Firestorm Campaign Week 1, Games 1 thru 3

It all started in June of last year. My Friendly Local Gaming Store (FLGS) announced they were hiring and I was in need of some more income. Yes, they do not pay as much as other part-time jobs would pay, but where else was I going to get paid to talk to people about games (board games, miniatures wargames, role-playing games, collectible card games, and tons of accessories for all of the above are what we stock and sell)? Let me tell you - no where. However, this decision has had some side effects, namely that everything on Sundays either fell to the wayside or got moved to Saturdays, as Sunday became one of the days that I was always scheduled to work at my FLGS. My Cyberpunk Red monthly home game moved (mostly) easily to Saturdays (I lost one player directly to the change in weekday, but since then, another player has moved to the East Coast, and another left the game for other reasons, so out of the five original players, I still have two), but my Team Yankee in 6mm games could not, as we were playing at a friend's comic book store and he is closed on Sundays (and happy to make a little money from us for use of the shop) but didn't want to put up with having a game in-store with other customers perusing his wares. Which is why I haven't posted any BatReps for TY since, um, July of last year. {shrug} That's just the way the hobby goes, things change, and in response, you have to Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.

"Why not," you may be asking your screen right now, "just continue playing your 6mm scale TY games at the FLGS?" Which is a good question, and does have a good answer - said FLGS does not carry 6mm scale ANYTHING, so if they're paying me (and expecting me to be a brand ambassador for the Battlefront Games) then I need to push the 15mm scale originals and not talk about the 6mm scale options. I mean, we had already played 6mm at the store a couple of times before, but I was a customer at that time and not an employee. So I agreed to toe the very reasonable company line and while on their clock and in their store, I refrain from mentioning 6mm scale as an option, and have pushed the stock Battlefront 15mm line of minis and terrain. Part of that was figuring out how to get more people playing more often. The previous crew of players in the store were interested more in tournaments, but they had moved on. The players that remained (myself included) were more interested in playing with friends and having fun, not so much the intense heat of competition and winning over everything else. Holding a tournament at the store, while fun in the short term, doesn't fit the bill, but what would work is the old Firestorm campaigns. Back when TY first came out, Battlefront really didn't think it would see a rise in popularity like it has, to the point they put out the first core book, complete with functional (if limited) American and Soviet army lists, and really thought that would be the end of it. Over the next couple of years, they put out books to cover British, West German, and East German forces, plus pamphlets expanding the West Germans, Afgantsy for the Soviets, and include Czechoslovakia and Poland. Then they finally got around to expanded books for both the Americans and Soviets, and to help promote/encourage folks to play with the new books, put out these Firestorm campaigns. Then Battlefront put out a couple of more books, changed the rules slightly and released a version 2 of them, and re-released all of the books previously printed, and added on Nordic Forces and Oil Wars. Oh, and a Red Dawn homage that I wrote a lot about as it didn't have really good National Guard options in it. Hugely popular, one would say. 

So here we are, playing the first of the two Firestorm campaigns, named Red Thunder, to go with the Soviet book at the time. We have 6 players, 4 experienced players and 2 newbies. I had originally built an American National Guard Patton list (not one of my experimental lists, just a straight Army M60 Patton list, with the cheapest gear available in the book) but we had 3 NATO players already, so I pulled out an old East German list and joined the Warsaw Pact. As the store organizer for this campaign, I downloaded the materials from Battlefront, poster printed out the map so we could have a bigger version to show off in the store, printed out all the arrows and put them on cardstock (you can't get the cool, die cut cardboard markers that originally came with these kits anymore, so I put them on cardstock to give them a little stiffness), and even printed up all the rules and missions so everyone would have their own copy. Oh, and for myself, while all of the above was going on, I was busy printing everything I could (vehicles and accessories, mainly) on my 3d printer (I have another blog post in the works about that, I will come back and link it when it is done). 

