Firestorm: Red Thunder

The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the River Weser, Bremen is populated with over 2 million people. Bremen is the second most populous city in Northern Germany, a major cultural and economic hub in the northern regions of Germany, home to dozens of historical galleries and museums, and birthplace of short-lived Bremen Socialisti Republic.

In second half of '80, outskirts of city were witness to vicious battle fought between West and East German forces...

Volksarmee forces advanced from in one huge wave from the north, forming a line spamming nearly while width of the table. On left flank one crossroad flanked by solid stone bulidings immediately blocked up; angry tankers and BTR drivers popped out of their vehicles and started to resolve the traffic jam in way the humankind resolved it since first two animal-drawn carts blocked each others way centuries ago - by yelling at each other.
Bundeswehr forces occupied small rectangle, with Leopard-2 platoon placed in the corner, and two infantry platoons securing other two, safelu dug in into small rocky formation and unscythed field. Their commander studied incoming forces with mix of contempt of curiosity - his most powerful weapon, Leopard-2 tanks were safe from lousy T-55's guns, and other forces were concealed and gone to the ground, with some nasty surprises waiting for Ossies to come into range...

This turn was pretty simple. Almost everything except 3 Spandrels, Schutzenkompanie AA and AT weapons and two BMP-1 scout units went FOOOORWAAAARD! With all guns blazing. And after firing incountable thousands of (eastern) marks whole Panzer Battalion managed to kill (gasp!) - one Marder.

Bundeswehr response was precise and deadly. Suddenly, on the right flank unit of Gepards come out form ambush, and on the left unit of Leopards-1 materialized out of reserves to threaten 'left' T-55 company. Leopards-2 repositioned slightly, pressing their vulnerable backs against the unscalable rocky hill. Then...
Leopards-2 killed 4 tanks from 'forward' T-55 unit with one salvo, bailing out the fifth. Milan operators from infantry units were slightly less succesful, killing 2 tanks but bailing out 4 more from the 'back' T-55 company. Leopards-1 killed two T-55 from 'left' company, and took 3 BTR as a side dish. Gepards added to the carnage, ripping one Spandrel in half and inflicting first casualties on Motoschutzen company. Of course, casualties weren't high enough to force Volksarmee units to test their guts...

So jammed, so much traffic, so nobody saw Leo-1 incoming from the left :)

'Left' T-55s turn on the spot and kills 2 Leo-1s. At the same time 'front' T-55s rush forward, aiming to threaten Leo-2s' flank and hurling everything they got upon Jaguars. Fire is supported by infantry's Spigots and enough to wipe out Jaguars from the battle. 'Back' T-55s slow a little down and assume checkerboard position to be able to fire from two rows; since their potential target was wiped away, it is time to shoot at dugged-in infantry on the left. BTR company adds to the hail of lead, rushing from behind the building and fanning out in front of Bundeswehr infantry positions. Shilkas allow T-55s to pass front and turn sharply right, to unleash hail of fire upon 'rocky' infantry positions.
Motoschutzen have day of their life, unleashing their RPGs (big and small) upon Gepards, killing one and bailing two more. (Un)fortunately, Gepards held their guts and didn't flee.
Heroes from the Spandrel unit show their skill again, killing one Leopard-2. This is nice addition to their score of 2.5 Abrams!

It was black hour for the Bundeswehr.
First - reserves didn't come up.
Second - one Gepard failed to remount. Good thing they killed two remaining Spandrels and pinned down infantry.
Third - two remaining Leo-1 came into the street, but failed to kill any T-55.
Fourth - Leo-2s repositioned again, closer to the table edge and shoot a salvo ... scoring a total of 7 (SEVEN) on four dices. Marders and other small arms score some hits on BTRs, but that's that.

