Hi guys,
Another game played last week. To cut a long story short, Chris and Ian have ganged up on me, with Ian and I fighting too and fro through the mountains, while Chris has struck at the defensive post right outside my forward base - lose this, and I can kiss all my progress so far goodbye. . .
Chris soon found himself setting an army opposite a very large armoured bunker (requisitioned from our SST terrain - it had the right 'presence', I felt). And he wasn't taking any prisoners - the PLA had decided to bring an Armoured force, backed up by a couple of snipers and a J-12 fighter.
For my part, I managed to hide pretty much everything behind bunkers and foxholes, losing only one machine gunner in the first turn to a crack shot from a sniper. His three Type 99 tanks proved fairly miserable, with each rolling a 1 on their big guns - perhaps the Chinese crews had forgotten to load the guns before firing?
The European response was swift. SAS snipers positioned in foxholes trotted out the new countersniping rules we have been messing around with (these will be appearing in January's issue of Signs & Portents!). Realising the SAS were likely to outshoot them, the PLA snipers retreated and did nothing for the rest of the game!
Meanwhile, the German Heer infantry squad inside the bunker (allied to a British Army infantry section, and taking orders from the British LT) lined up their Panzerfausts and sent a rain of death down onto the approaching Type 99's. One blew up instantly as it raced for the cover of a rocky outcropping, while another succumbed as the Challenger 2 (with Active Protection System) rolled out and blasted with its main guns. Two Warriors soon followed and began to hunt down the PLA's FAVs and WZ-551 IFVs.
One of the latter soon popped, and infantry started to spread out everywhere, only to be targeted by the Challenger 2's chaingun and GPMG. The main gun lined up on a building known to house snipers and blasted it to its foundations.
We then started to play cat and mouse through the terrain, the Challenger 2 vs. the last Type 99. The duel was resolved when the J-12 made an appearence, dropping a couple of thousand pounders near the British tank, but thankfully they went wide. Just a few seconds later, a Typhoon II from the RAF swung behind the Chinese fighter, and downed it with a couple of well-placed ASRAAMs, before lining up on the Type 99 and delivering a couple of very well placed 1,000 lb. bombs that turned it into smoking scrap.
It was at this point the Chinese started to withdraw as the Warriors raced forwards to cut off their escape. However, the PLA still had some fight left in them, and EQ2050 AA trucks covered the rout by launching a battery of SAMs at the Typhoon II. The pilot heroically avoided all but the last - the missile went right up his tailpipe and sent his craft crashing to the ground.
So, the EFTF had been placed on the back foot but had come out swinging - the PLA will think twice before trying to take advantage of our weakened position and, come next turn, there will be retribution. Oh yes, we shall make them pay.
Before that, however, Ian and I have to resolve our little dispute in the mountains, as the EFTF hunt down MEA resistance fighters. If the Europeans fail, they will have a bloody nose and the MEA will be riding roughshod over their positions. If they succeed, however, though the EFTF will be dangerously overstretched, the MEA will be in danger of having their war effort wiped out altogether, while the PLA will have some serious soul searching to do (I'll suggest they investgate the curiously quiet Oil Fields while the MEA get a pasting. . .
