Soviet Rebellious Republics version 1.1

 

Soviet Rebellious Republics is intended to explore the possibility of widespread revolts among the Red Army and ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union in the Team Yankee timeline. Hopefully, it can also provide a more interesting framework for Red-on-Red games. Bashkir ASSR, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Dagestan ASSR, Kirghiz SSR, Tatar ASSR, Turkmen SSR, Uzbek SSR and Tajik SSR are some more likely candidates for Rebellious Republics. The Baltic, Georgian and Armenian SSRs are also plausible locations of conflict, but somewhat less likely. Strangely, the Kazakh SSR seems to have both the most loyal (outside of the the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) and arguably, the most rebellious regions within the USSR. Some believe that if Kazakh SSR were not to be ruled with a constant iron fist that it would become the new land of revolutions.

Scenarios: Skirmishes rather than large scale battles would be most likely among the revolts within the Soviet Union. Team Yankee Quick Missions is ideal for Rebellious Republics. However, any Team Yankee missions should be suitable. Just find something agreeable to both players. 

https://www.team-yankee.com/Portals/0/Documents/TeamYankee/QuickMissions.pdf

Force Size: 30 to 60 points (45 points seems to work well)

Universal Special Rules: Prior to setup, both players secretly write down their option on whether or not to invoke rules CHEMICAL WEAPONS and HUMAN SHIELDS on a piece of paper. The paper should then be folded and placed on the tabled. The result should not be revealed until either rule is invoked in game or until the end of the game.

 

Soviet Forces Special Rules:

MOTHER RUSSIA - After choosing the scenario, the Soviet player has the option of choosing to be the attacker. If the option is declined, the roles of attacker/defender are chosen randomly.

I'M NOT GOING OVER THERE - Soviet category III troops had notoriously low levels of initiative. Combine low initiative with an enemy's proficiency in ambush and reconnaissance becomes a serious issue. Only half of eligible Soviet units (rounded up) may perform SPEARHEAD as defined in the TY rules.

CHEMICAL WEAPONS - The Soviet player may opt for artillery and salvo weapons to use chemical ordinance on rebel units. The infantry save is reduced by two (increasing infantry casualties by double) for rebel infantry units. If the Soviet player decides to invoke this optional rule, the victory level is shifted on level in favor of the rebel player. If CHEMICAL WEAPONS and HUMAN SHIELDS are both in play, these rules cancel each other out in every way (even though CHEMICAL WEAPONS modifier is one higher).

SOVIET INTERNAL SECURITY FORCES – The Soviet player may opt to

choose a T-80 Shock Tank Company. This represents elite Soviet internal

security troops. By fielding this unit, no other T-80, T-64 or BMP-3 units may

be purchased except allowed within this formation. The following special rules apply:

MOTHER RUSSIA – the Soviet player must choose to be the attacker, I’M

NOT GOING OVER THERE – does not apply to units in this formation,

CHEMICAL WEAPONS must be chosen as an option by the Soviet player.

Soviet Forces:

Use the Soviet book with the following restrictions:

• T-80: a maximum of 1 formation and additional units within other formations as allowed.
• T-64: a maximum of 1 formation and additional units within other formations as allowed.
• BMP-3: a maximum of 1 formation and additional units within other formations as allowed.
• Afghantsy: not allowed
• Shock Battalion: see special rule SOVIET INTERNAL SECURITY FORCES
• 2S3 Acacia Krasnopol not allowed

Rebellious Republics Special Rules:

LAND OF MY FATHERS - The rebels are fighting on lands that they have inhabited, in some cases, for many generations. One infantry unit from each formation may be held in ambush or used to spearhead. this is in addition to any other units permitted by scenarios. This does not include infantry transport vehicles. Infantry must be dismounted. 

MAINTENANENCE IS A LUXURY - The rebellious republics do not have the extensive supply chain networks to properly maintain combat vehicles. Rebel vehicles have a cross check one worse than their Soviet counterparts

HUMAN SHIELDS - Although rebels are idealistic, they are also often heartlessly cruel. Rebel infantry may improve their infantry save by 1 point from artillery and salvo weapons by hiding behind civilians. This will result in a final victory shift one level in favor of the soviet player. This rule is invoked only at the option of the rebel player.

