The Battle Of St. Marie Claire - Demo game report

It was the Battleground wargames show in Stockton a couple of weeks ago and the Tantobie Warfare And Tactical Society were on hand to run a demo game. Making a change from the usual black powder (not the ruleset this time!) and horsey shenanigans, we were off to modern day Africa. Shaun provided the toys and I was running the game using Team Yankee (with amendments as used in previous games and a few specifically for this one). I apologise now for the terrible butchery of the French language that follows...

See that sign? That's us, that is.

The former French colony of Sans De Maquillage. Famed for many things (including its radio telescope, Le Cosmo), this former colony gained independence in the 1980's and was rather happily providing a steady stream of healthcare products to the international market. Sadly, rebel forces have been active in the interior (and we're not talking dodgy cuisine either!), and have occupied an industrial site near the town of St. Marie Claire, one run buy the ever-present Oyston Industrie. The hyaluronic acid ponds were also captured and an urgent email was sent by Andre L'Ponsonby Copiste (blame Google Translate for that one, Andy!) to the French Government to organise their recovery.

As it's Team Yankee, you have to have a line up of vehicles.

Before we begin, let me tell you that this was not your normal Team Yankee game. There were no points lists, just a "shove everything on the table" order, which meant the table was going to look rather busy as the game went on. Andy and Shaun led the French who had the bottom third of the table. Jim commanded the rebels in the top third (along with the facilities), whilst the middle third was left bare... or was it???

If you go down to the woods today...

The French started off with a dash to the (fordable) stream, a wise move as there was naff all cover on their side of the table. They didn't take long to reach it, at which point the sneakily hidden militia popped up with the chant of "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" En Français, naturellement.

Got to love a bit of self promotion.

This was where it started to go a tad wrong for our intrepid soldiers, as RPG fire quickly shredded a couple of VAB's belonging to the Marines and the left wing (the Parachute Hussars) found that their ERC-90's were armoured only in the sense that a potato gun couldn't destroy them... at least at the ranges Jim was firing from...

That bit at the top of the picture looks distinctly bare of soldiers... for now.

The rebel response was to push up their T55's and thus ensued a to-ing and a fro-ing. Saving rolls were very much in order as both sides had the guns, but not the armour. Still, weight of numbers began to tell and the militia were thinned out once Shaun had brought up his Mephisto anti-tank vehicles. HOT rounds ahoy as the remaining rebel T55's from the first batch were summarily dispatched. 

The local wildlife seemed distinctly unfazed by the events around them.

In the centre, things were more delicate, as the dug in militia were causing no little suffering to the Marines and Legion troops. Artillery and mortar fire came to the rescue and after several turns, the French had gained the heights and, more importantly, a base of fire. Of course, this just meant they were now face to face with a ton more militia in the grasslands to their front and in the wooded area to their right. The local fauna were quite dismissive of this. 

A herd of French reinforcements sweeping majestically across the plain.

On the French right, the advance to the stream was unhindered and they left it for Jim to approach. A rapid volley of rifle grenades from the centre and the right flank whittled down the rebel forces, as did some decent indirect fire from the mortars. It must be noted that to get to this point, the umpire did have to remind the French commanders that whilst you may wish to target counter battery fire against the (rather ineffectual) rebel guns, if the dudes right in front of you are shooting seven shades of merde out of you, a re-appraisal of your targeting priorities may be in order. So they did. And within a turn or two, the rebel forces discovered they needed a recruiting drive.

It got a bit dicey in the middle. Geddit? Dicey? Oh, why do I bother?

Additional French armour (I know, but they're not tanks and they're not 4-door sedans either) on their left supported the wavering Para Hussars, who by this point were down something like a third of their original force and had decided to call it a day. The appearance of a Shilka also persuaded them that it was getting a tad hot for the infantry even in cover. The additional HE and MG fire of these new troops (and those very handy Mephisto's) put paid to that brief fight back and despite moving the last of his heavy reserves to the centre, Jim decided to call it a day. 

It would have been even dicier here, but there was a zebra crossing...

It had been a hard fight and both sides took what each would consider serious losses. Such is the nature of the Team Yankee system and I did plan the game to ensure that it lasted more than an hour or so. 

They took the hill just to get a fantastic view of all those fresh-faced militia.

Some notes on the game rules and mechanics. 

Artillery, mortar and rifle grenade fire zones were ad-hoc - they had to be as TY only covers arty as far as I know and I wanted the effect to be uniform across all forms of arcing fire. Hit and save rolls were as per the rules. 

I probably made the militia too hard, making them equivalent to Warpac conscripts minus one on everything, and even then, they were bloody hard to shift. Maybe something to amend the next time we try this scenario. 

Points system - didn't use it as noted above. This was a demo game that had to last about four hours, and in previous playthroughs, Team Yankee is a very quick system of play. This was why the instructions to all players was: if you have it in the box, it can go on the table. They're your forces, you decide what you want and where to put them - within the limits already detailed. 

As for the scenario, if Jim hadn't taken note of the ability to flood the middle third of the table with (unseen and unplaced) militia, it could have been a very different game. Possibly the addition of some observation rules might be in order as I am not a fan of the way TY handles ambushes so ignored those for this game. There again, different theatre, different tactics. 

On the whole, this was a fun game to run and the participants said they enjoyed themselves, even if the umpire did live up to expectations and was a bit of a twat - tee hee hee! I would expect no less from them in the games they run! There were thoughts about changes and modifications to be made but, on the whole, it worked reasonably well. 

The Battleground Show itself was also rather good, and certainly seemed to be well-attended once the doors opened. No fault can be found with the organisation nor the venue, so well done to Pendraken for putting the show on. There are also internal TWAT discussions about attending next year for another demo if they'll have us. If I am running it again, then no doubt there will be a repeat of this TIT for TWATS production.