Time of Day, Episode 6 - WW3:Team Yankee starters

[@richtysoe6393]

The lack of the PKMs in the BMP company box also stops it comboing really nicely with the soviet t-80 company starter. if it had just one, you'd have your BMP-2 mounted shock motor rifle company to add some more meat to the 1-80 formation, another pair of frogfeet to go with the first pair, another 2 BDRMs (so you can build out 4 gaskins, 3 spandrels across both boxes), and a t-55AM unit for support, plus 3 spare BMPs...

[@psybite]

Battlefront do sell the PKM as a separate sprue direct from their website. Also comes with Gremlin on the sprue.

[@breakthroughassault4791]

Ah, good to know! Thanks @psybite.

[@masonicrat]

Enjoyed listening to this while typing. Thank you

[@masonicrat]

I think you are forgetting that the British Helo infantry have 2/3 milans in each squad by default... 7pts for 8 stands, 3 of which are milans, is rather strong.

[@masonicrat]

Tunguskas have 1 more ROF and are AT10 vs 6 of the Shilka. They also are FP 3+ like the Gecko which is also 8pts for 4. It's an infinitely better chaparral

[@masonicrat]

It's a pain, but you can get the pkm machine guns single sprue on direct order from BF for $7. TOTALLY agree that it should have been included in box though

[@breakthroughassault4791]

Thanks for listening, glad you enjoyed it!

[@breakthroughassault4791]

It is, but... my opponent Simon ran a heliborne formation and I just smoked him, charged into the minimum effective range of the Milan, and then shot him up at short range as he didn't have any Charlie G to dissuade me. The formation certainly has its uses but it struggle under pressure.

[@SolidCat]

Great video as usual. Agree with a lot of the points here, also potentially worth mentioning is that the T-72 battalion could also be used as a stepping stone for a Finnish force (so long as you have some local Soviet players to trade with). Also VDV box is just so good, I bought two on release and run them as the elite version, spare team can be taken as the old afghansty guys or something else. Not really considered running them as the hit on 3 variant until you guys made some good points in them.

[@breakthroughassault4791]

Thanks @solidcat, glad you enjoyed it! In hindsight, we should have put VDV as buy two.

[@el-cee]

So after a week, i managed to listen to the episode in its entirety, while i built some french stuff to prep for the Nato Forces. Found a box of Durands devils for 30€, so i though i might start practice painting french. In general i think i pretty much agree with your ranking. I never thought much about the box compositions, at least unless there was a weird mix or number of tanks (looking at you british tier army boxes), that usually came later, when expanding the armies towards 100 pts in my case, i used some PKM on large bases for RPK count as. I wished there were more infantry based formations, but aside from the existing Warsaw Pact force, i cant see any reason for BF to create them. also for Mike Pansarvärnspjästerrängbil ~ Anti-tank off-road vehicle; so just calling them AT Jeeps would be fine, i guess

[@el-cee]

I've waited for this for a while... and i'm looking forward to your coverage on the Nato Forces. F me a major downside of the new boxes for Sweden and France is, that compared to the old ones, they offer much value even ignoring the (subjectively) questionable choices. [You can build a more useful force just buying 3 S-Tank boxes + the Pvpjtgb box for less.] Back in the day i bought 2 of the German boxes, but only because i got them cheap (60€) [the M109s went to my USMC force]. Seeing tanks in German recce formations is not unreasonable, both Leopard 1 and 2 were used. As for the Marder 2,... well who knows, it is sensible though, since the Marder 2 was intended to have "unrestricted operational capability with the Leopard 2". German armoured reconnaissance; in the team Yankee timeframe would have consisted of: 1980-1990 armoured reconnaissance battalion 2 heavy companies with 4x3 Leopard 1 each 1 mixed company with 2x3 Leopard 1 and 4x2 Luchs 1 reconnaissance company with Tpz Fuchs 3 "brigade reconnaissance" companies with 4x2 Luchs each (in peace time part of the battalion) 1990-1994 Leopard 1 get replaced with Leopard 2 with "light" armoured reconnaissance battalion (used on Corp level) 1 airmobile company 3 light companies with 6x2 Luchs 1 reconnaissance company and "heavy" armoured reconnaissance battalion 3 mixed companies 3x3 Leopard 2 and 5x2Luchs 3 "brigade reconnaissance" companies with 6x2 Luchs each (in peace time part of the battalion) 1 reconnaissance companye Post cold war the Leopard 2 were disbanded or removed from the armoured reconnaissance (1995-2001), the Luchs was replace with Fennek armoured cars starting in 2003