Rebellious Republics Forces:

Use the Soviet book with the following restrictions:

• One infantry formation required for each tank formation
• T-80 not allowed
• T-64 not allowed
• 2S6 Tunguska not allowed
• BMP-3 not allowed
• T-62M ATGM not allowed
• T-55AM ATGM not allowed
• Afghantsy: not allowed
• Shock Battalion: not allowed
• 2S3 Acacia not allowed
• BM-27 not allowed
• TOS-1 not allowed
• SA-8 not allowed
• SU-25 not allowed
• MI-24 not allowed

 note: RPG-7VR upgrade is available to rebel forces on a unit basis. If one unit chooses to upgrade, the entire force is NOT required to upgrade.

This fan work is not a challenge to any of the Battlefront copyrights or trademarks. Team Yankee is an awesome game. Buy their stuff and support the game as much as you can. Also, I am not making any money on this or anything. I am just a fanboi doing this for fun. I have links below. You can use these links or whatever you like. All good. have fun.  

Team Yankee Website     

Team Yankee Soviet Page

Thanks to everybody for the comments, feedback and encouragement. Special thanks to Ralnai for the patience working with me and the awesome idea for the internal security troops.

Team Yankee - Soviet Rebellious Republics

 

With the release of the new Soviet book and the awesome new Soviet models (not to mention the can't pass-up starter boxes), a lot of people have been talking about Soviet-on-Soviet games. A straight up two sided Soviet game seems like it would likely get old pretty fast. However, I have always been fascinated by the Chechen wars and thought there may be a place in the TY timeline if altered slightly. Thus was born...Soviet Rebellious Republics. 

I plan for this to be an alteration of the new Soviet list with some special rules and expect this to be completed by the end of the year.

Lastly, I teased KPA way back in September and have them mostly done. I was hoping to have a few playtest games done before posting, but COVID has put the brakes on that. I am still unsure if they will be in a playable state by the end of the year. 

Coming Soon...Team Yankee North Korea UNOFFICIAL

 

Upcoming Soviet Goodies

The new era of Team Yankee version 2 is upon us. The Americans and Brits have already got their new stuff and it looks great. Later this year, BF will be showing the Soviets some love with some awesome new vehicles.

  

The first new Soviet vehicle is the long awaited T-80. Like all Soviet MBTs, this is expected to have decent stats, but likely not worth the point value assigned by the counter-revolutionary Bourgeoisie at BF. I believe the model is supposed to be a T-80U. The expected armor is FA20, SA10, TA2 and reportedly the first TY unit with ERA. The AT-11 Sniper missile is expected as an upgrade option.

  

The long awaited BMP-3 with three weapons systems (100mm gun, AT-10 Stabber and 30mm autocannon) will likely expand Soviet MRD capabilities if it is reasonably priced as its predecessors. This should be a fun vehicle, but likely not a game changer.

  

The less well known, but absolutely awesome TOS-1 Buratino fills the previously unoccupied niche of short-ranged rocket artillery. An impressive ordinance load of thirty 220mm thermobaric rockets allows this vehicle to literally rain down Hell. Based on the T-72 hull, this is likely the most heavily armored artillery in the game and it will need this protection due to the short (3500m) range of the 220mm rockets. The TOS-1 should significantly outperform the US MLRS in all categories except range. The TOS-1 has the capability to launch 2.5 as many rockets as the MLRS and each TOS-1 rocket is estimated to have a warhead 3-4 times the size of MLRS. This would result in a TOS-1 salvo having 9 times the power of an MLRS (although at a significantly shorter range). The TOS-1 could easily have an anti-tank value of 5 and a firepower of 2+ or 3+. Expect these guys to be expensive (even with Soviet 5+ skill) and limited in numbers.       

Here is the TOS-1 in real life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q91yFP9E9Yg

The Tunguska 2K22 tracked anti-aircraft vehicle is a long time favorite and welcomed addition to TY. It is the Soviet equivalent of a Gepard and Roland on a single chassis. The 30mm guns provide more punch than the 23mm guns of the ZSU-23/4 and the missile system is somewhat comparable to the SA-13. These should be fun, but don't expect any drastic increase in capability by deploying these instead of the typical ZSU/SA-13 mix     

Here is a video that shows the Tunguska along with ZSU-23/4 and SA-13:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPsBxkDLi0

Filling the role of an upgraded, heavier and modernized BM-21, BM-27 Uragan will likely be comparable to U.S. MLRS with inferior Soviet skill of 5+. As with BMP-3 and Tunguska, this is unlikely to be a game changer, but still fun to play. It will be interesting to see the actual model when released by BF. 

