Welcome to Best Replay of the Week.
I am Luke Kneller.
In today’s episode we have an invader with perfect timing,
an E-25 using his mini-gun to the max,
and several T-54s giving the enemy teams a cockroach problem.
Let’s Watch!
Let’s start with a different kind of scouting replay for a change.
droopnk is a player, spotting for his artillerist platoon mate
on the defending side of an Assault match.
Droop is driving the nippy and surprisingly well protected LTTB.
Of course that armour won’t count for much in a tier IX game like this one.
This is probably far enough. Let’s see who comes to try their luck.
Droops backs away as he’s been spotted,
but he gets full spotting damage for the Centurion kill.
It’s a good start.
Maybe he should check that corner? ...Aha!
A harassment shot on the M103, and then it’s time to get away.
the enemy artillery is on the ball, but the shot misses.
Is it still there?
Yup, looks like it.
The enormous gun barrel on the LTTB is not just for show,
and Droop starts dealing out the pain.
The IS-8 is tough, and makes itself a difficult target.
Droop decides to get closer,
but his artillery buddy makes the problem go away instead.
Now’s a good time to deal with the IS that was detected earlier.
A return shot clips the optics, but other than that it’s an easy kill.
Whoa, that was close. The enemies have such an artillery heavy force,
it’s worth taking the risk to spot them.
Droop dances back and forth on the edge of the dune,
spotting the enemies for artillery and taking shots.
One frustrated enemy SPG tries to shotgun him, but it doesn’t quite connect.
The Borsig has had enough, and charges to close combat.
The shot really hurts,
but the heavy armour means it’s the Borsig who is hurt in the ram.
If the TD connects again, it’s all over.
Droop hammers his foe as fast as the loader can manage,
and dodges the second shot. That was close.
The St. Emil gets taken out as a dessert.
And there’s also the last artillery piece.
It tries to get away, but doesn’t get into cover fast enough.
Just two more to go.
the defence has long since turned into a hunt,
largely due to the excellent scouting.
The T29 dies before Droop can get at it,
but this IS-6 will now pay the price for hiding in the rear all game.
One last shot and... Victory.
That was very nice aggressive scouting,
and it turned the defence into an assault. Well played Droop.
The invader can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.
silverranger2005 and his hellcat attempt to do just that in the next replay.
The standard battle is played on Pearl River, and Ranger is in the bottom tier.
He heads north at full speed,
and turns towards the map centre before meeting any enemies.
Oh my, that is a lot of bad guys.
Ranger takes a drive-by shot and keeps going.
Now what? It looks like he’s through the enemy lines,
and they seem to have left their rear unguarded.
Mind the step.
Well hello there.
The SU takes cover and Ranger pushes on towards the base.
Here’s the capture zone, and the score is zero to eight.
There’s just one chance to win this now.
Ranger finds what cover he can, and waits…
47% capture, and it’s two against eleven.
Moments later, an enemy defender is spotted, and it’s a tier VIII heavy.
The field is full of enemies.
Ranger punches a hole into the WZ, and dodges a pair of shots.
His next hit kills the heavy, and the capture is at 100! Another Dodge!
The Ally dies, and Ranger takes a hit, but the capture is finished! Victory!
Talk about winning by the narrowest of margins.
The score looks modest, but that was an amazing capture.
Well done Invader.
Next we have a double act by a pair of T-54s.
Captain_Chandler and buchi1000 fight back-to-back in the Arctic Region.
The two cockroaches head north with about a third of the team.
The first encounter is with a Bulldog, which is quickly dealt with.
The boys keep going, taking on a KV-5 and a SuperPerhing at the choke point.
Aside from cutting Chandler’s track, the enemies can’t seem to hurt them at all.
They roll on to the enemy base,
and Bushi claims the kill on a TD who is too slow on the trigger.
The second TD is dealt with just as fast… as is the Tiger P.
That’s six kills with zero damage to their tanks.
The T-54 boys split up for a moment, each going for their own target.
Bushi takes out a scout, while Chandler takes on a KV-4.
The KV is a tough opponent,
and Chandler actually takes some damage.
Bushi zooms past his remaining opponents,
and comes to the aid of his platoon mate.
They keep moving, and pounce on the rear of two high tier opponents.
As before, the enemies seem almost helpless in the face of such teamwork.
The remaining opponents have broken through and are threatening the base.
The T-54s speed across the snowy terrain to finish the job.
The only real mistake of the match happens
when Chandler drives right into Bushi’s shot.
Well, the game is over. All that remains is mopping up the stragglers.
