Hello, I’m Luke Kneller and welcome to season 4 of Best Replays of the Week.
Since we’ve been away for so long, let’s go and get our engines started!
So: this week we have: a Top Gun from a “feeble” scout,
a fearless Sniper, and a time sensitive Defender.
Let’s begin!
Let’s jump right in with a Steel Wall from the EU region
where Nobody686 puts the glacis plate of a VK 45.02 (P) Ausf. B to the ultimate test.
The map is Fjords and the big VK is top dog in the matchmaking.
This will need to be pretty impressive…
Nobody turns around and gives a love tap to an enemy heavy.
It seems to have brought some friends along
and the VK finds itself facing an entire enemy detachment.
The rival team is five tanks ahead so Nobody has to hold the line here.
An opponent goes down,
then another one.
In the meantime, the Western flank seems to have collapsed…
That shot came from the rear!
Nobody backs up against the hulk of the dead ally and fights on like a cornered animal.
“There’s no getting out of this alive.”
The VK’s crew holds on, determined to get off one last shot.
The 110 is hungry for the kill, but ends up as this Steel Wall’s last victim instead.
The VK is a burning wreck, but it did its job.
It slowed down the enemy advance and allowed the game to be turned around.
Let’s take a look at those numbers.
That’s plenty of damage dealt, but the real achievement is in the blocking.
14k shrugged off with 44 non-penetrating hits.
Impressive.
It’s been a while since we’ve had a Sniper on the show,
so let’s have Alex260000 from the EU region remind us how it’s done.
The game is an Encounter on Prokhorovka,
and the Sniper’s strange looking T28 Concept is on top tier.
Alex climbs to an elevated firing position and picks off the first target with a single clean shot.
There’s a moment to spare so the Sniper pushes down a couple of trees for visual cover.
A Jagdpanther takes a good un-eyed hit, but survives the follow up shot.
Suddenly the horizon is teeming with targets
and Alex engages them as fast as the gun can cycle.
The Sniper takes out a German toaster and shifts aim to the Jumbo.
A shot pings off the armour but Alex can’t leave this position just yet.
There’s more incoming fire and the last ally blows up.
The Sniper finishes off the unseen Porsche Tiger and withdraws from the position.
Sometimes there’s no option but to wade into close combat.
Alex pushes forward and takes out an Easy Eight with a pair of shots.
An artillery strike blows off a track.
Alex repairs it in a flash and retaliates by taking out the other SPG.
The VK 30.02 M would be a deadly opponent in close combat,
but it challenges the Sniper to a long range duel instead.
The remaining SPG survives the first hit, misses its shot and gets taken out.
The VK still doesn’t want to close the range, and it can’t beat the Sniper at this game.
It’s over.
Well done Alex.
You gave us a nice display of Sniper tactics in the early game
and went fearlessly into close combat when the situation called for it.
This week’s Top Gun comes from the American servers,
and it features the MT-25 as a somewhat unlikely killing machine.
The player goes by the beefy name muscles1
and fights on the defending side in a tier 8 Assault on Karelia.
Let’s skip the warmup and skip straight to the action.
The first victim is an IS who probably doesn’t expect to be killed by a little scout.
The T-54 prototype is softened-up from long range, and finished off up-close.
The IS-6 shrugs off the shots taken on the move, but stopping to aim properly sorts it out.
The SU-101 takes quite a few hits before getting annoyed with its assailant.
Muscles backs away and the TD ducks out of sight.
There are three targets on offer,
and the gunner starts throwing shells at them with wild abandon,
occasionally even doing some damage.
But now the enemies are six tanks in the lead.
The SU shows itself again and this time it doesn’t get away.
The last ally dies just before Muscles finishes off a rival MT-25.
Even after that kill the game is one against seven.
An SPG tries goes for a shotgun charge, but Muscles pecks it to death instead.
The killer scout races East to open up some distance, dealing with another SPG on the way.
The next challenger is a Comet but Muscles is way too strong for him.
The M12 tries its luck as well, but doesn’t do any better.
There’s only a minute on the clock and Muscles just needs to survive for a win.
A T25/2 tries to make sure it doesn’t happen but gets outplayed by the little killer.
Just 17 seconds to go.
The capture attempt is irrelevant now but Muscles drives straight into the jaws of an IS-3!
Come on little guy,
dodge that shot!
Alas, it is not to be.
The IS-3 lands its shot just as the clock reaches zero, and the game ends in heartbreak.
muscles1 must have been gutted!
What an amazing killing spree with a tank that most people wouldn’t consider all that strong.
You’re definitely our Top Gun of the Week.
Now we’ll hop back to the European servers
for a somewhat unusual Invader game from SirKnumskull.
