Prairiecon 2018 - Battle of Blickheim, a "Team Yankee" Game

Ouch! Tough outing for the Royal Canadian Dragoons at Prairiecon...victory came at a price

So another "Prairiecon" has come and gone! This is Western Manitoba's main gaming event, held every summer in Brandon, Manitoba.  Conscript Dallas has been involved with Prairiecon for...longer than I can recall, so I will leave origin content to him, but as a group a few of us have been going to Prairiecon every year for...wow, something like 19 or 20 years, with Dallas even more? It's a real tradition, one I look forward to every year.

This year I am pleased to share reports of a heavy Conscript presence at the event, with three different demonstration games.  Dallas ran a fleet-scale "Battlestar Galatica" game.  Byron ran an exciting "Through The Mud And The Blood" WW1 game.  Our great friend Curt came out from Regina to host a special game of "Spectre".  And if that wasn't enough, we also ran a game of "Team Yankee".  That's a LOT of gaming!

The table at the outset of the game...the peace of the village of Blickheim will soon be shattered...

For today I'll touch on the "Team Yankee" game that was played on the Sunday morning at Prairiecon. The game was an opportunity to put the new Canadian units I had been working through the winter into play on the table.  The timing was fortuitous given that Battlefront has recently "released" its new Team Yankee book, "Free Nations".

Soviet elements prepare to move out on the assault

The scenario is we played was derived from the battle reported in the (fictional) book "First Clash" by Kenneth Macksey, which features the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group in action against a Soviet ground assault set in a fiction Cold-War-Gone-Hot in the 1980s.  In Macksey's story, a moment in the battle arrives when the Canadian line starts to buckle, and the Canadian commander unleashes his reserve armoured Squadron, catching the Soviets by surprise, and blocking their breakthrough.

Soviet advance elements approach the McPizza king...they would soon learn the blue "objective marker" was, in fact, a NATO pre-registered artillery target!

Since the theme for Prairiecon 2018 was "It's a trap!", I set up the scenario with some mild deception.  The Soviet players, controlling a T-72 battalion with some attached infantry and AAA support, were told they needed to clear the village of Blickheim (home, naturally, to a critical 'McPizza King' location) of a lingering Canadian rear-guard, that the NATO forces were in retreat.  They would have eight turns to accomplish this.

The Canadians appear! Leopards and M150s move into firing positions

The Canadians, on the other hand, learned they had the opportunity to arrive from a totally unexpected table edge at a turn of their choosing - they have been working themselves into position through the late hours of the evening and into the morning, with the Soviet forces unaware their flank was vulnerable. This was a great advantage - which the Canadians would need, as the Leopard C1 tanks do not dominate the tabletop the way other modern NATO MBTs would in games of "Team Yankee".

Soviet armour burning after the ambush...

The game was well-attended, with several guests and observers participating.  Dallas led the Canadian side, with help from Byron and Curt, while Dave V led the Soviet side, with support from a few convention-goers.

Leopards try to move out...the obstacles ended up being tough to overcome, due to some bad luck with the dice...and you can see the Soviet's put an artillery aiming point on one of the bogged-down tanks, causing Canadian frustration and knocking out a couple of Leopards

The Soviet column rolled up aggressively, and uncertain of the location of targets, started to hit the town with heavy fire.  On the third turn, however, the Canadians emerged on their flank, and opened fire. A pair of US Cobra helos came along in turn four to add to the carnage.  Under Curt's careful guidance, they picked off several T-72s with TOW missiles before the ZSUs finally got to them.

Many Soviet tanks and BMPs were lost, but critical morale roles kept the large Soviet tank company in play to the bitter end.  The remaining T-72s dished out heavy return fire, knocking out many Leopard C1s.  The Soviet infantry also struck hard, neutralizing a bold flank maneuver by a Leopard C1 troop with their RPGs.  As the number of losses on the Canadian side mounted, it was in doubt for NATO...

Soviet infantry prepare their AT weapons...

But in turn eight, the Soviet side finally broke...a real nail-biter, and a pyrrhic victory as the Canadians were reduced to a mechanized infantry platoon (which was a little low on the 'mechanized' part due to losses in the fighting), a pair of Lynx recon vehicles, and a pair of surviving Leopard C1s, all that remained of the 12 tanks which started the ambush...

A Canadian Leopard C1 troop shows the impact of losses from infantry AT weapons...

A big "thank you" to everyone who came out to play, particularly to our great friend Curt, who made the trip from Regina.  Work has been very, very busy over the past month and a half (and as you can see, the blog posting and painting progress has been very sparse) and it was SO great to dive into a bunch of gaming and see so many friends once again.

Team Yankee, Now With Added Canadians!

