Upcoming Soviet Goodies

The new era of Team Yankee version 2 is upon us. The Americans and Brits have already got their new stuff and it looks great. Later this year, BF will be showing the Soviets some love with some awesome new vehicles.

  

The first new Soviet vehicle is the long awaited T-80. Like all Soviet MBTs, this is expected to have decent stats, but likely not worth the point value assigned by the counter-revolutionary Bourgeoisie at BF. I believe the model is supposed to be a T-80U. The expected armor is FA20, SA10, TA2 and reportedly the first TY unit with ERA. The AT-11 Sniper missile is expected as an upgrade option.

  

The long awaited BMP-3 with three weapons systems (100mm gun, AT-10 Stabber and 30mm autocannon) will likely expand Soviet MRD capabilities if it is reasonably priced as its predecessors. This should be a fun vehicle, but likely not a game changer.

  

The less well known, but absolutely awesome TOS-1 Buratino fills the previously unoccupied niche of short-ranged rocket artillery. An impressive ordinance load of thirty 220mm thermobaric rockets allows this vehicle to literally rain down Hell. Based on the T-72 hull, this is likely the most heavily armored artillery in the game and it will need this protection due to the short (3500m) range of the 220mm rockets. The TOS-1 should significantly outperform the US MLRS in all categories except range. The TOS-1 has the capability to launch 2.5 as many rockets as the MLRS and each TOS-1 rocket is estimated to have a warhead 3-4 times the size of MLRS. This would result in a TOS-1 salvo having 9 times the power of an MLRS (although at a significantly shorter range). The TOS-1 could easily have an anti-tank value of 5 and a firepower of 2+ or 3+. Expect these guys to be expensive (even with Soviet 5+ skill) and limited in numbers.       

Here is the TOS-1 in real life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q91yFP9E9Yg

The Tunguska 2K22 tracked anti-aircraft vehicle is a long time favorite and welcomed addition to TY. It is the Soviet equivalent of a Gepard and Roland on a single chassis. The 30mm guns provide more punch than the 23mm guns of the ZSU-23/4 and the missile system is somewhat comparable to the SA-13. These should be fun, but don't expect any drastic increase in capability by deploying these instead of the typical ZSU/SA-13 mix     

Here is a video that shows the Tunguska along with ZSU-23/4 and SA-13:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPsBxkDLi0

Filling the role of an upgraded, heavier and modernized BM-21, BM-27 Uragan will likely be comparable to U.S. MLRS with inferior Soviet skill of 5+. As with BMP-3 and Tunguska, this is unlikely to be a game changer, but still fun to play. It will be interesting to see the actual model when released by BF. 

Mi-8 Hip enables Soviet players to play full scale VDV rather than the Afghansty (AKA VDV lite) units carried solely in Mi-24s. Hopefully, a gunship version is also available. This new chopper has the potential to really expand Red Army capabilities in TY. With a real life capacity of 24 troops (compared to the Hind's 8 troop capacity), the Mi-8 will hopefully have a 6 stand capacity thus allowing significant heliborne operations.     

Overall, these 6 new additions to the TY Soviet arsenal will be fun. If the point values are accurate, these vehicles should allow the Red Army some competitiveness in V2.  

Hopefully, other Pact nations will get some of these new vehicles...Lets see!

Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

Team Yankee is a game, not a simulation. While working on Red Tide, I was forced to make some unpalatable compromises. Each time, I reminded myself that TY is a game. It is OK to include (or exclude) something that would make a professional analyst snicker and a neck-beard huff if the overall gaming experience is preserved. Now, after several revisions, I feel the few remaining compromises are justified. Declassified information concerning Soviet Naval Infantry is incomplete and often contradictory. It is almost as if the Cold War were ongoing. I believe it is more important that Red Tide gives the player the feel of the the SNI rather than focusing on the minutiae of their TO&E that have minimal impact on the game.That does not mean that long hours of research weren't spent to achieve reasonable accuracy based on the available data. What it means is that some inaccuracies were permitted to allow Red Tide to fit within the bounds of TY (exactly like all the other TY armies). Ultimately, I believe Red Tide introduces SNI to TY as a viable and balanced force that is also hopefully enjoyable to play.  

