Battlefront Games Day A Flames of War and Team Yankee Event with Ilya Semionov On 18th of June 2017 Geek Wars store in cooperation with Voevoda club organized the Battlefront Games Day in Moscow, Russia. Battlefront produces an ever-growing range of miniature wargames, and so the wargaming community in our club gets more and more sub-branches and groups which play specific games or periods. As we’ve had a lot of newbies lately and we wanted some distraction from the ever-present competitive play, we decided to hold an event that would ensure every player brought their favorite army and found some great games to join!

As a result, we set up two historically flavored 2x2 player scenarios for operations Barbarossa and Typhoon on the Eastern Front 1941 for Early War, a battle in Italy 1944 for Late War and in a club first, a Team Yankee battle. The Barbarossa game featured a Mittlere Panzerkompanie supported by SS Infantry attacking across a worker’s settlement further into Mother Russia. The Soviet Strelkovy prepared for blocking the “Panzerstrasse” - the road on the axis of the German offensive, while a whole load of T-26 tanks, BA-10 armored cars, and a pair of T-34s as heavy support, launched a counter-attack at the German positions from the deep woods on the Soviet side of the table.

The clash between the numerous armored vehicles resulted in a big number of burning Panzer IIs and some destroyed BA-10s and T-26s. The Soviet tanks engaged the Panzers with overwhelming firepower, which made it possible for the infantry on the left flank of the Soviets to swarm into the German deployment area, threatening an objective. The SS infantry was on the defensive all the time, and volleys of supporting fire from Soviet artillery kept them in their foxholes. At the end of the game it was clear the Soviets stopped the German advance in that direction for a few days!

The snowy fields of the Typhoon-themed battle saw some newly delivered British tanks, under Soviet command engaging the Czech-designed Panzers with German crews inside. The fight for a railroad station was fierce: the Soviet Red Banner Strelkovy attacked the positions of the Gepanzerte Panzerpioniers time after time and was stopped by the deadly defensive fire, the feared IL-2 hunted the little Panzers with little to no success. The mighty 8.8 Flak took the turret off the heavy Matilda beast, and two KV-1 tanks dared not to get into the open under the precise fire of the Luftwaffe AA crews. Nevertheless, the action ended in a stalemate with no side getting the upper hand in the fight.

On the Italian front 1944 the US Paratroopers heavily beat the not-so-experienced Reichsgrenadiers in a fast-paced Counter Attack battle. The abundance of mortars in the paratrooper platoons and good positioning of the AT assets allowed the Americans to stop both the main body of the German infantry and the armored reserves coming to the rescue. On the turn 4 there was no hope left for the Germans, and the commander decided to call a retreat.

The main event was a 50 point Team Yankee game between the British and Soviet forces. It was a game we had been waiting for, for weeks, as many of us gathered our forces, gluing and painting miniatures for the upcoming 1st of July Team Yankee tournament! The Soviet player from the city of Vladimir even borrowed an army from a fellow-player and made a 200 km long trip to participate in that battle, as no one else was ready to field a fully-painted WarPac army!
It was an intense struggle with; Mi-24s hunting the Chieftan tanks and BMP-1s destroying the British armor from the distance, only the stubbornness of the British commander who refused to surrender, successfully rolling a Formation Last Stand check while holding an objective, made the Soviets admit their defeat.

The Battlefront Games Day made us forget the competition and enjoy the pure course of battle on the well laid out tables in the good company of friends. The practice of playing big games gave new challenges to the newbie players and opened new horizons for list building and army composition. A short glance at the scenes from the Team Yankee game brought so much more enthusiasm to the guys who still have to finish their brush work that we hope there’ll be quite a few more Team Yankee forces around here in no time! ~ Ilya.