Firestorm: Red Thunder

As I only had my British forces available, Sean and I played a Blue on Blue training exercise as part of our studio Firestorm Red Thunder campaign.

With Chris advancing into Leipzig, I chose to counterattack into Oberpfalz to cut him off, as well as opening the way for further attacks to the west. This corresponded to the Hof Corridor theatre in the on-line campaign, so we decided to play the Hof Corridor No Retreat scenario.

This scenario has deep reserves, so it put Sean a little on the back foot as he would only start the game with three Leopards, 2 Gepards, and 2 Luchs on table. Countering that, he has Thermal Imaging on his tanks, giving him a distinct advantage over my starting force of 11 Chieftains, which only have Infra-red technology and much less capability to fight on the move, not an idea attacking situation.

The game started well for me with reserves on the first turn, so my Chieftains advanced in the pitch dark, unable to see anything, while the Scorpions raced up the right flank.

The German response was to ambush my right flank with a Leopard platoon, while moving the Luchs across to counter the fast-moving Scorpions.

The excellent German thermal imaging allowed his Leopards to open fire at maximum range, hitting all thee of the flanking Chieftain platoon. Thick Stillbrew armour bounced all but one hit though, so only one Chieftain down.

At this point, Sean's luck got even worse. Despite needing just a 3+, his Leopards failed to Shoot and Scoot. This left one tank out in the open as it had been placed well forward so as to be in range of the Chieftains, expecting to slink into cover.

My luck continued with more reserves with the Swingfire platoon rushing forward on the right flank, planning on engaging the Leopards.

The Scorpions raced towards the objective, trusting that the Leopards would be too busy to worry about them, and my left-flank Chieftains advanced through the woods to get flank shots on the Leopards.

What followed was a massacre. The Chieftains rolled extremely well and the Leopard's armour saves were abysmal, leaving all three Leopards burning!

With the destruction of his main on-table combat power, Sean was understandably dismayed.

Seeing the Scorpions as the immediate threat, he moved the Gepards across to engage them next turn and raced the Luchs over to contest the objective.

My luck continued with the Tracked Rapier and Lynx both arriving from reserve.

With no enemy in sight, the Chieftains advanced on both objectives, reaching the one in the centre of the town. The Scorpions slowed down to tactical speed, so as to engage the Luchs or Gepards. Once again, my limited night fighting capability let me down, and I could see nothing.

Sean's turn brought a reprieve when his first reserves arrived, the other Leopard platoon. Racing forwards in the darkness, they opened fire on the Chieftains in the town, knocking out one and bailing out the other, saving the day for the moment.

On the other flank, the Gepards continued to advance oblivious to anything around them, and the Luchs opened fire at shadows, giving away its position to no effect.

My reserves continued to arrive, with the FV432 platoon racing up the centre.

The Chieftains moved to flank the Leopards on the left and closed on the objective on the right, while the centre platoon engaged the Leopards at long range. Despite everything shooting at them, the Leopards were almost unscathed, with just one tank bailed out.

The other flank didn't go so well for Sean though. A pile of sixes blew away one Gepard, bailed out the other, and demolished the Luchs.

With the arrival of dawn and his HQ Leopard, Sean needed some luck to stay in the game. The HQ tank planned on shooting the Chieftains off the objective, while one of the platoon in the town dealt with the Scorpions.

A pair of threes put paid to such hopes, and with a poor round of shooting and some good British morale rolls, the game ended.

The Germans were still in the fight, but had lost the objective.

Having lost so decisively to the British in the training exercise, the West Germans were demoralised, and unable to stem the tide of the real Soviet attack the next day, losing Oberpfalz and Nuremburg in the process (yes I know I should have gone for Hof and cut Chris off, but Nuremburg had juicy VPs!).