Putting the New American Options to work

By Chris Jackson

The new US book has been sent to the gaming stores and I was able to look at a copy, so after a long, anxious wait we can finally play with the American Army we have seen in news reports and grown to know and love.

Tanks that can swat anything in front of them like flies with near impunity, armored transport that can kill tanks and armored vehicles with the same ease they move across the battlefield.

Aircraft that kill from beyond the reach of most air defense systems, and other technology that allows the Americans to come and to dominate the battlefield like no one else can.

The downside to all of this high tech and nigh-invulnerable equipment is that it comes at a steep price. Even with the elevated points of the 2020 tournament season, a single platoon of M1A1 HC tanks could make up 60% of your points.

That does not leave much to flesh out the force and those mighty tanks do not last long if you allow other tanks to make it to their flanks, so you had best have a plan and the assets in place to keep that from happening.

Regardless of what kind of list you put together, you need to be able to move infantry, kill high priced NATO and Warsaw Pact MBTs, and put enough shots downrange to stop the romping, stomping Red Army Horde. (East German, Arab, whatever) Here is “A way”. (Well, three, actually.)

I am going to build my force around a platoon of four M1A1s at 54 points. I believe the FA 19 is sufficient to deal with all but the most dedicated of AT assets, leaving it vulnerable to only a couple of MBTs, aviation, and very high-end ATGMs such as Jaguar HOT and Storm. HOT and Storm will not present too much of a threat as they will only get a maximum of three shots per turn and will need to maneuver into place, generally meaning I get to engage them before they engage me.

Even if used from ambush, they can at best hope for six shots before they are obliterated by everything that can engage them, and that’s assuming a successful shoot and scoot followed by a successful blitz move the following turn. The air assets will be handled by maxing out my available AA assets. Six points for four VADS, 4 points for four Stingers, and 8 points for four

Chapparal. We are at 72 points for the force. I will need 36 points to build a Heavy Combined Arms Company. Full strength HQ of two RDF/LT and two platoons of 4 RDF/LT, a platoon of HMMWV mounted infantry, and a 9th Motor Scout squad. The final twelve points for me would be a short Marine Platoon with two SMAW, two Dragons, and Hueys and a short LAV platoon to give a second spearhead option.

Offensively, the list would use long-range gunnery to remove the supporting vehicles from the enemy defensive position, and once the infantry is unsupported, they would start pushing them off the objective with the M1A1s and infantry.

Defensively, the Abrams would be a single platoon reserve and the infantry and RDF/LT platoons would form strong points to attrit any horde armies or hold in place against anything NATO could throw against them if the battle was blue on blue. Once the tanks came on they would reinforce against the enemy’s main effort and destroy those forces.

Maneuver battles would look a lot like attack battles. I already discussed how the list would handle aviation and limited numbers of AT vehicles capable of defeating the Abrams, what I haven’t covered is how the list would handle the horde armies. The horde needs to get to the flank of the Abrams to kill them. They need speed and volume of fire to get it done. I take both away from them with the infantry and the Heavy Combined Arms Company vehicles.

The RDF/LTs in the list should statistically impose a tax of 7-12 tanks per turn on the attacking force, assuming T-62s at the low end and T-55s at the high end. Add to that another couple of tanks per turn with the Dragons and the scout TOW. Once the Abrams arrive that number goes up by another 4-6 tanks. Even with the attrition of this force with completely destroy a 50 tank horde in 5 turns, maximum.

While the horde can close to knife-fighting range quickly, it will be turn 2 before they can shoot with any hope of effective fire. They can either dash to eight inches and not shoot, or take two turns moving in. Either way, they will be shooting moving rate of fire and have reduced chances to hit for most of the horde options. By the time they are hitting on less than a 6, I will have ripped a significant part of their force apart.

A second variant, for those who are looking for more offensive capability and are more likely to face infantry heavy opponents, would see the Marine contingent and scout platoon removed and replaced with the Armored Cav HQ, 2 M113 scout sections, Cav mortars, FIST and an M109 battery. This would have the advantage of making the Abrams a core formation unit and would give much greater capability against dug-in infantry.

The price being you do not have as much infantry to screen your heavies from the tank horde. It would also take away a very dangerous threat of airmobile assault for your opponent to worry about, although that one could be mitigated by moving the points for the Motor infantry platoon in the Combined Arms Company over to the Armored Cavalry formation airmobile platoon.

Another really interesting combination of assets is a Bradley company team supported by Abrams. I would want a full Bradley company of three platoons, straight M2 version as I cannot abide the idea of an infantry company that can’t defend.

Add a full six-tube mortar platoon, two scout sections, a platoon of four Abrams IP and your HQ gives you a core formation of 93 points. You still have a need to protect them from air attack, so the same 18 points of ADA assets gives you 111 points allocated.

For my final support options, I would add a platoon of 4 RDF/LT. The Abrams, mortars, and a scout section would comprise the reserve. This list would not be as strong against the horde armies, killing only 9-10 tanks per turn at full strength, but with 13 x AT 23 shots per turn would do much better against high front armor MBTs.

Offensively it would operate much as the other list would, fighting a long range gunnery duel until the enemy was attritted enough to make the close assault effective. Defensively, they would need to be more concerned with force protection and keeping the missile platforms alive long enough to reduce the horde to manageable numbers. Of the two, I think the first is the more capable list. I do however understand the lure of the Bradley and will almost certainly be throwing a lot of them onto a table at a tournament near you.

Finally, a kind of fun list just to capitalize on all the neat new toys we have out there. I am thinking of something reasonably historical, very mobile, and extremely light. Start with an airmobile formation. Three platoons and an HQ of infantry with M60 and Dragon additions, ten Sheridans, the TOW platoon, and the scout section.

We are at 61 points and have only used half of the available points. I want to play with Apaches, so we throw them in, now we have 34 points to go. We are well-positioned to deal with heavies, attacking infantry, and second-tier MBTs, but have little to deal with the horde.

The RDF/LT vehicles would be quite nice in this situation, as would French AMX-10RC or even an AMX 30 tank company. A Leopard 1 company would also quite nicely fill the bill. There are any number of tier 2 NATO tanks that could fill that 34 points out.

You can use them all and select a tank with a brutal gun or pick a nation that allows you to bring artillery support with the formation and forgo the brutal gun for integral artillery. You can even leave enough points to field the US 155 and/or MLRS Systems. Those points have to have the ability to keep the horde from massing on your infantry and the ability to root out dug-in infantry.

In any case, the Americans with this new book now possess the tools to deal with any form of opposition. The RDF/LT brings a new capability the US has not had before, a hard to hit weapon system that is both cheap enough to get in large numbers and capable enough to hit and destroy Main Battle Tanks with enough volume to put a dent in a horde army. The light motor company with its 8-10 supporting HMMWVs now provides the infantry with enough firepower to keep the Russian horde at bay and attrit them to a workable size.

Last but not least, the addition of the Bradley, M1A1, and Apache brings the capability to penetrate high FA vehicles consistently. All the tools are there, the player just needs to find which ones he uses the best and put them in his list and start rolling up those pesky Rooskies.