With Lonnie Mullins
From its first incarnation in the first Team Yankee book, to Stripes, and now to World War III: American, I’ve wanted to do an American army but we were missing one key component: Bradleys, which put me off even starting them. In the meantime, I’ve made do with my West Germans and a smattering of British but now, after seeing the new American army book…
I’ve cleaned my hobby files, replaced the hobby knife blade, checked the plastic clippers, bought new glue, and am getting ready to fire up the old airbrush in anticipation of the upcoming American release for World War III: Team Yankee. And I’m building my force around an M2A2 Bradley Mech Combat Team backed up by a small contingent of Marines in an LAV Company. My force will consist of:
I know it’s a lot but it gives me the variety to play 25-point skirmishes to 200-point mega-battles. We’re waiting for most of the new product to get in but I’ve got my MLRS built and am working on my M109s, and can probably scrounge together some M106s and FIST to get me started before our shiny new Americans hit our dock.
I’ve gone artillery heavy in anticipation of loads of Soviet troops in their BMPs and the SPAM tactics that I’ve encountered, along with the ability to smoke up the battlefield for my own protection. Everything I have can put enough steel down-field to shred BMPs by the dozen and turn Soviet infantry into bloody wet smears and nearly all of my (army) vehicles have the ability to take out even the heaviest Soviet Armor and/or helicopters.
~Lonnie
The game started off as you would think, the tanks moved forward and took pot shots at range against my infantry. On my first turn I ambushed my 155 artillery to hit Ashleigh’s Churchill tanks, I managed to knock out one. Luckily Ash had one Churchill that stayed bailed and I was able to weather the return fire only suffering a few bailed out artillery tanks.|
The game went on trading shoots with not much changing; I started moving my infantry through the buildings from reserves. This lasted until one turn when Ashleigh killed 5 infantry teams in one platoon with one round of shooting form her Carriers! I knew I would have to move!
My next turn saw my artillery take out Ashleigh’s Churchill tanks and my bazookas getting lucky killing two Stuarts with moving shoots! Both the Churchill and Stuart tanks ran away! In reaction Ashleigh moved back and started shelling me from range, I responded by taking pot shots with artillery bombardments among her tanks, the third turn of bombardments I hit four of her tanks, all but one of them rolled a 1! With firepower 2+ my artillery took out the core of Ashleigh list, and it was just a matter of a few more morale rolls before her tanks retreated off the table.
A victory for my 29th infantry Division. I would move on to my next game with Luke, due to having just played Hasty attack in our last game we played, Luke and I decided to play Dust Up instead.
Turn one went to Luke and he rushed me, I was not expecting that, but I prepared myself for conflict sooner than I thought.
Luke next turn had him wanting to Blitz around the building, 4 Panzer IVs would make quick work of my FA0 artillery tanks. But he failed the roll and then failed to hit me at all! Luck was on my side and I decided to open up on his tanks with my 155s! I knocked out two tanks! I really could not have asked for more.
Luke’s next turn he move his HQ and his other panzer 4 platoon up and destroyed the last of my 155s. ouch well it isup to my bazookas to hold him off.
Another Victory for the 29th Infantry Division! We moved on from the Second Chances card to Rat Catchers, for this game Phil and Cameron are facing each other, Phil playing for the Allies and Cameron for the Axis. I’ll leave it to Phil to write up that final battle report.
I love the Armored Rifle Company but I just don’t have the time to paint that many infantry up fast enough for our league, having let my “paint figure quickly” skill atrophy over time. I don’t relish being hit on a 3+ so my plan is for a complete Veteran M4 Sherman Tank Company.
My 76mm tanks are going to be the biggest threat to any German armor I encounter and are thus, the most likely targets of enemy counter fire. That being said, all of the smoke that I can lay down with the 75mm and 105mm Sherman Tanks should be sufficient to protect my boys from too much steel coming their way and hitting them until they get into range.
The standard 75mm Sherman Tanks, when they’re not casting smoke down-range, are more than sufficient in knocking out Panzer IVs but really need the flank shots to have a hope of pinging any Panthers or Tigers; they’ll be operating mostly in support of the 76mms unless I see an opening I can exploit.
Lastly, just in case someone brings some aircraft, I’ve got a small contingent of AAA to handle that eventuality.
Ranger Company 1
Something else to keep in mind when building non-Ranger Tank forces, Rangers formations are cheap point wise to add to your force. For 21 points you get two full units of Rangers and an HQ, so you get re-rolls and some of the best Assaulting units the Americans have to offer. Its easy to build a well forces list and slot the Ranger platoon in, for example,
Ranger weakness to keep in mind, they are easy to hit, so HMGs and other high rate of fire hostiles are a big threat, you want to use your tanks and artillery to deal with those threats before the Rangers move into the assault.