Team Yankee Command School: Expanding American & Soviet Forces

October 6, 2016 by dignity

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Content: Game Tips Content: Video Model: Flyer Model: Vehicle Period: Modern Scale: 15mm Show: Team Yankee Command School

9 Comments

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benc

9 years ago

I’m using a T-72 battalion of three Companies over the one big horde. I use them to move hard and fast and get flanking shots. The plus side is that the NATO armour can’t engage everything at once but each of my Companies can be a bit squishy against accurate shooting and good dice rolls.

zorg

is the M60 tank coming out ?

mwcannon

I’ll comment on the Soviets as that is what I am building. I am *really* working hard to keep my focus on the Soviets as I have a tendency to buy everything in a period. My goal was to build a battalion sized force that could be used in a movement to contact/advanced guard situation. I tried to add this as a graphic but don’t see the option for a comment on a post so I’ll just post a link to the graphic:

I got this from FM100-2-1 which is available at :

http://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm100-2-1.pdf

Chapter 5 is a good reference. It reads like doctrine, but wargamers should be able to handle that!

I started with the boxed set with 10 tanks and the two Hinds in it as this was a good company organization for a tank division company. I later added to it with the Armies Army Kickstarter (website at http://armiesarmy.com/) and added an airborne mech company with attachments. This gave me a rump battalion – 10 tanks, a mech company, three SP AT vehicles (ASU-85), three SP AA (the 23-4s), and three 120 mm mortars (Nonas).

I have been adding to this as I find good deals and right now have added four frogfoot aircraft, six carnations, two ZSU 23-4, four SA-13s. I am trying to source a good buy on two more tank companies.

I find it interesting that wargamers tend to talk about Team Yankee in game terms instead of historical terms. I’m not complaining, just find it curious. Most organizations that are based this way end up with more of a support to combat vehicle ratio than happened in real life. In this case, I think there’s an overwhelming amount of AA in the force. If you look at page 5-34 in the above reference, it shows that at 20 minutes into a meeting engagement, the Soviets would have:

Time: +20 minutes
10 BTRs
4 Tanks
6 Mortars, 120-mm
6 Howitzers, 122-mm

At 60 minutes they would have:
31 BTRs
13 Tanks
6 Mortars, 120-mm
18 Howitzers, 122-mm
2 Antiaircraft Guns
4 ATGMs

Again, this is what doctrine says, and I understand that when the stuff hits the rotary impeller it can go out the window. It also doesn’t take into account combat losses and vehicles breaking down.

Sorry if I sound like a fuzzy-headed intellectual, but I used to be one. I think in game terms, if I had a 4 by 6 or 6 by 8 gaming area, I’d build what Justin did but I have access to a much larger gaming area so the games I get to play can be in much larger areas with a lot more maneuver.

If I was to do it again, I’d seriously consider this in 1/285th scale as I think the ranges and maneuver area would be more like what I would expect. Good video, great to see what was offered. Can’t wait for the US Cav platoons to come out (yeah, I’m starting that rumor now!)

oriskany

For the boot camp last year, @buggeroff and @rasmus and other may remember I picked the Soviets. Well, I wanted a painted army to play with that weekend, and also I wanted to meet and talk with people as much as possible, so I had a 1/100 T-72 force pre-built (Zvezda) before I went to the boot camp. Then of course I got the Soviet force from Battlefront, so I basically STARTED with two companies of tanks plus six Hinds. Since then I’ve built up a little infantry and a ZSU-23-4. All I want now is a stack of 1/100 BMPs, maybe 10, and I will have a respectable (and yes, very approximate) Soviet battalion (or battalion-analog) force.

Kudos, Justin, for bringing some antiair / air defense assets. And for not calling the GAU-8A a “minigun.” Well done! 😀 😀 😀 And holy crap, four Soviet SAM vehicles? That’ll keep opponents with A-10 Warthogs from gettin’ too cocky. 😀

@zorg – I would also love an M60 tank. I think they have M48s for Tour of Duty (Flames of War Vietnam), and of course you can make the early M1 option with the Bannons Boys kit. This leaves the M60 as the one “gap” in US tank history. I would personally like some of these for two reasons, the M60 was the MBT still being used by the US Marine Corps during Gulf War One (I was in the USMC during this war), and I would be very interested in running some Israeli M60s vs. Egyptian / Syrian T-55s and T-62s in the 1973 Yom Kippur War as a “Team Yankee Prequel.”

Reply to oriskany

yes was thinking the same a new box for allies may have them? @oriskany

davebpg

I have found the A10’s to be a blessing and a curse (this can be said of all aircraft however).

They only enter play each turn on a 4+ so half the time they won’t turn up and for them to have the impact you need, you need 4 of them which is a lot of points to have not turn up.

At 75 points, I would loose those A10’s and add in more Abrams.

Reply to davebpg

I agree with that, @davebpg . Air strikes always come off as something of a “frivolous” expense in many games. They’re expensive, and IF THEY WORK, the do amazing damage. But do they arrive in time? Do they arrive at all? Do they hit the target? They scare the enemy, yes, which is why the enemy has air defense assets ready to break up their attacks. But since those air defense assets cost less than the air strike, you’re still on the losing end of the “points game.”

When in doubt, take artillery, especially if it’s off-board artillery. Most games don’t have good counter-battery fire rules, which means the enemy can’t do very much against your artillery. Also, whereas an airstrike can only hit once (maybe), the artillery be can on station aaaaaaall day.

I’m always reminded of the German veterans from Normandy who tell the story of seeing Allied aircraft. Yes, they dreaded the P-47 Thunderbolts and the Mosquitoes and the Typhoons. But they HATED those little L4 Grasshopper and L5 Sentinel spotter planes. Because once they saw those, they knew they’d be under constant punishing American artillery for the next WEEK.

Damn, @benc – three companies of T-72s? So is that 30 tanks (i.e., full parade ground strength) or is your battalion going to be more like mine, an approximation of hodge-podge units (18 T-72s, probably 10 BMPs, some Shilkas, etc . . .).

Awesome information, @mwcannon . I used to read stuff liek this when I was trying to learn to play GDW’s old hex-and-counter 1985 Germany wargame: Assault.