Firestorm: Red Thunder

Moving up under the cover of darkness, Comrade Don could see the BMP and BRDMs recon vehicles from the cupola of his T-72M as they navigated a path around the minefields marking the border between East and West Germany. There was no turning back now, for the liberation of their wayward Wessie wunderkind would soon be at hand. Sooner still would the gloriously tasty spoils of war in the form of many a liberated McPizza King be theirs for the taking!

As his formation's spearhead drew to a halt up ahead, Comrade Don knew they had reached their step off point. The engine of his command tank gunned forwards as it kept into the inky blackness followed by a dozen more T-72M and a quartet of Shilkas off to their left while another half-dozen T-55AM2s swung out to flank right. In behind his Spandrels and Gophers took up overwatch for Armour and Air threats respectively, while Overhead the sound of Mi-24 rotor blades slicing through the night air was clearly audible even over the roar of his own vehicle rumbling along.

Shouts of alarm went up as fuzzy Infra-Red images from a jutting finger of forest up ahead resolved themselves to be British Swingfires, while similar readings farther off to their right revealed a trio of Chieftains lurking in yet more woods with what appeared to be a paired command element some distance behind that. His T-55 unit leader radioed that they were moving in to engage the British Tanks, while the rest of thier forces concentrated on the missile carriers directly before them. Further up ahead the Hind helicopters had disappeared behind a small rise, no doubt having found a suitable clearing in which to disgorge their cargo of Fallschirmjagers directly into the enemy's midst as Comrade Don waved his hand forward with the order to engage!

The ZSUs were the first to comply, spitting out an impressive amount of flak in the general direction of the highly concealed Swingfires that somehow managed to yield no noticeable effect. Comrade Don barked to his gunner to slew the turret of his T-72M to the left as they drove almost alongside. A bark of his Tank's 125mm gun produced a bright plume of fire as his round found its mark, soon followed by a second British ATGM carrier meeting a similar fate. The third Swingfire, seemingly deciding that discretion was the better part of valour in the face of the advancing Volksarmee forces, decided to beat a hasty retreat. The T-55s seemingly faired less well against thier British counterparts with one Tank burning and another bailed while the Chieftains remained unfazed, but it mattered little since theirs was only a spoiling attack. With seemingly all Captialist Dogs sweep scurrying from this end of the battlefield in a single strike, this battle would soon be over and so that Comrade Don could soon turn over to making his way to Hanover.

Muzzle flashes from a tree line up ahead gave lie to thoughts of a quick and easy victory, as a pair of T-72s in the front of his column went up in flames while a third suffered a nasty scare. Hastily scanning forward on Infra-Red, Comrade Don saw another trio of cursed Chieftains emerging from their camouflaged positions to contest his advance. The Hinds, apparently spooked by the presence of unreported Enemy Armour so near to their LZ after just finishing a rather clumsy disembarking, decided to take off and loiter towards the rear leaving a cursing Comrade Don momentarily without his promised Air Support. With coarse insults to urge the lone T-72M crew to remount while cajoling half of his Panzers on this flank to Blitz forward to achieve flanking firing position on this new threat. 125mm guns spat fire once again, though this time only a single Chieftain that had boldly rumbled forward from cover to contest their advance lay burning while its two brethren remained unscathed. Further to the right, the T-55s tried to move into flanking positions in the first Chieftain troop, though penetrating the woods they lay within was proving challenging.

Seemingly unimpressed by the East German counter fire, the pair of Chieftains directly ahead cut lose with another volley while one of them surged forward again to block his forces' advance. This time they were joined by the British Tanks on the flank, as they had seemingly figured out that the T-55s were meant as a distraction and decided to focus upon the real threat by zeroing in on the muzzle flashes of his T-72s. Many of Comrade Don's Panzers exploded in quite spectacular fashion all about him, and when the smoke was settled the once six-strong Kompanie he had been riding alongside had been reduced now to a mere pairing, while a similar Kompanie in behind that one was left with four of its Tanks on fire and one crew seeking shelter, causing the remaining one to abandon the cause and flee to the rear.

Cursing his damnable luck and worried that seemingly assured victory might be slipping away, Comrade Don ordered his Shilkas into the gap where his second Panzer Kompanie now lay in ruins to help secure the advance corridor, while maneuvering his meagre trio of T-72Ms to shoot the stubborn British Armour on their sides. A crackling of three 125mm cannons had less than the desired effect, as the one Chieftain still in the woods remained untouched while the other in the open appeared merely bailed out. His throat tightened as he realized that if the second tank gathered their courage and rejoined the fight, there was little hope of him surviving their combined reprisals.

Suddenly, a pair of smoke tails arced out from the East German starting lines and into the side of the previously unscathed Chieftain directly before him. Comrade Don watched in amazement as the duo of AT-5 missiles blew the turret of the offending British Tank clean into the air, while a third rocket from the Spandrels also found its mark upon the now lone Chieftain in the field before him but somehow failed to breach its frontal plating. His Hinds had also returned to the fray and tried to mimic the success of the ground based ATGM teams by firing upon the Chieftains on the flanks that had rebuffed the T-55s, but to seemingly no effect. All hope seemed lost of removing the lone NATO tank blocking their way, when miraculously several small contrails burst up from the ground to one side it. His Fallschirmjagers had finally decided make their presence known in a flurry of RPG fire directly into the weak flank of the stalwart Chieftain, the net effect of which rivalled that of the Spandrels and finally cleared the way for the advance.

Comrade Don breathed a sigh of relief, tempered with a brief scare as a new Troop of Chieftains rumbled into view. It seems by this point, however, the British had lost the will to fight as they realized there was little chance of stopping the advance of the mighty Volksarmee. After unloading a few retaliatory 120mm HESH rounds which resulted in a handful of dead and wounded Fallschirmjagers, the remaining NATO forces withrew to more defensible positions.

Comrade Don surveyed the field of battle before him, now grinning madly. His forces had been bloodied in their first battle, and come out with an excellent accounting of themselves. His thoughts of final victory were interrupted only by noticing a sign illuminated by the first rays of morning, which read:

MCPIZZA KING
HOME OF THE BIG STACK
NEXT EXIT
2KM

Soon now, soon...

(Great first game of the campaign, and hard fought. Minefields and Non-Ambushing Chieftains were all deployed to discourage me from running down the Left and Center, so I threw everything down the Right Flank towards the objective there. In retrospect I realized I probably could have ended it almost as soon as it began if I had moved my Hinds to spread out more over the terrain to the rear of the objective and prevented Ambush units from appearing close enough to move forward and contest, especially since my friend had poor luck with his Reserve Rolls and didn't receive any until his Turn 3 when it was too late to be much use. MVP award goes to the Spandrels, which needed 6's to hit the pair of Chieftains contesting the objective on the final turn and rolled 6, 6, 6!!!)