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Firestorm: Stripes

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Blunting the Spearhead

80 POINTS
West German
Jagdpanzer
VS Warsaw Pact
Moskva

So my friend Sean and I are a little late starting, sorry life got in the way. We are both a bit rusty, him more than me, and we both wanted to see how the new Soviet T-64 handled vs the Leopard 2. We did 77 pt lists each and I had 7 Leopard 2 while he had 14 T-64s.

We played the standard mission, pitched battle, we both set up and Soviets had the “honour” of going first. AS an aside, I find that whoever wins the roll off should choose, not get to go first, in many cases you do not want to go first. But that’s just a little criticism I have of Flames, one of my few.

West German Forces

Soviet T-64 Company preparing for assault

We were fighting over the rolling hills of the Ruhr countryside, perfect tank fighting country

Soviet Turn 1

Soviets got first turn, the T-64 on the right flank with attached HQ moved up behind the cover of the forest, hoping to get closer to the larger Leo II platoon without attracting fire. The 2nd T-64 platoon, with songsters, successfully pulled off a blitz to get into cover in the field to try to move up vs the smaller Leo 2 platoon.

West German try top form a quick "Fire-sack" on the larger T-64 platoon

West German - Turn 1

So I saw in the first turn how great the 40" range is on the Leo 2. The smaller platoon did a blitz ( I don't know why I didn't need to, as I still have ROF 2 if I move....), and it felt good to only need a 3+, and trained all guns at the T-64s in the field. The larger Leo II platoon with HQ could move near the forest and still just hit a few on the T-64s in the field. With such a long range they can really surprise your opponent, like they did here......

After all the fire, which was fairly average, there was 6 hits, which resulted in 2 brewed up T-64s, and one which was bailed twice, but passed his morale. Still a decent round of shooting

Soviet Turn 2

Soviet Turn 2 - Right flank pushes up, left flank consolidates in the field

The Bailed tank on the left flank bravely got back in, and the right flank moved up, getting a few shots in the rear of the larger Leo 2 platoon. Unfortunately only 1 hit on the rear and with a 1 for firepower, it only bailed the Leo 2. They were hoping for better!

T-64's tried to catch the Leo 2's in the rear, they need to work on their aim!!

West German - Turn 2 - Panzers in the rear!

HQ platoon wheels to engage while covering their wounded tanker
2nd Leo 2 platoon, fires kills 2 then scoot and shoots down
The Aftermath!!! lots of coffins for 3 brothers!!!!

So this WG Turn really highlights how devastating the Leopard 2 can be. They killed 2 on the right flank and successfully passed a scoot and shoot to drop back and not be engaged in the next round. The 3 on the other flank against the 7 T-64s, hit 6 times, blew up 5 and bailed the other. Now this was with great rolls and poor armour saves from the T-64s, but I moved within 16" to make sure I got the best penetration possible.

Soviet Turn 3 - Things are not looking good!

Things are not good, Platoon 1 flee's leaving the HQ to fare for himself
the smaller T-64 platoon goes for broke and tries to close the distance

So things went from bad to worse, the bailed T-64 on the flank, did not get back in, which mean they needed to do a good spirits check, which they failed twice.... So they ran off leaving their Captain to fight the 3 Leo 2 by himself, surely with the power of Marxism he will prevail...????

The smaller T-64 platoon decided to go forward and close the distance to try to negate the advantage of the Leo 2, they passed a successful blitz to be able to move on the hill and get a shot on them. Which they preceded to fail miserably, all they needed was a 4......

Well thats not good

West German - Turn 3 - Finish him!

The Leo 2 HQ moves up to ask for the surrender of the Soviet Commander, he refuses!
Rolling to hit on the right, and i missed, all but one, and he saved

So the WG HQ moved up to ask for the surrender of the Soviet commander, it was surely hopeless, he can have a good life in the West. He refused and moved his turrent to fire, so regrettably we had to destroy him. So sad these soviets, brainwashed.....

On the right, they were overconfident and missed all their shots.....

Soviet Turn 4 - The end, or is it?

The complacent Leo 2's lose a squadmate

So with no HQ and only 1 platoon they should have automatically failed good spirits, but we decided to keep going, to teach the lazy Leo 2 platoon a lesson. The T-64s flanked the Leo 2s, who had not even moved, so confident they would have wiped them out. The T-64s showed typical soviet accuracy, but still killed one. That is a costly lesson that hopefully they will learn, the most dangerous enemy is the one with nothing to lose, and their over confidence cost them a Panzer. They will not forget this lesson.

