Firestorm: Stripes

An unidentified American armored force is moving toward your position and are trying to outflank your positions in order to eliminate the Soviet forces in this area and take control of the Schenefeld area. Your mission is to hold your position and direct any reinforcements that we can send you to eliminate this force.

Josh's CO (wife) has ordered him home by 930. So its a book mission-counterattack-65 points. Josh has West Germans, but we didn't put away the US tanks from last time-so to speed the game up, he was ok playing the US. He rolls and is the attacker, plus he wins the roll and goes first as well. Game started at 730pm.

Turn 1

US
ITVs try a blitz move and fail-move to edge of wood line-no bogging down. 1st M60 platoon (4) pass a blitz move and fire at BMP-2s in some light cover-they KIA 2 of them. 2nd M60 platoon plus the CO pass their blitz move and move fast toward their own objective. The M113 platoon also passes and moves toward the US objective ( M577 TOC ) Cobras move to attack the SA-9s- the remaining BMPs and the AA mg on the Russian COs tank shoot one cobra down. terrible gunnery produces no kills (1, 1, 2). Arty smokes the M113 move so I cant shoot at them.

Russian:
Roll for reinforcements produce a 5 and a T-72 company arrives (5 tanks). Russian CO helps storms pass a blitz move and they manage to KIA 1 M60. The CO however misses. The 2 BMP-2s pass a blitz move and fire their ATGMs and KIA another M60. The SA-9s fire at the cobra and do nothing.

Russian

Turn 2

US
The Cobra pilot leaves the fight but snaps a quick picture as he leaves. 2nd platoon M60 along with the CO fail a blitz move. The move but cant see the T-72s yet. The M113s move into a small wooded area for cover-1 bogs down. 1st platoon M60 (2) fire at the Storms and KIAs 2 of them. A BMP-2 is hit by a copperhead round and true to form for Josh tonight, only bails it. The 2 ITVs fire at the BMP-2s as well and miss twice.

Russian:
The BMP-2 pass morale but the bailed one will not remount. The lone storm also rolls a 5 and passes morale. Also I roll a 5, and 2 for reinforcements so another-the last T-72 company (5) arrive. The 1st T-72 company moves and fires at the 1st platoon M60 and KIAs 2 M60s. The storm fires at the only 1st platoon M60 it can see and bails it. The Russian CO has a shot at the same M60 and bails it again-the M60 fails its remount and is abandoned. The last unbailed BMP-2 moves toward the FIST M113 and shreds it.

Turn 3

US:
The 2 M60 platoons ( both with only 1 tank each ) pass morale. The lone M60 from 1st platoon falls back and fires at the BMP-2 that got the FIST-it rips it apart. 2nd platoon M60 and the CO move back and manage to KIA 2 T-72s and bail 1. The M113 try to pass a blitz-fail, but make a run toward the US objective. His VADS (2) move to the edge of the roadway ( I will overlook these-again) and The ITVs fire at the remaining Storm and bail it.

Russian:
The BMP-2 scouts and the last remaining SA-9 unit arrive from reserve. The bailed BMP-2 fails morale (lost a unit) The Storm somehow passes morale again but wont remount. The T-72 remounts and they attack the M113s-they turn 2 of them to scrap metal, also killing 1 team. The second T-72 company fires at the US CO and the remaining 2nd platoons M60 and misses. The Russian CO manages a good shot and wastes the last 1st platoon M60.

Turn 4
US:
The infantry from the bailed M113 is unpinned. They move toward the Quick-E-Mart (slushies!!!) The M113s move to the objective and fire at the Scout BMP-2s and bail 2 of them. The CO and athe last M60 move back and KIA another T-72. The ITVs fail a blitz move but move to the grove of trees. I overlooked the VADS and they dash to within 6 inches of the objective. Arty KIAs an infantry team on the Russian objective.

Russian:
The BMP-2 scouts pass morale, and even better-both remount. The scouts shred another M113 and bail another. All infantry teams survive. The Storm remounts fires at the rear of the vads-misses. The COs T72 fires at the rear of the VADS and misses as well. The 1st T-72 company attacks the 2 US infantry teams in the open-the law sucks-and overrun both teams. The 2nd T72 company KIAs the last M60 from 2nd platoon.

Turn 5
US:
The last M113 fails morale. The US CO flame broils a T-72 and bails another. The ITVs bail another T-72. The infantry team (1) captures the Quick-E-Mart. The VADS (2) fire at the BMP-2 scouts (Josh rolled a bucket of dice) and gets 1 KIA. Arty fires at the Russian tankers but fail to range in!!!!

Russian:
The T-72 1st company passes morale but fails to remount. The Russian COs T-72 turns a VADS into a flameball. The Storm repeats this for the other one. 1 US infantry team is torn to shreds and the M60 CO is eliminated. Josh retreats with his arty and ITVs and a solitary infantry team surrenders.

The fight was over really by turn 3. The fact that I got reinforcements on each turn made the battle a lot easier than it looked. We were both surprised by the 10 T-72s showing up before turn 3. This is a tough battle for the attacker when playing lower point values. It's even tougher when all reinforcements arrive by turn 4!!