Greetings, weary travelers! Another month, another session of pushing tiny tanks around a table and rolling many, MANY six-sided dice. With life pressures (job schedules, health issues, relationship issues) leaning upon our tiny group and possibly making this our last session for a long while, whether we realized it or not, at least subconsciously we all wanted to make this a game to remember. Yes, even with just building an awesome gaming table specifically for this group, until we get our new life schedules straightened out, this will be our last session until well into August, and it's looking like that hiatus will extend further than that.
Now that I've completely depressed you, loyal reader, let's get to the part you actually care about, this month's game of Team Yankee in 6mm scale. Mirroring last month's game, I challenged Brandon to a high point game that wasn't just an unending wave of inexpensive vehicles. We went with the same 150 point total, but this time I played Soviets, specifically a T80 Shock Company, and Brandon went with a dual formation of American M1A1s and Canadian Leopard 1s. Yes, Leo 1s are inexpensive and a bit horde-y, but he spent so many points in other things that he had no artillery and no air support, though he did have one Unit with Spearhead (which neither of us could use in the scenario, more on that in a moment). Brandon's NATO forces were made up of a M1A1 Armored Combat Team - one M1A1 in command, one platoon of three M1A1s, one platoon of three M1A1HCs, and a M113 Scout Section (with the TOW-2 upgrade) - one M163 VADS AA Platoon (4 tracks) from Divisional Support, and then the Allied Canadian Formation was a Leopard C1 Armoured Squadron (yes autocorrect, that is how the silly Brits and Canadians spell "armored", quit reminding me, it's not my mistake) with one Leo 1 in command, two Troops of three Leo 1s each, and a M113 Mechanized Platoon with three C2 SAW team w/M72 LAW teams, three Carl Gustav AT teams, a C5 GPMG team, a M19 60mm mortar team, and four M113s for transport. The lack of artillery and air support made me a little nervous, but piling those points into the M1A1HCs turned out to be a good decision for Brandon, as those things are utterly terrifying, but that is why they are so expensive.
My force of Soviet T80 Shock had a single track in command (with the added AT-11 Sniper missile so I could use a spare point), two Platoons of three tracks each, a BMP-3 Shock Motor Rifle Company (7 BMP-3s, 6 AK-74 w/RPG-18 teams, 5 RPG-7VR teams, a PKM LMG team, and a SA-14 Gremlin team, with that last picked to add in another BMP-3 and use up 3 extra points), a three track BMP-3 Scout platoon, and four Tunguska AA tracks. I originally had 4 Shilkas and 4 Gophers to cover my gun AA and missile AA needs (the SA-14 Team helps, but was going to be more effective than any other option I could pick to get an extra BMP-3 and use up those points), but we were trying to go for higher point options, so I combined them down to Tunguskas, which are excellent AA vehicles... when your opponent deigns to bring strike aircraft or helos!!! I'm only a little salty, as the Tunguskas turned out to be surprisingly effective late in the game, but that is the gamble you play when you build a list. From Divisional Support, my Soviets had a BMP-1 OP, which was spotting for six Acacia self-propelled howitzers, and then four SU-25 Frogfoots and four Mi-24 Hinds. I could have gone either way with the self-propelleds, as the Carnations are the same cost as Acacias with only minor variations between them. Why gun arty instead of rocket arty? As we agreed on no hordes or big formations of infantry and going for more expensive vehicles, rocket arty was not going to be as effective, though I have honestly not looked at the stats of the TOS-1, I'm going to check it now. I could have gone for TOS-1 instead, and been possibly more effective on the small infantry force than I was with the gun arty tracks, but my biggest problem is I couldn't roll Hits, not that I wasn't making Firepower rolls. And then my gun arty was at least threatening to Brandon's armor Units later in the game, which the TOS-1s would not have been, so I'm sticking to my decision to the Acacias, though I probably should have spent the money on the Krasnopol Projectiles. Oh well. I will talk more about my air assets later in the BatRep.
