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

[Der Kuenstler]

Here Randy's large infantry force is trying to make their way around the cliff edge, but they have come under a crossfire between Leto's IIIJ on the crest to the North and his last 75mm ATG...



As the minute ends, Leto's AT gun comes under fire itself from one of RD's platoons up in the cliffs - they quickly pin Leto's out-of-command gun...



On the high plains, RD directs two of his Stuarts to continue area firing towards Leto's Marders in order to discourage any more "shoot-n-scoot" moves on their part.



At the West side of the Oasis, one of Leto's IIIJs takes revenge on RD's infantry squad for knocking out his Kamerad's tank. We can see the squad crawling out of the trees in a state of panic...

[Der Kuenstler]

RADIO CHATTER:

Pete: "Well I see that my insidious plan to allow you to blow up a panzer so that the bailed out crew would draw the fire of your men hiding in the reeds by the small flag worked as planned… mwuahahahahaha…

Doom awaits. That is, Ursula von Doom. She specializes in giving captured British ‘loyalists’ a good bottoming with a paddle. : )

BTW, I know nothing of the armour you speak of… merely a goat herder and his cart back there."

RANDY: "time to put this party on the rocks lets see if my lads can bayonet those thugs manning that ATG"

PETE: "You should know better! Never bring a knife to a GUN FIGHT!
LOL…"

[Der Kuenstler]

Red Devil orders his M3 Grants to start softening up the defenses at Leto's setup area. The Grants have a large amount of HE and will do a significant amount of damage if unopposed. We can already see one of Leto's German squads running from the HE onslaught.



On the High Plains, we can see that RD's infantry rush is not working - the squads are out of command and don't have enough cover to get close to Leto's panzers.



But to the East, RD gets a large infantry force into Leto's holding town without much trouble. Another British infantry force can be seen coming down from the cliffs.

[Der Kuenstler]

Here we can see the first of Leto's foot infantry have arrived at the West side of the Oasis where the remnants of Red Devil's force are holding out. Leto has both of his Panzers area firing the trees from a safe distance. Looks like no relief is in sight for these Brits, and any survivors will soon be running across the desert in panic.



At Red Devil's holdig area, we can see that his last remnant - a Vickers MG team - is starting to take area fire from one of Leto's Marders on the hill. The marders themselves are taking area fire from RD's other Vickers MG across the high plain, which will keep them buttoned if they try to crest the hill again. We can see the generic German markers of Leto's foot forces in the town - they have already cleaned out the Brits there and have nothing left to do.

[Der Kuenstler]

Hirr Leto's holding area has now become Red Devil's British holding area. The Brits have walked in almost unopposed. But Leto never planned to hold it in the first place, instead sending all of his men to the more vital Oasis flags.



On the high plains, it appears one of RD's Stewart crews finally goes batty in the heat and begins joyriding across the desert. What is RD's plan here? We don't know yet - we're just glad to have something fun to look at.



RADIO CHATTER:

PETE: "Sneaky little stuart, eh? : )"
RANDY: "he's on a mission"
PETE: "I only WISH I knew what kind of mission he was on!!"

[Der Kuenstler]

At the West side of the Oasis, Red Devil's British remnants continue to hold tenaciously despite two area firing Panzers and two German squads attacking. Notice Leto did not bring a HQ unit along with his two squads and so they pin and panic quite easily...



Red Devil's joyriding Stewart makes it safely into a low spot - from here he can see Leto's setup area in the distance. It's still a mystery what the Stewart plans to do...



Here is a shot from Leto's side of his setup zone. Leto has started firing at the British troops in the cliffs, hoping to ruin any attack before it happens.

[Der Kuenstler]

I've enhanced the effects in this shot to show how Randy does a great job of taking advantage of the dust clouds in CMAK. Here he area fires with his tanks into the ground for a few seconds, raising up some sight blocking dust in front of Leto's setup zone....



Then, he sends one Stuart on "fast" into the town under cover of the dust....Leto's Panzer can be seen in the distance with nothing to shoot at because of the dust...we can also see RD's other Stuart coming further down the valley towards the action...



Another interesting point about this game - when something is on fire it makes black smoke, while the dust is brown.

