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

[Der Kuenstler]

In this minute Red Devil's area firing vickers pays off -we see Leto has ordered his three good Marders to shoot-n-scoot at a Stuart (circled in green) in the distance. But the Marder on the right gets his commander killed by the area fire spray of the vickers mg circled in yellow. (we saw a pic of it last minute) This shocks the crew, and as a result the Marder just sits there stupidly, not firing or retreating.



The other two Marders fire their one shot, miss, and back to safety. But the shocked Marder stays put and allows the Stuart to knock it out. The Stuart will be credited for the kill, but it was actually the little vickers team that caused it. It also caused a rant from commander Leto: "Death by varmint. (don’t you love it when MG fire from two planets away shocks a tank and then it just sits there to be blown to pieces?)"



The battle for the cliffs near Leto's setup area continues. Leto's two guns are still alive, although the far one has pinned. Two of RD's closest infantry squads are circled - they are both pinned too. Leto's Panzer IIIJ on the hill has joined the party, area firing RD's infantry. RD must get these guns destroyed soon so he can bring up his tanks.



Up on the high plains, Leto's plans for destroying RD's lone M3 Grant aren't going so well. For one thing the dust keeps interrupting LOS. Also, the PzIIIJ regular platoon at the bottom of the pic has only 50mm turret armor and all four cowered at the sight of the Grant and RDs 6 pdr gun in the cliffs. Leto's green Pz IIIJ(Late) has the better turret armor, but also popped smoke and cowered at the sight of the Grant. His middle IIIJ(Late) is buttoned and couldn't find the Grant. Only the top IIIJ(Late) is now in the fight, and we can see one of the Grant's shells just broke up on its turret.



The battle is now about 2/3 over. Leto can win by just sitting still at this point. If Red Devil is going to make a big push before dark, he needs to do it soon.