Keith and I met on Monday to continue to build on our Team Yankee experience. Keith was also itching to experiment with some lists for the Team Yankee escalation tournament that is coming up on January 28th at Dreamers Vault in Minneapolis. That one will be 65, 75 and then 95pt rounds. I really like the format idea, especially as new Team Yankee players abound yet. Having a smaller force with a timed round helps mitigate slow play.
For the first game, we built to 65 points and picked No Retreat with it’s night action. I settled on using my Afghanistan forces since i had just finished up some special weapons stands and wanted to try them out. I was the attacker with my force of 2 and 4 hinds, a unit of 7 AKs (left flank) and then 4 AKs (right flank), 3 recon BMP1s, 5 T-72s and last 4 Shilkas.
Keith was sporting 9 T-72s, 4 Shilkas, a small 4AK BMP2 rifle company, 3 BMP2 recon and 2 frog foots.
I decided to push hard on the left flank. With cover of darkness I figured I could get my infantry, tanks and helicopters into place with the intention of striking fast before Keith’s reinforcements might show. At this point the tanks were more or less even between sides and in theory my Hinds and T72 could take them out quickly.
Away we went on the attack. The group of 2 Hinds moved in and I place them at 8″ from their target, surely for nighttime I could at least get a 2+ right? Er, no. For the other group of hinds, shooting was quite poor and only took out one T-72.
Unfortunately the Shilkas would make quick work of the Hinds so that one arrow in my quiver spent without much to show for it. I did manage to brew up a Shilka, and a couple more T72s leaving just the battalion command tank. My infantry starting to stream in, OTOH those Shilkas have some serious firepower so I needed to be careful.
Meanwhile on the other flank I shifted my recon over and kept my small company of infantry moving forward, if anything to create a diversion.
Tank losses started to mount as the BMP2s joined the fray with dawn having lifted the curtain of night. My T72s not being in good spirits, decided they’d had enough. Another arrow in the quiver gone…
Keith started to get his reinforcements, both Frogfoots having arrived as well as making their roll to come on table. Likewise Keith’s second company of T72s arrived. At this point the offensive was pretty much ground to a halt. While my infantry was spread between the ruins and out in the street, they were taking lots of Shilka fire and not able to do much to either get RPGs on them or other hardware that would push them back. My forces just weren’t aligned right. On my right flank my small band of infantry with the help of the BMP1s took out several stands of infantry and were starting to threaten the objective on that side. Still the Frogfoots and Keith’s BMP2s made quick work of my BMP1s tho I was able to use my Gremlin to shoot one Frogfoot down.
It was game at that point.
We set up for second game after that using 75 pt lists. I pulled together a Russian Tank formation, with 2 T72 tank companies for a total of 12 tanks (5-6-1), 4 Gophers, 2 Shilkas, a 7 AK BMP1 formation.
Keith played his first list but upped the BMP2 rifle to a 7AK / 10 BMP2 motor rifle company.
This time it was an encounter match up. Once again I found myself on the attack. I decided to put my tanks more or less in hiding for the BMP2s to move as well as the T72s on Keith’s strong side. Long as they are perched, I might get one good round of shooting at the BMP2s but their counter attack would be extra nasty.
On the other flank, I figured my BMP1s could make a break for it and take out the Shilkas and maybe the harass the T72s but otherwise the infantry would have to assault in order to move forward or I’d have to be able to move my center T72 company up and into support.
Keith started, and used 3 of his recon BMP2s to to swing around the coal plant to threaten my T72s.
I managed to counter and brew up all 3. Keiths Frogfoots came down on turn 2 tho and brewed up a T72, but my Gophers were able to shoot one down and with a moral failure they would be done for the day. So the Gopher teams got to get into their Vodka ration early.
On my turn 2 I decided to go after the BMP2s hard and went for it. Luck was mostly with me and I managed to brew up 5 and bail a few more, but not enough to put them into bad spirits.
On the other flank my ‘bum’ rush of BMP1s went really really really badly with the Shilkas and T72s just absolutely munching them. I moved my Shilkas to counter and took out one of Keiths.
The BMP2s and Keiths T72s firing away took out a couple of mine but I was able to soldier on, at this point the odds still looked encouraging but my round of fire was awful taking out just a few more BMP2s and not a single T72. I figured with the BMP2 and it’s very effective missile they were the target priority while vs T72s at least I had sort of a chance to make an armor save.
Keith brought his tanks forward to engage my T72s on my flank and rear. My Shilkas managed to brew up another, and Keith’s Shilkas decide they’ve had enough. My infantry start coming out of their holes and using the RPG rounds to go after Keith’s T72s. I managed to brew up one but it’s not enough. My T72 are pretty much toast, my battalion command tank is down and at this point we negated for me to do a force morale role as my two primary companies and the force commander were either gone or not in good spirits.
So another victory for Keith, tho with some better dice especially on the second round of shooting at Keith’s BMP2s and his T72s and things might have gone a bit further.
The Gophers definitely solidified my view as their being the go-to AA solution. If you can afford the points and get a group of 4, they are just perfect to deal with Air anywhere on table and especially against allies with airforces that have a 5+ save, the Gopher 4+ FP is mighty nice to have, even tho it’s not a dual role unit like a Shilka which can go after fairly soft targets.
All in all a fun day and clearly shows I need to put some time into list building as Jan 28th isn’t far away.