Firestorm: Stripes

Ivan says that’s far enough
They had pushed the Soviets hard, chasing them back to the outskirts of the city. They were making good progress. Well, amazing progress even. They hadn’t encountered any reds for almost half an hour now, and the nerves started back up again.
“Tell everyone to slow down the advance and keep their eyes and ears peeled.”
Col. Lotgering just finished speaking when a T-72 poked its gun barrel out from behind a three story building.
“Enemy contact! Break and get to cover!”

——————————————————————————————————

50 pts Dust Up – USA vs Warsaw Pact
Our third game in a row, and I was already wondering how this city terrain was going to change the game. Having no tanks in my army, I was afraid the minimum range of the TOW –and Dragon missiles was going to be a problem. My plan was to push the enemy objective hard with one infantry platoon, supported by the HQ and the VADS, pin them and push them off. While defending my own objectives of course.

I put my artillery into reserve (them being 20 points), and Marko put one platoon of T-72s and his Hinds in reserve.

We also used the version 4 rules of Late War FoW (with rules for aircraft etc. from TY) instead of the unique TY rules.

Deployment
I covered both objectives with one infantry platoon, supported by the ITVs and Cobras. The rest went on to get ready and make a beeline towards the enemy objectives and make sure they were ready to deal with any reinforcements.
The Soviet infantry dug in on their objectives as well, supported by the BMPS, with one platoon of T-72s and their commander.

We rolled of and it was the Soviets to go first.

Turn 1
The Soviets rolled their BMPs up towards the middle of the table, and the T-72s went full force towards the closest objective. One stuck is nose out a bit too far and got slagged, with another suffering a hit but nothing fatal. I raced my M113s and VADS towards buildings for cover, waiting to see what the BMPs would do, and jump out when they left the infantry.

Turn 2
The crew of the bailed T-72 mounted their tank again, and the trio of tanks put themselves on the objective, and within assault range of the infantry there. There was no successful shooting, but the Soviets managed to push of the infantry. Uh oh.

I rallied the infantry and got one team back within 10cm, hoping the Dragons and TOWs would finish the T-72s, or maybe bail them at least and get a free successful assault. The infantry on the right successfully Blitzed out of the M113s into a building, making ready to add their Dragons to the fire of the VADS into the BMPs. That went really well, destroying all but one!

Unfortunately, despite the 3s needed to hit the T-72s, I only managed to bail one T-72. Uh oh.

Turn 3
The Soviets received their first reinforcements, and Marko put them opposite the single infantry team I had near the objective. And with Brutal guns, the team didn’t last. Oops.

Game end
With only losing the BMP platoon, it was a 5-2 victory for the Soviets.

Aftermath
Silly me, I thought that four TOWs and three Dragons would do some damage. But I also made the mistake of not moving enough infantry teams forwards and get them inside 10cm.
Then again, another successful assault by his T-72s would’ve driven off the infantry anyway.

Highlights
Once again, the VADS did amazing against the BMPs.

——————————————————————————————————

There seemed no limit to the armor crawling all over them. Time to call it a day. “All units, retreat via fire and maneuver. Use insertion point Delta as the fallback position.”
Were we too eager? The colonel ducked down as machinegun rounds pinged of his M113.
“Get baseplate on the radio, and give them a status report. Heavy armor needed to push into the city.”