SETUP & DEPLOYMENT
Pretty standard field layout for us - lots of hills and trees with few Linear Danger Areas leading to lots of maneuvering (and failed Cross Checks) and close in fights.
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| The mighty Soviet force... yes, it's almost all proxied, I'm a bad hobbyist. |
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| Soviet Unit cards. I did not get any pics of the American/Canadian force, sorry. |
Brandon picked Maneuver (no, I'm not using the British spelling, thank you) and I picked Attack, and the resulting roll in the Extended Missions was Spearpoint. Thinking back, facing a like number of high cost tanks (we both had 7 high end tanks in our lists, with a bunch of other support vehicles) as a WarPact player, I should have chosen Defend instead of Attack. More on that tactical thinking later.
Spearpoint is an interesting Mission that I haven't played before, and as you can see in the picture above, has a pretty unique Deployment and placement of Objectives. Brandon knew, with the Objectives he needed to take fairly close together, and the Objectives I needed to take spread apart, one in his own Deployment Zone and the other at the opposite end of the table from my Deployment Zone, he needed to set his own Deployment for defense from the straight in charge as well as place Units to cover the far side Deployment as well. With Delayed Scattered Reserves, the Defender (Brandon's NATO Force) can't count on any more Units until at least Turn 3 and even then, no guarantee they'll arrive where they will be most needed. I thought I was ready and had a plan, so I deployed as you will see below. Initial plan was use the BMP-3 Scout element and the now mostly unneeded Tunguskas to charge down the WarPact right side of the table, the T80s and the transport BMP-3s to charge left (I'll discuss this mistake later), the Hinds to go off hunting the edges of the VADS protective AA bubble, artillery to bombard said VADS to let my air assets to roam freely, and the infantry to sit on the Objectives and be hard to kill. If you have a 3d printer and want the Deployment sticks (Brandon printed these, but I plan on making a set for myself in the future because they're just so damn handy), you can find the free .stl files here on Thingiverse.
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| We had some trouble with the distances, BF uses weird distances in their Mission maps. |
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| This is the correct dimensions for the Defender's Deployment Zone. |
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| The closer stick is the line that the Defender's Objectives are bound by, and the further stick is the boundary of the Attacking Force. |
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| WarPact Su-25 Frogfoots loitering off table. |
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| WarPact Reserves. |
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| NATO Reserves (M1A1s, not the Heavy Common HCs) |
TURN ONE - Defenders go first in Spearpoint, and Brandon (no Reserves to roll for at this point, no Strike Aircraft in the list) begins moving to stop me from rushing across the field and winning before he can start rolling for his Reserves. The M113 and M901 ITV move across the woods they are in (passing their Cross Check, something Brandon is notorious for repeatedly failing) to cover that side of the table, the Leopard 1s position themselves to intercept the obvious flank rush that is coming, and also moved his VADS out from the Line of Sight of the BMP-1 OP. The American command Abrams also peeks the crest of the hill to take some shots at infantry in Foxholes. He shoots at the few things he can see, and kills a BMP-3 transport and my stand of PKM LMG infantry.
Before I get into my turn, a quick Lesson Learned - always check to see in the Mission who goes first. I assumed, since I was the Attacker, that I went first. Because of that I left vehicles where they could be shot at instead of hiding them in full cover and then trying to Blitz them up into firing positions on my Turn. Also, yes, infantry in Foxholes is hard to kill, but I still could have put them on the back side of the hills the Objectives were on and they could still cover those Objectives. It's not like they were shooting at anything with their awe inspiring 8" range on their RPG-7VRs, so I should have just kept them completely out of sight but still in range of the Objective. Or I should have gone for broke and... no, I will discuss that possible course of action at the end of the BatRep.
