OOPS
Here is a battle in Fisherman's Bay which offers a few good lessons.
First, notice the cursing of MM at the start because the red team has so many T-59s. No doubt, some of our team wrote of the battle before it began. But, we won! Never count yourself out of a battle - ESPECIALLY before it even starts!
Second, notice before the battle begins, I tell my team mates of my intent to wait on the enemy scout. Doing so lets them know what I am up to and helps prevent them from chastising me for not rushing off to death.
Third, I make an egregious error at the end of my run. I thought the GW Panther had recently fired and I had time to close before turning. I was wrong...lol No one else was firing at me so I should have played it safe and made a circling approach. Doing so would have forced him to rotate and greatly decrease his aim.
The battle:
I started off waiting on the T-50-2 because, well, it is just in their DNA to press the accelerator hard and invade. He didn't disappoint. I didn't get the kill, but I stopped him in his tracks and someone else finished him off before I could get a second shot. Then, as I was assessing the map to see where I should go, the enemy launched a full frontal assault. My first thought was to help defend but my second thought won out: "If they are sending this many up the middle, they must have almost no one at home defending their arty." So, I decided to sneak along the outskirts of town into their rear. I rounded a building at full speed to see a previously unseen heavy and traded shots as I sped past. He landed the harder hit but I was still alive so all was well. I continued my penetration using the buildings and rocks to shield myself from a second shot. Clearing the town, I saw one of their arties ahead and a T28 all by himself over the ridge to the right (near their base). The arty wasn't aimed at me so I went full bore almost directly at him and killed him with little effort. I then continued up the terrace and found the T28 pointed almost directly at me. Fortunately I was still at speed and had his flank before he could fire. I then just stayed on his rear and side and whittled him down from 100% to scrap metal. As I approached him, I noticed their other arty in a bush far ahead to my 11 o'clock. I decided to take out the T28, thinking our arty would kill theirs. Instead, our arty kept hammering at their attack so I had to keep moving to avoid potential GW Panther shots while I dealt with the T28. As soon as the TD died, I turned towards the arty and got stupid. He was pointed right at me and I should have begun going lateral to him immediately but, as I said, I thought he had recently fired and I had time to close a bit.
OOPS!
Oh well, I still had a good run, made a decent profit and most importantly - we won!
Here is the replay:
http://www.mediafire...c345ny5nktfibzd
PS: This battle completed my crew training! My VK-2801crew is now 100% in Camo, Repair and Firefighting!