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Firestorm: Red Thunder

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Second Counterattack at Gera

100 POINTS
Warsaw Pact
bayankhan
VS United States
Fitzi

Double Battle South of Leipzig - Near Bad Kostritz - the Americans

Battlefield at Bad Kostritz, Looking West

Prelude

HQ 14th Schutzen Regiment, Bad Kostritz, 1300 hours

The Amis had expected to sweep through the village after a West German victory, and the 14th Regiment's success had given them pause. Oberst Schmidt had taken advantage of the break to shield his northern and northwestern sector with mines - including a military container full of the American 10 kilo antitank mine - just set on the ground.

Schmidt correctly diagnosed the situation as an infantry attack, and kept his BTR carriers well forward, planning on mounting up to withdraw back to Gera proper if things became too hot.

Nagten stayed with the 14th to observe, and order in the 221st Tanks if necessary to contain a breakthrough.

Setup at the second battle, looking west

SETUP

We played Battleplans, and Fitzi chose maneuver, and I picked defend. This produces a fifty-fifty chance of a defensive battle, and the die roll brought NO RETREAT.

I set up first. I was using the same list as earlier. I tabled both BTR companies, two flak units (ZSU and SA-9), my Soviet BMP-2 unit as an ambush, BRDM and BMP-1 recon, and the two antitank missile units. I miscounted and set up my Carnations as well, and paid for it.

I used spearhead to push my deployment area out to the very edge of his deployment zone in the south, setting up my closest unit 8.1 inches away from his southwest flank. The BRDMs allowed me to do the same on the northern flank, but not quite as far forward, and my center was back in the middle forming a rough VEE.

Fitzi's entire force was in the shop window, and included M109s with Copperhead, four A10s, 4 Cobras, 4 Abrams, 3 mechanized platoons, two of the new scout platoons (short of M113s, he used M3 halftracks), 2 ITV platoons, and 2 VADS. He kept the Abrams and the VADS well back, having experienced pain from the Spigots in flanking positions last week.

American attack begins, with Abrams in support

Turn 1. Fitzi pushed his infantry smokescreen, fired up my infantry platoons finding it difficult to hit gone to ground infantry in the buildings (out of sight from observers as well as GTG for 5s to hit). Platoon on the south then tried an assault with 3 stands to avoid bringing in my AGL-17 (9 dice). This fingertip move resulted in two of his stands killed, and then we swapped misses and successful counterattacks for two rounds before I finally killed his single stand, forcing a victory.

On the airpower scene, Fitzi decided to bring on the Cobras despite having no A10s. As we discussed after, it was risky. Turned out the risk was not to happen on the first round; I had set up my SA-9s too far back, not expecting the Cobras this early, and one Grail was pinned. So three Grail dice missed. Fitzi fired his missiles, hit two Sturms, and then rolled two 1s. The Sturms passed morale.

Turn 1 Northern flank, looking west

My Turn 1 movement consisted of moving the Gashkins up to protect the CP and the Macdonalds, and pushing forward BTR60s to bring machinegun fire to bear on the advancing infantry. One Sturm remounted, and the Sturms and the Spandrels fired on Fitzi's helicopters, rolling 3 dice on 4's and 2 dice on 5's for two hits. The puff of orange in the middle of the remaining three helicopters marks the result. My Spigots dumped on the more dangerous M113s, knocking out 3, and supporting RPG fire including some through the smokescreen on the south end of the table took out 2 more and bailed 2. A morale check took out the bailed vehicles.

A10s strike my artillery -ZSUs and Carnations tucked in on the south side of town. the flame on top of the Gas Station Roof was the cost - -1 A10

Turn 2 - Fitzi's A10 support rolled in, and rolled in, and rolled in. He focused on the ZSUs and Carnations, while continuing to whittle the Sturms with his Cobras. One Grail unit was pinned, but one of the Cobras dumped to fire from the Grails. Then I decided to go after the Cobras with the repositioned SA-9s instead of shooting the A10s. A10s are like a storm; when it arrives, you get wet. Another Cobra dropped out of the sky, leaving a single Cobra to fire its missile. Dead Sturm; another morale check, passed. The Cobras failed.

