Team Yankee Red Dawn National Guard Follow Up

Since last we left our intrepid hero... After my last post about what I would do for a National Guard list using Battlefront's new Red Dawn book for their tabletop wargame, World War III, Team Yankee (or TY for the rest of this article), I have been busy finishing my own build of the NG list, I have gotten my copy of the book and Unit cards, and I have made some revelations along the way. Hence why I'm wasting even more electrons blathering on about this when no one but me really cares in the first place. I never claimed to be anything but stubborn.

One of the biggest things that really got me in the way that Battlefront (or BF for short) dismissively didn't provide any NG list for Red Dawn, besides just letting you have anything you wanted from the American book, including Marines, was that they could have given a pared down list that more reflected the older technology found in the NG forces. And yes, it is very much a thing, I can't begin to tell you how much old, worn out and out of date the equipment I used in my time in the NG. Now, that is not 100% true for all NG units everywhere, but let's think about the situation surrounding the TY timeline and Red Dawn book - World War 3 has been kicked off by the Soviets invading Eastern Europe in 1985. NATO is trying to stop them, and America has begun shipping over all of their Active Duty and Reserve Army and Air Force units (that aren't being held up in other countries like South Korea and Japan) to the point they're also calling in favors from the National Guard to get more troops and equipment to mainland Europe to stop the Red Wave. So when the Soviet VDV and Cubans invade the continental United States, what do you think is left? That's right, not only National Guard troops, but the ones with the oldest, jankiest equipment to be had.

Oh, and Canadians, they'll also be facing Canadians. The map shows the VDV hitting a little bit of Alaska, riding through a large chunk of British Columbia, Alberta, and Saskatchewan territories before sliding into Montana, I'm sure the Canadians are not letting that one go down without a fight, and neither are the Soviets not getting a little of their own back for Canada's support of NATO in the European theater. However, I am not as familiar with Canada's armed forces, and we haven't gotten much beyond the old Free Nations supplement (which the update to that book was announced to be released in later 2023, September or so, in the Battlefront holiday video) so I'm not willing to take a crack at that list beyond pointing folks towards Free Nations and saying "have at it".

For me, you can choose to go one of three ways with your National Guard choices - numero uno is what BF put in Red Dawn, everything in the American book goes, have fun; numero dos is really what I kind of expected BF to do in Red Dawn, and that is use the US Army lists from the American book, but restrict it to a few units (I'll provide that here momentarily); and lo ultimo is what the rest of this article, the thousands of words you see below, is about, rewriting the US Army lists, adding in old vehicles that were still in NG usage, and adjusting stats of units. The first option is easy, if you have the American and Red Dawn books you're good to go, have fun with your friends. The second option is pretty easy, basically a few restrictions on allowable equipment and Formations you can choose from. This is all optional, do what you want, but if you want a little more realism, a little more difficulty facing down the Soviets and Cubans, here is what I recommend. First, no TOW-2s, only the original TOW missiles. Formations - I suggest skipping the M1 Abrams Armored Combat Team entirely, but if you do pick it, stick with the M113 Scout Sections and M113 Mech Platoon (Bradleys are way too new); M60 Patton Armored Combat Team is good to go; M113 Mech Combat Team is good, but skip the Abrams and Bradley options; UH-1 Huey Infantry Combat Team is good to go; I don't like letting the NG have the RDF/LT (they never existed in real life) but this is your game, so I'm not totally heartbroken saying if you want to do the Heavy Combined Arms Company, go for it; on the other hand, I see no issues in anyone using the Light Combined Arms Company or the Light Attack Company (or multiple ones, these are cheap Formations); the M113 Armored Cavalry Troop also good to go, but again, encouraging you to skip the Abrams and the Apaches; HMMWV Cavalry Troop no changes; and from Divisional Support I'd say skip the MLRS, the SGT York, and the Apaches. If you also wanted to do a Marine force, those poor bastards get hand me downs in their front line units (because they belong to the Navy and the Army outnumbers them by such a large margin) that you can go crazy there, the Marines do have Reserve units scattered across the United States, not just near the coasts were their bases are at.

The third and final option, at least that you'll get from me and the point of all this rambling and throwing words about, is the last gasp of the US Army National Guard, the absolute bottom of the barrel responding to the invasion of CONUS (Continental United States), something that has rarely happened and not since the turn of the 20th Century. All the front-line National Guard troops and equipment are on their way to Europe to fight against the Soviets, the Middle East to help the Israelis and Iraqis, and to Korea to help the South throw the North back across the DMZ (yes, I think either Battlefront will make a Korean book specifically for TY, or they'll hire it out to Osprey like they did for Fate of a Nation, or I'll finish this project and start writing it up myself), so when the Soviet air assault VDV and the Cubans invade, all that is left is the dribs and drabs. The various National Guard Adjutant Generals panic called all of their command structures and threw everything they had left on the roads to head north or south, east or west, whichever direction they needed to get into the fight and throw back the invaders. As such, in addition to digging up some old equipment, I've downgraded almost all abilities, which does make everything cheaper. Unfortunately, I'm restricting myself (you can do what you want, but I'm going this route) to just one each of the different Units - none of this four Formations of M60 Patton Armored Combat Teams, no no no, just one. Just one M113 Mech Infantry Combat Team. And so on, so the individual Formations are cheaper, but you're (okay, I'm) going to have to use multiple Formations to meet whatever points total you and your opponent have agreed on. This restriction is to represent the hodge podge nature of this force the NG has scraped from the bottom of the barrel to throw at the bad guys invading America.

I have had numerous revelations while I have been creating my NG list. Many of the decisions I made in my previous post, after either looking deeper into the official lists, comparing hard numbers while translating statistics and points from other books, hearing other players opinions and real world experiences, and even trying to find appropriate miniatures for these changes (okay, I confess, I only looked for 6mm scale miniatures, so while I can't guarantee that you can play my NG list in 15mm scale, generally there are more options in 15mm, so you should be fine), got changed, dropped, or shifted slightly. I think my biggest mistake was trying to take the M40 106mm recoilless rifle as a man-portable crew served weapon. Yes, they were generally set on their own special tripod and meant to be dragged away from their current firing point by hand, but they got to that firing point towed by at least a M151 Mutt. I could have probably rejiggered the M113 Mech Infantry to have Mutts in them for towing, but it would have never fit in with the Huey air assault infantry. Plus, couldn't find a good mini - yes, I'd said previously that GHQ had a recoilless rifle in their Soviet infantry pack, but it's way too small to represent the M40, which is a sizeable piece of hardware - and while I do have Jeep-mounted options that will work, again, could not fit those into the Huey troops. Still, I wanted to show how low on available first rate technology the NG is in the Red Dawn scenario, and while I still allowed the various infantry elements to add one M47 Dargon missile team for an extra point, and replaced a transport M113 with a M40-equipped M113 (they still have plenty of Passenger spaces in the remaining M113s), I replaced all the other Dragon teams with M67 90mm recoilless rifle teams, the stats of which I got from the 'Nam force builder. Plus, since the M67 is basically a slightly larger Bazooka, I am going to use that Soviet recoilless rifle-toting infantry mini after all.

