Firestorm: Red Thunder

Defense of the Frankfort corridor by the Territorial Army, BAOR, II Corps.
Bill, groveling to STAVKA, wished to fight in Frankfort. I wanted to try the ‘trial’ TA list. The terrain set up was based on what I saw in the Ruhr missions thinking that’s where we would be. Elected to use Gauntlet which neither of us had played.
I had a pretty good idea of what the PACT would bring. Other than T64 for T72 and some BRDM scouts it was what I expected. No air. My list was, despite my misgivings, Chieftain heavy as the TA list just can’t easily get to 100 points with one inf formation.

All kinds of vegetation - woods, vineyard, crops and plowed fields.

I got to deploy first and used the Recce to motor down the road and crate a deployment zone that I could deploy 2 Inf platoon, the Milan Platoon, the Swingfire and a chieftain platoon pretty much on the objectives. PACT deployment was limited. He was able to deploy 9 BMP that outranged the Chieftain platoon. [This mission needs some tweaking IMHO]

Turn 1
Swingfire and fwd Chieftains go hull down on rear objective.
5 platoon spreads out and hunkers down in vineyard. 6 platoon move to reinforce the objective. 7 Chieftains destroyed a 5x BMP unit.
T64 moved to engage but their return fire was ineffective but the 9x BMPs bailed two hull down chieftains by the objective. Two Pact inf coy advance on vineyard and woods. Arty ranged in on Brit inf in vineyard. Chieftains passed morale but they were out-ranged.

Turn 2
Scorpions moved to support 5th platoon in woods.
2 of 3 chieftains on hill pull back out of sight leaving bailed tank.
7 Chieftains and the Swingfires engaged a 4 strong T64 coy and destroyed it. 5th Platoon assaulted the Pact coy in vineyard and pushed them out but took severe casualties.
Remaining T64 destroy 1 chieftain. Massed BMPs destroy a Swingfire and bail one but they pass morale. Pact AD units advance.
2 more coy of Pact inf move up and put pressure on woods and vineyard.

Turn 3
Lynx show up and with the 6 remaining Chieftains destroy half 2nd T64 coy and most of a BMP coy. 5th Platoon holds and is reinforced by 4th Platoon who assault, suffer heavy casualties and fail to dislodge the few Pact inf in in the Vinyard.
Pact sends 3rd inf coy to vineyard. Pact inf coy in woods attacks Brit inf supported by 3 Scorpions but assault is stopped.
Scorpions are able to fire defensively but Pact inf wins assault (kills all but lose all but one stand) against inf and Scorpions fail to counterattack. Scorpions are just over 4” from victorious inf but elect to withdraw. 2 of 3 bog. After some discussion we decided that if the inf could make their counterattack roll then Scorps were captured. Fortunately they failed.

Turn 4
Chieftains kill other T64 coy. Remnants of 4th & 5th Platoon retreat. 2 FV432 (milan Plt. Transport ) move up to support inf.
Pact advances BMP recon to support their depleted inf coy. RPG fire kills the 2 FV 4323 that advanced. Arty continues to attrit 4 and 5 platoon.
Turn 5 and 6
Inf digs in (or tries to) chieftains maneuver to bring advancing BMP recon under fire and destroy them.
2 of 3 pact inf coy fail morale – last 5 BMP advance but fire is ineffective.
Turn 6 Chieftains advance, their fire and Milan’s destroy last BMP coy. 3 Chieftains assault last Pact inf and have 2 of 3 bailed by RPG fire! Pact fails ctr attack roll and must retreat in the open. They are pinned from previous fire. Chieftains pass morale. At this point game is over. Pact has 2 BRDM, 1 BMP and 4 inf stands and their AD and Art units are threatened.
From a ‘game’ perspective the tanks attacking was not a good idea as the game was won 6-1, a bad die roll and it’s a 5-2. But realistically, given the chance the British have to destroy the high value AA and arty units once the infantry is gone, it would make tactical sense even though their destruction (AD, Art) makes no difference in the points.
Losses: 1 scorpion, 1 Chieftain, 2 FV432, 1 Swingfire and 10 inf stands.
NOTES: You might consider a metric such as points destroyed. For example destroy 2x as many points as you lost adds 1 to your score.