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Firestorm: Red Thunder

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Operation Matryoshka

100 POINTS
Warsaw Pact
Vladimir Orlovsky
VS West German
Nate Gomes

Operation Matryoshka

Invasion of the Netherlands

Amphibious Assault

West German vs Warsaw Pact (Soviets)

100pts

"There's only two things I hate in this world: people who are intolerant of other people's cultures and the Dutch."- Nigel Powers

Prelude to battle

The Baltic Fleet has broken through and is engaging NATO vessels in the Northern Sea. The 11th Army Corps has been fully mobilized; the 7th Independent Guards Motorized Rifle Bridge has been tasked with landing on the coast of the Netherlands. The 12e Pantserinfanteriebrigade based out of Vierhouten (Nunspeet) is responding to the landing forces.

The Soviets have made it past the defenses and are on shore preparing a beach head. More Soviet forces are being ferried to the coast. The Dutch must mount a strong counterattack to break the Soviet landings and push them back into the sea.

Sorry, no pictures of the battle

Forgot my phone to take pictures. However I tried to make it manageable to read.

Used the 6mm models again. I had a Zubr on the table edge.

Turn 1 Soviets - D-Day

LCACs drop off three Carnations and a BMP-1 OP

Colonel Orlovsky joins Yelena Company, the BMP-1s swim ashore taking the right flank and cautiously move inland to a near by village.

Nikolai Company with their BMP-1s also makes it to shore unhindered and takes position to the left of Yelena Company.

Only a portion of Tanya Company made it ashore but their determination was resolute, the head for the objective on the right flank.

Captain Malashenko and his trusty T-72s are dropped off by Zubr-class LCACs, they secure the far left flank pushing to a clearing.

Drema Squadron is called in to break the forming counter attack on the beachhead, finding the lead tank Drema-1 lines up a shot, flicks the safety switch and fires a Kh-25. The missile flies out straight and dives for the tank in the open. A chalky mist trail is visible across the battlefield. An explosion rings out across the fields with the sight of a black plume of smoke in the distance. Direct hit! Leopard 1 HQ is destroyed in the first moments of battle.

Turn 1 NATO - Break the beachhead

Anton Company Leopard 1s rushes to find cover in the surrounding forests

Berta Company Leopard 1s supports Anton Company also taking refuge in the forest of the right flank

Charlotte Company Leopard 1s moves up the road and taking cover behind a couple of buildings

Dora Company rushes to secure the object with their Marders with the intention of deploying troops next round.

Emil Company secures the left flank by rolling to a field behind some hedges.

Turn 2 Soviets - The advance

Further deployments from the Navy have dropped off a platoon of four BMP-2s

Malashenko rolls toward the adjacent side of the field, their barrels pointed through the brush. Opening fire in a single swift volley a hit is managed. Fire and black smoke rose above the brush on the other side. One Leopard 2 is destroyed.

Tanya Company deploys infantry at the objective, whilst Tanya Company's BMP-1s move up the road.

Yelena Company moves to the next patch of trees preventing cross shots from the center Leopard 1s

Nikolai Company disembarks and starts moving into the village. The BMP-1s hold to cover Yelena Company from a possible flanking action by the Leopard 1s.

Drema-1 comes in for another run this time lines up the guns on the sides of Charlotte Company. With a quick pull of the trigger a puff of smoke appears off the side of the cockpit. Several sparks and fires appear on the Leopards. One Leopard catches on fire and another bails out.

Glaza-1 BMP-1 OP rolls up to the right flank with the other BMP-1s trying to get eyes on a target.

Turn 2 NATO - The counterattack

Charlotte Company fails moral and flees without a commander

The Leopard 2s return the Soviets a friendly salvo of their own, four successful hits, however three only cause superfisal damage, one T-72 is knocked out.

Dora Company disembarks their infantry however holds onto the Milans and moves to support the left flank.

Boris Company and Anton both move right into the trees point blank of the BMP-1s and open fire. A slaughter, six BMP-1s burst into flames. Most of their passengers make it, only taking one RPG and two rifle squad casualties.

Turn 3 Soviets - Setting off the trap

All remaining Soviet landing forces have successfully made it ashore with another BMP-2 recon force and Spandrels joining the fight.

Serp Company takes their BMP-2s up into the city at full speed.

Glaza-1 marks the trees where the BMP-1s have been intercepted.

"This is Sokol-1, we have marked this location for artillery bombardment, evacuate the area!"

Yelena Company with it's infantry fall back as far away from the trees as possible. Hearing the rounds in the air screeching back to earth, the forest erupts in shards of trees, fire and explosions. Four of the six Leopards are smashed to bits by the incoming artillery.

Malashenko's Company charges the last remaining Leopard 2s firing on the move giving the Leopards no time to respond. One Leopard is destroyed and the other is bailed out.

Drema-1 flies around for another pass. The Su-25 pops the airbrakes for a quick turn, switching rockets to full the Su-25 drowns in smoke created by the unleashing of rockets. The rocket storm kills a rifle squad and the other troops hit the dirt.

