FoW Team Yankee pics from Spiel Essen

Last weekend, I went to Spiel Essen, one of the premier board games conventions in the world.

Aside from board games, there's also a wargaming presence. One of the companies that tranditionally has a stand there is Battlefront, the makers of Flames of War.

This year, they had a whole bunch of previews for one of their upcoming releases, Team Yankee.

This ruleset is a streamlined version of the Flames of War rules that focuses on a hypothetical scenario: what if the cold war "went hot" in the mid-1980s.

The forces in the initial release will be based on those from the novel "Team Yankee" by Harold Coyle. This means US versus Soviets in southern Germany. 

One of the ways things have changed is that units will now have reference cards which contain their stats, points values and special rules so they're easy to check.

They had a whole bunch of these at Spiel and I managed to take decent pictures of most of them. I also got to read part of the rulebook.

A few of these have been spoiled on Breakthrough Assault since I took these pictures, but I left them in anyway.

However, we start off with a card that doesn't contain unit stats:

Instead, we get a couple of special movement options units will apparently have in this ruleset.
They offer improved mobility options, but only if you pass a skill check. Which means that more skilled troops are better at using these advanced tactics as well, which makes sense. I do think the restriction of being close to the command team is going to be tricky.

The Blitz move could be really devastating if used well, for example to have a unit with anti-tank guided missiles (ATGMs) which can only fire from the halt pop up and shoot anyway. Of course, the penalty for failing this check is pretty harsh as well.
Follow Me! reminds me strongly of Avanti! and similar special rules used by a few countries in FoW. A simple option if you want some extra movement and weren't planning to shoot anyway. This one would be especially useful if it can be used after a Dash movement.
Shoot and Scoot is basically a Stormtrooper move. Who doesn't wish their non-German troops could make those? Well, in the 1980s, they can.
Cross Here allows extra mobility across difficult terrain, always useful to have.
Dig In is as might be expected, although the distance restriction could be tricky here as well. I'll have to see how this works out when we've got the full rulebook to look at.

The M113 FIST is a pretty simple artillery observer unit that makes your bombardments more accurate, including those from ground-attack aircraft. Pretty cheap, so I suspect it will make it into many lists.

The M109 is the main self-propelled artillery unit for US forces in this era with some pretty solid bombardment stats and access to a variety of advanced munitions which look like they'll significantly increase the unit's tactical options, though you gotta pay some points for them.
Bomblets still have some things unclear about them, but I suspect that they either increase template size or count as more guns in exchange for that decrease in AT and firepower.
Laser-guided ammo makes these SPGs pretty nasty against enemy heavy armour as well, although they'll still be rather fragile.
Minelets are something rather different as well. Those mines they place might be an excellent way to limit the enemy's mobility, especially if they're placed on a road or the like.

Also note that a unit can now fire only a single smoke bombardment per game.
These smoke bombardments are now simply a line that blocks LoS in a way similar to forests in FoW; you need to be within 6"/15cm to see each other through them in this ruleset, which means smoke munitions will be rather useful in blocking off critical lines of fire for that critical turn where you make your advance through them.

The M901 will be the US long-range anti-tank option for when you can't afford to bring along a bunch of Abrams.
They seem pretty fragile, but with their range and the ability to stay hidden while firing they seem an effective cheap option to scare off those T-72s.

Speaking of scaring off, the M163 will likely be a pretty common sight in US forces, using its Vulcan autocannon to deflect Soviet airpower.

M106 heavy mortars will be the cheap US artillery option, nothing really special about them.

The A-10 has been previewed by Breakthrough Assault since I took this picture. It's looking to be a pretty brutal air unit, although a full flight of 4 will cost you one-fifth of your points total in a standard 100-point game. Quite a hefty investment.

Where the US have the M163, the Soviets have the Shilka. Pretty similar in role and execution and I expect we'll be seeing this iconic unit pop up in a lot of Soviet forces as a cheap AA option.

Then we have the SU-25. More fragile than the A-10 and with a less powerful autocannon, but considerably cheaper and with the potential for a bigger unit.
This is one of those units I can see myself fielding pretty often, even if only minimum-sized to keep the enemy AA assets honest.

Then we have another icon of the Cold War, the Hind. This baby got previewed by the Breakthough Assault guys as well, but it's a really interesting unit. Not only does it provide mobile but powerful AT and a bombardment, it can also transport some infantry.

Specifically, this infantry.
Not too different from the troops in BMP motorized units, but without integrated LMG and AA teams. Still, dropping these off in a critical location could be quite useful.
Another good reason to bring along proper AA as a US player.

Where the US have their M106, the Soviets have something that's basically a modern Katyusha; a set of rocket tubes mounted on the back of a truck.
Fragile, but capable of delivering a considerable amount of firepower (including smoke), this is another unit I'm expecting to see in a lot of Soviet forces. However, they might be a bit fragile against airstrikes or counter-battery fire.

BMP-1 OP; like the M113 FIST for the US, this will probably be a common way to give your artillery that little bit of extra effectiveness.
Note that this observer vehicle is missing most of the firepower a normal BMP-1 has.

Soviets also have recon units, although their role seems to have changed in TY; the new Spearhead rule apparently allows you to expand your deployment zone, which fits the recce role and makes me really curious to see the full implementation of that rule.

Once the game has started, a couple of BMP-2s without a pile of infantry for them to support will probably be quite useful as well. They could threaten armoured advances with their AT-5 missiles, hunt helicopters and light vehicles with their 30mm autocannons and generally be a nuisance to the enemy. All that for less points than a single M1 Abrams.

The BMP-1 recon version seems to be the low-budget alternative, mostly useful against light vehicles and infantry once their recon duties have been performed.

Their usefulness will probably depend on the way that Spearhead rule works.

All in all, this is looking really interesting. This is one ruleset I'll almost certainly be buying into on release, specifically with Soviets at first.

There has already been word that British and West Germans will be next after the initial release, which means that some Leopards might be making their way to me once available as well.