On the WarPact side of the Turn, I fail to get either of my Reserve Units (even "enjoying" Immediate, not so much) or Strike Aircraft onto the table. I charge the Scout section of BMP-3s and the Tungunskas hard up the edge of the table, shadowed by the Platoon of T80s that made the cut for Deployment. The Hinds charge all the way across the table and find a bare edge where they are out of range of the VADS and the Defensive AA MGs on the Leo 1s, but still within the pitiful 20" range of their AT-6 Spiral missiles of one of the self same Leo 1s. In Shooting, I blow up the Leo 1 (four missiles later and 1 not-top tier MBT is dead, go me) and Range In successfully on the infantry, as that is all that is left that the BMP-1 OP can still see from its position, but utterly fail all of my 5+ To Hit rolls. I do at least Pin the Canadian infantry, but big whoop since neither sides' infantry makes a move the whole game.
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| Americans readjusting positions. |
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| Canadians moving to intercept. |
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| Dead BMP-3 and... wasn't there a PKM team there a moment ago? |
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| Oh, there they went, to the graveyard. |
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| Soviets charging up the flank. |
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| Yes, I know, gotta get magnets into those last 2 Hinds. |
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| Burn!!! |
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| And you're Pinned, take that! |
TURN TWO - Brandon unPins the infantry, moves his Leopard 1s out from under the missile range of the Hinds, and his VADs into their weapons' range. He stops there, and proceeds to shoot, knocking one Hind out of the sky, and the BMP-1 OP is also destroyed. I definitely should have tried a Shoot 'n' Scoot after Ranging In the Acacias onto the Canadian infantry (Lesson Learned, folks).
Over to me, I make my Reserves roll, bringing on the other Platoon of T80s onto the WarPact left flank, but again fail to make the Strike Aircraft roll. I completely bungle my Pay Attention to Weapon Ranges roll and move my Hinds to where they can be shot at but not where they can shoot back at anything. The newly arrived T80s charge the left table edge, followed by the remaining BMP-3 transports. The BMP Recon element and Tunguskas, continue their mad dash forward along the right table edge. The T80 Platoon that had been shadowing the Recon and AA assets swing around the hill to get Side Armor shots on the M1A1HCs in the woods at the middle of the table. In addition to my earlier bungle, we bungle Defensive AA Fire and let the VADs shoot at the Hinds, blowing them all out of the sky. However, that was wrong, they shot at the Hinds in their half of the turn, so should not have had Defensive Fire. But, I completely failed to realize the Hinds were not able to fire at all this Turn, so it would have just occurred at the beginning of Turn Three. We let it stand, but made sure we were both reading correctly on the rules before continuing. The T80s on the flank of the Heavy Commons fire... and nothing. I try bombarding the infantry yet again, and again, no hits, but still manage to Pin the infantry.
Between the utter brain fart of not realizing I moved my Hinds into range of the VADs but into their own weapons' range, and my dice failing to do much of anything all Turn, I confess I am in a mental fugue at this point. My dice, as you will see, continue to fail me, but I am already out of this game, and never really get myself back into it. Brandon is playing his game, enacting his plan masterfully, and the dice are favoring him in the game, but for me, while there are shining moments, the rest of the game is downhill from... well, really from the beginning, to be honest.
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| Leo 1s on the move. |
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| VADs shooting down a Hind. |
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| OP burning. |
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| WarPact moving to the "attack". |
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| Soviet tracks moving up. |
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| Barely seen on the left, the newly arrived T80 Platoon from Reserves. |
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| If you didn't know, VADs roll a TON of dice. |
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| Whole lot of shooting for not a lot of results. |
TURN THREE - Brandon finally gets to start rolling for Reserves and with just one die, first Reserves of the game for him, successfully gets his one and only Reserve unit onto the table. With the Scattered roll, they come in on the far side of the table, facing down the WarPact right flank. The newly arrived Platoon of M1A1 Abrams charge forward, but pretty much everything else shifts slightly to hold their positions and get what shots they can on the approaching Soviets. The T80 Platoon that had dared to shoot at the flanks of the Heavy Common Platoon receives return fire, losing one track with another Bailed. The BMP-3 Recon element loses two tracks to withering 120mm cannon fire from the newly arrived Abrams. And another stand of infantry, this time a RPG-7VR Team, succumbs to cannon fire.
