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

[Pvt. Sofronije]

This is going to be some battle! :stir:

[British Tommy]

Nicely written end bit there DK and I hope to see both of them once again posting on the Blitz CM board once the battle has ended. The Blitz needs people like them here

[Der Kuenstler]

I was wondering if the CMAK dust would show up with the setting on "dusk" - and boy does it ever. The ground conditions are "very dry" and the dust clouds are being whipped up everywhere. Here Randy can plainly see by the dust that Pete is getting out of town and headed for the Oasis. Randy's column didn't start out very gracefully here - there was a lot of bumping and backing up - we can still see one of his Stewarts back at the start line trying to get straightened out.



Randy can also see a two-pronged attack launching from the German setup zone:



But it works both ways - Leto can see by the dust cloud ahead that a large British force is coming from the East to attack his setup area. He has left this column still as he said he would and now will likely disperse them nearby and set up a defense.



Here some of Leto's Pz IIIJ(shorts) are flying down the road and it looks like they are going to get LOS to the back of Randy's trucks before they can get away!



And lastly a shot of Leto's trucks at the end of minute one. They actually did better than I thought crossing the arid rock ground and are almost all on the dirt road already. Why did Randy stop his Stewarts back there? Overly cautious? He may have blown his chance to get Leto's trucks.

[Der Kuenstler]

I did a little testing today on CMAK trucks and they are surprisingly quick on Arid Rock, the ground this battle is being fought on.



Here are my results of how quick four regular CMAK German trucks go on different terrain in one minute. (including command delay)

On dirt road: 530 meters
On Arid Rock: 335 meters
On Dirt: 215 meters
On Sand: 75 meters

So Leto was right to send the trucks the way they went!

[Der Kuenstler]

Red Devil sends his speedy Stewarts on to the top of the ridge in hopes of catching sight of Leto's truck column. We can see his last Stewart that was left at the start line is catching up...we can also see that some of his men are tired - those aren't the only ones.



As the minute ends both lead Stewarts button up and begin to pivot - they've picked up a target already! Looks like one of Leto's Marders coming over the high plains...



The Marder has a very favorable angle on those two Stewarts. But wait - we can see from a different angle that a tank in Red Devil's Southern attack force has also Picked up Leto's lead AFV. This next minute should be interesting. (By the way - notice how many of Red Devil's men are "tired"...they won't be able to fight as effectively)



From Leto's view, we can see that the Marder is his platoon leader - and as the minute ends he has not picked up either target - he's still zipping along on "fast". Also notice that one of his best tanks, a IIIJ(Late), has bogged at the rear of the column...



Meanwhile back at Leto's home base, we see he has backed everything behind the shelter of a nearby cliff to set up a welcoming committee for RD's Southern spearhead...



Red Devil has somehow botched his truck orders and they end up in a gnarled traffic jam at one of the gentle curves in the road. The two lead trucks are now driving on the slower arid rock and two of the trucks are stuck at skewed angles at the rear...



With the result that Leto's lead trucks are now cruising into the Oasis unopposed....



Intercepted radio chatter:

PETE: "Into the Valley of Yorkshire puddings rode the Afrika Korps!"
RANDY: "the party begins.. but runaway rommy is going the wrong way! come back you black forest ham.."
PETE: "Just remember you aren’t facing Feld Marshall Erwin Rommel, but his younger half retarded brother Leto Rommel: The Desert Buttox. Up may be down and down may be up… honestly, cause I don’t even know which is which anymore…."
RANDY: "a lot of dust telling me I'm going the right way :)"
PETE: "Yes, but when you are up against the Desert Buttox, and just when you think you have him exactly where you want him and it looks like you are about to put a buttload of hurt on him, paint him with tar and dump a few tonnes of feathers on his arse… well, he craps his pants and runs away… clucking preferably… so the feathers don’t go to waste…
Put the pedal to the medal their Fritz! Deutschland, Deutschland we have no balles! : ) Dammit man! Can’t these panzers go faster!!!"
RANDY: "damn German trucks have higher gearing than my bulldogs..."
PETE: My panzertruppen actually boiled down some saurkraut and distilled it into nitrous oxide. It was a far better alternative than actually eating the sauerkraut. Tonight we dine on Liban cuisine!
BTW, nice take down of LB btw… He’s quite a dreadnaught in the CM world I hear. That experience should have you all warmed up for taking down another arrogant CM bully…Moi. : ) I don’t mind boots up the arse, but please, just not in the face. I’ll need to re pursue my modeling career after you’ve destroyed my CM job as the “Arse Knight”


From Leto's private Journal: "Hmm… RD appears as aggressive as ever. Starting to kick myself that I didn’t have those tanks in ambush position to begin with, but oh well. I checked the rate of movement of his tanks and the LOS of the first vantage point for the Brits into my domain. As much as I wanted to break my tank group into two halfs and create a “gauntlet” for RD to run, I just could not take the chance that they may be in LOS and flanked as they move to the right. It looks like RD is bringing a large hammer with him over to my flag, so perhaps this will work out well for me… I don’t have to suffer the slings and arrows of AT guns on defence and get to employ my own. I may also perch the 3rd AT gun being hauled with the Sdkfz on the hill overlooking my base flag and keep the rest of my vanguard moving to intercept his own northern thrust to the main flag area. I am not sure he will charge in recklessly though, especially with my main force moving up the plateau in good position to swing back around and engage him."

[Der Kuenstler]

Now we have the first casualty of the battle - it is Leto's Marder III® platoon leader. The crew is stretched out on the ground after abandoning the vehicle. With Stewarts firing from two angles, it really never had much of a chance.



Leto pulls the reigns on the remainder of his central spearhead and turns them North where a rock ridge will hide them from RD's Eastern tank threat. We can also see his trailing IIIJ(late) is still bogged at the bottom of the hill.



To the West, Leto's conscript IIIJ(short) comes under fire from RD's AT team up in the cliffs. Too bad RD didn't leave the team hidden longer - the IIIJ just turned and fired once - causing them to crawl away.



To the East, it was one of Red Devil's Stewarts that got the Marder. RD orders his Grants and other's to move into position for more, but Leto has already gotten his armor behind the high ridge.



To the South, RD seems content to halt his attacking column and wait for his infantry to catch up.



Even though Leto has lost an AFV, he is getting better position on RD - his men are already running into the hotel at the Oasis and RD will now have to try and pry them out.

Radio chatter:

RANDY: "the panzers are burning! the panzers are burning.. capt. highrock, the cliffhanger is really getting irritated at your shelling of his cave.. his last message to HQ's was quite garbled and full of french"
PETE: "Bloody hell! Nice shot. An extra cube of sugar in their tea tonight! That is one helluva cliff climbing limp legged bastard you have up there with that ATR rifle…"

Leto's Private Journal: "Unfortunate loss of my Marder II… but I still think it is well worth the position that I am trading it for. I have nailed RDs AT Rifle that could have threatened the rear of my marders on the hill, but still do not want to take any chances of getting caught in a flank attack and will move them back to the defilade positions that do not have LOS to the Brits blocking flag area and that has LOS to all approaches along the plateau. Once my men are safely deposited on the Cliffside, I will swing my panzers back and lead with the IIIJ lates and their heavy turret armor and see if I can get into a rock throwing contest with his Stuarts."

[Steel God]

DK;

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know anything about CM, but is that Marder completely out of the fight, or can/will that crew rally and reenter it's vehicle?

Paul

[British Tommy]

DK;

Forgive my ignorance, but I don't know anything about CM, but is that Marder completely out of the fight, or can/will that crew rally and reenter it's vehicle?
Paul

Paul,
I highly recommend you buy the games. You don't know what your missing :)
Once a tank/vehicle is knocked out, that's it. Any crew left are armed with a pistol and low ammo. It's also better to hide the crews because they are worth points to your opponent ;)

[Steel God]

Thanks for the answer Bob.

As my Call Sign may indicate, I used to be a fair hand at SP, so CM would seem a natural for me, however I gave up on tactical games of the Cm/SP type for the selfish reason that I jealously guard my free time and I loathed doing the purchase and set up portion of things. Sounds silly, but I'm stretched very thin between work, family and club commitments.

I confess that I will be following this ME game though to see to old pros and maybe, just maybe, it'll draw me in ;)

Paul

[Joonny]

Once a tank/vehicle is knocked out, that's it. Any crew left are armed with a pistol and low ammo.

Rarely, a crew will leave its vehicle with full ammo for their pistols, they can be pretty handy if things get desperate in defence.

and I loathed doing the purchase and set up portion of things.

You can allways get the computer to purchase your forces for you, but in that case I advise you find an opponent willing to do the same thing, and if you keep the force size small the setup doesn't take much time.