Team Yankee West Germans: New Toys and New Choices

By Mitch Reed

For those of you who back with me to the WWPD days you should be aware that my first NATO army for was the West German forces from the Leopard book. I dove into building a West German list for a few reasons, I thought it would be a force with a low model count, the Leo 2 was a baller tank and they looked fun to play. Since I collected this force, I have built a lot of other NATO forces and my FRG troops did not get the table time they once did. I wonder if the new units in the new WWIII West German book will change this trend.

Heavy Metal
Team Yankee is a tank game, do not let anyone think other wise and the backbone of almost any list is the MBT. The new Leopard 2A5 joins the new stable of “super tanks” in the game (M1A1, T-80 & Challenger) and by the looks of things it will be the last in the line of these vehicles in the game. The new Leopard is basically the same as the previous version, however its front armor goes from an 18 to a 22 and the side goes to a 13 from the previous rating of 6, you get all this for an additional 6-points per vehicle. The 22 FA of the Leo 2A5 makes most weapons useless against a frontal attack, so these beats will have to be flanked in order to kill them. The top armor is a till a 2, so now artillery becomes a weapon that you can use to deal with the Leo 2A5.

The previous Leo 2 cost 11-points per tank and at that price I had a hard time getting a decent Leo force to the table. You could not get enough tanks to make a force that would not be swamped by an opponent’s swarm army. The good thing about the FRG force design is that in almost all formations you can swap the second platoon in a panzer formation with infantry in Marder IFVs and many players built their forces this way. Even if you do this with the new book you will have a minimum force of three vehicles in a panzer unit, which will cost you a whopping 51-points, ouch.

Taking a three-tank platoon with a panzer grenadier formation may be the better way to go for many players. Which brings me to the new Marder 2 which is a big upgrade from the previous Marder IFV. The new Marder2 has better front armor (6 vice 3) and side armor (4 vice 1) and comes with a either a stock 35mm gun or you can upgrade to the 50mm gun for a point for the entire platoon.Despite these upgrades the platoon is still only 5-stands with 3 MG and 2 Milan stands for the whole unit. What is a great upgrade from the previous Marder is that the Milan teams who are being transported by the Marder 2 can shoot from the vehicle, in the previous version you had to make a pre-game decision to mount the missile on the Marder for the entire game. The new unit is only 3-points more (4 with the 50mm gun) than the Marder 1 unit. Both the Marder 2 and the original Marder platoons can add a Carl Gustav stand for 1 point bringing the platoons up to six stand. The HQ also allows you to bring yet another Carl Gustav stand which makes the unit a little bit bigger. These upgrades are the two biggest in the new book, but does it make the West German’s more playable in the 100-point game? Hard to say if it will, however I felt that mass was very important in the game and these new units take that mass even more away from a force that was always the smallest in the game.

Poor Bloody Infantry
As I stated before the FRG panzergrenadiers were always a small and brittle force. This is one reason why the M-113 unit from the Panzertruppen booklet (which is in the new book) was an option I played around with. The new book expands the West German infantry and gives you some better infantry options for you to choose.

The Gebirgsjager unit is a really good option if you want a good unit that has some size to hold an objective on your backline. With 9 teams (7 MG & 2 Milan) you get a unit that has great stats for 9-points and makes it a good option for a “black box” addition to your force. The unit is on foot, so they will not get anywhere fast and think of them as for defense only.

Many players may like the Fallschirmjager unit, however they are still small (5 MG & 1 Milan) and are airmobile. This may be tempting for some, but heli-borne insertions often do not work well in the game with all of the great AAA out there. You will see this unit a lot, not because it is a great unit but because players will love the Weasel.

Mounting either a TOW missile or a 2cm gun, these little tanks look so cool however to field them you will need to field a whole paratroop unit because the Weasel is not a black box option, so a FJ list can only have a max of 4 TOW and 6 2cm vehicles per formation and you are limited to two formations maximum in the new force chart, so these will not get spammed like the US Hum-Vee vehicle lists.

By Popular Demand
The other new toy in the book is Panzerkanonen, which players were demanding be included in the game. I do not know why any player really wanted this in the game other than to fix their OCD when building a 1970’s FRG force for the game. The AT 16 rating means that these units will not take out much and they are still outclassed by the Jaguar which share the same chassis and rules (Forward Defense) as the Panzerkanonen. The final addition with noting is the MLRS, which is now a choice in most NATO armies.

Looking Ahead
Will this new book mean that my West German forces will no longer be collecting dust? I doubt it, and not because the new book is bad, in fact it is a great book. After years of playing Team Yankee, I was lucky to find my playing style and I prefer mass over a finesse force like the West German’s. I have always felt that the two hardest forces to play in the game are the West Germans and the Soviets and both because of their size. Having success with my Soviets more than any other force it dawned on me that knowing how to play a big force was my sweet spot, which makes me less likely to play my West Germans.

Meta vs. Style
Recently I took out my new BMP-3s and T-80’s at a four-game event and I did not do so well. Despite the FA20 of the T-80, I failed too many armor saves and could not play these tanks aggressively as I prefer. As for the BMP-3, it is now a “must take” unit for me. My rationale is that if I plan to relegate the T-80 as a “maybe take” unit, then the Leo 2A5 would also be in that same category.

A see a lot of people state on social media that they plan to take a small black box super tank unit in their lists just to keep their opponent thinking about the threat. I do not think that too many competitive players will fall for this trick and spending up to 1/3 of your points in a force that plays no role in how you plan to win a game is just a waste.

My Choices
Despite what I stated in this article I do plan to get a few boxes of Leopard 2A5s and Marder 2s, just incase I plan to play with my West German force again. I do feel these new units are best new toys in the game and something that dedicated FRG players will love.