Review: Struck by Red Thunder?

It has been a while since I wrote an article about anything other than the Team Yankee Tournament at Historicon.  With that behind me, I wanted to review the new book for Team Yankee called “Red Thunder”. What a great title, especially since thunder has no color, it’s a sonic event, but anyway I was very impressed by the book and I feel you will feel the same. With the initial release of the game, we were given rudimentary forces based in part by the book the game is based on. Many tank-grogs argued about using the T-72, which was not really the top of the line Soviet tank in 1985, however it was used in the book so we got stuck with it. However Red Thunder corrects this mistake and gives some love to those of us who like to push the red horde.
I plan to talk about the new toys first.

Tanks for the Memories
The biggest addition to the game is the new T-64, which is more than just an improved version of the T-72. While it mounts the same gun, the T-64 has better armor, moves faster, and has the ability to shoot the Songster missile from its main gun while on the move.  With a front of 17 and side of 9, the T-64 now has the protection that is closer to what your NATO opponents have had for a while now.  The Songster missile has an AT21 and a range of range 48”; which gives the T-64 a mighty punch.  The range of the missile also gives the T-64 the ability to fire against the longer range guns of NATO tanks before they get into gun range. This also comes without the +1 for distance and another +1 for the target’s armor save.  The speed of the tank is also 14”, which makes it 4” faster than the T-72, so you now enjoy some of the mobility the NATO tanks have had so far.

Read More

Review: Plastic Soldier Company T-55 Kit

Like many of you, I was excited to run a mass of T-55 when the Volks Armee book came out.  When I say mass I mean it - in a 100 point list you can run 62 of these guys. Think of rushing forward with 62 tanks, what list can put up enough shots to stop it? For those who dreamed of a huge horde of T-55AM2 tanks like I did, we were faced with the economic reality of the huge cost of such a list. You would need 13 boxes of tanks which gets you 5 for $72, so unless you have $1000 laying around to spend the horde was just a dream.

My actual list for Volks Armee did have about 20 T-55 tanks, and after buying 2 boxes and trading for a box of 4 tanks I was still short and I was waiting for the new T-55 kit from the Plastic Soldier Company to hit the shelf of my LGS.

Read More

AAR: Iron Maiden Vs Volks-Armee

As the clock was running out for 2016 I was anxious to get my newest army on the table in force. I think I flooded all of you with how much I liked building my British force for Team-Yankee and I could not wait to get a full 100 point force on the table. In the time since I finished my Chieftain force I also was able to review Volks-Armee and in an effort to kill two birds with one stone, I was able to play my British force against the yet to be released East German’s. Let me get one fact straight before I proceed; I do not have any of the new models for Volks-Armee, so those hoping to see the new models can stop reading now.  What I did do was proxy the NVA force with the Soviets I have in my collection. Well even the term proxy is not quite fitting here since the list I built used the same T-72 and BMP-1 models I have in my collection, in fact the only real models I substituted was using my Soviet infantry for East German Mot-Schutzen.

 

So with two days left to go in the year, Throck, Ben (from Team Bro-Go) headed up to Glen Burnie Maryland to meet our gaming buddy Kato, who also wanted to get his West German’s on a table before the year ended. We love going to Games and Stuff in Maryland, it’s such a well-stocked store with an excellent staff that I always end up spending a few bucks in.

Read More

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.

Read More

That's All Volks-Armee

Out of all the Team Yankee releases, the one that would give us the forces of East Germany was the one I was most curious about. I have some ties to the former DDR, when I was 4 my Grandfather - who lived in West Berlin, and worked in East Germany - took me across Checkpoint Charlie. The East German border guards were very nice to him, not only did they see him every day, but they all knew that their officers school was named after his Aunt. More recently this interest has been piqued by the Hulu series Deutschland ’83, which takes place during the height of the Cold War and it’s a series I recommend to everyone. So after a year since its initial release,Team Yankee has only one “Red” force, which are the Soviets from the first book. When I play the game I like Red vs Blue fights so we needed another force for some variety. I know from reading the posts on many forums that many players were eagerly awaiting this new release.

First of all the cover of Volks-Armee is one of the neatest in the series. It is true porn for those who love the T-55 and the HIND.

Inside the book, which is about 33 pages in length, we are introduced to the DDRs 9th Panzer Division. Like the other books in the series, a back story of that unit is given and their fight when the cold war went hot. I do not know how they plan to release this, since VA is a bit slimmer than other releases and has no scenarios, or at least the version provided for my review.

Read More

Team Yankee Battle Report: West Germans Vs Soviets: No Retreat

With Ben Gobel

I didn't have to wait long after I painted up my West Germans from Leopard to use them on a table. In fact,  I flocked my infantry teams the morning of the game and the paint was still wet and we were ready to play.  Playing with me was Sean "Throckmorton" Sarah and the Brothers Gobel, Ben and Chris.  All of these guys are veteran Flames of War players and have never played Team Yankee before. Throck only played once, which was the demo game at Historicon. Throck and I made our list from two formations - the panzer and aufklarungs battalions. Team BroGo took Soviet tanks. Since my Gepards, and Rolands have not arrived, we did not allow the Soviets to have any Hinds. On the West German side, we used Marders to proxy for my Fuchs, which also have not arrived yet.

