Firestorm: Red Thunder

Greetings and welcome to this little batrep. For our second battle, my opponent chose to roll on the table for counterattack and a breakthrough came up. We also decided to, for this game, play the older rules, before scout objectives were introduced.

The lists:

We used almost the same lists as in our last game.

Soviets:
HQ: 1x BMP-1 / AK-74 Team 1 P

BMP-2 MRC: 10x BMP-2, 7x AK-74 Team, 6x RPG-7 Team, 2x PKM
Team, 1x Gremlin AA Team 20 P

BMP-2 MRC: 10x BMP-2, 7x AK-74 Team, 6x RPG-7 Team, 2x PKM
Team, 1x Gremlin AA Team 20 P

Shilka AA Platoon: 2x Shilka 2 P

BMP-1 Recon Platoon: 2x BMP-1 Recon 2 P

T-64 Tank Company: 4xT-64 with AT-8 Songsters, 3x Mine Clearing
Device 22P

Support:

MI-24 Hind AHC: 6x Hind 15 P

BM-21 Hail RLB: 3x Hail 4 P

Storm AT Platoon: 3x Storm 3 P

SA-8 Gecko SAM Platoon: 4x Gecko 8 P

BMP-1 Recon Platoon: 2x BMP-1 Recon 2 P

BMP-1 OP 1 P

US:

Formation No.1: M113 Mech Combat Team

HQ: 1x M113, 1x M-16 Team 1 P

M113 MP: 4x M113, 4x M249 SAW Team, 4x Dragon Team 7 P

M113 MP: 4x M113, 4x M249 SAW Team, 4x Dragon Team 7 P

ITV AT Platoon: 2x ITV 3 P

ITV AT Platoon: 2x ITV 3 P

ITV AT Platoon: 2x ITV 3 P

ITV AT Platoon: 2x ITV 3 P

M1 Abrams Tank Platoon: 3x M1 Abrams 24 P

Formation No.2: M113 Mech Combat Team

HQ: 1x M113, 1x M-16 Team 1 P

M113 MP: 4x M113, 4x M249 SAW Team, 4x Dragon Team 7 P

M113 MP: 4x M113, 4x M249 SAW Team, 3x Dragon Team 6 P

Support:

VATS AA platoon: 4x VATS 6 P

A-10 Flight: 4x A-10 20 P

M109 FAB: 3x M109 + bomblets 8 P

M113 FIST: 1x FIST 1 P

The battlefield:

We built up a nice little stretch of land with a good mix of terrain. The US forces would choose the upper left and lower right quarters while the soviets would deploy in the upper right one.

The US commander chose to leave the M1 tanks, all ITVs and the artillery in reserves. I went full risk and deployed my T-64s, the Geckos, 2x BMP-1 recon, the Storms, 2 Shilkas, the Hails, the Hinds and my commander.

2 Full Units of Infantry would enter the battlefield right at the objective site.

The game:

The soviets moved forward with the T-64s and started to fire at the nearest infantry platoon with guns and rockets. The hails fired a barrage but did no damage to the dug-in US troops.

The US received air support in their first turn and the A-10s were lining up for a strafing run on the T-64s. Unluckily for them, the Gecko SAM battery was ready and managed to score an impressive 8 hits! 3 A-10s were shot out of the sky and the last one failed its morale test and ran after destroying one T-64. Almost all US-Infantry troops were moving towards the objective to seize favorable positions.

The T-64 unit, now free from any airborne threat, pushed forward and resumed shooting at the US infantry unit on the other side of the nearby hill. Together with the Storms, who lost one of their own to dragons, both units were able to cause some casualties. The T-64s then attacked, doing some more damage with the infantry instantly retreating.

The hails now had an amazing target with all the infantry moving towards the objectives. A full salvo found its mark and killed a number of stands, also pinning a number of platoons. The hinds were also coming in, with the VATS still in ambush. They managed to do some more damage with their cannons to the infantry platoons.

The M1s came in and started to duel with the T-64s to no big avail. Meanwhile, the US forces managed a great feat in shooting down all the Hinds except 2, which failed their check and ran off.

In turn 4, the first soviet infantry platoon came in and the other one in the turn after that. At this point, the lower left corner of the battlefield turned into an inferno of fire and steel. US infantry had dug in and the incoming BMP-2s tried their best to destroy as many M113s and VATS to make an assault possible. Sadly for the Russians, the US made almost all of their morale checks and managed to remount a lot of bailed vehicles. This allowed them to kill some stands of soviet infantry, though the saves rolled here were mostly good! With the second infantry platoon arriving, space actually started to become a valuable commodity (!).

At some point during the 7th turn, we finally decided to call it a draw, since we were running late and pretty tired :-D.

Conclusion:

I have to apologize here for the missing pictures for the end of the game. Frankly, at this point, I was absolutely exhausted! I was pretty tired at the beginning of our game (I was doing cameraman for another game before this and had got up pretty early that Friday) but at the end, I was close to lying down and taking a little nap :-D. These games of infantry formations really take a toll on you!

So the Russians were stopped (kind of) and will resume their charge (or possibly defend for once?) next week (if we manage).