The Coil steals Leto's playbook, puts a hirrting on him...(No peeking Leto's, please)

[The Coil]

Turn 17

Apparently Leto's taco stand in the village has caught fire, because there's smoke everywhere. The biggest threat to my men now isn't Leto's bullets, it's the prospect of getting lung cancer. If only my force selection would've included Smokey the Bear, the Smokester would be wrecking house on Leto's men (but let's face it, with the rarity cost, he's never worth it...).

On the right, I finally get spots on the guys who've been throwing out all the smoke - another couple Priests.



That's four I've seen now, and their Americans, which means Leto probably brought a whole platoon, which means there are two I haven't spotted yet.

I take advantage of the Ring of Burning Taco Smoke that Leto has thrown up to speed all my Stugs and Grilles to assault positions on the left. Cleverly, my leftmost Grille finds a hole in the wall of smoke with a Priest at the other end.



Not good - my Grille is moving fast, his orders will end him still in LOS of the Priest and he's facing a bit away. With the slow ROF of the Grille, I don't like the odds of a one-on-one duel. I move his 'fast' waypoint behind him and change it to 'reverse' (I cleverly almost forgot to change it to reverse - would've been so frustrating to watch him slowly turn 180 degrees and get blown away. I've done it before...), so he'll back out of LOS with no command delay.

On the left, Leto's infantry that was harrassing my Panzer force starts to move to the center, and gets treated to some MG fire from my retreating Panzer.



My sniper and HQ keep moving to interdict them.

My infantry in the center takes advantage of Leto's Wall of Secondhand Smog to move up a bit closer to the flag.



My Panzers finally make it to the road and start down it. About time - it's taken waaaay too long to get them back in the fight. Time is precious now...

[The Coil]

Turn 18

My Grille that ended last turn facing down the Priest kicks it in to reverse...ah, safely away. Until, that is, I realize that he ends his move still in LOS of the Priest:



Through two patches of woods, and skirting the smoke. What the heck... The Priest fires, and leaves his shot well short. My Grille fires back...



Just short with a HE round...a bit closer and I might've done some damage. My Grille counts down it's command delay and backs out a bit further before anyone gets another shot off.

Over on the left, my 81mm mortar has targeted some likely cover just ahead of Leto's infantry moving to the center.



Success - Leto's lead infantry unit is sent head down as he hits the trees I'm zeroed in on. Another unit goes head down and scampers away after getting some sniper fire and an MG burst from my Panzer.

My two lead Panzers and the Grille from the left finally make it into the fray:



About time they got here - next turn, it's time to launch the assault. Leto has been moving infantry up in the village, but I've got pretty good spots on their locations, so it should be no problem to light 'em up with HE.

Over on the right side of the village, Leto finds an improbable sight line with his Sherman.



The Sherm and my Stug exchange a few shots to no effect. Not sure I like the idea of a one on one fight, my Stug being green, and I'd bet that Sherman is a vet or better, if I know Leto...

Another vehicle, this time a Stug moving left, gets bogged...



...but once again frees himself in about 10 seconds, and carries on. If only Leto could see this, I'm sure he'd be howling at my luck and the injustice of it all, especially after I notice this:



Looks like Mr. Leto has lost himself a TD to the bog monster. It pays to check those "lost contact" markers from time to time, they can tell you stuff... A quick check back (is it gamey to look back at past turns?) reveals that sucker bogged on turn 16 and then got stuck for good. Only one TD to go, that's certainly good news. The fact that I've now seen 5 Priests makes me wonder if the sixth isn't stuck somewhere in the mud over on Leto's side...

Looks like it's time to send Leto an email which casually mentions his "2 remaining TDs". Let him think I still think he's got 2 running, and sort of rub it in on the sly that one is out of commission...

[The Coil]

Turn 19

My armor thrust up the left side of the village is finally ready to get off the ground. My Grille tosses some area fire around the flag - spotted a mortar going in there, and we don't need Leto scoring top hits on the Grilles. He gets a round off, and then this:



Ungood - a Priest gets a shot off on him, and scores a first hit kill. What's worse, that was the HQ, and he was still toting 13 HE rounds - puts a bit of a dent in my firepower... Interestingly, I had the Priest that got him id'ed as a Sherman tank til this turn. Figured he was a turreted escort for the Priests. I thought his area fire was doing quite a bit of damage though - should've paid more attention. There goes the 1 Priest stuck in the mud theory...

My panzers move up and return fire on the offending Priest:



But score no hits, as they are moving and probably have something like 5% hit chances.

The panzer on the left hits the end of his move still in LOS of the Priest, and gets some revenge:



Over on the left, Leto's infantry continues to try to move into the center, but my continued mortar fire sends one unit packing, while small arms fire from my HQ and various panzer MGs harass the others. One unit makes it a bit further towards the center, but still a ways out until they'll be any use...



In the distance, Leto's last TD heads down the road, no doubt to to circle into the back of the town. He responds to my 2 TD's email with a comment about how his TD's will swing the game. Not the one stuck in the mud, my friend... It's possible that he has a whole 'nother platoon running around back there somewhere, and this is an extra sly comment about how he still has more. But I sort of doubt it...