Talking to my fellow WarPact players, we decided a three-pronged attack heading for the biggest clusters of Victory Points (VPs) on the map and came up with the following: Jan would push to Copenhagen with his Soviets by going through Hamburg (North) in the North; Koty would do the classic move and rush the Fulda Gap with his Soviets; and I would push towards Munich in the South with my East Germans. After conferring amongst themselves, the NATO players decided that Mike and Uncle Sam's Misguided Children (US Marine Corps) would try to stop the northern push, Brandon and his Canadians would try to defend the Fulda Gap, and Uriah and his French would try to stem the Volksarmee in the South. All of these games for the first week were to be at 50 points per side. Our map, at this point, looked like this:

Before I dive into my Battle Report (BatRep) for my fight, I'll just give you the TL,DR version. My game against Uriah occurred first, and after a hard struggle, the East Germans won and I pushed thru Niederbayern and into Munich, scoring the first VPs of the game. The other two games occurred simultaneously, the struggle between Brandon and Koty was very hard fought and came down to the wire, with Koty barely squeaking out a win, which he used to push thru Fulda and into Kassel. Mike and Jan, our two newest players, had a hard fight as well (I really like that Team Yankee is balanced enough that you rarely have an early blowout in any game, and it keeps the tension up for both sides, all the way to the last Turn of any game), but Mike came out on top, and when he rolled to see if his Static Defense was enough to push Jan out of Schwerin, he did not make the roll and so the northern salient remained static. As we moved onto placing our next three flags of the offensive - flags 4 and 5 were solidly in the control of the WarPact players, while 6 thru 10, the WarPact must roll for each, and get to keep it if they get a 3 or higher on a d6 - I rolled to see if we kept flag 6 or not... and I got a 6, so we kept flag #6. Jan continued his assault into Hamburg (this is a plan that can't possibly fail twice!), from Kassel Koty assaulted into Giessen, and I continued from Munich into Stuttgard. This week's of games will be at 75 points, so I am busy putting more infantry on bases and getting more things glued and ready for paint as I type this. Our new battle map with new flags and capture tokens looks like this:

Okay, anyone still here for the BatRep and the other pretty pictures? Great, let's get going!

DEPLOYMENT: Uriah picked Counter Attack and rolled a 5 on the chart for Counterattack. I had shown up early and set up the table, attempting to give us a balanced table with both decent cover and room to maneuver. I did okay, but I think I could have added more terrain to the table, as our current group prefers more rather than less terrain pieces. For my 50 points of fun, I brought a T72M Battalion, with some mech infantry, lots of BMPs, and a good amount of support pieces between recon, air, anti-air, artillery, and a spotter. I could definitely have shrunk everything else and put even more T72s onto the table, but I didn't know what Uriah was going to throw at me, so I kept more options in my list, and I think I achieved the "Swiss army knife Zen state" I was going for. Uriah brought some AMX-30s led by one LeClerc MBT, some infantry in AMX-10Ps, and for support, a pair of missile armed VBLs for recon, a group of AMX-10 RCs and a group of AMX-13 DCAs for anti-air. In Reserve, he placed the LeClerc and the AMX-13 DCAs, and in Ambush, he held back his -10 RCs.

The roll and the Mission.

The field of battle, a small rest stop on a back country road.

WarPact right and NATO left. Pardon the blue tank and unfinished Shilkas, work is still progressing.

The center of the field. My OP is either hiding behind the restaurant, or ordering lunch.

WarPact left and NATO right. The VBLs are very fast on roads, but my BMPs are pretty decent across rough terrain themselves. This is all due to Spearhead, as both of our Deployment Zones are in the opposite end of the table.

The WarPact force. I forgot the card for the BMP recon element.

The French force.

The rest of the French, including their Reserves.

TURN ONE: As Attacker, I get to go first. I roll for Strike Aircraft, and that isn't happening, a recurring theme in this game. I drive forward, not balls out, but Tactical moves to try and get guns on as many French Units as I can manage. The T72Ms on the left spring out of cover to lay cannons onto the VBLs, the infantry pile out of their foxholes and into the waiting BMPs at the edge of the woods, the recon BMPs move right to take cover behind the crest of the hill and cover the approaches across the middle of the table, the Shilkas move behind the restaurant (to order lunch as well, good idea, OP!), and the T72Ms on the right side move to the edge of the woods (except for one that Bogs). In Shooting, I kill one of the VBLs (four cannon shots for one hit, go figure), and the one AMX-30 peeking out from around cover on the extreme right (WarPact right, NATO left) of the board. With artillery, I range in on the AMX-30s and infantry but don't get any results from that other than Pinning the French infantry.

