Part 110: Operation Mange Poutine: Turkish Turn 4
Yeah. I even feel a little bad for Hob. ~10 kills is where I expected to be this turn, but spread over the course of two turns. It just so happens that driving everything up to the base of Sand Hill kinda put them in range of EVERYTHING of the murderbox I created. It was not pretty; instead it was very tense as each missile streaked out and challenged the VIRSS and armor. There was certainly some lucky shots. This is where I tell you that rushing to pump it out before work meant that I didn't properly record it again
A shame because there is no video of a Milan making a one in a thousand shot unless I boot up the opponent's side. He might have been better with the other Turn 3.I did talk to The Merry Marauder about the mistake just as courtesy and to see how they wanted to deal with it. He expressed sincere condolences and agreed that the best course of action was to just play it.
Turk Turn 4
This is what I was met with as I inspected my positions at the start of my turn.
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Three Challengers are driving up the primary road toward my positions on Crescent Ridge.
Three Challengers are driving through the woods to bypass or flank Sand Hill from the north.
Two Challengers are driving right up Sand Hill's face.
Three Challengers are driving for the open terrain between Green Ridge and Sand Hill.
Two Challengers have not moved from their central location just SW of the hamlet in the British lines. A recently deceased Challenger is right behind them having been killed by a CF-18's Maverick D.
One Challenger is behind the hamlet on the primary road likely preparing to move speedily to attack the Airmobiles on Crescent Ridge.
One Challenger is moving south to link up with the Chinese. The three Challengers sighted last turn that are missing from this picture are likely accompanying him (strong intelligence).
Not shown is a British Apache hovering in Crescent Ridge's valley. It dodged two Stinger attacks last turn and made no attacks of its own.
The Defense of Sand Hill
There wasn't a whole lot of movement. To start the turn the Yatagans opened fire on everything they could see. One Challenger was lost immediately and another was bombarded by 120mm rounds and Invanar ATGM. Undamaged, the Challenger had at least expended all its VIRSS fending off Invanars allowing a Cobra to finish it off quickly and easily. Next at Yatagan sniped a Spartan that had charged amidst my Scout Section on Sand Hill. The surgical precision the Yatagan displayed ended the Spartan's threat for only a few points of suppression upon the Scout Section. The Scouts would quickly mop up the crew of the Spartan for no losses.
The next phase of the Airmobile's defense was to engage the Challengers with the Milans. Although the Milans had some pretty iffy angles on the Challengers the hope was to chew through the British VIRSS defense allowing Cobras unfettered access to the thin Challenger top armor. Surprisingly some shots that I could have sworn were more toward the front armor managed to smack into the sides of two of the Challengers. Between the Yatagans and the Milans four Challengers were killed.
The final phase of the defense was to unleash the Cobras. On the far flanks of the Turkish line, Cobras rose from their low altitude loitering positions. Spike ERs erupted from beneath the wing-stubs and coursed across the battlefield. Roughly half their number were confused by the IR obscuring smoke in the British VIRSS, but enough found their targets to knock out five Challengers and immobilize a sixth.
But that wasn't all. The Milan on the summit of Sand Hill was the last ATGM with a shot left in the turn. There wasn't really any solid targets left for him to explode save a Spartan just in front of my boys on Green Hill. However, not a hundred and fifty meters before him is a Challenger 2. Obviously the Challenger had not seen him just yet or else he'd be dead. But if the Milan took a shot at the Spartan his position would likely be revealed. The Challenger himself wasn't a valid target because a Milan has no hope of piercing the front armor and while askance of the Milan the Challenger looked to still have its sides covered. With no good options and a Challenger barreling down on him, the Milan decided it would be a good idea to retreat behind the hill's crest. To facilitate the withdrawal the Milan decided to make the Challenger's VIRSS work for himself rather than against. By shooting a Milan at the Challenger, its VIRSS would automatically pop smoke clouding both its and its aggressors vision. True to plan the Milan shot out from its launcher and triggered the VIRSS. When a VIRSS defeats a missile the missile's hit-chance drops automatically to 1% and the tank's turret turns in line with the missile's origin. The Milan hit. Not only did it hit, but it dodged the turret and its thick front armor and managed to smack into the side of the Challenger's hull. It penetrated. And it destroyed the Challenger. In fact it slagged the Challenger so hard that none of the crew escaped... I'd like history to pretend that I jumped up and shouted "GOAL!" in my best FIFA impersonation, but truthfully I just stared dumbfounded.
The British at the end of my turn:
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A fair few new things showed up this turn. I'll be back in a few hours to give you the info on the new guys and update the kill/estimate board.