Firestorm: Red Thunder

Hello guys!

In this game you will see me fight my friend Max, the American player that is a good sport :)
We have just recently placed an order for some new units for his American force to help him combat the 50 pts battles! So I am looking forward for the coming weeks as his force will change and maybe my luck will run out...

Anyway, in this game it's a straight forward game where the goal is to claim one of the two objectives.
I am the attacker and I go first. He has one Abram unit deployed behind a forest along with his company HQ. He knows that he needs to get reserves on the table as soon as possible so that he can protect the other objective aswell.

He has two Abrams in Ambush and I'm worried as to where they might come up!
Find out in the battle report and see what happend!

Also: No Dusk, no Dawn - only Daylight

Warsaw Pact - Turn #1:

- On my first turn I moved all my T-72M's whom had already been moved up a little thanks to the Reece from the BRDM2. T-72M's moved towards the end of the wheatfield so that they would gain concealment but not themselves be obstructed. I now had 4+ to Hit.
- My BRDM2 drove straight for the objective using Dash.
- The Spandrels moved up aiming at the objective and having a line of sight towards a single Abram. But due to Guided they wern't alot to fire. Just frantically screaming tanks over the companys comnet.
- My Gophers hid in the forest on my objective just in case he would push through, than I would atleast have something he needed to kill first xD My opponent had no aircrafts so they where not needed in the fight aside from guarding the objective.
- My BMP-1 cautiously move towards the second objective on the left flank.
- No shotting at all.

NATO - TURN #1:

- He rolls for reserves and brings on his VADS that drive for the second objective and hides behind a building waiting for a better shoot at my BMP-1's in the following turn.
- He moves the Abrams up and places one in the forest and two slightly concealed by the appartment building from my Spandrels whom can still see them.
- He also springs the Ambush and deploy two Abrams 40 cm away from me and starts to shoot.
- He destroys three in one unit and one in the other unit, bails one out of each unit. All units are still in Good Spirit.

Warsaw Pact - Turn #2:

- First I managed to bail in on both my T-72M's. Secondly I sent two tanks trying to get behind the flank of the ambushing Abram unit. One managed to get bogged down while crossing the forest and one made it through. They scored a hit but failed the firepower test, only getting a bail out.
- The other T-72M tank unit fires on the Abrams defending the objective but fail to penetrate.
- The BMP-1 unit drops the infantry that slowly moves towards the left objective and the BMP-1 moves to shoot at the VADS. Killing one anti-air vehicle.
- The Spandrels tries there luck and hits but Max passes the armour test. Aargh...
- My BRDM2 moves away from the tank battle and moves to try and reach the VADS.

NATO - Turn #2:

- He rolls for another reserve and gets in the infantry unit riding in M113. He pushes towards my infantry that are moving towards the objective on the left flank. He kills one infantry base.
- The VADS swing around one of the buildings and begin to pepper my BMP-1. He hits two, but fails to roll high enough on the firepower. So I get two bailed out transports instead.
- All of his Abrams open fire on the T-72M and kill three more, including my brave tank in the forest!
- One of my T-72M's unit needs to take a morale test for falling under "Good Spirit", and they pass it.

Warsaw Pact - Turn #3:

- My only tank left from the origial five man T-72M unit still wouldn't get the things stuck in his tracks off, since he bogged another time while attempting to leave the forest!
- My Commander Wilhelm followed his men and charged in the open past the bailed out Abram in an attempt to cause another morale role by either bailing it or killing it. To his great satisfaction he blew it up! Forcing a morale at the end of the shooting phase.
- The other T-72M unit along with the Spandrels managed to knock out two more Abrams and forcing another morale test.
- My BMP-1 unit killed another VADS.
- My infantry moved to hold the objective and fired their RPG's at the M113, bailing one!
- My BRDM2 fires at the M113 but fail to do anything.
- The Abram HQ commander rolls for morale since he was part of the unit that died and passes his morale.
- The second Abram unit rolls and fail their morale, and leaves the battle.

NATO - Turn #3

- Realizing his Commander can't hold the objective due to being an independant character, he sends the M113 transports over to hold/contest it after he has deployed his infantry facing my infantry on the other objective.
- The VADS and the infantry shoot at my infantry and brings them down to four stands and pin them. This is not looking good...
- He also assault them, I manage to kill one infantry base as he moves in. In the combat phase he kills two more stands. I roll to counter attack and kill two stands myself. He counterattacks and kills one more. I am now down to a single guy. I decide that he will go out swinging. I roll the counter attack dice. But faith seems to have a bigger plan for him. So I have to fall back. He moves up towards the objective and holds it.
- My last infantry base is under Good Spirit and rolls for morale. He passes. Puh!

Warsaw Pact - Turn #4

- I moved my commander and my remaining T-72's to face off against the last Abram, I had several hits on the side armour and my two T-72M's failed to hit, however, Wilhelm didn't disappoint. He needed to hit on a 6 since he moved over 25 cm and the enemy tank being concealed by smoke. He rolled a six and passed his firepower, destroying the last Abram.
- My Spandrels tried a Blitz move to reposition themselves facing the VADS and the infantry, they passed the role and fire three missiles down the road killing and bailing the remaing VADS forcing a morale test.
- The BRDM2 fired at the infantry brought them down to two stands in total.
- Remember that last infantry guy that survived? He is pinned and fires a single shoot, it hits, he fails his save and he is now forced to roll a morale test.
- The VADS fail their morale and leave the field.
- The last US infantry fail his morale and leaves the table.

NATO - Turn #4:

- His only active unit is the M113 transports and he knows he can buy one more turn of holding the objective but has nothing really to shoot at. He decides to go for a 5:2 loss. He moves two of the M113 them towards the Spandrels and fire. He bails two out of three possible.
- I am forced to roll for a test, I pass it and the Spandrels stay on the table.

Warsaw Pact - Turn #5

- The BRDM2 and BMP-1 moved to secure the left objective.
- One of my two bailed out Spandres remount their vehicles.
- My T-72M's moves up and gets line of sight on the M113 and my Spandrels adds fire at the last threat on the board and destroys them.

Another tank battle for my Wilhelm character.

The game began with a strong start for my opponent that managed to take out alot of my tanks till I got behind his flanks and things changed. In one turn I managed to turn it around by bringing down his Abrams.

I liked the small game since it was interesting to see how things work on low points again instead of the normal 100 pts games we normally play. We play lower points for quick games but also try and be more tactical and mindfull of the resources you have.

Overall, it was a great game for us both!

Victory stats: 6/1 for the Warsaw Pact

Baron Out!