[@Based_Lord_Humongous]

The best way to buold an all bases T-55 Battalion is to buy 2 boxes of Nam K-1 Ironclad Companies for the 4 ZSU-57-2 that Iraq and I think Cuba gets(?). Then get two boxes of Fate of a Nation T-55 starters, I think its Egyptian, to get 4 Shilka and all those T-55s as well. At that point you should have 36 plastic T-55 with which to build 55 and AM. The Syrian Box would give you 9 T-62M, so mixing the Syrian and Egyptian boxes with the Warpacts and Soviets would get you the bulk of your 62 and 55 lists.

[@breakthroughassault4791]

Fair point. I wanted to discuss the FoaN and Nam boxes as TY boxes but Mike thought it over-complicated things so we let it to pure TY boxes.

[@michaelwain3198]

for the British starter, bin the Chieftains and the Fox, replace the Chieftains with 2 Challengers like you said and replace the 4 Foxes with 4 Scorpions. That not only gives you the Chally HQ and 2 platoons of 3 tanks, in addition the Scorpions and Warrior Milans add to the formation. Not sure what to replace the extra pair of Scorpions with though = maybe an FV432 to make a FOO?

[@breakthroughassault4791]

I think a FOO would be a fine addition. Some precedence with the West German and French sets too!

[@michaelwain3198]

@@breakthroughassault4791 i prefer Swingfires to the Warrior Milans but I get the Warriors are more thematic with Challengers

[@victordenbak]

Pro tip on the lack of PKM in the BMP motor rifle battalion: you can use the 6 extra PKM gunners per Finnish Jaakari blister if you choose to put the KK 62 machine gun in the Finnish squads. This gives you 2 bases of PKM if you add in some extra riflemen and large bases.

[@breakthroughassault4791]

Did not know that the platoon had optional MG types! That's kinda cool. Thanks for the heads up.

[@el-cee]

good point, they are a bit "out of scale" in comparison, but should do well enough.

[@michaelwain3198]

A pair of T-72B starter forces and a single BMP infantry is a good cost effective way of getting a Warsaw Pact T-72 force. After that buy the heavy weapons for the infantry, some Shilkas + Carnations and that's not too shabby. Dana's are also a top pick if you want Polish or Czechs

[@breakthroughassault4791]

That's in the region of about £250-270 which, for a warsaw pact, isn't too bad for doing a hoard force, certainly. I am annoyed that the East Germans never bought Dana guns...

[@michaelwain3198]

@@breakthroughassault4791 If you run 14 Polish T-72B's, it's not quite as hoardy as you might expect. The T-72B and T-64BV are easily the best Soviet/Pact tank if you don't want a big tank horde but still want to outnumber the best NATO tanks

[@Beltayn7272]

"There is no way to get PKM machine guns..." false. Team Yankee is ostensibly a (alt)historical game. They dot pay royalties to general dynamics when you buy a box of BFVs. There is nothing whatever stopping you from getting PKMs by the armful from old glory, QRF, empress, or literally anyone else that makes 15mm cold war figures.

[@breakthroughassault4791]

That is true. But these discussions are very much centred around a FLGS supply chain. Ultimately, "3D printer goes bbrrtt" fixes many issues (though also renders most the content discussion moot), even before looking at the wide variety of potential third parties. Though, you'd have to be really desperate to need to go to QRF.

[@Beltayn7272]

@@breakthroughassault4791 are QRF that bad? Hard to tell because their website is all but unuseable.