Team Yankee Syrians, First Tournament Experience

By Matt Varnish

The lads from Montreal had their second annual Team Yankee tournament (I missed the first one) at JacHOBBY in Laval, a suburb of Montreal.  Their guys have come down to Ottawa for Canadian Nationals, so we returned the favour and crashed their tournament with myself, Rob, Scott and Andrew B.

The Store and Terrain

First of all, the store is fantastic, and they are the local seller of terrain and accessories.

I’m going to pimp their stuff despite not getting paid or anything, we spoke to the main guy, he basically designed 40k, WFB, RPG dungeon tiles and walls, Necromunda, and now has some 15mm stuff, seen below:

 

Three row houses were 39.99 dollars CAD.  Not bad.  He makes a corner shop also, all roofs come off and the floors all separate out as well.  Top Notch

So many tokens and cool bases.. he had Blood and Plunder wooden plank round bases even

I grabbed a set of the Town Low Walls, which for Bolt Action are low, and for Flames/Team Yankee, completely block LOS to infantry, much like the Battlefront Desert Walls do.

The Tourney

Marc Viau, the organizer, had put in a twist for this tournament: 93 points, maximum 2 formations allowed, and V4 repeat bombardment save re-rolls would be in effect.  I thought full V4 arty, so foolishly painted BM-21s.

The Oil Wars supplement was (originally) supposed to be out the day of the tournament, and he had his store copy, he was Ok with me bringing Syrians. My list was all the things:

 

T-72 Company HQ

T-72M x5

T-72M x5

ZSU-57 x4

BMP-1 Motor Rifles full no AA

 

T-55 Company HQ

T-55 x7

T-55 x7

T-55 x7

BMP-1 Motor Rifles full no AA

 

BM-21 x6 plus observer

Spandrels x3

BRDM x4

Game 1

This round I faced Gabe Viau, who was running Canadians with Allied West Germans

 

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First Game was Counterattack for all tables, and Gabe Viau rolled to attack with his Canadians. BM-21’s very first time hitting the tables. All they did was lay down a smoke mission and bail out one ADATs.

This desert board had very few good spots for my BMP’s to deploy, so I kept them in Ambush until his Leo I’s stopped cowardly hiding. I used the BRDM spearhead to give my Spandrels a tiny forest, but they were killed by some Luchses straight away.

BMP’s come out of ambush and take out some Leo I’s. My T-72’s despite being concealed were starting to dwindle from ADATS and M113 TOW fire on my left. I need some reserves since once the T-72’s go down, the BM-21s can’t hold that objective for long.

Meanwhile, in other games, the US forces are cleaning up vs more West Germans.

… and Christian’s British force defend vs Rob’s Canadians. I guess its a re-enactment of a winter Ex in Suffield (Suffield is a NATO training base in Canada. Remember Prince Harry getting in trouble back in the day? that’s where!)

Rob’s Canadians dismounting in some pine.

Miracle shots, my T-55’s (with no Stabilizers, Rangefinders, and have Slow Firing) come in from reserves, and needing 6’s to hit, kill 2x Leo I’s from the rear. Yalla Mabruk!

.. while my plucky Infantry with just RPG-7’s manages their 5+ to hit and take out the rest of that platoon. Extra hookah rations, all around

More reserve T-55’s led by the T-55 BV HQ, continue to pour in and I end up winning the Formation Break race, breaking Gabe’s formation whilst keeping 1x T-72 barely In Good Spirits. The infantry survivors hang on by a thread after being pounced on by all his Recce. 4-3 win for the Syrians.

Meanwhile back in Suffield, Rob’s HQ Leo (left) seemingly cannot see the Warriors in that crop. Must be the smoke from all the burning Blowpipes! Christian and Rob would end up in a 3-3 draw if I recall correctly.

If there was a best-painted award for this event, Rob would have won it. Canada back in the 1970’s wanted our fighting vehicles to be wheeled and not look mean and war-like with tank tracks (I wish I were making this up… but Trudeau the Elder ordered these) so we had the Cougar. It was a wheeled vehicle with a Scorpion Turret. Scott did some kit-bashing for Rob and built this prototype. Once he makes more, they will count-as allied Scorpions.

Close-up of Rob’s command troop. MG tarps and barrel camo for the OC (‘Officer, Commanding’ here in Canada). Very nice.

M113’s with license plates. I remember these, tearing up through our little town in Germany as a kid.

Rob painted the TOW leader as our good friend Bob McBride, who used to command these back in the ’80s. Now retired, he plays Flames of War as Luggs. How he isn’t playing Team Yankee is beyond me, though.