David Dean 

9/21/2019

There are supposedly stories of non-coms telling new recruits that the SNI never venture beyond the range of the 152mm naval guns. This makes a good story, but of course is untrue. However, it does show the dependence on naval guns. Although an SNI battalion does have organic MRL and howitzer support that a motorized rifle battalion lacks, it comes up short compared to the MR battalion when division resources are included in the equation. Naval fire support, provided primary from Sverdlov class light cruisers, brings the SNI back to parity with the MR battalion and arguably gives the SNI battalion the advantage.

  

Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 1 Brigade and Battalion Structure

“The primary mission of the Soviet Naval Infantry (Morskaya Pekhota) is to seize control of territory adjacent to important straits and other waterways. This can be accomplished by independent amphibious landings, by spearheading combined marine-army operations, or in combined operations with airborne troops. The secondary mission of Soviet marines is to defend captured coastal territory and naval bases.”[1]

The Team Yankee period Soviet Naval Infantry is composed of a single independent infantry division and four independent infantry brigades. The Pacific Fleet’s NI division is based in Vladivostok. The Baltic and Black Sea Fleets each have one brigade and the Northern Fleet has two independent brigades.

The Baltic Fleet’s 336th Naval Infantry Brigade along with the Polish 7th Sea Landing Brigade can be expected to lead the effort to secure the Denmark Straits. The Soviet 7th Guards Airborne Division and the Polish 6th Airborne Brigade would likely coordinate with amphibious operations.

Coming soon... Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

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[1] The Soviet Navy: Landing Their Landing Force By Norman Polmar, Editor, Guide to the Soviet Navy, January 1987, Proceedings Vol. 113/1/1,007

Battle Report: Israelis vs. Czech - Bohemians can't hit with Sagger and Spiral or are all those Skyhawks on fire?

Two Weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a game with Kel at my place. We used the Quick Missions from the TY website. Kel rolled “Seize the Bridge” and I didn’t want to add a river to our table, so he rerolled “Annihilation” as our mission.

We played 60 points and the table was a 4x4 using modular tiles I had scratch built for micro-armor. The roads weren’t to scale so we called them single lane country roads. Kel rolled high and was the attacker with his Israelis and I was the defender with my Czechs (go figure). Kel wisely chose the most defensible side of the board and dug in deep.

Unusual, but still Kosher, the Israelis fielded Magachs and no Merkavas. This proved to be another wise decision (or Kel is a disciple of Kabbalah?). The standard Perah and mech units supported the Israeli armor with napalm armed Skyhawks waiting to strike. In the pic above, the ZSU-57 are actually VADS.

The Czechs fielded two battalions of T-55s crewed by pensioners and alcoholics accompanied by BMP recon elements. A motorized rifle battalion with both BMP-1 and BMP-2 supported the armor. Artillery fire support was provided by a battery of DANA and AT fire support from a platoon of BRDM AT. Air defense duties were covered by an elite ZSU-23/4 unit that was incorrectly assigned to this category III division due to a clerical mistake.

The game started and the T-55s charged down the central valley and took heavy casualties from highly accurate Magach fire. In return, the T-55s were only able to machine gun 3 Tow Jeeps and unsuccessfully assault the fourth jeep (which fled). In the charge forward, the T-55s were unable to achieve a single hit with their 100mm guns. This was attributed to the pensioner crews lack of training with the laser ranger finders on the T-55AM2. However, they were proficient with the antiquated but still effective machine guns.

Except for two kills on Perehs, the Czech Sagger and Spiral fire was completely ineffectual and landed no hits whatsoever. Both the regimental commander and the political officer blamed the poor results on the chronic alcoholism throughout the division. It was later noted that every Sagger and Spiral gunner in the Division was intoxicated during the battle. 

Meanwhile, Kel gloriously charged his mech unit forward on the Czech weak side. The only time his troops were vulnerable, while dismounting from M113, I tried to range in my DANAs and give the Israeli infantry a 152mm H.E. introduction to Communism. However, that was not to be. With a skill of 4+ and three attempts, the DANAs could not range in on the vulnerable Israeli infantry caught in the open and the golden opportunity was forever gone. Reportedly, the aged Czech forward observers were not familiar with the new Soviet supplied radios and thus unable to timely call in artillery strikes.

Feeling the need to smell napalm in the morning, Kel brought on four Skyhawks that lined up for a napalm run that would likely burn out and collapse my entire right flank. With my right flank turned to KFC (Kosher Fried Chicken), he could possibly roll up the entire side of my army and I couldn't stop him.  

