Firestorm Turn 4 Overview

Firestorm: Bagration Campaign Turn 4 The campaign has come to its final turn. The Soviets made a last desperate assault to reach Minsk and the surrounding cities.  In short, the Soviets assailed and won all the frontier towns. The Germans, however, kept the important territories keeping the Soviet thrust on Minsk completely out of supply. Turn 3 Overview... Battle For Minsk...   Turn 4 Documents  Battle Reports for Turn 4 ... German Status Report - Generalfeldmarschall K. Henry ... Soviet Status Report - Marshal C. Townley ...

Firestorm: Bagration Turn 4 Progress

With the end of the campaign in sight, the Soviet players had to make as many gains as possible, specifically the German-held cities. At the end of turn three the Soviets took advantage of the Exploitation rule (see right) and exploited from Chausy, capturing the unoccupied territory of Gorki. This gave them another avenue of assault on Orsha.  The German forces did not have any exploitation moves to make as they were defending as much as they could!  (Continued below)

Exploitation Moves With the hundreds of miles of front line to cover, it is hard to guard it all against incursions. Fast units, like tanks and mechanised infantry are specifically tasked to exploit small gaps in the enemy lines. In Firestorm, at the end of each Campaign Turn a few Firestorm Troops (like medium tanks and mechanised infantry) may capture territories that are left empty by the opponent. This helps keep the front a little fluid and commanders have to think strategically before leaving critical territories open for the taking!

The Soviets started Turn 4 with joint assaults in the middle and in the south at the cities of Mogliev and Bobruisk. General Townley's orders were to avoid assaulting Berezino and Bykhov because the Germans had a heavy concentration of Tiger and Panther Firestorm troops holding the territories.

Concerning Firestorm Troops... Please pardon the interruption of the Weekly Report for just a moment while we talk about Firestorm Troops. As you may have gathered from the Staff Campaign, there are small pieces that make their way across the Firestorm campaign map. These small tokens, called Firestorm Troops, provide support for your Flames Of War army in the form of free platoons. For example, a Panther Firestorm Troop will add a platoon of two Panther tanks to your force. You can take up to two bonus platoons in this way to help your army fight through the battle. For example, below is the detail sheet on the Tiger Firestorm Troop. As you can see, it tells players where it begins the campaign and how it reinforces your company.

Of course, you are also responsible for taking care of these reinforcements! At the end of the game there is a chance that the Firestorm Troop will have to be sent to the rear to rest and refit depending on how well you did in the game.  The Firestorm—Bagration Campaign uses the following Firestorm Troops:

Moving Firestorm Troops Around the Map At the beginning of each Campaign Turn the commanding generals of both sides have a chance to move their Firestorm pieces around the board before the games are played. Pieces can move one territory each turn unless they are on a rail line in which case they can move anywhere within their territory along the rail. With the forces moved the players now play their games, choosing which territories to attack from and what Firestorm troops to bring along. They choose which Firestorm Troops to commit to their battle and place them on their Battle Arrow which marks their battle on the Campaign Map. When battles are won players can move their troops into the newly captured territories, thus keeping pieces moving forward.

Back to Turn 4... The Soviets also managed to finally capture Zhlobin, extending their supply line all the way to Minsk, but a cunning German counterattack from Bykhov severed the connection, leaving the final assault in a precarious situation! At this point the Soviets managed to gather 270 victory points to the German's 200 victory points. But the battle is far from over! With the cities captured and the objective (Minsk) in sight, General Townley prepared his Soviet generals for the victorious charge. Meanwhile General Henry rallied his German defenders and prepared their defences. The Battle for Minsk was about to be decided!  Although the Soviets made it to Minsk during the turn, we decided to fight the battle as massive multiplayer game the following week. We'll have a report on how that battle went next week!