By Tom Gall

Images by Tom Gall and Troy Hill, some courtesy of BattleFront

World War III

Team Yankee is a WWIII miniatures game set in approx the 1980s covering almost all aspects of modern warfare tanks, missiles, helicopters, strike aircraft, RPGs, it’s all in there.

The game over the past few years has matured substantially with forces that cover NATO (US, UK, ANZAC, Canada, French, Dutch, West Germans), WARPAC (Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia) and Mideast nations including Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Israel.

This article is all about version 2. What’s new? What stays the same?  Throw some screaming big hair metal/punk/rock power tunes into the stereo, crack open a can of new coke and let’s get to it.

The Dream of the Blue Turtles

When Battlefront released Team Yankee it was prior to v4 of Flames of War. Then, many looked to the Team Yankee rules as a spoiler for what was coming in the Flames of War v4 update. What was delivered while sharing many design elements of Flames of War, Team Yankee has many of its own qualities.  As such players of both Flames v4 and the original Team Yankee have had to keep differences straight in their heads. A constant at tournaments where phrases like “o that’s Team Yankee” or “you’re thinking FOW v4.”

With the version 2 update, Team Yankee retains a number of its unique characteristics that gives it the flavor of modern combat but also aligns more tightly with Flames of War v4 rules. It’s a most welcome update and as we visit each one of the changes I think you’ll agree it’s the right direction for the game.

List Building

You may now field compulsory combat units (ie black box units) from the formations as support in your national force diagram. It doesn’t open you up from cherry-picking a single powerful unit from another nation, it does, however, grant players the ability to pull something in from their own nationality to augment their force. The unit is a support unit so it doesn’t help your overall formation morale.

Thus, if you want to field Americans next to French, you’ll still need a complete formation of each. It’s important to note that within the force diagrams the words “you may field one” Nato formation as an allied formation.

Turn Sequence

While the had modified elements of the turn sequence especially the starting step, with V2, the clean up is complete.

The overall sequence and the sub-steps is essentially the same as FOW. The starting step now becomes Bailed out Tanks, Rally Pinned down units, Check unit morale, Check formation morale, Reveal ambushes, Roll for reserves, Roll for Strike aircraft, Remove smoke. Note the check victory conditions step is removed deferring instead to the mission briefing. With having explicit points when you’d check victory conditions, v2 removes any confusion.

The impact of the change is two-fold. With morale checks no longer at the end of the shooting step, units will have a chance to get back into good spirits prior to checking if a roll is needed for unit morale. For those nations with a 5+ roll to see if they stick around (like the French) this will help make those units stronger.

It also enables units that are in poor spirits to stick around for one more assault step which could make all the more difference for holding on to that objective just a bit longer.

Morale

In the original Team Yankee, breaking a formation’s morale was difficult. Only one unit needed to be in good spirits, now in v2, formation morale is adjusted to require two units (including HQ, excluding transports, excluding support) to be in good spirits. For those fielding more than one formation, this adds more pressure during list building to make sure a good round of shooting won’t result in the formation fleeing the table.

Another welcome change, the formation commander no longer needs to join a unit to grant a benefit for the unit morale test. Now they just need to be within 6″ of the unit leader in question which grants a re-roll. Additionally, should the re-roll fail, the formation commander does not get removed from the game.

Assaults

While assaulting in TYv2 didn’t see much of a change, one step, the “Push into enemy positions” step is now gone. In v1, when a team destroyed another team, you could immediately occupy the space that the destroy team had been in, wrecks excluded of course.

Another change is during the break off, prior in v1 a unit would move at the dash speed the shortest distance to be 4″ away. In v2 this changes to a tactical move which using the shortest distance to be 6″ away from the enemy. Thanks to Christian for suggesting I go back and relook at that!

Artillery

With v2, artillery sees a number of changes that will amp up their usefulness on the battlefield.

When ranging in there is now +1 modifier when the template is over the top of terrain. Observers retain their +1 bonus to range in and unit leaders retain their ability to spot for artillery.

When rolling to hit artillery goes to the v4 FOW style where if the battery has 1-2 guns, you must confirm hits and if you have more than 5 guns firing, you are able to re-roll misses.

Repeat bombardments infantry teams must re-roll saves. (And there was much much much rejoicing.) This is probably the biggest change in v2. Rooting out dug in infantry has been a long standing challenge in the game. Having something that can address Milan spam without resorting to taking risks with brutal guns is deeply appreciated. Infantry is still super valuable, but now artillery is all the more worth the points you spend.

AA MG

One substantial change tucked away on page 69 involves AA MG fire at helicopters and strike aircraft. When shooting at them and the helicopter or strike aircraft fail their save, you must confirm firepower rolls!  This is a very important boost to both helicopters and strike aircraft.

Many a game I’ve taken some amount of comfort in the AAMGs on the top of my Soviet tanks. Between the volume of fire and the 5+ firepower roll, taking out a plane or helicopter or two wasn’t hard to achieve. This will no longer be the case and certainly will affect list building. Spending points to include more dedicated AA assets will be important as well the siren song of spending points on strike aircraft and/or more helicopters.

Formation Commanders

Formation commanders that are within 6″ of unit leaders also grant re-rolls for Counterattack, Rally, Remount, besides just Morale.

Support units who have a unit leader within 6″ of ANY formation commander are given re-rolls for Counterattack, Rally, Remount, and Morale. Being in the rear with the gear to help keep essential artillery and AA assets on table can be very important!

Combat Rock

What didn’t change?

• Cards! All the unit cards you have now are good to go with version 2. No points changes. No modifications. What’s on the shelf in all the stores across the entire planet are valid. I have to applaud Battlefront for resisting temptation and not making changes here.
• Books!  All the books you have or have been eyeing on the shelf at your FLGS, they’ll still in the game, no changes, keep using them! Of course, we know new books are coming, and I’m certainly not looking forward to facing those new British tanks.
• Movement – The system of movement orders, dashes, tactical, all of it is unchanged.
• Shooting – Same as before. You know it. You love it.

The Final Cut

The updated rule book is, in my opinion, an ‘auto’ buy.  It’s a very good evolution of a very fun game.

For the veteran player, the lists you’ve known and loved are all still there with the new added ability to mix in compulsory combat units. Artillery is amped up to counter infantry heavy lists more effectively.  The effectiveness of AAMG fire is reduced. You have the ability to include black box units from your nationality as a support option. Formation commanders provide re-rolls. Time to go back and reexamine how you construct your lists as these are a set of changes that will refresh the meta.

For the new player, Team Yankee continues to be a fun modern warfare miniatures game with a great community, lots of options for nations to play, great models to build and play with, easy to learn rules with a solid company behind it all.