My entire army is Iron Curtain category III crap (and I love them for it). Everything except those elite ZSU crews that weren’t supposed to be here. One of the ZSUs got shot up earlier. The three that survived were pissed off and looking for payback. Now, there were four incoming fast movers. That said the chance for payback was at hand. Instead of the huge napalm strike turning my rifle infantry into a Czech Apocalypse Now, there were four airborne fireballs and three shit hot ZSU crews giving each other the Russian equivalent of high fives. The Pact’s only moment of glory this day!

During the celebrations, a lone Israeli team reached RPG range of the Czech division commander and took a pot shot that narrowly missed. All the while shouting in Hebrew, “Leroy Jenkins.” A ZSU quickly killed the team and decided it was too early to celebrate.

We called the game. Neither force was destroyed, but the Israelis were in much better shape than the Czechs.

I eyeballed the pics and going from memory…it was ugly.

Killed

Israeli

2 Pereh                                    5 pts

3 Tow Jeeps                            4.5 pts

4 Skyhawks                            6 pts

Most of mech inf plt            ~7pts

                                             22.5pts

Czech

17 T-55                                   17pts

1 ZSU-23/4                               1pts

4 BMP-1                                   2pts

3 BMP-2                                   1.5pts

3 inf stands                                2.5pts

I think there was some more     3 pts

                                                 27pts

The points killed are deceptive. The Israeli advantage was more than shown by the points killed.

Kel’s shot selection was very good. Choosing Magachs instead of Merkava’s proved to be a good choice in this case. The extra guns were much more important than the armor. His mech infantry charge would have likely won the game if the Skyhawks had a good napalm run.

I should have spent less effort on the TOW jeeps and gone at the Magachs immediately. On the first turn, I should have dropped smoke for my T55 to run up behind. I should have put my DANA on the Magachs and left them there starting on the second turn. I debated about my force selection, but I think the list is fine.

The quick missions are fun. I think maybe 40 points would be interesting. I would also like to play one of the scenarios with objectives.

Category III divisions need to make do with pensioners and alcoholics. I will miss the ZSU crews when the paperwork catches up and they get reassigned.

Thanks, Kel for an AWESOME game!

Team Yankee Allied Formations - Merry Christmas, Volks Armee now owns Meta.

Volks Armee players need to thank Santa Phil for an early Christmas gift called Allied Formations. Thanks Phil! Whether intended or inadvertent, VA needed the love and VA players should happily accept.

The strong suit of the VA has always been the beloved and much maligned T-55 spam (in an upcoming blog, I will explain why spam is good). The main problem with T-55 lists is the inability to economically kill NATO MBTs from the front, as the T-55 horde moves forward seeking the (hopefully) eventual side shots. VA T-55 armies need to hold it together and take their lumps as they move forward on the NATO MBTs which are impervious from the front to aged 100mm D-10T. Once the T-55s are in position for side shots, the story changes, but only after the T-55s have sustained horrible losses. The VA desperately need something that can reliably kill NATO MBTs as the T-55s advance. The T-55 horde with massed 100mm D-10Ts and often dozens of dice of machine gun shots should be up to all other tasks (including taking out reasonable numbers of dug in Brit infantry..again, for another post).

Currently, the VA have a few options to front kill NATO MBTs, but none are better than mediocre. The first option is the arguably over priced T-72M which has limited ability to kill NATO MBTs from the front, but is prohibitively expensive and thus cannot be fielded in numbers that make it effective. The second option is to field BMP-2s and BRDM-ATs with Spandrels. These are good choices in regards to points, but the VA list does not allow for these vehicles to be deployed in sufficient numbers to have a reliably significant impact on the battlefield. The third option is to deploy Mi-24 and Su-25s. Aircraft are relatively effective at destroying NATO MBTs from any aspect, but are easily countered by NATO AA units. None of these options really give the VA the needed capability.




Allied formations change everything for the VA. Allied formations help every army to varying degrees, but by adding a BMP-2 formation to a VA T-55 army, I believe the overall impact is unmatched. A Soviet BMP-2 formation provides up to 43 BMP-2, up to 4 BMP-2R and up to 3 BRDM-AT vehicles armed with Spandrels. Now, the issue will be points rather than availability of Spandrel carrying vehicles. This formation allows a VA player to field a significant force capable of killing NATO MBTs from the front economically. Each vehicle costs 2 points or less.

