Team Yankee Rules Analysis - Part 5 - Morale/Special Rules



Morale

Morale in Team Yankee, on a high level of understanding, works in a manner similar to what we have in FoW. Once your Units start taking enough casaulties they are forced to roll their morale checks. When they fail the roll, they are gone. In the end, if at a certain point of the Turn Sequence (the Starting Step), your Formation has no Units that are in still active (remember that Supporting Units do not count), it has to roll a morale check (using Commander's morale rating - so if he is gone: autofail). If the roll is failed, the Formation is gone. If all Formations are gone, you are out and all objectives are automatically captured by the opponent.

Back to the basic (Unit) level, no morale check is needed (it is called "Unit is in Good Spirits") as long as:
- no Teams in the Unit are either destroyed or bailed (the latter is only true for Units containing Tank Teams)
- at least one active (neither destroyed nor bailed) Team is within 6" of the Unit Leader. Two active Teams in case of infantry Units.
- Unit Leader is active

There are two major influences of this rule on the game:

1. Units consisting of 2 Teams will have to immediately test whenever one of the teams is gone, or in the case of tanks - bailed. It just hits ITVs so hard that even at 3 points per platoon they do not seem a valid option. Like I described before, you can mitigate this effect by Joining HQ Units or Independent Teams to these guys, but in all honesty: what is the point of protecting 2 ITVs with 2 M1 Abrams tanks or a FIST?
Same goes for fielding understrength Units of Aircraft in US Forces. Each time you take a casaulty, the other guy has to roll his morale check and possibly flee without event taking a hit. The only 2 Team Unit that does not suffer so much because of this rule is the Soviet Recce platoon of BMPs - it will do its job of extending the deployment zone anyway. After this, it is obsolete (or can be used for some harrasment). Poor rules design at this point, really.

2. Going out of command with a part of a Unit is really pushing your luck. Same goes for moving Line Abreast (not so clearly defined in the rules). If the opponent is able to kill the section containing the Unit Leader, the rest of the platoon has to test (even if you only killed 2 out of 10 tanks for instance).
Overall, Morale mechanic of Team Yankee is very similar to FoW but it is really hard to kill a Unit by forcing a morale check, unless the opponent splits it and you are able to kill the Leader.


Update & a fun fact at the same time (confirmed by Phil): if you do not put any of the Formation's Units on the table at the beginning of the game (meaning - if you only start with Support) you do not have any of the Formation's Units "In Good Spirits" as per the rules and thus you automatically loose the game :)
　
Special Rules


There are about 20-30 special rules in Team Yankee covering high-tech equipment characteristics & tactical doctrines used by the opposing forces. Most of them, add a +1 here or there or make a unit gone to ground when it moves or shoots. There is however, one rule that is really outstanding: Spearhead.

By using Spearhead, a Unit can make a pre-game move when it deploys. Once the move is complete, other Units that have not deployed so far treat anything within 8" of the Spearheading Unit as an extension of their deployment zone!
This extension of deployment zone is limited by enemy teams, deployment area or by any objective. Still, in some of the TY scenarios (like the Counterattack) you can really fast-forward your entire army to be just several inches away from an objective and get a 1st turn charge in or even capture it uncontested. This is huge and I expect it to be used very frequently, especially that in the Soviet Forces you can have more than one Spearheading Unit (each Formation can use one + your support also has the option for one).

Phew, seems I have gone through all the rules of Team Yankee - next mission is: list building :P

Team Yankee Rules Analysis - Part 4 - Shooting

Hi there and welcome to another episode of Team Yankee rules analysis. This part is all about shooting. And when I say shooting I mean: direct fire & artillery. When I read the rules, my feeling was that this is more an evolution than a revolution. BF did change how things are done, but they do have a familiar ring to them. Some of them are almost an exact copy with just a +1 here or a -1 there. In any case, switching between TY and FoW should be no problem at all.

There are some changes that influence the balance of the forces, though :)

Direct Fire

The first innovation in direct fire rules that stands out is the way you assign hits to your targets in TY. In FoW, it was the owner of the platoon shot at that would assign hits across the target platoon. In Team Yankee however, it is the owner of the shooting model that nominates an enemy Team and rolls to hit against it. This means, that potentially you are able to snipe high value targets. Fortunately, it has some limits and counters within the rules. First of all, if you target a specific Team within a platoon, only the first hit will go against the team. All other hits have to be distributed evenly to the Teams of the same type and from the same Unit, unless they would not be a legal target (because of no LoS for example).