Excellent!
This is the sort of manoeuver warfare that the T-54 excels at,
and your teamwork was just about perfect.
Brothers in Arms indeed.
And now it’s time for a simple, refreshing rampage.
The tool of destruction is the E 25 premium tank destroyer,
and the maniac at the controls is Sander7897.
Sander finds himself on Pearl River.
He dashes forward and stops at an ambush spot.
Several seconds pass, and no enemies appear.
Sander gets bored and decides to just hunt them down instead.
Finally something to shoot at.
The M6 and the Tiger get taken down quickly,
and Sander is just getting warmed up.
“This will do nicely…
hey, that was my kill!”
“I think I’ll call you kill number three.”
“Hold still dammit”
“That’s better.”
First the capper…
and then something should probably be done about this big guy.
Ouch, that was a costly mistake there.
All in all, dealing with the IS could have gone a whole lot better.
Still, a repair kit takes care of the ammo rack,
and there are plenty of enemies left to kill.
Onwards and upwards!
Here we go.
He gets in several good shots,
but it’s probably not a good idea to charge in there.
Sander takes care of the arty, and then goes on a road trip around the map.
Hey, bonus content.
The S-51 is barely a speed bump,
and Sander gets busy with engaging the cappers.
The last ally claims the kill, but the TD makes up for that. Eight kills now.
Getting the kill on the T1 becomes a competition,
and the high rate of fire comes in handy.
Nine kills, and one more to go.
There it is, and very nearly claimed by the ally.
Sander drives like a maniac, charging the enemy
who misses their last shot by inches.
Victory with 10 kills!
Nice rampage with a nice machine. Top Gun of the week for you.
And for the last treat of the day, we have more T-54 goodness.
This time it’s the light tank variant,
and it’s driven by Marmeladenkeks.
Let’s just call him Jaffa Cake.
He finds himself on Steppes in a tier IX encounter battle.
The start gives a good opportunity for a drag race with the Bulldog.
Jaffa Cake brought along a few HE rounds for enemy scouts,
and the T71 gets both of them.
A cheeky AMX 12t manages to damage his gun.
Jaffa Cake repairs it and gives chase.
Encountering a large American autoloader makes him think better of it though.
But here’s the T71 from before.
After some circling the enemy is dead,
but his T-54 has taken damage as well.
It’s also the only kill for his team so far, with six tanks lost.
Jaffa Cake joins in on taking down the scary autoloader,
and takes a shell from an IS-8 for his troubles.
Better get out of there.
But only for a moment, before attacking the IS-8 from a different angle.
The “fighting biscuit” keeps the enemy tracked,
making it an easy mark for allies. Take that.
Here’s a whole column of enemies.
Too many to attack head on, but a good opportunity for harassment.
Capture seems unlikely at this stage,
but with the score at 5:11 it’s worth a try.
Halfway. Arty is getting scary though.
Sixty.
Seventy, and only the three of them left now.
Eighty.
So close! The capture gets to ninety,
but the pesky little twelve-ton lives just long enough to reset it.
Jaffa Cake is on the ball,
and avoids the worst from lethal looking artillery strike.
With that triple arty strike, the capture has been completely reset.
A WZ gets a shot in, but it pays the price for that immediately.
There’s no point in staying at the circle now.
Jaffa Cake puts the speed of his tank to good use, and goes hunting.
The Waffenträger isn’t what he’s looking for, it’s these arties over here.
The words “Fox” and “Henhouse” come to mind from what happens next.
No more arty threat, but the allies in the circle are getting overrun.
Jaffa Cake can’t race to their rescue either,
with the monstrous TD waiting to ambush him.
The allies are dead, and it’s all up to him now.
The enemy TD has a lot of health left,
and all it needs is a single hit to end this.
Yikes! That looked scary, but it’s the only chance the TD will get.
“Just” two enemies left now, but they are both tier IX heavies,
and Jaffa Cake is down to five rounds of APCR.
Here we go.
Despite getting spotted, Jaffa can take the first shot fairly safely.
He backs away and climbs to higher ground for the next attack.
A second shot finishes off the E-75,
and the hasty return shot from the ST-I hits the ground.
Jaffa Cake doesn’t give the enemy a chance to reload,
and his next shot ends the game, with two shells left to spare.
Wow! Talk about a crucial contribution.
Marmeladenkeks really made that light tank sing.
Congratulations on pulling off that win.
After all that talk about Jaffa Cakes
I’m going to go get a snack…
oh, you’re still here?
Err, click something, sub, comment, yada-yada. BYE!