Firestorm: Red Thunder

Last night, Soviet forces started several small scale incursions in and around Hamburg. This particular force was a smaller one trying to find a gap to the north of the city and lo-and-behold, we found one! Playing the special Hamburg scenario we ran into a British Dragoon unit with attached Chieftains and some helicopters.

Soviet forces consisted of a T-72 Formation commander, 2 units of 4 T-72, 2 Shilka, 2 Gopher, a short BMP-2 recon platoon and some infantry, with Gremlin AA.

Against this superb fighting force was a British Recce Squadron with 2 Spartans, 2 units of 4 Scimitars, 2 Spartan Blowpipe and TOW Lynx and a Chieftain Armoured Squadron with a Stillbrew commander and 2 troops of 2 Stillbrew Chieftains.

Under cover of darkness, the Soviet force cautiously (terrain dashing as much as possible) advanced towards the power station in the north, avoiding the road crossing the stream coming from the south which was quite probably mined and had a troop of Chieftains covering the crossing point. This is where it almost went wrong. Despite expert guidance from their commanders, a lot of vehicles got stuck in the small stream, delaying our advance for a while. Getting annoyed with the slow progress, the first unit of T-72s getting across got themselves stuck in a firefight with the Chieftains covering the bridge. After quite some time, all Soviet forces managed to get themselves across the water, taking control of the power station and transformer, all the while seeing British recce in the distance, luring us further towards the town, hoping the catch us between the Chieftains near the bridge and their advancing reinforcements in the form of a small unit of TOW Lynx and another unit of Chieftains. Fortunately for us, by the time they arrived the sun had risen and we quickly dispatched those troops still opposing us and managed to get enough forces through the gap we had created to turn this small scale recon into a full-blown victory, opening the way around Hamburg and into the hinterland. As our luck would have it, the war photographers had a bad guide, and only showed up when most of the fighting was done, so all they could see were wrecks littering the area and a few scattered Brits being rounded up for questioning.

Notes for further combat:
-Do not get held up by units in the flank, focus on the mission plan and get moving!
-Bring bridging equipment, or take the time to properly educate our forces on how to cross water features under cover of darkness