Team Yankee Battle Report 1; Proxy War

With the rules for Battlefront's new Team Yankee Cold War now fully available if you know where to look (hint: it involves friendly local gaming stores) I decided to try a relatively simple test game to see how things work.

There were a few problems with this, though:

1. I didn't have the proper minis for any of the vehicles I'd want to use. So, time for proxies.
2. I don't have any proper wargaming terrain at home; that's all at the FLGS. Fortunately, I had some stuff to improvise with.
3. I didn't have an opponent. Easily solved by playing both sides, with some helpful tactical input from a few anonymous posters on a certain imageboard.

The forces used would be like this:

Red Banner Tank Division

BMP Motor Rifle Battalion

HQ AK-74 and BMP-2 - 2 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and a reversed T-34/76

BMP-2 Motor Rifle Company: 4 AK-74, 3 RPG-7, 4 BMP-2 - 8 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and reversed T-34/76s

BMP-2 Motor Rifle Company: 4 AK-74, 3 RPG-7, 4 BMP-2 - 8 points - proxied with WW2 Soviet infantry and reversed T-34/76s

2S1 SP Howitzer Battery: 3 2S1 - 5 points - proxied with reversed T-34/85s

T-72 Company: 6 T-72 - 27 points - proxied with T-55s

25th Armoured Division

M1 Abrams Armoured Combat Team

HQ: 1 M1 Abrams - 8 points - proxied with a M48 Patton

M1 Abrams Platoon: 2 Abrams - 16 points - proxied with M48 Pattons

M1 Abrams Platoon: 2 Abrams - 16 points - proxied with M48 Pattons

M113 Mech Platoon: 4 SAW, 4 Dragon, 4 M113 - 7 points - proxied with Canadian infantry and turretless welded-hull Shermans

M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon: 3 M106 - 3 points - proxied with turretless cast-hull Shermans

Both sides have 50 points of units. All are part of their formations, with no support units from the larger organisation.

So, what would the battlefield look like?

Like this:

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.

Flames of War Battle Report 7; Red Army Strelkovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Well, it's time for some more Flames of War, this time for the Infantry/Mech escalation league we just started at out local store, De Purperen Draak in Groningen.

In fact, this was the first game played for it, with six more played over the course of the day by a bunch of our local players.

In the first month, we're playing 500-point games on smaller tables, with no Support Platoons allowed. Only HQ, Combat and Weapons platoons.

Hopefully, there will be a bunch of additional battle reports in the next few weeks.

If people are interested, I could also do a series where I showcase the different forces used by the various players in the league.

My apologies for the mediocre quality of some of the pictures; I only had my phone camera available.

In this game, we ended up playing Breakthrough.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Red Army) - Confident Trained

HQ: CC Rifle, 2iC Rifle, Bat Kommissar, 4 PTRD AT Rifles. (2 PTRDs attached aan elke Strelk unit)

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 SMG

Strelk Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, 7 Rifle/MG

HMG Company: Cmd RIfle, 3 Maksim HMG

Mortar Company: CMd Rifle, 6 82mm mortars

My opponent was fielding the following:

Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadierkompanie - Confident Veteran

HQ - 2x Cmd SMG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd MG team, 4x MG teams

Combat platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x MG42 HMG

Weapons platoon - 1 Cmd SMG team, 2x observers, 4x 8cm GW34 mortars

We rolled off to determine attacker/defender and the Red Army would be trying to break through a German encirclement to connect to their troops in a pocket.

German infantry units are trying to close the gap, but the troops in the pocket are moving in to reinforce.

Flames of War battle report 6; Guards Strelkovy vs Panzerspähkompanie

Last weekend I co-organised and played in a local FoW tournament at de Purperen Draak, the place to be for miniature wargaming in the northern Netherlands.

We were playing 1500 points, Late War.
I ended up playing in the first round only, but that game was pretty interesting.

The scenario was Free-for-all.

I was playing the following list:

Strelkovy Batalon (Guards) - Fearless Trained

HQ: CC, 2iC Rifle, Komissar, 4x PTRD

Strelkovy Company: Cmd Rifle/MG, Komissar, 7x Rifle/MG, 7x SMG, Maksim HMG

Strelkovy Company: Cmd RIfle/MG, 7x Rifle/MG, Maksim HMG

Scout Platoon: 5x SMG

Heavy Mortar Company: Cmd Rifle, Observer Rifle, 6x 120-PM-38 mortar

Guards Heavy Tank Company: 3x IS-2 obr 1943

Tank Destruction Company: Cmd Rifle, 4x 57mm ZiS-2

Mini Review: Plastic Soldier Company 15mm IS-2

Currently, I'm doing more painting than playing, although that should change with a local Flames of War tournament coming up.

While I'm painting/modeling, I'll be putting up some reviews for a few of the kits I'm working on.

This starts today with the unit I've finished most recently; a company of IS-2 obr 1943 heavy tanks in 15mm scale for use in FoW.

Flames of War battle report 5; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

After our previous game ended pretty quickly, my opponent and I decided to have another go after dinner, this time on another scenario which would probably be used in the upcoming tournament.

This time, we would be playing Breakthrough.
Neither of us had played this scenario before, so this was going to be interesting.

Flames of War battle report 4; Guards Tankovy vs FHH Panzergrenadiers

Another week, another couple of games of FoW played.

This week, me and one other local player played a pair of games as preparation for an upcoming local tournament which will be 1500 points Late War.

My apologies in advance for the poor quality of some of the pictures; I had to use my mobile phone to take them this time.

In our first game, we played Hold the Line.
He was using a FHH Panzergrenadierkompanie from Grey Wolf Revised, I was using a Guards Tankovy Batalion (Guards quality) from Red Bear Revised.

Flames of War Battle Report 3; Red Army Strelkovy vs Feldherrnhalle Panzergrenadiers

During my previous 500-point Infantry Aces style game, one other local player had sown up, willing to have a go at a game at this scale as well; my opponent in my first battle report.

He didn't have his minis with him, so we decided to put something together using the models we had standing in the store and some proxies.

He decided to go with a FHH Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers force from Blood, Guts and Glory.

The scenario would be Cauldron.

Flames of War Battle Report 2; Red Army Strelkovy vs SS-Panzergrenadiers

This week, I played a couple of 500-point games testing for a possible Infantry+Mechanised Aces league.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Aces system: it's a small escalation league style campaign, ideal for new players to start grasping the rules.

I brought along a Red Army Strelkovy force from Red Bear Revised while my opponent would be using a SS-Panzergrenadier list from Atlantikwall.

Flames of War Battle Report 1; Hero Motorstrelkovy vs Grenadiers

Time for a battle report for a game of Flames of War I played last week. 1650 points, Late-War.

This battle would be fought over a railway station in one of the more rural parts of eastern Europe, 1944.