Firestorm: Stripes

Update to the theater status. 2nd West Front's 1st Guards Tank Army parries enemy thrusts from the west as fresh 28th Army troops apply pressure on the last threats to a new life line north. Counters from GDW's Third World War; the UK 'light' forces represent brigades of 2nd Division stretched to the limit.

The theater. Without being too repetitive, 4th Motorisierte conducted a raid to cut NATO's lifeline into Hannover, and when enemy resistance faltered, pushed on to the vicinity of Paderborn. Now the US forces are counterattacking west to cut the new lifeline into the Ruhr Valley and 3rd Shock Army.

Oberst Niemand surveyed the burning and abandoned American tanks with some satisfaction. The enemy had broken off after the disastrous outcome, but now a second American battalion was deploying to attack the same sector. Minor damage had been repaired; camouflage replaced. But the enemy deployment was somewhat different. Diese Tieren haben etwas gelernt, Niemand thought.

Fitzi took my advice and pressed forward on my western flank. He dumped a smokescreen (shown with his burn markers because I forgot my cotton) to neutralize the BMP1s on the rise, then strafed them with his Cobras. My defensive missile fire was negligible because the SA-9s were out of range. Fitzi killed and bailed a BTR60 and bailed a BMP with his fire. Then his tanks cut loose on my infantry, pinning them but killing only one team. The A10s failed to put in an appearance, making me cocky.

I drove my BTRs out of the shelter behind the hill; clearly they were a use-or-lose asset. Between their 15 MG dice, the AGL-17, and a couple stands of AK, I gutted his 2nd Platoon. He passed morale, salvaging the APC transport section.

I had also dropped my BMP-2 ambush at center table. Bad move. They fired 6 missiles, hit 3 times, and Fitzi rolled 3 sixes for saves. Then I compounded the situation by only bailing one tank. The Spigot team fired three more missiles, missing completely. Definitely not a repeat of the first game.

Fitzi was a little surprised by the ambush and the BTR60s' effectiveness, and so he halted his progress to eliminate the threats. This was, IMHO, an error as the plan we had discussed was getting inside the BMP-1s 16" minimum range and then sweeping past the farm. He was also using the M1 Abrams as long range fire support instead of using them as a hammer and protecting them with the M60s.

It took 10 shots to wreck the BTRs, and that was 10 that didn't go into my infantry. Then the rest produced too few hits to pin, and only one more casualty. The Cobras focused on the BMP-1s killing one and bailing one, while the A10s demolished my BMP-2 platoon; however two survived bailed and passed morale. Once again, without a mass of tanks and my ZSUs, the ineffective AA fire brought down only one Cobra.

Hot Wash
Fitzi's first turn went really well, but he should have dealt with the long-term threat - BMPs on dominating high ground - first. Both Cobras should have hammered them, and his right flank M60s should have drifted right to deal with the BTRs. The infantry should have delayed in foxholes, using the CO's better stats to pick up the lost time. The attack as executed did nothing well, and the result was the infantry platoon that should have carried the farm went down to surviving BTRs.

He really needed two turns of smoke. We'll see if he fixes that.