). RD has been getting good gunnery from the Brits as he seems to be easily gaining hits and kills with partial penetrations from a very long distance of over 1000m.

In the last turn, I think I nailed one of his Valentine 57mm’s with the 75mm AT gun. Why RD did this knowing my gun was there makes me scratch my head. I do not think he was expecting it to be such a high powered AT asset thogh. If they are Vally’s, they will have little if no anti AT gun capabilities and will be forced to withdraw. I am still of the belief that he is going to try and make a play for the german base flag as I continue to play my tanks as cowering light armour. The game will turn on whether or not my AT gun screen can be tripped and the armour at my base flag then used to crush any attack with a move to pincer with the AT guns.

The turn previous, RD used his 88 to lay HE around where my Marder positions were, so RD is definitely crafty.

With my control of the routes to the rear 4 flags, RD is going to have to come and get me. That will hopefully play into my hands. Those Honey’s are awful fast tho, so a quick charge up the plateau could yield some good payback for him. We’ll just have to see what he does."

[Mikey_FGM]

The turn previous, RD used his 88 to lay HE around where my Marder positions were, so RD is definitely crafty.

Ya, good move on RD's part. Those thin-skinned marders wouldn't stand up to a 25lb'er erupting nearby... Plus any short rounds obscure LOS.

Eagerly awaiting further battle developments from the front...

[Pvt. Sofronije]

Great battle! Keep up the good work!

[Der Kuenstler]

Leto's PzIIIJ(Late)s start to shine....

In minute ten the German PzIIIJs are starting to show their muscles. In the center Leto's IIIJ(Late) that had bogged earlier now crests the ridge in the distance hulldown and gun damages Randy's Crusader. This is his second crusader that has been gun damaged - he only has one good one left, which is shown still safe behind a small crest.



Here's why Leto calls his IIIJ(Late)s "tiny tigers." They have a turret rating of 50+20/curved. Two layers of armor welded that way is stronger than 70mm of solid armor would be. The turrets are also curved, so Randy's AFVs have to hit them at just the right angle of the curve in order to penetrate. Leto has two IIIJ(late)s here hulldown - the one on the left is a little too far back to be in the action, but the two Stuarts in the distance have bounced their shells off the green IIIJ's turret four times during this minute with no results. The Stuarts' 37mm guns can penetrate 73mm of enemy armor from 500 meters, but the targets here are 618m away. The allied rounds just keep bouncing off. Fortunately for Randy, the green IIIJ crew can't get their act together - they keep firing wildly and missing his Stuarts.



Leto creeps his other IIIJs up on a different ridge facing RD's Southern forces. They all lock onto a lone Stuart in the distance and get a penetration, but the Stuart actually survives it. With all the dust flying up into the air the lucky Stuart ends up surviving the minute.



In the East, this Stewart was not so lucky. He was happily area firing Leto's AT Gun in the western rocks when Leto actually pulled the rarely used and often maligned "shoot-n-scoot" move out with his Marder platoon. It actually worked this time! Probably because the Stuart was distracted firing elsewhere.



Now Randy needs to reevaluate his orders and adjust before things get out of control, because Leto has gotten his AFV's into some comfy positions that leave the advantages only to him.