The Nam Book Finally Bring TY EW and V4 Together

Many people understand that the Team Yankee (TY) rules were essentially the Beta version of the Flames of War (FOW) V4 rules. The refinements of the TY rules into V4 were mostly positive.  The frustrations came for players who play both games. The rules were similar enough that players (including me) were often confused as we switched between the rulesets.  We are all used to playing multiple rule sets and keeping them straight. But, when the rules systems are this close to each other, trying to remember if you made a Dash or Tactical Move when breaking off from an assault is difficult to do.

Many were hoping that the new version of the TY rules was going to take TY to V2 and make it rules capable with FOW V4, but that is not going to happen just yet. Instead, TY Early War (‘NAM and Fate of a Nation) is going to start that integration. Early War (EW) for TY means the 1960’s and ’70s.  This makes sense as there was a huge difference between Generation 2 tanks and Generation 3 tanks.  If you are not familiar with the generations of tanks, According to the article linked above, there is no clear definitive date for the transition from Generation Two to Generation Three tanks. Instead, the switch occurs with composite armor and computerized stabilized fire control. The Leopard 2 (1979) and the M1 Abrams (1980) are two of the early developments in Generation Three.

Team Yankee MW then picks up with Generation Three and runs up to the present era. Pete from BattleFront revealed to us at Historicon that there is no LW era defined yet.  I know there is some talk of that on the forums, but where would you break that timeline?  No significant technological break that I can think of that would segregate the vehicles and weapons used.

What do these TY EW rules look like? Well, a lot like V4, but not 100%. Let’s go through the differences.  I’m going to do them in order to their importance to the game IMHO.

Artillery:

Repeat Bombardments cause Infantry and gun teams to re-roll their saves.  This is a huge change as most people have found artillery pretty useless so far in TY, except for Copperhead rounds.  With this change, infantry cannot simply sit in their foxholes and deny terrain or protect objectives.  Having to re-roll saves means that the infantry will fail 2/3rd of the time and then be subject to the FP roll which tends to be pretty good in TY.

Easier to Hit Number

While ranging in becomes slightly harder by adding the unit +1 for concealment and night and no bonus for an observer, the actual to hit number is much better. Instead of remembering six different factors that might add to your to hit roll, it is now simply +1 for ranging in on the second attempt and +2 for the third attempt. Your bonus for having a large battery of five or more guns? Simply that you get to re-roll misses which is typically better than the old +1. Conversely, 1 or 2 gun batteries must re-roll hits making them fairly ineffective.

Commanders:

Command Distance: Teams are within command if they are within 6″ for units of six teams or less and within 8″ for larger units. The “Line Abreast” 16” rule is gone and should eliminate the arguments of what in-line actually meant.

Formation Commander Benefits: As before, commanders can give their superior stat numbers to attempts to Rally, Remount, and Morale – now called Last Stand. However, they no longer can help units for Skill or Courage rolls. This is a significant change as I would always have my commander join a unit assaulting to get a better roll to hit in assault with their typically superior skill number.  There is an upside though, now the commander can apply his stats to ALL units within eight inches, instead of just one. The positioning of your Formation Commander just became a lot more important.

Morale:

Checking Formation Morale:  A big change between TY and V4 was that a player got to try and remount vehicles and then see if the formation was in bad spirits and must roll to hang around.  With Vietnam, that now applies to TY.  This is a big change, mainly for the Free World player, since a formation of 2 vehicles is not necessarily checking to stick around simply because one of the vehicles was Bailed Out.  A platoon of two Patton tanks has a much better chance of sticking around now.  I can’t wait until they import this rule into TY MW as my M-1 platoons with a 2+ remount will not run away nearly as often.

Formation Commander:  The Formation Commander no longer runs away with the unit if he joins to increase their Morale and they fail anyway.Cleverly position your Formation Commander to be able to join several units and he can help all of them stick around without worrying about losing him in the process.

Sole Survivor: Doesn’t exist anymore.  Your single infantry stands are safe to wander the table for all eternity.

Movement:

Bogging Down: Find another use for your bogged down markers as there is no need for them any longer with ‘NAM.  You still have to make a Cross Check for moving in difficult terrain, but if you fail, you simply stop moving.

That means that the failed team is still free to shoot or fight in an assault.  This should make players much less afraid of moving through terrain.  The new rule eliminates an often used tactic of infantry assaulting a tank unit that is mostly bogged, since there won’t be as much defensive fire and those bogged vehicles couldn’t fight back. Sometimes, I would even assault tanks with top armor 2 knowing that all I had to do was get the enemy to fail a morale check in an assault and the bogged teams would be left behind and destroyed. With the new rules, those tanks can fight back.

Breaking Off Move: A significant change for the better is that when vehicles must break off from an assault they no longer must make a Dash move, but can make a Tactical Move instead.  Why is this important?  Because a Dash move means you must finish your move in the direction of the move – thus exposing your ass to the enemy.  I have had M-1s assault a Soviet platoon that couldn’t hurt them, then have to flee due to a failed counterattack. They would be facing away from where they had been, then destroyed by RPGs.  This gets TY back in line with what we were used to in FOW where your tanks can simply back off with their good Front AT still facing the enemy and try again next round.

Miscellaneous:

There are some subtle changes, such as rolling for Strike Aircraft AFTER rolling for Reserves [which was corrected in the FM101 for TY MW]. In the TY MW order, you can’t get Strike Aircraft to come in from reserve and then deploy on table as the aircraft roll came before rolling for reserves and making it a two turn process to get them in. Now it is corrected to get a chance for that.  Also, friendly tanks and guns cannot move through other tanks or guns.  This will be important in ‘Nam as there are a lot of rice paddy dikes and jungle trails where one vehicle will block the way unless it is destroyed.  Look for some minor changes in distances too.

The unique Vietnam Victory Conditions and the Medevac rules have not changed.

All in all, I think most players will be pleased with the changes and, speaking personally, I can go back to playing FOW V4 and TY EW and not get confused by which set of rules I am thinking of during the game.  Can’t wait until they apply these changes to TY MW, but remember that TY V2 is still probably at least a couple of years off.