WWIII: Team Yankee at the LVO

The group 

WWIII: Team Yankee at the LVO
with Chris Jackson

This year’s Las Vegas Open event was a “can’t miss” event for me. It featured two large tournaments and a great venue to play in. Best of all, there was a decent chance I would get to play more than one new person I hadn’t played before, something which seldom if ever happens for me in my usual stomping grounds. I decided to try something different this year. I have never run a British Army in WWIII: Team Yankee before, so now seemed as good a time as any. This is what I came up with and why I came up with it.

I love British Infantry. It is rock solid and can deal with anything so the heart of my force was a bare bones infantry company: Headquarters and two Milan equipped infantry platoons. I also believe the Scorpion is the best BMP killer in the game, it is great for dealing with the hordes, be they in BMPs or BTRs. I therefore bought a Medium Recce formation with HQ, two Scorpion platoons and four dealing with those pesky high front armor MBTs, I paid the premium for 4 Strikers. Finally, because I knew at some point I might be required to shift some dug in infantry, I bought an Abrams equipped Armored Cavalry Troop with two scout sections and the HQ.

My first opponent was Frank Yuan. He brought a Soviet BTR Battalion with lots of Artillery and T-64 support. He wanted to attack, so I obliged him. We rolled up No Retreat as our mission and the set up was pretty standard. I put the M1s and a Section of scouts in Reserve, put the Strikers in Ambush and laid the minefields on my left flank covering the deep objective. Frank did a good job of concentrating his force on the near objective but his infantry and light armor ran into a veritable buzzsaw from 11 APCs, 8 scouts, and the four Strikers. When the Abrams came on in turn three, he was completely outclassed. The T-64s had been firing from a support by fire position outside the range of my Strikers. 

Frank feeding his Motorized Rifles into the buzzsaw

They were forced to come in with the destruction of all of his light armor and were promptly rendered combat ineffective. Hs infantry companies (note the plural there) stayed pinned for both turns and were steadily whittled down, both dying completely on turn 5. When the second company fled, there was no one left to contest the objective, making me the victor as soon as his turn 6 ended. He had killed one of the Scorpion platoons on turn one, and spent his turn six trying to kill a second platoon, but to no avail. 8-1 victory to me.

After the first round, there were 4 players with a perfect score. Me, John Cedarburg, Jake Mayer, and Vince Arroyo. Jake is part of my Texas gaming group and Since he was running Syrians and was the only one of the four of us running a Warsaw Pact aligned nation, he got paired with John’s Israelis. I got to take on Vince Arroyo, one whose name has been repeated often here lately, as he won the FOW tournament with a perfect score on the next two days competition. This had not yet come to pass so I thought I was going to have a fairly easy time dealing with him because he had so many points tied up in aviation. I was wrong.

Vince's Cobra's eating my Air  Defense

My fight with Vince was a little scary for me. He had 8 cobras and 4 Harriers supporting an Airborne Infantry force with three infantry platoons, a Sheridan platoon, ADA and artillery. He also elected to attack and I found myself defending in No Retreat again. He picked night and the roll said we were fighting at dawn. He then proceeded to completely obliterate my ADA over the course of the first two turns. Since I had little else I could do with them at this point, all of my ATGM equipped units got swung around and spent the entire game engaging the Cobras. They were eventually successful, but nothing was going to save the Blowpipes and the Rapiers. 

The Rapiers went first. Sub average hits and above average saves meant the Rapiers and Blowpipes only accounted for a Harrier and a Cobra after turn one. This was partially alleviated by the success of an AAMG downing a second Cobra for three dead Rapier and one bailed. The following turn all the Blowpipes and Rapier were so much scrap metal, and only one more helicopter was gone. This could be a problem.

It wasn’t. I managed to pull out a 6-3 win. Vince neglected to advance the rest of his army under cover of darkness. My ATGMs were steadily launching missiles into his Cobras and despite an overabundance of 1 and 2 firepower rolls, by turn 6 the helicopter menace had been removed. He finally committed his airmobile reserve on turn 6, landing it in the area behind my forward objective. Unfortunately for him, I was successfully able to shoot the advancing airmobile platoon back from the front of the objective, while the sight of multiple APC’s spitting tracers and rumbling in forced the Airmobile platoon to take off again, leaving me in control of the objective. He was able to kill a Scorpion platoon supporting the Infantry on the objective to get the 3 rd point.

I was a little concerned going into Round 3. Jake had manhandled John Cedarburg and was now in first place, with me one point behind. Jake, not one to miss an opportunity, was quick to inquire how I liked his dust. I didn’t. Alex Montalvo had requested me as an opponent and as we had equal points, his wish was granted. He also wanted to attack, and just for fun, he rolled Rearguard for us. I was very happy. My list can go to turn 6 before I have to make any hard choices about what to withdraw. This is my mission. I had pulled the Rapier section, 2 scout sections, and the Recce HQ when the mission ended on turn 5 with Alex’s Army breaking. Alex’s right flank crumbled on turn two under the combined fire of the M1s firing from ambush, an infantry platoon, the Blowpipes and the Strikers. His right lasted three more turns and was able to kill the infantry platoon guarding my right flank objective, but at the cost of exposing the last of his infantry to devastating return fire. On my turn 5 I focused all available weapons on the remaining 5 stands, and when there were only two left, his second formation was broken, and the win was mine.

He was so close

winning

I discussed what my opponents did well and how they could improve their performance after every game. The tournament was followed up by a very enjoyable dinner at the Hash House, a comfort food restaurant a short way up the strip. This wasn’t a National event so no trophy, but Battlefront has pledged to send me a new British Army Box and the new British Book as soon as they are released.

The organizer, Christian Sorensen also provided a Merkava platoon box for being the participant who travelled the farthest to get there. All in all it was an excellent event run in a very professional manner. My hat is off to Christian Sorensen and his crew who ran the tournament and provided 15 excellent tables. Well done, gentlemen, well done.
~Chris


Last Updated On Thursday, February 13, 2020