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

[Der Kuenstler]

Interesting indeed. Here is a map of the historical situation during the month our combatants will be fighting - June of 1942.



A key battle was fought during this time - the battle of Gazala. This is from Wikipedia:

"The Battle of Gazala was an important battle of the World War II Western Desert Campaign, fought around the port of Tobruk in Libya from May 26 to June 21, 1942. The combatants on the Axis side were the Panzer Army Afrika, consisting of German and Italian units and commanded by the "Desert Fox" Colonel-General Erwin Rommel; the Allied forces were the Eighth Army, commanded by Major General Neil Ritchie under the close supervision of the Commander-in-Chief Middle East, General Sir Claude Auchinleck. The battle ended in a resounding victory for the Axis. However, devoid of effective armoured forces in subsequent battles, Rommel was unable to pursue and decisively defeat the Eighth Army in Egypt."

Operation Torch (the American invasion of North Africa) did not happen until November of 1942, so we will see no U.S. forces - this will be a British vs. Axis battle.

The best tank the British had available during this time was the M3 Grant pictured here:



In CMAK the Grant costs 130 points as a regular with 10% rarity added. The Grant can be bought in platoons of three. Its 76mm turret armor is better than average for that day, but the upper hull has only 38mm of armor, and the lower hull 51mm. The Grant can pierce 66mm of armor from 1000 meters.

On the German side, their best tank would likely be the Panzer IVF2.



It costs 132 points as a regular and its rarity is 40% - 10% cheaper than the IVG with identical stats. It can be bought in platoons of four. This tank can pierce 114mm of armor from 1000 meters. It has 50mm front armor from the top down. The 40% rarity may result in the choice of the cheaper Panzer IIIJ at 5% rarity, but the IIIJ has a slow turret and less blast and piercing power.

Both the M3 and the IVF2 have fast turrets, but only the IVF2 has a cupola. The M3 Grant has a gyrostabilizer.

As the conflict approaches, both commanders appear to be ready to put the past behind them and with a humble spirit have a fun battle.

From Red Devil:

"...hell Pete will most likely slay me with his pinkie and a pair of Italian Recon cars.. :)

Pete, offer my hand in friendly shake and a for a good game.
past is past, our differences may still remain unsettled, but the honor and pleasure to challenge you once again is worthy of my best efforts
Cheers"

From [hirr]Leto:

"Ditto Randy.
As far as I am concerned, all the nonsense is water under the bridge. I sincerely hope all is well for you and your family. Let’s just have a bit of fun… blowing up tanks should be great therapy for both of us…Thanks for taking the time to set this all up Der K! I’ll give it my best effort!
Cheers!"

Just to get the facts straight, [hirr]Leto (Peter Moroz) was not one of the group that was officially banned from the Blitz. He left on his own. When this happened, all of his stats were deleted from the Blitz ladder and he became a "shadow" player. But he recalls his ELO rating was a whopping 2452 when he left, with over 350 games played. He also says his win percentage across all clubs is 86%. I have noticed that he joined the Band of Brothers site this past year.

Red Devil (Randy Plume) is still a club member here. His current ELO is 2132. He is 4th all-time with 660 games played. He recently turned up as a new member over at The Few Good Men.

So we can see that it appears both of these players still love the game and are trying to start over elsewhere following the painful events of the past. More importantly, each appears to be looking forward to a measure of healing that this match might bring. But winning always heals better than losing and these two are both still fiercely competitive.

By the way, this battle was allowed only after an entire week of deliberation of the upper club leadership, and I'm sure they will be watching the proceedings with interest...



Next up: the map...