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Firestorm: Red Thunder

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Returning to where it began - part 3

150 POINTS
Warsaw Pact
Baron
VS United States
Max 400

The war to end it all - Leipzig 200 pts

The deployment zones, we each get a quarter and our reserves will arrive on the quarter next to us. This was fairly unique since you have to keep some unit holding and the rest on the attack on the opponents objective. I really felt I sent the right unit where I needed them to go, but in this fight I would most likely need more tanks! Artillery would have a field day on a map such as this aswell. And we both had artillery :) The only thing that was different is that my opponent had 2 VADS unit since they took two formations but played them seperatly so it made sense to have two VADS. Not to mention its a big map to defend, so having one wouldn't make a difference if I struck in an another area of the map where they couldn't reach them.
This is my force for the game, I didn't have enough to play 200 pts since I had a few things at home. This 200 pts game was greatly improvised since we lacked one player and both wanted to play. So I got to borrow 3 Lars as my Hails and borrow some A-10's as my Frogfoots. Hopefully in the next game I would have more of my own flyers! It was alot of troops and I've realized that BMP's are cool and effective, but against dug in infantry I need more artillery!

*** Pre-Game Talk ***

Hello Lads and Gals!

Today we are featuring a 200 pts battle of the Warsaw Pacts finest, the Volksarmee(also known as East Germans). They are facing of against 2oo pts of the NATO's most capable fighting force, the Americans.

Both forces have decided to lay siege to one another in the heart of Leipzig's infrastructure. The war is taking placing among industrial buildings, residentials houses and even a spiritual church is dragged into the war. Not to mention the many farmlands scattered all across the warzone.

Initially this was suppose to be a 90 pts battle but a friend of mine that was unablet to join before joined in and instead of him having to feel left out for a few hours as we played, we decided to play 200 pts, well they did and I obliged :)
I played against Max 400 and Pelikanen :)

I was lacking a few points since some artillery is at home and the aircrafts wern't fully built. So in the report you will notice that I use west Germans LARS as my Hail Artillery and a few A-10's as my Frogfoots.

War by proxy, yay!

I do hope you all will enjoy this battle report, I feel that this might be my last battle report for this campaign since all of us are running out time and can't play as often due to work and family activites.

Anyway, I have had fun playing :)

Setting the mood

Kommendant Baron along with Hauptmann Wilhelm looked out over the units assembled in this sector. There was alot of fighting units eager to fend of the Americans. Wilhelm had already begun setting up a forward scouting section on the right flank. Baron wasn't sure if that was the right move to send out valuable tanks to support a unit of BRDM2 scouts. But he trusted in Wilhelms mind and wouldn't want to undermine him so close to the engagement.

They could see the Americans on the other side of the road massing their own force. He had been promised Mi-24 helicopters, aircrafts and lots of infantry. Sadly he had only hastily set up defensive positions with a handfull of men defending the radio station along with two full companys of T-72M's.
One waiting in ambush, concealed, should an enemy dare to approad to close. The other was waiting behind the Radio station, anxious to get their order to engage the enemy.

The Abrams tanks wasn't something easy to crack. They had good armour but a weaker cannon than they. But still enough to rake in scores of Volksarmee tanks. He wished he had more tanks.

Movement on the American side revealed that they where doing an aggresive. They knew that many of the houses on the side held American infantry with short range missiles. Getting close to them could prove fatal.

A unit of Abrams arrived just infront of their position and began shelling their lines. Wilhelms command tank took a ricochet.
They both knew that they wern't ready yet, they still needed more anti-tank units. And the air support was 15 minutes out. The combat reserves a little less, 10 minutes.

He guessed the enemy had found out of their approach and hoped to seize the area before their arrival, or atleast deter them from joining the combat.

The war for Leipzig began in full.

