Stripes: Reviewed and Spoiled by Sarge!

We here at WWPD got lucky to get our hands on the new Team Yankee book, Stripes, which focuses on the Americans and gives them some great upgrades.  This luck was compounded by getting some famous people who once wore stripes to talk about what they initially thought of when they read the pre-release copy.  We at WWPD thought this would be a great way to commemorate the upcoming Veterans Day and to have these enlisted icons tell you a bit about what is new in Stripes. Before we get to the Sergeants, I will tell you that this book is what every US player has been waiting for and really adds some flavor and color to the US lists from the original Team Yankee book. I know some folks really wanted the Bradley IFV to be in this book, however you get so many neat new toys here I just do not see any room to complain. Also in Stripes the developers take some liberties with some of the units and weapons that were around in Europe during the period (1985) that the game takes place in. Once again, no room to complain because the alt-history in Stripes really is minor and I like what they did here with this new book. Now off to those NCO's of Hollywood!

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Unboxing the Volks Armee

Part of bringing you the Preview of a new book is writing about the toys that come with it. For the Volks-Armee book, Battlefront is releasing 6 new boxes and one blister of NVA goodies that I was fortunate to get my hands on. I also was able to get a copy of the new book and I picked up some of those very cool NVA tokens and decals as well. In my last article I detailed a fight between my Iron Maiden army and a T-72M list from VA. As I look to playing in my first real Team-Yankee tournament in February, I think the NVA will be the guys I pick to battle with.

The Book
I hate to start off with an excuse, however when we preview a book it is always a PDF draft and may differ from what comes out in the final version. This was true in VA where the final draft of the book does not have the Basic Stabilizer on the T-55AM2, so no +2 when you move and shoot, it’s just a +1 for being Slow Firing. I first saw the book at a tournament in December, and even now I am so impressed with the front cover and I think it may be the new wallpaper for my laptop. So you will just have to excuse me for giving you a false alarm about the T-55AM2.

The book comes with all of the “conversion cards” for previously released models that are used in VA. So you get cards for a T-72M force, and unit stat cards for the T-72M, BMP-1, BMP-1 Scout and OP, Shilka, Gopher, Carnation, Hind, Raktenwerer, and Hind. Let me tell you how much I like this and I think it opens up a lot of flexibility for Battlefront. Once the product lines are put in place for commonly used equipment, it makes adding other nations that much easier since they can come out with the book and the cards. So we may see Poles, Romanians, and Hungary one day in TY. Same can be done for a lot of the smaller NATO nations as well taking into account the lines put out for TY, Vietnam, and Fate of a Nation. I think this strategy grows the game’s appeal and of course will sell more models with those of us with OCD.

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The Tanks of Volks-Armee

The new Volks-Armee book from Battlefront features one of the most iconic tanks of the Cold War era, the T-55. The T-55AM2 featured in VA has been vastly upgraded since the original model rolled off the assembly line in 1958, and features many upgrades that enhanced the protection and fire power of this mass produced tank.  In VA, players are given the option to field a ton of T-55AM2 tanks, which would be fun to play and is historically accurate. The other MBT featured in VA is the T-72M, which was the export only version of the T-72 and did not have all of the same features of the T-72 used by the Soviets during the 1980’s. Used separately or in tandem, these two tanks used in mass can give your opponent more targets than they can handle on a single turn and if played right can lead to certain victory.

T-55
The T-55 was born out of the T-54 program and is one of the most mass produced tanks in the post WWII period. Like many Soviet designs, the T-54/55 program did not feature a tank build from the ground up, instead it took many design features of tanks used during WWII. Thought its service life the T-55 featured the D-10T 100 mm rifled gun which when it first came out was a feared weapon, however as other MBTs were produced with better protection (and better guns) the effectiveness of the D-10T fell behind any enemy tank the T-55 would have to face.