In practice, only the first hit counts then. And even that is partly true because of the Mistaken Target rule. This rule lets the player swap hits between Teams that are a valid target for the shooting, provided he can roll a 3+. So if you have 2 (x/z) Teams which are a legal target for the shooting (same type, same unit, in range, etc.) and the opponent assigned the following hits to them: 1x/2z, you can roll a 3+ to switch to 2x/1z. This is the perfect rule to protect your valuable assets until your luck runs out :)

This combined with the rules about Independent Teams and HQ Teams being treated as valid targets provided they are within 6" of the Team being shot at practically means you can either protect your soft guys with heavy HQ tanks or add extra bodies to platoons by joining the observers and/or Mech HQ armored transports to any other unit and absorbing high AT hits. I imagine that this rule will be often used to keep the FIST in play for as long as possible.

Also, shooting at aircraft has its separate flavor. First of all, you can shoot at Aircraft either in the enemy turn (with reduced RoF) or in your own turn (at full RoF). On top of this, not everybody can shoot at Aircraft Units - there is a list of weapons/Units that are able to conduct AA fire. For Helicopters, this list seems rather long while for Strike Aircraft it is severly reduced, making them one of the most survivable Units in Team Yankee. What I am not so happy about is that Helicopters, in my opinion, will be of limited importance in this game as there is a whole lot of weapons that can hurt them and bring them down before they can do any real damage :(

Artillery (including Laser-Guided Ammo)

Artillery still has the templates, still hits the top armor, still rolls to range in and to hit. There are differences though. First big difference is that finally, you will not be bound to target an enemy Team. This is huge and combined with the new command distances makes me think that the guns will be covering more Teams per salvo. It is also much easier to range in. All you need is a flat skill check which can be modified by +1 if your spotting guy is the observer. What is more, you can utilize your Commander and join the shooting battery to substitute their skill rating with his. For US this can even mean a 2+ to range in! The heap of buffs would however not be complete without a single, but meaningful nerf :) Once you ranged in you still need to hit the teams under the template. Normally, you need roll their 'is hit on' number but this one also has modifiers. For instance, a gone to ground Team out of LoS of the shooting battery gets -2 to the roll (-1 for each of: gtg and out of LoS). The result of these modifiers is that it will be extremely difficult to hit and kill dug in infantry with artillery. If you are targetting gone to ground US infantry that is out of the battery's LoS , you end up hitting on a 6+. On top of this, the infantry get their regular save (3+) and you need to roll for your firepower (2-4+). On average then, you will be killing 1 Team for every 20 that you can get under your template. Not so good, huh?

At least, there are no more artillery bombardment restrictions when shooting from behind terrain. You can easily position your battery right in the middle of a patch of woods and deliver salvos without being seen by anything else than Aircraft Units.

Smoke bombardment is a bit better than what FoW players are used to (it comes in a line and obstructs LoS if more 6" from the target Team) but has been changed to one use only per battery. Overall I think this is a good change that makes it one of the vital resources in the game that needs to be used wisely.

The good part about US artillery is that it can fire Laser-Guided Ammo. This type of ammo has a minimum range of 16" but can fire at Teams that are visible for the FIST observer and/or are out of LoS of the battery (hooray for ninja shots from the middle of the forest)! When they do, they use normal shooting rules (using FIST for tracing LoS, etc.) and hit front armor with AT21 and HEAT+Guided special rules. If not for the fact that only the FIST can spot for Laser-Guided Ammo, this would for sure be the best weapon on the battlefield. But even with this limitation it is great. The risk of loosing your FIST can be mitigated by keeping it close to any other Tank Unit but what you get in return is a lethal weapon. Please note, that with the Guided special rule, the Ammo can also be used to bring down Helicopters! Fun! :)

There are also other types of artillery ammo available for the US player, like scatterable mines (which produce a 4" diameter round minefield per 3 firing guns) or bomblets (which enable firing salvo templates with reduced AT/FP values) but they are not nearly as good as Laser-Guided Ammo.

All in all, I like what BF did with shooting. Do you?

Team Yankee Rules Analysis - Part 3 - Movement

WARNING!! Some of my understanding might stil be wrong as I only read the rules a couple of times so far. If I talk nonsense, please feel free to correct me in the comments section. I want this article to be as accurate as possible in the end. Thank you!

Movement

Movement in Team Yankee is very quick compared to Flames of War. Generally speaking, Dash (TY for Double Time) speed has increased all across the board. Moreover, going over Terrain either hinders your movement very slightly (when Dashing) or not at all (when moving at Tactical).

Also, basic movement distance for Tanks is increased to 14" while for infantry to 8". On the other hand, Tactical speed for light armored vehicles has dropped to 10'. This overall movement speed increase is coupled with easier unbogging. You no longer have to roll a skill test to unbog. This simply happens automatically at the end of the turn in which your tank got stuck.
A completely new thing is Aircraft Unit movement which has no range limit or can take the Aircraft Unit off the table to come back during one of the following turns (Loitering Off Table - p. 30).