The war to end it all begins

Reports from the right spearhead came back with enemy Abrams and transports had moved to engage the small scout unit hoping to get some eyes on the artillery. Luckily only one of the tanks had gotten destroyed and they had taken out one in return. The Kommendants scout unit had been detected and begun taking fire. To make things worse laser guided missiles struck down among the assembled tanks that Hauptmann Wilhelm had brought for the engagement. His fighting strength was down one tank and one reporting engine trouble after the laser missiles arrival, they would survive this and continue driving the enemy away from the objectives. A unit of Abrams joined the fray from reserves hoping to bombard the infantry holding the objective. This was just the beginning of the conflict thought the Kommendant. Going over possible moves on how to best fight of the enemy.
He had managed to destroy the FOO but there was already someone else taking up the job and giving intel to the artillery in the back. His tanks kept getting harrassed by incoming missiles fired by the enemy artillery. Reports also confirmed that the units that pushed up to try and observe, and if possible, attack had been destroyed by the Abrams. The Gophers had bolted to a more secure position. Tanks continued to explode on either sides of the main highway road. His own artillery strick down at the infantry holding out in the houses. Hoping for a fire to occur and burn the buildings down. Where was his support. Right now he was taking acceptable losses. But for how long could he be trading. More and more units arrived from the enemy and the ambushing unit had received a warm welcome by the new Abrams arriving from their reserves.
My helicopters tried to engage the enemy Abrams since they where threatening my defensive capabilities. I had to take a risk and hope I could make enough saves to stay alive. Sadly I did not. Two of the helictopers got clipped and began decending to the ground in a action movie fashion, blades spinning and smoke following as they both head towards the ground. Sadly my last two standing helictopers didn't make any hits on the Abrams and in the following turn he used guides missiles from the Artillery to shoot them down.
Things where really starting to look grim and Kommendant Baron along with Wilhelm tried to keep the enemy forces at bay. But he was losing. He ordered the artillery to strike at the tanks but did nothing more than annoy them as they returned fire and took out one Hail car along with a few T-72M's. His flank was about to break until he heard the sharp sound of airsupport and super sonic aircrafts in an attack run. He hurridly ordered the Carnations to fire smoke on the enemy VADS lurking behind the petrol stations. They obliged. Without waiting for confirmation order the Frogfoots fired their missiles and destroyed all but one Abram whom instead of continuing fighting disengaged and drove off the fight. A cheer went up from all the troops and they felt a little more secure in a victory.
With the courage from the arriving Frogfoots, Wilhelm took a drastic measure that he would normally not do. He put himself even further in harmsway this time by charging forward with two additional tanks. Together they dispatched one more of the Abrams from another platoon that threatend their defensive capabilties. But its friend held its ground and refused to run away, he was determined to fight.
The enemies A-10's had recieved information that a unit of anti air units was hiding behind a structure. Their radar pinged alive when the quick flying aircrafts came into their view and they pretty mushed smashed all the buttons knowing they had one chance to survive. Missiles streaked upwards in an attempt to shoot them down, flares fired left and right and nothing damaged the aircraft. They continued their run and the crew closed their eyes knowing full well it was lost.
Kommendant Baron looked on in satisfaction as he the Cobras where brought down by small arms fire, Shilkas and RPG weapons. It had been a costly price however, since the Carnation battery was destroyed in their attack run. The last Abram was playing with him as it darted around took shoots with Wilhelms unit. Over the radio new new voices joined in and told him of the arrival of his reserves coming in hot. Preparing an attack on the objectives. Now the tables had turned.
The reports kept coming in like a flood of orders and counter orders from units in the field. They painted a very chaotic pictures, much like the way war is. The flank that was pushing into the city had met with fierce resistance from the NATO units stationed there. They had gained a small foothold and where moving up against the Americans. The news that gripped him the most wasn't the fact that they lost soldiers and equipment left and right. Wilhelm had taken a gamble to get behind the enemy and gotten entangled in the woods, stopping his tank dead. The Abram had reacted and driven around and fired. His tank had gone up in flames and there was no chance that Hauptmann wilhelm survived that ordeal.
The lone Abram that had killed Wilhelm was being targeted by RPG rockets, BMP-1 missiles. A few scoring hits had caused the crew to leave the vehicle. Must've hit something important since it began to smoke. The left flank was completely secured with no enemies in sight. On the other side the Frogfoots engaged the enemies US artillery since it was causing havoc among the BMP-2 lines pushing towards the city. They scored a few hits and greatly diminished the return fire from these massive beasts of war.
The fight continues fiercly over at the houses near the objectives where infantry is assault infantry in the hope of fighting the enemy away. The German infantry takes control of both buildings only to lose control in the following assault made by the Americans and a shooting duel occurs between the two buildings. Everything from grenades, assault rifles and even the occasional RPG shoot fires across the buildings. Neither willing to give ground. Reluctantly he brought up the radio and ordered all units to fall back and regroup. The Americans didn't pursue and it occured they where doing their own consolidation. He would hold his position and muster more forces for a continued fight. This isn't over.

Conclusion / After Action Report

The game was 200 points per side and it took a long time to finish it, despite setting up at 8.30 AM it still took as till 3 PM to play and we didn't have a clear winner. An inkling, but not a clear winner since he still needed to come to me in order to win and claim the objectives. I had a few units lying around that could harass him as he tried to move forward but it would all be down to the luck of the draw. We where both fairly tapped out on units.

Sadly, I had to leave and the game came to a stop. We talked it over and all parties agreed a draw was a suitable end to such an amazing game.

Being on the recieving end of the missions for once is fairly interesting. Having half your force off table. The MVP of this gme where the Frogfoots and the BMP-2 with infantry :)

We are all going to rejoin for the second part, hopefully with painted models all the way!

Setting the mood

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