USMC Rifle Company vs East German Infantry in Encounter

A TOW platoon commander covers the advance of the M60s

My second game of the Kingston Gaming Nexus' 64 point Team Yankee tournament was against Dean and his East German and Russian force. The tournament was using the battle plans and more missions  so once again I decided to go all in and attack. Dean elected to manoeuvre which meant I was attacking and we rolled Encounter.

Big Willie's USMC Rifle Company
OC
Full Rifle platoon with 2 x dragons, 2 x SMAWs in Amtracks
Short Rifle platoon with 2 x dragons, 2 x SMAWs in Heuys
2 x TOW
2 x TOW
5 x M60s
3 x M109s with bomblets and mines
4 x Stingers
2 x Harriers

Dean's East Germans
OC
Small Rifle platoon with all the crew served weapons
Small Rifle platoon with all the crew served weapons
4 x Shlikas
3 x Carnations

Allies
OC in T72
3 x T72
3 x T72

Set Up and Turn 1

East German objectives are behind the cops of trees bottom centre and top right just off camera. USMC objectives are by the stream top centre and just off camera centre left

East Germans holding the objective with Dean keeping a close eye on his troops

M109s picked the right place to register their guns before the battle

Turn 2-3

TOW cover the advancing M60s who take out some East German infantry

USMC start digging out the East Germans (I learned in this game that USMC small arms only have a range of 12" (unlike FoW where everything is 16"), so you will see these stands come back in later shots)

M60s continue to hammer the dug in East Germans

Turn 4

M60s continue to trying to dig out the East Germans

Turn 5

M60s are still digging....

Turn 6

The Shilkas come out from hiding and 2 are promptly destroyed by dragon fire. On the right flank a platoon of T72s arrive from reserves only to be knocked out by TOW and M60 fire

Harriers add their weight of fire against the dug in infantry

Turn 7

T72s arrive from reserve and knock out an M109

Leathernecks guard the objective from the approaching T72s

Marines arrive from reserve conducting an air assault on the the objective

So I'm not sure I really understand how the helicopter transport rules work and if they make sense.At first I thought that they stayed in the air, but apparently they land at the end of the movement step. The significance is that less guns can shoot at helicopters that remain in the air but passengers are automatically killed if the bird is shot down. I still this that troops should be able to exit a helicopter on the turn it lands with a successful follow me order. Because neither of us were able to secure the others objective we both lost which meant our battle scores were 3-1 respectively. Dean was a save throw machine and I failed to bring enough firepower to bear on either objective. I think next time I will look to conduct an assault earlier.