I still think that if there are any M60A3 Pattons in the front lines in Europe, that is because the US Army doesn't have a single M1 Abrams left in the United States. However, if you wanted to allow the M1 Abrams (not the M1A1, I still think that one should be off limits for the Red Dawn scenarios, but again, this is just my opinion, you play your game how you want) where it is an option next to the M60 Patton, then you're probably not straying too far away from reality. Okay, "reality", as this is a game about an alternate history that never happened for us, being represented as a game that has to be fair and balanced for both sides. News flash - militaries aren't interested in "fair fights", those are for suckers.

I know why they don't do it, but I do wish BF would have built the game around off-board artillery. Yes, it's because they wouldn't sell as many minis (understandable, they have to make money, after all), and some dice rolling on the side to determine the facts of an artillery counter-battery duel would not be as exciting as seeing it play out on table, still I wish they had gone that way so I could expand the NG arty options to towed pieces. And yes, there are stats for towed pieces I could steal from 'Nam and Fate of a Nation (FoaN), but no towing vehicles or movement rules in the current TY/v4 ruleset. Why would anyone want to move 155mm towed artillery pieces mid-battle? I've worked with artillery troops before, and let me tell you, those knuckle-dragging, tube-licking, gun bunnies wouldn't pause before pushing their cannons onto line to commence pouring some direct fire at incoming armor or infantry. Well, while I could use my stats I generated for the M35A2s, I don't feel like digging out my v3 books and trying to translate all the hitching up and moving rules. Besides, instead of the West German M109G stats, I found the Canadians in Free Nations already using the original M126 bearing M109, so I just stole that whole cloth and made it the only option (besides the M106, which I never considered changing, they were fine as is). The other artillery wish I have for my NG list is that somewhere in an official BF product they had used the American M110A2 203mm self-propelled artillery piece. Not only is it screamingly old school and GHQ has an excellent 6mm mini of them, but they were in use by the NG up until the mid-1990s.

The other big lesson I'm starting to realize as I type this and read more in Red Dawn is that I am right in restricting the technology and even bringing in some older equipment, but I was not right in insisting on keeping the same abilities (Courage, Morale, etc) as before. Yes the majority of NG troops, both combat and support, are just as good as our Active Duty brethren (though they'll deny, deny, deny) as much of the NG are made up of former Active servicemembers who are constantly passing on their knowledge and experiences to the rest of the force. Plus, all NG have to meet the same standards as the Active Duty folks, and maintaining those same skills and level of performance while managing a civilian career and family on top of it. Being NG is harder than you think, trust me, why I always point young folks interested in joining the Army fresh out of high school to go Active Duty first and come to the NG after they've had some NCOs babysit them for at least one enlisted contract (usually 4 years). But wait, earlier you said you were wrong, what's up with the conflict between the "I'm wrong" statement and "the NG are Gods Among Humanity"? So, yes, your average NG troops are just as good as your average Active Duty line troops... but those are the ones that have been sent to or preparing to jump off to Europe to join in the fun, not the troops left behind who now have to deal with the VDV and the Cubans. While I've been getting to the end of creating my NG list (I'm to Divisional Support right now) I realized the above, and am also cross checking ability scores and points between East German and Czech forces from the recent Warsaw Pact release. I don't remember if I touched on this in a previous BatRep (and am too lazy busy to go back and find it if I did), but the WarPact supporting countries - Poland, East German, Czechoslovakia - run, in that order, from most expensive to least expensive points-wise, and the only real differences they have, besides some equipment uniqueness, is ability scores. So comparing apples to apples, your standard T-72M tank company, in both the East German and Czech lists, have the exact same stats, but the Czech ability scores are all one worse than the East German scores (except Assault, exactly the same) and cost one point less at three tanks, two points less at four, and three at five. The M60 Pattons have similar stats to the T72Ms and the M48A5s have similar stats to T62, and now with the new, lower abilities, I'm going as simple as possible - 3 points per M60, 2 points per M48A5. And to make sure I'm not being too overpowered, in addition to lowering every ability (except Assault) by one, I'm also lowering the Hit On from 4+ to 3+ (again, 2nd line and older troops that were left behind while the 1st line folks are at the Ports of Embarkation getting ready to deploy to the European theater and Korean peninsula... sorry my brain is all over the place, I've long thought that BF could release a Korean book that, much like Oil Wars, covers the North and South Korean forces during the TY timeline, because you know if the Soviets come through the Fulda Gap, the North Koreans are going to decide the Americans are distracted enough to cross the DMZ.. and BF can also do a Korean war section, and if they ever do the promised Checkpoint Charlie book, they can set up the Korean forces for that portion of the timeline) to justify the drop in points.

Okay, that was a lot of words, I'm going to try and avoid being so wordy from here on out (HA!!). Have I mentioned that I also changed all of the Thermal Imaging to Infra-Red? Again, a downgrade to equipment to reflect the older gear the National Guard is using. In addition, I'm working up stats to include some old school equipment that isn't to be found anywhere else in TY, 'Nam or Fate of a Nation, like the aforementioned M110A2, and A7 Corsair II. I'm doing so many points adjustments and everything else, I might as well try my hand at creating some pieces I want to play with whole cloth, but honestly, I think those 2 are plenty and I am unable to find any other pieces that are just too cool not to include. Starting with the M110A2, I go first to the source of all recorded knowledge, Wikipedia. An interesting thing about this artillery piece is that it has 13 crew - 1 driver, 2 gunners, 2 loaders, and then 8 assistants that usually ride around in an M548, which is a little tracked cargo hauler that the M110A2 batteries used as ammo haulers. I think for self-defense purposes, I am going to include 2 stands of rifleman infantry and the M548 (with mounted M2 machinegun) with each M110A2. Another interesting fact is that, due to the large nature of the caliber of these guns, they are screamingly slow to fire, but due to the nature of how the Special Rules work in TY, I don't want to just use Slow Firing, which degrades the accuracy whenever the vehicle moves and fires, instead I need to paw through the books and see if I can find a special rule where these guns can only fire every other Turn. I also found the Army operator's manual, amazing what you can find on the internet, and wow, these were one of the artillery pieces the US Army was trying to fire nuclear weapons out of, so these had ranges in excess of 15 miles. No, I am not trying to stat up a nuclear round for this one, the standard HE rounds will be quite devastating enough, thank you very much. I am going to give the gun enough range, it doesn't matter how big of a table you're on, you can reach all the way across it. Speaking of, with the bursting radius of these 8-inch rounds being what they were, the temptation is to make the Artillery bombardment into a Salvo bombardment, but that isn't the way to go. Instead, make both the Artillery template bombardment and the direct fire Brutal, as well as another couple of Special Rules I'm making up based on other rules I've seen in TY and other BF products - because the shell is so much bigger than the 155mm in the M109, that the battery will ignore the "re-roll successful rolls To Hit if only firing with 1 or 2 weapons" and then, due to how long it takes to load and fire, if the battery moved or fired last round, it cannot fire this round. That last one I am serious about, the very best crews could only get about four rounds off a minute, and most crews were having a good day if they were averaging two to three rounds a minute, sustained. I'm still not 100% on what all the stats will be for these beasts (the rifleman teams? easy, take your standard team and remove the M72 LAW; and the M548 is an unarmored version of the M113 with an M2 .50cal, too easy), but I'm trying to balance reality with game mechanics and will try to figure points cost after I get the stats nailed down.

