Team Yankee North American Nationals 2017: Mission Selection

Over the last few weeks I have been planning the upcoming first ever Team Yankee Nationals that will be held at Historicon on 14 July 2017.  One of the issues that seems to have gotten a lot of comments on various forums are the missions we plan to select for each of the 3 tournament games. I held off on this decision for a while because I wanted to get the advice of others and I wanted to see what lists players planned to run at the event. I know that any decision I could make would draw the ire of the denizens of the forums.
My thoughts on making this decision were based on two major factors, 1) keeping the selection fair for all players and 2) not wanting the insane to run the asylum.

What I have notice so far in playing this game since it came out is that you do not have a very wide selection of lists from each nation to choose from and that there is a vast difference in the composition of the available forces. At 100 points an East German player can have 63 T-55AM2’s while a West German Player tops out at 9 Leopard 2’s, each list costing 99 points.  However list selection is left up to the players and that is something I didn’t want to get involved with. However based on the rules of the mission, a player can end up with a mission that their force is not built to accomplish. My thoughts on this is for players to build a better list that can handle any type of mission. However that thinking could be more based on Flames of War and may not be applicable for Team Yankee based on the lack of list diversity.

This lack of diversity is not Battlefront’s fault, modern armies are standardized and have a cross section of combat capabilities within them. The main difference in an armor force as opposed to a mechanized unit is one armor battalion is swapped for a mech unit. Combat support for both units will also be relatively the same.

So based on this I took a look at the “Expanded Missions” pdf that was put out to augment the number of missions that are available for players. Also in this expansion is mechanic called “Battle Plans” where players can bid to attack or defend and bases on that selection a type of mission is given o them and they roll off.  At first I did not care for this method, I felt that TOs should dictate what missions are played in order to make sure it is fair for all and that using battle plans rewards players who have on trick pony lists.

Another things I factored into the decision is that a lot of folks feel battles will time out. I feel that 2.5 hours per game is enough time and players who want to be competitive know they have to act aggressively and try to win the game instead of having a tie. Some players feel that certain missions lead to a tie more often than not, however I feel that good players know how to win and put forth tactics to achieve their goals in the time allotted. 

So after doing my research I feel that using the Battle Plans for the tournament is the right call and is a really neat mechanic. Deep down I still think it may favor certain types of lists which I will not go into here, however it is way we will go for the 2017 Nationals.

So let me set up the ground rules
- Players will have a copy of the Team Yankee Expanded Missions on them at the event. A link can be found here.
- Players will have 5 mins from the time table assignments are given to review the table and their opponents list, pick a “Battle Plan” and roll for a mission.
- Players will accept the mission that is rolled and will not re-roll even in both players mutually agree that they do not wish to play the rolled mission or have played that mission previously during the event.

So with this put to rest I want to once again plug the event.  The prize support and the fact that it is the first of its kinds means that you can have fun and be a part of history. Now if we can get more players who are not in love with the Leopard book we will be set.

You still have time to register; please send your list/force selection to WWPD2017wwiii@gmail.com


Twitter: @MitchWWPD
Mail: WWPDMitch@gmail.com

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Version 4 Mid-War US Nationals Practice Tournament Review

By Tom Burgess


Flames of War's Version 4 Mid-War has certainly not been without its controversies and mixed opinions since its release. A good bit of it is justified, with much of the consternation about the new rules and lists coming from tournament focused players. Many of these have opinions that the lists in the first two Mid-War books are too limiting, that formations would be too hard to break, and that games will just stagnate into dull draws. In short, some have claimed that the new version of the rules would not be viable for tournament play.

However, our local gaming group has been having quite a bit of fun playing Version 4 of Flames of War, to include the new Mid-War period lists. We did not see any reason why we should not at least try to run a Mid-War V4 tournament. So we schedule as small event that was conducted on May 20th, 2017 at Hard Knox Games in Elizabethtown, KY. We decided to make this a "practice" event for the upcoming 2017 US Mid-War Nationals as many of the players who normally travel to our events are already planning to make the pilgrimage to Fredericksburg, VA this July for the US Nationals. Accordingly, we set the event for 75pts forces coming from the two new Mid-War books, with two hour rounds consisting of a Basic Mission, an Advanced Mission, and ending with another Basic Mission.



We set our upper limit at 16 players. This is the most Hard Knox Games can accommodate without impinging on other card gamer space at the store. On May 20th, 14 players from Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, and Arkansas answered the call! It should also be noted that this tournament did not utilize the new "Command Cards" as they had not been released in time for this tournament though they will surely be available by the time of this article's publishing.

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BLAST FROM THE PAST: D-Day Hit the Beach Scenario

This was posted quite a long time ago. Enjoy!

Joe Mezz decided it was time to put his boys through the meat grinder and try to storm Fortress Europe! Since this mission isn't exactly the type of thing that stays exciting on a turn by turn basis (each turn is basically- attempt to unpin, land more troops, try to get up the beach), instead I'm just going to do a big picture dump and you can let your imaginations fill in the gaps! Joe was running vet US Rifles, and I ran the 726 Confident Trained grenadiers.

