WDBS - What Does Bear Say is a Soviet centric perspective on all things Team Yankee and Flames of War.
The Previous installments can be found here:
WDBS#1 covered the Dutch and the French Infantry forces
WDBS#2 covered Canadian and Australian Infantry forces
WDBS#3 covered the West German Forces
They (Americans and British) have fought together in every major conflict in since World War I. have shared intelligence with each other that almost no other two nations would dare. and have always referred to their relationship as "special".
The Bear will examine the infantry options of the British and the Americans. Their pros and cons. lastly, how to pulverise them into a capitalist skid mark on the road to socialist Europe!
1.0 The United States Army!
Being the police man of the free world isn't easy or cheap. Since WWII, America had to constantly keep up with its arms race with the USSR.
Despite most of regular soldiers not wanting to be there, it had to position troops as a counter balance to Russia's forces. We will go over two US Infantry forces, the Airborne and the Marines!
1.1 US MARINES
Well, the marines need no introduction. but lets start off with one their famous quotes. the product can be found here.
Come on, you sons of bitches! Do you want to live forever?
GySgt. Daniel J. "Dan" Daly, USMC
1.1.1 Firepower
The US Marines certainly put down alot of fire. 27 Shots when firing at full rate and 18 shots when moving or pinned. This can be upgraded to 33 shots when unpinned if you choose to swap out two teams for M60 GPMG. Thats not a unit you want to charge at with any sized soviet platoon. but wait! It gets better! They can have have to SMAW teams, which are the same ratings as Carl Gustavs, Dragon teams and for the hell of it, a mortar team.
While they don't have the anti tank rating of a Milan, their threat range is also lower than the milan at 28 Inches.
1.1.2 US Size and Holding Power
The size of this unit is the largest infantry unit you can field. With addons, it puts them at 14 teams. None of which are heavy so everybody can fight. Their ratings are likemost US forces except their rally at 3+ which means if you are feeling heroic and attempted to charge this unit, and failed, there is a 66% chance they will rally and bury you in lead.
1.1.3 US Marine Assaults
I have to say that the US Marines are on the best charging units in NATO. they have 14 stands! Thats insane! they are the only NATO unit which can hit the 12 unit to become a large unit in assault and require 8 hits to fall back in defensive fire. This means that when the Marines come for you, they are going to get into assault. They also have a courage rating of 3+ which means their assault range is 16". These guys are beasts. In essence "Cry Havoc and let slip the dogs of war"
1.1.4 WDBS
1.2.0 US Army Infantry
These boys were made famous in Vietnam, spraying bullets all over a Landing Zone (LZ) and then charging to grab strategic spots. The key different from their soviet counterpart is that one was made to resist 30mm AA fire, and the other was meant to use their faith in freedom as a shield. The product can be found here.
1.2.1 Firepower
This unit certainly has the potential of the Marines in terms of Firepower. I have never been properly convinced of the viability of Air Cavalry in a conventional war as it would just lead to a casualty rate beyond acceptable. That being said, These platoons offer 14 Pinned shots on the go and 18 if you add the 2 GPMGs. They can only add a single Dragon team and so in terms of AT, they aren't great.
They are also missing out on the SMAW AKA Carl Gustav. This means that after being dropped into enemy lines or onto a strategic point to hold onto, they dont have any short range AT power besides the LAW.
1.2.2 Size and holding power
The US Army does a great job with this. They can have up to 12 stands in total and that means its going to take a long time to bring them down to platoon morale levels. That being said they benefit from their illustrous history of the 82nd airborne and get a 3+ Morale roll. That's pretty decent. If you are so inclined, you may charge an enemy and benefit from the large unit rule.
1.2.3 Assault
These guys are worse than the marines in this regard. They dont ahve a good counterattack and that mean they could end the assault premature and be left in the open for a counter attack. They don't have the large unit rule and so could be pinned with a bit of luck on the soviet side.
1.2.4 WDBS
2.0 The Poor Bloody Infantry (PBI)
The British have a long history of their infantry. They used them to conquer the world and create the "Sun never sets on the British empire". They have been known to be tenacious to the Germans, Crazy to the French and downright stubborn to the rest of the world. They have thousands of years of history and traditions and to this day, people sign on to certain units because its where their father and grandfathers served. The product can be found here.