After much fiddling with stats and points, I think I am where I want to be, or at least a lot closer. I have gone back and, in addition to not including the Apache into my list, I added as an option a Huey Slick, the UH-1B/C attack variant with 7.62 mini guns and 2.75" rocket pods. I had remembered these had been used by the Army for many years (yes, Army, they have the helos, and the Air Force gets the fixed wing craft, with some small exceptions both ways) during and after Vietnam. I also settled on just two planes for the attack aircraft options, the A4 Skyhawk, since I had its stats from 'Nam, and the A7 Corsair II, whose stats I had to make up. Why not the A1 Skyraider as well? Been out of service too long, and really, two plane options is enough, didn't need old-older-oldest as options. After some discussions with folks in the various online forums, I pulled back the infantry teams for the M110A2s and also the "if you fired or moved last round you cannot fire this round" restriction, both were just too messy to deal with on the table. KISS - keep it simple, stupid. This is just a game, a gamification of what could have happened, and yes, very much a fun game, but it is just a game and not reality. I did up their Assault and Counterattack stats just a smidge to reflect having that many troops on hand, but other than that, the rest were too much. I did leave the M548 ammo haulers with the M110A2s because a) they are cool looking, b) would have been there, and c) gave me an excuse to keep at least one .50cal MG per arty track close by for either AA duty or to help shoot up an incoming Assault. I also doubled every Divisional Support option - instead of being able to bring just one FIST, now you can bring two, if you have the points for it, and so on - as I had lowered so many points across the whole list that it just made sense to offer more Units from Support if that is what you want.

There you have it, my stab at a Us Army and Air National Guard list to be used in Red Dawn type scenarios for Team Yankee. If you want to download the list itself and see the huge sprawling document, you can check it out here. No, i am not trying to give away something BF currently offers in their catalog, practically everything about this list has been changed from the original. If BF ever does release a US NG list that looks vaguely like mine, I will take this one down. We have become too litigious of a society, and I just don't care to be "the name" behind this list, I just want this list to exist out there so we can play it. Besides, I have done roughly zero playtesting on these points and stats, I could be close, I could be wildly high or low, or I could be perfect. I doubt I'm perfect, and while I hope I'm at least close, I know with a lot of trial and error I could get closer to perfection. Which means there is a lot of playtesting in my future, oh darn the luck! An excuse to play more games. Battlefront folks, if you find this and are intrigued, please drop me a line, I'll be glad to share everything I have with you, as I am greatly enjoying your game and just want to see more options and the hobby growing. As for the rest of you, please get out there and play more games, any games, with your friends and family. 

Games I Have Purchased, But Won't Ever Get to Play

Wow, that's a real downer of a title isn't it? But admit it, if you have been in the role-playing game hobby (or even any other type of game, be it board, card, war, or video) long enough, you too have a game, or a shelf full of games, or even a storage locker worth of games, that you were excited enough to buy (whether new or from the discount bin at your FLGS), or back on Kickstarter, or were gifted from a friend or family member, and while you are excited to have that game, and you have pored over its manual in loving detail, you will never, EVER get anyone else to play it with you. Pour one out for our fallen brethren, never played, relegated forever to sit and collect dust. Here are some of the games in my collection that I have paid good money for, but have resigned myself to the realization that I will never get to play them.

Planet Mercenary Role-Playing Game - based on the popular, long-running webcomic, Schlock Mercenary, Planet Mercenary (PM from here on out) is about running a mercenaries for hire corporation in a far future (31st century, per the human calendar), hard sci-fi universe. Do you want to play strange alien races or just plain humans, using high tech weapons and gadgets to kill strange alien races or just plain humans, and getting paid huge sums of money to do so? Well, everything but that last one can be found in PM, as CHAOS is the theme of this tabletop RPG, and you will find yourself failing more often than you are succeeding, but that frequent failure is built into the rules (and if you're familiar with the comic at all, the lore of the game universe), to the point where you will in combat often find yourself deciding on whether or not to invoke the Ablative Meatshield rule and kill a lower ranked NPC party member rather than lose your own PC... or decide not to, and start updating said lower ranked NPC to become your next PC as your current PC dies a gruesome death. And the accessories for this game! There are tokens (like bennies in Savage Worlds), a Mayhem deck and Mayhem dice, and a Game Chief screen made to look like a handbrain (think tablet computer) from the Schlock Mercenary universe, you really have to see the whole panoply in person to appreciate the attention to detail the creators paid to this game bringing it to life. And this is not a thin pamphlet like some of the Osprey games you see them selling, this is a serious, 352 page, nicely printed, hardbound book (if you get the physical copy, that is, they do offer it in digits as well), because the authors did not expect you to have read Schlock Mercenary to play the game, so they included as much backstory and setting information as they could cram into the book. No offense to Osprey, they make some very entertaining games (one of them is farther down this list), but their more popular ones tend to come in very thin, softbound books. 

What is the likelihood of me getting my friends to play PM? Not very high, and that's even with me acknowledging that I, out of my group of friends, am probably the only one who has read Schlock Mercenary for any length of time (I read the comic almost from the start some 20 years ago) and I would have to be the one to run the game. I had to struggle to get enough folks interested in my Cyberpunk Red game to get it going and now will not be starting up a Savage Worlds game this year like I hoped I would (that free time and those players I had gathered to this point got grabbed by one of said players for a D&D 5e game we are starting up), so convincing either my Eberron group or my CPRed group to take a month off from either of those games, or even hold an extra session mid-month to play some PM, is pretty slim. I am going to keep trying, though, as I feel my CPRed group would be up for trying out something different.