Mi-8 Hip enables Soviet players to play full scale VDV rather than the Afghansty (AKA VDV lite) units carried solely in Mi-24s. Hopefully, a gunship version is also available. This new chopper has the potential to really expand Red Army capabilities in TY. With a real life capacity of 24 troops (compared to the Hind's 8 troop capacity), the Mi-8 will hopefully have a 6 stand capacity thus allowing significant heliborne operations.     

Overall, these 6 new additions to the TY Soviet arsenal will be fun. If the point values are accurate, these vehicles should allow the Red Army some competitiveness in V2.  

Hopefully, other Pact nations will get some of these new vehicles...Lets see!

Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

Team Yankee is a game, not a simulation. While working on Red Tide, I was forced to make some unpalatable compromises. Each time, I reminded myself that TY is a game. It is OK to include (or exclude) something that would make a professional analyst snicker and a neck-beard huff if the overall gaming experience is preserved. Now, after several revisions, I feel the few remaining compromises are justified. Declassified information concerning Soviet Naval Infantry is incomplete and often contradictory. It is almost as if the Cold War were ongoing. I believe it is more important that Red Tide gives the player the feel of the the SNI rather than focusing on the minutiae of their TO&E that have minimal impact on the game.That does not mean that long hours of research weren't spent to achieve reasonable accuracy based on the available data. What it means is that some inaccuracies were permitted to allow Red Tide to fit within the bounds of TY (exactly like all the other TY armies). Ultimately, I believe Red Tide introduces SNI to TY as a viable and balanced force that is also hopefully enjoyable to play.  

David Dean 

9/21/2019

There are supposedly stories of non-coms telling new recruits that the SNI never venture beyond the range of the 152mm naval guns. This makes a good story, but of course is untrue. However, it does show the dependence on naval guns. Although an SNI battalion does have organic MRL and howitzer support that a motorized rifle battalion lacks, it comes up short compared to the MR battalion when division resources are included in the equation. Naval fire support, provided primary from Sverdlov class light cruisers, brings the SNI back to parity with the MR battalion and arguably gives the SNI battalion the advantage.

  

Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 1 Brigade and Battalion Structure

“The primary mission of the Soviet Naval Infantry (Morskaya Pekhota) is to seize control of territory adjacent to important straits and other waterways. This can be accomplished by independent amphibious landings, by spearheading combined marine-army operations, or in combined operations with airborne troops. The secondary mission of Soviet marines is to defend captured coastal territory and naval bases.”[1]

The Team Yankee period Soviet Naval Infantry is composed of a single independent infantry division and four independent infantry brigades. The Pacific Fleet’s NI division is based in Vladivostok. The Baltic and Black Sea Fleets each have one brigade and the Northern Fleet has two independent brigades.

The Baltic Fleet’s 336th Naval Infantry Brigade along with the Polish 7th Sea Landing Brigade can be expected to lead the effort to secure the Denmark Straits. The Soviet 7th Guards Airborne Division and the Polish 6th Airborne Brigade would likely coordinate with amphibious operations.

Coming soon... Red Tide: Soviet Naval Infantry - Part 2 Companies, Platoons and Support

---

[1] The Soviet Navy: Landing Their Landing Force By Norman Polmar, Editor, Guide to the Soviet Navy, January 1987, Proceedings Vol. 113/1/1,007

Battle Report: Israelis vs. Czech - Bohemians can't hit with Sagger and Spiral or are all those Skyhawks on fire?

Two Weeks ago, I had the pleasure of hosting a game with Kel at my place. We used the Quick Missions from the TY website. Kel rolled “Seize the Bridge” and I didn’t want to add a river to our table, so he rerolled “Annihilation” as our mission.

We played 60 points and the table was a 4x4 using modular tiles I had scratch built for micro-armor. The roads weren’t to scale so we called them single lane country roads. Kel rolled high and was the attacker with his Israelis and I was the defender with my Czechs (go figure). Kel wisely chose the most defensible side of the board and dug in deep.