Meanwhile, Leto's Priests on the right continue to throw smoke, while one area fires my infantry sneaking up on the flag, although thankfully too far away from them to do much damage.



Going to need to find a way to put some fire on them, though. Another nice keyhole Leto has there.

My Stug anchoring the right ends the turn with a good shot through the town at another of Leto's Priests, which is backing away from my panzers:



If luck is with me, I'll pot another one of them suckers next turn. The Priest is backing through rocky ground, too, so it should move slow enough for me to get a shot off.

Here's the overview at the end of the turn:



Armor and infantry will continue to move up and start area firing the flag on the left, hopefully take it in the next few turns and then move on to the flag at the center.

At this point I feel fairly confident I'll take the leftmost flag, with the hope that I'll be able to at least drop the right one to neutral. I've pretty much chosen to ignore the rightmost (small) flag, given that I'd have had to cross a lot of open ground to get there. Leto's got it with a couple units - don't like giving up free points, but there you have it...

Interestingly, Leto appears to have most of his units hiding in craters near buildings. Craters don't make great cover - I can only guess he hopes I start dropping buildings indiscriminately, and then his boys can crawl into the rubble...

[The Coil]

Turn 20

Leto's Priest, sitting square in the sights of my Stug, kicks it into reverse. 2 seconds into the turn, my Stug gets a round away!



Grr...drops it square into someone's living room. The Priest is away. Not much more to say about this turn - my infantry starts slowly advancing in the center and on the left, picking up solid spots on some of Leto's lead infantry. His TD disappears down the road, no doubt to hook around and head into the village. His Priests area fire away at the woods on both sides of the village, keeping my infantry alerted/shaken, but nothing worse.

Leto doesn't appear to have much in the way of AT assests - the TD, which is out of play for a turn or two, probably some PIATs or something (maybe 'zooks, but I've only gotten one spot on American infantry), and whatever HC rounds his Priests are toting. I'm tempted to move up a bit closer with the armor, but I'm assuming his infantry are engineers, so I don't want to get into satchel slinging range. It'll be interesting when (if?) my infantry closes on his - they can all throw suitcases at each other and see who's left standing when the dust settles...

[The Coil]

Turn 21

I think I know what The Coil is up to. He's on a mission to get banned, so he has an excuse not to finish his DAR and chronicle the rest of his humiliating defeat. He's a clever fiend, that Coil. His intellect is matched in magnitude only by my ELO. Which if you'll note if you do a quick search is rather high.

You wish, Leto, you traitor to the cause of the C:censored:e Resistance. I shall only redouble my efforts to crush you as the only just punishment for your cowardice. Be afraid, my friend, be very afraid. It will take more than smoke fired everywhere to stall my assault!

The smoke Leto has fired everywhere has stalled my assault. Dang Priests hanging around behind a cloud of smoke where my armor can't get at them. Oh well, nothing for it but to push ahead.

My armor area targets the line of woods around the left flag:



I'm assuming Leto has his infantry a bit further back, but a mortar went into the woods back by the flag, and if he's got an HQ spotting up front, I'd love to send him packing. The HE flying into the woods from Grilles, Stugs, and Panzers should be enough to pin anything up front and let my infantry move up. I've got plenty of small caliber HE, and about 20 rounds of HE between 2 Grilles (with the 3rd Grille basically out after this turn). I'm going to use it pretty liberally here, the idea being take this flag in a hurry and leave me time to move on the second flag.

I advance two squads on the flag. The boys on the right take some fire...



...but make it behind some cover provided by one of Leto's ubiquitous smoke rounds, and continue on their way.



Meanwhile, over on the right, my boys have just been hanging out in the woods, trying not to get leveled by HE rounds while waiting for the left flank of my forces to take the flag and swing to the center. Leto isn't cooperating, and moves his infantry into the woods.



I get caught napping a bit, as I've been focused on my little assault on the left, and haven't paid nearly enough attention over there (that's the difference between a really good player and an average player - a really good player doesn't get focused on one part of the battle and forget about a whole flank). I have a mortar and an MG a bit further back in the woods that are a bit out of position, but should be set up and ready to return fire next turn. In the meantime, my infantry is going to get a bit pasted, which is too bad, because I don't have a lot of spare infantry to go around. Luckily, the left flank of Leto's attack has strayed into LOS of my Grille hanging back on the right, so if he can land a shot or two on Leto's line next turn, that should do some damage.

[The Coil]

Turn 22

On the left side of the village, my armor continues to creep forward, area firing around the flag where I suspect infantry to be holed up. My squad on the left, split into teams, advances on the flags under cover of Leto's own smoke. One half squad is sent packing by small arms fire from the center of town, another is panicked and squatting in a crater, a third hits cover in a heavy building a bit short of the flag. Going to need to pound his infantry a bit before I can move on the flag. My panzer moving up on the left ends the turn with a good shot on a Priest:



It'd be nice to off another one of 'em, 46% hit chance, we'll see how it turns out...

