Completed Let's kill you guys in Armoured Brigade

[Dayyālu]

I have no excuses bar laziness. Let's go as fast as we can.

Spoiler

North, I follow Tindrli's and Endemic's orders. The enemy infantry melts down quickly and the Polish infantry advances without problems, some light mortar fire on our T55s but no biggie.
Another M113 blows up!

South, Vale's infantry quickly loads and reaches the villaged, before unloading. Just light rifle fire on one of the Skots, the Motorized infantrymen quickly unload and try to reach the buildings.
Mid, Andjord's T55s advance.

Vale's infantry contact some Italian motorized infantry. The Skots and T55s in the forest behind quickly identify the targets too and start raining fire.

Bad luck mid. As Andjord's first T55 goes out of the safety of the woods, several AT rounds slam into it quickly disabling the tank. Passage is not safe and the mortar fire has not suppressed whatever is firing at us.
Goddamn.

South is going FAR better. Vale's Polish infantry men valiantly charge in the buildings and the Italian Infantry breaks on contact, the two survivors starting to flee before the might of POLAN arms. The T-34s truck on shooting at anything that moves, HE ammo working fine against infantry.

North, it's a Turkey shoot. The Italian defences are overrun by the supporting infantry, Skots and T55s and the suppression fire is so dense that Endemic's men can safely reach the buildings and add to the pile-up. Seems safe for now!

South, a T34 spontaneously blows up. I have NO IDEA about what type of enemy got it. No idea. We see no infantry, AT guns or tanks. What the fuck. The T34's armour can easily be defeated by even basic AT infantry weapons, tho, but the range here is a bit worrying.


Basic objectives obtained. I need new orders.

North, Endemic's infantry is in position ad safe. The Skots too. Tindlri's T55s are dumping MG fire and HE rounds on the poor Italians.

Mid, And's lonely T55s sticks to the cover in the woods. Falksi's and Sqeecoo's troops are quiet and safe. But maybe it's time for And to start screaming some direct orders to their lazy commanders....

Shit is complex.

Vale's infantry has broken in, Moist's troops and Strange's tonks are following suit, charging guns blazing. Baud's T55s are giving covering fire.
To be honest, I think the strongest point of the Italian defense is the mid. Weird choice for the AI, they have no objectives there....

 

[Andnjord]

My order for this turn:



Otherwise I'll shout at Falksi's and Sqeecoo's to move their lazy asses into the wood just north-west of me, they might be able to both spot whatever is blasting us from mid and potentially to support Tindrli and co up north.

 

[Endemic]

My platoon can hold position for now.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Oh boy. Hopefully I get a medal from this. With some luck, it might even be in real chocolate so I can send to my family.

Well, now I move to occupy the main building in OBJ2. If it is done without further opposition, I detach one of the infantry unit to occupy the building on the other side of the bridge, while the rest just stay in OBJ2.

 

[Andnjord]

Oh boy. Hopefully I get a medal from this. With some luck, it might even be in real chocolate so I can send to my family.

Comrade, you must be new to this. Best do like me, "accidentally" misplace comrades but report full company to superior, this way extra supplies for me!

 

[ValeVelKal]

Oh boy. Hopefully I get a medal from this. With some luck, it might even be in real chocolate so I can send to my family.

Comrade, you must be new to this. Best do like me, "accidentally" misplace comrades but report full company to superior, this way extra supplies for me!

Good luck when you "full-strength" brigade of 1 (one) tank is ordered to assault an enemy position next time.

You can't be pulled from the frontline for R&R if your unit does not need Repair

 

[Andnjord]

"Comrade superior more equal officer, I must report to you that after your orders to assault bourgeois position, the previous hero turned traitor to the workers ValeVelaKal voluntarily sabotaged the tanks of my company preventing me from successsfully carrying your orders to completion. Preliminary investigation reveals he had been paid in in capitalistic medals and chocolate. Requesting urgent reinforcement and GODDAMN KOMISSARS to reestablish ideological soundness of the troops

Signed: The cousin of the sister in law of the aunt of Jaruzelski"

See? Easy comrade!

Spoiler

Gawd I love communist-speech :D

 

[baud]

Now that the situation seems to be well in hand in the South, I think my tanks can now start firing at the enemies in the middle of the map. If none are visible, I'd just stay put until a poor sucker a hero of the motherland goes first.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I dunno. Charge!, I suppose? I'll just follow ValeVelKal, he puts on a much better appearance of having a plan than I do.

 

[ValeVelKal]

The theme song and TV show based on our unit, featuring Strange Fellow's T-34

 

[Andnjord]

TONIGHT ONLY AT THE PALAC KULTURY I NAUKI (Palace of Culture and Science)!

THE INTERNATIONALE PREMIERE OF DIRECTOR DAYYALU'S NEW BLOCKBUSTER: LET'S KILL YOU GUYS IN ARMOURED BRIGADE

FEATURING THE ALL-STAR CAST OF:

LADIE'S FAVOURITE STRANGE FELLOW!

SILVER SCREEN VETERAN VALEVELKAL!

