Team Yankee

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 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 Paolo Paglianti

Time to complete our IDF force.  we saw the tanks and the armored vehicles, so now we will move to the Infantry, helos, and airplanes.

Having assembled and painted our Merkava 2s, the Perehs, the M113s, and some artillery/AA, we are still missing the infantry. IDF infantry is really good in defending an objective, and they can unleash a powerful volley of shots on any enemy moving to assault them. In our list, we chose to do a single infantry platoon, relying on a double Merkava 2 platoon to assault enemy positions.

Ed and Tom practice Social Distancing and hit the air-waves from separate locations for a “locked-down” installment of No Dice No Glory’s BattleVault podcast.

By Chris Masucci

Looking to jump into a new game and a new time period is a tempting prospect for many gamers. With my local gaming group mostly focused on Bolt Action/Konflikt 47, a few of us recently made the decision to expand our gaming horizons and add a new game to our collection.

Team Yankee seemed like enough of change from our weird war 2 platoon scale endeavors. Jumping into a different time period and with a more zoomed out scope with company scale engagements brings with it the focus on armored warfare and large scale troop movements in a more epic feeling 15mm. With a new project at our heels, our game group quickly divided up what product we could get and all began to choose factions. Not wanting to go for any obvious choices, I decided to build a 1970’s era Egyptian tank company with a bit of support from a motor rifle platoon or two.

By Paolo Paglianti

After having completed my British BAOR force and an antagonist URSS army, I wanted to move to a different theatre of Cold War. For a while, I was lingering on Fate of Nations setting, but the Oil War book gave me exactly what I was looking for: a new scenery for a brand fresh force, literally thousands of miles away from the ubiquitous NATO green.

As usual, I am going to create a core force of around 100 points for the two sides: at our club in Milan we like to have two opposing forces for every ruleset, so we can demo players wanting to get into the games we like. For Oil Wars, the first force I selected was IDF, and later this year I plan to complete the theatre with an Iranian/Syrian force. 

 

List building with the new British Forces Book is incredibly difficult because of all the fine new kit the British gain access to. You will have some hard decisions to make. Before we get into that though, we need to get into the basics of building a good force.

1. Identify the threat. This gets easier the more you know about your opponent or opponents. If it is a pickup game with a friend who only has one army, you will know almost exactly what he plans to throw out on the table and you should be able to tailor your list appropriately.

By Tom Burgess

My good friend Charles Christy and I recently played our first WW3 “Team Yankee” version 2 game.  Because the new rule book already had the new stats and points for the Challenger in it, Charles was able to sneak in three Challengers into his list.

Mission and Forces

I went with an attack stance for my Soviets and Charles chose to maneuver.  We rolled up Counterattack for the mission with him defending. The battlefield has a small urban center surrounded by some hills and woods.

I was running a typical single formation Motorized Rifle Battalion (MRB) with one BMP-1 company and one BMP-2 company. I had some decent support to include a T-72 Tank Company.

Charles had two formations, a FV432 mounted Mech Infantry company and a Recce Troop. He notable had a unit of eight VF432 Mortar Carriers and unit of eight Abbots to make the most out of the new WW3 TY2 artillery rules. And of course he had those lovely three Challenger tanks.

Deployment

Charles chose to defend with his FV432 Mech Co protecting objective in his deployment area.

He used spearhead moves to flex out to the objective in the neural quarter, but due to the new WW3 TY2 spearhead rules, he was much more limited in his ability to move as far as he would have liked.

Counterattack only gives the attacker a tiny deployment area, which can be a big problem for large Soviet formations like mine. I used my BRDM-2 scouts to push my deployment zone off to my left, effectively doubling the area I could deploy in.

Charles’ Challengers, due to their very high point cost went into his reserve pool as did an AAA unit he would not be needing.

My plan was to heavily weight my left and concentrate on the objective in the neutral quarter. My T-72s would “follow in support” and swing even wider to left rear board corner.  I knew Charles’ Challengers would come there behind my main effort. I needed to leave the T-72s hanging back to take the initial hit and tie those Challangers up. My infantry wound swing through the urban area and demonstrate against Charles’ FV432 Mech Co to keep them pinned in place.

Turn 1

Why do I always take two artillery units with my Soviets, two chances to lay down smoke? After the 2S1 Carnations failed to range in a smoke screen (with Forward Observer assistance!) my BM-21 Hail rocket launchers  put in a nice smoke screen that ties in a large building with nearby woods to mask the approach of my main effort.

