Team Yankee House Rules

In the recent post about WINTERCON 2018, I listed the house rules we used for the 6mm Team Yankee game. I thought I’d put a stand alone post on house rules and expand on those already listed.

Players can use some, or all, of the house rules. The aim is to utilise existing TY rules in an expanded or different way to achieve more realistic effects.

House Rules:

‘Overwatch’ or ‘Opportunity-Fire’ Mechanism:

• The method of implementing ‘Overwatch Fire’ is to extend the existing “Shooting at Aircraft in the Enemy Turn” rules to ALL stands. This means that non-guided weapons can choose to shoot at enemy stands in the attacker’s turn before the attacker stands fire. But the defender stands are then marked and cannot:
• shoot in defensive fire in the assault step, or
• shoot in their own shooting step next turn, or 
• assault in the assault step next turn. 
• This is an easy way to implement a form of ‘overwatch’ fire. But like AA fire, there is a real tactical trade off choice to be made. However it can offer an advantage if used well, and stops enemy driving past defending troops with impunity.

Hidden Deployment: 

• The method of implementing ‘Hidden deployment’ without complex map-deployment is that Defenders can utilise the scenario special “Ambush” deployment rule for ALL stands. 
• Use of recon is therefore important for the attacker to detect, or limit the deployment opportunities for (ie. Clear or deny), hidden enemy positions. 
• This is a simple way of allowing defenders to deploy hidden, does not require complex ‘spotting’ rules, and encourages use of recon and forward tactical groupings’ movement to shoot revealed stands firing in the attacker’s turn (from the rule above).

Off Table Artillery:

• The method for implementing off table artillery is simply to use the ‘Firebase’ rules from the ‘Nam supplement. The rule reads:
• Units with the Firebase special rule remain off table when deployed or arriving from Reserves unless specified by the mission. While off table, they can still fire artillery bombardments anywhere on the table, regardless of range. Centre the template over the aiming point and rotate it so that it is square to the table edges. A unit firing from off-table like this is ignored for formation last stand, and will not keep the formation in good spirits. If the unit was placed in Reserve, it must still arrive from Reserve before it can fire.

Counter-Battery Fire:

• Some people may feel that the previous rule on off table artillery makes the artillery invulnerable to enemy action (whearas they would be vulnerable if placed on table).
• Allow players to set aside one of their artillery (not mortar) units as a dedicated counter battery fire unit. If the enemy fires artillery in indirect fire, then allow the dedicated counter battery artillery unit to resolve an attack against the firing artillery.

Barbed Wire:

• Players can use Barbed Wire, as per the ‘Nam rules:
• Barbed Wire Obstacles are marked as a 4” / 10cm long coil of wire. As Difficult Terrain, they can only be crossed at Tactical or Terrain Dash speed and require a cross test. Infantry teams attempting to cross Barbed Wire Obstacles must roll a die:
• If the score is greater than or equal to their Skill rating, they cross unhindered.
• Otherwise, the team halts immediately.
• Barbed Wire Obstacles are Flat Terrain that does not provide Bulletproof Cover.

Scenarios:

• Make up your own!

• The standard TY scenarios are very 'gamey' and optimised for equal-points tournament or pick up game style. 

• 'Fairness' is the aim of these points-balanced systems. But war isn't fair, so wargames shouldn't be either!! 

• Develop scenarios based on historical situations, doctrine or just 'what-if' scenarios. There's  no need for the forces to be balanced. 

• Scenario victory conditions can be different for each side to balance for the inequality in forces. 

• For example, holding against the odds for a number of turns, exiting a large portion of your force off table, or inflicting a percentage of casualties.

Adapting to 6mm

• There is no need to change any rules whatsoever. You can use the rules "as written" with 6mm.


• Just use the same measurements, templates, etc as in 15mm, but with the 6mm miniatures. You'll find it gives a much better miniature-to-ground-scale and looks better (not so 'crowded').


• Of course, all the house rules above work equally well with 6mm.

Adapting to 3mm

• As for 6mm, there is no need to change any rules whatsoever. You can use the rules "as written" with 3mm.

• Just use the same measurements, templates, etc as in 15mm, but with the 3mm miniatures. You'll find it gives a much better miniature-to-ground-scale and looks better (not so 'crowded').

• Of course, all the house rules above work equally well with 3mm.

• The other option with 3mm is to use centimetres in lieu of the inch measurements in the TY rules. So 1" from the 15mm rules becomes 1cm on the 3mm tabletop. 

• With the 3mm miniatures, this allows very large games with lots of manoeuvre to be played on the same table surface. 

• For example, a 6'x4' table (180x120cm) when using centimetres becomes the equivalent of 180" x 120", or 15'x10'!!

• It also allows play in a smaller space; a 4'x3' table becomes 10'x7.5'. This still provides much more manoeuvre space than the 15mm equivalent. 72cm x 48cm (~2.5'x1.5') would be the equivalent of a usual 6'x4' table. Although then things get crowded and you get the car park effect, just in 3mm this time, so I recommend a 4'x3' or 3'x2' table minimum.