2022 Team Yankee Masters

By Howard West

Photos by Ian Gall, Chris Fretts, Battle Rankings, and Howard West

Team Yankee 2022 Masters was held at Family Time Games located at 8796 Michigan Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46268 on June 25th and 26th, 2022. Family Time Games is a nice gaming store and has a nice stock of both Flames of War and Team Yankee products. They also stock many other Board Games, RPGs, Miniatures, Cards, and other Gaming supplies. Stop and visit the store if you are in the greater Indianapolis area.

Team Yankee Masters is an invitation-only event hosted by Battle Rankings each year in June for the top sixteen players as ranked by Battle Rankings in the United States and Canada. The rankings are based on players’ placements in various Team Yankee Tournaments across the country during that year’s season. The Team Yankee tournament season runs from May 1st the previous year to April 31 of the current year.  Formal invitations were mailed out to the qualifiers in early May. The 2022 Team Yankee Masters Tournament was sponsored by Battle Rankings, Family Time Games, and Battle Front Miniatures Inc.

Background Info for 2022 Masters

Joe Lewis was the TO (Tournament Organizer) for the tournament, Joe is a veteran participant of many Flames of War Masters tournaments and did a great job in running and organizing the previous 2021 and 2020 Team Yankee Master Tournaments. Joe provided the entrants with the following information for this year’s tournament:

When: June 25th & 26th, 2021

Where: Family Game Time – 796 Michigan Rd, Indianapolis, IN 46268

Sign Up Deadline: Saturday, May 7th, 2021

Army Submission Deadline: Saturday, June 11th, 2021

Format: Team Yankee V2, 6 Rounds (2-Days)

Source Books: Oil War, Free Nations, West German, British, American, Soviet, Warsaw Pact.

Tournament Points: 120 points using the normal list build rules except for the following.

Special Rules:

Unit Restrictions: A.) Maximum of one Infantry Unit/Attachment. B.) Maximum of one Aircraft Unit.

MacGuffin Unit – Based on your Nationality, you must include at least one of the following MBT (non-HQ) units.

• American – M1, M1IPM1, M1A1, or M1A1HC
• British – Chieftan, Chieftan (Stillbrew), Challenger, or Challenger (ROMOR)
• West German – Leopard 2 or Leopard 2A5
• Canada – (Formation Support) M1, M1IPM1, or Leopard 2
• French – AMX-30
• Netherlands – Leopard 2
• ANZAC – Leopard AS1
• GDR, CZE, POL – T-72B
• Soviet – T-80 or T-72B
• Israeli – Merkava 1 or Merkava 2
• Iraqi and Syrian – T-72M
• Iranian – Chieftain

A.) The MacGuffin unit needs to be identified before deployment and during the game.  If your list continues with multiple of the same MBT unit, only one of the MBT units is the MacGuffin. It is strongly encouraged to use a token or marker to indicate the MacGuffin unit.

B.) In addition to the standard points scoring, if you destroy your opponent’s MacGuffin unit, you will receive one (1) additional point victory point. If your MacGuffin unit is destroyed, you will subtract one (1) point from your victory point total.

C.) A Destroyed MacGuffin unit does not count as a unit lost for determining victory points.

Battle Plans: Each player must use each “battle plan” twice throughout the weekend. Two tokens of each “battle plan” (Attack, Maneuver, and Defend) will be given to each player at the start of the tournament.  After the start of the round, the used stance token will be collected only leaving your open stance options for the next round.

Missions: any mission with the wording “Deep (Scattered) Immediate Reserves” or “Deep (Scattered) Delayed Reserves” will be changed to “Immediate (Scattered) Reserves” or “Delayed (Scattered) Reserves.”  Because of the tank focus, “Deep” is being removed.  No “deep” reserves.

Mine Fields: Missions with minefields can have a maximum of 3 minefields instead of the normal 5 for a 120-point game.

Match Up: Score sheets and a random draw will be used for pairing. For the first round only, an effort will be made to avoid pairing two players from the same club/city.  After round one, straight Swiss Pairings.  You will not play the same player twice.

Mission Selection: Missions will be determined by using the Extended Battle Plans in the April 2021 Missions Pack.  Both players will secretly pick their Battle Plans, reveal them, and roll on the Battle Plan Matrix.

https://www.flamesofwar.com/Portals/0/Documents/TeamYankee/WWIII-Missions2021-NB.pdf

Tournament Scoring: Determining a winner will be based on the total of Victory Points, the net total number of MacGuffin units destroyed (Destroyed – Lost = Net), Strength of Schedule, then the Number of Wins.

House Keeping Items:

Rules Interpretations: Rules as written from World War III: Team Yankee v2 Rulebook, and Field Manual 101 PDF.

Painting Requirements: Masters is the highest level of tournament play, and as such, armies will need to be fully painted & based. Unfinished, unpainted teams will not be permitted on the table.

Sportsmanship: Masters will be held in a gaming store and will have outside observers, so the expectation for behavior is at a higher standard. While this is a competitive environment, this is not your first tournament. Violations of the rules, or verified sportsmanship complaints, will be handled with a warning (yellow card). Flagrant cheating or multiple warnings will result in a red card, which can include forfeiture of the current game (1-8 loss) and can result in tournament disqualification.

Time: Each round will be 2.75 hours. The TO will keep the official clock; however, players are responsible for monitoring the time remaining within the current round. The TO will announce time intervals remaining within the round as a courtesy. When time expires, wrap up your game as a courtesy to your fellow players to keep the tournament on schedule.

Examples of the Terrain Boards used for the tournament

Players and Armies Entered

Below are a listing of the players and the armies played and their various support options.

Examples of some of the Army’s used and their lists

 

 

Day 1 Action Photos:

Day 2 Action Photos:

Final Standings and Comments

After Six rounds the final standings are below, overall it was a good weekend playing Team Yankee against really good players. I got to use my new additions to my Czech Team Yankee army and learned a lot about how to play them or more importantly how not to play them. Thanks to Battle Rankings and Family Time Games for hosting another great Team Yankee Masters Weekend.

 

Group Photo of the 2022 Masters Participants and the Battle Rankings Team (Photo Provided by Battle Rankings)

 

Additional Information on the Team Yankee Masters Tournament can be found on the Battle Rankings and the Team Yankee Facebook groups.