Team Yankee Battle Report: Flanking Attack

A couple weeks back we played the third and final scenario in the campaign contained in the "Leopard" expansion for Team Yankee. The first two games had not played out spectacularly for the West Germans but they had been close-run and we were looking forward to a good finale to the campaign. We posted a report on the first one, "At the Forward Edge of the Battle" (must have been translated direct from the German, eh?)

The scenario was called "Flanking Attack" and involved the Germans catching a Soviet battalion mostly unaware, laagered in the box at centre-upper left. The German objective was to hold one of the two markers - one just visible above the trees at centre left, the other in the treeline at top left. The Germans deploy in the box at top centre right, with reserves coming on the table at bottom centre of photo, along the long edge.

The West Germans - three Leopard platoons and HQ, Panzergrenadier platoon with three Marders, and two BO-105 attack helicopters.

Soviet forces - yikes!! Look at all the T-72s!!! Fortunately they all start bailed out except for the Carnation battery.

Commissar Greg surveys the battlefield.

Soviet deployment. As noted, all vehicles are bailed except the Carnation SP guns at top left. Leopards have deployed at top right, headed straight at the Soviets.

"Da, it is good. Decadent Western Leopards are no match for Soviet steel."

Here come the Leopards...

And here's what they're facing...

Contact made! Leopards light up the BMPs along the irrigation ditch line. T-72s enter action at top right.

T-72s get some flanking shots in on the lead Leopard. Ouch!

Meanwhile, the T-72 crews begin to mount up and move out.

Bailed Leo in the background - first Leo platoon swings to face the main threat while second platoon lines up shots through the woodline.

This was a pretty good roll but I can't for the life of me remember what it was for!!

Over to the southern front - the last Leo platoon and Marders have come through from reserve and rolled up to the objective.

Milans and 120mm Rheinmetall guns blaze away and light up the T-72s ... but there are too many, too close to the objective.

One turn too late with the big push. Swamped by numbers, the West Germans prepare to sell their lives dearly in defence of their fatherland!

End of game - The West Germans came close to securing the objective (just visible at short table edge centre top left) but are overwhelmed by Soviet numbers...

This was a fun game with lots of back and forth swings. At the beginning the Leopards rolled across lighting up BMPs and T-72s at will, but as the Soviets started to remount their vehicles but by mid-game the Soviets had awoken and were making things tough for the Bundeswehr. The last two turns in particular were a bit of a slog with every Soviet hit on a Leopard causing a distinct wince... Even one tank knocked out created significant problems in German morale - the two- and three-tank platoons are quite fragile!

In the end the German reserves came on just a turn too late. If they could have held the objective while the Soviets were still mostly bailed out, they could have gotten the win. As it was, a few more gun tubes in the right spot might've made the difference but there were just too many Soviets!  

Team Yankee: British Infantry and Lynx Helicopters

The latest Team Yankee escalation involves the British. Conscript Greg very kindly presented me with the infantry component of a British mechanised platoon for Christmas, knowing that I intended to fire up a troop of Chieftains. So I've now completed painting the infantry (see below) but wanted to add an aerial component to the small force as well. Enter the Westland Lynx helicopters.

Battlefront sells a great kit. The box contains two models, which can be built as either "Helarm" (TOW missiles in racks on either side of the fuselage, shown above) or the unarmed "transport" variants.

It's a good-looking helicopter! Rotors are one-piece and attach to the body with rare-earth magnets supplied in the box. I painted the helicopters in the same colours as the Chieftains - primed black, all over Catachan Green, then camo stripes of Abaddon Black mixed with a skosh of Mechanicus Standard Grey, then Vallejo German Uniform for the lighter green bits. Follow with a wash of Nuln Oil. Missile racks were drybrushed with MSG for highlights, and the tubes painted Steel Legion Drab.

Decals come in the box as well. Strangely, the models used in Battlefront's own propaganda shots (box front and in the Iron Maiden "codex") don't have applied decals. I had to search out the proper placement on the Internet (I know, wah wah wah)
  

Close-up of the TOW missile rack. Being indecisive and cheap, and wanting maximum flexibility out of the kits...

...I magnetised them! You can see the disc-shaped neo-dymium magnet in the picture above, directly inboard of the centre support of the missile rack, between the two supporting "legs".