While the gun remained the same, the tank received numerous upgrades in other areas. By the mid 1980’s the T-AM version was the standard MBT of most of the Warsaw Pact nations and featured the Volna fire control system, stabilizers, laser range finders, a more powerful engine, and smoke dischargers. Perhaps the biggest upgrades went into protection, with BDD armor applied to the tanks turret, as well as many other features that would protect the tank and its crew. The actual version used in VA is the AM2, which was produced under license in Czechoslovakia and sold all over the world. In fact the T-55 has seen combat in the Middle East and Africa, and even today is used by many nations. The tank was simple to operate and maintain and had a low profile so a nervous crew could hide better if the situation called for it.

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Viet-Nam, 1952, France vs Viet-Minh, Force-on-Force (Fall-In 2016)

I was able to make the drive down from Canada to Lancaster, PA for Fall-In 2016 this year.  While my main goal was to see old friends, buy more miniatures I don't need, and play in the Flames of War singles tournament put on by Kurt Reese for Wounded Warrior Project, I did have a spare day to partake in some other games!  

Anyone who has been to an HMGS convention knows that with the small description of the game in the convention book, it can be tough to discern if the game will be any good.  As soon as I saw the jungle table, I knew I had to try and play it!   

This one features French forces landing from the carrier group "Arromanches" near Hue, in order to clear out a 'ville' of some pesky Viet-Minh.  It used Force-on-Force rules, 28mm scale, and was being run by Pete English.   The game/table also won some award, as the convention organisers paused our game to hand out a prize and take pictures and all that!  As the only actual person on either side who is French (Cdn) I obviously chose to be on the French team!

The 'ville' had only civilians visible, working the rice paddies, though we knew they had a box full of soldiers yet to be seen.  As the french, we had an LVT4 Amtrac,  2 Chaffees, 3 mech platoons initially as tank riders, an Amphib command jeep and 2 M20s.  

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NATO Tri-Color Camo in 6mm

by Allen Smith - (also works in 15mm)

Vroooooooom!!

Since TY was released, there has been a lot of discussion about the color and camo pattern to be used for the game.  Basically, should the M1 be a solid forest green color?  Should it have the MERDC pattern?  Should it have Tri-Color?

The beauty of Team Yankee is that you can basically do what you want!  So with that in mind, I decided to go NATO Tri-Color.

My reasoning was… well… laziness and historical reasons.  For laziness, I did not want to do MERDC as it is a 4 color camo pattern – granted two colors are a vast percentage of the surface area and the other colors are a much smaller percentage.  But that means work.  And I don’t want to work.  Oh yeah, the M1 was not in MERDC, but that is another story.  I didn’t want to use a simple forest green color because I do want a contrast on the table with Soviets running around in their plain green vehicles.  So I went with the Tri-Color.  Of course, the pattern did start appearing in 1984, so it really isn’t too much of a stretch to say the least.

Too much work in 6mm!

Now, what is the pattern?  I am no expert on the subject at all.  I am sure we will see stuff posted from BF on the subject, but at a high level it is a common scheme that all NATO members agreed to paint their vehicles.  One purpose for the common scheme was to eliminate the possibility of the WARPAC units deciphering the nation they were facing by simply looking at the camo pattern.  Sounds reasonable.

So off I went ready to paint all my vehicles with green, brown and black splotches!

And not so fast my friend…

I had to find examples of the pattern for M1s.  After scouring the internet for pictures and other models and images, I finally stumbled on the exact specifications in the US Army Technical Bulletin: TB-43-0209.  Now this document was published in 1990 or 1991, but it is the pattern used in the 80's.  And guess what?  If you look in the document, you can paint by numbers!

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Playing Around with Team Yankee!

 By Eric Lauterbach

Well, some of the I95 guys have picked up the new Team Yankee book and it was time to dust-off the micro armor.  Some of this stuff has not seen the light of day in 20 years so it was good to do.  Sean Mackintosh has so much micro he can do whole Motor Rifle Regiments! We got out of hand rather quickly with what we put on the table for our knowledge of the rules.  So we did two 200 point armies with all the bells and whistles so we could give the rules a good test.  We were not overly concerned with the missions, so we did a modified free-for-all with the Soviet objective of opening a road off table and reducing the village that dominated them.

 The new spearhead deployment is interesting by using the recon platoon you can extend your deployment area very useful!