The Soviet column is deployed on the right side of the photo - while the the thin line of Canadians is arrayed in the left area

Policy-types in Canada often find themselves worrying - how do we ensure more "Canadian Content" in cultural areas such as music, film and art? Well, we can't help with ANY of those things.  But we can put some "Canadian Content" in one new and (to us) important cultural area - tabletop gaming with Battlefront's "Team Yankee"!

Soviet assault in action! T-72 company to the front, with motor rifle troops following up

Using an assortment of figures and models painted very recently, as well as the initial efforts that Conscript Mike F made in 2013, we assembled a Canadian Force in 15mm for a game of "Team Yankee" last week.  The scenario was fairly basic, as these things go - a Soviet spearhead had broken through the NATO lines, and the 4th Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group was deployed to stop them!

And naturally they selected a McPizza King location along an important highway as THE best spot in which to halt the marauding Warsaw Pact forces...

Mike F took command of the Canadian forces - three troops of Leopard C1s from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, a mechanized platoon from the Royal Canadian Regiment, off-table support from the 155mm howitzers of the RCHA, and a pair of US Cobra Helicopters with TOW missiles.  Mike had to put half of his units in reserve, and had the option to put one of them in ambush.  He put two troops of C1s and the infantry on the table, the rest in reserve, with his third troop of Leopard C1s in ambush.

Opposing him was "Comrade Ewen" - Dallas was in command of a Soviet tank battalion, featuring a company of T-72s, a smaller company of T-64s, and a motor rifle company mounted in BMP-2s, backed with some ZSU-23-4s for support.

The goal was to capture one of the objectives in the NATO half of the table within 8 turns...who would prevail?
 

Soviet T-64 MBTs make their debut on the table - what could go wrong?

In our previous "Team Yankee" games, a common dynamic on the table has seen the NATO tanks mowing down the larger numbers of Soviet MBTs.  But with the Leopard 1, it is not so easy...the armour of the Leopard 1 is much more modest, while the hitting power of the Leopard 1 seems to be limited - or, it is when using the West German stats for the Leopard 1, which we did...

Canadian Leopard C1s await the enemy...

A troop from the Royal Canadian Dragoons, ready for action

Dallas rolled forward confidently, but had to deal with some minefields that the NATO forces had deployed.  This had the effect of forcing Dallas to split his column a little bit, with the T-64s heading to the built-up-area, and the rest heading to the other side of the highway.

Canadian infantry defend the critical McPizza King - essential for control of this part of West Germany...

Another view of the mechanized infantry in defence of McPizza King

Mike made the most of the fact that his troops got to start dug-in and "gone-to-ground", so when the Canadians opened up, it was difficult for Dallas to respond with accurate fire.  Mike also called down copious amounts of 155mm artillery from RCHA batteries that were off-table.  It was a storm of fire for Dallas' Warsaw Pact command to wade through...

Another view of the Soviet advance - lots of green steel! The capitalist fools will tremble...

And yet...where in other "Team Yankee" games, the hits scored by NATO tanks are almost always fatal to the T-72s, with these 105mm shells on the Leopard 1 it was not so scary, and the Soviet tanks endured numerous hits without effect.  The 155mm artillery also had a very limited impact, and Dallas drove ahead aggressively.

The Canadian tankers score many hits, but few kills...

"Wow, that's a lot of tanks, eh?"

Worse for Mike, when Dallas' tanks managed to score a hit, it was almost always a fatal one, as the 125mm shells of the Warsaw Pact main guns ripped through the 1970s-era armour on the Canadian Leopard C1s...after a few turns, it was getting really tough for the Royal Canadian Dragoons...

Yikes! Tough losses as a troop of the RCD is wiped out by Soviet fire...

More burning Leopard C1s....getting rough for the Canadians...

Mike resorted to a very aggressive infantry counter attack to prevent Dallas from capturing an objective - even as he kept missing his roll for the Cobra helicopters to arrive!

Lots of tanks brewing up - but that big T-72 company is STILL in good spirits...

A decisive moment came when Mike sprang his ambush - a troop of Leopard C1s appeared behind Dallas' main spearhead, and they blasted the T-64s to pieces with a series of shots to the rear armour. OUCH. 

The Leopard C1 troop in "ambush" hit the Warsaw Pact troops pretty hard...

Dallas was able to direct some fire at the ambushing Leopards, and his BMPs directed some murderous fire on the attacking infantry and M113s from the RCR.  But it wasn't quite enough, and more T-72s started to brew up...

Widespread carnage on the table...always the sign of a good game, in our opinion!

So many knocked-out MBTs...

