Mamma Mia, Here We Go Again: Nordic Force in Team Yankee

By Michael Rafferty

We’re soon going to see the release of the first new country with unique equipment since Oil Wars (I’m looking at you Cuba with your Warsaw Pact equipment). S-Tanks! Centurions! Bandkanons! Cute Danish Recon Jeeps! It’s exciting to see some new models coming into Team Yankee. I know most armies standardized certain models of vehicles, usually provided by the larger nations. Still, it’s fun to see some new makes of vehicles. Let’s see what the armies can bring and how the vehicles stack up.

 

 

Starting off we have Finland, which uses Warsaw Pact equipment. Finland is fighting with NATO in WWIII, as the Soviets invaded Finland’s refusal for free passage around Lapland. Finnish tank forces are primarily made up of upgraded T-72 and T-55, purchased from the Soviets and now turned against them. They use NATO-style platoons, with three tanks per platoon and four T-72 platoons per company. With solid courage and skill, I could see Finnish tank swarms on the table. Finnish T-55s are even cheaper and can be brought with two T-72FM1 platoons along with three T-55M platoons, making for a decent-sized force.

 

 

 

Finnish infantry is carried in either BTR-60, BMP-1, or BMP-2. With solid skill and courage, plus APILAS anti-tank teams, Finnish infantry should be fairly tough. I’m expecting to see Finnish hordes at tournaments. I feel I may end up making a Finnish force just because I have spare vehicles and their camo scheme looks great.

 

 

 

For support, Finns have Soviet tube and rocket artillery. They also have the T-55 marksman, which is the British marksman turret on a T-55 hull. ZSU-57-2 and SA-7 teams round out their AA options. Finns can also take iTOW teams in BMP-2 for extra anti-tank.

Finns can take NATO-allied support along with separate Swedish-allied support.

 

 

Next is the army I was most excited for and the reason I’ve been humming Abba all day, the Swedish. The S-Tank looks like an assault gun out of WWII, making it one of the most unique tanks of the Cold War era. The S-Tank doesn’t have stabilizers and is overworked, meaning it adds +1 to hit while moving. However, the S-Tank was designed as an ambush tank, meant to fight from a stationary position and then move to a new position. While stationary, the S-Tank can remain gone to ground while shooting its main gun. It’s hit on a 4+ base which once the cover and gone to ground modifiers are added, S-Tanks are going to be very hard to hit. This is good because they have weaker front armor and rough side armor. They’re going to want to keep enemies at range. The S-tanks have an upgrade 105mm L7 with an anti-tank of 21.

 

The Centurion is the mainstay tank of the Swedish army. It’s a slightly slower, slightly better-armed Leopard 1 with the same 105mm L7. It’s relatively cheap for a NATO tank and is hit on a 4+.

Swedish armored rifles are a more elite infantry, but they do have a ton of anti-tank ability. They’re going to be quite hard to dig out of an entrenched position and their IFVs come with 20mm autocannons for suppression and anti-helicopter work.

The Swedes have robust support options. The IKV 91 has a 9cm gun as a main gun, which has a low anti-tank of 17 but is also incredibly cheap for three vehicles. It’s practically unarmored, but is hit on a 4+ so will be depending on that to survive. They also have iTOW and 90mm recoilless rifle jeeps which are fairly cheap and accurate at range. The Bandkanon is an auto-loading, self-propelled 155mm artillery vehicle. The autoloader gives it a +1 to hit models under the template and it has epic range.

The Swedes only have one AA vehicle, their APC with a RBS 70 sticking out of the top. This might be a weakness of their forces as they cannot bring the large amounts of gun-based AA seen in tournament lists. Finally, they have the West German Bo-105 with iTOWs as a helicopter option and the awesome Viggen with Maverick missiles. The Swedes can also bring an allied Finnish force on top of the normal NATO allied formation.

 

Norway did not have a large army during the Cold War, which is why NATO war plans involved reinforcing Norwegian positions at the outbreak of the war. On top of the normal NATO allied formation, they also receive US Marine support. NATO would also likely send other marine forces and the US would be sending REFORGER units to Norway, but in the scope of Team Yankee they get US Marine support. This gives the Norwegians badly needed helicopter and AA support, along with some slightly heavier tank support.

 

The Norwegian force in Team Yankee consists of Leopard 1 squadrons and M113 infantry squadrons. The Leopard 1 is like the other NATO nations with Leopard 1s, including the standard mortar and anti-tank support. Norway does use the Dutch-style Leopard 1, with the additional turret armor.

 

The main difference between the Norwegian M113 squadron and other NATO M113 infantry is that you can replace the basic M113 with the NM135, which is an M113 with a 20mm gun. This gives the unit a bit more firepower and anti-helicopter support. The three Eryx anti-tank missile teams also give the Norwegian storm troop a powerful anti-tank punch, though they cannot assault.

 

For support, Norway has guys sticking out of M113 for AA and iTOW-armed jeeps which are just fantastic looking. M109 provides artillery support and Marine harriers are Norway’s ground support aircraft.

The Dutch have a small military but cooperated closely with the West German army for mutual defense. The LANDJUT corps was formed from the Danish Jyske division and the West German 6^th Panzergrenadier division, which would defend Schleswig-Holstein and Southern Jutland from the Warsaw Pact advance. What this means is that the Danish can bring significant West German support, including Gepards and Leopard 2s.

The Leopard 1 squadron is similar to its West German counterpart. 10 total Leopard 1s make up the squadron, which should allow plenty of points for and additional formation or support.

The Danish Centurion squadron has the same organization as the Leopard 1 squadron but uses the cheaper Centurion DK. This has better armor than the Leopard 1, at the expense of dash speed.

The Danish armored infantry lacks the guided anti-tank weapons of their Scandinavian counterparts along with any sort of autocannon on their M113.

Danish players are going to be happy they can bring West German units because they don’t have much in the way of support options. Their only AA are M113-mounted Redeye teams. Recon is provided by Mercedes jeeps with LAWs and machine guns. 20pdr Centurions can be brought as a weaker, cheaper Centurion to round out a force.

Overall, this is a great addition to the Team Yankee universe. The scenarios tell an interesting story of the Soviet assault on Scandinavia and are able to be played with any of the Nordic countries. The scenarios also add Fog of War rules, allowing for markers to be moved about the board until they are revealed. Each unit generates two markers, identified as either Tank (T) or Infantry (I). A record has to be kept for the corresponding unit, but this adds a new twist to the game. I’m looking forward to seeing what scenarios the player base develops with these. Once my pre-ordered S-Tank company box arrives, I can marathon Abba and paint Swedes.