On the Soviet side of the turn, the Bailed T80 fails to Remount and then the lone standing T80 fails Morale and quits the field. The lone BMP-3 of the Recon element continues the trend, failing Morale as well and leaving in a huge hurry. All three of those rolls (one Remount and two Morale checks) were a 66% chance to succeed, and I fail all three, which shows you the lack of luck I was having with the dice this game. I do get some luck and get my last Reserve Unit (it wasn't lucky, when you roll for the 3rd time, you automatically get at least one Reserve Unit, and yeah, on three dice, I didn't make it over 4 on all three) and some actual luck by actually getting my strike aircraft for the first time this game. The Soviets continue to grind their way forward, sticking to as much cover as possible. I get my last Reserve Unit, the Force Command T80, which comes in on the WarPact right flank, and then I immediately forget he's there and don't move or shoot with him. I told you, I was in a mental funk at this point and should have conceded, but I kept trying. The Frogfoots that finally got done with their smoke break make a statement and destroy two Leo 1s, and yes, I made sure I was out of range of the VADs and the Leo 1s AA guns, but inside the Frogfoots' missile range. And then, as I'm still Ranged In with my artillery and they're not doing anything else, I Pin the Canadian infantry yet again, but still no actual hits on any of the stands under the template.
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| NATO adjusting to intercept. |
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| More adjustments. |
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| Burning Soviets. |
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| Newly arrived Abrams moving up. |
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| Infantry stand graveyard. |
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| WarPact left just before they continue their advance. |
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| Off to the races! |
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| Failed Morale and Tunguskas clinging to cover. |
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| Frogfoots poised to strike. |
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| Burning Canadians. |
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| Pinned Canadians. |
TURN FOUR - Brandon, with nothing else to do in the start of his side of the Turn, unPins the infantry. Yes, he has finally lost a Team off the table, but he has two separate Formations that are still well within Morale, no danger there. He drives forward with his MBTs, both the remaining Leo 1s and all the Abrams going forward to meet both thrusts on the flanks. The M113 and M901 ITV try to withdraw to head towards the NATO right flank, but the ITV Bogs at the edge of the woods. The command Abrams gets an angle and Destroys a T80 on the Soviet left, and that's everything he is able to take a shot at.
On the Soviet side of the Turn, I am out for blood. No strike aircraft yet again, cue the sad trombone music. The Tunguskas, just a hill away from the advancing Leo 1s charge over the hill into about half and half Side and Front Armor shots, and blaze away with their 30mm cannons, Destroying two and Bailing the last Leo 1 in that Platoon. Yes, the Tunguskas are going to completely die next Turn, but I am beyond caring at this point and, pretty sure I can't pull a Victory off, I'm getting as much revenge as I can before the end. I know I did other things in this Turn, but I did not take pictures other than the Tunguskas destruction of the Leo 1s. Remember, mental funk. Looking ahead into next Turn's pics, I apparently pulled the artillery out from behind their hill and drive them towards the Canadian command track, because why not? The BMP-3 transports charge the approaching M1A1HCs, even though I can't penetrate them from the front even with the fancy missiles they have, I was just trying to look scary and distract his Heavy Commons from destroying the rest of the T80s on that flank while they tried to do something to the Abrams command track. I was in a mental funk, but I knew I had to outnumber his Abrams with T80s if I wanted to be at all effective, so I was trying to square off against the lone command track with three T80s.
