Shrapnel Games Blog

I’ve always enjoyed gaming “war stories”, whether it’s a bunch of old grognards sitting around a hotel bar during a convention or the musings found sometimes in the columns of magazine writers (Dragon had at one point some good tales, I don’t know if they still do, haven’t picked up a Dragon in ages…). Tonight I was rearranging some games, which in turn got me reminiscing about past victories (and failures) on the tabletop battlefield, which in turn made me think, “Hey, how about a game moment blog?” Which brings us to our current entry…

One of my all time favorite games is Team Yankee by GDW. Based on the Harold Coyle novel of the same name, TY is a simplistic tactical game of modern combat released in the mid-80s (I think it was ‘86 or ‘87). Units are individual vehicles while infantry units are either squads or weapon teams. If you’re not familiar with the book or the game the theme is WWIII, US versus the USSR. TY would later spawn several other games of the same nature, notably Blood and Thunder and The Sands of War, both of which improved on the basic gameplay formula that began in Team Yankee (and also corrected several deficiencies in the system).

The system of play is basically IGOUGO, with the possibility of initiative passing to the opposing player based on leadership losses. Like most tactical games you have rules for overwatch, and artillery plotting. Burning wrecks could obscure the battlefield. Essentially if you’ve played Panzer Blitz or Panzer Leader you could pick up Team Yankee and start playing in minutes.

The simplistic nature of the game was definitely one of its strengths though. Being a “beer and pretzels” kind of tactical game I was able to get all types of people to play it. I even had chicks playing it! And best of all, everyone enjoyed it! It’s a fast moving game, very easy to pick up, and because it wasn’t wrapped up with tons of detailed rules the system was quite open to house rules, and let’s face it–you can’t call yourself a wargamer if you don’t make up house rules.

The other strength of Team Yankee was the scenario creator. In the back of the manual was an easy step by step guide to creating your own scenarios. Even cooler was the fact that while the basic game showcased US armor and Soviet main battle tanks the back of the manual referenced, in game statistics, an entire range of NATO and Soviet vehicles. No counters were provided, but creating new ones or just using the stats with the normal counters (as long as you could remember that the M1s were now Leopards, and the M2s were AMXs for example) worked out fine. Combined with the scenario creator you could spend days making up new scenarios, which as you can imagine my friends and I did.

It was a good thing that it came with such a helpful scenario generator too because the game scenarios were a mixed lot. They were all based on episodes in the Team Yankee novel, and so more geared toward recreating the story than a good game.

One particular scenario pitted a group of M113s, with a couple of M2s, defending a town from a battalion of Soviet T-72s and T-80s. Additionally, there was a chance of a pair of Warthogs showing up. Sure, the dismounted infantry had TOWs, but it was still not exactly the most ideal fight in the world. Guess who lucked out on playing the US side?

The way the map is set up there is a large forest covering most of the area in front of the town, with a trail through it. This is the most direct route for the Soviets to take because there is also a turn limit. Unfortunately the American set up area is pretty much the town, so I can’t set up any ambushes within the forest. Instead I have to wait for the Russkies to drop in.

It’s the first turn and the Soviets have the initiative and go first. Before they go I roll for air support. The way it works in TY is that if there are air units in the scenario you roll a d6, on a 6 they show up (or it may be a 1, can’t remember, but it’s all the same) that turn. If the air unit is a helicopter it works as a flying tank with unlimited movement per turn. If the air unit is an aircraft it makes three straight row passes, being able to attack with either cannon or bombs anything in its LOS. After three passes (one per turn) it leaves the battlefield for good.

Since it’s the first turn and all the Soviet tanks will be in the forest (and thus out of LOS) I definitely don’t want my air units to show up now. I roll and crapola! They’re showing up this turn. Great, the one thing that I thought could probably save my bacon later on will now be made useless.

Chortling my Commie opponent did what everyone does; stack up his tanks as high as they could go and form a parade route like he was in front of the Politburo at a May Day parade. The tanks rolled out and by the end of his turn most of them were under the forest canopy. I say most of them…

You see there is one particular spot in the forest, just a couple of hexes across, that is devoid of trees. And in this particular spot is now parked all three Russian company commanders and the battalion commander.

Allow me to explain how leaders work. Each scenario assigned a hesitation and break point to the sides. Leaders are worth X number of points, depending on the nationality and type. Once commanders worth the hesitation point are killed that side loses the initiative (if it had it). If both sides are hesitating initiative is diced for each turn. Once enough leaders are KIA to reach the break point the side routs, automatically losing the scenario. US units are far more flexible in leadership, making US commander losses a lot easier to bear. Soviet command hierarchy though is very rigid, and all it takes is a one or two losses to really mess the Russians up. So it’s not exactly a wise move to stack all your commanders in one hex.

He moves and then it’s my turn. I do nothing. Well, my ground forces do nothing. My A-10s come swooping in, hugging the tree tops.

“Black Eagle Two, do you see what I see?”

“Roger that, looks like a laager of tanks…and look at all those antennas!”

My confident opponent, laughing minutes ago, now looked on in horror as he realized that his entire command force was open to aerial attack. Several iron bombs and dice rolls later there were three smoking wrecks and a panicked Soviet battalion.

End of game. On turn one.

Hey, at least counter density was low enough that we hadn’t wasted too much time setting the game up.

Anyone care to share some of their memorable gaming moments?

-Scott

Now reading: The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness by Erich Fromm

Now playing: Airships At War 1914-1941 (Sierra Madre Games)

Now listening: Slaughter the Weak - Jungle Rot