We set up the table and made up the German list first because they were lacking a few of the assets mentioned above.  We thought we settled on an 83 point list, and told the BroGos to make a list to that point total.  When Ben asked me how much the HQ tank was I said “5 points” and he assumed that each T-72 was the same cost, so he made a list that we found out afterwards was only 78 points. Hhe could have had one other T-72! It also turned out we added a two tank Leopard 1 platoon and forgot to add the points, so Team Brogo could have had a few other items as well, 11 points is a huge difference in this game.

Below is what our lists looked like.

Soviet Red Banner Tank Division
T-72 Tank Battalion HQ - 1x T-72 (5 pts)
T-72 Tank Company – 5 x T-72 (22 pts)
T-72 Tank Company- 5 x T-72 (22 pts)
T-72 Tank Company- 4 x T-72 (17 pts)
BMP-1 Motor Rifle Company - 4x AK-74 with RPG-18, 3x RPG-7, 4x BMP-1 (6 pts)
BMP-1 Recon Platoon- 2x BMP-1 (2 pts)
Carnation Platoon, 3 2S1 Carnations (5 Points)
78 Points

West German 1st Panzer Division
Formation1: Panzer Company
HQ-1x Leo2 (11 Points)
Panzer Plt  3 x Leo2 (33 Points)
Panzergrenadiers 3x Marders, 2x Milan, 3 x G3 Teams (7 Points)
Jaguar 1 (3x Jag) 6
Formation 2: Aufklarungs Company
HQ x 1 Leo1 (3 Points)
Luchs Plt 2x Luchs (1 Point)
Luchs Plt 2x Luchs (1 Point)
Panzer Plt 3x Leo1 (9 Points)
Panzer Plt 2x Leo1 (6 Points)
Fuchs Pzgrs 2 x Fuchs w 1 Milan, 3 x G3 teams (4 Points)
Attack Helicopter 2x BoH-105 (8 Points)
89 Points

We rolled up a mission and it came out to be “No Retreat”, which is a bit different that the Flames of War Version of the same name.  First of all, it starts out at night and the defender gets to place 3 minefields on the table prior to start. 

Read More

Peiper Down: The New SS lists in the Ardennes Offensive

By Mitch Reed

One of the first articles I wrote for this blog was a piece in my “Lists We Play” series where I talked about some of my favorite Waffen-SS lists.  One of the lists I did mention in that piece was KG Peiper from Battlefront’s Devil’s Charge book, which at the time was relatively new.  The new Ardennes Offensive (AO) book augments the Waffen-SS force that took part in the offensive by adding two new lists which I will detail in this article.

Much like my last article on the Waffen-SS I want to reiterate my distaste of the actual SS, however their inclusion in the game does cause us to remember their history and helps us ensure that we never see another organization like that again.

KG Hansen
In my overview article on AO, the I said that KG Hansen is like KG Peiper without the tanks - however there may be more to this list than what I assumed at first glance.  The biggest reason why players would shy away from a list like this is because it is rated a Fearless/Trained instead of Fearless/Veteran like most other Waffen-SS units.  However, being that these guys are trained means that you are paying less for then as you would vets and in a true Bulge themed tournament, where they use the snow and fog rules these guys may not get shot up so much. 

One thing I didn’t like about this list was the lack of types of tanks you can pick, however I forgot how great the Panzer IV/70 (V) is.  They have a front armor of 9, and a gun which has an AT of 14, which at 390 points for a platoon of three is not too bad. They do have some downsides: they move slow, have glass sides (side armor 3) and are overloaded.  However placing these in ambush would be deadly to any American tank the Battle of the Bulge book.

Read More

Team Yankee Contest: Eat at Wolfgang's Truck

You have to love the ability to get an instant collector’s item for free and that is what WWPD and Battlefront plan to do over the next few weeks.  To go along with their release of Iron Maiden, the folks at Battlefront are making a limited edition of the Wolfgang and his Bratty Wagon objective, which they are not planning on selling to the public.  Here at WWPD, we have 20 of these one of a kind models and plan to give them out to our readers.

Who was Wolfgang?  He seems to have been a legend to the BAOR (British Army of the Rhine) troops when they were in the field.  During an exercise, no matter where a unit was, or how well hidden, Wolfgang would find them in his wagon, providing Bratwurst to the troops who had to otherwise eat field rations. I did some research on this guy and many wondered if he really worked for the Warsaw Pact’s 3rd Shock Army since he knew exactly where each unit was at any given time. The troops felt he was the best recce unit in the BAOR since he also knew the location of a units OPFOR during a field exercise. Sadly Wolfgang passed away sometime in 2015, however he lives on in resin and can be available to make an appearance on your gaming table.

