Firestorm: Red Thunder

" Where the hell are they!!" screams Senior Lieutenant Borya Morozov. " They should have been here hours ago." Borya's air assault Brigade landed all across road junctions to the west of Nuremberg to harass and tie down any NATO reinforcements headed towards that town. The plan was simple: they would secure the road junctions near Schwabach, then by 1 or 2pm at the latest, the armored columns would link up. Borya knew it wouldn't be that easy, but he hadn't planned on this. First, his company commander was killed when his Hind pilot panicked under fire and flew into high tension power lines-killing all on board. Then the battalion HQ section was destroyed when 2 German Phantoms unloaded their bombs almost directly on top of them. Since then, Borya has had no contact with Regiment, or Division-he has consolidated all that he could scrape together of his old battalion. Weapons and men are worn out, ammo is running low, but food is plentiful-he was amazed at all the food readily available at those German stores ,decadent westerners-his men filled up as best they could and now he sits looking at his watch and munching on something called a snickers bar-130am. Still no sign of that column....when, when he mutters as sleep finally comes.

130am. It's 130 in the morning and I cant find my way around with these out of date shit maps I have, Pavel Durchenko thinks as he drives his 6 BMP-1s south to link up with the air assault troops near Schwabach. After his breakthrough at Nuremberg, he was ordered to drive south west toward Schwabach. He had managed to form up about 12 BMP-1s after the attack and continue the drive-but air attacks claimed 2 of his column, a stupid driving accident claimed another 2 and 1 just disappeared. As they were trying (unsuccessfully) to repair yet another here in the dark, he makes a decision to wait till first light. They had taken a wrong turn twice-these maps are dated from the 50's and are all wrong he thinks. The airborne will have to wait-wandering into an ambush or an enemy armored column could end this link up real quick. They drive quickly into a heavily wooded hilly area and decide to grab just a few hours of much needed sleep-they have been moving or fighting for nearly 24 hours.

Situation:
The attack on Nuremberg has succeeded, but we need to reorganize to continue the drive to Strassburg. The Americans and Germans have finally closed the gap between their forces so we can no longer depend on running into light opposition. Our air Assault units have performed magnificently and either held or harassed enemy reinforcements to the point that they have withdrawn to reorganize. Now is the time to strike!!!!

Mission: The mission for what remains of the 9th Tank Regiment, is to travel south-west, link up with the air assault troops and await the Czech armored columns arriving from Nuremberg. Keep those road junctions out of enemy hands!!!

How it all went down:

Turn 1-night the US forces attack, dropping artillery down on the troops manning the petrol station outpost, attacks by M113 and dismounted infantry take out most of an undersized air assault company.
In our turn we counterattack with troops manning the equipment sheds and manage to eliminate most of the us infantry.

Turn 2 night More US artillery pounds our forward positions-M113s run past the remnants of 2 undermanned companies and 2 vads pull up and make short work of any troops not in hard cover. Borya orders yet another counterattack by all remaining forward troops-this results in the loss of 2 ITVs and 1 vads.

Turn 3 still night and a German marder platoon arrives as well as a Jag 1 AT platoon. The marders move past and eliminate all of the remaining forward teams. US artillery hits the HQ and reserve positions. 2 more teams are eliminated. Borya is frantically trying to call any reserves he can to no avail. He is running out of tank killer teams, but that remaining vads has to be knocked out as well as those marders so we attack-knocking out the last vads and 1 marder.

Turn 4 still night!!!!! shit!!! Artillery rocks the HQ again, Borya is wounded again. The M113s move to attempt an overrun of the HQ position, the Jag 1 section moves to over-watch the roads and the remaining ITV section does the same-the Germans dismount and attempt to overrun the forward position. They are stopped!!! we knock out another marder and 1 M113. In our turn, we regroup and we are down to only 4 teams left in the 10 AK team company. We only have 2 RPG teams remaining as well.

Turn 5.. Night, again, damn!!! 2 Roland batteries appear and keep well back. The Nato troops fall back to regroup. More artillery. Where the hell are those armored columns?? As I ask this-here comes the first reinforcements-the 3 T-72s rolling down the road-still dark and they have IR and roll a 6-sweet, they fire at the Jag 1s and kill 1.

Turn 6-How can it still be night??!!! Why am I rolling so many 1's and 2's??

The Nato player fires his arty which does nothing this time. He fires his jag 1 and hits a T-72 knocking it out. He moves his M113 platoon-now down to 2 vehicles to watch the southern
approaches. In our turn---at last, the hinds and the BRDM recon arrive as well as Pavel and his 6 BMP-1s (2 of which bog down crossing the plowed field in the dark) The hinds get shot down by the marders and the US player rolling nothing but 6's. The BRDMs however take out the last 2 marders and the US FIST.

Turn 7 finally dawn!!!!

The US player fires his 2 remaining ITVs and his company commander calls down an arty mission the eliminates the entire BRDM patrol, his dragon and Milan teams take out 2 of Pavels BMP-1s and the remaining Jag 1 takes out another T-72. The remaining T-72 flees-coward!!!! and Pavel takes out another M113. Pavel is also wounded when his BMP-1 hits a mine!!!!

The US forces fall back to regroup and Pavel and Borya meet at the captured farmhouse. A draw... But the rumble of the Czech armored vehicles can be heard in the distance.