15mm

By Tom Burgess

One aspect of playing World War Three Team Yankee that many people enjoy is list building. Trying to design the most perfect list to take on all opponents in all mission is almost a hobby withing itself.  However commanders through history rarely ever get to “design” their force.

Instead, Commanders are generally are assigned units to accomplish a specified task. As much fun as it is to design a force and test it, it also can be very enjoyable to see how well you can do with a set force challenged to contest with specific historical conditions.

We are talking about playing historical scenarios rather than playing generated missions with designed forces.

Though World War Three Team Yankee is set in a fictional World War Three setting, Battlefront has done a great job including “historical” scenarios from this hypothetical war in their  World War Three Team Yankee books.

By Ron Winkler

As the Covid 19 quarantine continues, I decided it was time for another solo game using the rules. Continuing with the War of 1812, I selected the Battle of Chippawa as a game scenario. Again, I used my 15mm figures and Osprey’s excellent Niagara 1814 book as a reference for forces and battlefield maps.

Based on information in the book I rated regular units on both sides equal in quality in terms of Special qualities having First Fire, Elite 4+, and Reliable ratings. However, two of the regular US units 25^th Infantry and a single Company of the 21^st Infantry as small and tiny respectively because of their size which of course affected their Stamina rating. The other regulars on both sides were standard in size.  US and British artillery had equal qualities as did the Light Dragoons on both sides.  Both cavalry units were tiny in size.

By Tom Burgess

I am very excited about the impending release of the new World War III Team Yankee American book. That may surprise many who know me as I have only ever played Soviet and East Block type forces in Team Yankee so far. But the reality is that US forces were my first purchase for Team Yankee and I have quite a collection of US units still boxed and waiting to be built.

I only shifted to Soviets to help the force balance in my local gaming area. By now my Soviets are quite complete and its time for me to go full throttle into Americans for Team Yankee with this new book.

The World War III Team Yankee American book is a significant expansion from the preceding Stripes US Forces in World War III book. All the formations and support that were available to the US player in Stripes are also in the new book. In addition to these, the new book has added the M1A1 Armored Combat Team, M2 Bradley Combat Team, M3 Bradley Cavalry Troop, Combined Army (Heavy) Company, Combined Arms (Light) Company, and the Light Attack Company.

By Tom Burgess

When the WWIII Team Yankee US nationals point levels went to 120 points this year, I was a bit beside myself on how I was going to expand my Soviet collection. At 100 points it already was huge and filling up my ground unit transport cases.

So I decided to go “vertical” and buff up my air support for my Soviets. I already had two of the older resin SU-25s that Battlefront offered previously and a friend offered me a set of the new Battlefront plastic SU-25s () at a price that I could not pass up. Since I now had both the older new sets, I thought it might do be nice to a bit of a combination review and comparison.

By: Ron Winkler

After several weeks of lockdown occupied mainly with painting my accumulated inventory of figures, I felt the need to try a solo wargame. Since I haven’t had much practice with I decided on the Battle of North Point scenario in the book using my 15mm inventory of 1812 US and British Napoleonic figures.

The scenario came from the Black Powder main rule book page 144. The first picture on the page shows Continental Unit uniforms from the Revolutionary War. Subsequent pictures depict 1812 uniforms for both sides. The battle map shown displays all units deployed in line at the start of the battle. I decided to have the British march down the road then deploy for an attack to add a little variation.

With some adjustments, I was able to assemble units for both sides as provided in the scenario. Because I was using 15mm figures I felt using centimeters instead of inches for movement and firing was appropriate. Also, having no game table, I converted the dining room table for use with the consent of the WAR OFFICE (wife).

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Alright, back at it, Team Yankee Americans. In this post, I am outlining my Desert MERDC camo M113 hulls.    MERDC camouflage was designed in the 70s to be a standardized pattern that could have 1 or two of the 4 colours repainted and thus transition from region or season.   In reality, apart from some White added for winter, the camo remained and was eventually replaced.   I like the look of it for my desert forces rather than the blander tan you see on most Desert Storm vehicles.   Since I am doing Texas National Guard units (with Texas-based regforce attached) I loved finding a pic of an M901ITV from Fort Hood at the NTC in this very camo!

Disregard the green M150 TOW in the foreground

By Tom Gall

This is the 3rd in our series of articles on Battlegroup: NORTHAG a set of Cold War gone hot rules set in 1983 published by the and written by Warwick Kinrade. In the prior two articles, and then . In this one, we’re going to play a game and see how it goes.

By Tom Burgess

One of my major projects of 2019 was to complete an all plastic German East Front Mid-War army. I chose to focus on Gepanzert Panzer Grenadiers. To do this I had two boxes of Battlefront’s ‘s and two Boxes of Plastic Soldier Company’s ‘s. So I thought this provided a nice opportunity to review and compare what these two companies offer for the same model.

Both companies provide the SdKfz-251/C in unit boxes of five vehicles. The Plastic Soldier Company (PSC) boxed set cost $29.99 (US) with crews/passengers but only the machinegun armed transport option and no decals.

Battlefront (BF) box set cost $45.99 (US) and comes with parts to build all five models as the transport (with or without 3.7cm anti-tank gun), the 7.5cm short assault gun, or the 8cm armored mortar version. The BF set also the proprietary unit cards, for use in Flames of War, as well as a sheet of waterslide decals.

For our second article on Battlegroup NORTHAG we’re going to take a closer look at building your force for a game. NORTHAG uses a points-based scheme for force building your, which makes for a great scheme that you and a friend can agree to a number of points ahead of a game and show up at the tabletop with matched forces.

Game Size

There are 3 recommended sizes, 500 pts for a Platoon sized game on a 6×4, 750 pts for a Company sized game on a 6×6 or 6×8 and 1000 points for a Battalion sized game as a 6×10 or larger, but of course, you’re free to choose!

List Building Basics

When constructing a force you utilize the menu of options associated with the nation you’re building for. Currently, within this very first book, the options are limited to Soviet or British. We’ll see further books and unofficial lists via the Battlegroup: NORTHAG Facebook page in time.

By Tom Gall and NDNG Dane

The (PSC) will be releasing shortly* a much anticipated new set of rules covering World War III, while a “what if”, a conventional war has touched off and the forces of NATO and WARPAC are enjoined in battle across Europe, each in a desperate struggle to take/give ground before presumably, the nukes might fly.

Titled Battlegroup: NORTHAG, the book focuses on the Northern Army Group section of the front, thus NORTHAG. The setting is 1983 which Warwick Kinrade choose as it was a time of heightened tensions between the powers and was the dividing line before the introduction of a wide range of new equipment.

In this series of articles, we’ll be looking at the rules, the British and Soviet army lists that are included with the new book and finish up with a couple of BatReps.