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| The Command track I forgot to do anything with. |
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| The latest Abrams to arrive drive forward. |
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| Leo 1s advancing up nicely. |
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| Heavy Commons moving out to intercept this flanking move. |
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| Dead T80. |
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| Tunguskas getting them some juicy flank steak. |
TURN FIVE - Brandon starts off the turn Remounting the last remaining Leo 1 in that decimated Platoon, and then turning around and failing the Morale check and it goes scurrying for the hills (RNGeezus giveth, and RNGeezus taketh away). The VADs, trying to cover their comrades better, move down and with the help of the M901 ITV that had Bogged last Turn, utterly annihilate the cheeky Tunguskas. Okay, Brandon leaves one Bailed. The Leo 1 command track, the last running Leopard on the board, moves up and starts destroying Acacia self-propelleds, taking one this Turn. The Heavy Commons pause in their charge for the flank and fire at the BMP-3 transports, Destroying four and Bailing the other two.
Soviet half of the Turn, I get Strike Aircraft in for the 2nd and last time. Yes, this goes seven Turns and on a 50/50 roll, I got Strike Aircraft 28% of the game. *feh* The Bailed Tunguska fails Remount and is not around for Morale and is thus Destroyed. The two Bailed BMP-3 Transports do Remount, and they move out smartly. The T80 command track that arrived two Turns ago I finally remember to move up and fire at the approaching Abrams with the Sniper missile I used up my last remaining point on, to no effect. The Acacias do a Direct Fire at the Leopard 1 command tank and can't hit anything. The two T80s on the far Soviet left crest the hill and start shooting at the Abrams command tank, and they can't hit anything either. The Frogfoots, shoot at the Abrams on the Soviet right flank, Destroying two with their missiles. When they do show up, they are devastating, but getting them to show up at all is the big problem.
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| Abrams advancing. |
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| Abrams pausing to destroy lightly armored IFVs. |
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| Tunguskas, as predicted, went out in a blaze of glory. |
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| Acacias catching fire. |
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| Burning BMP-3s. |
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| Strike Aircraft arrive... FINALLY! |
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| T80 command track moving up, along with the Acacias. |
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| Acacias fire to no effect. |
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| Living BMP-3s running around the flank. |
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| T80s firing to no effect. |
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| Frogfoots doing their job. |
TURN SIX - Brandon fails the Morale check of the last M1A1 Abrams on the Soviet right flank and it does its Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail impersonation - RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY! The M1A1HCs ignore the BMP-3 transports and crest their own hill to fire on the T80s facing down the command Abrams. The M901 ITV pops out of the woods on a successful Blitz to fire at the BMP-3 Transports, Destroying one. The command Abrams and Heavy Commons wipe out the last two T80s on the Soviet left flank. The Leopard 1 command track Destroys one and Bails another Acacia.
It's looking rather grim at this point - I am down to two core Units, the T80 command and the infantry, as everything else is off the table or Divisional Support. No Strike Aircraft this Turn. The last BMP-3 transport fails its Morale and runs off, but the Bailed Acacia Remounts and they go charging ahead at the Leo 1 command, blazing away with their 152mm cannons, still to no effect. The T80 command track drops the right flank and Dashes across to the midfield to try and do something about the Abrams that are sure to come sweeping down on the Soviet left to engulf the infantry and one or both of the Objectives.
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| Abrams retreating. |
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| Abrams and ITV maneuvering. |
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| Closer shot at those Abrams. |
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| Leopard 1 firing at the Acacias. |
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| More burning BMPs. |
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| T80s are Destroyed. |
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| Acacias Remounted and still charging ahead, while the T80 command rushes across the field. |
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| That BMP driver said "NOPE!" and ran away. |
TURN SEVEN - Brandon moves everything up, threatening an envelopement of the Soviet left flank. His Leo 1 commander manages to Destroy two Acacias this turn, but not much else to shoot at.