Redshirts and Redshirts 2 Card Games - way back in the early days of the internet (late '90s, early '00s) a young gentleman in the United States Army began posting the things he was not allowed to do in said Army, things like answering questions on forms in hilarious ways (The Wages of Sin are not heaps and heaps of slightly smelly cash) or doing things in humorous ways in the operation of normal Army business (May not chew gum in formation unless I brought enough for everybody; The next day, may still not chew gum in formation even if I did bring enough for everybody). Eventually, the list grew to encompass 213 such "things" and he made a list, and named it after his nickname - The Skippy List. Yes, that is a link from the Internet Wayback Machine, because the site has been down the last couple of years and had not been updated since 2015. Sometime after leaving the Army and graduating from the SMU Guildhall program (game design is what they teach), Skippy made his first game, Redshirts (RS from here on out). If you are any type of geek, you immediately thought of Star Trek, and you'd be right (we'd also accept the book of the same name from John Scalzi, and while both got released at the same time, other than the gigantic coincidence, there is no ties between the two), this game is a parody of the original Star Trek always sending down a nobody in a red shirt and then killing them off. I know, you see the humor in it, too, right? And Skippy and the team at WeaselPants (I know, another archive from the Internet Wayback Machine, but what can you do?) even got David Riddick, creator and artist of the Legend of Bill webcomic, who draws humor scenes very well, to do all the art of the cards.

So what happened? This sounds like a slam dunk of a game - it's funny, got a great premise, and the art assets were perfect for the job. Unfortunatley, the premise of the game is the problem, to win a round of RS, you have to be the first to kill off your redshirts. Sadly, it's such a simple premise that once you get through the terrible instructions and figure out that is what you're supposed to do - put your redshirts in situations they are unsuited to handle, while at the same time giving your opponents' redshirts the means to overcome their dire situations - either you're the only one who has figured it out and you win too easily, or if multiple people figure it out, then the whole table becomes deadlocked. There is no replayability to the game at all, and after you've laughed at all the in-jokes once, the game is stale and boring. Which is why the game and WeaselPants folded. Even a 2nd edition that was successfully Kickstarted after the 1st one funded and shipped (and yes, I backed both editions and the one expansion) still did not add enough complexity to the game to fix the lack of replay value. And also why I will never play it with my friends. It still sits on my board game shelf, and I pull it out to show folks every once in a while, but it will never be played.

So many failed Kickstarters (more to come!) did I ever back a successful Kickstarter that I have played and gotten some use out of? Yes, as a matter of fact there is - from the creative big brains at Weta Workshop (yes, the one that did special effects for The Lord of the Rings movies, the recent popular ones) they made a board game set in a sci-fi future that is one part dystopic cyberpunk, "the whole world is run by corporations!", and one part big stompy robots gaining dominance through heavy weapons and placing advertising on buildings. The game is called Giant Killer Robots: Heavy Hitters (GKR for short), and the game, unlike the last one, is fun. There are multiple ways to win, lots of tactics you can employ, and all the pieces you get in the set are cool looking and very tongue-in-cheek funny at the same time. Why the long name? I get the feeling they had an inkling to expand it beyond the first game, but ran out of ideas before they could make game two, as they made some expansions for the first game almost half a decade back and nothing since. In fact, if GKR looks cool to you, now is the time to pick it up, Weta is trying to sell off their last copies and they're half of what I paid in the Kickstarter and a third of what the normal price has been. Get all the expansions and add-ons, too, as I think once they're gone, they'll be impossible to find. Do I play this game frequently? Not really, as it takes a long time to set up and a long time to play, there are other standbys in my collection that are shorter and easier and just as fun, so they get more attention. But still, I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a big, stompy robot combat game. Why did this succeed where Redshirts failed? Weta artists designed the minis and the art, and the humor on the cards, but they hired a professional game maker (who knew this was a profession? "what do you do for a living?" "I make board and card games" "how do I kill you and take over your life?" "if you kill me, I will only return stronger than before!") who had made successful board games many times before and he made sure the game was fun and had the right amount of complexity to it.

Gaslands Tabletop Wargame - I told you before I would get to an Osprey "pamphlet" game, and here we are. Gaslands is a simple game of post-apocalyptic vehicular combat (think the movies Mad Max: Fury Road or Death Race, but more like a competition as seen in Death Race than a survivalist piece as seen in any of the Mad Max films) that uses Hot Wheels/Matchbox scale cars for the base models. This is less a game that is about selling customers screamingly expensive, bespoke armies to make wads of cash for the makers, but about having fun with your friends in a cheap and inexpensive way, with as many materials as you probably already have in your house. Got some Hot Wheels or Matchbox cars kicking around from your childhood or in your child's/children's toybox(es)? You're already halfway to having most of what you need for this game. And if you don't have any cars floating around your house, they're basically a dollar new at the store, or you can get a bunch of them from Goodwill for even cheaper (and the more beat up they are, the better). Now, admittedly, this is not a terribly deep game, full of lore and backstory, and there is little to do with the setting they have established outside of the car game itself, but that is not its purpose, it was meant to be a low cost, low time sink, beer and pretzels game that you and your friends distract yourselves with in between your more serious games. The only other big downside to the game is that, except for the books, Osprey makes and sells NOTHING for this game, not fancy dice, not the movement templates you have to have to play, not even weapons or other upgrades for the cars, like tires and engines and guns, so many guns. You have to either make it yourself (3d print hobbyists LOVE this game as almost everything can be 3d printed for it) or buy it from an online seller. And no, I still can't interest any of my gaming friends to come over, make up a bunch of cars, and play some games of Gaslands. Before I move on to the next game, I will say that if this game sounds interesting to you, Osprey has released an updated version of the Gaslands rules, called Gaslands: Refuelled, and I suggest you get this newer version instead. It's still super affordable (less than $20 for the book) and it has all the extra stuff Osprey has released for the game since the original's release, like war rigs (think the semi-truck they use in The Road Warrior to smuggle out the gas from the refinery) and zombie squishing races. Now I want to print up a bunch of random weapons and car accessories, a couple sets of templates, and some dice and put out an invite to see who's interested.

DIE the Role-Playing Game - here is another game I backed on Kickstarter, and just like PM, DIE is also based on a comic of the same name, physical this time instead of being a webcomic. If you're not familiar with the story, DIE is about 6 teenagers who went to a friend's house to play a RPG, got sucked into that RPG world, and then came back to the real world... only to then go back to the RPG world some years later to take care of some unresolved issues from the first go-round. This is a classic kind of story, as seen in the movie Tron, the book Quag Keep, and the recently popular anime/manga genre known as isekai. Side note, if you've never read Quag Keep, go do it, it's some fascinating lore from the early days of Dungeons & Dragons, as the author, Andre Norton, was introduced to D&D by Gary Gygax himself and she wrote this book based on that introduction. Anyway, back to DIE - the game has so recently been funded that, as I am typing this, I have received the pdf of the game, but not the physical copy of it yet. I could use that pdf to try to get a game going, or even do a one shot, but with all the problems I have had trying to get a Savage Worlds game going, much less PM, that I doubt I'll ever get to play/run DIE. Plus, I'm also a little hesitant as I don't know if I would do a DIE game/campaign justice, as this is not your normal hack 'n' slash dungeon delve, oh no, this is a fancy, thinking person's type of game, one that deals with feelings and interpersonal relationships, and while I'm a decent enough DM for 5e and GM for CPRed, I worry that I'm not good enough for a story as high of a caliber as the original comic and this game both have. But I still backed it, because I believe in voting with my money and that people who make awesome things outside of the normal channels (the comic was not published by Marvel or DC, and the game does not use WotC's OGL d20 system) should get my business... when I can afford it. 

