Firestorm: Red Thunder

The West German Forces blunted a major soviet advance into the Frankfurt Area, use of fast mobile recon elements, delaying forces and minefields helped

We deployed a small Command post and fuel dump as bait for our ambush, we know the Soviets are desperate for fuel given their relentless drive across Germany. This was the Soviet Objective

A Fast German recon element was deployed , a Fuchs Panzeraufklarungs Kompanie and a Leopard 1 Panzer Kompanie from Panzer Division 1 was used in the attack. They would be using delaying tactics and spearheading troops to important sectors to help ambush the enemy.

Use of the Spearheading Aufklarungs troops allowed us to secure the objectives early in the game

Delaying forces of Jaguars, Gepards, Leo 1 and artillery along the flanks to slow the enemy. These were to be used in a mobile defence to help slow the soviet push

West German forces pushed onto the objective with all infantry forces to take and hold the objectives. Using all the speed of our forces, blitzing with all the forces we could , and dashed other fast tanks up the flanks to take up firing positions for later turns

The Soviet player, due to the West German speed and flanking units was pushed into a box, Jaguars used either blitz or shoot and scoot to get into position to shoot from the hill, or out of the line of fire. Also a mine field was deployed along the Soviet avenue of advance which slowed them down. Dropping a minefield in the middle of a tank formation slows them down alot!! The Soviet player also found that their own units, especially moving infantry spoiled their shots, reducing the amount of fire back the the West Germans

Eventually the weight of fire was too much, with the Leopard 1's taking out the ZSU and Gophers, airstrikes could be called in to deal with the large BMP platoon, with LARS, M109G, Tornadoes and Gepards all focusing on these over 2 turns with were much reduced. Enemy Hinds did not come on due to Rolands and Gepards.

But as you can see from above the Soviet forces were surrounded at range and slowly constricted over 5 turns. By using the Leo 1 speed and great gun, and shooting from concealment, using blitz and scoot and shoot, it greatly reduced the return fire. There was no Leo 2 in the army only Leo 1 and 3 Jaguars. Given the meta for BMP SPAM and less tanks ( this was not the case in this battle, a good mix I felt from the Soviets), the Leo 1 is perfect for this.

I would recommend other West German players experiment with both the Fuchs Kompanie list and the Leo 1 lists, they are great fun and you can get a huge amount of troops! Thanks for taking the time to read this.