This is where I conceded the game. Oh sure, I asked to see if I could get my Frogfoots back onto the table... nope, that didn't happen, kept rolling 1s and 2s on a 4+ roll. But there was no way I was digging myself back out of that deficit. The T80s are just not effective enough against 120mm Abrams tanks to face them at parity numbers, so my lone T80 command track was not going to do anything other than annoy the four remaining Abrams on the table. I should have cut my support elements in half (2 Tunguskas or 4 Shilkas, 3 Acacias, 2 Hinds, and 2 Frogfoots) to get another platoon of two T80 tanks and then held all my T80s together to go fight the Abrams at more favorable numerical odds. Or, keeping to the same list, if I had thought of this all the way back in Turn One instead of Turn Three or Four, I should have gone for broke - start the game with my Hinds landed next to my infantry, since all the infantry start the games Dismounted and in Foxholes. Then, as soon as my Turn starts, eight stands of infantry pile into my four Hinds, and they swing all the way around to the other edge of the table. Turn Two, they land and the infantry engulfs the Objective on that far side. Ballsy, but it may just have worked.
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| These Acacias were having no luck hitting anything this entire game, and were just getting whittled down by the Leo 1, with the VADs and ITV coming in for flanking shots this Turn or the next. |
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| The M1A1HCs were going to have zero issues dealing with one lone T80. |
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| The sweep onto the Soviet left flank had begun in earnest. |
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| More burning Acacias. |
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| Too little, too late. |
And that was the game. Having not really played T80s before, I should have paid attention to their point costs versus that of the top tier NATO tanks (Abrams, Challengers, and Leopard 2A5s) as this game is very well balanced considering the low point totals are (the old version 3 Flames of War point system, where you would normally see 1,500 points per side where the new v4 FoW/TY points where you normally see 100 points per side, that wider range of points gives higher fidelity and a more accurate points balance, but not all that much, like decimal points worth of percentages), so if a T80 costs roughly 10 points per tank (29 points for 3 equals 9.7 points per, or 19 points for 2 equals 9.5 per), they are not going to be very effective against a 14 point M1A1 Abrams at a 1:1 ratio. What all that math boils down to is I should have realized earlier that I should have played more conservatively against the Abrams, trying to get engagements where I outnumbered the M1A1s and vastly outnumbered the HCs. Or dealt with them through other means (I'm looking at you, Su-25 Strike Aircraft!) and used the T80s to run roughshod on everything else, while I was sneaking other units around the flanks to capture an Objective. Brandon did the exact opposite of that and kept me from enacting any of my strategies, kudos to him for making his plan work.
As I mentioned earlier, I have already rearranged my list - half as many Frogfoots, Hinds, Acacias, and Tunguskas, changed the Acacias back into Carnations (because the Carnations are inherent to the Unit and count towards Formation Morale), and go for the smaller BMP-3 Shock Motor Rifle Company (still with an extra BMP-3 and SA-14 Team), which gives me the points for another three tank Platoon of T80s and a pair of "Storm" AT MTLB carriers. The Storms were just there to make up some leftover points. But this version of the list has less baggage, more main firepower, and just as many options. I would only be able to do four stands in a Hail Mary jump-into-the-helos-and-run-around-the-flank kind of play, but either my opponent would be in position to get there in time to contest me capturing or they wouldn't be close enough anyway, and it doesn't matter if I have four stands of infantry or eight. I wish there was something like the Observation Post track (OPs make it easier for artillery to Range In) I could add in cheap that would bring the Su-25s onto the table more often, but alas, no such Team is available in the Soviet (or any) TOE. Do I think this list would have solved all of my problems in the game? No, I was definitely on the losing side of the dice battle, I rarely enjoyed luck with my dice this entire game. Plus, I really began the game with two half-assed plans for how I was going to prosecute, and I executed neither of them well. But, this more streamlined list will focus me more on bringing my main firepower (the T80s) to bear in numbers. At least, that is what I hope it will do.
Thanks for reading yet another Battle Report of our little Team Yankee in 6mm play group. We are experiencing some scheduling challenges, and this may be our last BatRep for a bit, but we will get in games when we can and post them up here as our lives allow. Hope everyone can get out and roll some dice with your friends in the near future!