This magnet adheres to a disc magnet superglued in the appropriate position inside the fuselage, on either side, before assembly. With magnets attached to the missile racks, they can be clipped on and off as you please. Just make sure to use magnets that are strong enough to grip each other through the plastic hull. The missile rack assembly is very light so it doesn't take much of a magnet to do the job.
  

Presto - just remove the missile racks and you have the "transport" variant.

Now on to the infantry - the mechanised platoon comes with seven large stands and one small one for the two-inch mortar.

Here's the platoon commander, identified by flowers on the base.

I love the poses and sculpts of the Battlefront infantry but just wish that the casting was better. There are still a few slipped molds and mangled faces/weapons in the lot.

Here's the British contingent so far. Next up will be sourcing some FV432s for the mech platoon, and maybe getting some guys with MILAN ATGWs, but I don't see the British force growing much beyond that. It's intended to be an allied contingent for the West Germans in "narrative" games and will do fine in that role.

Byron's first few Painting Challenge Entries

Unlike Greg, I have not been very good about cross posting entries from the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge, but have been participating in it as well.  So, rather than cross post 4 different entries each separately now, I am just going to post some highlights from each and a link to the original if anyone wants to see some more detail. I will try to remember to cross post more regularly as we move forward.

On the plus side, I have painted over 400 points in the first month of the challenge, so have already hit 40% of my goal this year!  Not that I am staying on my planned items at all, but that's a whole different story.

First Entry - Kingdom Death Survivors

Day 1 and I started out with five 35mm scale Kingdom Death survivors.  These are bare bones starting survivors so all they have are lanterns and founding stones (sharpened stones as makeshift knives).

The survivors all have a very basic attempt at OSL (Object Source Lighting) for the lanterns on them, but only very basic.  They are after all basic survivors and game pieces, which both of my sons (and all their friends) will handle while playing Kingdom Death as they just can't get enough of the game.

Second Entry -  Kingdom Death Monsters

Ok, another day another entry!  Sticking with the Kingdom Death theme I worked on the first and second monster that most players with fight, the White Lion and the Screaming Antelope.  However, in typical KD style there is nothing normal about these seemingly normally named creatures.  The Lion has strangely human hands and the Antelope has a mouth where its gut should be.

The 28mm WW1 figure is just included to show the scale of these figures,
there is nothing small about Kingdom Death!
(including the game itself which weighs in at 17lbs for the core set alone!)

All of my Kingdom Death figures are going to be played with and I want them to be very visual, so a lot of the highlights and shadows are a lot more pronounced than most of my painting.  This is being done on purpose to show up and emphasis the details from tabletop.  While not as clean looking in these close up pictures as some of my figures, they do really pop at tabletop distance better than a lot of things that I shade in using more subtle colour variations. 

 Third Entry - Epic 30k Death Guard Army (Part 1)
 
tried doing everything to match my current 28mm Death Guard 30k army.  I figured out early on though that I can not do the same weathering as on my 28mm models as in 6mm the models just become sepia / rust coloured blobs. So I went with a much harder light / dark look.

The infantry and rhinos are the old school original plastics, but I think they still hold up just fine (and I have a ton of them still on sprue) so I am just using them for most infantry, instead of the real 30k metal ones.

Now onto some of the figures that I have really wanted to paint for a long while!  A squad of three Sicarans and Sicaran Venators!  These are amazing models in 28mm and the 6mm versions are just as clean, every single panel line and cable from the full size version is there on the 6mm version. 

These two versions of the Sicaran are my favourite tanks in 30k as I feel they are one of the best looking sci-fi tank hulls out there in any game or fiction.  They have huge guns, an aggressive sloped stance that just scream speed and aggression, what more could you want.

Lastly, 3 super heavy tanks, because why just kill something when you can kill it, then vaporize it, then annihilate any dust left from it.  When you want something dead, overkill is the only way to go.  Besides, all 3 of these vehicles are just stunning.

The whole force was painted very quickly (as you can tell from the images) but I think came out very well for anything 6mm and have a suitable dirty used look for me, but not too dirty that you can't tell what they are. 

Fourth Entry - I HATE Horses! 28mm French Napoleonic Dragoons

This entry has been 2+ years is the making as I keep trying to get to them and keep leaving them, because I hate painting horses.  In miniature, painting horses intimidates me as they are much like painting human flesh, just a lot more of it.  It is really hard to get right, insanely easy to screw up, and everyone will notice and point out when it isn't right.  Therefore I really try to avoid painting horses if at all possible.

