Cold Wars 2017: Friday Team Yankee Game 14: Stem the Red Tide

Germany is the missing link to stem the Red Tide?

Hey guys, got a Cold Wars 2017 game of Team Yankee with Tom Mullane (aka Capt Echo) his Germans vs my Russkies.   We played encounter after a grueling doubles Version 3 Flames tournament in which we came away in 2nd place with Dingos, Deacons, Bishops, and trucked infantry!

As ever, the video bat-rep is at the end.

He had 2 formations, Gepards, Marders,Luchs and infantry in one, and Leo's and BO-105s in the other.   He deployed infantry on the left side objective (crashed Cdn Huey)..

CCCP v TXNG Team Yankee Counterattack 75pts

Don't Mess with Texas, National Guard!   Tris and I play Counterattack (as always, video below), I always bid attacker, we play on a nice board set-up at Scott's place, see below deployment pic:

The 3 M1s on left are in Ambush, not really there!

Freshly-painted units for me:  Hinds 3 and 4

And my 2nd full company of T-72s (these now all have their decals done)

2016, what did I paint?

How I feel after a hardcore painting session..

Not much pre-amble:  last year I kept a loose tally of what I painted.   This year I kept better track.   Taking inspiration from a bunch of folks from around the 'net, here is what I painted this year, first pics, then a video with more explanation

January was me rebasing my old Perry Miniatures 28mm French Napoleonics for the Black Powder ruleset.  This is a small brigade of 3 battalions of line infantry, their brigadier, and the three wound markers. The wound dice go in the green spaces on the markers..

Team Yankee, Pair of 60 pt games, USSR vs USA & UK

A Lynx and burning in the distance... surely not a hint of things to come??  Note optics box above the gunner's seat.

We had another Team Yankee Night.  60 point game, my Soviets vs US (Ca$h) and UK (Matty) allied together. We find 10 points per side per foot of table to be very good right now so far.    This time instead of just rolling dice, we decided to play a mission by the book, bid for attack and defence and all that.  

Initial set up below, Soviets on the right, NATO on the left.

They opted to deploy the Lynx's on the board behind trees, the M109s, and the formation M1 tank commander, with 2 M1s in Ambush.   I had my BMP-Blob and some T72s.   Everything else was delayed/scattered reserves.

Stealing Matt Varnish's Thunder

So I thought I'd show Matt Varnish what real Artillary looks like... 9 Mortars, 4 Regimental guns, 8 Heavy Mortars, 9 Zis-3, 4 122mm Howitzers, 4 152mm howitzers, 8 Kayusha.

This is a pic of all the stuff I ordered that came in this week, truthfully not sure why I ordered so much, I think now i have enough midwar russians to do everything, except for cossaks.

Germans vs Soviets: 1000pt MW Tag Team (Demo)

Lists:
Soviets -Moto HQ w/ 1 company with 3 platoons, 1 company with 1 SMG platoon, sappers, 4 AT guns, 5 T-70s.
Germans - GepanzertepanzerGrens HQ, 2 platoons, 4 panzers, 2 pak 38s.

Deployment: Soviet horde company on the right soviet objective. AT guns on the left Soviet objective. Soviets deployed first and get first turn. German AT guns on their left objective. One platoon of GepanzertepanzerGrens in the middle. Scattered Reserves for both sides.

Turn 1: Soviets fail to dig in. German Pak38s move to the rock wall.

Turn 2: Soviets bring on 5 T-70s on the far right flank with Scattered Reserves and they come down off the escarpment and line up with the infantry. Sappers come on at the farm house by the left Soviet objective. Germans get Panzers right in front of the Soviet light tanks an bail 2 T-70s and kill one.





Bottom of 3: T-70s have just doubled it away from the Panzers. Panzers move to the creek and kill a Soviet infantry base. Reserve german HTs race down the dirt road on the Soviet left flank (top right).


Top of 4: Soviet battle line. Notice the T-70s on the left still running from the advancing Panzers. The T-70 commander gets bogged on the fence and remains there for the game.


Close up of Sappers' aggressive push forward into the forest - suprising the Germans?


Bottom of 4: German Half-tracks drive towards the ass-back end of town.

German armour continues to push forward and grind away at the Soviet conscripts. 3 more soviet bases fall.


