Firestorm: Stripes

The theater as it exists. PACT forces continue to drive north out of Frankfurt to link up with the 3rd Shock Army near Paderborn

Oberst Jarvis Niemand's focus was accelerating the drive of 4th Motorisierte's leading elements to make the linkup with 3rd Shock Army. While the 24th Regiment was attacking Warburg and scattering its British defenders, Niemand's troops bypassed to the east, where their flank covered by leading elements of 28th Army's supporting attack led by 37th Guards Motor Rifles.

The confluence of British troops of 2nd UK Division from the east and the remaining mobiletruppen of 2nd Panzergrenadier from the west at Kleinenberg to dispute his advance was hardly a surprise. 2+2=4, nicht wahr? But Niemand had a surprise of his own, elements of the 2nd Battalion of the 119th Independent Tank Regiment with T64s and BMP2s.

We chose Frankfurt Counterattack for a taste of something different. BH chose West German and British allies to gain access to British infantry, while I used East Germans with Soviet allies. This time we paid attention to the consequences of allies from the start.

The results of setup are depicted below. BH chose to place the company commander, one rifle platoon and the Scimitars from the UK force on the table, as well as the German infantry and panzers and Jaguars. I chose my T64s and one company of T72s, all my infantry, and my BMP recon. My spearhead put the infantry within walking distance of the objective.

Things got a little more interesting in NATO Turn 2. I had sprayed the UK 1st Platoon with MG fire, and this provoked BH to drop the Jaguars now that the Leopards were off to the southwest. I had moved the T64s to center court where they could severely damage the Leo Is in a long range duel and BH reconsidered, halting their movement in cover. His reinforcements arrived and he immediately launched his grand attack on the ridge. The FMVs admirably supported the infantry charge but 7 dice from the now pinned Soviet infantry combined with 6 dice from the Germans rocked the charge back, pinning the platoon.

Hot wash

Two things stand out. The first was the timing failure on the eastern end of the assault. BH should have brought either the Chieftains or Milans on as fire support BEFORE sweeping in with 2nd UK platoon to attack. This would have allowed 1st UK platoon to attack at the same point. Whether this would have worked better is a mystery of the dice, but the Chieftains firing might have killed a couple stands and reduced my defensive fire.

The other thing was the indecision with Leo Is. His idea was correct but when my T64s threatened he backed off, forgetting that the T64s are actually more maneuverable than the Leo Is. Sometimes a fair plan is better than a perfect plan. And forcing the issue in the southwest would have kept the T64s out of the center, where their machineguns helped slaughter 1st UK, putting the game out of reach.