TY 6mm Lessons Learned 4

Our little Team Yankee 6mm group got together for another Escalation League day on the 6th of June, 2021. Uriah, having recently received his Brits from GHQ, threw down with Brandon's Polish T-55 horde.

We had added some terrain options to our growing collection - some forests from the Tanks game; some rocks from Hobby Lobby; some hills we had made from styrofoam, carpenter's glue, and flocking; and an oil refinery thing Brandon built from 3d printed stuff - so we built a more rural board for this contest. Brandon picked Attack, Uriah picked Maneuver (no, I am not spelling it the British way, not sorry), and they rolled Encounter. 

Field of battle, FIELD OF WAR! -George Carlin

The choice has been made.

The new oil refinery.

Makes a good round counter holder.

That is a long road, but at least it's not terribly straight.

The Polish T-55 horde. Yes, this is only 50 points.

British Chieftain Armoured Squadron. (yes, I went British on that "armoured"... *sigh* so many unnecessary "u"s just laying about, even Blogger's spellcheck doesn't like it)

Both sides deployed pretty conservatively, using their Spearheads to get their recon forces forward, but not much else. Discussing this at length after the game, about the best strategy we could see for the Brits to pull out the V (yes, I am dumping the Lesson right up front in this BatRep) was for them to abandon the gun line, hunker down mentality with all of their support pieces and charge the lesser defended objective on the right (WarPact left, the lesser defended objective as you will see in the upcoming Deployment pics), using the Chieftain's superior range to support as best they could while staying back to defend the two objectives in the British deployment zone. The number of shots, collectively, the T-55s can throw outnumber the shots that the British can in a turn, even with only half the units on the board, and the horde's only chance to take out the Chieftains is to get flanks and shoot side shots (Anti-Tank 17 vs Front Armor 17, no point in rolling Armor Save even on hits) or use their Spandrels and Saggers on the BMP-1s, or Carnations in direct fire (which they do not have many of) to beat that heavy FA of the Chieftains. The Poles cannot hold back and as you will see, they did not, using cover to get into knife-fighting range of the Chieftains. The non-horde Brits, facing a horde, cannot win the war of attrition - they cannot kill enough T-55s to force a Morale Check or destroy the Unit outright. The math just is not there: five Chieftains on the board, firing two shots apiece (or just one if they have to maneuver first) can only hit 6 or 7 T-55s with average rolls, and they need to destroy/bail at least nine of the T-55s. And the Brits need to execute on this wild plan before the rest of the T-55s get called up from Reserves. 

WarPact general deployment.

NATO general deployment.

The WarPact Spearhead, with their Formation CO watching over this Objective.

The Brit Spearhead, being backstopped by the Chieftains and Formation CO, also watching over an Objective.

The Brits do have almost every angle covered on the board, I have to give props to Uriah for that.

The Brits, as Attackers, strike first destroying half of both the BMPs and BDRMs, and the Poles only manage to bail one of the Scorpions in return, as they begin their advance under cover of terrain.

The BDRMs catch hell.

And so do the BMPs.

The Horde, unabated, advances.

Scorpions catch some hell as well.

The BMPs begin rolling forward as well.

NATO sends in the helos (Uriah's 6mm Lynxes have not had magnets installed yet, so he used his 15mm models on 6mm flight stands, which worked rather well) that get too close to the T-55s during their attack run and immediately fall to Earth as flaming wrecks. Again, there is not enough shots from the Lynxes to do more than annoy the T-55 formation (average rolls say 2 tanks killed, or at worst 1 destroyed, 1 bailed). This was the moment that the remaining Scorpion (the other did not Remount this turn, but could have followed on a future turn after Remounting) could have started their under cover move towards the Objective not behind a wall of T-55s, and used the Lynxes to clear a path, with the Chieftains throwing support fire downrange as well. It is risky, as the WarPact forces would see it coming a mile off, but it may have drawn off the main part of their forces so that future Reserves could have a chance of coming in and sneaking down the other side of the field. 

Look, I will be the first to admit it - the Horde lists at 50 points is hard to face without a lot of guns and shots on your side. Even my suggested plan - go for the Objective with the support units - has only a slight chance for Victory, but sitting back and trying to make them get overextended, make a mistake somewhere, count on them not to get their Reserves onto the field (which they will get at least one Unit by turn three, guaranteed), is even a slimmer chance. And maybe my suggestion of using support elements only is too slim of a chance, maybe you need to throw everything forward with the Spearhead and run the entire Formation forward from the start is what is called for. The Horde Meta is hard to face at 50 points. Hard. It becomes easier at higher points as you start getting bigger Units of the better tanks, but British do not have the good middle of the road tank options like the West Germans (Leopard 1s) and the US (Pattons) do, the Chieftains are just too spendy. Best you could try, as a counter horde, is two Recce Squadrons - max out the Scorpions and Scimitars (I would do a half-half mix), throw in some Strikers, and then Lynxes or Abbots to mix it up a bit, and you are looking at 26 small, fast IFVs that have a nasty enough gun to overmatch almost every tank's Side Armor out there. 