I have however needed to get a unit of cavalry done for my (very slowly) growing 28mm French Napoleonic force for a while now, and this unit got primed for last years challenge and then set aside as I just didn't want to deal with them.  This year I decided I better get to them sooner rather than later or they would once again roll over to the next years challenge.

Minor issues aside, while I disliked painting the project, I am actually OK with the results close up, and I am very happy with how they look on the tabletop.  Which is what Napoleonics are all about, tabletop effect, and that they have. 



Theses are all the plastic 28mm Perry Miniatures Dragoons with a Flag Dude banner.  Knowing that I disliked the horses, I started with them.  Having read that the Dragoons were the bottom of the Cavalry types (having started as infantry being trained as cavalry) and therefore very often had to deal with any mounts they obtain rather than being able to count on standard or uniform mounts for a regiment, I decided to make the unit up of as many different types of horses as I could.  Not knowing anything about horses though I had to go looking to find out what kinds and colours they did have.

 After finding out about Bays, Palominos, Chestnuts, Greys, and more, I got to work.  Then I found out about facial markings and socks.  Did I mention, I hate horses?  Anyway, after far too long on the painting table, I came out with the following which I am actually OK with.  Which is fairly uncommon for me, as I tend to think of 80% of the stuff I paint as crap, but despite my dislike for the animals and painting them, I am actually OK with how these look.

Minor issues aside, while I disliked painting the project, I am actually OK with the results close up, and I am very happy with how they look on the tabletop.  Which is what Napoleonics are all about, tabletop effect, and that they have. 

Fifth Entry - 28mm Modern Militia and Terrorists

A small submission to keep my progress going this week. The entry is an amalgamation of some left over African Militia from Spectre miniatures and some Islamic Terrorists from Spectre as well (Sorry Curt, those words probably just got this blog flagged by the CIA, FBI, and more).  The figures themselves are awesome as usual from Spectre, lots of detail on them and accurate (if thin) weapons.

Total there are 18 figures here, all done to a very basic table top level.  Essentially a base colour, wash, highlight, some very small details.  Since all of these miniatures will be on, and then off the table so quickly, I just couldn't justify a whole lot of time on them (as is evident in the pictures).

To play the games I want with them, I need about 40-50 Terrorists or Militia facing 4-8 special forces troopers, so I tend to spend time on the spec ops guys as they will be the focus of any game as they stick around for the whole time (normally). 


Up to date 

So, there we are, my five regular entries so far in the challenge. I will try to keep up better cross posting so that the posts don't get so long in the future.

Bundeswehr Heavy Hitters - Team Yankee M109G Batterie

I grew up in Manitoba's second-largest city (!) - Brandon (pop.~40,000). One of the economic drivers of Brandon back in the day was CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Shilo, a large (primarily artillery) training range just east of the city.

Over 140,000 German soldiers were trained on the base from 1974-2000, under the auspices of the German Army Training Establishment Shilo (GATES). Apparently the terrain in the area is quite similar to that in Germany in the areas where operations would presumably take place in a new European war. Hence the importance of the Base for training our German allies.

Much of CFB Shilo's 40,000 hectare area is devoted to artillery ranges where weapons like the massive 155mm howitzer could be exercised. I can recall as a teenager seeing these M109s being transported on flatbeds to Shilo and I think this is the genesis of my affinity for the model.

Battlefront's M109G certainly looks the business, armed with a massive 155mm gun. My only criticism of the model's design is that I'd like the gun designed to be elevated a bit more. However, the way the part is designed renders it capable of assembly in only one way. Also, I had a miscast on one of the track sections, but it's not that noticeable when assembled.

Unfortunately, the M109G boxed set doesn't come with decals. I had some extra crosses from the Kampfgruppe Mueller and Marder boxes, but I had to freehand the number plates.

Some stowage is sculpted directly onto the rear of the turret. I picked these out in varying shades of khaki/green just to provide some additional visual interest.

The raised fine detail on these models really lent itself well to the light drybrush method advocated by Battlefront in their painting guide. I used the same colours and methods as for the Leopards and other Bundeswehr vehicles I've painted for the project.