Again, another game destined to gather dust, as I've been unable to get my RPG-playing, comics-interested friends in reading the comic book itself, I doubt I'll get them interested in such a cerebral undertaking as playing this game. I'm far more likely to get a group around either a more action packed game (my failed Savage Worlds experiment, or PM above) or something more traditional (basically, even with the WotC OGL kerfuffle I still couldn't get anyone interested in Savage Worlds, while half the D&D players across the globe, and even locally, were swearing off D&D in response... I'm beginning to think it's me) (or that gamers are just like everyone else on the planet who proclaim they are bored and want to try something new, but in reality want just more of the same old, same old; it's why I gave up waiting for friends and coworkers to go play paintball with, and simply went to the field to play with whoever else showed up), and DIE, as cool as it is, just isn't either of those things.

Mobile Frame Zero: Rapid Attack and Intercept Orbit, LEGO based tabletop wargame - yep, another Kickstarter I backed years ago and have still only played a game or two of. This one, like several other games on here, is still barely alive, in that you can still buy the books (or download them for free, Intercept Orbit here), but beyond that, there's not much of a community backing it and the creative team behind the games have moved on to different projects. The idea behind MF0: Rapid Attack is big stompy mech combat, but everything from the robots to the terrain is made out of LEGO bricks, and you pull pieces off to represent damage. So your mech hides from mine behind a wall, and I shoot the wall up, taking off so many bricks with each hit, and when the wall is gone, that's it, I start hitting your mech. Each hit on your mech destroys a system (pardon me if I get this wrong, it's been a long time since I've looked at the rules) and you remove the bricks that represent that system from your mech, be they shields or weapons or movement thrusters. And since it's all based on LEGO bricks, and LEGO lost the proprietary lock on their dimensions a while ago so now EVERYONE'S building bricks are the same dimensions, you can use practically everyone's building bricks to make any mech you can dream up. How inventive can you get? Check out this Flickr group that is nothing but MF0 designs. The other game in the pair, MF0: Intercept Orbit, is the space combat portion of the hard sci-fi universe that the game resides in. Same idea, though, make LEGO spaceships and battle each other. These games, like Gaslands, are very "light" games, only three factions in the setting with very little backstory on any of them, and then all the rules you need to play, plus some plans to make some mechs/spaceships.

Once again, can't interest anyone in playing either game, even if they are super cheap (both games are FREE to download, and I know if you're reading this, you probably have a bucket of LEGOs or other compatible bricks gathering dust in your house) and easy to pickup the rules to play. There is one problem with these two, however, but it's not terribly obvious here as it is in other games, but this is where I personally started seeing this trend in the games industry - Wokeness. Do the creators of MF0 pray to the Woke egregore that has been building over the last decade on social media? Yes, yes they do, but not as bad as some others I've seen or even talked about on this very blog. How bad is it in the industry today? I saw mention of a new RPG that had come out in the past year and noticed they had a free version of their rules for download, just a taste of the rules and backstory to give you a demo to entice you back to purchase the full game. I download it, and then after reading the intro of the whole book, where they talk about the creative team's race, gender, and sexuality, virtue signaling their Wokeness far and wide by decrying the horrible things they depict in a work of fiction, which is where I deleted the file and am no longer intrigued by the game. No really, I came here to play a game, not acknowledge your virtue signaling and honestly, as long as you're not breaking the law, I could care less about any of that stuff. You want equality, there it is - I am apathetic to ANYONE'S race, creed, gender, sexuality, or tendency to pee standing up, sitting down, or laying on your side, just so long as you can be a productive member of society and do well at whatever job you have. When I get into a game of any type, I don't want to be preached at about how awful a person I am, I came to play a game, please spend your time writing what I need to play your game in the book and leave out your Woke screed. And let's be honest, if you didn't have some upsetting things in your RPG, it wouldn't be interesting enough for anyone to want to play, as no one brags about how they planted a community garden in Friends & Feelings, they talk about how they committed some intransigencies against the Geneva Convention on their way to snuffing out the bad guy. Sadly, MF0 suffers from this a bit, here is an example from their Creative Commons license, talking about creating your own setting to use their combat rules -  "Design your setting in such a way that the signature elements of feudal, authoritarian, totalitarian, communist, corporate/anarcho-capitalist, or democidal political structures that are not true, workable, or morally acceptable in the real world are equally untrue, unworkable, and unacceptable in your setting." Um, I hate to say this, but there are completely morally corrupt regimes (morally corrupt by our standards in the US as well as elsewhere, but not everywhere, in the world) that have been THRIVING for decades and still going. So why can't I include them in my new setting, just because you don't like them? You really don't know how conflict in fiction really works, do you? Anyway, trust me when I say I interacted with the major players in the creative team on social media (this game came out when Google Plus was still a thing, and the MF0 team and fans were big on that platform) and eventually blocked them all for being overly Woke, raging assholes. Too bad, they made a very fun game.

That is my collection. I'm sure I've had other games that were so bad that they were merely unremarkable or I blocked them from my memory so I wouldn't inflict that hurt on myself again. I seem to remember a friend bringing out some card game that was about castle walls, but you put your troops (swordsmen, spearmen, archers) in front of the walls to protect the walls from getting destroyed, which is where I gave up playing because that makes no sense. And I have a ton of computer games that I've purchased that I haven't played yet, but I have to finish typing this and post it to the internet at some point before the heat death of the universe. What about you folks, what games do you have in your collection that you'll probably never get around to playing?

TY 6mm Lessons Learned 19

Another month, another Battle Report (BatRep) for my World War III: Team Yankee in 6mm scale local group. Wait a minute, did I miss December's BatRep? you're asking yourself. Fear not, loyal reader, you did not miss the BatRep in December, as between the holidays and a bout of COVID, we did not play in December. Sorry about that. But we managed to get a game in for the first month of 2023, and here it is. Lessons Learned before I forget them - I don't care how tempting that cluster of vehicles are right at the beginning of the game, especially when you have a One Shot Salvo weapon on your aircraft, if that cluster includes the Dedicated AA tracks and using that Salvo weapon puts you in their range, pick another target; our local meta has been focused more on infantry over vehicles, so cheap glass cannons with Guided weapons are not what you should be bringing to the fight, they are not going to be as useful as you think; everyone is vulnerable to Side Armor shots; to paraphrase an old adage, throw enough men and materiel at the Objective, and something is bound to stick; gun AA is much more flexible, but you pay for that in range, so keep them near the Units you want to protect, or get smaller, multiple Units of gun AA, but that also makes your umbrella less effective (no one said this is easy); Spearhead is super important, more so for Attackers, but must be used in moderation; and artillery is more useful against infantry, mostly for the Pins they cause rather over everything else.

