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Centurion Mk 5 – Team Yankee

Centurion Mk 5

The Centurion, introduced in 1945, was the primary British main battle tank of the post-Second World War period. It is widely considered to be one of the most successful post-war tank designs, remaining in production into the 1960s, and seeing combat in the front lines into the 1980s.

According to this source, in 1981, the BAOR had 300 Centurion main battle tanks in reserve.

You can imagine that if World War III had started as imagined in the book by Harold Coyle that the British Army would want to use all the tanks they had access to when faced with the might of the armoured formations of the Warsaw Pact.

So though the Iron Maiden rules don’t cover the Centurion tank and no (British) models have been released I still thought it would be nice to have some Centurions on the gaming table.

So I ordered and purchased a couple of Sho’T models from the Flames of War Fate of a Nation range and will paint them up as British Army Centurions for use in Team Yankee games.

Centurion Mk 5

These look like really nice models.

Centurion Mk 5

Another possibility was to use my own British Civil War background and use them as Royalist forces, or as their Republican opposition.

I did consider getting the ANZAC Centurion Mk 5s from the Vietnam range, but they don’t have skirts. After operating for a few weeks in Vietnam, the tanks crews soon learned to remove the protective armoured side skirts from both sides of the tank, to prevent the vegetation and mud from building up between the track and the mudguards.

I did think that in a World War III scenario such modifications or battle damage would still mean the models could be used, but as the Israeli Sho’T models already come with skirts, I decided to use them.

So are you using Centurions in your Team Yankee games?

Building the 15mm British Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) – Team Yankee

For Christmas I was kindly given not only the Team Yankee Iron Maiden book I also got a box of the newly released 15mm British Scorpion or Scimitar Troop.

The British Army Of the Rhine had three tracked reconnaissance regiments. The recce troops of the first two were equipped entirely with Scimitar reconnaissance vehicles, while the recce troops of the third mixed Scimitars and Scorpions together.

The box contains four sprues and unit cards for use with Team Yankee. Each sprue allows you to build either a Scorpion or a Scimitar. I have made them up as two Scorpions and two Scimitars.

Here are the two Scorpions.

The FV101 Scorpion is a British armoured reconnaissance vehicle. It was the lead vehicle and the fire support type in the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked), CVR(T), family of seven armoured vehicles. Manufactured by Alvis, it was introduced into service with the British Army in 1973 and served until 1994.

Starting to build them they go together really nicely. Unlike “proper” plastic kits, these have a smaller number of parts. The tracks for example are in one piece, whereas the Airfix 1/72nd Scorpion had separate wheels and tracks.

As I mentioned in a previous post I added some ball bearings to the models to add weight.

For one of the Scimitars I added a commander figure and some extra stowage.

The FV107 Scimitar is a similar armoured reconnaissance vehicle (sometimes classed as a light tank) also used by the British Army. It was manufactured by Alvis in Coventry. It is very similar to the FV101 Scorpion, but mounts a high velocity 30 mm L21 RARDEN cannon instead of a 76 mm gun. It was issued to Royal Armoured Corps armoured regiments in the reconnaissance role.

Here are the two Scimitars.

I gave the models a white undercoat and the next stage will be a basecoat of Team Yankee Chieftain Green.

Heavier

One of the things I dislike about the new plastic 15mm kits from Battlefront is the lack of weight the models have compared to older metal kits and even the resin ones have.

With my recent addition of Team Yankee British Scorpion and Scimitar tanks I started to think about I could make them heavier.

My initial choice was some lead (or lead-free) weights of some kind, there isn’t much space in the models so any extra weight would need to be quite dense (so heavy weight but not very big). The obvious choice was fishing weights, but I couldn’t find any that were small enough for the models.

Another idea was some lead sheet, again small, but heavy.

In the end I compromised and went with Weldtite 5/32-inch British Made Case Hardened Bearings – 750 Pieces which I ordered from Amazon.

These are very small and just under 4mm in diameter.

I glued them into the hulls of the light tanks with some super glue before checking there were no loose bearings. I then glued the hull together.

They are not really heavy, but certainly better than they were and I fell less likely to be blown over by a strong breath in a game of Team Yankee.

So do you add weights to your plastic tanks and if you do, what method do you use?

15mm British Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) – Team Yankee

For Christmas I was kindly given not only the Team Yankee Iron Maiden book I also got a box of the newly released 15mm British Scorpion or Scimitar Troop.

FV107 Scimitar

This is the box art which shows two Scorpions and two Scimitars patrolling (probably) a West German town.

The box contains four sprues and unit cards for use with Team Yankee. Each sprue allows you to build either a Scorpion or a Scimitar.