Or I could be totally wrong and full of shit. I just am finding it hard to fight the Horde meta, and looking at my own 50 point NATO (US) lists, I wonder if I could have done better with either my Patton Armored Combat Team or M113 Mech Combat Team. All props to Uriah in this fight, he made a plan and fought it to the end, made the Poles take massive casualties along the way, and even though his opponent won, Uriah made Brandon pay dearly for it. This again is where I wish the Victory Point model used in TY was more discerning, so instead of just saying it was a 6-3 minor victory, we could drill down to exactly how well Uriah had done.

The Lynxes came on, got too close, and were shot down.

The Spandrels catch some hate.

BMPs can be nasty, but they have no armor.

Slight maneuvering of the British forces.

The Polish T-55s continue their movement, under heavy cover, the BRDMs move up to a hill to see if they can get a shot on the Scorpions, the Spandrels get good rolls and knock out a Chieftain, and the Brits hunker down, trying to get what shots they can and not really able to get many shots at the Poles in return.

The T-55s are moving with a purpose, but hugging cover very closely.

The BRDMs maneuver to try and do something against the Scorpions.

Spandrels get a good shot in.

The Brits lose a much needed Chieftain to a Spandrel front shot. ATGMs are not to be ignored in TY.

The British finally remount their Bailed Scorpion and maneuver to get shots on the BMPs, which they manage to end that Unit, the BRDMs also get klepped, and the Spandrels get knocked down to one last standing Team in their Unit (again, placing a die next to the Unit denoting they need to take a Morale Check, not in the rules and not required, but a good idea to remind you to do it). 

Burning BRDMs.

Burning Spandrels.

Burning BMPs.

The Brits still mostly hunkered down.

The T-55s stay where they are at and knock out the Scorpions, Bailing one, Destroying the other. I think this happened earlier and I jumped the gun and took pics before the Scorpions received some hate.

Scorpions vs T-55 main cannon, not enough FA there to matter.

The British rally - Reserves, in the form of a pair of Swingfires, roll onto the table, and the Chieftains maneuver to start putting some rounds on the T-55s, knocking out one. However, the Scorpions fail their Remount or Morale and are off the board. The little flame markers you see are from Litko, their mini size, and as you can see, work excellently with the 6mm scale minis. And if you do any 3d printing in PLA filament, their Craftics 33 acrylic cement is excellent for PLA as well as acrylic.

The T-55s begin dying, but not fast enough.

Swingfires come out of Reserves.

The Poles respond - the second Unit of T-55s comes out of Reserves, and the original Unit of T-55s maneuver to get some cover and start putting rounds on the Chieftains (not that it helps, AT of 17 vs FA  of 17), while the Spandrels fail their Morale Check and the last of the Unit scampers off the field, almost leaving the Poles with just two Units (HQ and the original T-55s) and having to make Formation Morale Checks. The Polish Formation CO was getting a little nervous, all by his lonesome on the Polish left flank, guarding the Objective on that side of the field.

Take cover!

The (Polish) cavalry has arrived.

The Brits get more Reserves, their M109s. The Swingfires move up to cover the British right flank, while the remaining Chieftains (the last one in the Unit on the British right fails its Morale and scampers) gather on the left, readying themselves for the Polish T-55 wave. The newly arrived T-55 Unit moves forward, hugging cover, and the Formation CO comes out of hiding, just in front of Polish freshly arrived Carnations from Reserves. This is a dangerous time for Her Majesty's Army, because while the Brits have just as many Units on the table, the M109s do not count towards Formation Morale, where the Poles have stronger Units (doesn't matter their comparative cost, all Tank Teams are in Good Morale if they have 2 or more Tanks still mounted) and all of their Units, even the Carnations, count towards Formation Morale. Uriah wanted Abbots for his force (which are in the Formation and not Divisional Support, and also cheaper than M109s), but GHQ does not offer the Abbot SPG. If you are looking for Abbots in 6mm (I did share this with Uriah, and he may get some in the future), Heroics & Ros does have them. 

British M109s appear on the board.

The Chieftains gather on their left for the first wave of T-55s coming at them.

The newly arrived T-55s advance, also very much in cover.

