Soviet Air Force

As promised, here is my Soviet Airforce for Team Yankee. At the moment they will provide a vital element of air support to my Soviet Tankovy Batallion, although they did not perform well in the first game... Later on, the helicopters will also serve as the main heavy hitters for my Afgantsy Air Assault Batallion, as well.

First up, a flight of 4 Suchoi SU-25 'Frogfoot' or 'Gratsch' (rook), as the Soviets called them:

These strike aircraft can hit the enemy pretty hard, being armed with a GSh-30-2 30mm Autocannon, four mighty Kh-23/AS-7 anti-tank missiles with an AT-value of 27 (!) and four small unguided rocket pods for one fatal salvo bombardment against infantry.

Sadly, they don't perform well against American Vulcan Anti-Air gatling guns, so eliminate the AA prior to their deployment! The three-tone camo scheme is rather nice and the light green markings make these models stand out on the battlefield.

Here are the feared, mighty Mil Mi-24 Hind gunships, four of them at the moment. Two more are under construction and they will be expanded to a total of 10-12 for the Afgantsy.

These models by Battlefront are beautiful and rather sturdy for a plastic helicopter. The flight stands fit in well and have good balance and the magnetized, removable rotors make transportation easier. The ochre/green camo scheme is very appealing to the eyes and fun to paint.

These bulky flying tanks are every NATO commander's nightmare! Rather cheap with 2,5 points per Hind, a flight of up to 6 can wreck havoc amongst western ground troops. Armed with the flexible 12,7 mm YAK gatling gun, four AT-6 Spiral/ 'Shturm' anti-tank missiles and rocket pods, they offer a solution to everything. 

Close-up of a beautiful Hind Helicopter paint job

And finally, the Red Air Force's secret weapon: the Kamov Ka-50 Hokum 'Black Shark'.

This one-seated hunter-killer attack helicopter, with contra-rotating co-axial rotors, had its first flight in 1982, but, due to the economic downfall of the late Soviet Union, serial production was postponed. Therefore, the Hokum only entered service in the Russian Army in 1997, but it COULD have been available in 1985 for Team Yankee! 

These models are produced by the Revell company from Germany as the so-called 'EasyKit'. They do not need to be glued, just clicked together, and come pre-painted (!) with nice shark faces and Soviet 'Black Shark' markings.

I will play them as an experimental unit of two with these rules, kindly developed by Siberian Reds.

Last, but not least, I made an objective for my Soviets to fight over: a heavy URAL truck by Zvezda:

Team Yankee Soviet Parade

Two weeks ago, I was re-working on my Soviet Tankovy Battalion for Team Yankee and used this opportunity for a parade ground photo shooting. 

What I had to do, was to finally magnetize my tanks, which proved to be more difficult, than suspected. As I glued in the plastic rods from the original sprue in the first place (which work, but are kind of a loose fit), I had to remove them, in order to glue the new Neodym magnets in. Bad thing was, this plastic glue works too well! With pliers I only got most of the rods off, but not the base, which sat in the whole for the magnets. Therefore I used my trusted Opinel knife (15 years old!), which helped to remove at least half of those sticky bases, but the knife's tip broke off... 

One ESSENTIAL tip: magnetize right away or wait!!!

So I settled with glueing the magnets in anyway, that's why some of the turrets look a bit crooked. But it's okay, I'll blame the Russian "quality" work^^

Here's the 1st Company of T-72s:

8 T-72s of 1st Company

It was a rainy day and the light was bad, but this shows nicely the characteristics of Soviet Green, sometimes more greenish, sometimes rather brownish

I try to take care, that every tank was a commander figure to emphasize the impression, that it's not just big metal machines, but actual people fighting here!

2nd Tankovy Company with Battalion Commander

The same again in the greenish light

Podpolkovnik Yuri Borisov in his T-72B with ERA-Armour (made by Zvezda)

That makes 16 T-72 tanks in total, divided in either two or three companies, as I see fit. A heavy hitting force on the offensive, but very brittle when confronted with Chieftains, Leopard 2s or American Artillery! I hope to reinforce them with the new upcoming T-64s.

Next up is my newly acquired artillery, a half-battery of three 2S1 Gvozdikas/Carnations plus an observer in the nice BTR-80 produced by Zvezda.

The half-battery ready to spread terror (or smoke)

2S1 Carnation with raised barrel

The BTR-80 forward observer

And last, but not least, a small platoon of Red Army infantry with BMPs and SA-14."Strela-3" Gremlin manpads. At the moment it is just a platoon of 8 stands and 5 vehicles, but I might expand to 16 stands with 10 BMPs to include the excellent PKM machine guns.

The platoon ready for action

The Leytenant in close-up with his troops

The Strela-3 comrades wait for NATO aircraft to pick off the sky

BMP-2s

Concerning the BMPs, I prefer to use BMP-2s, because of the better AT-4 missile and anti-helicopter autocannon. But they have magnetized hulls, so I can switch to BMP-1s whenever I like. That is the nice thing about Battlefront's plastic kits.

Magnetized inside of a BMP

BMP-1 upper hulls ready for exchange

Close-up of a BMP-1 upper hull

So, that's it for today, enjoy the images.
Next up will be the (up until now not so glorious) Soviet Air Force.

Team Yankee Battle Report Video

Recently, Operation Mad Dog has released a video battle report of the Team Yankee game from my former post. It is in German language and illustrates the flow of the game pretty well. (It also reveils that I made some mistakes in my casualtiy description^^). Kind regards to Roger, my opponent and hoster of Operation Mad Dog! Have fun watching:

Team Yankee, at last!