The WZ-111 model 1-4 is a top tier in a battle for the Steppes.
SirKnumskull heads East and starts pushing towards the enemy base.
There is some opposition along the way but nothing the big heavy
and a couple of friends couldn’t handle.
The SU-152 is a juicy target but a T-44 makes a nuisance of itself.
Luckily the Invader has brought some friends along,
and both opponents get taken out with quick efficiency.
There’s another defending TD here, but not for long.
The way to the enemy base is clear,
but this Invader prefers guarding the cappers to sitting in the circle.
SirKnumskull takes a 540m sniper shot at an ST-I
and heads West to keep the opponents away from the circle.
Once again it’s the allies who get the kills,
but you can see who’s doing the lion’s share of the damage.
“Hang in there Type 59, I’ve got this”.
SirKnumskull drives the Jagdtiger into a retreat, pummels it some more,
and heads back East to take on the fearsome ST-I.
The Soviet heavy blows up an ally just before SirKnumskull gets to it.
It puts up a good fight
and ties up the Invader long enough for the Jagdtiger to pull off a last second reset.
Damn.
The capture gets reset again and the Type 59 is screaming for help.
SirKnumskull rides to the rescue, and starts by punching out the troublesome Jagdtiger.
The Tiger fires, but the T34 is a bigger threat.
It keeps coming despite the hit, but a second shot followed by a ram puts it down for good.
The capper is dead as well, but the invasion has served its purpose.
The reds are down to a single Tiger I, and soon enough not even that.
So that’s how you get the Invader award without even attempting the capture yourself.
Remember, the idea is to win the game by putting pressure on the enemy base,
and that’s what was done here.
We’ll wrap up this episode with a Defender game from the EU region.
The player is DrCoxie and the vehicle is a German VK 28.01 scout tank.
The good Doctor begins by sprinting West, sniping at a target in the abbey,
and challenging a Cromwell into a scrap.
The push seems to be going well so DrCoxie heads for the high ground to help out.
However, by the time the VK gets there all friendlies have been wiped out!
The remaining teammates are going for another attempt.
At first DrCoxie follows, but soon sees that that the situation is hopeless,
and breaks away just in time!
Eek, now it’s just the Doctor and a single SPG against seven hostiles…
Well.
It’s time for a hero to step forth.
The Defender swaps in a high explosive and distracts the KV-1
until the arty is able to finish it off.
Waiting for enemies to turn up is not an option so Coxie goes looking for them.
The Doctor’s companion is sadly popped by counter arty leaving the game one against six…
with no chance of regenerating!
The Doctor spots one of the arties but messes up the ambush.
Luckily the AMX whiffs its shot as well
giving the Defender the opportunity to do it right on the second attempt.
There was a short capture warning
but DrCoxie would like to deal with the remaining SPGs first.
The shoebox sized FV304 is found and destroyed
but there’s no time to look for the last one since the capture starts for real this time!
The Defender puts the VK’s off road capability to good use racing back up to the abbey.
Coxie spots the Churchill and resets the capture with a High Explosive.
Spotted, and the Tog is there as well! The Defender backs off for a bit,
returns and tickles the Churchill some more.
This isn’t good.
The heavies won’t keep missing forever.
DrCoxie backs up a little, feels the ripples in time and space then pulls the trigger…
success!
That shot with the derp gun delivered an un-eyed reset from 69%!
The Doctor drives away pleased as the frustrated capper gives up.
The inactive Škoda in the enemy circle gets a HEAT and an un-eyed follow-up.
But DrCoxie doesn’t want to stick around after being spotted, and decides to finish it off later.
How good was the time lord’s decision?
Well, DrCoxie races South and gets in position just as the TOG resumes its capture attempt.
It takes a lot of HE to whittle it down, but there are only two active enemies left.
The last minute warning blares and a shotgun assassin almost gets the drop on Coxie.
Luckily almost isn’t enough here!
Oooh, the Churchill.
The first HEAT round breaks a track but doesn’t do damage.
The second shot is un-eyed and DrCoxie decides to relocate.
The blind shot worked, but time is now critically short.
A snap shot misses wasting more,
and by cruel irony an HE round leaves the enemy with 3 hit points.
The Churchill has given up, but it doesn’t matter anymore.
If only DrCoxie had taken one more shot at the Škoda in the enemy base…
A shame about the draw, but it was still impressive play with a VK scout.
DrCoxie played an almost perfect game with both hearts in their mouth.
Hopefully getting on the show lessens the sting of the draw a little.
And that’s all for the first of this season!
We started with a bit of a losing streak, but I’m sure we’ll pick it up for next week!
I’m Luke Kneller.
Thanks for watching and I’ll see you next time.