Censored photo of Leo-2s and their roll of 2,2,1,2 - blurred because photo was taken in hurry and opponent refused to cooperate and hid dices under his hand :)

Black hour for Volksarmee. Dumbkopf from bailed out T-55 chickens out and refuses to drive, so company is forced to work with four tanks. They advance towards the rock formation and shoot some lead over heads of infanry hidden there. Of course that leaves them with vulnerable sides and backs shown to enemy Leo-2s and Milans, but ... who cares? Bundeswehr AT shots do through-and-through against T-55 from any direction anyway :)
Worse yet, infantry fails to rally, and as such is forced to stay in the dirt. One good thing - RPG salvos manage to kill remaining Gepards. 'Left' T-55s fails to kill any Leo-1s. One unit of BMP tries to blitz into position to fire upon them as well, but they are denied line of fire - and as such decide to move behind the building, to have clear shot against Leo-2. Everything else which is able to pours fire upon infantry, with minimal success.

Leo-2s with little helps of their friends kills some more T-55. Company could not stood the pressure and runs away. Leo-1 and Milans kill some more T-55 on 'left', leaving just 3 of them. Rest of mid-sized guns pours lead upon Shilkas, bailing one. Luchs appears from reserve and shoots upon innocent Gaskins, just rolling on the road toward the objective...

Close-up upon proud RPG teams. They work is not yet done :) In the background - our store's boardgame shelves.

BMP make a run vis-a-vis Leo-2 and start to load rockets (for next turn). Fortunately 'left' T-55 finishes Leos, clearing table from one company commander. Second T-55 company manages to put some tanks on Leo-2's side and kills one - last remaining tank holds his nerve. BTR forms a wide front and prepare to attack infantry hidden in the field. Everything that could shoo upon the 'rocky' infantry, pinning it.
Motschutzen executes complicated operation, shooting at Marders in the forest with one platoon, advancing forward with anti-personel weapons and mowing down Flugfaust and finishing freshly bailed out Marders with close assault. 'Rocky' infantry tried to use defensive fire, but to no avail.
Gaskins get a moment of respite, claiming objective and hiding between buildings from Luchses.

On the left another Luchs unit appears, runs into BMPs and kills one - fortunately, other BMP stays on the table. Leo starts to move toward the objective, trying to keep most of the T-55 in front arc and killing some more. Other units devastates Shilkas, leaving only single one alive - yet bailed out.

T-55s surround last remaining Leo-2 bud fail. BMP manages to kill one Luchs. 'Left' T-55s turn turrets and try to take Leo-2 from behind, but fail too - only good thing is Leo becomes bailed out. On the right flank, everything shoots at 'rocky' infantry; Motoschutzen hid in forest and move toward soft side of the hill, clearly preparing for the assault. BTR fans out to shoot closest Marder and assault dug-in infantry, killing them to the last man with minimal loses.

Oh, glorious day, Leopard remounts! Going full reverse, it grabs objective and turns turret around to kill T-55 from 'left' company, leaving single one on the field. Fortunately, T-55 holds ground. Alone Luchs fails to kill BMP and Luchs duo tries to create some havoc in middle of the field...

T-55 are unable to flank Leo, so just advance toward him and evaporate last remaining Marders from middle of the field. Last remaining T-55 fails to kill Leo. Last remaining BMP fails to kill Luchs. Motoschutzen leaves forest and circumvents 'rocky' indantry's position, shooting on the move... BTR runs toward the same rock, covering it with fire and leaving Leo-2 to its fate.

Bundeswehr formations ceases to function as tactical units and dissolves. Volksarmee mops down last pockets or resistance and claims the battlefield.

It was a long battle, and I just barely managed to start my shift at work (leaving, as it works out, keys to my home in the store :) ). BTR spam is awesome! At some point, when last Leo-2 have started to go backward, still shooting at incoming T-55 horders, I had feeling of 'zombie horde' movie - one step back, shoot one, another step back, shoot one, and they are still coming in!

Fun fact - for this game Bundeswehr developed special portable trench :) As they were blitzing but not moving any other way, they remained dug in all the time. Not that it helped them in any way :)

Note : battle is written down basing on my (not perfect) memory and photos, some details may be missing or warped. For example - I am not sure who killed second unit BMP (probably Luchses shoot down one, and other one failed to remain in place).

Take care, hope you enjoyed it - although not as much as we did :)