Firestorm: Red Thunder

STORY

Commander Hans looked over his assembled infantry transports and fighting tanks.
He felt great pride and joy to finally be out and showing their strength.
He had orders to take the city down the valley and had sent out scouts to probe for signs of weaknesses to exploit.

Initial reports had come back with knowledge of a few Leopard 1's and atleast one infantry platoon somewhere in the city appartment buildings. The orders where to take and hold the buildings, but also to secure the road leading into the city once taken.

He was worried though since he had lost contact with forward High Command. That could mean two things, that they just had difficulties in sending and recieving. But, it could also mean that High Command had to retreat due to enemy forces closing or they had been taken out by surprise.

His BMP-1 radio started cracking and he looked over to his coms-officer.
"It's the recon elements reporting in, Commander."
He handed over a handheld radio to him.

He listend to the voice on the other end and replied
"Are you sure?".
"Jawohl, Commander"
"How much time do we have?"
"Twenty minutes at best before they get here."
"Verdamt!" he cursed.

He handed back the radio and grabbed the company net radio and began talking.
"Achtung! Listen up!"
"It seems our wessie friends have managed to divert some units coming our way.
They will hit us in around twenty minutes." he let that sink in before he continued.
"You already know what is down there and is waiting for us. That of what we can't see we will just have to face when we get there."
He sighed for himself before adding,
"We are simply out of time. Wilhelm, I want you and your T-72m's to flank around the city from the wheatfields and strike at the Leopard 1's. Dietrich, I want you to attack with your BMP-2 against the infantry. Both of you, improvise as you along, don't wait for orders. We need to capture the city quickly."

He hung the radio back on its place and peered out of his cupola.
To his right the heavy engines of Wilhelms tanks roared as they floored down towards their attack vector. On his left he saw Dietrich speed away down the trees closing in on the city.

He smiled again and felt the thrill of battle come upon him. He knew he did good work here and believed in a unified Germany.
He closed his hatch and thus sealed his fate for the coming battle.

Round 1 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- Infantry moving towards the closest objective
- BMP-2 rushes towards the enemy deployment zone with eager infantry inside their armored hull.
- T-72M drives towards the Leopard 1’s. 5 T-72M bogs down while maneuvering through the woods.
- T-72M kills one Leopard 1 out of a squad of three.
- 2S1 Carnation bombards the Panzergrenadier Zug and removes one infantry base.

Round 1 – West Germans (NATO)

- No roll for reserves. He looks worried…
- Jaguar 2 arrives from ambush, passes a blitz test, places them where he wants them, facing T-72M.
- Marder Zug moves up to challenge my BMP-2 transports. One bogs down.
- He opens fire with Marder Zug vs my BMP-2 = 1 Destroyed, 3 Bailed
- Jaguar 1 vs T-72M = 1 Bailed
- Grenadier Zug vs T-72M = 1 Bailed
- Leopard 1 vs T-72M = 3 Hits, 3 Saves! (I never get to save my T-72M normally…)

Round 2 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- T-72M remount test, 1 remount, 1 doesn’t.
- BMP-2 remount test. None…
- My infantry moves towards one of the objectives and holds it.
- 1 x T-72M bogs down when attempting to move.
- 5 x T-72M fires against the Leopard 1 and scores no hits.
- 4 x T-72M fires against Jaguar 2 and again no hits!
- 6 x BMP-2 fires against Marder Zug = 1 Destroyed, 1 Bailed.
- Morale test for Marder Zug and they fail and are removed from the game.

Round 2 – West Germans (NATO)

- No roll for reserves. I can see sweat beads forming…
- Panzergrenadier Zug Milans fire against T-72M’s and kills one! I’m down to 9.
- Jaguar 2 aims and kills another two T-72M’s. I’m down to 7 now.
- Leopard 1 fires against my T-72M’s and misses. PUH!