Unusual, but still Kosher, the Israelis fielded Magachs and no Merkavas. This proved to be another wise decision (or Kel is a disciple of Kabbalah?). The standard Perah and mech units supported the Israeli armor with napalm armed Skyhawks waiting to strike. In the pic above, the ZSU-57 are actually VADS.

The Czechs fielded two battalions of T-55s crewed by pensioners and alcoholics accompanied by BMP recon elements. A motorized rifle battalion with both BMP-1 and BMP-2 supported the armor. Artillery fire support was provided by a battery of DANA and AT fire support from a platoon of BRDM AT. Air defense duties were covered by an elite ZSU-23/4 unit that was incorrectly assigned to this category III division due to a clerical mistake.

The game started and the T-55s charged down the central valley and took heavy casualties from highly accurate Magach fire. In return, the T-55s were only able to machine gun 3 Tow Jeeps and unsuccessfully assault the fourth jeep (which fled). In the charge forward, the T-55s were unable to achieve a single hit with their 100mm guns. This was attributed to the pensioner crews lack of training with the laser ranger finders on the T-55AM2. However, they were proficient with the antiquated but still effective machine guns.

Except for two kills on Perehs, the Czech Sagger and Spiral fire was completely ineffectual and landed no hits whatsoever. Both the regimental commander and the political officer blamed the poor results on the chronic alcoholism throughout the division. It was later noted that every Sagger and Spiral gunner in the Division was intoxicated during the battle. 

Meanwhile, Kel gloriously charged his mech unit forward on the Czech weak side. The only time his troops were vulnerable, while dismounting from M113, I tried to range in my DANAs and give the Israeli infantry a 152mm H.E. introduction to Communism. However, that was not to be. With a skill of 4+ and three attempts, the DANAs could not range in on the vulnerable Israeli infantry caught in the open and the golden opportunity was forever gone. Reportedly, the aged Czech forward observers were not familiar with the new Soviet supplied radios and thus unable to timely call in artillery strikes.

Feeling the need to smell napalm in the morning, Kel brought on four Skyhawks that lined up for a napalm run that would likely burn out and collapse my entire right flank. With my right flank turned to KFC (Kosher Fried Chicken), he could possibly roll up the entire side of my army and I couldn't stop him.  

My entire army is Iron Curtain category III crap (and I love them for it). Everything except those elite ZSU crews that weren’t supposed to be here. One of the ZSUs got shot up earlier. The three that survived were pissed off and looking for payback. Now, there were four incoming fast movers. That said the chance for payback was at hand. Instead of the huge napalm strike turning my rifle infantry into a Czech Apocalypse Now, there were four airborne fireballs and three shit hot ZSU crews giving each other the Russian equivalent of high fives. The Pact’s only moment of glory this day!

During the celebrations, a lone Israeli team reached RPG range of the Czech division commander and took a pot shot that narrowly missed. All the while shouting in Hebrew, “Leroy Jenkins.” A ZSU quickly killed the team and decided it was too early to celebrate.

We called the game. Neither force was destroyed, but the Israelis were in much better shape than the Czechs.

I eyeballed the pics and going from memory…it was ugly.

Killed

Israeli

2 Pereh                                    5 pts

3 Tow Jeeps                            4.5 pts

4 Skyhawks                            6 pts

Most of mech inf plt            ~7pts

                                             22.5pts

Czech

17 T-55                                   17pts

1 ZSU-23/4                               1pts

4 BMP-1                                   2pts

3 BMP-2                                   1.5pts

3 inf stands                                2.5pts

I think there was some more     3 pts

                                                 27pts

The points killed are deceptive. The Israeli advantage was more than shown by the points killed.

Kel’s shot selection was very good. Choosing Magachs instead of Merkava’s proved to be a good choice in this case. The extra guns were much more important than the armor. His mech infantry charge would have likely won the game if the Skyhawks had a good napalm run.

I should have spent less effort on the TOW jeeps and gone at the Magachs immediately. On the first turn, I should have dropped smoke for my T55 to run up behind. I should have put my DANA on the Magachs and left them there starting on the second turn. I debated about my force selection, but I think the list is fine.

The quick missions are fun. I think maybe 40 points would be interesting. I would also like to play one of the scenarios with objectives.

Category III divisions need to make do with pensioners and alcoholics. I will miss the ZSU crews when the paperwork catches up and they get reassigned.

Thanks, Kel for an AWESOME game!