Firestorm: Red Thunder

So this match was a brutal fun fest, matching my Mech Inf with Arty support versus a bleeding wall of metal played by my dear wife...

The Hof Corridor again was being defended this time with a dedicated deployment of Mech Inf with a 6 gun battery of M109's and a flight of AH-1 Cobras. The East Germans showed the field this time, and arrived with 2 Companies of T-72M, and a 3rd Company of T-55AM2, supported by a platoon of their own Mech Inf in BMP-1 and a section of AT-4, with the ominous thump of HINDS in the distance.

The first turn started with a general push across the table by the entire Battalion of armor, 9 72M, and 7 55AM2. The BMPs rolled the middle of the table quickly moving over my ranged in point to clear the arty before the metal rain came. In an extremely aggressive move the Hinds moved to attack the line of M901s and the FIST before they could deploy forward and take up positions to engage the advancing armor with accurate TOW fire, she played the gamble relying on the high save of the HINDs but misplaced her approach allowing the helos to be engaged by 10 MaDuce and a few M240s, in which odds failed her in the last platoon worth of fire, the heavy .50cal rounds pulling both HINDS out of the sky before they wrecked face on my line. A early victory for the US in this fight as it now allowed me control of the skys.... for the moment.

On my half of turn one, we deployed forward with all my resources, setting up the infantry into buildings and cover, arranging the Dragon gunners in best locations and moving the M901s into cover to take the advancing 72Ms, while the FIST got a LOS on the BMPs for some 155 fun. In my own gutsy move both Cobras dashed into the backfield of the GDR advance, lining up on the 3 unit strong AT-4 unit, risking fire from only 4 72M's in the process, they dodged and used the woods near the table to set up a gun run from the pair. In the mad moment of fire, they forced 2 bailouts and one destroyed unit, which lead to the unit failing a moral roll and a second quick victory for the US team.... for the moment. Seconds later the BMP-1s came under fire of a concentrated 155mm barrage destroying one BMP and killing a RPG-7 team, sending the other rifle team into cover and causing mayhem in the middle of the advancing East German line.

The start of the second turn started the down turn of the American luck. The continued push up the table by the wall of Panzers, quickly lead to the death of 2 platoons of M901, and the utter wrecking of the COBRA's by the 55AM2 top deck, 4 units firing and all 4 hitting, with all 4 saves being failed...
The US return fire, was sporadic and ineffective, causing bailouts among the T-72Ms with Arty and Dragon fire. This turned into the majority of the mid game, her constant advance and my slow loss of M113 carriers, and Rifle teams trying to keep my Dragons in the fight as long as I could. The most amusing moment of the day was the constant resistance the FIST Track had versus multiple 125mm and 100mm tank rounds, it mush have been fired on 10 times over 4 turns or so finally exploding in a glorious ball of fire. It self calling in multiple turns of Arty destroying a company of T-72M. The final round of play was one of desperate action, as my wife finaly got her Infantry deployed forward after loosing all 3 of her remaining BMPs 2 of them to direct fire M109 fire (yes it had gone totally south at this point as one Infantry platoon was pinned and the other was down to the Formation leader, and 3 Dragons, all were slamming rounds on the tanks to see the round fly off failing FP rolls.)

In the end the win was solidly in the Panzer Battalions hands, Major B kept her cool and rolled hard once a flank started to fall using the 55AM2 as the hammer to finish my line, hats off to her as she did well after a shaky start that had her for a moment questioning her initial moves.