Firestorm: Red Thunder

Max 400, aka Max, told me that he feels that the Americans lack alot of cheap units with mobility like the East Germans or even the Soviets. He is a little envy over the Brittish recce units and milan units from both West Germans and again, the Brittish.

So we made some changes to this game. He asked me kindly to play with a more tank oriented army and not BMP-1/BMP-2 spam along with scores of infantry. I kindly obliged and set out making a list that I felt would be fun for me and him. Feel free to check the army list that is also uploaded for your leisure.

He set up so that he could move towards the objective. I used my two Reece units to get some more deploymen while respecing the 20cm while concealed from deployments and objectives.
I also promised that I wouldn't go for the objective turn 1. So that he could focus on getting atleast one round of shooting.

He did also not elect to role on the Frankfurt mission regarding Dusk, Daylight or Dawn.
So the game was played in daylight.

I am trying a different approach for a battle report this time, so feel free to rate and leave a comment on how I may further make the battle reports better!

So, sadly, this time I won't make a big narrative, but more focus on hard facts :)
Again, tell me what you prefer more of, story or facts, or possibly a mix?

- In turn one the left Abrams unit moves up with VADS in the back. The Abrams shoots and kills(yellow) two T-72M's and manages to bail(red) another two.
- On the right flank the Mechanized M113 are moving close to a building hoping to blitz in there the following turn.
- The right Abrams unit decided to dash it towards the objective and set up a defense line with 8 barrels pointing my way.

END OF NATO

- The middle T-72M's manage to remount their tanks and drive forward to bring as many shoots as possible. They managed to kill one Abrams on the left side.
- The northest T-72M's move up on line with their comrades hoping to bring the formations full might on them.
- The T-55AM2 move out over the wheatfield and get two bogged down as they attempt to leave the forest.
- My Hi-24 survives the machine gun fire and destroy one Abrams in return and bail out two more.
- This forces a morale check that he fails and the southern Abrams unit withdraws from the game.

END OF WARSAW PACT

- The Mechanized infantry blitzed into the building so they could fire their dragon missiles in the same turn. The M113 vehiles moved down towards the objective.
- The infantry killed two Spandrels with their dragon missiles.
- The M113 tried to use their Machine guns to bring down a Mi-24 but all failed.
- The VADS moved within 60cm of the Mi-24 Hind and managed to destroy three out of four.
- One Abram shoots at the last Spandrel and kills it, giving Max a 5:2 should I win.
- Second Abraham shoot at the T-72M's closest to the Spandrels and kills one and bails another.
- Last two Abrams fires at my second unit of T-72M's hoping to get them under Good Spirit since two are bogged down in the forest, still, and they are a five man unit. They kill two. Forcing a morale.
- My four SA-14 Gophers fire at the Cobras since they wish to fire and downs one Cobra.
- The last Cobra fires and misses. He is forced to a morale test.
- I pass the morale for the Mi-24 Hind.
- I pass the morale for the T-72M.
- The Cobra failed their test and left the board.

END OF NATO

- BMP-1 unit dashes towards the objective through the fields to gain concealment.
- Assault Landing Company passes a blitz and moves into the wheatfield, shooting with my RPG's but miss.
-The BRDM2 are moving towards the objective and manages to bail on M113 with shooting.
- Both T-72M units redeploy trying to get as many barrels as possible upon the Abrams. They collectively killed two more Abrams.
- The T-55AM2 move along the wheat field in the north and fire upon the VADS and bail one.
- My last Mi-24 tries to hit the Abrams but miss. The anti-air from the M113 fail to do any harm.
- The Vads open up trying to fire at the last Mi-24 that passes all saves. 4+ is quite strong...

END OF WARSAW PACT

- He moved the last Abrams tank and his HQ, first doing a blitz for 10 cm and than an additional 35 cm, back to get some distance between him and the T-72M. So he could gain +1 on the front armour while picking me off. He choose to fire at the BRDM2 and bailed both of them(rolling double 1's). This in turn forced me to do another morale test.
- The M113 fired at the BMP-1 but failed to penetrate their armour.
- The US Mechanized in the house fired at the T-72M and killed one tank.
- The Vads fired in the previous turn so could do nothing this turn aside "hiding".
- The BRDM2 failed their morale and gave Max a 4:3 victory should I win.

END OF NATO

- BMP-1 moved so they could fire at the VADS with their main cannon, they scored a whooping three kills. Forcing them to take a test at the end of the shooting.
- The Mot-Schützen infantry moved up with their RPG rockets and bailed three M113 cars.
- Assault Landing Company fired with teir two RPG and bailed the last one. Forcing them to take a test at the end of the shooting phase.
- The small unit of three T-72M on the left side slowly moved forward while the other tanks moved with the HQ against the last two Abrams. They didn't score a kill, but bailed both. Forcing him to take another morale test.
- My last Mi-24 Hind fail to score a hit on the Abrams.
- M113 transports pass their test and remain at the objective.
- Vads fail and leave the game.
- Abrams passes their test and stay around for one more round.

END OF WARSAW PACT

- He failed to remount one of his two Abrams tanks. He moved his Command back getting some more distance. and killed two more T-72M's.
- The US Mechanized dragon missiles hit but didn't penetrate any of the East German tanks.
- One M113 remounted and started firing at the BMP and blew one up.

END OF NATO

- The BMP shoots with the infantry and destroys two M113 and bailed the one that had remounted the previous turn.
- My T-72M moved up hoping to finish of the last Abrams tanks, they hit but Max saved all hits.
- The last Mi-24 Hind fire at the Abram but misses, he misses with his defensive anti-air from the Abram.
- The T-55AM2 moved forward and took a a single side shot that failed to deliver.

END OF WARSAW PACT

- Remounted his Abram, giving him two acticve tanks that killed one T-72M and bailed two more.
- The US infantry tried blitzing to buy another 10 cm move towards the objective and than walk in tactical speed over to the objective. Sadly he failed his blitz move and gave the turn over to me.

END OF NATO

Alright!

We where both very excited about this game. All through the game I gave him some pointers on what might be a good way of going about dealing with me, or what to think of till next time.
He learnt to keep the VADS close to both tank unit to better help engaging air targets.

When he lost his second tank units, 32 pts just vanished before they even got used. It was a hard blow. At that point I informed him that it might be better to destroy atleast two of my units in order to drive me down to a 4:3 game. Which means it wasn't a completely devestating game for him.

He learnt alot and so did I.
We had a good game and will most likely play again soon!