The final straw was the very late arrival of the US Cobra gunships.  Thanks to the "hunter killer" rule, the Soviet ZSUs were not able to score any hits on them, and the TOW missiles finished the T-72 company, breaking the Soviet assault.

US Cobra gunships add to the carnage with a bit of kill-stealing in the final turns

So, in the end it was a hard-fought victory for the Canadians - but they paid a heavy price, losing nearly an entire squadron of Leopard C1s and most of a mechanized infantry platoon.  A hard-fought game all around!  And you know the Soviets would have had another regiment rolling up the highway right behind these guys...

I can't wait to get the Canadians on the table again sometime, but I think we might try to fiddle with the stats a bit, especially for the Leopard C1s.  I think the 105mm gun should be at least as scary as the one on the M1 Abrams, as in this imaginary (thankfully) war, I expect the Canadian Leopards would be dishing out more abuse than the basic stats of the West German Leopard 1s would have them doing.

It was also interesting to get the T-64s on to the table...the edge they have of the T-72s is small, but still noticeable - the improved armour, and the option of the missile rounds make for an even more effective tank.  If and when they start to appear in larger numbers on our gaming tables, it should be interesting!

11th Painting Challenge Entry, Part 1 - Potecknov's Bears

Soviet armoured column rumbles through a town..

My eleventh entry to Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge was a big one - a "points bomb" in the nomenclature of the Challenge.  It's a big slug of 15mm Soviet stuff for "Team Yankee". This stuff was a lot of fun to submit, but I want to break it down into a couple of different postings over here on our blog.  So here is part one of that submission - the elements of the "Potecknov's Bears" box from Battlefront - 10 T-72A tanks and two Mi-24 gunships.

"Army" box from Battlefront - lots of toys in this one

All of these models are multi-part plastic kits.  I've blathered before about my little-love-mostly-hate relationship with plastic models in this scale.  These models were par for that course.  Overall the T-72s are very nice looking kits, but the cupola MG was prone to snapping while on the sprue (they give you two on each sprue, in fact, to try and protect against this).  The connection points for the unditching beams - a ubiquitous feature of Soviet MBTs - barely touch the actual unditching beams, leading to nearly all of them being re-mounted. The smoke launchers tend to break while coming off the sprues, and are so fiddly they will not survive any real effort to remove the plastic flash.

T-72A platoon

Painted with a mix of Vallejo and GW paints

Lots of tank commander figures included for you

Mine plows! Nice touch...

But let's look at the positives too - nice models at the end of the day!  Very, very nice in fact! You get options on whether the cupola is open or closed.  There are a whole bunch of tank commander figures.  And there is a set of mine plows on each sprue, a nice feature you can use to your heart's content. And you get two really neat helicopter gunships! If you are psyched about gaming the Cold War in 15mm, this box will really get you fired up!

Mi-24s ready to attack!

Fiddly, but fun to have

The Mi-24s, like the tanks, are also a little tricky to assemble.  But you can't fault Battlefront for lack of ambition with these suckers - you even have the option to model them with the landing gear down! And you get magnets to assist with mounting on the base as well as mounting the main rotors. The small parts are sure tricky, but compared to other 15mm options out there for Mi-24s - and I'm not really aware of any beyond QRF - this takes the cake, and whatever my challenges with the models it is a very nice treat to have these pieces of iconic Cold War kit ready to stalk the table.

Clear discs would look nicer than static rotors, but still, overall, these are nice kits, nicer than any available competitor

Areas for improvement with the helos? Well, as with the other kits, they could improve the plastics.  Again, the risk of the parts snapping on the sprue is high.  In fact, one small piece meant for the rotors was broken on the sprue while in the box for both of the helos.  Fortunately, it is not visually that significant, so no big deal, but again, !#$!$## plastic!!!  And while I on the subject of the rotors...I find the static rotors don't look very compelling when the model is sitting there on the flying base.  An acrylic disc would look better, and probably be easier to model.  Maybe something I can look into in the future.

T-72s advance in propaganda photos

I modelled the Hinds with the gear down, so they can land on the table to drop off troops

On the whole, I find the effort to create multi-part plastic models of 15mm tanks a significant effort to re-invent the wheel.  When it comes to tanks, I much prefer the simpler mixed-media kits which are still very nice (for example, the tanks available from Khurasan) that probably would have arrived a lot sooner to store shelves.

T-72s roll out

But I'm not in the business, they are, and I think Battlefront must know their business!  On the whole, Battlefront's launch of "Team Yankee" has sent a nice jolt through 15mm moderns, and I can't complain about that.  I'm pleased to have these fellows finished, and I look forward to adding more - probably another company of tanks and another pair of Hinds.  Hopefully the guys will be up for a Cold War tank battle soon...

Up next - some Soviet motor rifles!