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My night with Team Yankee and the Battlefront Crew

By Mitch Reed

On Friday 11 December I decided to head up to Games and Stuff in Glen Burnie Maryland for the Team Yankee demo that was put on by the folks at Battlefront.  To be frank with the readers, I was not 100% sold if this new line was something I would be into, however I went in with an open mind and really wanted to see what Team Yankee is all about.

Slated to start at 6:30PM, the folks were a bit delayed by the traffic we have here in the Baltimore-Washington DC area.  The delay gave me the opportunity to speak with the 5-6 gamers who were waiting for the demo to begin.  I asked them if they were excited for this new line and why; it was obvious to me that if they were attending the demo they had some excitement for the game.  The "why" question got me some different answers: mostly those with the desire to see how the rules worked and the desire to use them with 6mm game scale. I have heard this before, and WWPD has covered “Fate of a Nation” games done in the 6mm. 

John-Paul's Box of Goodies 

The first to show from battle front was John-Paul Brisigotti the CEO of the Battlefront group.  John-Paul placed a box on the table to show the crowd which now reached about 15 the new models for the game.  The box had a bunch of painted M-1, and T-72 tanks and a few HIND helicopters. I was struck by the size of the tanks, they looked bigger than the King Tigers (they are 2” longer and 2” shorter than a KT in actuality) in my collection.  The helos looked huge, John-Paul stated that the helos for Team Yankee will be in 1/100th scale and aircraft like the A-10 and Frogfoot will be done in 1/144th scale like in Flames of War.

HIND at 1/100 Scale 

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Heroics and Ros Review

by Allen Smith

Ok.  This has been a long time coming, so my apologies.  Really!

Before the review, a bit of background.  I am crazy excited about a Cold War Gone Hot expansion to FoW.  When I was much, much younger my Dad took me to Origins.  That year, the convention was in Detroit, Michigan.  I remember a few things about the con, specifically that we entered the Squad Leader Tournament, I bought an original copy of the Avalon Hill game Midway, and we played an awesome 6mm NATO v. WARPAC game on some awesome terrain.  While I recently sold my collection of Squad Leader games, I still have Midway!  And I still remember that 6mm game!

My personal struggle with modern armor based conflict is that the rules I have tried just don’t do it for me.  That does not mean that the rules are poor or not realistic.  This is a personal opinion.  So I continue to look for rules that would work.

And then FoW announces Team Yankee.

In the words of a good friend…  Ohhhhh yyyeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!

While this may get lost in the posts and threads and discussions, I think the core rules for FoW is elegant in its simplicity.  I love it.  It is a great game.  It starts to falter at the extremes, but the core system is solid.  The game looks right and feels right.  And it would work with moderns.

But… and a big issue to me…

The scale is off for modern armor.  15mm is just too big.  And I really don't want to rehash previous threads.  What I do want to do is put down 4 or 6 or 8 M1 tanks on the table!  Or I want to have 8 IDF S’hots on the table.  And that means I get 32 T-55s!  And that many 15mm armor units on a table just does not cut it for me from a "look" perspective.

So 6mm is the sweet spot.  And that generally means GHQ.

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Great Danes: Fistful of TOWs AAR

By Mitch Reed

Having spent many years training for “nuclear combat toe-toe with the Ruskies”, I find that gaming the what-if the Cold War turned hot fascinating. While many games test if we can get a different historical outcome via game play, World War III gaming is open to review and interpretation as you review your results.

Anyone who has read about my games knows that I sometimes play with a group of local gamers who focus on very historical based Flames of War scenarios. Thus, you should find it no surprise that this game was set up by the same group.  With the lack of responses for the Friday afternoon game the week before Labor Day, our game master Jay Mischo decided to change the weekly FoW game to a game using the Fistful of Tow’s Version 3 ruleset, which many who game the modern period swear by. 

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Review: Sabre Squadron's 'Rapid Deployment' Modern Ruleset

Upholding the great Canadian tradition of 'breaking down' next to a Gasthaus for a Schnitzel and Bier! (or so I am told!)

