Team Yankee 6mm - Forces Complete?

My journey into Team Yankee began over a year ago when the local game store offered me the demo/display kit they had received from Battle Front.  The display kit came with a few tanks and a couple of Helicopters to facilitate a demo game.  I had never played Flames of War, and modern was not something I had previously considered playing since I am currently still in the Army.  The premise of cold war gone hot sounded kind of interesting so I said sure as the price was right.

M113 15mm compared to 6mm

15mm Infantry vs, 6mm

I assembled the tanks and realized I need a copy of the rules and a few more units to make it a worthwhile venture.  I filled in Brian and Phil and Brian said he would take the Soviets off my hands and build a force.  We agreed we would initially aim for 75 point just to see if we liked the game.

15mm Platoon

Before long I had 10 M1s and 2 platoons of Infantry with M113s assembled and painted and a few more items still in the boxes waiting assembly.  That is where the project stalled as I worked on other projects for upcoming conventions.

Great Looking minis, but does not look like modern combat to me

I then saw Team Yankee played at Little Wars and was a little disappointed in what I saw.  It was a huge game, with 50 or more tanks/armored vehicles per side with tons of other models all beautifully painted.  What I was disappointed with is that all the vehicles were lined up hub to hub blasting away at each other.  As one who serves I knew this did not look right.  There were no proper formations or tactics.  This certainly was not how I had envisioned it.

No Problem, after talking to Brian we agreed we would not allow our games to devolve into a tank parking lot and make sure we had a big enough table to make the game look right for the scale.

6mm GHQ M1 MBT

In the meantime, Phil discovered that many were playing Team Yankee using micro armor (6mm) figures.  He found a number of vendors that sell all the figures needed for Team Yankee at a very reasonable price and ordered up a couple modest forces which he had painted in no time.  When I saw Phil's collection and how it looked arrayed on the table I knew this was the answer.

6mm GHQ T-55

Brian and I decided to follow Phil's lead, we were still working to build our initial 15mm forces and had yet to play a game.   Since were not heavily invested in the game we figured we could sell what we had if we liked 6mm better, so we decided to follow Phil's lead and made the jump to 6mm.

Realistic formations in my first game

Even more realism, Phil's burning tanks

As I was already collecting Americans I picked up some GHQ infantry, a few tanks and M113s and in no time I had a force equal to what had taken me a year to complete in 15mm at a fraction of the cost.   I then discovered I had some more GHQ infantry from 20 years ago I had purchased to use for real Army training purposes which I could now rebase and use again.  I then decided to try Phil's online source (Scotia Grendel) and ordered enough to field two full Combat Teams with supports.  I was shocked at how inexpensive the figures were compared to 15mm and even the GHQ 6mm figures I already owned.  I was also a little suspect on how the quality would be compared to what I already purchased.

Assembling a force

My first order arrived in about a week and I was pleasantly surprised with both the timeliness and quality.  The Scotia figures were not GHQ, but at half the price they certainly looked good.  After all, we are talking about 6mm figures here.  I would even go as far as saying in some cases GHQ may even have a too much detail.

Initial American Force ready for service

The best part was that within a week I had everything painted and ready for battle, which I had not done in a year with 15mm.  Phil was eager to accommodate and we met up for our first engagement.  Phil is a veteran of Flames of War which Team Yankee is based with some modifications.  After reading the rules once I was able to pick them up quickly with Phil's help.  My Americans pulled off a narrow victory and I was hooked.  The best part was how well all the figures looked on a 6'x4' table.  We did not modify any of the distances and played the rules as written and the scale looked great compared to what I had seen in 15mm games that had concerned me.

East German Infantry

Spigot missile team

RPG-7, MPi KM team with RPG-18 and PKM LMG Team

I was so hooked that I decided to order up an opposing force.  As Phil and Brian were doing Soviets I decided to try the East German VOLKSARMEE.  Not knowing how I want to play the East Germans, I simply went through the book and ordered enough to fill out every possible formation in avaialbe.  The equated to 100 vehicles plus infantry.  Amazingly the entire order did not cost any more than a couple boxes of the official Battlefront miniatures.

Initial East German Infantry with some GHQ armor

Again, my order arrived in about a week.  In the meantime, I had acquired the GHQ infantry locally and had them painted and waiting in a couple days.  The project stalled a little again, while we prepared the games we presented at Rock-Con last month.  This past weekend Phil and I played our 2nd game (See other Post), which was even bigger that our first and based on a more realistic scenario.  Again, the game looked and felt great.

This is how I imagined Team Yankee, now possible with 6mm

I was now motivated to get going on the East Germans again.  I has a long weekend and I was able to finish the last of the support including air assets.

Americans

VOLKSARMEE

I now have a compete American force and opposing East German force ready to go.  The East Germans are untested, but motivated for their first engagement.

MI-24 HIND

SU-25 FROGFOOT

While I was a bit put off by the looks of Team Yankee in the official 15mm scale, I will say I am very much enjoying the rules.  Switching to 6mm was definitely the right decision for me as I do not think I would have stayed with Team Yankee otherwise.

A-10 WARTHOG



AH-1 Cobra

I am a little disappointed that Battlefront does not acknowledge or support people that play in other scales.  I quickly learned not to mention 6mm when asking a question on their page.   I am also annoyed that the only way you can get the actual "official"unit stat cards is to buy their miniatures, but I guess that is what they do.  I certainly would be willing to purchase the cards if they were available, but as many have pointed out they are available all over the web for free.  That said, I think the rules are pretty good and look forward to exploring some larger engagements using our own scenario ideas.

BTR-60 MOT-SCHUTZEN KOMPANIE

BMP-1 MOT-SCHUTZEN KOMPANIE

BMP-2 MOT-SCHUTZEN KOMPANIE

East German Infanty

East German Armor and Support

M113 MECH COMBAT TEAM

M1 ABRAMS ARMORED COMBAT TEAM

While I do own all the books, I do not have any plans to build another force anytime soon.  Between the three of us we will have all the major factions (except the Brits) and are looking to recruit more players in our area to 6mm.


Team Yankee Books

Entire Collection fits in one box

While my basic forces are complete I am sure I will add a few more items here and there especially with the newest book, Stripes being released for the Americans.  It sure feels nice to complete a gaming project though and be able to just play.


In the meantime, Team Yankee has become a nice change of pace from our usual routine.




More to come.....