Firestorm: Stripes

The fight played was Annihilation.
SETUP
We played down the long axis of the table so that weapons ranges meant something, although after Speahead moves, not much. With the ownership of the first move up in the air, I placed two units of T64s in firing positions that covered likely approaches and put the Commander and the 2nd unit of T64s in the center after blitzing forward. KK spearheaded on all three approach lines, mostly keeping to cover.

Turn 1 –
I drew the first turn. I dashed the spearhead BMPs to my right to extend that flank, hiding (mostly) behind a hill. Knowing that T72s could move 14” + 4” blitz and T55s 10+4 I had to be careful not to get carried away putting tanks in exposed positions so my ‘reserve’ T64 unit remained in the center, while the other two occupied the best positions possible. I thus took only six shots. My shooting was all against concealed GTG targets. Three T64s to the left as I looked at the table shot at and killed a Polish T72M. Three on the right shot at and killed 2 T72Ms; the VA unit passed morale.

KK moved his armor forward, using DASH (Road for the East German T55s on my right, Terrain for the Czechs in the center and tactical for the others). An attempt to blitz the VA BMP-1s failed.
KK’s shooting on the left resulted in bounced SAGGER missiles and 122mm shots. On the right, the PA T72s managed a kill on my No.3 unit. They also managed to kill a BMP-2 by being on top of the hill they had occupied, thus drawing a line of sight to the tail-end ivan.

Turn 2
I was now in trouble. KK’s bold movement with the VA T55s force me to shift the reserve platoon to potentially exposed positions where an aggressive move could put T72s in my face at point blank range with no cover. But the T55s were equally dangerous now (as we will see later) and had to die. My BMP2s managed to blitz to firing positions despite the low odds. Between 6 shots from T64s and the 2 BMPs six T55s died here. On my left flank the three T64s there finished off one T72 unit. KK was a little depressed until I pointed out the first turn exchange had been 6 points to 7.

KK repeated the advance on the Polish side while continuing to try and whittle the visible T64s with fire from T72s and BMP missiles. The BMP-2s were out of action at the end of his fire, as was one of my T64 units, on the VA side, thanks to a lucky hit from a Czech T72M and a pair of bad die rolls

With 4 T64s and 3 BMP-2 gone, compared to three T72Ms and 6 T55s, things were looking even grimmer than when I started. I moved my central 'rota' back to my left using my wonderpower of advanced stabilizers, and blasted the check T55s coming down the road and the Polish T72s

My fire managed to eliminate 2 T55s out of 7 in the Czech charge, but the other T64 'rota' took out two Polish T72Ms. This was less than I had hoped.

As I expected, Keith used his BC to move the larger T55 unit at blitz, effectively giving them a 14" move.

Retribution - the T55s knocked out one tank and the BC tank in the center, forcing the BC to switch tanks, and putting the 'rota' on bad morale. The T55s, T72s and BMPs combined to annihilate the two remaining T64s on my left in a blaze of fire.

My resolve to go down fighting mattered not one bit. I failed morale on the start of GT4

Hotwash

I could have done better with my T64s but not much. Trying to spearhead instead of just setting up the BMPs with the T64 commander cost me some 1st turn shots, but at the end of the day, wouldn't have mattered. Sometimes Quantity has a Quality all its own. The Soviets killed 8 T55s and 5 T72s, losing 13 vehicles for a tie in overall vehicle score, and leaving 17 PACT ally tanks and 9 BMPs for the next battle.

As you can image, the argument over who had the best tank was not settled