SabreSquadron has a company-level ruleset in the works, and luckily, the 'beta' version if you will, is available by emailing them from this link:  

http://www.sabresquadron.com/Mailing/

From their website:

SabreSquadron is a new venture aiming to bring 'Modern' warfare to your tabletop.

Modern warfare is possibly the most exciting and fastest-moving period to wargame. It has the most interesting equipment - familiar to us from the television news or even from first-hand experience - posing a range of threats that require thought and tactical skill to overcome. 

The period also gives us the chance to thrash out those “What ifs?” from potential international confrontations, as well as re-fighting actual conflicts. However, it is also the most difficult period to transfer to the table-top satisfactorily. This is mainly due to the complexity of contemporary weapons systems, and many players have been put off the era due to rules appearing complicated or – conversely - too abstract. At Sabresquadron we aim to represent modern combat by focusing on the five main elements of the period:

Speed - Speed of maneuver, speed of communications and speed of decision-making.

Lethality - If it can be seen it can be killed, but being seen doesn't mean it has to be hit.

Technology - Minor advantages can be significant, but one shouldn’t get bogged down with details.

People - Training and leadership are vital if any weapons are to be used effectively.

Position - Defenders will fire first but a static defense can be found and destroyed.'

Fellow Dice Devil Rob Kelly and I decided to give the 'Rapid Deployment' (aka basic playtest) rules a whirl, using my 15mm Soviet Tanks vs his Canadians (stationed in West Germany).  We played on an 8 foot table to take advantage of the unlimited range of the high caliber guns (which feels right in Moderns) and the large number of models we were using:

My whole force: 25+ tanks and 1 Motor Rifle unit in BTR's

Reserve T-55's (Battlefront)

Motor Rifles (Battlefront UAR Infantry) and BTR-80s (QRF)

T-72's defending the AAA Shilkas and Radar (QRF miniatures)

Second unit of T-72s (QRF)

Rob's Lynx scout vehicle (QRF)

Cdn Infantry (QRF)

Cdn M113 TOW missile carriers (Battlefront M113s, QRF TOW's)

Cdn Leopard 1A4's (QRF)

Canada-ified Centurion (Battlefront)



The only way we could really review this ruleset is to compare to what we know:  Battlefront's system from the Vietnam and Middle East conflicts. So we are going compare the 2 systems directly. Big Thanks to Twinlinked and Diragi from Dice Devils for coming to help/watch/heckle!

First of all, SabreSquadron uses D10s and not D6s. The baseline score for EVERYTHING is 5+, with other factors modifying this roll. I find the larger range of results refreshing, with a +1 to something only affecting 10% chance, rather than +1 modifier in Flames of War is around 17%. Training levels can vary more widely as well with the greater range on a D10, with Elite-grade troops passing Morale on a 3+ all the way to Rabble (one step worse than Conscripts!) passing only on a 7+!

While the speed of infantry was slow compared to Battlefront (3 vs 6 inches) tanks stayed about the same if you were regular tracked and actually get faster on roads.  We also really liked having a lot of speed bands for vehicles, with my T-72s being 'Very Fast Tracked' because they were small and light, while my T-55s were regular tracked speed.  We realized too that this rule set is to be used for 3mm - 20mm so in GHQ scale, 3 inches of infantry movement is pretty brisk!  AFV Main weapons have a regular range of 36 inches, with 'long range' being unlimited! Thus you can see below the tank war we were going to have:

Rob's Cdns defending the town from my dastardly Russians

Another neat concept is 'turret down' which is like 'Hull down' in Flames of War except just the hatch is visible.  In this case (above), the Artillery Observer M113 is declared 'turret down' so he can see over the crest, but not present enough to the enemy to be shot at in return.

I rolled a 9 so I went first!   In SabreQuadron, you can move 1 inch and still fire at full effect, OR move up to half and fire with full effect if you have Stabilizers/Targeters. This allows you to move up behind a hedge and not be shot at, then on your turn, hug the hedge and fire full effect. Very different from Flames of War. You can see above my T-55s are going to do exactly that. Also: no bog roll required for crossing hedges for heavy modern tanks!  HURRAY.

