Team Yankee Battle Report: Hungary vs Texas NG Bridgehead 120pts

by Dennis ‘Matt Varnish’ Campbell

Well, its not exactly your classic Team Yankee Match-Up:  Hungarian People’s Army vs the Texas National Guard, but here it is. Scott ‘Obsidian23’ Roach has been busy over the holidays finishing off his Hungarians (plays as Soviets in terms of list used) and since he has Hungarians for Flames of War and Bolt Action, why not for Team Yankee as well?

We decided to play 120pts, which is the new North American tournament standard, as we have a semi-local event in April, and I will be using my M1 company that I’ve been working on over the holidays ().

“We’re getting recalled to Europe, should we pack any ammo?” “Nah, I’m sure they have some there for us to use”

While I had initially planned in my previous article to run Team Yankee Alpha Company, I decided to follow advice from the Facebook Team Yankee pages and ditch my Mech Platoon and 1 of the 2 HQ tanks for more support.  Here is what I ended up taking:

HQ M1, three platoons of 4x M1’s, two sections of Scouts, one section of ITVs, 3x M106 Mortars and 4x VADS Air Defence.  All the M1’s are stock.

Scott’s list with added T-62Ms.  Lot of AT missiles in this list.

 

Looks so good.  Scott says he will add Hungarian decals to the rest of his vehicles bar the ‘Soviet Allies’

Since Scott had set up a nice European board, I opted to Defend on the Battle Plans, it just felt right to be caught napping as Reservists vs the Hungarians in Western Europe.   We can just say this desert painted force didn’t have time to repaint before getting called back in a REFORGER.

We rolled on the Battle Plans matrix and ended up with Bridgehead… I had 5 minefield tokens but had to chuck an M1 platoon plus support into Scattered Delayed Reserves while a third M1 platoon was put into Ambush.  Leaving me not much on the board, with objectives hot from the get-go.   **EDIT**  We used Scatterd Delayed when it should have been Immediate DEEP Scattered, my apologies and thanks to those who have pointed it out.  I guess we can just say that I got my turn 1 reserves roll and my  2nd platoon of M1’s rolled out to engange the T-62s’ flank!

 

Pardoning my editting skills, you can see the deployment zones and how I Spearheeded Scouts and ITVs up on the left hilltop and on his first turn he started moving up as indicated by the arrows.

 

A nuance from Version 2.0 of Team Yankee: All helos must deploy, they can no longer start from Loiter like before.  He has first turn but still, in other missions it makes Helo’s a tad less versatile.

 

Scott had on my left flank the Mi-24s, Shilkas and T-64s armed with Songster missiles.

 

Center-left hill was guarded by these Storms

Center-right had 5 more T-64s plus the T-64 HQ tank and the Carnation OP vehicle in the woods

Close-up of the PRP-3 turret I built for him when I built mine for my Syrians.   I figure, if I’m going to use a BMP-1 hull to make an OP vehicle, why not make the real thing?

The Motor Rifles advance with their transports and BRDM recce since hedges and hills shielded them from my M1 platoon.

Extreme right flank has Spearheading BMP-1 recce allowing the T-62Ms to press up a flank.

A better overview of the situation, I only have a token defensive force until reserves start Turn 3..

Only because I was working on them all week, I used my HQ M113 and M981 models for my Scout section.  They would be the first models killed, of course.

 

VADS deploy centrally and my M1s can react left or right.

Scott’s infantry dash up and follow me to be close to the 2-story office building, that once occupied, will be within range of one objective and providing safety from my tanks (as I can’t assault into the buildings

Shilka’s and Storms shoot and needing 6’s to hit, kill both ITVs.   T-64s manage to kill my Scout (I was able to Mistaken Target the hit from the ITV to the M113)   Mi-24s shoot at M1’s after shrugging off 28 shots from my VADS.

In return, my M1s deploy from Ambush and move up to this hedge, and with eight shots into the T-62Ms, killed 4 bailed 1.

The M1s in the center take long-range shots at the center group of T-64s inflicting 3 bailouts.   The lone ITV remounts passes Motivation, and snipes out a T-64!

Emboldened by their survival on turn 1, Turn 2, the Mi-24s now take aim at the VADS. With 28 more shots hitting on 3+ in defensive fire, I still manage zero kills. Starting to suspect a Hungarian Agent has managed to make sure training rounds got loaded in the VADS…

“Operation ‘Paprika’ is success,  over and out”

Scott has to make his push towards both objectives.  Left-side T-64s advance, with Storms covering.

View from the PRP-3 OP vehicle down the main road to my M1’s   The T-64s missiles start to take their toll, taking out another M1   In hindsight, Scott could have advanced closer under cover of a smoke mission from the Carnations who apart from a few hits, did not cause too much trouble (plus Soviet ranging skills….)

Of course 2 of my VADS did not remount.  Of course, on turn 3, the two remaining VADS still could not hit the broadside of a barn even with 7 shots each….

Overhead view of the table at mid-game.

Mi-24 Hinds reposition to tackle the M1’s on the small hill.   He would miss with the AT-6 ‘Spirals’

The M1’s are immune to BMP1’s, and there were too few BMP2’s hitting on 5+s to make a dent, I made my armour saves.

The crunchy core of my force, the left side M1’s need to pass cross checks into the woods to contest the objective by the railroad track, while the M1’s on the right are actually perfectly safe from all the infantry in that office building, thanks to Chobham armour vs his RPGs

Scott’s last gasp:   Mi-24 missile need to hit read of M1’s but miss…

At least the Shilkas chased my lone ITV and then killed off the last bailed out VADS in my backfield..

But he would miss every shot with his AT-22 guns into those 3 M1’s. He would have won if he could have killed them as he started the turn on that objective.

Final overhead view

View from the Hungarian side of the border..

Well, it certainly was an entertaining game, Scott conceded at this point, knowing he had missed his chance to take the win by wasting all his good luck on his Mi-24s and not having any with his Tanks vs my M1’s.

We took our time checking rules, learning some new things such as:  Aircraft cannot target any Danger Close teams with ANY weapon, not just bombardment weapons like in V1, that helos have to deploy on the table now, they can’t just start from Loiter like they used to, and of course, to never let Hungarian sleeper agents anywhere near your Air Defence manned by National Guardsmen, lest your shots do nothing, not to mention the increase in STD cases the battalion medics will have to treat 😉

As always, here is the video of the battle: 

 

Matt Varnish, AKA Dennis Campbell, plays Team Yankee, Flames of War, and Black Powder and now Ancients in the frozen wastes of Canadia. Check out my youtube channel for hundreds of :