Firestorm: Stripes

One of our disappointments in the Red Thunder campaign was no M60 tanks. So we're trying them in some tank vs tank actions.

Combat at Altenwalde
Oberst Tomas Nadea at least had the satisfaction of knowing that political diversion was the only thing that had stopped him from cutting the NATO supply line into Hannover. After rolling back the vanguard of a British penetration north, Nadea, had ruthlessly followed up slipping west, and had been on the verge of cutting the vital rail link when 20th Guards had ‘committed the second echelon’, not wanting a Volksarmee division to have the credit for cutting through NATOs lines. So the 35th Motor Rifles went in, the excuse being a need for the 1st Motorisierte to pause for fuel and ammo.
The delay imposed allowed NATO time to recover, and some timely counterattacks had brought operations to a standstill.
Meanwhile NATO was still trying to get a viable port. The American Marines were desperately trying to encircle Cuxhaven, where a motor rifle regiment of the 15th Poles was still fighting. To get seriously started on their supposed rescue of the BAOR, they needed a port, and Hamburg wasn’t cooperating thanks to Osa patrol boats passed through the Kiel Canal and land-based missiles that had made a hash of an attempted coup de main by British Marine Commandos. NATO had then landed near Muggendorf and gradually developed the beachhead, trying to capture Cuxhaven with one Marine Amphibious Brigade while the other held the 15th Poles away. When those fights stalemated, the Marine Division Commander had put in his floating reserve on the beaches of Duhnen and Salenburg.
Front Commander had called on 1st Motorisierte to stop the advance, and attached 3rd Battalion of the 58th Independent Tank Regiment to 1st Motorisierte. Nadea’s Forward detachment had been fortunate to be reinforced by one company of the Soviet T64s.
When dawn broke, the 1st Motorisierte was to attack through Altenwalde to Salenberg, eliminating the smaller bridgehead and then turning northeast to crush the Duhnen landing.
Until the attack jumped off, it was Nadea’s job to prevent NATO from upsetting the 1st Motorisierte’s timetable with his Forward Detachment.
“Comrade Oberst! Enemy tanks reported moving southeast out of Holte Spangen! Kampgruppe Krueller requests permission to engage!.
“Denied. Tell Krueller to wait for positive identification and some indication of intent. He may engage once they start shooting, or if they reach 400 meters.”

Scenario
BH wanted to use M60s so I gave him the choice between Marines in Hamburg (sorry, but there are no Marines in Berlin sector; pure fantasy) and an American unit in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Berlin, Niederbayern etc.
He chose Hamburg first, to see how much different ‘Accurate’ was. BH went with 14 M60A1s and 4 LAVs. Not being omniscient, the Assault series games were predicated on Marines landing in Norway and the games did not remain popular enough to have AFNorth Danes, Norweigians and Marines. So we had to substitute Bradleys for LAVs.
We chose 60 points because BH wanted full platoons for a change, also to see how much difference the extra tank meant to morale. And finally, BH was convinced night was his friend, so we tried a dawn scenario.
Because we were doing ‘just tanks’ I fielded a full T55 ‘battalion’, and short T64 and T72M battalions. BH specifically requested not to see the fully armed and functional T55 battalion (31 tanks) again.
Battleplans led us to him as an attacker in Free-for-all. BH originally wanted Annihilation but I pointed out the without objectives to incentivize me to stand my ground I wasn’t going to engage until daylight, defeating the purpose of playing with night rules, and thus we needed the objectives to make me sit still for an attack. And that I certainly wasn’t going to attack in a dawn scenario until the sun came up; that the onus of attacking was on NATO in night scenarios unless the PACT had a specific reason, like getting infantry forward without getting shelled into oblivion. Or overrunning a weak enemy before he got reinforcements. If he wanted to see that, we could play Encounter, I offered. He had already seen already weak NATO forces split by reserves and answered ‘No Thanks.’
BH accepted the reasoning after I pointed him to the ‘More Scenarios’ pack on-line and saw the mechanics of getting night scenarios only led to PACT being forced to fight at night in scenarios where NATO was the attacker. Grumbling how that wasn’t realistic, to which I pointed out our ‘own the night’ tactical playbook cast us as attacking preferentially at night, and only operational reasons would produce PACT night armored attacks. Infantry, yes, but did he really want to face 60 points of PACT infantry (10 small size BMP units with 70 stands of infantry an 40 BMP-1s)? He agreed that wasn’t the experience he was seeking.

Setup
BH and I then went through the ritual of deploying units. Mercifully this was short, with 4 units facing 8 PACT units. BH placed two M60 platoons on the north end of the map behind the LAV Spearhead and the third M60 platoon with the company HQ in the south. I matched his deployments with BMP spearhead, three T64s in the north, then 3 more T64s, then the T64 battalion commander, and suddenly BH was placing his command group in the south. I then deployed the T55s and T72s, placing 4 T72s in the north and all the T55s plus 3 T72s in the south. Had I thought a little more about the LAVs I would have skipped the spearhead and used the BMPs as tank destroyers. Hindsight is always 20-20.
TURN 1
BH realized that whatever advantage he had in mobility and night fighting was going away by the PACT 4th turn, so he moved aggressively in the north. The LAVs led the way and engaged in a close range knife fight with the BMPs, killing one and bailing the other. One platoon of M60s rolled 1,3 for night vision and couldn’t shoot, while the other rolled 4,6 and was able to see both groups of T64s at long range but not the T72s hidden behind the farm buildings. So BH shot at the group of 4 T64s needing 6’s (accurate, CGTG) and scoring two hits. I bounced one and he bailed one T64. No shooting in the south.