Uriah goes and rolls for Reserves, and they arrive just like my Strike Aircraft, not at all. He rolls Morale for the last VBL, and it fails and runs away (can you blame him? there were five T72s bearing down on him). Uriah does manage to un-Pin the infantry, but as they will not move for the rest of the game, kind of a moot point. He pops his Ambushing -10 RCs, bringing them out right in front of the T72Ms on the left (NATO left, WarPact right). He moves everyone else smartly - the remaining AMX-30s wait for the -10P IFVs to move out of the way and then Dash across the back of the field to head for the Objective on NATO left that is now unwatched with the VBLs disappearing off the table. In Shooting, his -10 RCs manage to Destroy one of the T72s to their front while Bailing two others, and then Shoot 'n' Scoots them into cover, in support of the infantry on this side of the table. 

I took how many shots with 125mm cannons to destroy two unarmored recon vehicles?!

WarPact right, giving love to...

...NATO left. AMX-30s have a good gun and good mobility, but armor, not so much.

Last VBL "nope!"d right off the table.

Lots of movement in the middle of the table and the -10 RCs show up and then Shoot'n'Scoot into cover. (ignore the 2 on the dice, sometimes forget to take pictures when I should)

The result of fires from the -10 RCs.

TURN TWO: Start of the Turn, I manage to Remount both Bailed T72s, but still did not get Strike Aircraft onto the table. On my left, I drive towards the now unattended Objective, knowing that the LeClerc and SPAAGs coming out of Reserves to the immediate rear of those tanks would be very uncomfortable. The mounted infantry roar out of the woods (except for one that Bogs... this proves to be fortuitous, but more on that when it comes) and follow the tanks. The recon BMPs stay where they are at, as they are 16" to 48" away from the -10 RCs and the onrushing -10P IFVs, and will commence firing their Sagger missiles momentarily. I maneuver the Shilkas out from behind the restaurant so they can also get shots on the -10 RCs and -10P IFVs. I attempt the Cross Check for the lagging T72M in the woods, but he fails it again and sits out this round. I manage to kill one of the -10P IFVs, put some cannon rounds into the infantry at the edge of the woods, and move my Range In to re-Pin said infantry and do nothing but annoy the -10 RCs. 

Quick note on this - Uriah admitted after the game that he should have, at ANY point in the game, but especially on this Turn, he should have moved the -10 RCs out from cover and done something with them. They were great on the Ambush, but once he got them into cover, he vapor locked and just could not bring himself to put them in danger. And I let him, I had no interest in attacking his infantry or getting my vehicles close enough they could Assault me in return, so I just left those T72s on my right, hammering away at him while my artillery Repeat Bombarded him for the rest of the game. Yes, I had my recon BMPs and Shilkas stay in the area to help mop up his -10P IFVs and -10 RCs, but really, they were hovering closer to the middle to help out with the Reserves whenever they showed up.

Uriah, for his part of the Turn, does manage to un-Pin his infantry, but still not planning to move them, so moot point. He does not get any Reserves, again, even with two dice (and I breathe a heavy sigh of relief). He continues to maneuver the remaining AMX-30s, but they don't manage to penetrate any of my T72Ms on the WarPact left/NATO right Objective. He also moves his -10P IFVs into cover, does not want a repeat of last turn and lose some more of them.

Get used to seeing that BMP in that position, Bogged.

Take that, capitalist dogs!

Not doing much here, just being a mental block.

Ranged In and under fire? You should probably move.

Here come the AMX-30s to little effect.

AMX-10Ps moving away while the fires burn themselves out.

TURN THREE: I maneuver knowing that, at a minimum, Uriah will have the LeClerc on the table at the beginning of his half of the Turn, so everything is in readiness for the arrival of an unwanted proctology exam. I completely forget to roll for Strike Aircraft (I'm a genius!), but do manage to finally pass a Cross Check for the T72 that has fallen behind, and he rejoins his compatriots in the treeline. The infantry-bearing BMP is still Bogged in the woods. On the left (NATO right) I move up the T72s to get better shots at the AMX-30s, and bring forward the BMPs with their infantry loads, though just far enough up that I have cover for when the LeClerc arrives, but not into the line of fire if the T72s don't wipe out the -30s. On the other side of the table, the Shilkas (having no aircraft to worry about) move to put the -10 RCs under fire with the Saggers from the BMP recon element. In Shooting, I manage to wipe out the -30s (whew! one less Unit to deal with), brew up a -10 RC (pretty sure the Shilkas got him before the BMPs could even fire), and then remove two infantry stands between Repeat Bombardment and now four 125mm cannons firing on their positions, re-Pinning the infantry.