All forces attempt to regroup in their respective sectors.

Turn 3 NATO - Regrouping

Heinrich Company of Marders arrives from reserves

Dora Company infantry rally and dig in. The Marders fall back to the objective and take positions near the buildings.

All armored forces of the Dutch flee as there are no HQ units available.

Turn 4 Soviets - Mount up!

Drema-1 heads home to refuel and rearm.

All infantry units embark on their BMP-1s grouping up with the BMP-2s and start to converge on the NATO held objective. Eliminating the remaining Marders and the Milan teams within.

Malashenko's T-72s move forward around a forested area unable to attack the Marder Company.

Turn 4 NATO - The Last Hope

Nordpol Company arrives from the right flank with Heinrich Company; however no targets are available to shoot.

Heinrich Company moves to the objective in an attempt to contest the objective.

Dora Company manages to cling to the objective.

Turn 5 Soviets - Another Carentan

Drema-1 arrives to unleash a Kh-25 into a Leopard 1, a direct hit but only hitting the tracks for a bail.

All BMP-1s holding infantry groups including Colonel Orlovsky dismount and move into assault range of the NATO infantry. A bloody firefight ensues, flashes from windows and door ways. Tracers fly back and forth like a game of tennis; plums of dust are kicked up by the back blasts of RPGs. Soviet soldiers pour through the streets, the occasional soldier stops to shoot a stunned NATO soldier emerging from the rubble an RPG just impacted. All NATO forces have been eradicated from the Objective.

The BMP-1s and BMP-2s rush in to halt the advancing Marders which they do with unyielding mass of numbers. The Marders are crushed without so much as a second though. Two rifle squads are killed.

Glaza-1 marks coordinates on the remaining infantry of the NATO forces, a pause in radio commands followed by a distant thunder. Another rain of shells crushes the infantry beneath. The artillery leaving not so much as a memory of the troops below, now only smoking craters.

Malashenko's T-72s smash through the last remaining hope of the Dutch forces by eliminating the Leopard 1s.

Turn 5 NATO - Forlorn Hope

Two more Leopard 1 Companies arrive, one on the left flank and one on the right. Leopard 1s on the right open fire on the exposed BMP-2 recon group killing them to a man.

The Leopard Company on the left are face to face with Malashenko's T-72s. In an attempt to finish them off, the Leopards fire with everything they have. Effectively knocking out three T-72s and bailing out a forth.

Conclusion

My opponent calls it. Hands were shaken, it was a fun game, shame on the pictures but I can show the models used.

Soviets made a desperate attempt to capture the objective, and NATO attempted an even more desperate attempt to keep it. In the end the original Dutch forces were wiped out, with reinforcements arriving too little, too late. The Dutch in the very end were able to destroy a platoon of BMP-2s and wreck havoc on my T-72s, however having more than 9 units on the board the Soviets get a freebie.

Soviets win a hard fought but well earned Stunning Victory.

My Spandrels did nothing...as usual, didn't even bother incorporating what they did in the game because they didn't do anything except look cute.

Some of the models used

Army Lists Used In This Battle

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Recommend Commander For Commendation

4 People Recommended Vladimir Orlovsky for commendation

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Warsaw Pact
Vladimir Orlovsky
Wins

7 Comments

  • Nabeshin says:

    Love the Austin powers quote XD. Also some pictures in the text would help us imagine the battle

  • AlohaRover says:

    Nice report

  • Storm Caller says:

    Ref Pictures

    You can “reset” some key events after the fact. It happened all the time in real wars! or google search some pictures and add them in!

    Search look “Dutch army during Cold war images”……….I’ll get about 200 photos if not more

    Two recommendations 1) stay away from the term “TURN” 2) write in narrative vs bullet form, they read better as an example

    Turn 5 NATO – Forlorn Hope

    Two more Leopard 1 Companies arrive, one on the left flank and one on the right. Leopard 1s on the right open fire on the exposed BMP-2 recon group killing them to a man.

    The Leopard Company on the left are face to face with Malashenko’s T-72s. In an attempt to finish them off, the Leopards fire with everything they have. Effectively knocking out three T-72s and bailing out a forth.

    Change to

    More leopards 1 arrive at both my left and right flanks, the Leopards on the left destroyed three T-72, the remaining T-72 retreated off to the east! The BMPs 2 to my left started to exposed one after another as the German Gunners found the range, I looked for target but none were left!

    Hope this help! The report is great this is just a different style

    Cheers

    Storm

  • M. Nisbet says:

    I agree with the comments below; pictures would be good even if taken after the fact. An interesting read though.

  • Baron says:

    Congratulations for the win Vladimir! 🙂
    Sad to find out that your phone was gone so you couldn’t snap some Pictures! :/

  • fingolfen says:

    Would love to see some more photos – but congratulations on the win in this key sector. We’ll liberate the West yet!

  • bayankhan says:

    Good outcome, and coherent report, even without pictures. Since your force consisted of the entire Ropuchka allocation of the Baltic Fleet, I hope they make it home. Capture a port or airfield fast, Comrade, so you can be resupplied.