My cunning plan was to rush the southern tanks forward at best speed, using follow me to add mileage. I managed to fail Follow Me checks on two units of T55s, so only one group of three actually reached the target hof, and it with only one tank. Again, no shooting here.
On the north, BH had conveniently lit up only one M60 platoon and one LAV platoon. I ignored the LAVs, pulled the BMPs back to join my No.1 T64 company, and fired on the visible M60s. 10 dice hitting 5,6 (-1 for night) represents my typical experience shooting at NATO defenders so I hit 4 times, and the M60 platoon lost three tanks killed and one lucky tank bailed. Morale check passed.

BH decided that playing circled wagon train with his 6 M60s to the south was not the best alternative, and rolled forward to the hof where my T55 column had stalled. In the north he sent the LAVs aggressively after my BMPs, hoping that I would retaliate and kill the LAVs instead of shooting at his tanks with my tanks.

The northern sector is on the right above. The LAVs killed another BMP and bailed two more, and then the survivors decided to incur the wrath of the political officer by an abrupt departure. They will be dealt with later. BH's tank positions only permitted six shots (again) but this time I was not gone to ground and no thermal die rolls were required. T64s were also not at long range. His fire scored three hits and I bounced two cleanly and my bailed tank got to check morale and stayed.

The southern flank was a bit of a trainwreck. BH used stabilizers to get to firing positions. It was point blank range so again thermals meant little. However, his tanks were blocked somewhat by each other, and only 8 dice flew, knocking out two T55s and bailing two others...one because I rolled a six and the other because he rolled a one.

My T64 refuse to remount but the two T55s didn't. Go figure. I stood pat in the north(still on the right) and the six shooting T64s managed to produce 2 hits and a T72 produced another out of 9 dice thrown. BH managed to throw a 6 against a long range shot, and so ended the turn there with two dead M60s and one bailed, and passed another morale check. I ignored the LAVs as they couldn't hurt anything.

In the south (left) I blitzed the battalion commander with No.2 kompanie's three tanks to improve my shots, deploying to line. The T72s moved slightly north. The other T55s were either moving and incurring a -1 or failed a blitz and their fire was ineffectual, but four T55s firing at the exposed tank on the crest managed 2 hits (5+ to hit, night) while the T72s pulled a 6 out of three shots. 3rd Platoon was suddenly down 2 tanks and one bailed (another 1 for firepower!). Another passed morale check.

BH had big problems now and knew it, but continued to shoot in the north. In the south he pulled the three moveable tanks out using stabilizers and the commander's skill to blitz, reaching their original position. However, between stabilizers and accurate he was only hitting on 5's and managed two hits, killing the last tank in No.3 T55 company. But the tank hit in No.1 company was able to bounce the shot with a six.

Didn't get daylight, but I can see it coming. In the north I maneuver the T72s to get them to better firing positions, taking a risk that they would be in the open. The loss of two T64s to BH in his fire had hurt my firepower. I managed to knock out one more of 1st Platoon's tanks, and again they passed morale. In the south I pressed on to threaten the objective, allocating fire of the T55s, with two platoons moving on blitz but only one not moving to gain the benefit. Three T55s are far enough forward to flank the M60s in front of them. My fire finishes two M60s from3rd Platoon; T55s on the hill managing to hit and penetrate the 3rd Platoon leader's tank while the T72s finish the bailed tank in the village.

No daylight, but the line of light in the east is stronger now. BH initiated a retreat in the north. The LAVs couldn't do anything against my tanks, and as long as I was sitting 6" away from the objective waiting for him to move to it so I could shoot him with six tanks while contesting the objective, they were spectators. Meanwhile he had two platoons permanently on bad morale and one destroyed, so keeping the LAVs alive kept him from checking company morale. BH managed to bail one of my T72s with long range fire. In the critical southern sector, two M60s fired in two different directions, hitting 3's in one case and 4's in the other, looking for a lucky morale check to break up the attack. Missed my concealed T72s and killed one T55 and bailed another (1 on firepower; can't complain about luck either way). I risked my BC to prevent the 2-tank

Daylight. Finally. My T55s with the BC blitzed to firing positions on the flank of BH's XO. The other T55s circled behind the town, but would only hit on sixes. My T72s engaged the Marine CO frontally. Two flanking hits (one on a '6' from completely behind) saw the XO's tank burn while the T72s killed the CO.

Meanwhile, in the north, I managed to tag 1st Platoons last M60 and had tried to kill the LAVs, now running in the open. Failed on the last.

BH lost, as at least one T55 began the turn within 2 hexes (4 inches) of the southern objective. Game over, 4-3

Hot wash

Night fighting is hard on the PACT. In a day battle I would have overwhelmed BH, relying on mass to force him to stand and defend an objective. At night, he had some chance of crossing the neutral zone and bringing the fight to me, and did so. But...even so, hitting mostly 6s instead of 5,6, I was putting out enough firepower to whittle his force. Had some good shooting dice in the first couple turns in the northern sector, and that broke his momentum.

I think BH would have been better served staying hidden in the south. Even with four early kills, he likely would have lost the objective, and he only got two. The problem was having to go more than 10" to get to firing positions, and the effect of having to cross a bridge near his starting position, strung him out leaving him unable to shoot a couple tanks.

We'll see what happens next

Aftermath - the 1st Motorisierte met the Marine Amphibious Brigade head on. Without a tank company, the Marines were nearly driven off the beach, forcing the US Navy to commit to provide fire and air support. But not just patrol boats can fit through the Kiel canal. A Victor SSN a Udaloy and a Grisha fired missile salvos at the Navy ships, and Naval aviation bombers based in Denmark sowed confusion, diverting bombardment vessels to selfdefense. When the missile attacks were over, 1st Motorisierte broke off. Several amphibious ships had been damaged. The railline into Cuxhaven remained open.