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June 5th - DDay AAR - 1500pts British Airlanding vs. GrenadierKompanie

The Normandy Battles book has seen a lot of play around our neck of the woods this time of year.  For several years, we would put together our 30 feet of table, and launch a landing for the ages. Getting all that lead on a table is an awful lot of fun, but the smaller games are too.  And the Coup de Main glider assault is one of those missions.  Eager to try out some V4 with the D-day lists, My buddy Shane and I met over at his place for a pre-dawn face off. Shane played his Brits, and I brought my Germans with some Tigers in support.  1500 pts per side.

The Board

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The Ghost Army Podcast: Episode 25

The Ghost Army Podcast: Episode 25



Welcome to another installment of Bolt Action goodness to paint your all conquering armies too! 

In this episode we have Patch, Bryan and Brad discussing their latest painting projects and games. Topics covered include Bren Carriers, the new Sea Lion Campaign book, what to do with a horde of Soviet engineer models, gaming with the Australian Pacific army list, tactics for forward deploying units and a giant group game set in the battle of Sattleberg New Guinea. 

The guys also cover the new Vehicle Design System for Bolt Action, a PDF resource put together by Richard Humble and the BAA team to allow you to generate rules and points costs for vehicles as yet not covered by the army lists. 

So pick up those paint brushes and set your Order Dice to 'Listen'...

You can also find this fine episode in the iTunes store or download it directly HERE.

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Warlord Games new snipers in ghillie suits - review and painting guide

By Patch,

Warlord Games have just released a pair of British snipers in ghillie suits to coincide with the Sea Lion campaign book and I got my hands on a pair of pairs a few days ago. Of all the releases they have been teasing over the last month or so I think these were the most anticipated by the community, as they look absolutely amazing.

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Bolt Action: Vehicle design system

By Bryan,

Welcome to another PDF supplement for Bolt Action by the community, for the community. This time around it's a system for generating rules and points costs for vehicles of the Second World War that do not as yet have rules for them in the game. Richard Humble, the man responsible for this great new game resource has compiled a complete system for you to get your obscure, 'what if' or prototype vehicle onto the tabletop. 

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A Trip Back in Time; Normandy 2017 By Glenn Goddard

Ed Note: Glenn Goddard is a huge friend of WWPD has provided this excellent article and pictures for you to enjoy!

As a player of FOW since 2003, and posting when I have time, on the forums (Baghdaddy), I thought you might enjoy hearing about my latest adventure.  Some people are lucky and then there is me, the luckiest guy in the world.  No, I am not talking about my die rolls at last year’s Nationals, I am talking about the fact that I was invited to be part of the U.S. Army contingent who jump into Normandy every year to re-create the D-Day jump by the American Airborne troops.  I expect most military veterans and gamers dream of going to the annual celebration of one of the most epic battles in history, the Allied invasion of Normandy to liberate France and defeat the Nazi regime.

Ed Note: I did the jump at Nijmegen and the subsequent walk to Arnhem many years ago and it was a blast!

Our first day involved a commemoration ceremony at Carentan.  We started at the site of the "Cabbage Patch".  This was an epic battle between the 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division and the 2nd Fallschimjager (German airborne).  This battle of Carentan was finally settled by a hand grenade and bayonet charge by the American paratroopers at great cost.  Read about the battle here.

At the ceremony, the French Government awarded several of the American veterans and one French Resistance veteran the Legion of Merit.  It was amazing to see the veterans, most of whom are in their 90s.  You really get perspective when you realize that there won't be many of these veterans left soon.  I should note that we had representatives from all the Allied nations plus German Soldiers.  Some might think it strange to have Germans at a ceremony like this, but what better way to demonstrate that we will never fight each other again than to be unified in commemoration.  After laying wreaths and a flyover by four C-130s, we then marched through the center of town with bands playing.  It was pretty cool and almost every structure in the town remains just as they were in World War Two.

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Behind Enemy Lines Episode 36

Download the episode here

Behind Enemy Lines Episode 36 - Contains Coarse Language

In part 1, we must unfortunately farewell a dear friend of the crew.

We'll then dip into some Noob News for you, getting the lowdown on the latest release and rumours from the gaming world.

We'll then tell you what we've been doing gaming-wise in Part 2! It Star-licious!

In part 3, we.....well we....ummmmm.....you'll have to listen. It's just....it's too shocking

Want to join the conversation? Please sound off in the comments below, or let us know on our forum!

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Bolt Action - Playing an event with the Official Australian Supplement

The Australians in the South West Pacific 1942-45 official supplement was launched almost a year ago now as a free download on the Warlord Games website. As a co-author of this document, assisting the amazing Master Bryan Cook, I was really hopeful we would see more Australian forces on the table but they have been a bit sparse. With a New Guinea campaign book due to be released later this year (hopefully soon!). I thought it was time to roll my Jungle warriors out and promote the supplement once more and hopefully prompt some interest in playing these venerable forces.

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