Round 3 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- BMP-2 fails their remount yet again. Down to 9 active transports.
- My small infantry unit at the objective digs in and are now in foxholes.
- The Mot-Shützen infantry disembarks from the BMP-2 Transports and start to move towards
the Jaguar 2. They fire their RPG-7 rockets and score a kill on one Jaguar 2! Go INFANTRY!
- BMP-2 opens fire with their AT-5 Spandrels and kills the remaining two.
- 2S1 Carnation fires against the Panzergrenadiers and kills 1 more.
- T-72M concentrates on the Leopard 1 unit, kills one and forces a morale check
- The Leopard 1 fails their morale test and are removed from the table.

Round 3 – West Germans (NATO)

- He rolls a dice and big smile appears on his face as he rolls a 5!
He immediately brings in the Leopard 2’s and moves them up against the side/rear of my T-72M’s
- Panzergrenadier Zug with Milans fire towards the T-72M’s and destroy TWO! Like what?!
I’m down to 5 now.
- His HQ Leopard 1 sneaks around the corner and fires upon the BMP-2 and kills one transport.
- One Leopard 2 fires against the BMP-1 on the wheat field and kills TWO. These rolls…
- Two Leopard 2 aims and fired against the T-72M’s and scored all hits, killed three and bailed one.
- I have to make a test for my T-72 since I’m not in “Good Spirit”.
Having one active, 1 bailed and numerous destroyed T-72M’s, so I let my Commander join to give
them 2+ morale for the roll.
- I will let the picture with the dice tell you what I rolled…

Round 4 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- My BMP-2 Mot-Schützen infantry runs towards the building where his Panzergrenadiers are.
They are too far away for an assault this turn, but next turn they will hit them.
- My BMP-2 aims and fires their Spandrel missiles against the HQ Leopard 1 .
Scores a hit and destroys his HQ Leopard 1.
- 2S1 Carnation fires against the Leopard 2’s in a futile hope of maybe killing 1.
- One of my Spandrel units fires and manages to bail 1 Leopard 2. Whoopie.

Round 4 – West Germans (NATO)

- He rolls for reserves and gets a Leopard 1 unit on the table, he is sending them forward towards my
smaller unit and wants to take them out from the objective. He wishes to cross a forest and bogs
with two out of three Leopard 1’s.
- Leopard 2 remounts the tank.
- His Leopard 1 fires against my recon BRDM2 and kills one. I pass my morale.
- His Leopard 2 moves up towards his trapped Panzergrenadier Zugs holding the other objective
and fires against my remaining BMP1’s. He wipes them out in a fury of earth shattering explosions.

Round 5 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- My infantry moves up and begins firing with all they have, bringing his unit down to two Milans.
- My BMP-2 moves up and fires against the last two Milans and kill one, forcing a morale at the end
of the shooting which they don’t pass and are removed of the bord.
- 2S1 Carnation fires against the Leopard 2’s again, but no dice.
- Spandrels fire against the Leopard 2’s but fail to penetrate their pesky high armour!
- My RPG-7 teams holding the other objective by the wheatfields/foodstore move up towards the
remaining Leopard 1 that is in the open. I score 1 hit and manage to roll a 5+ firepower.
Forcing a morale test, which he fails and they are removed of the board.
By the end of turn 4 I hold both objectives.

Round 5 – West Germans (NATO)

- He rolls again for reserves and get his Gepards on, they waste no time in deploying their rapid fire
cannons on weak targets such as Spandrels and BMP-2’s.
- He destroys 2 BMP-2 and wipes out a unit of Spandrels.
- Two Leopard 2’s move towards my big Mot-Shützen unit and fires on them, killing one team.
- The remaining Leopard moved towards the smaller inf unit and fires, killing one team.
- He decides to go one step further and assaults my smaller inf unit and my defensive fire
harmlessly bounce of his behemoth of a tank. He passes his only assault dice and kills one base.
- I roll for counter-attack but fail and retreat away from the objective.
He now holds one of the objectives from me.

Round 6 – East Germans (Warsaw Pact)

- I hold one objective with no West German units contesting it.
- The Game ends.
- Victory points: I get 4 points and he gets 3 points for being able to destroy 4 units of mine.

OVERALL: A fun first game for this campaign :D