Command Distance is now 6" (or 16" if you are forming a line and are in LoS of the Unit Leader) for every type of Unit while penalties for breaking Command Distance have decreased. The isolated part can go about on its own using Tactical speed and only suffer a +1 to hit. If they decide to stay in one place, the penalty is not applied. I doubt, however that anybody would be using this rule to divide their platoon into two parts and operate independently or go Line Abreast as Morale checks are based on what Teams are around the Unit Leader (the more Teams you have, the safer the platoon is).

All this combined, means that Teams in TY can cover a considerable distance in short periods of time, while staying relatively close to one another. I really cannot make my mind if this is a good or a bad thing. What I am sure of though, is that tables will suddenly become very small and artillery more effective :)

The biggest change that the designers created is the introduction of Movement Orders. Movement Orders can be used by a Unit Leader (in case the Unit lost their Leader- they obviously cannot use them) to make the Unit perform certain activities on the battlefield. let's have a look on what is possible:

Blitz Move (p. 34)

The Order lets the Unit move up to 4" upon a successful skill check. At the same time, it does not count as having performed a Move. This has major influence on the game. All of a sudden, your move or fire weapons can pop out from behind a LoS blocker and shoot their weapons. It will  be the modus operandi of ITV vehicles or Soviet BMPs, provided you can succeed with your skill check. If you fail the roll however, you will suffer a +1 to hit penalty and will not be able to Dash.

What is more interesting is that this rule can be used to bring your Units out of reserves (confirmed by Phil) and IN MY OPINION, BASED ON RAW even return your Loitering Aircraft Units onto the table (p. 30 - as it can be used 'instead of moving'). In both cases, you could for instance use it to bring Cobras onto the table and shoot their move or fire rockets.
In the previous article, I mentioned that joining Commanders to Aircraft Units can be beneficial to them in some cases. This is one of them: if you join your pretty much useless Mech Commander to a Cobra Unit left in the Reserves, you can improve their skill check from 4+ to 3+ to Blitz onto the table and use their rockets. Not a big bonus, but can make all the difference.

Follow Me! (p. 34)

The Order enables the Unit Leader to move forward 4 extra inches (even after making a dash move) and roll a courage check. If successful, teams from the same Unit, within 6" and visible to the Unit Leader may move up to 4".  Whether the Movement Order was carried out or not, the Unit is not able to shoot in the subsequent shooting step. This is not a game changer to be honest and I expect it will be used mainly as a way of getting into assault quicker. Also, it can be used once in a while to gain some additional ground while dashing and maybe in 1/100 games to increase the Tactical speed of a Unit to do a last minute objective grab or a contest.

Shoot and Scoot (p. 35)

This one is essentially a limited copy of German Stormtrooper move that we know from FoW. It enables a Unit that did not Move in the Movement Step to roll a skill check in the Assault Step and move 4" if successful. This is obviously a good way to limit the return fire of enemy Units and will be often used by vulnerable Units such as ITV vehicles, Artillery and AA.

Cross Here (p. 35)

As we already know, bogged down vehicles unbog at the end of the player's turn in TY. To make bogging down even less annoying, BF decided to introduce this new Movement Order. It improves your Cross ability by 1, provided your Unit Leader successfuly crosses an obstacle and you forfeit your chance to Shoot or Assault this turn. The bad part is that you only declare it BEFORE the Unit Moves. This means that you will almost never use it anyway as it costs you the Shooting and Assault Steps and you are not even guaranteed to have the improved cross check.

Dig In (p. 35)

Dig In only changed a tiny bit between TY and FoW. The two differences are: you need a Unit Leader to do this and you cannot fire bombardments after digging in. What might be the hint for the future releases is that currently, there are no Infantry Units able to deliver bombardments :) This rule, combined with the Blitz Move also have a small gap in it. By RAW, when you are Blitzing, you do not count as having moved your Unit. The Dig In order lets you use Foxholes until you move. These two rules combined mean that by RAW, your Dug In infantry can Blitz around the table in their Foxholes. Fun.


Overall, I like what BF did by introducing Movement Orders. It took away some of the nationality flavor that we know from FoW (everybody knows German Stormtrooper :) ) but introduced so many new possibilities!

Team Yankee Rules Analysis - Part 2 (Commanders)

WARNING!! Some of my understanding might stil be wrong as I only read the rules a couple of times so far. If I talk nonsense, please feel free to correct me in the comments section. I want this article to be as accurate as possible in the end. Thank you!

Your Commander (p. 25)

This is where the rules get interesting. Maybe not the rules themselves but interpretations and implementations of the rules for sure. At first glance, this seems like only a slightly different wording for what we know about Warrior Teams from FoW. Do not be fooled however, these changes go far beyond that.

First of all, 2iCs are gone. If you have more than one HQ Team in your HQ Unit, you can select any of non-transport Teams to be your Commander. The Commander, along with any other Teams from the HQ Unit operate together on the battlefield, following rules for regular platoons (in this case, HQ transports are not an Attachment and will suffer out of command penalties if they wander too far away from the Commander).

The funny part specific to TY is that when you decide to Join a Unit with your Commander, the whole HQ joins it as well. This can easily be used to bolster the survivability of fragile platoons such as AA Units or ITVs with more than one extra body.

Furthermore, the Commander can join ANY Unit of his Formation or supporting it. This has big consequences, described a few paragraphs below.

In order to Join a Unit, the Commander must be within 6" AND in line of sight of the Unit's Leader. So if you want to make sure that a Commander cannot Join a unit (to soak in some shots for example), all you have to do is to drop a small smoke barrier between himself and the Unit's Leader.

What is a small smoke barrier, you ask? :) Well, this is where we approach the madness section of the command rules. TY rulebook says that if your tank Commander gets killed or bogged down, he can jump to another Tank Team. We have 2 main cases here:

1. If he is killed, he can jump to another HQ Tank Team within 6". If there are no other HQ Tank Teams available, you roll a 3+. If successful, he jumps to another Tank Team from the same Formation. If you fail the roll, he dies.
2. If he bogs down, you do the same procedure like for point 1 with the exception that he does not need to go to a HQ Tank Unit.

The implications of this are massive. You can intentionally bog your Commander down right next to an Artillery Unit and then take over one of its Teams. This way, you can split your artillery into two separate Units, gaining an additional Smoke Bombardment option (or extra Bomblets for example). What is also possible with the current rules is that you can now join this artillery Commander tank to an Aircraft Unit. If this happens, you can potentially have a situation where you fire your template rockets with Aircraft and at the same time have your Commander deliver his. How to resolve such a situation is not described in the rules.
Other nonsense plays include the Commander taking over observer tanks and anti-aircraft Teams.
Also, it is nowhere described what happens if he takes over a Unit Leader Team. Does that mean a new one is nominated immediately or does he have to do it, following the rules on page 49? If he has to do it, does the Unit loose its 'In Good Spirits' status because it has no Leader?

All in all this section needs a big improvement in my opinion. Hope this gets resolved by a FAQ at some point.

Team Yankee Rules Analysis - Part 1 (Unit Types and Turn Sequence)

Hello and a happy new year! :)

I am starting with a brand new series dedicated to the Team Yankee game. My intention is to cover the whole set of rules and dive deeper than the average blog by doing a close analysis of how TY plays, what are the main differences to FoW and what are the possible influences on the game.

Now, I was wondering how to approach this... I thought I would go in parts covering a section or several sections of the rules in one go (e.g. movement & command) but I could not get the proper formula for this article. This is why I decided to simply go page by page and pick out the most interesting stuff and do a writeup on exact paragraphs after a short intro into the whole section. I will also skip the items that did not change so much or are not interesting - I do not want to waste anybody's time by stating the obvious. Especially my own. Hope this works :)

WARNING!! Some of my understanding might stil be wrong as I only read the rules a couple of times so far. If I talk nonsense, please feel free to correct me in the comments section. I want this article to be as accurate as possible in the end. Thank you!

Teams and Units

The section's name is pretty self-explaining - it gives some basic game definitions. Not much has changed here apart from the introduction of the Formation concept. Formations are an extension to the already existing method of fielding your FoW armies. They mean that you can basically take one or more companies and use them in a game assisted by battalion level or division level support.

Also, this section introduces 2 interesting new unit types: Helicopter Aircraft Units and Attachments.

Aircraft Teams (p. 18)

This section describes what does BF mean by Aircraft. The issue I have with this description is that:
1. It does not explicitly says what do they mean by Aircraft Units. There is only a vague expression added: everything that flies, including Helis and Strike Aircraft. My understanding of an Aircraft Unit is any Unit that has it clearly stated on its corresponding card entry.
2. Across other sections of the book, the term Aircraft Unit is often substituted with "aircraft", which can cause confusion as to the real intention behind a rule (do they mean all aircraft or maybe a specific type of flyers?).

Attachments (p. 19)

This is a big change to FoW rules in my opinion. Now we have platoon transports that form a completely separate Unit with their own Leader that can go around the table causing all kinds of trouble on its own. For example, this can mean that if I mount my Dragon launchers on M113s I can use them as an extra tank platoon (although not so useful because with the exception of a Blitz Move, they can only move or fire). I can also leave my infantry behind and form an AA screen with the transports placed in the middle of the table. What is very important about this is since they form their own Unit, they are not "Out of Command"!
Another interesting point abouth Attachments (including Transport Attachments) is that they are allowed to capture and contest objectives. Hurray for feeding the objective with M113s or BMPs!

Now to bolster the darkside a bit, there are also some downsides to spoil this useful rule ;)
1. This rule does not apply to Transports of HQ Units - as per page 25.
2. If your core infantry unit runs, it goes with its Transport Attachments (wherever they are) - as per page 64.

Independent Units (p. 19)

Independent Units are a big laugh. The main reason for it is Morale (I am jumping ahead but do not want to forget this part as it is a really funny one). If you go by RAW, an Independent Unit team like the FIST is also the Unit's Leader. This means that if the FIST is bailed, it has to pass the Unit's Morale test or flee (according to rules on page 64). Fortunately, this does not apply to HQ Units, as they never have to test their Morale and will never run (more on that later).

Turn Sequence

Not much has changed here. It is a well known concept of move, shoot, assault so popular in modern wargames.
There is one point however, that needs to be mentioned:

The Starting Step (p. 24)

If you look at the sequence, you will notice that the 'Roll for Strike Aircraft' step is right before the reserve roll. This means that if you place your Strike Aircraft in Reserves, you WILL NOT roll for it on the turn it arrives from Reserves. This, in my opinion, has a big influence on the game, making Strike Aircraft an attack-oriented tool. On the defensive, you really have to choose lesser of the two evils:
1. You start with the Aircraft Unit available on turn 1, thus pushing one regular Unit back to Reserves. You are still not guaranteed to acquire air support.
2. You move your Aircraft Unit to Reserves. If you do this, you still need to roll a 5+ with whatever number of dice you are rolling to extract the Aircraft Unit from Reserves and then, only IN THE FOLLOWING TURN you can start rolling for your Strike Aircraft (single 4+ to receive air support).


This concludes part 1 of my analysis. Hope you like the formula. If you don't - please let me know what are your improvement ideas. Thanks! :)

Countering German half-tracks

As per the request of one of the readers, I was forced (only joking) to write an article about dealing with those pesky German armored half-tracks. I have to admit that this is a very difficult topic but I accept the challenge :)

The reason I mentioned that this topic is so difficult is that there are not many ways to effectively deal with this type of unit. Part of the problem comes from the fact that in most cases you have to spend valuable resources to get rid of a 10 point guy. But then, the question is - do I really need to get rid of the half-track?

The answer can only be formulated by understanding what is the main purpose of these vehicles. There are several cases that I can see them used in:

1. The most obvious is transports - they are not so dangerous while carrying infantry, since the other guy is probably trying to get them safe to their destination anyway. Easily ignored.

2. Mounted assault - I have played this game for a long time now, and I have never seen anybody actually use this rule. The obvious reason for this is that they are not real tanks, so 5 defensive fire hits still stop them and any portable anti-tank weapons turn them into minced meat.

3. Harassment tool - they will move about the table and try to shoot your infantry in the open or pin/kill your guns. This is probably the most effective use of the German half-tracks. It takes a lot of time for them to do their job, but if you let them shoot you forever, they will kill or pin your guys. The most annoying thing about this tactic is the fact that in V3 of the Flames of War rules, you can still make congo lines of troops. This means that an infantry platoon can be hidden in a safe place, while the half-tracks are all around the table with their 6" (normally) of command distance.

4. Blocking movement - in some rare cases, the opponent can sacrifice some of his half-tracks to limit your infantry's/guns' movement. This is achieved by simply parking 2-3 half-tracks just outside your 2" zone of control. This not only blocks your units but also can force you to assault against a torrent of defensive fire if your shooting cannot get you rid of them.

5. Pushing back ambushes - is especially effective for companies that lack recon support. This tactic is similar to blocking movement routes but is done to cover possible ambush positions as the player needs to place his ambushing teams at least 4" away from any enemy models (even if they went at the double!).

Now with the main purpose of half-tracks highlighted it is a bit easier to make an intelligent decision about what kind of resources need to be used to get rid of them. Are they really hindering my plans or is the enemy just trying to distract me?

If you decide you have had enough of them already, I can see 2 main ways to deal with them:

1. If you have a lot of time - use only limited resources to get at least 1 kill or bail on the vehicles - this will force a morale check on the platoon. If failed, they will need to be sent to the rear and only come back next turn under specific deployment conditions and unable to shoot on the turn they arrive in. In this case, any anti-tank gun or a RPG will do. In most cases, you just need to make sure you can get one hit as the projectile will penetrate automatically which is enough to force the 'dismount under fire' test.

2. If you need to completely get rid of them, you will probably need a lot of shots to complete the task as more often then not the SdKfz vehicles will be hard to hit - normally requiring 4s,5s or 6s to hit. There is nothing that can help you better with this than proper list design. In my opinion, all lists should have at least one unit that can dish out enough low to mid-tier anti-tank shots to fend off hordes of light armored vehicles. These can be any kind of light guns: pak36/pak38 in German lists, US 37mm or 57mm, Soviet Zis-3 or 45mm. Also, light tank units can prove useful - think stuarts, pumas, Soviet medium tanks.

I think that the points above are the key to countering German half-tracks effectively. Target priority and proper planning is the name of the game ;)

But what are your ways to get rid of German half-tracks wondering about the table? Maybe I missed something? :)

Peasant Army part 3 - Romanian Cavalry preparing for the tournament

Since the Poznań Mid War tournament is closing in really fast, I figured I would share my plans on how to play the missions that were announced. But first let me re-introduce the list I am going to use:

Romanian Cavalerie PDF

Elite (66% to get veteran rating)

HQ: 2x Cavalry Rifle/MG + 2x Vanator de Care (AT 4 in hand to hand)

Platoon 1: 13x Rifle/MG + VdC

Platoon 2: 13x Rifle/MG + VdC

Platoon 3: 4x 81mm mortars

Platoon 4: 6x45mm obr 1937 guns + cavalry limbers

Platoon 5: 3x Pz35

Platoon 6: 7x Recon Cavalry Rifle/MG + VdC

Platoon 7: 4x German Pak40s

Platoon 8: 12x 75mm RF guns (rof 2, at 8, worthless template and direct/bombardment smoke) + cavalry limbers

　

The current scenario order as proposed by the organizer is presented below. As an overall comment I have to mention that my cavalry has some preferences on whether to be attacker or defender in these circumstances - I have marked them next to the scenario names. But let's have a look on what is coming up:

Surrounded - attacker
Counterattack - attacker
Encounter - n/a
Hasty Attack - close to 50/50, but leaning more towards the attacker
Fighting Withdrawal - defender

So it seems that my list is designed to be an offensive force :P

But let us talk details!

1. Surrounded.

Attacker - I can easily see myself splitting the force into 2 separate detachments and placing them on the opposite sides of the table. Detachment one would have a company of infantry, captured 45mm guns, Pak40s and mortars, while the rest would go to the other one. There could be some minor variations to this in case the enemy would have a strong tank force, which could make me move my main a-t to the other flank. After deployment, things should be easy - shoot support to death and remove infantry from objectives. Hopefully I will not even need an assault to do this.

Defender - dig in one infantry company on each objective and leave one of the gun units in immediate ambush. In most cases these would be either Pak40s in case of medium/heavy tanks or 75mm against light tanks or armored cars.

2. Counterattack.

Attacker - it all depends on the enemy reserves. If there is a lot of them, then the choice is pretty simple: force a morale check by killing whatever is coming onto the table away from the main force. If they are not numerous, however, then I think an attack on both objectives at the same time is needed. This is mainly because of the enormous footprint of my army. If I do not start moving around early on, I will have a hard time against any template weapons. Recon horsemen will help a lot to secure the remote objective early with their recce deployment move and quick overall pace (I need 2-3 turns to get there relatively untouched because of cautious movement rule). If necessary and possible, I can also mount some of my infantry on tanks and race them across the board to support the cavalry. This is a risky option though and needs to be performed with caution :)

Defender - it will be hard to capture the remote objective since my army is not that mobile. I can go for an early grab with the cavalry and hope it can last until reinforcements arrive. In the meantime I will have to push with all my units to force the enemy into a corner situation around the far objective and then kill him off with my guns.

3. Encounter.

I do not intend to camp the base in this one. I will try to go for both enemy objectives at the same time, while supporting my infantry with direct fire of the guns. This might be tricky against some tank companies, so in these cases, I will have to go for the glass cannons first and limit the enemy's ability to respond early on. I hope that Pak40s and the big artillery battalion can help with this.

4. Hasty Attack.

Attacker - I will most probably start with a mobile force on the table: cavalry scouts & tanks supported by either the 75mm or Pak40. Then it is up to what the enemy has in store - I can either go for an infantry company or maybe another gun unit. I hope I will keep the opponent busy so that he cannot push my own objective and perform a quick assault on one of his positions.

Defender - this will not be so hard I think. I can simply camp the objectives with infantry companies, each one supported by a gun unit and wait until reinforcements arrive. Scattered reserves should not hurt me so much since I will have 2 highly mobile units to arrive to the scene early on :) Still I think I can do better attacking.

5. Fighting Withdrawal.

Attacker - this will be a nightmare :) I really need to push several objectives at once, since there is no way I can squeeze my whole battalion into assault positions around just one. I have already tried this scenario as the attacker and it is doable but very hard. Bad part is that I will not have a lot of time to remove stubborn defenders with my guns because of the turn limit :(

Defender - defending should be easy. All I have to remember about is that depending on what kind of force is attacking my positions, I will need to ambush either Pak40s (against tanks) or 45mm guns (against light armored units and/or infantry). Other than that, I just need to sit tight and buy as much time as possible with my infantry.

　

So, this is my rough plan. What do you guys think - is it any good? :) Do you also plan your tournament games in advance (and try to execute the plan later on :P )?

Fighting Jumbo Tanks



So what is the second (right after Tank Destroyers) most annoying special US rule? Correct: 'Jumbos lead the way' :)

What this rule means is that tanks with front armor of 12 and side armor of 8 will be considered lowest armor for hit allocation. Thus, in most cases they will be the first target to be assigned a hit from any direct fire weapons. With their high armor rating, these hits will most likely ricochet off their front armor plate and be completely wasted. It would maybe not be such an amazing rule, if not for the fact that apart from platoon tank upgrades (1 per platoon), you can also upgrade a HQ tank to Jumbo. With some clever employment of CiC or 2ndIC Jumbo tank, a US player can effectively negate 2 initial hits of each salvo targetting the platoon that he intends to protect. Such a unit will then go around the table killing whatever they want and be almost impervious to any return fire.

So the question is: how to deal with these metal monsters? :)

I have collected some of my experience in fighting Jumbos that I mostly earned the hard way in the points below (I will go from most obvious to the least obvious ideas):

1. Outflank whenever you can. This seems like an obvious method, but it really needs to be mentioned. A drop from armor 12 to 8 means a lot, especially at short ranges, where most medium anti-tank guns can get a penetrating hit to the side or rear.

2. Ignore the unit and shoot the support. Once the tanks are rid of their supporting units, they become somewhat helpless. With no recce, they are prone to ambushes, with no artillery, they will have a hard time to dig out infantry. You do not always have to go for the strongest unit first. I would say that quite the reverse is true - in such deathstar lists, it is often beneficial to focus down weak platoons in an effort to force a company morale check.

3. Assault whenever possible. In an assault, these tanks are not much different from any other tank. Battlefront made them Top Armor 2 but if you are launching assaults vs tanks I think I can safely assume that you bring some bazookas/panzerfausts/piats with you anyway.

4. Use smoke - target the Jumbo tanks. There are 2 rules that help you here:

• at long ranges, smoke covers completely, blocking line of fire
• at short ranges, smoke makes the Jumbo be considered gone to ground and thus be the last one to be allocated a hit

5. Gun tank. Always gun tank. If you score only 1 hit, but roll a 5+ you can still deliver a killing blow to the E8 hiding behind the Jumbo.

6. Whenever possible, approach the platoon so that only the soft targets are within 16" of your shooting teams. This will force priority of hit allocation on them, since the table in the rules says so :P

7. Use your other units to block line of sight to Jumbos. You just need to make sure that you state your intention to your opponent and that you do this on a team by team basis. This means, that you will probably need to sacrifice or at least expose one team per gun/tank shooting to get the desired effect. But hey, it is still better than to just sit there and get shot to pieces! :)

　

Well, these are the methods that I normally use to fight Jumbo tanks. But what is your experience?

The Devil`s Advocate - Reasons why you should take artillery in your infantry list

Note from Reksio: since this blog serves the purpose of exchanging OPINIONS about FoW gaming aspect (and at some point in the future also other geeky stuff), I encourage you to send in yours - I will make sure that understandable articles are published no matter if I agree with the opinions delivered inside or not.

Reksio`s recent article made me think about the use of big guns in current meta infantry lists. He stated that the artillery goals can be achieved with mortars and nebelwerfers for a much lower point cost.

I will not be questioning their usefulness as I love both mortars and Nbws but not to a degree to state that big guns are obsolete these days. What is more I will try to point why I think they are a good choice.

To start with let`s take on the obvious example of US artillery. They have one of the most powerful FoW rule (Time on Target) and it would be a shame not to take advantage of it. A platoon of 4 veteran 105mm guns costs a bargain 185 points. With mortars you get the reroll of the first range in (that is their advantage).

What is better with the guns? You get TOT, direct fire ROF1 AT9 FP2+ breakthrough gun (no recce jeep save here!) and direct smoke. More, you have a staff team - so no more annoying rolling to range in on a "6" against those pesky GtG veterans. With these means you have the power to dig out enemy infantry in missions where your infantry has to attack other infantry. Because of TOT your opponent will position his tanks very carefully, if there are more than 2 under the template than you will probably see some smoking wrecks. Direct firing with AT 9 FP2+ breakthrough gun can protect your position from small flanking vehicles (Pumas, 8 rads, Daimler I, 0.5cal jeeps) to which both Nebelwerfers and Mortars are very vulnerable. Gun shields give you that needed extra protection. Some US lists (US paratroopers, armored rifle) have access to cheap 155mm guns without the need to buy 105mm first. At 210 points you get 4 C/T guns with 5/2+ template and direct AT10 FP1+ they are even more devastating but are easier to hit and pin down. The veteran version costs 275 pts, probably worth it. AOPs enhance your US artillery to fire even better - your enemy`s tanks are not safe even behind that big forest, ruined house or hill.

