A Guest article by Garry Wait
Here's some homebrew rules for players wishing to dive deeper into the technology of the cold war and how you can use them in your holiday games!
As a passionate player of Team Yankee right since the very beginning, I’ve loved the depth and variety of the game set. However we can agree that the game set has limitations in part due to the overworked nature and busy schedules enjoyed by the very small team at Battlefront. I say this as someone who is incredibly impressed with the excellent output of the studio and an avid fan of their games, so none of it is a criticism.
That said, as someone who was there and enjoyed the period first hand from gaming – and serving – in the 1980’s Cold War period, there is what I’d call an “Advanced Level” of game play people can consider for friendly “by agreement” gaming. These are suggestions and are of course definitely NOT endorsed by Battlefront in any way or form. My intention is NOT to change the game system so I won’t address the age old discussion about what happened to towed and manpack mortars and such template weapon systems that vanish in Team Yankee. Rather, this article suggests options within the key rules and does not require new miniatures or change basic systems. They are intended for fun and enjoyment only and may not be entirely balanced so are not recommended for tournaments.
I recommend trying these out and seeing what you think for yourself.
Firstly for the Warsaw Pact and Red Force devotees :
- Explosive Reactive Armour
You may add ERA to any T55/T62/T64 or T72 for an additional 1pt each tank. This gives the ERA rule in place of the side armour and an additional 1pt of Front and Side armour (to account for HEAT protection improving front armour against missiles and HEAT weapons). Although this is points expensive, the trade off is definitely worth it. An ALL or none option, therefore all such tanks need to be equipped equally if so, and this will save on book keeping or model recognition. SO if you run both T62 and T55 tanks, you could choose to upgrade ONLY your T62’s to ERA and not your T55.
- Active Protection Systems.
These systems, such as Drozd for T55 series vehicles or Shtora (soft kill) or Arena (hard kill) defence systems provide extra protection for Soviet made MBT’s. In the actual Team Yankee WW3 period, Soviet Naval Infantry used Drozd while Shtora was fitted to some T80 MBT’s.
You may add Drozd to Soviet T55’s for 2pts for the ENTIRE unit. If you do so, your vehicles have an additional save versus penetrating HEAT weapons of a 5+. However, following such a roll, any friendly infantry within 2”/5cm of ANY MBT so equipped in a unit that activates this roll must take a save as usual.
You may add Shtora to Soviet T80’s for 1pt for the ENTIRE unit and if so, must use on all units. If you do so, your vehicles may have an additional save versus any missiles fired at them (NOT all HEAT weapons) which may deflect hits on a 6. There are no risks to friendly forces.
You may add Arena to any Soviet T80’s that do NOT have Shtora for 4pts for the ENTIRE Unit and if so, must use on all units. Arena confers an additional save of 5+ to any such equipped vehicle hit by a HEAT weapon.
- RPO-A Shmel.
The “Rocket-propelled Infantry Flamethrower-A Bumblebee” was developed in the mid 1980s and fielded at the end of that decade as a manpack disposable flamethrower that relied upon a Fuel Air Explosive system. Ouch !
Seeing widespread issue, this weapon can be an upgrade to existing Soviet or Syrian RPG teams for 2pts per unit and gives the Brutal rule to ALL such RPG teams in a unit that are upgraded. If any units are upgraded, then all must be upgraded.
- Helicopter Launched Bombs
Soviet Mi24 Hinds had a wide range of ordonnance available and part of this was the ability to carry bombs and were able to carry ten 200kg, four 250kg or two 500kg bombs or even Fuel Aire Explosives when employed against lightly armoured forces.
Any Hinds may carry bombs as a 2pt upgrade per unit and as such may add either of the following as an additional weapon choice :
Bombs – Range 6”/15cm, Artillery, AT4, Firepower 3+
Fuel Air Explosive - Range 6”/15cm, Salvo, AT2, Firepower 2+, Brutal
- Iranian Cobra AT options
The Islamic Republic of Iran’s Armed Forces suffered badly from arms embargoes particularly for their US and western supplied weapons systems. To compensate, some clever crews of Cobra helicopters modified their systems to mount Maverick Antitank missiles – yes the same ones used on the A10 Attack aircraft ! Mr robinson will love this ~ed.
Any Iranian Cobra flight may be upgraded with the replacement of BOTH their TOW and Rocket Pod options with Maverick Antitank missiles which are identical to the A10 option, for an additional 2pts per helicopter.
