Firestorm: Red Thunder

Quick Mission: Gauntlet
50 points

Deployment:
I have used spearhead daisy-chain to move towards the objective. Two PzGren units seize the central forest with good firing lanes. Third unit prepares to rush onto the objective. Gepards and Leopards deploy to possibly get some side-shots and Marders spread evenly on both flanks.

My opponent spearheads his infantry forwards as far as possible. His tanks are further back trying to protect their vulnerable sides.

First turn:
On my first turn I blitz and move one of the PzGren units on the objective. Milan teams can't shoot, as it is meeting engagement and there are no side shots for Gepards or Leopards, so Gepards just move behind a hill and Leopards stay gone to ground. My Marders and Luchses move forwards and open up on the BMP's and infantry. I manage to kill only one BMP, but my oponnent rolls three 2's in a row and I manage to kill one spigot team from the infantry platoon.

My opponent does not move much in his first turn. One of his T64 platoons moves behind the forest on my left flank and he moves couple of infantry teams into buildings, but other than that he stays. His T64s kill one of my Gepards and his other T64s, BMP's and infantry kill 3 Marders.

Second turn
My Tornadoes come in and i am able to blitz Milans on the objective to be able to shoot at advancing T64's plus some of them in the central forest also have line of sight, so I am hoping to kill some T64's this turn. But my rolls are just terrible. I fail to hit with all 4 milans (on 3's). My light vehicles open up on the BMP's but only manage to kill one and triple or quadruple bail the other (he passes all of the morale checks but finally fails the last stand). And finally the tornadoes fail to range in completely so the BMP's are only Soviet casualties this turn.

My opponent tries to push his luck and moves forward aggressively with his infantry and flanking tanks. He opens up with everything he has and man his dice are on fire this turn. He kills most of my Marders and all of my Luchses (kills two and both remaining fail last stands). His flanking tanks use machine guns on the infantry defending the objective (they are the only infantry that is not dug in) killing one.

Third turn
My Tornadoes come in again but the situation looks grim. I have to stop the infantry and the tanks and I am not sure I have enough firepower to do it. I am able to get just six or seven teams to shoot at his infantry which usually is not enough, but they are in the open so I hope for some pins. Then I make a terrible mistake. I need to get the Gepards into the side of T64's and measure the gap between them and his infantry, but than brain-fart and move them on the other side, completely forgetting that their turrets are turned and so I hit them 5 times, but 4 of those hit the turret and bounce and the last hit is saved. My Milans miss again but than my luck turns again. I am able to kill 5 infantry stands with the combined fire and then I realize that the Leopards also see them, even thou it is at long range. So I take 6 shots, hit 4 of them and my opponent fails 3 saves pretty much getting the infantry off the game. And finally ma Tornadoes range in and kill two T64's and the last one in that platoon fails his last stand, leaving the field.

Se even after the pounding he took, my opponent still has a good chance of pulling this off. His tanks move into position to assault my infantry on the objective. But than he makes a terrible mistake. He positions the T64's in a line on the board edge in such a way that only one of his T64's can shoot at the Gepards (he is blocking the other two's line of sight). He manages to kill one of my Gepards, but the other one kills one of his T64's in defensive fire as he is assaulting the infantry. He kills one of my teams in assault before I withdraw the other one.

Fourth turn
My opponent's mistake gives me a good chance. The Gepards are able to kill one of the T64's and Milans finally manage to get some hits and kill the other one. Rest of my force is able to kill two of the infantry and the remaining ones fail their last stand, so the Soviet CiC is the only team left after my turn granting me the victory

Conclusion
What a close game. I thought I am done and than my opponent made his crucial mistake and granted me the victory. And lady Luck was really fickle in this game, but man was it tense right till the end.