Team Yankee - The Red Bear Roars!

This battle report is from a few months ago as I have been really behind on posting... sorry.

Matthew and I got together at my apartment to get a game of Team Yankee in since the shop was having an X-wing Tourney. We have a large kitchen table, however it is only three feet wide instead of four. While we adjusted the deployment zones accordingly that still may have given my Soviets an advantage.

We played a 100 point game and both had six platoons.

My force contained

15 T-72 tanks
4 Recon BMP-2's
3 S21 Carnations
1 BMP-1 OP
2 MI-24 Hind Gunships
4 SU-25 Frogfoots

Matthews US forces consisted of

10 M1 Abrams tanks (in three platoons)
2 AH-1 Cobra's
2 A-10 Thunderbolts
2 M163 VADS

The mission we chose was Dust Up, which has delayed reserves so both of us left half our forces off the board.

The Soviet force, half would start off the board.

The US were a little outnumbered.

This was my first time seeing the plastic M! Abrams miniatures.

They look great!

I had to use a few proxies. A couple of bases to represent two Frogfoots.

And a few Centurions running as T-72's.

But I've since finished all the T-72's I'll need.

I love the Hind's, and need to get two more for my Soviets.

The Soviet force starts with all the T-72's and Hinds on the board.

I split up my tank platoons (companies) to envelope the forward Abrams platoon.

The lower platoon goes for the objective.

The HQ and two different two tank platoons.

They bail a T-72 at long range on the first turn.

Its' not hiding... it's being discreet.

My first use of the Hinds, and two Abrams burn.

The woods are not safe.

Sneaky Soviets.

You can't see us!

But the VADS can see the hinds and boom!

Vulcans let rip.

A long range 125mm shot takes out a Abrams.

But retribution is swift and T-72's burn.

But with no reinforcements the numbers start to tell. Bails all around.

Entirely surrounded by T-72's.

It's getting rather lonely for the CiC.

The Abram's were struggling the knock out the T-72's. They kept bailing them.

With a final volley the last Abram's were knocked out.

In the end the US forces were routed with only a single M163 and Abrams remaining to flee.

We both failed to roll any reserves in the 5 turns that the game lased, delayed reserves can really hurt sometimes. It was interesting to see how much the M1 Abram's 105mm gun struggled to deal with the T-72's. Even with every special rule in the book, the Abram's had trouble with 15 T-72's. I don't know what Matthew could have done differently as if he had deployed more tanks and not the VADS my Hinds would have had free reign to go after tanks.


It was a fun, but very fast game so we played another...

The Tank Museum at Bovington! (Part I)

Hello everyone, hope you are all doing well. My wife and I just returned to the States after spending a couple of weeks in England and Ireland. I have traveled to Europe a few times in the past but this was my wife's first trip to England, where she has always dreamed of going. Therefore while this trip was mainly for her, I did get my one big wish, a day at the Tank Museum at Bovington!

We were in London so my uncle an I got up and took the train from Waterloo Station to Wool (where the Tank Museum is located), it was a 2.5 hour trip from London. I was very impressed by South West Trains, when we boarded the train it gave and eta for the 2.5 hour trip, we arrived at Wool Station at exactly the minute they had estimated. There were several taxis waiting at the station to take guests to the Tank Museum, I think the fare was 5 pounds, and was just a few minutes drive to the museum. Also we gave the driver a time to pick us up that afternoon and when we were done he was waiting.

What can I say about the museum? It was everything I hoped it would be, and more!  But enough talk, lets get to tank pictures!

A view of the first area, The Tank Story.

A British Vickers 6-ton.

A British Vickers Light Tank MK VI.

A German Panzer II.

I was surprised the see how big the 2cm gun was in RL, used to seeing it in 15mm scale.

A French Char B1 bis.

The Char B was a massive tank.

A British Cruiser A13 Mk II.

The A13 Mk II and the Char B1.

But the real draw was the Tiger!

I have seen various other German WWII tanks, but this thing was really impressive!

My uncle for scale.

Having just been looking a early war tanks, seeing this tank was certainly impressive.

I am 6'2" to give you some scale about this beasts size!

A Daimler Dingo.

A US M3A1 Stuart.

A German Panzer III from North Africa.

A German Kettenrad.

I have always like the Panzer III.

A M3 Grant.

A Russian T-34/85, that you can climb over.

A Daimler MK II Armored Car.

Me with a Polish Cromwell tank.

The fast British Cromwell.

A Sherman Ic Firefly.

The Sherman is certainly a rather tall tank.

You can't tell from here, but there is a Sherman tank in there.

It is one of the amphibious Duplex Drive Shermans.

A German Panther G.

Missing some of its side skirts.

A Churchill Crocodile flamethrower tank.

A rather successful infantry support flamethrower tank.

This first post will only cover one of the Tank Museums exhibits "The Tank Story", more will come!

5th Sword of Light (Battle Tech)

Today's update is of my Draconis Combine forces to take on my Davion 2nd Convington Dragoons. I wanted to make sure they had a very different paint scheme than my Federated Suns mechs, so I went with the solid red scheme of the Sword of Light regiments.

I plan on working on a few lances from the Arkab legion to add some more variety to my Combine forces.

Two Tokugawa tanks, a Manticore and a Mechbuster attack aircraft.

The solid red scheme really stands out from the sandy base.

The Mechbuster is my first aircraft but I really like the look of having them on the board.

Three lances from the 5th Sword of Light Regiment.

A support lance of two Dragons, a Grasshopper and a Assassin.

A light lance wit two Panthers, a Jenner and a Spider.

The heavy lance with an Atlas, Zeus and two Quickdraw.

Ready to enforce the will of the Coordinator!