TY: The British Army of The Rhine Part 2

By Paolo Paglianti
Photos by the author

By Paolo Paglianti

In September 2017, I decided to paint a new “modern” army for Team Yankee. This is Part 2 of a report about my experience and my “ideas” after a full year of tournaments in North Italy and a campaign at my club.

Formation 2

The second Formation is the Mech Infantry. British foot has a really good Assualt and Counterattack value (actually, the best in the game, with 3/3), so they can hunt down even the best Russian Afghani infantry, as well the US or West German one. Their units are really big, and with the “missed” rules you can divert the enemy fire on the bases you need less. The basic Infantry unit comes with 4 general infantry bases, other 3 with Carl Gustav (AT 17 will cast fear in any armoured vehicles, except US Abrams and West German Leo 2). The mortar is a good for some handy smoke or as a swapper to save more useful bases.

But the real crucial base you want in your British army are the fundamental Milan teams. They are probably the best AT infantry weapon, and can literally kill almost every armoured vehicle in the game – you can also use them against helicopters, despite are a bit less effective.

Milan, with their low cost and AT 21, are your best friend when you will meet the Red Tide with dozens of T72s or T64s, as well as when you’ll meet unstoppable tanks like Leo 2 or the Abrams.

Another delicious addition is the wonderfully cheap Mortar platoon. For 0,5 points each, you can have 8 mortars at 4 points – a real bargain. They are useless vs armoured vehicles, but they are fantastic to pin down infantry and even killing it if caught on the move. Eight vehicles shooting means you normally hit every target a 2+.

They have one Achilles heel. They have a minimum range of 20 cm/8″. So, if you face a smart and experienced opponent, he will send his tanks rushing towards the Milan position, and then kill the infantry platoon in detail. Since Milan are a stationary weapon, you can’t effectively retreat and fire.

The way to counter this enemy tactic is to keep the Milan 20 cm behind your main line. This way, if your opponent get too close to use the Milan, you can shoot with the other troops in the flank, hit where it hurts. You can get two Milan teams per infantry, so do it. I am a bit sceptical on the single 4 Milan troop for two reasons. If they kill two units, the other two will begin to test.

The transport section with two FV432 is an easy target to acquire a full point in the final score. Much better to use the FV432 mounted Milan: you can move them better and farther, so if you lose two tanks you can get out of troubles behind a wood or a hill and avoid to lose the full platoon. These Milan FV432 sections are not good as the Swingfire, though, but they do their job.

Formation 3

The third formation is the Scout one. You can field a scout formation made up with Scorpions and Scimitars. The former are very good against medium vehicles, while the latter work better against infantry in the open. They are also very good in flanking the entire enemy line, reach the rear of the opponent formation, and kill off AA and artillery. With platoons of four tanks (don’t even think to have 2-tanks formations) you can suffer two casualties before being forced to retreat behind some solid screen, like a wood or a building. British vehicles are so small you can hide them almost everywhere.

A good addition to this Formation is the Striker Platoon. Essentially, is identical to the Swingfires you can have in the tank Formation, but here you can have 4 tanks instead of three. Also, you can keep them near the HQ unit, and swap hits with them, saving your precious Strikers. The Scout Formation is really cheap, so you can effectively have it in a 100/85 army with an Infantry or even Chieftain Formation.

SUPPORT

In my view, a full Harrier wing is mandatory in any British list, from 64 to 100 points. For 10 points, you get some heavy killers with a monster AT 8 for the top, with the Salvo. It’s one of the few TY Salvos you can reuse (ie, not “one-shot”) and Harriers arrives in your help at 3+ instead of 4+ like almost any other plane. The can annihilate with one passage all enemy artillery or even a full company of BMP2. Harriers are a good answer even to heavy tank because even the mighty Leo 2 has top armour 2, so if it’s extremely lucky is bailed out, or otherwise destroyed.

Another “must have” is the full Rapier platoon. It’s only AA, but they will keep away helicopters and plane. The Spartan Blowpipe is more useful since it can target ground vehicles, but I think it’s better to invest some points for a decent AA umbrella to cover your own vehicles. British artillery is good as the US or German: a bit cheaper since Her Majesty’s troops don’t have special ammo.

My list, and how I use it
This is the latest version of my British Army. I use this list at the Finals in Italy, and won the  Championship.

Basically, it’s an infantry army with two full platoons (each with the two Milan detachment). The two infantry troops must be deployed on the two targets normally placed in your half of the table. Once they are dug in, they are almost invulnerable and can fight off almost any enemy. The only true menace could mass charge with Leo 2 or Abrams since they can’t be stopped with Gustav. For this reason, you should have the Milan slightly behind the infantry line in a position you can shoot over their heads (as explained before).

The scout detachment, Scorpions and Scimitars, should be deployed deep in the no one lands if the scenario allows. Remember they “project” the deployment zone, so you can also deploy other troops in advance positions. The scouts are the expendable units: you should send this behind the enemy line, to shoot tanks in the flanks or, even better, to kill of artillery and AA units. Once you kill AA units, you can safely use Harriers to bombard each target you need to annihilate.

The single Chieftain platoon should be placed in ambush: the rules for ambush are really generous, so you can make them appear in the half the enemy is attacking once he deployed and began the assault. Remember, Chieftain flanks are really weak, so they need to stay the farthest possible from the enemy, trying to receive the hits on the frontal armour.

Meanwhile, you can use the mortar platoon to pin down enemy infantry and kill them if they dare to exit from their holes. Abbots are a bit more useful to hit armoured vehicles and are even better in killing infantry with direct fire thanks to “brutal” ability (shared with the Chieftains) since they force a double save on infantry and vehicles with no armour.

Since the British are good at defence, when you use the More Missions matrix you should always choose “Defend”. The only exception is when you face Americans or West Germans: they have Thermal, so they will probably attack night time and enjoy a further -1 to hit. For this reason, with US or WG opponent it’s better to Attack – they normally have a smaller army and suffer a full-scale attack on one flank.

Reserves

The list has 10 units. For this reason, you don’t count the first loss for the score. Also, if the scenario, while you attack or defend, asks you to keep half of your units in reserve, you should deploy the two infantries, the Chieftains, the Rapier and the Harrier. This allows you to stay on defence effectively, waiting for the other units to come – the scouts will reach the enemy really fast. [Editor’s note: with the new FAQ’s rules, you can’t enter with Blitz moves and so we removed the note about Artillery arriving on the table and shooting immediatly – thanks Soren!].

If the scenario asks for an objective to be taken, just shoot to everything in sight until you are safe to move one of the two infantries to the less defended objective. Your British foot soldiers are one of the best arms in the game, and can’t be killed easily except in caught in the open. so try to pass from terrain to terrain – houses are the best since they provide solid defence.

If you play at 85 or 100, you can use this list as a base and add – for example – with a Scout formation, giving access to the mighty Striker platoon.

Fv432 Mech

• FV432 Mech Platoon HQ:  1 pt
• Chieftain troop:  three tanks – 18 pts
• FV432 Mech Platoon (with two Milan) 9pts
• FV432 Mech Platoon (with two Milan) 9pts
• FV432 Mortar: eight vehicles – 4pts
• Spartan Mobile: four vehicles – 4pts
• Abbot Battery: four vehicles – 6pts
• Scimitar Recce: four vehicles – 4pts

Iron Division Support

• Scorpion: four vehicles – pts
• Rapier: four vehicles – 6 pts
• Harrier: four planes – 10 pts

Total 75