Uriah rolls for Reserves and manages to get both the LeClerc and the -13 DCAs. The SPAAGs move towards the center and engage the BMP recon element and the BMP still Bogged in the tree. The LeClerc moves up to start putting rounds onto whatever it can spot, which happens to be the other BMPs with infantry in them. He also moves out the -10Ps, bringing their autocannon to bear on the Shilkas and BMP recon Unit. The Dice Gawds giveth and taketh away in equal measure, but apparently Uriah owed them some money, as even with all of the above weight of fire, he only managed to Destroy the BMP in the woods (but the stand of infantry made their Infantry Save and crouched in the woods, trying not to be noticed) and Bail one of the BMP recon tracks. Yes, the LeClerc, shooting at BMP Side Armor in the open, missed with both shots. 

Finally remembered to take a pic of the Turn counter.

Finally seeing some results on WarPact right.

Yes, my BMP OP has a gun, a 7.62mm MG. No, it can sit there in cover for the rest of the game, it's fine where it's at.

T72s and BMPs move up on WarPact left.

Taking out those pesky AMX-30s.

Reserves arrive and things start happening.

AMX-13 DCAs Destroy one and Bail one BMP.

The LeClerc fires on the BMPs, sending them to Brown Alert.

The AMX-10Ps fire at the Shilkas, to no effect.

TURN FOUR: I again forget to roll for Strike Aircraft, but do Remount the one Bailed BMP. The infantry in the woods remain Pinned following their rude ejection from the burning BMP. The T72Ms on the Objective move just enough to get guns on the -10Ps across the middle and further into cover from the approaching LeClerc, but still be in contention for the Objective once it goes live on Turn Six. The infantry boil out of the BMPs and move to engulf the Objective. Everyone else stays where they are at and Shooting commences. The BMP recon tracks swivel their turrets and unleash a barrage of 73mm cannon fire on the -13 DCAs, Bailing two of the three. The Shilkas and the T72s fire on the AMX-10P IFVs, Destroying the Unit outright. The T72s on the other side of the table fire at the infantry to no effect, but the artillery bombardment finally manages to Destroy one of the -10 RCs. 

Seeing many of his Units suffer destruction, Uriah tightened his resolve and strove to win the only way he could - pry the East Germans off the Objective on NATO right. He kept the LeClerc where it was, not wanting to commit it too far and invite Side Armor shots (the LeClerc's Front Armor is effective even against 125mm cannon fire), but moved the remaining DCA up beside it to give support (after passing the Morale roll at the start of the turn). Again, the Dice Gawds cast Uriah from their sight and even with the addition of the DCA firing at the BMPs, he only manages to Bail one of the three, even with two shots from the LeClerc's mighty 120mm smoothbore and the DCA's high ROF AA guns. Uriah is still vapor locked, and the -10 RCs, which could prove helpful across the table, stay where they are, not shooting at anybody and slowly getting picked off by Repeat Bombardments.

Turn Four has arrived.

The Bailed -13 DCAs.

The T72s have moved out of the way to allow the infantry to move and cover the Objective.

The T72s help by firing on the AMX-10Ps.

Shilkas all alone now that their "friends" have perished.

Arty gets a -10 RC.

The last -13 DCA maneuvers off...

...to not a lot of effect.

Do I have to dig out those last infantry stands? Thankfully, no.

TURN FIVE: I fail to Remount the one Bailed BMP. I un-Pin the infantry in the woods. I finally remember to roll for Strike Aircraft, and miracle of miracles, I get Strike Aircraft for the first and only time this game. I maneuver the T72s on WarPact left to turn around and park themselves, still out of Line of Sight of the LeClerc, directly on top of the Objective. I order the infantry to Dig In and they fail their roll horribly. Oh well, not too long now until I'm done. I shoot again at the French infantry on the woods across the table, and Repeat Bombardment. The Shilkas and BMP Recon charge in after the AMX-10 RCs, managing to Destroy one of the two remaining. Then Strike Aircraft come in - I know the schwerpunkt is the Objective on WarPact left, and even though his only operational AA is there, I still bring in my Fitters right on top of them. His Defensive AA goes off, splashing one of my Fitters, and the other fails to Range In, and flies off to live another day. Oh well, the two of them are only three points, so I'm not too hurt they were totally useless this whole game (doesn't help I forgot to roll for them two rounds, that part is on me).

