Team Yankee in 1/285

Over the holidays I picked up a copy of the new Team Yankee rulebook from Battlefront. For those who don't know, this is the Cold War version of Flames of War intended for their own range of 15mm stuff, but in my opinion, vastly better suited for microarmour in terms of ground scale. I always wanted to like Flames of War because of the range of models, production value and popularity, but the rules always put me off for being clunky and full of special national characteristic rules which to me is just bad design. Team Yankee is a vast improvement on the FOW engine - it's considerably streamlined, sensible, has few special rules and exceptions, and might actually look like okay with 1/285 models in terms of ground scale.

So it has inspired me to paint up more modern microarmour, the game is set in 1985 when M1 Abrams tanks just arrived in Europe, historically painted in forest green at a time when most of the kit like M1092, M113s etc.. in theatre was still MERDC camo and prior to the transition to Nato tricolour:

Sassanid elephant division

Here we have four (!) Sassanid elephants - two from Aventine and two from Old Glory - along with a bunch of light foot archers and javelinmen. Getting close to having a very sizable and colourful Persian army to play with! The biggest challenge may be storage - these are big pachyderms.

In 2015 I painted a lot of lead - not sure if the pile actually shrank or not on balance, but here are the numbers:

1/600: 24 aircraft
10mm: 462 foot, 24 mounted, 9 guns, 2 wagons
15mm: 235 foot, 56 mounted, 4 chariots, 4 vehicles, 1 chopper
1/72: 329 foot, 18 mounted, 6 guns, 2 limbers, vehicle
28mm: 154 foot, 56 mounted, 1 dragon
6mm: 48 vehicles, 52 infantry
1/35: 1 tank
Total: 1333 foot, 154 mounted, 103 other

The large amount of 10mm were ACW, the 15mm stuff was mostly DBA, the 1/72 were Napoleonics and WW2, and the 28s mostly ancients/medievals.

In 2016 I plan to complete these Sassanids to play "To the Strongest", and would also like to try Team Yankee using my growing collection of modern microarmour. 

More Sassanid Savaran

Here is the last of the Sassanid heavy cavalry - as before these are 28mm with LBM shield transfers. On the bench now are the hordes of foot and some elephants.

What AVRE 'ere?

An AVRE (Armoured Vehicle Royal Engineers) of course - much needed support for the Brits in Operation Martlet where they were stymied in their first encountered by German MGs in hard cover. A few "flying dustbins" launched from the 290mm spigot mortar should help clear a way through the opening phase of the Chain of Command campaign I am hosting for the lads at EWG.

The kit is a Plastic Soldier Company 1/72 model which I can highly recommend.

Sassanid Persians

Inspired by the upcoming release of a new Sam Mustafa ruleset for the later part of the Roman Empire called Aurelian I painted a regiment of Sassanid Persian cavalry - 28mm figs by A&A with LBM shields and banner. I have a ton of Sassanids to do, but I find they take forever to paint. Even if I don't finish my Persian horde in time for the release of the rules, I still have sizable late Roman and Gothic/Sarmatian armies to play with.

Norman Saga Warband

Over the last 2 weeks or so I worked up a 5 point Saga warband of Normans for a buddy from the club in exchange for a copy of the CCA Spartan expansion. Nice figs - these are Gripping Beast 28mm with LBM shield transfers.

British troops for Operation Martlet

Over the last 2 weeks I have been working my way through a reinforced platoon of 20mm Brits for the Operation Marlet Campaign from TooFatLardies for Chain of Command. The figs are a mix of vintage Platoon 20 (casted by RAFM), Plastic Soldier Company, and even a few Revell and Matchbox dudes. See if you can spot them: