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

[Der Kuenstler]

The successes of turn eleven encourage and energize [hirr]Leto - he can't help but crow a little and sends in these pics with a report:







"The Tiny tigers on the hill have performed as expected, leaving a trail of smoke and pee dribble from the retreating tank crews of the wrecked honey’s on the opposite ridge (see turn 11 screenshot). I’ll move these two into hull down to engage Dev’s other honey’s while keeping my more fragile panzer III’s in cover.

Now that I have a bit of breathing room, it’s time to quit pussy footing around and move my green panzer III’s in support of my panzergrenadiers moving in on Dev’s sole small british flag at the back of the map. He’s camped his biscuit eaters in a small copse of trees next to the small flag and they appear to be brewing a pot of tea. These are the only troops that threaten my hold on the back flags, and although there presence is as threatening as a cute white little bunny rabbit, I plan on crushing the bones of this little bunny between Krupp steel and the lead of my panzergrenadiers. With no Brit armour in sight, I should have the Brit troops in gimp suits for the lewd Germans to do with what they wish in 5-6 turns (see turn 11a).

Now that his far ridge Honey’s are burning, the flank by his Grant only opens up an opportunity for my Marder men to take on the two remaining honey’s with 4-2 odds. The Marders are shielded by a dune from the LOS of the Brit armour at the back of the map (most likely scratching their arses and wondering what the heck they are going to do) and should with certain probability ice the cakes of the vulnerable Brit Stuarts just in time for afternoon tea (turn 11b).

The last screenshot, shows the yield of venturing in front of a 75mm AT gun (I suspect to attempt to peer over the ridge to see if I truly only have a few light armoured vehicles cowering in town behind my base flag). His 88 has been plugging away at it four 3 turns now, and finally inflicted one casualty and made the crew hit the deck, but the gun is still operational. I almost wish that the gun would be destroyed as I suspect it would provide Dev with a false sense of security and entice him to attack the german base flag. The Vally’s have been dispatched (one GD and one burning) with a third cowering behind a ridge, awaiting a german 50mm telegram that reads: “zee war will soon be over for you Tommy!” (see turn 11c).

Things continue to go as planned. I cannot foresee the British breaking my death grip on the attack routes to the large flags at the back of the map, as well as the german large base flag. As Sun Tzu states: “he who eats eggroll without plum sauce will not taste sweet victory”.

Cheers!" - Leto

[Der Kuenstler]

There has been a lull in the turn exchange - perhaps Randy is contemplating what to do. Here is what I would try if I were Randy, for what it is worth. (granted he does not have access to all of the information I have) Leto's AFVs are now in hulldown positions. It will be suicide to try to defeat them where they are.

Possible solution: Randy could take almost everything he's got left and attack the Oasis from the Southeast, as the green arrow indicates. He could leave a couple of infantry platoons in the Southern rocks as a gauntlet for Leto to go through should Leto try to attack the British setup zone. Randy also has three guns in the cliffs to defend his rear.



Once near the Oasis, Randy could move all of his AFVs directly under the cliffs where they can use their HE on the German defenders in the Oasis. Notice in this pic I took in the editor - if Leto moved his PzIIIJs to the cliff edge, they would not be able to fire straight down on him.



This would force Leto to move his AFVs off of the high plateau and perhaps into the sights of Randy's guns in the cliffs. Success in taking Leto's holding town and the Oasis would give RD a flag point advantage of 900 - 400.

[Ratzki]

The problem for RD started in the purchase, I think. He bought a rather equal force with reguards to infantry and armor. That's ok every now and then, but you want to be able to overpower your foe in some manner. I find myself getting into that mindset every now and then, where I want to just get by. Enough tanks to hold off the enemy and look for mistakes, and enough infantry to hold off the enemy and wait for a break. I should really want my enemies to say " Holly cr@p, Ratzki sure has alot of ___??____, now how am I going to deal with this before I get overrun?" If RD would have bought few tanks and more infantry, then Leto would be forced to use some of his tanks to deal with RD Infantry or risk losing the Infantry game entirely. Or RD could have bought an armor heavy force, dealt with Leto's tanks then turned to the combined arms in order to finish the game off. Either way, Leto would have been forced to react how RD wished, this way RD has put the initiative up for grabs and lost the toss. The prpoblem is Leto is too good a player to screw up badly, and the terrain has dictated his advantage, and RD is fighting an uphill battle from the start with no tricks to pull out later. He now does not have enough infantry strength to push through on their own and has had a major setback in the armor war.

[Der Kuenstler]

Good points, Dallas - an absolutely balanced force pick can mean you are not strong enough anywhere - especially on maps where certain units have favorable terrain.

In minute twelve we start off by seeing another of Red Devil's trucks die from German small arms fire. This one stalls and catches fire. Randy seems determined to keep these trucks on the map. Only two more to go and Leto will have the whole collector's set of six.



But in this minute Randy does get a couple of victories. Here from the Southeastern cliffs we see that, surprisingly, his 25 pdr bags Leto's 75mm gun with his remaining two HE shells. The absence of a terrain picture in the red circle below shows the gun is dead.



Over in RD's Western holding town, the British minefield claims a victim - Leto's second PzIIIJ(Late) tried to follow his buddy up North but got a little too close to the deadly trap.

[Joonny]

My god, did an anti-tank mine actually take out a tank? The best i ever seem to be able to achieve with AT mines is immobs

[Mad Russian]

I never play QB's so keep that in mind with my comments.

When I play in the desert though I find it's a tank war. Infantry can and often does get hurt bad in the open terrain. That should most of the time mean a tank heavy force in the desert. It's the only area besides the steppes I think that holds true for.

Great narrative and a good fight to watch. As I've stated before I've never played RD so this is an education to watch him against someone I have played.

Good Hunting.

MR

[wigam]

My god, did an anti-tank mine actually take out a tank? The best i ever seem to be able to achieve with AT mines is immobs

Same here, great to see they actually work like they are meant to.

[wigam]

But in this minute Randy does get a couple of victories. Here from the Southeastern cliffs we see that, surprisingly, his 25 pdr bags Leto's 75mm gun with his remaining two HE shells. The absence of a terrain picture in the red circle below shows the gun is dead.

Another bit of valuable info for me. How many times have I fired at a gun position when it was already dead. Doh.

[Joonny]

Another bit of valuable info for me. How many times have I fired at a gun position when it was already dead. Doh.

It still suprises me when people don't know this bit of info, i just thought it was one of the things POS had spread around the various CM sites that he's posted stuff at lol

[Der Kuenstler]

It still suprises me when people don't know this bit of info, i just thought it was one of the things POS had spread around the various CM sites that he's posted stuff at lol

Yes and that works for every generic icon you click on - not just AT guns.