Firestorm: Stripes

My game against GHJ was actually Round 2 of the Victorian Team Yankee Championship held at Conquest (Melbourne Australia) over the Easter holiday long weekend. GHJ was running two British formations – a Chieftain company and an infantry company.

Unfortunately there were only three WarPac players at the Conquest Team Yankee competition and this resulted in a number of NATO vs NATO games.

Having played GHJ and his British on a couple occasions, I have found that this list works very well in defence – in fact the only time I have had any success in the past has been when the British have been forced to get on the move & attack. (Lesson learned – try not to attack the dug in British!  )

Missions were selected using the More Missions scenario selector – figuring that the British would try to push home their natural defensive advantage, I chose “Defend” as my mission posture & was rewarded when my Opponent also chose “Defend”. The Mission rolled was “Free For All” & the cherry on the cake was when I was given the option to roll on the time of day table with “Dusk” being the result.

Credit to GHJ – given a scenario and the pending darkness of the coming night, he deployed forward aggressively with his Chieftains and an infantry platoon on one side – to make best use of the terrain to position himself in a position to threaten the objective on my right flank. My scout platoons & M1IP took up defensive positions hidden out of line of site behind terrain features waiting until darkness. The Chieftains on my right flank swung out wide to open up fire lines on my small M1IP Abrams platoon and were able to brew up a tank. Return fire engaged & destroyed the Chieftains on this flank & I withdrew further behind the terrain on this side of the battle field and a stalemate ensued while I remained out of line of sight of the Millan Teams until night fell.

On the left flank, the British Swingfires moved forward supported by a platoon of infantry. The Chaparrals I had positioned close to the left Objective moved with great haste away from this oncoming threat and my larger M1IP tank platoon and a scout section moved to intercept slowly grinding the infantry & Swingfires with the (many) subsequent rounds of fire. (Twenty minute warning was announced by the Tournie Organiser at this stage)

With the coming of night I moved up my Abrams platoons together (and with a couple of luck blitz moves for the scout ITV teams) was able to concentrate fire to eliminate the remaining Chieftains.

To door was now open for my Abrams to advance on the British objectives. I moved my smaller M1IP tank platoon up to the objective at Dash speed. Only four Rapier units stood between me and Victory….that is when the Tournie Organiser announced Time

Congratulations to my opponent GHJ. Well done & well played – a tough scenario in which he held on tenaciously.