The First kill.. My stationary T-72s on the hill opened up at 42 inch range on Rob's scout elements, needing 5+ to hit, +2 for long range for 7+'s needed. Second interesting tidbit, each armor/weapon has two ratings: Kinetic and Chemical. Main gun round is Kinetic value of 11 vs his Kinetic Armour of 2.  (Missiles use Chemical aka HE warheads.. so different AT and Armour values!)   I only destroyed one Lynx and Neutralized the second (think double-bailed) because I did not beat his armour by more than 1. 

 

In Flames of War, your shot is completely ineffective if the target passes its armour save, not here.  Bare minimum, if you HIT, the target will be suppressed (think pinned), if your Firepower = Protection roll, on a 5+ Neutralized, or else Suppressed, if Firepwer > Protection +1, target is Neutralised, if double Neutralized is destroyed, if Firepower > Protection +2 Target Destroyed.  Neutralized means you cannot move or shoot at all. Also, you test to recover at the END of your turn.. so unlike Flames of War, where you can get 5 bailed out Panzer IV's all get back in and be fully effective right after you shot them.. they are out for at least a turn!  Very nice mechanics!

My T-72s fired at the Lynx's...

.. but as you can see, I had line of sight to the Centurions all the way at the back, needing 7s to hit on a D10

Rob, being a former Artillery guy, wanted to test out the Artillery rules.  I REALLY like how SabreSquadron did Artillery. First of all, you put down your aiming point on any piece of GROUND in LOS and within 6 inches of an enemy model.   But you don't fire it on your turn... in the ENEMY's turn, they can move, and THEN the rounds come down.  Each gun or tube gets one box, the size of which is dependent on caliber. We were playing that Rob had 4 Paladins (155's) and thus would get 4 boxes 5 inch per side. 

The first box doesn't have to be centered on the aiming point, it just has to contain the aiming point, and then you arrange the other boxes around the first box.  In the picture below, the blue ranged-in marker was his aiming point, I tried to get the infantry and tanks out of there, and then he laid down 4 x 5-inch boxes (marked in white smoke) suppressing both units, killing one tank, Neutralizing the other 2, and killing 4 infantry stands!!  What's hilarious is that there is SCATTER too, something I missed from other games in Flames of War.  In this case he hit dead-on: (see below)

Not content with Artillery, Rob fired a TOW missile at me from 59 inches.  Effective range is 60 inches!!  TOW missiles have a different mechanic, and I love it.. You declare you are firing, but before you roll, the target player can try and Dodge.  This is meant to encompass actual dodging, or firing smoke launchers, or firing a few MG shots at the firer (historical in the Middle East for example vs AT-3 'Saggers')  I opted to dodge, and passed my test, which put in another modifier for Rob, but he rolled a 9 and then we saw that Chemical Firepower was 14!!! vs Armour 5:

TOW missile (foreground) launches over the Leopard 1A4s to hit my tank on the far tree-lined ridge!

At this stage we were getting the mechanics down and tank rounds were whizzing back and forth across the valley, Leopards were dying, and my T-55s were up against the hedges firing back with their 125mm's, until..

Look at the smoke square in the picture above.. Rob was trying to call down another fire mission to finish of some T-72s (middle of board) and he missed, and got the maximum value for scatter.. 12 inches.  While he went upstairs to grab a 40k scatter Die, Twinlinked laughed and said "Imagine if it scattered right onto your 2 units of T-55s?"  Well, he got one full unit as it turns out!! He was going for 2 kills and got 3 kills, one Suppression!!  I want artillery next game for sure!!

The last mechanic to try out: Close Assault.   In SabreSquadron, Tanks cannot close assault.  Since 2 of the 4 people in the room were military, both agreed that yeah, in modern times, you need to make sure there is no infantry where you take your vehicles!   So Rob had a small section with a Carl Gustav RPG test the mechanic and pushed in to try and kill my PT-76s.  This is very similar to Flames of War, but the defending player can move nearby un-Neutralized infantry before combat happens.  This replaces defensive fire because:  Vehicles with friendly un-Neutralized Infantry within 3 inches cannot be assaulted.  This encourages combined arms!  The canny player will have mounted infantry lurking behind the attacking wave of tanks on the advance, and if assaulted, can move in and support to block the Assault.  Superb mechanics!