West German - Turn 4

They proceeded to kill all 3 T-64s, finishing the action, and had successfully stalled the Soviet push, but only for today. Tomorrow they will return, but in greater numbers......

After-action Discussion

So I still think tank on tank the Leo 2 is king, but it will always be a costly battle, and they cant take the loses. I was lucky in this battle and with just Tank on Tanks, the extra range, skill value,ROF and AP of the Leo 2 outclasses almost everything except maybe for the new M1AI ( i think thats it?).

I think the T-64 is a great tank, the adv stabilizers and AP really help it, as does the longer range of the songster. In our next battle you will see how it is useful to engage tanks that were previously just out of range in the T-72.

This was reasonably quick so we had another battle. Will put it up later. But we swapped sides to see how the terrain affected it

Id like to hear your thoughts below.

This is basically how the Leo 2 should be engaging alot, pop up kill it, pop back, rinse and repeat!

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West German
Jagdpanzer
Wins

21 Comments

  • Cryofrost says:

    Fine AAR jagd, and a win at that.
    its always a treat, to see Leopards being used well.

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Interesting point HMS Belfast, didn’t think about taking multiple small platoons.

  • Red Alert says:

    +++

    These are interesting games, we ran a series last Firestorm with MBT only, the Soviets lost most battles, but that was T-72 only. The T-64 is just a little bit more expensive but has better armor and mobility. We might take a re-run this week. It gives a very good feel for the MBT-s and this is where the Leo 2 excels, in a target rich environment where his superiority is very useful.

    Nice write up.

  • recce103c says:

    Courageous formation you took there 🙂

    Good AAR and we need the successes!

    6 more like these please 🙂

  • HMS_Belfast says:

    In a tank-on-tank engagement, clever use of 3-strong T64s will mean the Germans are outmatched on every front.

    You can have 3×3 units in the formation + 1 as a divisional asset getting 1+12 T64 for a mere 6+(13×4) 58 points and there is no way the Leopard IIs can contend with this.

    Of course you will bleed platoons like mad, but hoping for 6-1 wins in the nuclear age is wishful thinking.

  • M. Nisbet says:

    Good to see you take the field, freund. And a win for a Leo 2 company too.

  • Harald Knauer says:

    Quite the turkey shoot, nice to see some Leopard 2s in action!

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    but it would have been the same result

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Lol, nope, played it wrong, oh well, too much V4

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Hey Oberst, I think I played it right, you test for Good spirits at the start of the turn, after you remount, not at the end of the phase. and the HQ was not chosen to be with the platoon for that roll, for the reason, if he failed he would go as well. Your HQ i think still gives you the re roll for morale/remount ( i think, i have been playing alot of V4 MW recently).

    So the T-64 guy rolled to get back in, failed, then the platoon failed its good spirits, re roll with HQ within 6″, failed again then ran. But I used the platoon morale value, not the HQ value. AS if I had joined him like you said, and failed twice. everyone would have ran.

    Ill check the rules, i think I did it right?

  • Captain Spuds says:

    80 points I think is pretty much the sweet spot for this game, nice report.

  • PEIPER says:

    Glad to have you back Kommandant!

  • Mask404 says:

    Nice video !

  • Klute says:

    Well Done Commander!

  • Oberst Hunts says:

    Well done on this battle. The dice were rolling in your favor. Just a couple questions? How did the T64 platoon fail their motivation twice? If the commander jumped in to help with his roll and failed, I believe he runs with them. Second question is on the morale test. You test morale after shooting and then try and remount. Is that what you did?

    Keep on winning boss.

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Agree Bayankhan, I think that it work if probability works, and usually it does, but what does Han Solo say, never tell me the odds!!!

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Yes I thought it was going to be more even, the dice helped, good for me and bad for him, but the Leo 2 is just a monster. But I think against T-55s for lots of BMPs they just cant kill enough. I sort of expected it to turn into more of a knife fight

  • bayankhan says:

    I put my money on T64s. In point of fact, I have done exactly that. Remember the T64 and Leo II are also prey of attack helicopters, artillery barrages, ATGM. You burn one of my T64s with a missile, I’m down 4.33 points. I burn one of yours with a Spandrel, you are down 11. I survive intact 1/3 of the time and you survive intact 1/2 the time. I think the math speaks for itself.

  • Kubikhan says:

    As for tank on tank comparisons, I have to give it to the T-64 for mobility and price. 2-1 is hard odds to beat.

  • Kubikhan says:

    Congrats Herr General, and and an interesting test of our forces. You had me pulling my mustache there for a bit, but all’s well that ends well!

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    Please let me know what you think RE the T-64 and Leo 2