The Chieftains gather closer together for mutual fire support, taking out a T-55 on the Polish left. The Brits get a pair of Tracked Rapiers from Reserves (not much use being from Divisional Support and no aircraft to shoot at, but maybe they can be used as ablative shields - always bring a friend, it gives the enemy someone else to shoot at), while the M109s manage to range in and get some hits on the T-55s on the British right, and the Swingfires YOLO down the center of the field. Both Units of T-55s move forward, still hugging to as much cover as possible. The Carnations move more towards the center, so they can cover with direct fire both Objectives.

Rapiers are hugging that building pretty tight, and I cannot blame them.

The M109s lend a hand, but without a proper spotter to get Ranged In deeper into the formation, may as well have gone for direct fire shots or tried to support the Swingfire YOLO rush.

Those T-55s fear the 120mm rifles on the Chieftains, and rightly so.

The Swingfires are at least diverting some of the T-55s on the Polish left.

The Carnations displace, heading to intercept the Swingfires if the T-55s cannot take care of them.

Just not enough T-55s brewing up to make a difference - remember, you have to get a Tank Team down to one or less mounted to force a Morale Check.

The Carnations move to the Objective and between them and the diverted T-55s, the Swingfires fall many table inches short of taking the Objective. The T-55s, having been mostly hidden during the British Shooting Phase, abandon all cover and swarm the Chieftains, which have backed further up and the Rapiers have positioned themselves in front of the Objective on this side of the table. 

Carnations moving, Swingfires burning. As close as they got to the Objective, this is what makes me think that the Scorpions rushing down the road to the other Objective, with cover from the Lynxes and Chieftains, may have actually worked. Especially if undertaken before the second Unit of T-55s came in from Reserves.

One diverted and one Bogged T-55, not enough out of a large Unit of tanks.

The envelopment develops.

That is a lot of tanks.

The British reap a terrible price from the T-55 Unit directly in contact with the Chieftains, destroying or Bailing all but two Teams (not enough to force a Morale Check on their turn, though). The M109s manage to Range In on the other T-55 Unit, but do no damage - again, I think the arty should have rolled with the Swingfires or by this point, started doing Direct Fire shots instead of Bombardments.

The carnage is bad on the left, but more rolling in from the right.

Side shots are the only chance T-55s have on Chieftains, uparmored or not.

Just not enough shots between those three Chieftains to get the T-55 Unit to force a Morale Check.

Arty just is not as effective against tanks as it is infantry and soft-skins.

And we come to the end. The T-55s from both flanks destroy the Formation CO and Bail one of the other remaining Chieftains. The CO was too far away from the other Chieftains and could not transfer to one of them. This brings our doughty Brits to less than two Units (even before rolling to see if the one Bailed Chieftain Remounts or not) as the Tracked Rapiers and M109s are from Divisional Support and do not count, and there were no other Units in Reserve by this point. The Brits withdraw, yielding the field to the Poles. As the Brits did manage to kill three units (BDRMs, BMPs, and Spandrels) before yielding, Polish Minor Victory, 6 to 3. 

The swarming Polish T-55s.

Carnage strewn across the entire field of batte.

I still like that little oil refinery, that is a good table piece.

The Poles also take out one of the M109s. They drove here with all that ammunition taking up space in the tank, might as well shoot it at something.

Not much else to say at this point - Uriah (British player) fought to the bitter end, but was just outgunned, not in AT or ROF, but in sheer number of tanks vs the number of shots he could give in a round. That is the hard part of facing a Horde at this low a point level, especially with a Chieftain armored troop from the Brits, as only five Chieftains cost you 30 points of your 50 allowed total. I am unsure what I would lean more towards for Brits at this point total - I know I mentioned Scimitars/Scorpions before but AT 10 Scimitars can only do even weak T-55s from the side, and even AT 14 Scorpions would be better served doing side shots as well - but I think maybe the Milan/Carl Gustav spam of a FV432 Mech Company in Gone to Ground defense backed up by a Medium Recce Squadron of Scorpions as a mobile striking force, that may have enough AT and enough shots. I could still be very wrong with my Armchair Field Marshalling, but I cannot help but worry about my own chances against the Horde.

By no means am I casting shade on Brandon (the Polish player in this little battle) or his abilities - he used his Movement Orders (which I often forget to utilize), and he kept his weakly armored T-55s to complete cover until he could surround and get side shots on the Chieftains. Playing a Horde at any point value, you have to make sure you are not under the opponent's guns for too many rounds before you surround and hammer, otherwise you lose too many numbers before inflicting the losses you need to make the enemy roll Morale Checks. Anyway, that is all I have, there is nothing guaranteed in game or war, so your results may vary.