To this month's fight, Uriah brought out a British Medium Recce Squadron - two Spartans in the HQ, two Troops of four Scorpions, a Troop of four Scimitars, and four Strikers. From Divisional Support, three Chieftain Marksmen, two Harriers, two TOW Lynx helos, and then a Troop of three Challengers from Cross Level Support. Uriah was to face Brandon, but Brandon was detained elsewhere (no, he wasn't arrested... this time) so I played and pulled out an East German BMP-1 Mech Battalion - BMP and rifle team for the HQ, three Companies of five BMPs, four rifle and RPG-18 stands, three stands of RPG-7s, and an extra SA-14 Gremlin stand, seven T-72Ms, four Shilkas, three Spandrels, three Carnation artillery pieces, and a four BMP Scout group. And yes, that is all inherent to the Battalion. From Divisional Support, another four BMP Scout group, six Su-22 Fitters, and a BMP OP. Yes, this is a bit of a BMP Horde army, as you have 25 BMP-1s (well, 24 plus the OP, which looks like a BMP but isn't) and 24 stands of infantry, which is a lot to buy in 15mm, but a lot more affordable in 6mm. Quick note, that OP really should be in another vehicle, as they've removed the cannon and Sagger ATGM from the track and left it as a spotter and has only an MG. I think I'll get a Soviet jeep (think they used the GAZ like we use HMMWVs) (okay, research done, the GAZ was WW2-era, the one used in the time of TY is the UAZ-469, and yes, GHQ has them in our preferred scale, I will have to pick some up and share them around, as they come in a five pack and you can only use one in any WarPact list) to more realistically represent what the Soviets would have used for their OPs, as well as differentiate it from all the other BMPs. No, I did not use my new National Guard list I'm doing up for Red Dawn, as it's not done yet and we still try to do Red on Blue and not Blue on Blue or Red on Red fights. Uriah's list looks super weak, but let me tell you, all those Scorpions and Scimitars lasted longer than his Challengers did, which is why we have nicknamed them cockroaches. This fight went all the way to the final bell and really could have gone either way. Uriah did say he'd make some changes for next time, like drop the Strikers and bring something else, like more Scorpions/Scimitars. Maybe if I had been more diligent and effective with my Fitters would he have considered some missile AA options, but as it was, the Marksmen were fine and carried their fair share, on both air and ground targets.

We rolled on the Mission table, WarPact choosing Attack and the Brits choosing Maneuver, and the roll resulted in Counterattack. Uriah picked his quarter, I chose the quarter longwise down from Uriah, and it was on. The Brits, as Defenders, had the Challengers in Reserve, and one of the Scorpion Troops in Ambush.

Still recovering from the holidays, I just didn't feel like getting too fancy with the terrain.

And the result is...

...Counterattack!

British deployment.

The beginnings of the East German deployment. Note the use of Spearhead to get many Units forward and into position.

The East Germans keep going...

...and going. The 2 BMPs behind the Shilkas are the OP and the command element.

TURN ONE - Attacker goes first and I get my Fitters in on the first roll of the game. Don't worry, as always, RNGeezus will rollercoaster this game like all the others, for both me and Uriah. The cluster at the back of the British formation is too tempting and as I have only a One Shot Salvo template with the Fitters, I go for it. As Admiral Ackbar is famous for saying, it indeed was a trap I threw my strike aircraft into. *sigh* Everyone else charges forward - the Challengers are in Reserve and yes, they will show up before the Objectives go live on Turn Six, but while they are not on the table I need to take as much ground and remove as many opposing vehicles as possible. I remove one Striker and Bail two others. The Spartan command element is removed from the game (wiped from the face of the Earth!) entirely. The Deployed Scorpions suffer a casualty. Artillery, even though it is Ranged In close to two Units is not close enough for government work and sits silent. Then we get to the strike aircraft, my six Fitters - the Marksmen light them up and remove four out of six aircraft. The Salvo goes off, Ranges In on first or second roll, and ultimately does zero damage to anything under the template. I attempt to Shoot 'n' Scoot everything except the artillery, OP and command, (should have moved OP sooner than I did) and only get one of the BMP recon Units just a little closer to the schwerpunkt. 

On the Defender's half of the Turn, everything Remounts, Reserves come onto the table, and strike aircraft show up. Don't worry, RNGeezus giveth and RNGeezus taketh away. Also, the Ambushing Scorpions show up exactly where I figured they would. The horde of BMPs bearing down on the Brits take the brunt of their return fire, almost wiping out one whole recon Unit (three destroyed, one Bailed), two BMPs destroyed and one Bailed from one of the Mech Units (with just one stand of infantry not making their Save), another BMP destroyed out of the other Recon Unit, and the Harriers swoop onto one of the other Mech Units to destroy one BMP (no infantry stands failed their Save in this attack). The Challengers move forward but don't get a line of sight to anything, but stay lurking in the back field, the ominous Jaws theme playing. 

Yes, I need to get magnets into my strike aircraft... and paint on many, many other minis.

And yes, those helicopters were landed, but they made their saves anyway.

Threatening the far side Objective.

T-72s coming up to add weight of fire.

Shilkas moving cautiously at this point.

Artillery waiting patiently.

Yes, I know, more painting to be done.

Shoot 'n' Scooting BMP Recon.

Harriers retaliate.

Scorpions show up and everyone fires on somebody.

Lynx and Scimitars move to cover the far side Objective.

Catching hate.

DUH-duh. DUH-duh.

TURN TWO - The East Germans try to Remount and Rally as many as they can, but only get a few back into the fight. The BMP Recon Unit down to one Bailed BMP fails Remount and scampers to the hinterlands. Whatever Units can move forward are doing so, under a hail of fire. No joy from strike aircraft this Turn. The T-72s scamper into deeper cover to start the dash to threaten flank shots on the newly arrived Challengers, while the OP finally moves to where they can do some good, which won't be available until next Turn. I move the command BMP into the woods, hoping to pincer the approaching Challengers from the side next Turn with the BMP's Sagger, but immediately Bog at the edge of the woods. *feh* At the sharp end, another Striker dies, another is Bailed, two Scorpions in the woods are Bailed, and not much else happened other than some atrociously low rolls (seriously, out of ten to thirteen dice, I didn't get anything higher than a couple of fours - RNGeezus taketh away).

