Firestorm: Red Thunder

***

Hauptmann Wilhelm had orders to reach Kommendant Baron quickly and disregard from minor skirmishes and push on. Most of his tank battalion had been destroyed. Despite this, High Command had awarded him command of another battalion fresh from training, ready for the front lines. How he had achieved this was beyond him. He was sure they would get experience quickly as the war went on. Wilhelm was not a fanatic. He believed in a unified Germany but he wasn't gonna put himself or his soldiers in harms way for an act of defiance. Taking a risk to achieve victory was different, but not by much. One mistake and victory would slip through your fingers.

Wilhelms eyed the night as he drove onwards to reach the Kommendant. They had already run into some American mechanized infantry. They had been as suprised as he had been when they almost drove straight into them. No main cannons had been used since it was point blank range, alot of machine gun fire and the BMPS had done most of the damage to the Americans. After the engagement he had ordered all units to drive more close together since visibility was low and there was a lot of night left before they would reach their destination.

He knew there where more Americans out there. He just hoped he would get the drop on them first.
If he didn't...
He shaked his head and put the thought out of his mind and brought up the infrared googles and continued to scan the dark blankess infront of them.

***

***

So basically how we did this game was playing the Fulda Gap mission - Hasty Attack. We wanted to try and see what all the fuss was about :)

Max, my opponent, quickly found two areas where I could just slip through so he planted one minefield on either side of the table close to the forests. Forcing me to either use the road or drive through the forest. He held one Abraham unit with two tanks in Ambush and had three Abrahams deployed, including his HQ tank. His Vads and mechanized infantry where off table waiting in reserve.

He deployed his three abrahams fairly spread out and gave me a chance to push deep on one side in the dark. I deployed everything in a square looking formation and had decided to mostly just rush of the table with as much as possible.

Nato tanks deployed, Warsaw tanks deployed. Time to roll some dice!

***

***

...a few appartment buildings and where almost out of the city. A straight road was leading out of the city. Whilhelm resisted the urge to tell his company to drive and use the safer and nicer road. However, safe was only if there where no Americans around that could take shoots at them while being out in the open. His decision lay to drive next to the forest instead.

The forward recon BRDM2 had reported mines in an area around the forest though. And he didn't have mine ploughs with him. He sighed. Driving through the forest it was.

He saw the two flashes clearly in the dark before the massive boom later echoed from muzzle flash, only to be drowned by metal being forced opened from a high velocity shell with a secondary charge to help penetrate once through the first layer. Nedless to say, those tanks turned into scraps of metal in less than a second.

In that second he had lost two tanks. He quickly instructed to everyone where the two flashes had come from. He closed the hatch as he dropped into his cupola and peered through the Infrared. He was satisfied in seeing all turrets reacting in unison grinding their turrets to the right. He ordered the unit that got hit to drive past and make a run for it and if needed they could flank around. Put the fear in the enemy.

Wilhelm took his remaining tanks and drove into the forest as he had planned and opened fire upon the siluettes on the lens. He didn't know who it was that hit them, but he saw smoke emerging from both vehicles. Not a bright white flare but more dark grey. They had hit something on both and he saw the crew leave their tanks.

Wilhelm hurriedly told all units to quickly pass while he and his men held the foe at bay.
A unit of BMP-1 passed infront of the T-72M's and Wihelm told them to hold their fire till they had passed. An explosion in the rear brought his attention to the lens behind him. He saw a burning SA-13 Gopher and tried to wrack his mind as to what happend. He made a quick com-check with them and realized that they wern't on the same frequency.

His conclusion was that they had simply continued to drive when the column was moving without realizing that they where driving into a minefield! He was relieved he had just lost one of his valuable air defense.

***

***

...gone away he was brought back to the front of his vehicle as the Spandrels suddenly went up in flame as a big bulky American tank came out driving from behind the lorrey with warm smoke still being vented from the barrel that had just killed two of the three spandrels for his unit.

"Neu laden!" he yellod to his loader and gunner as his mind raced trying to figure out what would be the most tactical decision for him and his company. He could stay and try and kill the tanks he would encounter winning time for the remainder of his company getting safe.

So far it was just one tank. They could destroy that one easy...

The BRDM2 rear vehicle exploded, quickly followed by the lead vehicle. His recon element was destroyed. Atleast they had done one thing before they died. Brought out the location of another two Abraham tanks. He had not made up his mind.

"Alle menner! Full speed out of this! Use the terrain to remain obscurred!" Wilhelm quickly spoke over the radio as his driver instantly upon hearing the order began driving away from the fight, much to his relief he imagined.

***

It had gone almost 15 minutes and they hadn't seen or heard of the Americans again. They knew they where driving in more friendly territory but everyone held a tight wolf pack formation regardless.

He had lost a few elements, but they could be quickly replaced at the next rest and refit. For now he would have to use the tools he still had.

He would reach Kommendant Baron and escort him back.
If not, he would leave a graveyard of destroyed NATO tanks in his wake...

Alright!

That was another quick game. It was interesting trying to get out before he blew up my army. I choose to have a few small units so I would be able to get out as many as possible earning me a 6:1. However, Max destroyed 2 units gaining me a 4:3 Victory instead.

He has also realized that morale is a big thing for the Abrahams. It's not that I've destroyed alot of tanks, mostly it's been the morale that fails and they leave. So I force them to fall beneth 2 tanks and he fails the morale.

He learns after each game and we are hoping for some new games favouring NATO that will put us the Warsaw Pact on the disadvantage and having us trying to figure out how to deal with missions such as this one :)

Sidenote: Wilhelm survived! His tale will continue!