I played in an epic Team Yankee game today! This was a test game for a convention event at Historicon, which meant things were a little different than a standard game. There were 5 players per side, with around 800-1000 points total per side. Each player commanded a specific category of unit, either infantry, artillery, or tanks. In the event that a player lost all of their units, then they would be allotted more from "reserves" to drive onto the table. In addition to the units on the table, there was also special rules for off-board artillery and pre-plotted bombardment points. Finally, air assets had to be requested from higher headquarters via a dice roll, and the type (helicopter or fixed wing) and number were also random. I was running an American tank platoon that consisted of 14 M1 Abrams.
We were playing on a 6'x24' board that looked like this:
This picture was taken from the Warsaw Pact end of the table. The communist forces had to traverse the length of the board, using the central road (which represented a part of the Autobahn). Here comes the Communist juggernaut!
The bulk of the Warsaw Pact units started off the table and had to drive on. There were several NATO units hidden in cover at various places around the board; these were revealed when the moved, shot, or were stumbled across by red recon units. The rest of the NATO forces started off-table and drove on from the feeder roads along the long edges of the table starting in Turn 2. Here we can see the table after a bulk of both sides have made it on to the board:
Here is a group of US tanks moving up to re-inforce a strong point that had been established by US and West German forces in a factory complex.
The fighting around the industrial complex near the center of the table was intense!
Any Warsaw Pact units that managed to push up the central highway were savaged by crossfire from multiple German, British, and American tank units and artillery.
By the end of the game, the front ranks of the Warsaw Pact advance had been hit pretty hard, but was still a force to be reckoned with!
I had a great time playing this afternoon. It was a challenge to try and find a way to get my own units into the fight in a way that would support my team mates. Overall, I think this will be a great event game!