Firestorm: Red Thunder

Earlier this week Chuck had this crazy idea that he would try out playing the Americans and invited me to an afternoon game at his fine establishment. We played this game as part of the store's in-house Red Thunder Firestorm Campaign, Game #10.

I suspected he was really just after some inside tips on how to create an invincible steamroller with the Soviet forces but I was more than willing to go along in order to capture more West German territory!

Chuck used the 75 point version of my M113 Mechanised Company list from our previous matchup, which had two Mech platoons with 4x SAW and 3x Dragon teams, 4 units of M901 ITV Hammerheads, 1 unit of 3x M106 Mortars, 1 unit of 4x M163 VADS, 1 unit of 6x M109 Paladins with Copperheads and the FIST, and a flight of 4x A-10 Warthogs.

My BMP Motor Rifle Battalion had the HQ with a BMP-1 and two mid-sized BMP-2 Motor Rifle Companies having 7xAK74, 6x RPG-7, 2x PKM LMG and a 9 strong BMP-2 attachment unit each. Rounding out the combat units was 3x BMP-1 Recon, 4x Gopher SAM, 4x Shilka, and 3x 2S1 Carnations. In support I had the OP BMP-1, 3x BM-21 Hail Rocket Launchers, 3x new Storms, 2x new SA-8 Geckos and a four-strong flight of MI-24 Hind Attack Helicopters.

Having wrested initiative back from the capitalists with a 3+ die roll I chose to attack into the southern Neiderbayern area to set up the seizure of Munich next turn. Chuck chose a Static Defence and our die roll resulted in using the Bridgehead mission.

The hilly and forested table setup reminded me of my sojourn into the Munich area more than 10 years ago and driving along the winding secondary roads! Chuck set up guarding the objectives as best he could hoping to keep enough tracks alive to give necessary defensive fire to the grunts.

In ambush were his VADS unit and a string of mines had been placed along my left-hand infiltration route to discourage an attack along that axis.

Instead I chose to make a two-pronged attack through the centre and the far right, using the Scouts to grab the entire right side of the board.

Things started going wrong from the get-go as my Storm unit passed its Blitz test with my formation commander's help but two of them bogged down right away! On the centre my brave unit leader charged forwards but his men elected not to "Follow Me". The right-hand infantry crept forwards hoping to bag his tracks with RPG fire whilst all the BMPs moved up behind two sets of smoke barrages laid down by the artillery.

Fearing his VADS ambush I kept the Hinds loitering off-table for Turn 1 but then brought them forwards the next turn to take shots at his lone FIST (controlling the Copperheads on the Paladins). Out of 4 missile hits I rolled a "6" but failed the Firepower test to destroy the unit, and then paid the price next turn when his VADS popped out of ambush and downed 3 helicopters! After that the lone survivor quit.

On Turn 2 everything was in position for an assault on the right, but I just needed to cut down his potential defensive fire enough to get it through. Unfortunately his brave M113 tracks on the right had mown down 3 of my RPG teams with .50 cal fire and I only managed to kill two with the entire weight of my fire.

Then on Chuck's turn his A-10 Warthogs arrived and promptly struck at my soft-skinned Hails and Geckos in the left woods. For some reason I had moved my Shilkas too far away to help, and my confidence that 4 Gophers and 2 Geckos would be enough to handle the American air was misplaced. The result was 2 Geckos and 2 Hails lost and no planes shot down! Even though his arriving ITV reserves failed their blitz attempts to get on they still took a great toll on my exposed infantry with MG fire.

Turn 3 saw my centre infantry move up in prep for the assault whilst all the stationary BMPs blasted away at full rate of fire hoping to kill enough tracks and SAW teams to let the assaults go through on both axes of attack. Alas, in the centre only one track was bailed and even pinned down his Mech infantry was certain to throw me back.

On the right I managed to get one crucial team killed and lacking track support I threw my infantry forwards into the attack! Having only 6 shots of DF was nevertheless enough for Chuck as with 5 hits I was thrown back. Getting 3 x Turn 3 reserve units was icing on the cake for Chuck as almost all of my infantry got mown down.

Despite still having plenty of BMPs left the writing was on the wall and I conceded the game to Chuck who picked up a victory pin in his new role of American Task Force commander! It was a 6-1 loss as none of his units were destroyed and I have retreated my Soviets back across the border to regroup and rethink their tactics!