Then both Uriah and I have a brain fart - the lone infantry stand in the woods is within Assault range of the two Bailed -13 DCAs. In reality, that stand is WWWAAAYYY out of being In Command, and should, now that it is un-Pinned, move smartly and directly to rejoin their Unit. But I didn't realize this until the week after (as I'm typing this, in fact), and admittedly, it had very little effect on the outcome of the game. Plus, it was WWAAYY cooler to have this one lone stand of infantry run across the field, drop a couple of grenades into the two Bailed tanks, and achieve something completely unexpected. Both of us giggling like the young boys we are, playing with our toys, I Assault the two Bailed DCAs with the stand of infantry - 8 inches of move out of the woods, close enough for the Assault, manage to Destroy one with a lucky RPG-18 strike, and then Assault through as there is no one to oppose, Destroying the last one. Success! It was awesome, but now I realize we messed up and it's lost a little bit of its luster. Talking to Uriah, he is still fine with it, it was awesome when it happened, and would not have had enough of an impact on his half of this Turn anyway. 

Uriah gallantly strives to bring this back around, and then the Dice Gawds laugh as both his last remaining DCA and -10 RC fail Morale and scurry off the table. He could have have gotten his DCA and his LeClerc into range to contest the Objective, and started moving his -10 RCs that way as well (or at least brought them out to face down the Shilkas, BMPs, and T72s on that side of the table to keep them from piling on at the Objective as well), but now with basically just five stands of infantry on the far side of the table and one lonely LeClerc close enough to do anything about it, he is admitting defeat, both to himself and out loud. He's not going out without getting some back, and fires the LeClerc's cannon at the BMPs still to his front, Destroying one.

Strike aircraft, so worth it. {end sarcasm}

The successful DCA and unscathed LeClerc.

Woo-hoo! We blew up two empty tanks, er, SPAAGs!

Shilkas and BMPs hammering the -10 RCs.

BMP Recon finally moving from the hill they made their waifu all the way back in Turn One.

DCA said Nope! but the LeClerc gets to blow up one last track before the end of the game.

So did the last -10 RC.

And we go to Turn Six and victory for the East Germans.

TURN SIX: Where we come to the end of our story. The Objectives go live, and as I am the only one contesting one of them, I just have to end my Turn and I automatically win. I do so and shake hands with Uriah.

For the post game analysis, we discuss how the Dice Gawds just completely hated on him, but there were some things that Uriah could have done differently. With his infantry backed up by their transports and the Ambushing AMX-10 RCs firmly on the Objective at NATO right/WarPact left, he could have Deployed his AMX-30s into the woods by the other Objective via the Spearheading VBLs (and also put the VBLs into some cover, like the low wall surrounding the parking lot by the apartment building), and contested my crossing the linear danger area of the road. He could have not brought the LeClerc and instead more AMX-30s, some Strike Aircraft, and/or artillery. One thing to remember, if you don't go first, put everything into cover so deep your opponent has to take very exposed positions to even fire at you, and that you can then move into firing positions with Cover on your Turn. Yes, you can even do that with your ATGM troops with zero Moving ROF, you Blitz them into position. That exposes them the Next Turn to return fire, but at least they're not getting pounded before you even get a chance to do anything with them. 

Do I think my list counts as being a "horde" list? No. Well, not entirely, as I could have dropped all the support and infantry and put out twice as many T72Ms. I could have kept the support and gone with T55AM2s and doubled the number of models I put onto the table. Am I aiming for that in the future? Not really, even the 100 point variant of this list only has 19 T72s on the board with much more infantry and support coming onto the table with them, and even then I'm nowhere near maxed out on number of tanks I could bring in the tank Units. Is there anything I could have done better? Since I went first and would have gotten them away before any Reserves would have shown up, I could have kept my infantry and their BMPs out of the woods in Deployment. Would not have had the awesome option to Assault two Bailed DCAs if I had done that, but I think that was my biggest misstep in the game. That and forgetting to roll for Strike Aircraft on two Turns. In the end, I'm just happy that we had a fun game, and while WarPact is ahead on games right at the moment, I'm more happy that I'm getting my friends out to play a bunch of Team Yankee. The campaign is just that, an excuse to get in a bunch of games, and while winning is usually fun, I'm happier that we're playing regularly, at least for a little while.

Enough for now, hope you enjoyed it. Tune in next week for our second of five weeks of this campaign, and if you can, get out there and roll some dice with your friends as well.