[Der Kuenstler]

This battle is 33+ minutes long. Both commanders are sensing the end is near and the action is picking up. Red Devil, happy with his lead Stewart making into Leto's setup town in one piece, now sends two more in there. He also sends one of his Grants out to confront Leto's menacing Panzer III on the hill. Notice he also has an engineer platoon approaching the Panzer.



The Grant comes into LOS of the Panzer and it's 37mm turret turns and gets off three shots. Two miss and one breaks up. Before the Grant can pivot its larger 75mm gun around, the Panzer hits home and kills it. Oddly, the British Engineer platoon on the hill never rushed the Panzer while it was fighting with the Grant - it would have been a good time to do so.



On the other side of the map, more German glory: Leto has maneuvered a panzer platoon over and taken out RD's two Stewarts. They were focused on the Marders to the West at the time...



Leto then sends his Pz III platoon blitzing past RD's last remaining tank on that side of the map. THis last Grant is buttoned from having its commander killed and hasn't reacted at all to the new German threat.



On a lonely stretch of road in the East, British Cpl Drake rests with his 3" mortar. Due to lack of transport he's still too far from the action to help and won't get to use his 51 HE. RD has another 3" mortar in the South with the same problem.



As the battle nears its end, Randy sums it up well with one sentence to Pete: "a lot more tanks than i thought you'd buy"

[Der Kuenstler]

Leto's three Panzer IIIJ(late)s prove too much for Red Devil's lone Grant - the Grant has time to pivot to meet the threat but never has the chance to fire. The IIIJ to the right is shown killing it with its third shot. Notice the two British Engineer squads to the left running across the desert to try and help the surrounded Grant - they were too late.



Meanwhile back at Leto's setup area, RD starts to show some late game desperation. Here we see from his view that he can see there is clearly a Marder pointing at the town flag in an ambush position. RD's little lead stewart is buttoned up. Nervertheless, RD orders his Stewart platoon to rush the flag...



The result is predictable. The lead Stewart (platoon leader) is knocked out - one shot one kill - by the Marder. The second Stewart is assaulted by grenades from the infantry in nearby buildings and has to retreat.



The Fuhrer is delighted - it looks like the Nazi flag will be flying over central Africa - at least until the U.S. gets involved...

[Der Kuenstler]

Here's how the final melee in Leto's setup town played out. Red Devil's second Stewart composes itself and gets a side kill on one of Leto's advancing Panzers....



But the British excitement is shortlived - the Stuart is hit from behind by the pesky Panzer IIIJ(Late) up in the cliffs. At the exact same time, Leto's lead Marder sneaks through the palms and gets RD's rear Stuart.



Now there is no British armour left in town - only one Grant is left on the outskirts. This Grant has been mostly area firing the town in support of his mates. Now he's in the middle of a hornet's nest of Krupp steel. In his last moment of glory, the Grant destroys an advancing Panzer.



But there is too much German armour shooting from too many angles. He turns his turret to try to get the IIIJ on the cliff, and while doing so gets drilled by a Marder in town.



Randy's Engineer platoon does eventually reach the hulldown IIIJ they were going for, although late, but in doing so they tire themselves out. They then come under fire from some Marders and infantry, pinning them. None of them are in any shape to threaten the Panzer.



Up at the Western flag at the Oasis, however, the British continue to defy the Germans. Here British Lt Beale gets his men to immobilize and eventually kill another Panzer...



In one of Leto's final moves (more reminiscent of behavior on the Russian front I'd say) he orders his IIIJ(Late) up in the cliffs to roll right over Red Devil's struggling engineer platoon, grinding them into the burning desert rock in what looks like a final act of CM domination....if you look closely, a British soldier can be seen trying to pull his foot out from under the treads...



The battle lasted 37 total minutes before ending - Randy's final in-game comment was: "I'm thinking that's the end." Pete said: "Yer right. Fini. Thanks for the game and thanks to DerK for doing the DAR. Can’t wait to read it. Cheers!"

Here is the final results screen....



Thanks to Pete and Randy for making this the most viewed Main Event of all time!

As the readers have noticed I have removed all comments regarding the time it took to finish this battle, including my own, out of fairness to the players, because I did not specify any time limit at the beginning. We would enjoy reading any comments the players or readers may have...