RISING STAR ANDNJORD!

TINDRLI 'THE MAVERICK'!

AND EVERY LITTLE PIONEER'S FAVOURITE, BAUD!!!!

 

[Dayyālu]

That post proved almost prophetic. If I ever manage to make Armoured Commander 2 work....

Wait



WAIT ITS ON STEAM

Maybe I have something else to LP after this

First, music!



(I don't even like the refrain of this one, but the beginning is good)

Spoiler

So, we got our orders. Tindrli's T55s annihilate another bunch of Pastas (should be the last of their platoon up North) hiding in the building with a HE shot, while we... what's that

CONTACT ON MID AND IT IS TRACKED

Well, now we're sure it's not AT guns but tanks. We can't identify the model, but for Itas the options are Pattons or Leopard 1s. Problem is there's at least four of them minimum. If we're insanely lucky they could be M113 recoilless carriers, but what are the odds?
Falksi's T55s, ordered by the frantic screaming coming from the woods on their West, advance and one of 'em targets the tracked vehicle.

Strange's T34 push forth screaming and shooting randomly MGs, and no one fires back. They occupy the objective while Vale's infantry advances.

It's not enough! Pushing forth, the valiant lead T34 manages to get a clear view and a clear shot of the tracked. It's a Leopard1A1, pretty much the top of the line of Ita armour.
For those of you still reading this, the Leopard 1 was designed as a glass cannon and it's not a gamey term: it can dish out the pain but it can't take it BY DESIGN. Their defensive position was excellent for them tho.

North, Endemic's infantry and Tindrli's tanks start receiving mortar fire. One of Endemic's infantry squads is insanely unlucky and shrapnel cuts down two men despite them being in cover. The squad tries to retreat towars the Skot, while on Mid Sqeecoo's infantry deploys and...

And Strange's lead T34 takes a shot from 1350 mts and blows up the Leopard, penetrating its turret. Ok, this CAN happen because as I said the Leopard has paper armour, but SERIOUSLY

SERIOUSLY

Things develop fast mid. North, the mortar bombardment increases in intensity, but it looks like it's light mortars. Mid, we identify another Leopard 1 as it blows up one of Sqeecoo's SKOTs, luckily after it unloaded its infantry.

North, we identify the last Italian infantry, it's a Bersaglieri weapon squad. Quite hardy troops, even. But with their location discovered, it's only a matter of time.

Ohh boy. Sqeecoo's infantry goes to cover and starts scanning the area, and we get 'em. Our Recon BRDM blows up hit by a enemy AT grenade but we know already were they are. The last M113 up north gets obliterated by a T55 shot from Tindrli's platoon.


I guess now it's time for further orders.

Situation calm. We know were we have the supposedly last of the Italian infantry, but we're kinda lacking in infantry too as only one of Endemic's squads is pristine.

Mid we have identified the opponent. Sqeecoo's Infantry is deployed but can't do much at that range. Falksi's T55s are... drunkenly maneouvering around trying to reach them, maybe And will need to scream some more.

South, everything is relatively calm with no further encounters with enemy infantry. Strange's T34s are now engaging the revealed tracked vehicle south (another Leopard for sure).

Waiting for orders....

I wanted to sperg about the Bersaglieri, but fuck it I'm going to buy Armoured Commander II. Graphics are dogshit, but guys believe me it's a great tonk roguelike.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Well, MY objectives are completed, and I am not going to take much more initiative.

I sent some infantry to occupy the building on the other side of the bridge and make sure the SKOT are South of the village (or in one case South of the building on the other side of the bridge), but close enough that I can reembark in a few minutes if I need.

 

[baud]

I'll have my T-55s move North to engage the Leopards.

 

[Endemic]

I'll keep holding position until the rest of you catch up

 

[Andnjord]

My order still:



(well, peek out if it looks safe enough or to support if need be)

And I'll shout at Falksi to join Sqeecoo and start engaging the tanks in front of us. Hopefully with Baud charging from the south we'll be able to overwhelm them from multiple directions.

But damn, it's been 30 years since WWII and we still don't have radios in our tanks? No wonder we needed to dust out the T-34s!

 

[Dayyālu]

Rock&Roll.

Spoiler

North, everything stays put. Mid, Falksi's T55s receive the inarticulate screaming from And and try moving in support.
Vale's Infantry finishes taking defensive positions, while Baud's couple of T55s moves in.

One of the T55s goes out in the open, engaging the Leopard. The Italian tank manages to shoot with its 105, but the T55's armour proves efficient and the shot fails to penetrate.
The return fire isn't so gentle, and the D10 obliterates the Leopard's turret at the first shot.

Good.

............

Strange Fellow's T34s engage an unidentified tracked, and after dumping a dozen rounds it blows up (the Leopard is trying to maneuver but they aren't QUITE getting the T34s, because they're hidden in the midst of the buildings I guess).

You people realize that the T34s are leading the chart for kills, right?

With three tank platoons going in, the lone Leopard defending the southern area gets overwhelmed. It manages to fire several rounds against Falksi's and Baud's T55s, but the hurrican of return fire is too much...

