Team Yankee by the Analytics V4

By Howard West

The original Team Yankee Analytics was published on January 22nd, 2021 Team Yankee Analytics V2 was published on August 13, 2021, and Team Yankee Analytics V3 was published on July 2022.

The base premise behind these articles was to answer the question: can a person who plays a miniatures war game use some basic data collection to keep track of their performance in tournament play, over a specific period to improve tournament results based on previous tournament games?

The original article had data from 50 tournament games from the summer of 2018 thru August 2020, V2 added 34 more tournament games thru August 2021. Team Yankee Analytics V3 added 30 more tournament games thru June 2022, and V4 adds 26 games thru January 2023. My data set now consists of 140 games.

So what is new in V4?

Since V1 Team Yankee Analytics, I have been asked the following questions several times and in different ways. “Have you seen any trends of armies being used”? Yes, I have noticed certain armies being played more frequently since the publishing of new books, I just may have not played against them. The basis of these articles has been what I have faced vs what is at the tournament. So I added a trend section and took a stab at answering that question.

So, let’s start with the definition of Analytics.

The Business Dictionary defines Analytics; as the study of past historical data to research potential trends.

Type of Data that has been collected?

When I originally started collecting the data in July 2018, I wanted to answer can I monitor the performance of a new Team Yankee Army. I felt that if I was going to make a financial and time investment to purchase and build a new Team Yankee Army. Could I gain an understanding of the types of armies that I would oppose, how often I Attack vs Defend, and what was the mission? Did they have Air? What kind of Tank team did they have?

To answer those types of questions, I started writing down some simple consistent notes about each of my games. The following is what I have collected for each of my Team Yankee tournament games since July 2018:

• Date and Location of the tournament
• What was the mission?
• Did I attack or defend?
• What was the opponent’s army’s nationality?
• Did the opponents have Armor? If yes what types of tank units did they have?
• Did the opponents have air? If yes what types of air units did they have?
• What was the # of points used?

# of points used for each Tournament

The chart below reflects the points used for each of the 44 tournaments that generated the 140 Team Yankee Games. Currently the 90-99 and Variable have been the most popular point tournaments that I have played.

Note on Variable: Variable means that the TO has set different point values for each of the rounds.

What was the mission?

The Chart Below illustrates the % of the Mission types that have been played over the last 140 Team Yankee games. When you compare the current 140 missions that have been played to the prior three versions of this article, you will notice the downward change in the top 5 missions as more of the new missions have been played from the Team Yankee Missions Pack. The Top 4 missions played account for 53% of all of the games that have been played.

 

Note: The Team Yankee Missions Pack was used in all of the recent tournaments the Tournament Organizers (TOs) have been using the Extended Battle Plans Matrix. In some cases, they may limit or mandate the number of Attack, Defend, or Maneuver stances for each tournament or may provide the Missions.

Did I Attack or Defend?

The chart above illustrates the % of the time that I Attacked vs Defended. This chart reflects a 2% increase in the % that I attacked vs the V3 article. Since the V3 article, I had been playing lists with Czech Tank formations paired with either an East German or Soviet BMP Formation. Recently I have been playing a Soviet VDV formation with a Soviet BMP formation.

Opponent’s Armies Nationality?

The chart above illustrates the % of times that I faced a specific nation. Based on the location of the tournaments that I have entered, the entry still leans very heavily toward the NATO faction.  The 77% vs 23% NATO vs Warsaw Pact is pretty consistent with my first three articles.

Since the previous articles, I have faced multiple different Israeli players, which accounts for the near doubling of the games vs Israelis. Also, I have seen more players using light formations for their 2nd or allied formations such as American LAV Companies, Light Attack Companies, and Light Cavalry Troops. Also as expected I have seen more West German Marder-2 Formations. This knowledge has defiantly helped me with list construction as my opponents’ army’s meta changes.

Note on the above chart data: The above data only represents the nationality of the core formation of my opponent’s lists and does not account for an Allied formation that might be in my opponent’s list in a specific game. EX: the United States with a West German Ally. Also, this only reflects what I have played against vs what army’s maybe be entered at the tournament.

What have I been playing?

Since V1 Team Yankee Analytics and after the subsequent versions, several people have asked me if have I seen a trend of what is being played. So I have looked at that question a different way and have I seen a trend as Battlefront brings out new books for Team Yankee? So based on the tournaments that I have played in and what I have faced.

The table below shows what I have played against since Q3-2018. Also over half of these tournaments are local events that have a lot of the same people entered for each tournament. Most of them have a TY army that they play and not all of them have multiple armies. So that affects the variability of what I can play against locally. What I have seen is that since the Team Yankee Warsaw Pact and Red Dawn starter army sets have come out, newer players are starting with Soviet or Warsaw Pact armies.

Also, a few veteran Team Yankee NATO players are starting to build Soviet or Warsaw Pact armies. I have just not been matched up with them. This is a big change in our area and the tournaments that I travel to, compared to the past when most of our new players started with a NATO-themed army. Also, we have started to see multiple new and existing players build West German armies or allied formations.

What’s Next?

In several weeks you will see a new article from me on Team Yankee points used vs completed games. I get this question a lot from readers of my previous articles and from people at tournaments that state we should use fewer points to get more games completed or we should use more points to afford the new units that are in some of the newer books.

This article will attempt to answer that with data from a group of tournaments, that have taken place in our gaming area. This article will also show a much better picture of what is being played at tournaments vs what I have faced.

Summary:

Collecting the data and storing it in something like Excel was pretty easy, you do not need to be an Excel guru to build the charts and graphs that I have enclosed. The collected data and the results from the analysis of that data have helped me construct better lists. This same approach could be used for Flames of War.

One thing to remember is that your results will vary based on what your opponents are playing in the tournaments that you play in.

Send me your questions or ideas on what you might want to see added, I normally reply in a few days.

Good luck with your Team Yankee Analytics, see you in about 25 to 35+ games for V5.