Where is that bloody truck!  I' am hungry!

Each week WWPD will host the “Show Us Your Tanks” contest in which we pick 4 lucky winners who post pictures of their Team Yankee or Flames of War tanks.  Winners will be selected based on appearance, cool tips and tricks, and setting a (tank selfie in front of the Eiffel Tower is something I would pick as a winner).


One of the few known Pictures of Wolfgang and his Bratty Truck

To enter, upload a picture to the Why We Fight Facebook page here https://www.facebook.com/WWPDWhyWeFight/

Or post it on Twitter using the hashtag #WinWolfiesTruck (don’t forget to message me @MitchWWPD)

The most "likes" or "retweets" would put you ahead of the pack!

You can always back up your post by submitting a link to it here WWPDWolfgang@gmail.com

Starting on 9 September, we will look over all the submissions  and select 4 winners.  You only have to enter once since we will look at all entries, however you can always add new pics at any time. We will post the winners on the “Why We Fight” Facebook page and I will send out a Tweet as well. Selections will be made on 9, 16, 23, 30 September and 7 October.

The models will be shipped to you once they are made and we would love to see how you painted them and made them look great.

Email: WWPDMitch@gmail.com

Twitter: @MitchWWPD

Read More

MW Panzer Company vs U.S. Infantry

By Luke Melia

The board before deployment. 

Andy and I wanted to get a practice game in before the tournament at the Williamsburg Muster so we decided to face off with our lists.  The tournament was 1500 points, in an open format.   Guess what I was playing?  That's right folks, Americans.  I know that comes as a shock to many of you, regardless despite my misgivings I made the sacrifice to play the old US of A.  Andy ran a Panzer Company out of North Africa.  The mission was Counterattack.  I used to absolutely hate this mission, but it is steadily growing on me the more I play and develop strategies for it.

My basic list is
2 Infantry Platoons
4 Lees
4 105mm Howitzers
4 155mm Howitzers
AA Platoon with 2 Bofors and 2 dismounted .50 cals
Recon Platoon
3 57mm AT Guns with 2 attached bazookas

Andy's List (please forgive me I am going off memory here so it may not be 100% accurate)

2 Command Stugs
3 Stugs
3 Panzer MKIV
1 Panzer Grenadier Platoon

Read More

Hiding In Plain Sight: Camouflage and Color in WWII

Since the beginning of time, man has tried to disguise himself and his intentions on the battlefield. Whether it be a Trojan Horse or covering vehicles and installations to hide from aerial reconnaissance, other armies and it's troops; camouflage has played an important part of warfare.

This Tiger may need a little more to help hide it......what do you think?

As with everything else, the art of hiding a tank while also trying to use it as a tool of war is a careful balance of planning and color. We take for granted that many of the period pictures from WW2 are in black & white. It's easy to forget or even difficult to discover what colors were actually used during this period to cover the bare metal and primer that was used during this time.

Read More

The Great Train Robbery, Partisans versus the Armored Train

By Eric Lauterbach

My buddy Bob Rossi purchased this beautiful train painted by John Sulek well over a year ago and had never played it. So, our idea was find an excuse and get it on the table!

Trains would most likely have been engaged in keeping the rail line open for other non-armored trains so their natural enemy was partisans.  I just happen to have a partisan battalion that had not been played in well over 4 years, so it seamed like a match made in heaven.

If you have not looked at the partisan list I totally understand, they are pretty bad. The problem lies with the basic rules of Flames of War: it is terrible at doing asymmetrical warfare. Their only solution is to add more stands of terrible infantry, which is not a good solution at all. Well, its all we have to work with right now so I went with it.

The partisan list is confident conscript infantry with very little in the way of heavy weapons but they can double-time through woods . The only backbone the list has is a tank company which, in my book, is very unhistorical so I did not want to play with it.  My list ended up being two companies of partisans one big one little, Infantry guns, AT guns, Air, and a Cavalry company.

It was terrible, but hey these guys are the trains natural enemy. I suggested to Bob run a equally terrible list: the security company but he said "I have a list all ready"  I should have known it was trap! Bob based his list off on a German grenadier company with Panzer IVs, Flak 3.7mm tracks, and of course the train fully kitted out with every option.  The mission we rolled was no retreat and thank goodness the Russians were defending.  At least that made sense, Russians cut the rail-line Germans move to open it.

Read More

Behind the Scenes (Part 2 of 2)

Looks like it's time for the second part of my visit to the War Museum in Ottawa. Sorry it took so long to get to the presses! The sheer amount of WW2 pieces in this museum is staggering, among the top draws are a Panther, Hitler's staff car and the 'only' Land Mattress Rocket artillery piece in existence!

Read More