Starting to build them they go together really nicely.

More soon…

Wondering about Jaguars…

In one of my previous articles on Team Yankee I did say:

I think it would be nice to have seen the Kanonenjagdpanzer, but you can’t have everything.

What I hadn’t realised when writing the article that as part of the German releases, Battlefront have released the Jaguar Jagdpanzer Zug.

The Jaguar 1 and Jaguar 2 were German Raketenjagdpanzer (rocket tank-hunter) tank destroyers armed with anti-tank guided missiles.

The Jaguars were converted from Kanonenjagdpanzers, so in theory you could spend some time converting the Jaguars back. One issue would be adding the main gun back, probably more challenging to remove the applique armour.

As this is alternate history, you could argue that the existing Kanonenjagdpanzers were upgraded with applique armour.

Challenge would be more of a tactical issue playing games with these tank destroyers, as the 90mm gun of the Kanonenjagdpanzer was ineffective against contemporary Soviet tanks of that era.

Where is Team Yankee going?

Really interesting video from Beasts of War about possible alternate futures for Team Yankee games.

Red Dawn gets a mention with the idea of a game with Cuban paratroopers landing in mainland USA, not necessarily a fully fledged invasion, but possible raid to secure US oil wells.

The British are coming…

…in the meantime let’s take a look at the Germans.

One thing that I thought that Battlefront would do when they released the Germans for Team Yankee was that they would do a minimal release and was pleasantly surprised by the range of models they did in fact bring out.

With the initial releases for the US (and Soviet) I was slightly disappointed with the limited number of models that we got. Though we had the M1 Abrams, we didn’t get the M60A3 MBT.

It felt like a really limited release, so when I saw that Battlefront were going to release German and British forces my expectation was that we would get a limited number of vehicles. So to get thirteen sets for the Germans compared to the seven for the US was really refreshing.

I did like the Raketenwerfer model, something very different.

I also was pleased to see the Marder too.

I think it would be nice to have seen the Kanonenjagdpanzer, but you can’t have everything.

As a result I have higher expectations for the future British releases. I am hoping to see the following models release for the BAOR forces.

I would like to see both the Chieftain and Challenger 1 main battle tanks, but if the American releases are anything to go by then we might only get one tank and I suspect that will be the Challenger.

I think we might also see the light tanks or armoured reconnisance vehicles the FV101 Scorpion and FV107 Scimiatar. They are very similar vehicles I can see how we could have both. The Scorpion and the Scimiatar were part of the Combat Vehicle Reconnaissance (Tracked) family. As they shared common automotive components and suspension I can see how easy it would be, if we get the Scorpion we could also get other members of the CVR(T) family such as the Spartan armoured personnel carrier (APC).

As well as the Sultan command and control vehicle, Samaritan armoured ambulance, Striker anti–tank guided missile vehicle and possibly even the Samson armoured recovery vehicle.

The main British APC in 1985 was the FV432 APC so I suspect that may be a likely contender for a model. 1985 is a bit early for the Warrior IFV that entered service in 1987.

In terms of artillery, though the British will probably get the M109 it would be interesting to see if we get the FV433 Abbot SPG. If we get the FV432 then we may get the FV438 Swingfire variant (as well as other FV430 series variants).

We already have the German Tornado, so no surprise if we have an RAF version.

I would also like to see, but don’t expect to see various British armoured cars such as the Humber Pig, the Ferret armoured car or even the Alvis Saladin Armoured Car.

So what do you think we will see for the Team Yankee releases for the British?

Image credits: Wikipedia and Battlefront

The Germans are coming

Though I really like the concept behind Battlefront’s World War Three game, Team Yankee, and I have the rules, I have not got any of the models as the US vs USSR hasn’t really appealed (and to be honest I have a bundle of Flames of War models still to paint).

Last year Battlefront teased us that there would be British and German models for Team Yankee and in the recent update we saw the first preview of the Germans.

There will be three new plastic kits: the Leopard 2 MBT, the Marder IFV and the Bo-105P Helicopter. Here is a nice video preview of the Leopard Tank

This is still NATO vs Warsaw Pact, but I have been reminded of an article I wrote for Wargames Illustrated back in the 1990s on a modern English Civil War set in the 1990s. Based on the break up of Yugoslavia, the background had the United Kingdom falling apart and descending into civil war. One aspect of the background was European involvement, as well as from the USA. Now with the Germans, the US and forthcoming British forces I could move the whole background back ten years and play games with British on British forces, with German allies and US forces on the side.

I am wondering what British forces they will be releasing?