Something picks off the TC in one of my Stugs, if I heard right it was a sniper. Just like sneaky, traitorous Leto to have a few snipers creeping about. Snipers are a weapon of cowards and scoundrels.

Leto's infantry on the far left has almost made it back to the village, but they've got to cross some open ground which is covered by my valiant, courageous sniper.

On the right, Leto's infantry is creeping through the woods towards mine. The two squads in LOS of my Grille bolt for cover, but the Grille gets a shot off:



Wish I could get that a little further left, but it'll do. My mortar and MG back a bit set up and start firing on the advancing infantry as well, giving me some hope of holding off Leto's boys. Just in case, I have one of my squads area fire the woods where Leto should be approaching, with the hopes that Leto's advancing men will be playing "catch the satchel" next turn.

[The Coil]

Turn 23

The turn starts off with a bang - my Panzer gets a shot off at Leto's Priest, with this happy result:

http://s192.photobucket.com/albums/z183/...stdies.jpg

A second shot hits, and the crew bails out. 2 of Leto's smoke spewing taco wagons out of play, 4 to go. On a sad note, my little infantry half squads are taking a beating from small arms fire from pretty much everywhere in the village, along with an occassional HE round. Moved 'em up a bit too quick, and Leto is having his way with them. The lack of infantry is going to be a bit of a problem, I think. Hopefully I'll have a few teams left to babysit the flags and clean out any of Leto's infantry skulking around nearby.

On the right, Leto's infantry push in the woods moves forward. The satchel chucking begins in earnest, with Leto landing a shot that sends my green half squad packing. My boys retaliate with an area fire satchel toss that hopefully landed right in the path of Leto's advance:



My squad follows that one with a second satchel. Hopefully I'm hitting something - the fact that only one or two of Leto's squads showed up to shoot it out makes me hopeful I stalled his advance. 2 HMGs and the mortar continue to fire at targets as they are able, further slowing up Leto's boys.

At the end of the turn, here's where we stand:



My armor push ( 2 Stugs, 2 panzers, and a Grille) continues on the left flag (yellow oval) - don't be fooled by the flag showing German, Leto's got some unspotted infantry in there, and I'm sure the Flag Decider would give it to him if the game ended right now. The rest of my armor (1 Stug, 1 panzer, 1 Grille) is hanging out on the right (red oval), engaging infantry targets of opportunity, angling for shots on Leto's right most Priest pack (pink oval) and getting ready to support my other armor on the flank when they turn towards the other flag. The infantry fight rages in the woods (green oval). Leto has one remaining Priest behind the village (light blue oval), and a platoon or so of infantry headed in from the left towards the village and the flag (dark blue oval). His lone remaining TD is somewhere behind the village, and I expect him to show up somewhere inconvenient in the next turn or two.

I'm considering two options now - Option 1, Finish grabbing the flag on the left, and then have everyone hit the flag on the center. Don't think I can hold both big flags, but if I can get possession of one and neutralize the other, while he holds the small flag, I come out ahead in points. Option 2, Finish securing the big flag on the left and hold it. Send the panzer and a Stug racing for the small flag (held only by one or two units, it appears). I end up with a big flag and a small flag to Leto's big flag. Not as big of a points differential, but probably still enough to grab a minor victory, if Leto doesn't do a number on my armor by the end of the game. Leto probably wouldn't expect such a move at this point, but if he has a gun anywhere over there, I lose some armor and he keeps the flag, which would be sad...

[The Coil]

Turn 24

On the left, not a ton of action. My armor creeps up, my infantry absorbs some more small arms fire. Leto appears to be massing his infantry coming in from the left.

On the right, the infantry fight goes poorly:



My guys are getting the worst of it. Mortar fire breaks my leftmost squad, and Leto's got me outnumbered. I think I'm hurting him a bit, but he's just got too many guys.

On a side note, I spot the TD (you can see the lost contact marker in the upper left of that last pic) heading behind the village left to right, probably to try to get some shots on my panzer and Stug on the right, especially if he can squeeze me between the TD and the Priests.

My panzer has moved up the road, and pulls into LOS of the Priests with a few seconds left in the turn.



One of the Priests fires and misses. This is good - my guy will be able to get off a shot early in the next turn, and probably beat a retreat before them other guys aim up on him and fire ( I can't wait to hear Leto howl in indignation, as my panzer capped his Priest on the first shot last turn. I'm sure he's complaining away about how his guys can't hit jack. Try using AP shot instead of burritos in your guns, my friend...)

Leto's been doing a decent job keeping his infantry moving - every time I lay down some area fire on his infantry, he's already got them skittering to new positions. Not bad work at all. Starting to run low on HE, and when that's gone, the offensive is over. Got about 8 Grille rounds left between 2 Grilles (the 3rd is out of ammo), and about 80 between the panzers and stugs, which sounds like a lot, but when it's all you have to break a company+ of infantry, it goes quick...

[Colonel Talvela]

btw, what ever happened to this game?

[The Coil]

Hehe...in what I now realize to be a Leto psy-ops masterwork, Leto engineered a huge controversy in order to induce me to look at his AAR before the game was over, and it ended in an unfinished sort-of draw (but I would've won, trust me...)