Now, with charging T-55s and supporting Spandrel launching vehicles, the VA have a proper One-Two punch. One, drive the T-55 horde forward like bats out of hell until they can machine gun enemy infantry, blast away light/medium vehicles and side shot MBTs. Two, support vehicles dump tons of Spandrels from long range on MBTs and significant targets of opportunity.

Meanwhile, the NATO player will have some variation of two difficult choices. The first NATO choice is to engage the Spandrel armed vehicles. This choice will help  reduce the immediate losses at the expense of allowing the T-55s to close the distance without sustaining significant immediate losses. The second NATO choice is to engage the T-55s. This option has the upside of trying to break formations and limit the number of T-55s that close for side shots. The down side is that the NATO vehicles will still need to weather the storm of incoming Spandrels. Some players may choose partial options. Regardless of the option chosen, there will be lots of maneuver and tactics, but in the end, the NATO player will need to choose...

...and, for the moment, VA owns Meta.

After Action Report - Total Victory 300 points

8 Aug 1985, Battle Group 'Dario', a combined NATO force of American, British and West German armored and mechanized units, was heavily engaged by the East German Panzer Regiment 'Helmut Lipschitz' and elements of the GSFG 369th Motor Rifle Regiment.

 0600 Hours, Aug 8. A view of the battlefield from the North several hours before the engagement.

0600 Hours, Aug 8. A view of the battlefield from the South several hours before the engagement.

The 'Lipschitz' center ready to move out.

The 'Lipschitz' North flank ready to move.

Early in the day, a Leo 2 was destroyed by a Soviet Spandrel from a BRDM-2 AT. As the day progressed, the remaining Leos would score a high number of T-55 kills on the 'Helmut Lipschitz' regiment.


'Lipschitz' T-55s on the move and grabbing an objective early.

Leo 2s getting some 120mm smoothbore payback on their East German cousins.

Recon BMP-1s attempt to give Abbots some special consideration and miss with all 4 73mm shots.

American M1s preparing to counterattack.

American M1s boldly cut a swath through the East German regiment's T-55s, but 'Lipschitz' still holds the objective!

Bundeswehr Luchs drive up to the McPizza King and bail out 4 ZSUs in the Pact backfield.

These Chieftains had 16 AT-5 Spandrels shot at them without a single hit at 4+. Later an investigation uncovered that a defective shipment of ATGMs was sent to the 369th. All the workers from the factory that manufactured these missiles were later sent to Siberia.

In a final gesture of defiance, two brave Cobra pilots moved in for a pop-up rocket attack on a battery of SAU-152s. The entire Southern flank engaged the pair with AA fire. A lucky BMP-2 cannon shot downed one Cobra and the other fell victim to a the fire of a T-55 AA HMG.

Debrief: Warsaw Pact Victory

The battle concluded with Pact 8 VP and NATO 6 VP. Each side held 3 objectives within their respective zones and the Pact had control of one neutral objective, Both sides were bloodied but in overall good order. The short 2 turn game resulted in moderate losses on both sides. If the game were to go 4 or 5 turns, no doubt there would have been massive casualties across the battlefield.

I want to thank (in alphabetical order) Bill, Chris, Dan, Justin, Kel, Matt and Paul for a great game and a great day with old and new friends.

WIP: East German Panzer Regiment 'Helmut Lipschitz' and Soviet 369th Motor Rifle Regiment move west.

177 points of East German and Soviet combined arms from the East German Panzer Regiment 'Helmut Lipschitz' and Soviet 369th Motor Rifle Regiment.

Some units are partially painted.

SU-25 are from Academy and purchased online for $3.69 each!
https://www.scalehobbyist.com/catagories/Model_Aircraft/ACD00004439/product.php?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9siav-Le1QIVi4hpCh0dJQgvEAQYASABEgKIzPD_BwE

ZSU-23 and BTR-80 are from Zvezda.
http://www.zvezda-usa.com/games/hot-war/7419/
http://www.zvezda-usa.com/games/hot-war/7401/

T-55-AM are from Plastic Soldier Company.
http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=93_94_95&products_id=1336

Everything else is from BattleForce.