Firestorm: Stripes

This was a 125 point battle. We used Battle Plans to decide this mission. I chose Attack while my opponent chose Manoeuvre. He rolled and we got encounter, with myself being the attacker and him being the defender. I roll for the Time of Day but end up with Daylight. I chose to deploy my HQ, two Tank PLT, my Anti-tank PLT, and my A-10s. My opponent deploys his HQ, a T-72 Tank COY, Carnations Artillery BAT, BMP-1 OP, Gopher SAM PLT, and BMP-2 Scout PLT. I won the roll for the first turn.

Due to Meeting Engagement, I'm not able to call in my A-10s. Third PLT advnaces at Dash speed toward the artillery and sams. Second PLT engages the T-72 company to their front, bailing one destorying another. HQ unit takes shots at the T-72s, destorying one each.

The Carnations fire at Third PLT, but not able to damage the advancing tanks. The T-72s Second PLT, destroying two tanks and bailing another. They run. BMP-2s fire at the HQ unit, destroying my XO. Second PLTs reaming active tank runs for it while the bailed out crew scuttles theirs. Luckily I have nine units, so this doesn't hurt my victory points.

The Soviets attempt to use the Shoot and Scoot order with his T-72s and BMP-2s, only the T-72s passing.

I roll for my strike aircraft, getting them. I place them to engage the T-72s rear armor with guns. I move third platoon up to contest the OBJ and engage the carnations and gophers. The CO moves out of his position to engage the T-72s side armor.

Third platoon completly kills off the gophers and carnations. the A-10s go for the kills but are shot down by the T-72s AAMGs! the CO fires, killing one and bailing another.

The BTN Commander attempts to move and contest the objective but fails his cross-check, bogging down in the woods. The T-72s move to get shots on the American commander now out of position, scoring a hit and knocking out the tank. A BMP takes a long shot and the FIST but misses the well-concealed vehicle.

At the start of the turn, I am holding the objective with my Third PLT and they are uncontested, winning the game.

This was a 4-3 Victory for me and a rather disappointing one at that. We both brought basically everything we owned and only got to use half of it in a quick game. Because of this, we agreed to do another game later and having the big battle we've been waiting for.

I believe my opponent's deployment hurt him the most. I knew he wanted to bring the Carnations out as an attempt to follow Soviet doctrine, but I don't think he was prepared for my sudden blitz to the OBJ. Still a well-played game that looked pretty dicey for a bit there!