Battle Report

By Tom Burgess

Turn One of the Firestorm Campaign was a complete success…maybe not so much for the British effort per say but overall we had 21 games from around the globe reported in. Additionally, Battlefront has risen to the occasion and is now offering two boxed sets each turn as awards for those who submit the most/best written Battle AARs.

So the campaign, as joint Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory effort, is doing exactly what we had hoped it would do, generate themed Flames of War games.  Though Mark, allowed any mid-war forces be used for games in this campaign, the AARs I have seen all have used proper Mid-war Desert British, German, and Italian miniatures on nice desert boards. Huzzah to you all in the field!

So how did Turn One’s 21 battles turn out from the British Perspective?

By Tom Burgess

As part of the Breakthrough Assault and No Dice No Glory online Firestorm Gazala Campaign my friend, Charles, and I managed play Battle 4 from turn 1 in the campaign. I’d be playing the defending British with a force themed on the 7th Motor Brigade, while Charles was to roll with a 5th Panzer Regiment force with some loaned support from the 132nd Areite Division’s tanks.

We naturally decided that the British would take a defensive stance while Germans would be attacking. Using the Battle Plans matrix we rolled up “No Retreat’ for a mission. Charles set up the table using my terrain while I finished updating my list from a battle I played on the previous day. Charles set up a mostly open deep desert board. I chose to defend on the slightly more hilly side and where I could have better access to the short table edge.

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 Matt Varnish

Here we go, myself and fellow No Dice No Glory contributor Scott ‘Obsidian23’ Roach, get in a game using the new British D-Day book. As always, the video of the game is linked at the end of the article.

We actually debated using the special D-Day missions in the book but they were either on 4ft by 4ft tables or Airlanding, so we opted to use the normal Battle Planner.. and wound up with Free-For-All. We WERE using the new Bocage rules, however, Bocage Hedgerows are Tall Terrain and provide Bulletproof Cover to gun and infantry teams shot through them. Looking at the above table Scott laid out, you can see that Line of Sight would be an issue for things like Achilles, 88s and Panthers.

D-Day +2, Monty’s forces have pushed past the beachheads and are heading towards Caen.   In their way lies a German Recon Coy sitting in an outskirt called Herouville-St-Clair.

by Tom Burgess

After playing several city fights with the new Version 4 Mid War East Front lists, and I decided to turn our attention to more open field battles.

We set up an East Front looking table with few woods, wheat fields, a couple of built-up areas, and a rail line. We also increased the points we were playing at from 55 to 81 points as that’s what we’ll be playing at Advance the Colors in October.

By NDNG_Dane

Lieutenant Dan here,
This past weekend, I was able to get in my third ‘Nam game. This game had a completely different feel from our first two games. Again I faced off against Comrade Paul, Fearless leader of the Local Forces. We played the “Fire Base Assault” mission at 60+ points each.

We both changed up the standard force list a little bit. Comrade Paul took a Special Tasks Battalion with the support options for a PAVN Infantry Battalion. I took the TO&E authorized, New Zealand 105mm Battery, that fought as part of the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in Vietnam.

By NDNG_Dane

Lieutenant Dan here,

This past weekend, I was able to get in my second ‘Nam game.  This game had a completely different feel than our first game.  Again I faced off against Comrade Paul, Fearless leader of the Local Force Battalion.  We played the Up River mission at 65 points each.

By NDNG_Dane

Lieutenant Dan here,
This past weekend, I was able to get in my first ‘ game against one of the Local Force Leaders – Comrade Paul. We played the “HOT LZ” mission at 45 points each.

Fielding the 173rd Airborne in Viet Nam

Airmobile Rifle Company HQ
Airmobile Rifle Platoon (x2)(short)
UH-1 Huey Aviation Platoon
Airmobile MG Platoon
Airmobile 81mm Mortar Platoon
Support:
Gunship Aeroweapons Platoon
OH-6 Aeroscout Platoon (2)
A4 Skyhawk Flight (2)

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Photos by the Author

Rob and I did a test game with the new Nam rules for Team Yankee (Team Yankee Early War?) but instead of using traditional lists, we decided that since Team Yankee the novel is a what-if scenario, then why not do a what-if of the Oil Crisis of the 1970s!  In our case, we did a Canadian Tank force (Aussie Centurions) vs some T-55s and Motor Rifles out in a desert oil facility.    As usual, video bat-rep at the end.  Thanks to Rob for hosting as usual, this time on his awesome AFG board where I added my 15mm terrain to good effect:View from the industrial center

By Matt Varnish

Coinciding with the release of Stripes, Battlefront has stipulated that one can be used in any Team Yankee force. While surely some folks can plug in some tactical gaps in their list with an allied formation, we can also put together a historical list for a force that is not out yet, like Canadians!

My good friend Rob is a retired Artillery FOO with the Canadian Army, and he can use Allied Formations to better represent his 4 CMBG force in Team Yankee. While there is a list coming out for them down the pipe (if rumors are to be believed), he can run them right now. Canada bought NATO tanks (Leopard Is and later Leopard IIs) but retained many of the M113-based vehicles.  As you can see by the above picture, Rob is eagerly awaiting the LAV box release!!

 

Rob’s Cdn / West German 64pt force