Team Yankee - The Rotwein Spur (2) - The Storm

As the title suggests, this post follows on from the first instalment of the history of that fateful August day in 1985 when the lead elements of a Soviet Operational Manoeuvre group broke thought NATO defences and were attempting to gain access to Autobahn DN11 at the Rotwein Spur...



The real objective though was to test whether Team Yankee rules were simple and fluid enough  to handle a large, 100+ point a side solo game...twice as taxing as such games are on the brain...

When we left the action, the Soviet right flank's lightening dash over the Rotwein bridges they had found intact had been nixed by artillery fire...whilst Soviet Frogfoots had destroyed an M1 in retaliation,



the US armoured defences covering their left and centre approaches remained largely intact...

And the mech infantry covering their right hand approach through the wooded ground had yet to be tested...

The Soviet command was in a quandary...



...with the main bridges blocked, and the secondary one jammed with bailed out traffic, and heavy engineering teams some way back down the lines of communication, the Rotwein river represented a serious obstacle to the advance...



Scouts had identified that, though shallow, its banks were crumbling, so a cross check would be required both for entry enter and exit...



On the left flank, the task of leaving exiting the woods and entering the water had bogged an entire company of BRM scouts...



Whilst a T72B company on the right flank was similarly making frustratingly slow progress, with only one of its AFVs making both cross checks without incident...



To maintain the rage, the heroic Frontal Aviators, and the more traditional gunners, the Red Gods of War, would have to lay down effective fires....as always, the gunners delivered...

The Hinds, not so much...Damn those Vulcans!

Still, the timely and accurate 122mm artillery strikes had brought time for the traffic police and KGB forward detachments to unblock the chaos on the secondary bridge, and the Soviet left flanking T-72A company was back in the game!

However, at turn 3, the US reinforcements were on their way, and a platoon of M1s seemed in order...

The Soviet left flanking column barrelled straight up the road through the dark and gloomy woods...

Only to be met by 3 Dragon missiles...with the lead tank bailed on a single track road, inhabited by swarms of US Mech Infantry, this road was going nowhere...To add insult to injury, the lead M1 platoon manoeuvred to take the column in the flank...

Whilst the surviving ITV took out the lead BMP coming over the bridge - causing a second SNAFU as the rest of the company attempted to manoeuvre past the obstacle!

The surviving T72s quickly closed with the M1s - the only way to deal with them!



Well that, and call in the surviving Hinds to thin them out a little...

However the next turn saw some Hogs arrive to try to even the odds...

Which they did, taking out a T72 each...

Meanwhile, back in the woods, the scout platoon had attempted a more subtle approach to get though, avoiding the track, then pinning the mech infantry with their cannon...

However once again the dragons paid off, combined with some close in .50 cal work into side armour...there really was no way through on this flank...



So at this point, the defense, though battered, was holding...

And the final US reinforcement platoon was now on call...

However, having finally crossed the river, the Soviet thrust on their right flank had made up time and had dodged the long range ITV fire through dint of exhaustive artillery fire keeping the ITVs bailed...they were over minimum range....

Time for the ITVs to un-ass that position, handover to the second M1 platoon, and get the hell back to their fallback position on the wooded heights overlooking the autobahn...



With 2 routes blocked or firmly held, the Soviets finally figured out the best way onto the objective, the autobahn...a pincer formed by the left flank coming across the centre, meeting up with the right flank and making the right flank the main thrust...

At close range, and again with some air support, this time from the fast air boys,

the T72s were able to deal with the remaining M1 platoon...

But the USAF wasn't going to let that one ride...

Taking out 2 of the T-72s with their trusty Maverick missiles...



Would this be enough to allow the remaining ITVs, remnants of 2 platoons, to reach the tree line and set up a combined last line of defence?

No - the T72s 125mm barrels were well and truly warmed up by now and made short work of them...

The US formation was still in good order, as the trusty Mech Infantry was now in undisputed control of the woods, but the Soviet tankers were clearly in command of the autobahn - game over!

So how did I find Team Yankee worked for solo games? Well clearly there is no-one to worry if you take short cuts with the rules or scenarios - for example allowing the Dragon teams to start the game out of command. And the Ugo-Igo nature of TY, like Flames, certainly lends itself to solo play.

I found it useful to keep the Soviet and US data cards separate in 2 separate dope books, that speeded up play a lot, despite having 2 sets of stats to think about. And it felt a bit like being back in the day!

Gary and I really must coordinate our Hind camo schemes - I think mine have spent too long in Afghan!

Another consolation of being a billy-no- mates is that at least all the camo schemes match, which doesn't necessarily happen in a more social setting!

So all in all, Team Yankee receives the Sparker stamp of approval as fit for solo gaming!