Still waiting on Rob’s next No Dice No Glory article “Painting Canadian ADATs, the Proper Way”

A cool idea I might steal, using little regimental lapel pins on the Leader Bases. I still can’t believe each guy has Maple Leaf flags on the shoulders.Game 2

This round I played against Scott’s Desert Storm West Germans, Breakthrough. Again, I ended up defending, and again I put BMP’s in ambush, and the T-55 formation in reserve.

Scott used Luchses to spearhead into the back corner to put his Leo II’s on that elevated position. Just one problem with that, I get Immediate Reserves…

Admiral Akbar! More good luck, I roll my 5+ to get a reserve and am able to move to JUST within 16 inches, and with slow firing needing 5’s to hit, vaporize all 4 Leo II’s!

..meanwhile, Patrice’s Soviets battle Ernst’s US on the winter table.

… and Rob’s Canadians are fighting Jonathan’s West Germans on the desert board. A lot of wrecked M113 hulls.

Scott after losing 44 points on my Turn 1, still is going for objectives. These Gepards by the Autobahn objective were furiously gunning down the Syrian infantry in the crop, while his Flanking Force would take the hill objective.

And of course, the Luftwaffe orders swift vengeance for the dead Leo II’s. But I have 2 more units of T-55’s in reserve

Reserves which polish off the Jaguars which were cleaning up my T-72’s earlier. Been very lucky rolling my 5+ to hit with these lousy early-model T-55’s

Jonathan’s Leo II’s on the move..

Gepards, what are they going to shoot at now that they’ve killed all of Rob’s M113 hulls?

In the end, Scott almost won: I had to drive up, then Follow Me (hurray 4+ courage) to contest this objective while killing off his remaining Leo I’s with infantry RPGs AND killing his OC tank to break his formation. 5-2 win for me. BM-21 killed a Milan and Dragon team on this hill. Not thrilled with their performance thus far.

Marc’s T-64’s do what I did: come in from reserves and kill Ernst’s M1’s from the back. Would have been poor form to let Syrian T-55’s take all the spotlight right?

He had his Leo II’s in the back, behind the church, waiting to see where my T-72’s would go once they were done polishing off a Big-Mac, Large Fries and coke.

“I’d like the Great Satan combo, with Infidel fries, and DIET COKE” “OK, would you like to add Bacon for 50 cents?”

My right flank, Jonathan only had some recce and LARS behind that last set of XOLK blue-roofed row houses. I wanted to get up and able to shoot left towards the flank of his Leo II’s, and then he told me he has Chobham Armour 17 vs HEAT. BMP1 missiles are AT19  HEAT. Oh well.

Empty Marders ‘Monster-Truck’ the wrecks of the Luchses who were on defense to protect the Milans from my infantry. Him blocking LOS to his Leo I’s hiding in the back meant I could bring my T-55’s up. I eventually assaulted and failed my very first CounterAttack roll.

On the right, I took out his recce with RPGs and would later kill off all the LARS hiding in the back. His Leo II’s were murdering me, and in a triumphant roll of a 5+ skill test to Blitz, I wanted to get my Spandrels out behind a building and take open AT23 shots at the Leo II’s.  Small fence. Rolled three 1’s for Cross checks haha. With time winding down, we both knew we couldn’t break each other, and we each earned our 3 points for the 3-3 draw.Results

So 2 wins and 1 draw, not bad for their first outing.

Underwhelmed with the BM-21s, only once did their smoke mission do me any good, and for the 7 points for the 6 trucks plus observer, I could have fielded 7 more T-55’s.    I was lucky, and therefore the T-55s shined, they are great reserve force.

Spandrels never fired a single shot, nor passed a Cross Check.  Concealed and gone to ground means nothing when enemy ATGMs are just hitting me on 5+s anyways.

The T-72’s were great, but were always focused down. Not having many other integral formation assets (Spandrels, Carnations, BRDMs like the East Germans and others can get) really put a crimp on what I could do. I didn’t want to have a formation break because I no longer had a unit on the table in good spirits.

I was debating instead of taking the two tank formations with BMP’s in each, to take the BMP formation, T-72’s attached, then take the T-55 formation. But, then the T-55 formation was too brittle.

I think the infantry with the T-55’s is perfect to keep them running.   I’m still going to be the only Syrian player at Team Yankee Nationals, so apart from a tweak or two, this will be close to what I run in July.  I’m sure the great tactical minds can pull apart my list and make a better one (with Milans and Gazelles probably) but I am sticking to my Soviet equipment for now.   Hope you enjoyed, and I’ll catch you guys next time.

 

Matt Varnish, AKA Dennis Campbell, plays Team Yankee, Flames of War, and Black Powder in the frozen wastes of Canadia. Check out my youtube channel for hundreds of :