Firestorm: Stripes

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Major Bezuprechnny looked out over the field. It was far more open than he was comfortable with. Facing off the dreaded British Death or Glory Boys was going to be tough. Fortunately the Brits were moving into position still and he had caught them before they had time to get into position properly.
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Against the protestations of his NVA comrade Knispel, he had sent the T55s along with his supporting T64’s against what intel told him was the weaker flank.

In the centre the Motor Rifles were dismounted and were rushing forward. On his right, he had assigned the nine BMP’s of one dismounted company to rush the enemy positions, backed up by Spandrel and Hail fire. In the centre Storms provided covering fire overseeing the Scout BMP unit which in turn was supporting the four BMP’s of the understrength company.

It was going to be a tough fight.

Intel indicated ten Chieftains split into a single vehicle HQ of a Stillbrew Chieftain and three troops of three Stillbrew Chieftains, backed up by two Swingfire and two Tracked Rapier as well as four recon Scorpions.

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Viktor Bezuprechnny was feeling glad the Krokodils were on standby this day. It could be very painful to run into those damned SAM’s and he could see this becoming a priority for the dismounted infantry in his force.

As he gave the order to move out, a sudden cracking sound came from the hill in the centre. Chieftains ! On the hill, how predictable.

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The screams of two of the T64 crews shocked him as the net was full of panicked voices. A third T64 was immobilised with a damaged track. Shockingly the fourth of his tanks abandoned their vehicle, leaving a gap where he had previously enjoyed strong tank forces.
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The NVA would be on their own without the heavy hitters of the Stavka. Nearby most of a unit of Recon BMP2’s erupted into flames. The survivor fortunately seemed unaffected.

Two of a unit of three T55’s also burst into flames while out of nowhere peered two Swingfires and a command Chieftain which altogether had made a mess of.
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At the left front of the battlefield, the NVA had spotted movement. The sneaky British recon Scorpions attempted to engage but succeeded only in damaging some Shilkas. Unfortunately further fire from Chieftains took out the balance of the Shilka units.

In frustration, Viktor slammed his gloved fist against the BMP2 command vehicle. This wasn’t proceeding well. Somehow the enemy had taken out the SA13 supports as well.

“Radio operator, get your Mongol ass over here”

“Yes Comrade Major !” the sweating panicked conscript stammered out.

“I have a plan. Tell Stanilov with his nine BMP’s and Dalinksy with his four BMP2’s to each engage a flank of those Chieftains. Let’s see how well their side armour copes with Mother Russia’s 30mm APDS rounds”

Stanilov didn’t flinch upon hearing the orders. Just nodded and waved his coloured flags. Those swinish capitalists wouldn’t intercept his orders ! Hopping forward, the nine BMP2’s crunched into higher gear and accelerated forward.

Looking to his left, Stanilov saw Dalinsky’s command burst out of the centre of the field and rush towards the now-hostile hilltop.

further along the field, Viktor shook his head in frustration as the NVA T55’s surrounded the survivors of the Scorpion unit, pouring ineffectual shots into the tangled copse of trees. Idiot Germans.

Fortunately the two clumps of infantry had spurred forwards, eager to be the ones to take out the despised Chieftains.

While the British focussed on extremely poor long range gunnery into the T55’s on the left flank, Viktor was made aware of the loss of two of the three Spandrels on the right.

Using this distraction, Stanilov’s BMP’s tore round the flanks, having correctly guessed the enemy’s locations. A tearing sound of chattering 30mm cannons heralded the dying throes of two troops of Chieftains. Some vehicles had lost tracks and others had seen their Leyland engines holed by autocannon fire.

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This was too much for the British tankers. The third troop desperately poured fire down from the hilltop, seeing destruction of six of the nine BMP’s Stanilov had brought to the party. Too little too late, thought Dalinsky as he ordered his troops to pour Spandrel fire into the British tanks. The Stillbrew armour held on some vehicles but then the Krokodils arrived.

On the left flank, the Storms accounted for the Squadron commander while a unit of T55’s took down the Swingfire. It was left to the infantry to volley RPG’s into the Tracked Rapier as the Krokodils flew overhead.

Viktor smiled, he would be owing both Stanilov and the Mi24 Krokodil commander a bottle of vodka each after this fight was over. Which it almost was by now.

The way to the Ruhr heartland was wide open.

***
We played a Free For All as Charles is still learning. in total I lost the following :

T64 unit
Shilka Unit
SA13 unit
2 T55 tanks
9 BMP2 (including 3 recon)
2 Spandrel vehicles.

Charles lost all his vehicles (as noted above) other than 2 surviving Scorpions.