The A10s dove in on my artillery. Incredibly, the ZSU's knocked one of the A10s down. One 2S1 and one ZSU were knocked out, all the other vehicles bailed. I passed morale.

Fitzi tried his hand at penetrating the minefields. The first infantry team in missed his skill check, and that was that. With one platoon pinned down, the rest of his fire was a quick bombardment from the M109s and small arms/.50cal fire. No casualties, although my southern infantry unit was pinned.

Burn baby burn - crashed A10 ignites the underground storage tanks at the local benzin station

I recovered the bailed vehicles and immediately tossed a smoke screen in front of his Abrams. Fitzi had seemed curiously reluctant to commit the Abrams where they could be hit, so I figured to deny him a turn of shooting. Meanwhile, the AGL-17s went to work on his northern (First) Platoon and southern (Third) Platoon. They were supported in this by the BMP and BRDM recon vehicles, and BTR60s. Both units were effectively wiped out in the hail of fire - still 2 stands in First Platoon, but Third Platoon went to sole survivor, which it would pass twice. Spigots and the odd RPG reached out to finish off his M113s, took out two ITVs, and some of the BTRs were able to shoot up the M113s of 2nd Platoon. Fitzi saved Second Platoon's remaining two rides, but lost all but one M113 in First Platoon and one ITV in the south. The scout team in the center left the area. Meanwhile the fire spread at the benzin station

Abrams and VADS make the final attack

Turn 3. The A10s reappeared, and went after the ZSU and surviving guns. A10s have little value against dug in infantry. The risk would be the same, and the yield less. Fitzi was, at this point, probably looking for points more than the breakthrough, as two of three infantry platoons were combat ineffective. This time my flak didn't get lucky. With only three targets, Fitzi destroyed the ZSU and killed one and bailed the other 2S1. This time the 2S1 unit passed morale again.

The VADs actually did serious damage killing two of my teams and pinning the platoon (this reduced my missile count by three). An Abrams killed another one. Fitzi also shot up one of my BTR platoons with the Abrams, but didn't do enough damage to bring them to bad spirits. Took some casualties from Fitzi's LAWs on the other BTR60s, and lost a BRDM. The BRDM zug passed morale. He even fired Copperheads at my BTRs for two kills.

I got reinforcements, and brought on the SA-13s to replace the depart ZSUs. My return fire finished off his two infantry platoons, but a manful attempt to destroy the VADS failed miserably - BMPs, Spigots, Spandrels, an RPG at 12"... No luck. Glad I didn't bring the Hinds on counting on killing the VADs.

A10s again, but this time the math went my way...the flame marks the beginning of crash

Turn 4...Fitzi could not break through and we had been at this the allocated 3 hours. He went for points with the A10. The airstrike took fire from the SA-9s and SA-13s, as well as one team of Grail. This time the missiles flew true, and an A10 dropped. Fitzi concentrated on the SA-13s, and bailed both. Predictably, the SA-13s left on a morale check.

Fitzi's Vulcans banged up my southern infantry but this time I didn't miss the saves. Abrams tried to shoot at a variety of armored targets, managing to pick off another BTR60, a BMP-1, and knocking a hole in a building.

It was over, and since my turn would just have proved that a BMP-2 ambush can crush an Abrams platoon, and we had seen that trick last week, I decided not to insist on my 9th inning. Game over

Americans disengage. They had not gained an inch of ground

HOT WASH
Using spearhead and terrain to jam an attacking enemy so they he couldn't even cross the table center line was a new trick I had discovered recently, and this was the first time Fitzi saw it. It obvious had merit in this scenario.

Attacking with NATO infantry units is a difficult task, and attacking a PACT BTR unit almost as difficult as a British Milan swarm

RESERVES PROVED UNNECESSARY!

Aftermath

Headquarters, 10th Motorisierte Division.

The enemy attacks had been broken up easily by 14th Regiment. Two brigades had been driven back in six hours of fighting, in which the largest casualties had been sustained by his flak units. His riposte with tanks had thrown the brigades into confusion. Clearly the commander had not been expecting the sudden assault. Tomorrow would be another day, and maybe an attack from the east.

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