2.1 Firepower
Man can these guys dish out the damage. They have 12 shots when pinned and 17 shots when not. (The Milans are auto included because what kind of idiot wouldn't take them) Their pinned shots output is 7.28 Hits against your motor rifle. Thats a hairsbreath away from smashing your large unit back. Thats also without their obsession with HMGs. because their HQ can buy two and give them our amongst the platoons. which would increase their firepower by 5/2 (unpinned and pinned). I know what your'e thinking, but we're soviet, we should go by the statiscal average because thats what we bank on to win games! Read the assault section and i will explain why even if your large unit got into combat, youre going to end up like road kill on a highway.
2.2 Size and Holding power
They don't seem like much on paper. but they are 10 stands of nonchalant tenacity. Their skill is 3+ and they counter attack on 3+, They get a bunch of Free MGs to back them up in the form of their transports. They are so lightly armored that you squirm at having to waste valuable shots down range to kill them just so you can have a go at this unit without certain death (yes a 99% loss is still not certain)
2.3 British Assault
Holy shit, don't do it. "Oh but bear, I have done it before and won"...... A broken clock is right twice a day. There is a serious disadvantage to attacking the British with almost no upside.
A) You would likely have lost so many people in the assault that you can't hold the objective
B) For the price of your motor rifle company, he has two of these platoons and the other one is on the way over to finish up what you just started.
C) Which part of the next wave of calculations says to you "This is a good idea"
Lets go through your best case scenario here. You have a large motor rifle that is untouched by enemy fire or anything.
You come running down the line and spray him with all 10 AKs (no easy feat considering the space you would need on an actual board), this is 30 Shots on 6s, hell! lets say 5s because he decided to use his milans last round on some tanks. Thats 10 hits of which he fails 3 and you pass one firepower to kill a single stand. He needs a 3+ to jump the shot to a milan but since we are saying this is best case scenario, he fails and you kill an MG stand. well done Comrade!
Next part you heroically order your men to charge into the enemy and finish them off. Hes pinned and down a single MG stand so he does 6 MG shots and 3 Gustav shots (slow firing). this results in 5.5 hits so for simplicity, 6 hits. this kills 2 AK stands (because your opponent knows the RPGs are useless in assault) you aren't pinned because you have a Large Unit! Yay you!
This unit then proceeds to give their rendition of Neanderthals with clubs attempting shakespeare with their (5+ assault and 6+ assault).
8 stands of AKs and lets say 6 Stands of RPGs( Im being really generous that you managed to get all these stands within charge distance) cause the 3 British stand to die from laughter, that's amazing. You are 40% through this unit. Victory has never been closer (and never will be again).
The Empire Strikes back. Its their turn, They still have two milans, 3 Gustavs, 1 Mortar team and no more MG teams. They counter attack on 3+ and proceed to put down their tea cups and don their helmets. Officer blows the whistle and over the top they go (im kidding, i know they dont do this anymore). This gives them an average of 3.5 kills so rounded up to 4, you have lost half of your AK stands and the numerical advantage you had a moment ago, is somewhat diminished.
Your second round is a little more lackluster with the you only having 4 AK stands and 6 RPGS. this averages out at 2.33 hits which he can now allocate to milans and or the mortar. you have killed 60% of his platoon.
The final round of combat, sees the British do 2.5 hits of which you now lose 2 AK stands ( they rounded up the last .5 so now we round round. This is going downhill and fast.
your next strike will have just an average of 1.66 wounds. and the british average after that would still be a 2.0 with all the Milans and Mortars dead. 3 Carl gustavs hitting on 3+.
If it isn't apparent already that everything needs to be in your favour and you would still likely win on points if you dont lose tragically if any of the variables were against you (I.E if they all were gone to ground and you didn't kill a single unit on the way in). It isn't a good idea to spent 15-24 points worth of infantry (BTR or BMP-2 Coy) to clear a 9 point unit.
2.4 WDBS
If you like any of these articles, please do subscribe to our newsletter and or support us by buying a bit of your army through us. We do free world wide shipping for orders over 90 SGD which isn't hard to hit. We also have pretty good pricing!