Team Yankee - (Some) Russian Are Coming!

Up next for the "Team Yankee" project

I'm keen to start playing some "Team Yankee" soon.  My initial US forces are finished off - Battlefront releases are so slow to arrive there is nothing much to add right now other than US tanks and helicopters anyway. But we are keen to start shooting up some bad guys, and that means Russians!  So I have made a start, working my way through some of the Soviet forces on the painting table.

T-72 test model - plastic kit from Battlefront

The main starting force for the Soviets is the "Potecknov's Bears" box - seems to be named on a Soviet character from the "Team Yankee" novel, although I haven't read the novel, so I don't know for certain if he is in there :)  The box is a big ol' pile of plastic models - 9 T-72s (you get a bonus one if you purchased the box early enough) and two Hind attack helicopters.

Plastic is soooooo overrated for 15mm gaming stuff...so much effort to reinvent the wheel

As ever, the focus on multi-part plastic models is, in my view, a very mixed blessing. On the upside, the miniatures are fairly straightforward to assemble.  On the downside, the plastic can be brittle (see photo), and there are some challenging parts to assembly which, while far from impossible, are needlessly fiddly.  On the T-72s, the extra fuel drums are multi-part exercises...the fit is not great, and you usually end up with a big seam that needs filing down. 

A completed T-72, before receiving primer/base coat

Even harder to work with is the attachment of the so-called "bog log", the unditching beams common to Soviet MBTs. The connection for this component on the T-72 models (at the rear, below the fuel racks) is mostly a fantasy, and so tenuous that it doesn't survive any dry-brushing, and they will usually fall off .  On the 10 tanks I have been working on, eight of the beams have fallen off in the first pass with the brush, and I have been re-mounting them in a different spot on the back of the tank.

A final, very delicate frustration with these models is the smoke launchers, which sit on the front of the turret on either side.  You will need some very, very delicate clippers to get these removed safely from the frames, and while there is flash on them, the removal of that flash, without snapping them apart, is almost impossible. Fortunately, once you paint them, the flash is not that noticeable.

T-72 test model - note the "bog log" had to be re-glued to a part of the model which was more realistic for extended use...

Is there upside? Sure! I mean, 10 tanks is 10 tanks, and as long as you have some patience and some really good clippers, you will have a T-72 company in no time at all.  There are decals, and there are lots of tank commanders that come with the kits as well.  And the inclusion of mine plows is a really neat touch - you get a set with every frame, so you could have a whole bunch of the suckers if you like.

Soviet motor rifles - infantry from Eureka, BMP-2 from Battlefront

The Battlefront Soviet infantry is nowhere in sight at the stores yet (although they have been released).  Fortunately there are some options out there for impatient folks like me, namely the excellent 15mm modern Russians from Eureka.  I expect these models are a little later along in their kit (more late 80s, early 90s) than the kit envisioned for the Russians from the Team Yankee novel (which I believe is 1985).  But in 15mm, it's close enough for me. The figures are beauties, and Eureka is super easy to deal with.  Really, the only issue is they do not have figures using the RPK, but I'll overlook that.  I've been working on a company's worth of the lads for a couple weeks now.

To be "motor rifles" you'll need, well, something with a motor! Enter the BMPs.  Battlefront has released multi-part plastic models for these, which you can build as either a BMP-1 or BMP-2.  Again, very fiddly to assemble - and in the case of the BMP-2, the assembly instructions overlook the IR searchlight beside the gun on the turret.  But 10 BMPs is 10 BMPs, and so the work goes on...again, with patience and a careful set of hobby clippers, you'll be in good shape.

Just need to repeat this another 20 times or so and I'll have a motor rifle battalion ready!

So, all told, for my Team Yankee Soviets I've got over 100 infantry castings and 20 vehicles in different stages of painting completion right now.  I also have the two Hind helicopters from the box underway - will ruminate on those separately in a later post. I'm hopeful of making a submission in time for this Saturday in Curt's Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but I'm getting so badly killed in that race that my motivation to stay close has died down significantly, so it'll be done when it's done, whether this Saturday, or another one...

Early '80's Soviets

1:100 A-10 from Revell

Soviet Inf from Peter Pig

T-72's from QRF in one of Byron's excellent storage boxes

T-64's from QRF w/ ERA

ZSU 23-4 with scratch built gun because QRF didn't send one. This a blessing in disguise when one considers the quality of QRF gun barrels.

BMP 2's from QRF w/ replacement barrel's

Mi-24 Hind D from QRF. Metal bits are very soft. I think the molds are old as the resin was badly pitted. It is however, the only 1:100 scale Hind out there. There are a few details I had to add using green stuff that aren't sculpted onto the model.