Bottom of 5: German Half-Track reposition after disembarking troops into the town square. Getting ready for the advancing sappers.


Wall of German machine guns attempt to uproot the Soviets holding the right Soviet objective.


Top of 6: Soviets push towards the objective in the town.


Soviets AT guns move to engage a German HT on the right flank. Kill it and its passengers.


Bottom of 6: Germans crunch Soviets under tracks. Push them off the objective. On the left flank, German HTs reposition into the town square and hit the advancing sappers with MG fire (see below image).


Top of 7: Soviet Sappers keep pushing towards far left objective. AT guns reposition to hit the HTs in the open. German conscripts try to get the lost objective back. Do nothing. Will last at least one more turn but its too little too late.

Bottom of 7: Germans will claim right-most Soviet objective in a turn or two. Game, Set, Match.

AAR: We ran this as a Tag Team-style demo with 2 players aside. Each side with one new player. As such we didn't use a proper scenario. The Defending side didn't have an ambushing platoon which may have made a big difference. Being able to place the AT-guns after the reserve Panzers showed up could have changed things. But in the end the main downfalls for the Soviets were: having all their AT in one place and not being aggressive enough.

FoW, Battle for the Ukraine, 7500 points total... GameSummit 2011

Ok so this one is a doozy. 28 pics plus video, but then again we ended up getting 7500 pts for the Battle in the Ukraine. Sit back, grab a brew, and enjoy the fruits of months of painting in this huge battle.


Pregame shot, Russian players await the german push.. BTW, click pic for close up of Brett's 'Bitch please' face. Perhaps he just found out the official soap of the GameSummit WFB tourny is... NONE!!







Dug in Russians in the farmlands above and below..


.. while more Dug In infantry surround the urban objective. BA-10s can be seen as well.



Better pic of the BA-10s near the fountain in the town square


Sideboard... 8 T-34s and 5 KV-1s


More Red Army vehicles (SU-85 and SU-122 assault guns).. are there just too many targets for the '88s and Tigers?


Truck Motor guys (they have a real funny russian name) EDIT: Razvedki is what they are called.. I love that they hang off the fenders with their PPsh's, 1920's gangland style!


Chris' Maksim settles near the potted plants on the second floor of this house???


End of deployment pics, this is how the table looks from the Russian POV at start of game. Germans get first turn.


SS units advance up to the creek...

while in this shot you can see how close Mike's Panzers get to the russian lines after Stormtruppen moves.


View of the other Tiger covering the advance of the DAK troops up the open fields.. Not seen, Mike's '88s on a nearby hill, discouraging any armored presence in the field area..


BA-10s on fire in the town square.. they got hit by StuGs and Panzers.. lucky to only lose 3 to be honest.
Better shot of the Urban area, burning BA-10s, and Tristan explaining to kids why adults are lining up behind them all of a sudden! Reason? Beer Cantina open for business at 11am. Best table locations ever! Thanks Corey.


(above and below) Russians shoot and assault the German troops. Perhaps they went too far with Sturmtruppen? Tiger gets Bailed but not Wrecked.. Alex just has the devils own luck on keeping Tigers alive.


Gravy Train of Aufklarung vehicles threading their way up the road between PanzerIVs.. Mike play them aggressively.



Infatry still holding the wrecked T-34 objective from Tristan's timid Panzer units.. seemingly a single BA-10 scares them.. though after the BA-10, the dug in men are literally the only thing stopping the Panzers from taking the objective and winning, since the Red Army reserves all came in centre and farmland objectives..



Mike's '88s on the small hill.
Surveying the dead german armor and infantry..


This is all the Germans have left to send into the farm objective meatgrinder.. the Reds have a tonne of tanks to spare.


Tigers, Bailed, Bogged, but not out. Duane pulls the ole say "Anything but a one" as Chris rolls firepower test on top armor to shaft him.. way to Jinx it D!!


Tristans Panzers slowly move closer to the infantry. At this point I was running demos pretty much constantly, so check out the Vid for the ending. Also, lesson to everyone, stop filming if you go into the game, so you dont get a few minutes tacked on to the video.. sorry!

USSR Heavy KV-1S

Here are some newly finished KV-1S tanks supporting some infantry in there advance off my painting area.