I caused no damage to Charles in Turn 1. I’m not even sure I took a shot. The first turn for my Soviets is always about positioning and getting in close.

Because my main force was so well screened by smoke and terrain, Charles really did not have much to shoot at, expect for artillery on my infantry. He continued to swing his Recce Troop out to his right to get into good over-watch positions where he could hit my T-72s.

Charles also deployed his ambush (four Milan Teams) and relocated them forward into the large building where they would have a target rich environment next turn.

Turn 2

In turn two, I continue my swing to the left with my BMPs, who with support from advancing infantry with RPGs make short work of Charles’ Scorpions.

My infantry continue to push in the center and Charles suddenly realizes that his Milan teams are about to be assaults before they even fire.

Fortunately for Charles, he only lost one Milan team to the Soviet infantry assault as he broke off immediate after the initial Soviet melee.

Charles’ Challengers come in on turn, right behind my T-72s as expected. Note the Sthurms waiting off to the right in the below image, knowing that the T-72s are bait that Charles’ Challengers cannot ignore.

Charles’ Challengers knock out two T-72s and long range fires from his Swingfires kill and bail a T-72 as well.

Turn 3

In turn three, my T-72s moved to flank and destroy two Challengers.  Knowing exactly where the Challengers were going to come in at. I left the T-72s in the corner so that no matter what, the surviving T-72s would be able to maneuver for flank shots.  Really Charles’ reserves needed to wait a bit longer and let his Swingfires get a turn or two more of shooting at the T-72s.

Turn 4

My infantry pushed through the large building and took the FV432 Mortar Carriers under RPG fire while my BMP-1s moved to flank Charles’ rear “gunline.”

The BMP-2s run rampant on what is left of Charles’ Recce Troop. Note how far Charles’ forces are now away from the objective in the neutral quarter.

With just three T-72s left, then last Challenger is knocked out.

By the end of turn four, it is clear that the only way Charles can keep the game going is to assault with his Mech Infantry company against my Soviet infantry in the center urban area. With way too many BMPs, ZSU-23/4 and BRDM-2s rolling around the area, this simply is not a viable option he concedes at the bottom of turn four.

Tough game for the British.  The new Challenger is a beautiful and scary beast, but it’s not going to stand up to AT22 flank shots. It’s ROF of 1 on the move to me makes it far less intimating  than a M1IP or Leo 2.

The new artillery rules had a big impact. When Charles ranged in on my infantry, I totally cleared the impact area. In most cases I was able to rally and move forward, but when I did not rally I did not hesitate to fall back. Fortunately, I only had to do this once, and it was with my “demonstrating” infantry on my right who I could afford to have fall back.

This game was not the best test of all the new kit the British have now in WW3 TY2, but as best as I can tell, the Soviet player really does not need to change tactics to face the British under the new rules and the new list. As always, maximize smoke to screen your advance and get in close as quick as possible.

In the end of the day it was a good game and I’m sure Charles will be scheming on how to use the other new British items against me in or next game.

If you played any wargaming set of rules in 15mm on a standard 1.80 x 1.20 m tables, you’ll notice every wood becomes a parking lot. With armies like Russians or Iranians, deploying dozens of BMPs or cheap Chieftains, you end up with crowds behind buildings or floods of transports hiding under every available tree. It’s not something wrong in the rules – they work just fine – but with the scale of the troops:  15mm vehicles on a standard table seem often simply too big.

We talked a lot in our local Milan “X Legio” club, and we got an idea: change the scale. From the 15mm we moved to the 6mm, less than one third, to see if the games improved. Spoiler: they did!

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

With the new version of Team Yankee now out, I can finally put some thought into Team Yankee again!    Last year I had vowed to simply stop playing V1 Team Yankee until the new rules came out, after playing my Syrians and getting confused at and 2 local events in the spring between V1 TY rules and V4 Flames rules.  My Syrians did decently despite the list being garbage and me not taking the french gear that I should (Gazelles, Milans), winning probably through weight of numbers alone and not skill or anything.

However late 2019, I acquired a US Team Yankee force in a trade and what a perfect way to get into the new army, with some new rules!   Tristan, the previous owner, had wanted a Desert Storm army, to be different than all the NATO West Germany-based MERDC forces you saw back when V1 Team Yankee first came out.    So what is more iconic than the might of America, charging across the Desert?