Managed to squeeze a game in, and it seems we keep coming back to the old GDW Team Yankee boardgame for WW3.
I used the stats for British forces at the back of the rulebook, plus there are more of these in the other 'First Battle' supplements.
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| 1:200 vehicles in play today |
The turn sequence seems like nothing new, as does the combat table, but this game is so elegant.
Elegant systems include:
- The Turn sequence, where if you have initiative, forces you to choose between going 1st or 2nd in turn - but be careful with reaction fire.
- The CRT seems very old school, but range and cover make such a difference. The game design advice is correct; if you can fire, you 'might as well try it' unless staying hidden and closing range is worth doing. Two Chieftains got taken out in the game below, simply by virtue of the weight of Soviet numbers.
- For me, the great thing here is one set of rules suiting all levels and modern periods / scenarios.
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| GDW's Team Yankee - all the boxes are like this; it's part of GDW's 'patented battered box' design. |
I've managed to collect all of the 1st Battle series now, including 'Stand or Die 1941' which appears to take 2 jumps up from Team Yankee (where 'Sands of War' jumps to units being platoons, 'Stand or Die' makes them companies - but without making it obvious ;) ).
So, I'm hoping to explore the entire set using miniatures. Aims include:
- Also expanding 'Last Battle' for Man to Man on tabletop.
- Playing some of the modern battles included in 'Sands of War'.
- Using some bits for 'Hyboria Now'.
- I'm still keen to develop the 'turn clock' and 'traits' systems in conjunction with these rules.
(oooh Blogger sucks so much now with pics...Now I get it!)
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| Soviet armour on their left makes a dash for the town. |
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| The British Chieftains are poorly spread out. |
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| BMPs on the left start to take MILAN hits. |
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| T72s exploit an apparent flank opportunity on the right. |
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| While on the right, Soviet infantry mass against the British units in cover, pinning them early. |
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| Soviet units make it into the BUA. |
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| The weight of Sov armour is just too much, and a couple of lucky hits put paid the British right flank. |
There are unexplored nuances in these rules, and the rest of 'First Battle' just waiting to be explored.
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| 'When I said, 'stay on my tail', this is NOT what I meant!' |
Very nice! Cool to see the 1980's tanks out there. I'll have a bit of that going on next weekend myself.
ReplyDeleteWill be great to see Ski.
DeleteI'm also going to give some others rules a go for this period - including FFT3 and some of Rory Crabbe's stuff.
Masses of Soviet armor are tough to counter. Your table looks fab.
ReplyDeleteOn blogger, I actually find the new blogger photo placement easier than the legacy version. Go figure...
Thanks Jonathan.
DeleteYes - the first thing to throw me, is that when I select photos in 'old style', they come up in reverse order, and there appear to be lots of extra space or somesuch - perhaps just a matter of getting used to.
Very interesting the way you have applied a set of boardgames rules to the tabletop.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter. Yes, I'm finding some great hex boardgame mechanisms out there which are readily applicable across the tabeltop.
DeleteOutstanding Darren! You're making me want to revisit GDW TY esp considering all of my cold war stuff is done and waiting for a game :)
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of working through all of the variants using miniatures. I had Blood and Thunder which I enjoyed very much. Watching with much anticipation, sir!
Thanks Steve
DeleteYes, I've picked up Blood and Thunder too - and also Battlefield Europe, which has a lot more variability on the single tank scale, and moves to D10 over D6. Interesting to experiment.
I also am thinking that my existing 4" hexes can work as '2' hexes each off the maps, and still work when I half the range stats.
I’m not at all familiar with this genre so can’t comment on the rules or tanks from the 1980s but I do like the pictures! Especially the black streets with the white stripes are very striking simply because I don’t see those often on a game table. 😀
ReplyDeleteThanks Stew. The only problem with those 'modern' roads is that there are zebra crossings in all the wrong places. It's a town planner's nightmare!
DeleteThe sort of thing that you only ever want(ed) to see on the wargames table; where it looks great!
ReplyDeleteRegards, James
You got it James.
DeleteYou don't have to freeze your ass off in a trench when it's 1:200 for a start!
Why do masses of tanks look so cool?!. Reminds me, I still have a load of 6mm tanks to paint...
ReplyDeleteThey do look cool mate. That scale seems more, dare I say, 'realistic' too. I think the 15mm scale used for large numbers tends to look like the oft quoted 'tank park'.
DeleteI still prefer 1:200 or 1:300 though, rather than watching them coming toward me at 1:1 lol.
I had some Skytrex 1/200 BAOR when they first came out: nice models then and still hold their own and this shows why. I liked the chunky infantry too. It was actually the lack of similarly good figures for their WW2 range that got me sculpting.
ReplyDeleteYes indeed. The Soviets are Skytrex, but the British are actually Timecast - who make a lovely chunky figure for the scale.
DeleteDo you do commissions for sculpts :)
Doubt I could see 10mm now, but what do you want? I could knock something out for you so long as you’re not too fussy!
ReplyDelete1/200 buildings I'm thinking :)
DeleteAh, you got me there! I’d just use 1/300. Most are oversized!
DeleteYes I'll have a thin - I'm sure there is something that would be unique.
Delete