For those out there who enjoy a touch of modern wargaming, there seems to be a common thread about boring games where a number of Challenger tanks engage an overwhelming number of enemy tanks and take down the lot. This can be quite tedious, at least for one side, if not both, so when I offered to jump into the chair for our next meeting of the TWATS using a partially amended set of Team Yankee rules that have been trialled before, that was the outcome I wished to avoid.
Then Shaun emailed me the night before. Did I fancy adding a 28 tank T54/55 battalion and a 10-strong T62 company to the mix? Well, that kind of sunk my original plans, but seeing that huge numbers of 15mm vehicles can look damned impressive on the table, I gladly accepted the offer.
So it was that on the Saturday afternoon, Shaun, Steve, Paul, Andy and myself congregated at The Blue Bell in Kip Hill, who as well as offering good quality ales and a fantastic array of Turkish and British dishes, also host the Forlorn Hope Wargames Group. Sadly, the club itself will be closing in August so future plans are up in the air, but it's not the first time the TWATS have been venue-less, and we'll see what happens.
Steve handled the Royal Marine contingent, and Andy presided over the main armoured force of six Challengers, a quartet of Scimitars, and some Warrior-bound infantry. For the opposition, Shaun was going to play with his frankly ludicrous amount of armour, and Paul would have total rights to the rabble of militia and the main striking force of a reinforced Republican Guard battalion.
The premise was simple: the British were acting as a trip wire to prevent the Harraqui armed forces from invading their peaceful neighbour of Huwait (not, incidentally, a Geordie asking someone to slow down). The British could deploy their main force within 12 inches of their table edge, the Harraqui's the same from their end. The actual border was about 14 inches from that edge, and there was a border town on the Huwaiti side that Steve promptly decided to fill with his commandos. Their trio of support WMIK's were positioned just outside of the town. The British also had a strip of mines across a section of the table (the location of which was unknown to neither Shaun nor Paul), as well as an off-table battery of 8 105mm Light Guns.
The Harraqui plan was simple - use the militia to push the RM's out of the town, and basically smeg the British with a full frontal assault using the older vehicles to mask the approaching Republican Guard heavies.
And, to a degree, that plan worked to begin with. It took a couple of turns, but the militia performed better than expected (what would you expect for a rabble, even if they did have four T55's attached for the LOLs). Half of them took a smacking from the Light Guns after being caught out in the open, but once the town was cleared, their T55's restored honour by taking out a handful of the retreating British light-skinned transports as the latter raced for home.
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| Before... |
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| After... |
It was not all one-sided, and the trio of Milan-wielding WMIK's dealt serious damage to the T62 company and were nibbling away at the T55 battalion before being pushed back by the militia.
A light screen of recce Scimitars noted the approach of the T55's before turning back to safety, leaving the Harraqui forces free to continue their advance... straight over the thin minefield that the British had bisected the playing area with. Although not causing many casualties, those that did make it across were then immediately in range of the hull down Challengers.
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| Each die is a vehicle casualty - and those T55's in the foreground are about to pass their deceased colleagues. |
What followed next was a stunning display of dice throws, halting the T55 lads in their tracks, but given the choice of either run away and being shot, or staying just out of range, the Harraqui commander chose the latter. The effectiveness of the British fire was tailing off, but it was enough to pause the attack, and the table seemed awash with yellow (and red - we ran out of yellow) marker dice.
This left the Harraqui forces in a quandry - what could they do in the face of the Challenger "massive" and avoid the much maligned concept of a Challie turkey shoot? Time was pressing in the real world, so the game ended there, although there was a conversation had about could be done.
Time permitting, the best case would have been to use the Republican Guard integral ATGM contingent to sit outside of Challenger range and pelt them with missiles until two or three were destroyed. Then, a single file advance of the Guard over the minefield outside of effective British fire before regrouping, and then charging with everything. As the umpire, I'd have allowed the T55 lot to re-engage, especially given the motivational techniques available to The Great Leader!
This was a bit of a mixed game for me - the additional amendments to cater for damaged armour never came into play (based on these amendments from all the way back in 2018), and I'm searching for a better way to handle infantry and artillery - I'm not a great fan of either in the original Team Yankee rules, but since this is a work in progress set of amends, there's plenty of time to pull in more stuff. Shaun recommended Sabre Squadron, Andy proposed Combined Arms. Both will be consulted. I also think that I need to work on the unit stats for infantry in general - again, it's a TY thing.
There was a slightly unsettled feeling after this game, and a lot of that was to do with the quick change in scenario - some of the questions raised during this game would not have been otherwise. Whilst this did lead to some discussion throughout the day, valid points were raised that will be addressed in future, and it was good to have input. Anything that makes the game play better to the period is always a plus, hence the rather Frankenstein nature of the rules. What I will add is that in future, if umpiring a period that some of the attendees have little knowledge about, maybe some cue cards might be in order so they have a basis of knowledge about the forces they control. Another point to consider me thinks.
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