2023 WWIII: Team Yankee Oceanic Championships

2023 WWIII: Team Yankee Oceanic Championships By Andrew Thompson The Simpson Barracks Gamin Group hosted the 2023 WWIII: Team Yankee Oceanic Championships 18-19 November 2023. Twenty-two players from across Australia and New Zealand gathered at Simpson Barracks, Watsonia, Victoria, Australia for EXERCISE Kangaroo 23. The Oceanic’s were named after the Australian Armies exercise of the 80s and 90s.

The weekend was conducted at B Squadron, 4th/19th Price of Wales Light Horse Regiments instruction block. Players got a chance to visit the unit’s museum and look at some of the vehicles they have used throughout their history and at actions and operations they have been involved in.

The event consisted of four rounds played over four days with armies that were 115 points. The initial draw was a random draw that saw NATO players up against WARSAW PAC players. From there players were pitted against each other with the same wins and/or points. Scoring was done by wins, followed by victory points. For those players with the same number of wins and points a count-back system was used using the points of players they played and points scored against them. Draws were recorded as losses for both players per WWIII: Team Yankee guidelines.

Winners of the event were: 1st Place and Best NATO General: Nick Ashby with his US Light Combined Arms Army 2nd Place, Best WARSAW PAC General and best painted: Allen Thrun with his Croatians 3rd Place was Sofia Chambers and her VDV Soviet Airborne force.

Best Sport was Adam Trapski and his Israeli force which was also a very close second as best painted.

A massive thank you to Battlefront, Aetherworks, The Battle Bunker and House of War for their excellent support in helping run the event which saw us raise $1060 for charity. To Allen Thrun for coming up with the concept for the World Series events and a massive big thank you to the Simpson Barracks Gaming Group support crew who cooked the BBQs and did all the running around for me that made my job as TO a lot easier. Shazz and Dory, absolute legends.

Overall placements were the following: Place Name Army Wins Points 1st Nick Ashby US Light Combined Arms Company 4 30 2nd Allen Thrun Croatian T55M Tank Battalion 3 22 3rd Sofia Chambers Soviet VDV 3 22 4th Karl Sullivan ANZAC Leopard & Mech Infantry force 2* 20 5th Fraser Bulleid* US M1 Tank Company 2 17 6th Phil LeHunt US Armoured Cav & Iraqi T62 force 2 17 7th Django Upton Soviet T62 Battalion 1 15 8th Nigel Brand Swiss S Tank Company 1 14 9th Dominic Chevalier French AMX 30 Tank Company 1 14 10th Michael Wright US Marine Tank & Infantry force 1 14 11th Alexander Seth US 1 13 12th Adam Cully Finnish 1 13 13th Josh Spencer* Danish Leopard 1 Tank Company 1 12 14th Saravan Peacock US Bradley & HMMVV force 1 9 15th Russell Hodges* East German BMP Battalion 1 8 16th David Still T55M & BMP3 force 0 12 17th Stephen Fodden T62M Battalion 0 11 18th Adam Trapski Israeli Merkva 2 Company 0 10 19th Lukus Watson US Marine & Light Attack Company 0 8 20th Sam Lowe UK Challenger 2 Company 0 7 21st Derek Prout* Canadian Leopard 1 Company 0 6 22nd Dominic Dubois* West German Mech Infantry Company 0 6

Note: This was Fraser Bulleid, Josh Spencer and Dominic Dubois' first-ever tournament and they had only learnt the game two days prior.

Russell Hodges and Derek Prout only played two games on the one day.

Karl Sullivan withdrew for the last round due to illness.

Best Painted Allen’s Croatian T55M with BMP3s