On the British half, the Harriers arrive again and go directly after the T-72s. Most of the rest of the Bailed Brits get back into their vehicles, minus a few exceptions, and everyone maneuvers to their advantage. The Challengers Dash into cover to meet the T-72s more head-on, and the Scimitars and Lynx maneuver to try and stem the approaching Unit of BMP Mech looking to envelope the far side Objective. On the near side Objective, the BMP mech infantry, on its own after the Recon had left, had all of their BMPs destroyed except for one Bail, and only five infantry stands survived out of the eight they started with. The other BMP Recon Unit is wiped off the board completely. The unblooded Mech Unit on the far side Objective becomes decidedly blooded, with two lost and two Bailed BMPs, but lucks out with no loss of infantry. The Shilkas catch some hate as well, losing two tracks and another Bailed. The T-72s try to drive off the Harriers with Defensive AA fire, but only manage to roll a lot of dice for no effect, and then lose three tracks to a Salvo. 

Turn Two... FIGHT!!

More carnage at the schwerpunkt.

Mech infantry Dashing to enfold the flank.

T-72s moving into cover.

Bogged command track, and repositioned OP.

Artillery looking nervously across the board.

Challengers Dash forward and Harriers swooping in to lay down a Salvo.

British maneuvering.

More British maneuvers.

"Uh, guys? I think they don't want us here..."

Carnage at the near side Objective.

Carnage at the far side Objective.

Carnage in the mid field.

Burning T-72s. Note that the Challengers Dashed to this position and cannot fire this turn. Uriah was trying to get them into position so they could fire without moving and get ROF 2.

One last picture of the back field.

TURN THREE - If there was a low point to the fight for me, it was Turn Two, as my dice were not wanting to cooperate and I lost a lot of vehicles. Turn Three wasn't much better. Again, no strike aircraft (what I'm not telling you is I keep forgetting to roll for them at the start of the Turn, and then remember just before the end, but still fail the roll). I manage to Remount a few vehicles and don't lose any more Units to failed Morale checks, but one of my three infantry Units remain Pinned (near side Objective). On the far side, all of the infantry dismounts and one Unit rushes towards the Objective, while the other sets up overwatch positions on the Objective. I manage to Blitz my Spandrels just a bit forward to get better Line of Sight on the Scorpions in the trees, and move the T72s back out of cover of the Challengers. The command BMP succeeds on their Cross Check to get into the woods (yay!) and then fails the Cross to get to the other side of the woods (boo!). Firing on the run, the forces on the far side manage to kill three of the four Scimitars near that Objective. Artillery shifts its Range In and drops rounds on the Scorpions in the tree line... to no effect, which is part of a theme as even with the lone remaining Shilka, the Spandrels, and all the Pinned infantry, the rest of the Scorpions remain at one destroyed and two Bailed, which I had inflicted last Turn, but I do get a Bail on one of the two remaining Strikers, so not a total waste. And yes, I purposefully Dashed the T72s where I did because I could not get a Side Armor shot with a Tactical move. Shooting at Challengers from the front with T-72Ms is an exercise in frustration - you have to Hit (4+ out in the open, 50%), then they have to roll a 1 for their Armor Save (17% for just that), and then you have to make Firepower (at least it's a 2+ there, 83% for that roll) (which, doing all of the fancy probability math, means there is a 7% chance of this happening, or about 7 times out of every 100 attempts... and I only have four shots to try my luck, by this point), all so you can Bail one of the Challengers. Not destroy, just to get a Bail. Save your shots and use Dash until you are in a position to get a flank shot.

Over to the Brits, Harriers come in once again, they Remount everything that is Bailed, but the last living Scimitar fails Morale and hightails it off the table. The Challengers move forward at Tactical to get shots on the remaining T-72s, and everything else shifts slightly to pour as much hate on the East Germans as possible. Also to the tank party in the back field come the Lynx TOW helos and the harriers. On the near side Objectvie, the infantry and remaining, lone Bailed BMP weather the storm and nothing much happens (RNGeezus taketh away). On the far side Objective, the BMPs that had been hiding behind the hill and then unmasked to wreak some havoc on the Scimitars are wiped out, as well as the Spandrels in the mid-field (RNGeezus giveth). Now that I think about it, I should have used Shoot 'n' Scoots to move the Spandrels into the trees they were next to instead of even further out of cover, though them spending the game Bogged at the edge of the trees would have been, well, frustrating and par for the course. A few infantry stands on the far side are also removed. The last moving Shilka is destroyed, leaving a Bailed teammate to see if they run or not next Turn. One of the Harriers succumbs to Defensive AA fire from the T-72s, but then the last harrier, both TOW Lynx, and the three Challengers pour on the fire, and of the remaining four T-72s, two are destroyed and one is Bailed. Like I said, pretty much these two Turns were the low point of my game.

Turn Three, FIGHT!!

Not a lot happening here, but the East Germans are holding on and the Brits aren't giving up, either.

Remember, in Counterattack, the Objectives do not go "live" until Turn Six, but this is when you need to start occupying them to set up your defense.

Shifting fire.

Run! Hide!

Bogged again.

Brits sending the Hate.

So many burning BMPs.

The fight at the far side Objective.

The Shilkas are not having a good day.

And neither are the T-72s.

TURN FOUR - This is where the tide turns for the East Germans and they step from the back foot to the front foot, and prove that quantity has a quality all of its own. Still no strike aircraft, but we're used to that by now. Remounts and unPins for practically everyone else (still a straggler here and there, but more up and moving rather than down and out, which was nice), including the T-72s, which immediately moved to get Side Armor shots on the Challengers. The command track finally manages both a Blitz order and a Cross Check to get into position to help with the Challengers. The few BMPs left charge forward to deliver as much carnage as possible. The unPinned infantry streams around the far side Objective, investing it within a wall of bodies - this is MY Objective, and in two Turns when it goes "hot", you will have the devil's own time getting me off of it! The artillery once again fails to do anything to the Scorpions in the trees. At the near side Objective, one Striker destroyed and the last Bailed, three Scorpions in the last two Troops are Bailed as well, and one of the Marksmen are also Bailed. In the back field, the two SA-14 Gremlin stands manage to knock one of the Lynx out of the sky. And the big one, the T-72s kill two Challengers outright! Unfortunately, the third was behind the stand of trees and the command crew did not get a clear Line of Sight to it.

Over to the Brits. They do not get Harriers in for the first time this game, and fail their Morale check for the last Challenger, but do get most of their Bailed vehicles Remounted, including the last Striker which passes Morale. Which brought up the question of Units in the Formation, but both Scorpion Troops and the Strikers are core, so not to making Formation Morale Checks quite yet. Even with losing their big guns, the Brits manage to dish out a decent amount of pain - totally wiping out the Shilkas, who honestly did not do much for me all game; they removed enough of my infantry from one Mech Unit that I almost had to make some Morale checks for them, but do manage to Pin them; and they Bailed one of my last operational BMPs and one of my last 2 T-72s. But still, with the removal of the Challengers and the last Lynx not moving to get shots in on the T-72s, Uriah was not hopeful about his chances from here on out.