And Strange's T34s steal another kill. Seriously.

Baud, And and Falksi advance. Baud finds a team of Italian scouts hiding near our positions, the poor fucks get murderfucked by a point-blank shot of HE from Baud's leading tank.

What steel could not, Nature provides. One of Baud's T55s throws a track and it's immobilized. Sigh.

Second scout team gets shotgunned by Baud's lead T55.

Andj's last T55 pushes forward with Falksi's platoon, and he's the first to get out of the woods and....
...well, it's the last Leopard 1 in hull down position at 150 mts. 150 mts. It's the equivalent of a knife fight in tank ranges.

I can shoot my AK at 150 mts with reasonable accuracy. Don't ask me to hit bottles at 100+ mts tho.

DUEL IN THE SNOW WHO WILL SURVIVE THE ULTIMATE DUEL OF ULTIMATE TANKERY

The 105mm roars! NO DAMAGE

Andj misses the returning shot!

The Leopard misses!

(this is riveting, I can assure.)

The Leopard fires again, ricochet (gotta love that sloped armour)

Andj's screams manage to make the autoloader work and the 100mm round finds its target. The Leopard tho is merely damaged!

Quite reasonably, the Leopard pops smoke to use as cover. Could have been a good move if he had space to retreat, but four other T55s are coming in.

Did I say that Andj will NOT be denied?

Andj gets immobilized. Baud and Falksi support from South. It's over.

REALLY over.

With the Leopards all destroyed, the battle is over. We had a shitton more of tanks, but attacking defended positions is hard. We won a good victory here, helped a LOT by the fact that the AI prioritized Leopards and Mechanized infantry instead of AT guns and stock infantry. Could have been a lot worse.

Also the T34s lead the kill count as far as I know, with three Leopards, some IFVs and infantry. Obsolete, HA!

And this is what's left of the Italians. a MG section covering the Leos, and some scattered infantry in cover. Not a bad defensive set-up, but once we broke south it was all over, and the defense of the Southern village was kinda subpar. I've seen the AI counter aggressively at times, but in this case they let us maneouver in peace.

I'm very tired, and I'll leave the considerations to tomorrow. Armoured Brigade gives you a cool option to see a smallish replay of your game in stylized form, had to set-up a secondary youtube account and remember how the fuck you take vids in Win10.



Look mom like RK47

Thank you all for partecipating. I had fun to manage your dumfuck orders, and sorry if I dropped for a week. Tomorrow, my closing words and the LP of Armoured Commander II because pixel art

 

[baud]

Congrats on winning with us

 

[Andnjord]

inarticulate screaming

Andj's screams

Yes, yes, congrats to you all. Now where did I put my paper and pen, I need to write a report to denounce the bourgeois laissez-faire attitude of Falksi and Sqeecoo to our local GODDAMN KOMMISSAR.

Anyone else wants MOAR?

 

[ValeVelKal]

How much wine did I loot by arriving first in that village ?

I guess I can share with Strange Fellow.

 

[ValeVelKal]

Well, outro it is :

 

[Dayyālu]

Anyone else wants MOAR?

Hmm, closing thoughts.

ValeVelKal was right, AB isn't a game particularly suited to such kind of audience-partecipation LPs, mostly due the insane lethality. It doesn't help that the game itself needs combined arms to properly function (recon and infantry and armour to work together). Not to be hard, but we essentially won because the AI was shit and didn't buy enough AT to cover all the areas, and Strange T34's managed to slip south and flank fire the entire Italian formation.

It's still a good game and I would suggest it to anyone interested in the era. It has problems, like lackluster campaign mode, but it's still fun.

I'm not particularly interested in running another match, I'd more like to give space to a small indie project that will require significantly less audience effort....

Thank you all for helping me in this little experiment.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Oh, it's over. Let's do a quick recap, shall we?

Strange Fellow acts as an offensive decoy

I've got a better idea: why don't you act as an "offensive decoy", buddy.

I'm not the one who brought a museum artefact out of retirement

DUEL IN THE SNOW WHO WILL SURVIVE THE ULTIMATE DUEL OF ULTIMATE TANKERY

The 105mm roars! NO DAMAGE

Andj misses the returning shot!

The Leopard misses!

(this is riveting, I can assure.)

[...]

Andj's screams manage to make the autoloader work and the 100mm round finds its target. The Leopard tho is merely damaged!

[...]

Did I say that Andj will NOT be denied?

Andj gets immobilized.

Nice going, buddy. Meanwhile:

[...]

...with the deluge of fire coming from Baud's T55s and the HE from the T34 the enemy infantry is soon destroyed.

[...]

And Strange's lead T34 takes a shot from 1350 mts and blows up the Leopard, penetrating its turret.

[...]

Strange Fellow's T34s engage an unidentified tracked, and after dumping a dozen rounds it blows up.

[...]

And Strange's T34s steal another kill. Seriously.

In summary:

You people realize that the T34s are leading the chart for kills, right?

And dzięki to our sponsor Dayyālu, who failed to get us killed. Pathetic.