British Artillery with the Mike Target rule is almost as good as its US counterpart. They get to reroll the first range in attempt just like mortars, they get TOT when they fire "all guns repeat". What makes them different from the US is that they have ROF2 AT9 FP3+ and a turntable (360* field of direct fire). Because they have low FP in bombardment (5+) many players use them as AT guns guarding the objective from pesky recce plus as a bonus: smoke template or pin before crucial assault. At 240 pts for 8 C/T guns or 105pts for 2 C/V guns it would be a waste not to take them.

The guns which would seem worst in current meta are the soviet ones. In most soviet infantry lists you have to buy ZiS-3 76mm guns (3/6) to be able to get sensible (4/3+) 122mm guns. This takes precious points for buying other goodies (tanks?) you might want to include in your list. What hurts most is they are only trained (before Berlin there used to be no veteran artillery for USSR) and with no special rules like Mike Target or TOT it gets difficult to successfully range in, hit and destroy your enemies. But many soviet infantry lists just need that big guns to deliver an extra punch because they lack other means (they don`t have TDs, naval gunfire support, super heavy tanks, etc.). Some new lists have access to hero artillery - they are trained but pass skill test as if they were veterans. I used to play them in Motostrelkovy with a good effect. A platoon of 4 ZiS-3 (3/6 ROF2 AT9 FP3+) for 140pts and 4 152mm howitzers for 215pts give you two options of play. You either shoot with them as two separate artillery templates or as one platoon of AT9 ROF2 AT guns and a 5/2+ veteran bombardment. The same will be true with Red God of War (12  C/T guns for 250pts? Yes plaese!). In many soviet lists heavy arty is the only real possibility to destroy those pesky King and Jagdtigers (Shturmovik is the second). The new Berlin infantry lists allow you to field a single 203mm howitzer in an assault platoon that you can direct fire to destroy buildings or shoot with 5/1+ arty. I am looking forward to using that beast. I forgot to mention that soviet guns move faster thanks to "Guns to the front" rule, sometimes it can save your hide.

The only army in which using big guns would really be questionable are the Germans. Unfortunately the German guns are overpriced. With no special artillery rules a platoon of 4 veteran 10.5cm guns with 4/4+ bombardment and 1/10/2+ direct smoke comes for a steep 210 pts. They can still hold their own against recce but are more expensive than their better US or UK counterparts making the German players usually take those mortars or 15cm Nbws. However it is worth noting that Nbws don't  have a gun shield and leave smoke markers after firing which can be easily targeted for an effective counterbattery fire by experienced enemies.

Big guns have their obvious drawbacks. They are more expensive than mortars, they are large targets, they don`t enjoy concealment for digging in and are slow to move (often even immobile). But the glorified mortars of Nbws can`t defend themselves from tanks and light vehicles - traits which lost a game to many players. And please don`t tell me about good flank protection when you are defending in missions with reserves against spearheading, always attack companies.

I hope this article helps you see my point of view on the big guns and why I think ther are worth their points in many infantry lists.

Why artillery does not help infantry to win games?

A lot of FoW gamers that I talk with and play against still think that artillery (and by artillery I mean anything that is capable of both bombardments and rof 1 direct fire) is a good way to support their infantry company. Come on guys, this is wrong. Apart from some specialized lists, most of infantry companies do not need artillery to win games. I think quite the opposite is true. Artillery can sometimes ruin your games.

My recent tournament experience proved again and again that the big guns are way too ineffective (random) and vulnerable to include them in an infantry list. Their lack of power comes from several sources:

1. They need a lot of time to kill off dispersed targets. This is because, compared to other types of weapons, they need 3-4 separate types of rolls to kill a target (range in, to hit, failed save, firepower). Running an infantry list, the last thing you want is to kill slow enough to give your opponent a lot of turns, enabling him to isolate your platoons and shoot them repeatedly until they die.

2. They are expensive, so shooting recon jeeps or basic infantry with your 155mm and 250+ points guns seems a bit of an overkill. Most infantry lists have enough support options to choose from, before you start spending them on arty.

3. They are not an anti-tank asset even though, for lack of other targets (see point 2), players normally shoot tanks with them. They are at most your last desperate defense against heavy tanks your a-t cannot get rid of. If you run the numbers, then assuming that you only fit one medium tank under your template and do not have ToT, your chance to destroy a tank is around 1/12. So with 2 tanks under the template, it is 1/6 and so on. A typical a-t gun platoon of equal cost (let's take Zis-2 for instance), shooting at Panzer IVs at long range (5+ to hit) will kill 1 tank and bail 1 with average rolls.
Infantry lists exposing their platoons to the enemy need to ensure that return fire will be minimal. This is not possible with artillery (see point 1).


Considering all of the points above, I will mention that I still sometimes use arty in my infantry lists. The one and only reason for this is to force the opponent to disperse his forces and not let him perform a concentrated assault. I always go for something cheap though, like trained 105s or heavy mortars. Other than that, if I want to go competitive infantry, I stay away from the big guns :)


What is your experience with using artillery in infantry lists?