Reply To: Sitrep Podcast: Historical Gaming (and Register for Upcoming Gaming Event)!

[phaidknott 7023xp 2]

@oriskany I’m going back to the era of wargaming when Team Yankee was set for my recollections (Challenger 2000 et al). It was common practice for NATO “wargaming commanders” to drop Artillery Smoke rounds (things like 155mm Smoke Rounds used for screening were usually chemical based rather than WP) on top of your own units.

Thus your tanks were obscured from spotting, getting shot at (even airstrikes) and could still acquire targets out through the smoke due to the thermal imaging (but that may have been wargamers just “trying it on”).

Your point on Soviet players is true, I had a couple of Divisions of E Germans (T-55, a few T-72, BTR 60s etc), and I had to collect and paint about 5 times the amount of models compared to the NATO commanders. I had HUNDREDS of the things, but I was a minority within the Soviet players (as most bought 1st line Soviet Guard stuff with T-80s, BMP2s etc). Even my A/T Helo’s were HIPs. As I used to tell my opponents, I got 5 times the number of tanks than you (even though mine are rubbish), but the Pact Forces would only have attacked with at least a 3X force multiplier (so that’s something like 15 T-55 tanks vs 1 Nato M1A1). Now think of the player who’s got to paint that lot up 😀

When thermal imagining came into widespread use, the era of moderns in wargaming seemed to just drop off from the scene. Most players with Warsaw Pact/Soviet armies either just gave up, or couldn’t invest even more money into their armies to keep pace (a bit like what happened to these militaries in RL I suppose 😀 ). Gaming was no fun when the enemy units were just so strong there was very little you could do against them.

But for players in this day and age, I’d say stick to fielding M1s (and not M1A1/A2s), as you may soon find there’s no Soviet players around and you’ll be stuck fighting other NATO armies (I actually posted about this in the thread about players with “elite armies” having problems finding opponents). It’s not entirely realistic, but it gives a better game, and keeps the points differential between the tanks a lot closer.

My first thought for a US team Yankee army would actually be the REFORGER units (a lot of which still had the M60s in storage) in the mid 80s. Why? Because of the rule of cool (M60s look a lot better than M1s 😀 ). You don’t HAVE to automatically buy the elite units, you can buy the second line stuff and have better (more symmetric) games. I’m pretty certain this was why Battlefront decided to do Team Yankee instead of just “moderns”. It’s because it’s set in the era just before the wargaming aspect went “wrong” and disappeared from it’s previous heyday (and popularity). I think anyone who used to play moderns back in the 80s and saw this happen realised this when we saw the first teasers for the game (and got all excited again 😀 )