The images of my first Team Yankee game have finally arrived and it was a good game indeed. My opponent Roger, from the Operation Mad Dog channel, fielded his American force of two small companies (one Mechanized Infantry, one M1 Abrams Squadron,) with some air and artillery support against my Soviet Tank Battalion backed by the Russian Airforce. 

We found a beautiful table laid out by our hosts at the Phantasos Studio, which centered a small improvised airfield at a local gas station near the Hessian town of Kassel, one of two possible objectives. 

Dicing for the scenario, we played a counter-attack in broad daylight with the Russians attacking. Therefore, half of the American force deployed in one quarter of the table, while the other half was waiting in reserves to counterattack. So, the Americans established a stronghold in the woods and rocky hills next to the gas station, where they also found old medieval ruins, which are quite common in our German landscape.

American mortar carriers behind the ruins

AA VADS, ITVs and M109 Artillery around the first objective

My horde of T-72s preparing for the attack

American reserves for the counter-attack

As the Soviets had the first turn, two of my Tank Companies rushed towards the American strongpoint right away, causing some minor casualties, namely one VADS and one ITV, another just bailed out. Meanwhile the Motorized Infantry Platoon in their BMP-2s headed for the gas station. They were covered by my third company of T-72s. 

Red Thunder! T-72 battle line.

Having forgotten about the rule, that the first turn-players' aircraft have to loiter off table, I brought in my 4 MI-24 Hinds and 4 SU-25 Frogfoots, as well. But it was a very bad day for the Red Airforce. The Frogfoot strike aircraft headed to attack the dangerous AA VADS, but got wiped out completely before firing a single shot. Dangerous, indeed!      

The Hinds kept out of range from the VADS, hovering over the gas station to attack the mortars, but lost one to their .50 cal AA machine guns, while destroying all three mortar carriers... 

The Soviet Airforce, still in good shape

The gruesome American VADS Anti-Air-Vehicles

Close-up of the MI-24 Hinds

 The American answer was suprisingly low, as every shot from the two Abrams and ITVs seemed to bounce off the T-72s' front armour. You see, why the Yankees will upgrade to the M1A1 soon...

American commander with 2iC in their M1 Abrams (having a nice view of my well fed Communist belly^^)

My Russian tanks scored some hits, eliminating two more ITVs, one M109 and the Forward Artillery Observer, while the BMP-2s made it to the second objective, the airfield with gas supply, protected by the Hinds. They seemed to be scared of the VADS and chose to remain inactive and out of sight. The third tank company positioned themselves in a field to await the American reinforcements.

Soviet Infantry disembarking from their BMP-2s.

The scared  MI-24 Hinds

T-72s waiting for the Yanks to come

The fighting around the Amerian strongpoint developed into a bloodbath during the next two rounds. While the Americans lost their infantry commander and Abrahms 2-in-C, but eight out of ten T-72s went up into flames, mainly due to the direct hits from the M109 Artillery into their side armour. These mean vehicles penetrated easily (AT 17 vs side armour 9, ignoring my BDD armour because they do not fire HEAT ammo) and wounding automatically (Firepower 1+!!!). 

To add to this disaster, the three VADS rushed behind the ruins and shot down two more Hinds. The remaining pilot showed some common sense, failed his morale check and chose to leave for home.

The metal scrapyard at the objective

The now empty BMP-2s battled with the VADS, losing two vehicles, but finally getting rid of this gatling gun-armed nightmare. Now the first American reserves showed up in form of a M1 Abrams troop and a flight of 2 Cobra Helicopters. These were quickly shot from the sky by the Russian ZSU 23-4 Shilkas, while the waiting T-72s knocked out the two M1 MBTs.

Ironically, in the next round the last two M1 Abrams tanks arrived from reserves, approached from the other corner table edge in the back of the Soviet tanks and destroyed all four of them (one was bogged down in the field, lucky bastard^^).

BMP-2s in battle

ZSU 23-4 Shilka AA shooting down snakes

Gotcha! Ambushing T-72 ambushed by M1s

The first objective was now lost, with only the commander and two other T-72s remaining on the field, along with 2 battered BMP-2s and four Shilkas lurking in the woods, being easy prey for the M1 Abrams. The Soviet Battalion was really thinned out.

This left solely the Motorized Infantry Platoon to defend the second objective, and their fighting power was really in question, because Leytenant Kulokov distributed vodka bottles from the gas station store to the men as they got bored waiting...

Not so sober comrades defending the objective

The Americans still had two whole Mechanized Infantry Platoons in reserve to storm the gas station, as well as a flight of two A-10 Warthogs and the remaining two M1 MBTs plus their Commander. As time was running late, we called it a night with a close victory for the Yankees.

The remaining American Commander calling in his reinforcements

What is there left to say? I really enjoyed the game with a really sporting opponent, who will release a video report of this game on Operation Mad Dog soon. I admire the beautiful desert camo scheme of his Americans, although it seems out of place in Germany during August ;-)

Lessons, that I learned:

1. Eliminate the AA fast, as they will take down all of your airforce in no time.

2. In the counter attack mission it is best to concentrate ALL of your forces on one point to be down with the starting force quickly

3. Beware of American Artillery!!!

Team Yankee is a game, that is fast paced and flows nicely with some unexpected twists always waiting around the corner (in the next round). It can get pretty bloody and feels really appropriate to the Cold War period in the mid-1980s. I will definitely try to play it more often.