Turn Four, FIGHT!!

Gotta get under that minimum range. And the burning Striker does give Cover.

Bailed Brits around the near side Objective.

Mech infantry going after the Objective.

The last Shilka, Remounted and passed Morale, is pitching in.

One burning Lynx and two burning Challengers, just warms the heart.

"We finally made it... what do you mean there's nothing to shoot at?!"

Yup, that last Shilka is burning, and one of the infantry stands got taken out by MG fire.

Lots of carnage on this end, even with the lower ROF from the Marksmen that moved onto line.

I'm telling you, Scorpions and Scimitars are as hard to get rid of as cockroaches!

This took a lot of maneuvering to get to this point.

TURN FIVE - Finally, the Fitters return to the fight! Finally, the Mech infantry Unit that had been Pinned since Turn One Rallies and jumps towards the Scorpions for an Assault! I don't Remount anything else, but the T-72s do pass Morale, so they're still in this fight, at least. The Fitters I bring on to help the Gremlins and the last running T-72 take out the final Lynx, which does go down in a hail of fire from three different directions. The two Units of Mech infantry on the far side Objective invest that Objective even further, and while I can't Dig In this turn (one Unit is still Pinned and the other moved), everything focuses on the Marksmen, which are a HUGE threat to infantry in the open, and destroy all three in an orgy of shoulder-fired rockets and cannon fire from the last BMP. Again, artillery is ineffective against the Scorpions, because this is a running theme. The infantry and their BMP transport on the near side Objective manage to Bail the last Striker, and two of the last Scorpions in the near Troop, and then go in for the Assault... which they fail, losing a stand, and falling back to be Pinned, yet again. 

Over to Uriah. He wanted to throw in the towel at this point, but we were down to so few Units between us that the Turns were getting much shorter, and there was an outside chance he could pull this out still. It was looking pretty grim, but even being in a dominant position, I was teetering on the brink of failure. Just a few bad die rolls and I'd be making Formation Morale checks. So he jumped back in and made his best play. The last Harrier again fails to show up, not an auspicious start. The last Striker fails Remount and runs for the hills, which also doesn't help, as that was one of the three last core Units in the Formation. The Remounts also do not go well, leaving two Scorpions out of action, though that Troop passes Morale and stays in the fight. The only thing he can try is get all of his Scorpions out of the woods and on line to fire everything they have at the infantry around the far side Objective, as well as the three last BMPs on that side (two Bailed and one active... one of those Bails has been that way since Turn Two). Of course, leaving the woods, you have to pass Cross Checks, so he throws his best shot and for one Troop fails the Cross Here check, but still passes Cross and gets the last Scorpion out and on line. The other Troop passes Cross Here, but still Bogs with one of the two remaining Scorpions in that Troop (the last Scorpion didn't have to move, so didn't). With what he had available, he did manage to Pin the last two Units and remove a few stands, but not enough to force a Morale Check for either Unit. As we head into the final Turn, Turn Six, Uriah is not very optimistic about his chances.

Turn Five, FIGHT!!

Carnage on the near side Objective.

Burning Marksmen as the infantry swarms forward being supported by a BMP.

The failed Assault on the near side Objective.

To give you an idea of the far side Objective, here is some drone footage... not that they had drones as we think of them in 1985.

Goodbye Lynx! Finally!

But it only took the Fitters, the T-72s, and the Gremlins to do it.

The Scorpions leave the woods. Well, those that can.

TURN SIX - Again, no Fitters arrive this turn, but of course, everything is Danger Close and I couldn't use them on much, anyway. The T-72s fail Remount again and then fail Morale. Ah well, nice while it lasted. Out of three infantry Units, I unPin one and immediately Dig In on the far side Objective (though now I realize I shouldn't have moved their attached Gremlin team, mistake on my part, but no impact on the outcome). I do manage to Remount one of the BMPs near the far side Objective and so the two active BMPs on that side Tactically move forward to shield the infantry and the Objective and also fire at the Scorpions coming out of the woods. Meanwhile, the last BMP that was facing down the Strikers, Dashes over to the near side Objective so my opponent has to pry me off both Objectives, not just the far side. Now that I think about it, I may have been wrong and Transports without any infantry in them can't hold Objectives. If that is true, it still didn't affect the game, other than put more stress on Uriah. I manage to destroy three Scorpions, leaving one Troop with one Bogged Scorpion and the other Troop with two Bailed Scorpions.

At this point, Uriah concedes the game, and I have to agree with that decision. With me sitting on both Objectives (if I was wrong before and held only one Objective, he still could not generate enough shots to pull my infantry away to get me off the Objective, so a moot point, there) and only one active and two Bailed vehicles left, it does not look like he would have enough luck to get me off of one Objective much less both of them, and that's after making all the rolls (Remounts and Morale) needed to keep his Formation on the table.

Turn Six, Fight...?

The T-72s have left the field.

East Germans in control of both Objectives.

Too much to work through to get the Germans off either Objective.

The East German infantry and scampered vehicle graveyard.

DENOUEMENT - I have already talked about what we learned in the game, and like I said earlier, this was very close, a lot closer than many of our recent games. Low points games, around the 50 point mark, favor WarPact and the lower point cost NATO lists, while 125 points and above tend to favor the non-horde lists as there is enough of the better equipment to negate much of the "quantity over quality" benefits. Right around 75 and 100 point lists seems to be the sweet spot where you can still be very competitive and neither side nor specific lists seems to have much of an advantage. I definitely had an advantage with more Units, but Uriah could easily have traded in his Challengers for another Medium Recce Squadron and ruined my day entirely. "You have HOW MANY SCORPIONS?!?!?!" Trust me, the number of times I tried to stomp on them cockroaches and they just WOULD NOT DIE, they really are the bane of my existence when I face him. If you want to play Brits, buy Scorpions and Scimitars. How many? ALL OF THEM!! But I was really worried back in Turns Two and Three, I thought his Challengers and strike aircraft would roll me all the way up and I didn't bring enough "oomph!" to take care of either of them. Tanks like the Challenger are the unstoppable force, you can only sidestep them and hit them from the flanks, as T-72s just aren't in their league. We are both getting better about remembering to use our Movement Commands, but I did fail to use any after about halfway through the game, and those inches really could have helped when I was closing in on the Objectives. Also, Uriah played his planes and helos far better than I did and kept them well outside the range of my gun AA tracks. Only when I finally got out the Gremlins with almost 2.5 times the range of the Shilkas did I get any results. 

Something else I just realized, we have only been using the standard Missions, not the Extended Missions. Okay, next game, we are going for the Extended Missions table. 

I think I have covered everything, in my usual rambling, wandering style, and I will end this BatRep here. Have a good month, and if you can, go play some games with your family and friends.