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Firestorm: Stripes

The Team Yankee Global Campaign

Scouts Out in Rosenthal

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Warsaw Pact
Tovarishch Vilgelm
VS British
kayjay

After its rough handling by the BAOR in recent days the 68th Guards MRR’s remnants were pulled north to Brandenburg Sector for a complete refitting only to find NATO forces everywhere. Sending its recon company, consisting of its wheeled (BRDM2) and tracked (BMP2) platoons forward (the motorcycle section was retained at RHQ), accompanied by a scratch MRB (three small MRCs, one cobbled-together TC and some combined arms sections), they ran into a British reconnaissance squadron at the small town of Rosenthal about 10 km south of Brandenberg. Orders arrived almost immediately to seize the place to provide the necessary staging point for the 68th‘s breakout to the northeast.

We picked the Recon in Force scenario from the quick missions booklet and as the dice would have it, I (Soviet) was the attacker so I deployed first and moved first. Note: All photos were taken from the south, looking north.

The table was set up based on the tactical map below. Note in the photos, due to my primitive battlefield photography, the hill contours are almost invisible. If you squint and tilt your head slightly to the left you can see them, though.

27th Guards MRD
The Rosenthal Region showing route of approach
Battle area around Rosenthal. 1 square is 3" across and red dotted lines indicate contours.

Deployment

This is where things got complicated. We both misread the spearhead rules – there’s an important final paragraph (page 71, last paragraph under Spearhead in TY) we – or at least I – managed to miss completely. It says objectives outside one’s deployment zone are treated as enemy teams for deployment. As a result we set the game up twice, once (1st picture below) with Soviet deploying all forces and the game ending at the start of the 1st Soviet turn because I already controlled the center and two other objectives, then again, with each side alternating unit deployment (2nd picture below), the game again ending with the same three objectives at the start of the Soviet first turn.

So we took the deployment rule for the scenario (all forces within 12” of the corner) literally, not using the spearhead rule, squeezing all forces into 133 square inches on our table corners in the odd-looking deployment in the third picture below. The red dice in the southwest don’t mean anything – they simply marked the boundaries of the Soviet deployment area.

Both sides wound up making use of the Rosenthal branch of the German Valet Parking company (out of Dusseldorf – see https://www.gvp-dus.de/) to stage our forces into the tight deployment spaces.

The British force was a reconnaissance squadron – I don’t know its lineage but there were two mech platoons in FV432s, one in Spartans, a platoon each of Scimitars and Scorpions (which are going to the top of my dislike list, beating out the usual Milan section), a Milan section, a Swingfire section, a Spartan MCT section, and a troop of two Chieftains. I think that’s everybody – your eyes may be better than mine when examining the pictures…

I can’t say either side was really deployed – rather, they were squeezed into their deployment areas.

Note – the mass of Soviet infantry on the west side of the table were not there – they were still mounted but I got (after the first two deployments) tired of putting ‘em out and picking ‘em up again! And the poor BRDMs were simply forgotten. Which is just as well, given the tight quarters. They were considered to have been deployed on the road just off-table to the southwest.

First false start
Second false start
Deployment
Soviet Parking Lot
BAOR Parking Lot

Turn 1

The Soviet forces advanced and spread out, deploying one MRC from its BMPs and bogging down four BMPs, but taking objectives 1 and 3. The BRDM2 recon platoon was, with my oppo's agreement, allowed to enter from just offboard to the southwest.

The British moved forward, taking objectives 4 and 5 but bogging down several vehicles. In the process a Scorpion blew up a BRDM2. More critically, a large infantry platoon was positioned in front of objective 5, positioning it to assault Rosenthal.

Turn 1 end

Turn 2

One of the BRDM2/AT5 teams blew up a Chieftain; the other tank failed morale and fled. All other fire, including that from the Hind section, was ineffective; the Soviet infantry from another MRC deployed, with both dismounted companies moving into Rosenthal overlooking the town square and more importantly, controlling the center objective 3. The BRDMs attempted to move into the eastern woodline to flank objective 5 but two of three bogged down so they didn’t get very far.

The British continued forward, engaging the T-64s with Swingfire fire and destroying two (fortunately the third one passed morale), their Scorpions destroying three of four BMPs on the south-central wood line (again, the survivor passed morale), six Milan teams (they’re back on my list) shooting a Hind down (the survivor passed morale), and more Milans killed one of the AT5/BRDM teams; this time the survivor failed morale and fled the battlefield (MVD troops rallied them south of the battlefield and delivered them to the MRHQ for debriefing). The infantry in front of objective 5 attacked into the Soviet-held building on the northern corner of Rosenthal (the one with a large red die turn indicator on its roof) but lost two stands and were driven back after a failed counterattack roll.

Turn 2 end

Turn 3

The game ended at the start of Soviet turn 3 with the Soviet force in control of objectives 1, 2 and 3, giving the Soviet side a 5-2 victory.

Comments and Lessons Learned

Already noted problems with set-up in this scenario – more careful reading of the spearhead rules would have taken care of this.

Our deploying only in our 12” deployment zones probably opened things up a bit, given the presence on each side of two spearhead units (BRDMs and BMP recon for the Soviets, Scorpions and Scimitars for the British).

The first player has a real advantage in this scenario because due to the presence of roads and high movement rates, the first player can occupy at least three objectives during the first turn. This likely mitigated, at least to an extent, our not using the spearhead rule.

The Old March

No funeral dirge this time! Instead, a slightly more upbeat Soviet-era march signifying the advance to victory…

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Warsaw Pact
Tovarishch Vilgelm
Wins

7 Comments

  • recce103c says:

    very nice AAR – hard fight

  • Jagdpanzer says:

    yes you need to read the rules on this one for the second player to have a chance, its pretty tough to be honest, why I dont play this one any more, its not really fair. But you did not know that

  • PanzerGrau says:

    Congrats on the victory comrade. Great report. Thanks for posting.

  • Tovarishch Vilgelm says:

    Bayankhan: I agree completely. Kudos to kayjay for putting up with it!

  • Red Alert says:

    +++

    Urrah!

    Well done Comrade and a top report!

  • Davehodo says:

    Well done. Congrats
    …now To the Rhine!!!

  • bayankhan says:

    Good battle. The only way the second player in this scenario has a chance is if the spearhead rule is in effect, particularly with roads leading from a deployment area to the objective zone. Used correctly, of course, then both players start much closer to the objectives, but at least player 2 has the opportunity to rush the objectives already contested by player 1. Good report, Comrade