Team Yankee Historicon Mega Battle

Historicon 2016 saw it's first and largest 15mm  Team Yankee game.  Brian Sherry and I hosted the game in a very loose Cold War gone hot scenario with a little over 360 points per side. The Soviets have rushed across the border and as their advance elements are trying to secure key objects, the American command has ordered a rag tag force to hold up the enemy until reinforcements arrive.  We originally planned for eight total players, three force commanders and an overall commander on each side who controlled air assets and a small tank reserve.

We planned the game for balance based on where units would start on the table along with timing of reserves to ensure no one side would get overwhelmed.  We figured the game would take about two and a half hours with eight players.  We were pleasantly surprised and a bit overwhelmed when eighteen folks showed up to play.  Undaunted we welcomed everyone to play and although our initial plans of deployment and reserves went out the proverbial window in order to allow everyone to command units, we were resolved to meet the three goals we had for the game.

Our Team Yankee game goals
1.  Everyone walk away with a basic understanding of the Team Yankee system
2.  Get into the action immediately.  Start rolling dice and shooting stuff.
3.  Have fun.  Do not over complicate game play and keep things moving.

Here are the force lists for each side.
I would like to make it perfectly clear that we did not follow the force structure for building lists as laid out in the Team Yankee rules.  

Soviet			Americans
Commander			Commander
6x T-72 Tanks	27		3x M-1 Abrams	24
6x Mi-24 Hind	15		4x A-10 Warthog	20
4x Mi-24 Hind	10		2x AH-1 Cobra	7
4x SU-25 Frogfoot	14		2x AH-1 Cobra	7
TOTAL	66		TOTAL	58
Force 1			Force 1
Tank Battalion HQ T-72	5		Armored Combat Team HQ M-1	8
6x T-72 Tanks	27		4x M-1 Abrams	32
6x T-72 Tanks	27		3x M-1 Abrams	24
4x SA-13 Gopher Sam	4		4x VADS	6
			2x ITV	3
TOTAL	63		TOTAL	73
Force 2			Force 2
Tank Battalion HQ T-72	5		Armored Combat Team HQ M-1	8
6x T-72 Tanks	27		4x M-1 Abrams	32
6x T-72 Tanks	27		4x M-1 Abrams	32
4x ZSU-23-4 Shilka AA	4		4x VADS	6
3x 2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer	5		2x ITV	3
BMP-1 Observation Post	1
TOTAL	69		TOTAL	81
Force 3			Force 3
BMP Motor Rifle Battalion HQ	2		M113 Mech Combat Team	1
BMP-2 1 AK-74 Team			1x M113 1 M16 Rifle Team
BMP Motor Rifle Battalion Company	24		M113 Mech Platoon	7
12xBMP-2			4x M113
10x AK-74 w/RPG-18 AT			4x 249 SAW team w/M72 LAW AT
9x RPG-7 AT Team			4x M47 Dragon Team
2x PFM LMG Team			3x M109 Field Artillery Battery	7
6x T-72 Tanks	27		Bomblets	1
6x 2S1 Carnation SP Howitzer	10		FIST	1
BMP-1 Observation Post	1		4x VADS	6
2x ZSU-23-4 Shilka AA	2		3x M106 Heavy Mortar Platoon	3
			3x M-1 Abrams	24
			2x ITV	3
TOTAL	66			53
SOVIET TOTAL	264		AMERICAN TOTAL	265

The Soviet Briefing:

Comrades!  The glorious forces of Mother Russia must save the Western proletariat from their capitalist oppressors.  Our mission is to throw off this yoke of their American Imperialist masters.  We are the claws of the bear.  We must guarantee a route for the rest of our comrades to exploit our breakthrough.  Speed is our ally, rush forward and secure the objectives and keep the American dogs from slowing our advance before they can rally the West German forces in the defense of Frankfurt. 

Soviet Objectives

The primary mission is to capture and hold two out of the three objectives at the same time beginning on turn 5.  Objectives may not be captured until the start of turn 5. American forces may not be within 4 inches of an objective and there must be an active Soviet team, not including an independent or air team, physically within 4 inches to consider it captured at the start of any Soviet turn on or after turn 5.

Bonus objectives:

Completely destroy two of the three American forces that oppose you.

Destroy all American air assets.

The American Briefing:

Now listen up!  Those sneaky red bastards launched their surprise attack a couple of days ago.  They have pulled our combat team together from every available outfit so we can stop these Commies in their tracks.  If we don’t secure these areas the door will be wide open and we can kiss Frankfurt and hell, maybe all of Germany goodbye.  We have to get to our objectives first and give the Reds a good old fashioned bloody nose in the process.

American Objectives

The primary mission is to capture and hold two out of the three objectives at the same time beginning on turn 5.  Objectives may not be captured until the start of turn 5. Soviet forces may not be within 4 inches of an objective and there must be an active American team, not including an independent or air team, physically within 4 inches to consider it captured at the start of any American turn on or after turn 5.

Bonus objectives:

Kill 50% of all Soviet forces.

Destroy all Soviet anti air assets.

Glen, a real life General, took command of the Americans and Edward, the Soviets.  We gave everyone a quick run down of the scenario, basic moving, shooting and the unit cards.  I am not normally a fan of the unit cards.  I would prefer all of my stats on a single sheet of paper as with regular Flames of War, however I had a moment of perfect clarity as to why Battlefront would have printed these cards.  They are by far the single most important tool a brand new player can have.  I used the unit cards to explain the entire game.  Having all of the important information right there at the player's fingertips was an invaluable tool for them  Between the unit cards, and the quick reference sheets I printed from the Team Yankee website, both teams were ready to go with their units, the plan of attack and a basic understanding of the rules in about 20 minutes.

I am not going to give a play by play on the entire fight.  In truth, I can not.  There was a lot going on at all parts of the table and I was not involved in every detail.  Plus, it would be rather boring going over every roll, and every single movement and bit of movement since there was so much going on.
Instead I will give turn overviews backed up with a lot of pictures.

Turn one the Americans went first.  With no Soviets on the table there was nothing to shoot at.  The Soviets moved on the table in force and took a few shots with little to no effect.

 Turn 2 and the Americans start shooting up a few Soviet tanks.  Both sides bring on helicopters.  Losses are minor.  Everyone seems to focus on trying to kill each others AA assets.

 Turn 3 and everyone's reserves are on the table.  Up to this point casualties have been relatively light.  However this turn everyone takes pretty serious losses.  The Soviet right is bogged down, but they are pressing the attack well on the left and center.  The Americans are just trying to hold it together in the face of so many Soviet targets.

Turn 4 and the casualty count keep rolling in.  On the Soviet right they have advanced the infantry company and are contesting the objective.  In the center they are on the solidly in control of the objective.  On the Soviet left however, the tide has been turned.  The Americans completely wiped out the Soviet Air force.  All Frogfoots and Hinds have been destroyed by AA fire and the Soviet T-72's have been stopped in their tracks.

Having some fun in the middle of all this madness!

After turn 5 we decided to call the game.  The Soviets are contesting the right objective and are in control of the center, but the Soviet left has completely collapsed and the Americans now control the air.  So could the Americans move to take the few remaining Soviets off the center objective?  Can the Americans hold out another turn on the right objective?  Who knows?  What we do know is our three original objectives for the game were met.  Everyone got a good feel of the game, we got into the action quickly and everyone had a great time.  So we called it a very marginal Soviet victory.

Thank you to everyone who participated in this event.  We are looking forward to doing this again in the future! - Luke