In my case, Rob had a bonus because his element contained an RPG (the Carl Gustav) and Neutralized both tanks. Since I can't swing back, the remaining tank had to fall back. 

At this point we had to call game, as Rob had been volun-told to look after the young ones, but we really enjoyed the lethality of the game.. so much armour destroyed from a variety of sources!!

I will list some pro's and con's of this ruleset, but you have to understand that this is a playtest ruleset:

Pros:  

Scale:  From Micro-Armour to 20mm.. one set of rules and ranges.

Mechanics:  The ranges feel right, the AT Missiles feel right, the 2 different            weapon/armour types, promotes combined arms, etc

More Ratings:  More movement types, 6 training types, etc = more variety

Ease:  While it took US a while, we got the hang of it very quickly, having just tried Napoleonics and a Civil War ruleset at Historicon, this was on par or easier to pick up

Familiarity: Infantry based like Flames of War, so you can play Arab Israeli war or Vietnam and go straight to this, no problem.  It is still I go, you Go like Flames of War.

Random Number Range:  The use of a D10 provides more scope for what can happen in one die roll.  This means once you figure out the modifiers on your shot, you roll and apply results quickly.

Cons: (and these are mostly because its a test ruleset right now)

Rules: The rules weren't 100% clear on some situations.. example.. does he capture my Neutralised tanks in close assault? The Artillery Scatter, does it always scatter (hard to tell with the wording)

Lack of 'Lists':  We just 'run what we brung' with no points, so we had no idea if it was even fair fight.  No objectives, no missions.   Understand its a playtest ruleset, but no idea if something is too powerful or weak if we can't quantify and compare "Artillery is awesome, and my side didn't have any.. how many extra tanks should I have had?  What types?"

For the 15mm/20mm scale company level, this will be a great ruleset, from what we have seen so far.  It had the right 'feel' in terms of it wasn't hyper detailed or really abstract.  It did a tonne of things 'right' and the only place I feel it is lacking is in force organization, and it was my same beef with Force on Force.. What can I take/not take?  

As of this writing, there is a bare-bones organization on the Sabre Squadron site, but it just shows how your tank platoons are divided up.. no points. It shows a bunch of Artillery.. is its own list? If not, how many units can I take for my Tank force?  What, no T-72's in the eighties, despite them having stats in the cheatsheets?  Little things like this that I hope can be fixed will make this a nice ruleset to do what we did: A what-if near the Fulda Gap, in the late 1970s.

I rate this ruleset in its current state 7 out of 10, and assuming lists and organizations come out, boosting it to 8.5 out of ten or more.  Well done.

Head over to the site and drop them an email, they will get you the latest 'build' of the rules and you can try it out yourselves:

http://www.sabresquadron.com/Mailing/

Last pic, I swear!

Comparison in scale: top, BF Centurion, middle BF Tiger 1E, bottom QRF Leopard.   QRF models are made of bendy, brittle metal (sounds contradictory but it isn't.. worst of both worlds) but they have some models no one else has, though the detail is lacking.  Battlefront is the clear leader in models (though I haven't seen a Khurasan in real life I have heard good things)  Battlefront:  Make T-72s and BMP's and I will fork over a paycheck's worth to you to replace everything I have QRF!!

Matt Varnish and Rob Kelly are part of the Dice Devils. 

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Six-Day War - Fighting Withdrawal

One of my regular gaming buddies, Ron, had been keen to try some FoW gaming for the Six-Day War using the player mod list from Broke Low at http://brokelow.blogspot.com/2013/04/rules-for-fow-six-day-war.html#!/2013/04/rules-for-fow-six-day-war.html . Ron had also just finished up sizable forces for this conflict and I had just acquired a Geo-Hex Desert Gamescape so this seemed like a perfect opportunity to set up a modern desert FoW game! Ron played the Israelis while I and another friend, Charles, played the physically larger Egyptian force. We rolled up “Fighting Withdrawal” as a mission with Charles and I defending with the Egyptians.

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