- MTLB Vasilek
Soviet forces in Afghanistan quickly learned that they needed more mobile and effective fast response artillery forces. The Vasilek 82mm automatic mortar was ideal for this role. The Vasilek mortar system, first fielded in 1970, was added to the MTLB chassis and provided a cheap and effective SP mortar system for use by Motor Rifle troops and was used as such by Soviet Union, Syria and Iraq.
You may add a MTLB Vasilek unit in place of a Carnation Artillery battery for any Syrian/Irqai or Soviet force at a cost of 3pts for three or 6pts for six. Each Vasilek has the SAME armour and vehicle stats as the MTLB Storm chassis however it also has the below weapons INSTEAD of the Spiral missile :
Vasilek 82mm Mortar system – Range 48”/120cm,SALVO, AT 1, FP4+, Smoke bombardment
7.62mm turret MG – Range 16”/40cm, AT2, FP6
NATO and Blue Forces have the following suggested new toys :
- NATO munitions
NATO Forces – including France, Israel and ANZACS – used common calibres and weapon systems as a standardised procedure to ensure munitions could be shared as much as possible. This especially was the case with artillery weapons. In particular, I am personally aware that the Australian Defence Force had issues of Copperhead guided munitions during the 1980’s so this is not a hypothetical situation and would have been made available to any “Blue Force” in World War 3.
Any British, Canadian, West German, Dutch, French, Israeli, or ANZAC force may use minelet or bomblet or Copperhead for their M109 SP Howitzers. All existing rules for Copperhead must be obeyed as usual, including use of an Observer team as per main rule book.
- LAW 80 and AT4
During the 1980’s both the US and British Armed forces were in the process of improving their manpack disposable AT weapons. This was vital for the ground forces during Operation Desert Storm and would have been rushed further into widespread service in need.
Any US force may upgrade their M72 LAW’s as a direct replacement for AT4 at a cost of 2pts per unit, giving Range 12”/40cm, improved AT 17 and Firepower of 4+. If any units are so upgraded, then all units must be upgraded.
Any British force may upgrade their Carl Gustav teams as a direct replacement for LAW80’s at a cost of 2pts per unit, giving Range 16”, improved AT21 and Firepower of 3+. If any units are so upgraded, then all units must be upgraded.
- M270 MLRS with MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile System (ATacMS)
The US Army started fielding improved MLRS missiles with a 24” /610mm diameter missile with one such being a direct replacement for six of the twelve missiles in an MLRS salvo. Such missiles have a range of up to 300km (!) and provide a replacement for the older Lance system which was a ballistic missile. These ATacMS missiles are designed as a deep strike weapon and are immensely powerful but in limited supply.
You may add ATacMS missiles to your US Army MLRS unit at a cost of 2pts per unit. This gives the following as an additional ammunition type for your MLRS :
ATacMS – Range 150”/375cm (minimum range 16”/40cm) – SALVO – AT4, Firepower 2+. Each vehicle counts as ONE vehicle for firing purposes, however each bombardment counts as Brutal.
- Interoperable Missiles
As NATO had intended, weapons systems were largely standardised with TOW in particular designed to be backwardly compatible. As such, Dutch, German, Israeli and Canadian TOW teams may upgrade their systems to TOW2 for an additional 1pt per unit counting identically to US TOW2 teams. This is an all or none upgrade, so if any team is upgraded, then all teams must be upgraded.
- Milan 2
British, German and French teams may upgrade their Milan teams to Milan 2 for an additional 1pt per unit and as such, see their AT increase from 21 to 23 although range remains the same. If any team is upgraded, then all such must be upgraded.
- Explosive Reactive Armour
Various NATO and allied forces experimented with limited or widespread amounts of ERA to upgrade older MBT’s during this period.
You may add ERA to any French AMX30 or Israeli Magach or USMC M60 for an additional 1pt each tank. This gives the ERA rule in place of the side armour and an additional 1pt of Front and Side armour (to account for HEAT protection improving front armour against missiles and HEAT weapons).
This is an ALL or none option, therefore all such tanks need to be equipped equally if so, and this will save on book keeping or model recognition.
If you liked our content, be sure to check out our online store!
About the Author
Garry wait is a longtime Team Yankee and Flames of War gamer dating back to First Editions of each, as well as an Eternal Optimist residing down under. Garry has written many articles for Battlefront, particularly on topics relating to events in Asia-pacific regions as well as tactics for competitive play.
