"FoW Vietnam - in Europe?" Topic

I've been working on 15mm Cold War stuff for Team Yankee, a game set in the 80's. But the more I think about it, the more I am intrigued by the idea of doing something set in an earlier timeframe. What if the Berlin Crisis of 1961 turned into a conventional war?

Unless I'm mistaken you could use the Tour of Duty book's list "as is" without any major changes if you're selective in what you take.

You could field, say, a US Tank unit with M-48s or a Rifle Company. You could probably use Mech Infantry in M-113s; as I understand it they entered service in 1960.

Put them up against a unit of T-55s supported by BTR-50s. Don't take any Viet Cong, local Resistance Teams, etc. Use 15mm Soviets from Team Yankee (soldiers with AK-47s) as infantry.

Make the terrain look like West Germany – call the "Elephant Grass" a wheat field – and you've got a game.

Has anyone tried this?

Seems logical to me, haven't tried it, but I think you would also be able to use some of the stuff from Fate of a Nation (AIW) as well. Its worth mentioning that (as I understand it), the FoW Vietnam and AIW books are being updated to bring them in line with Team Yankee. I don't know if that means they will be balanced for play against "Team Yankee" forces or not, but I had heard rumors earlier in the year that this was their goal (or at least, that they wanted to expand Team Yankee into an early, mid, and late war period with Team Yankee being "mid", vietnam and AIW being "early", and "late" being based on a hypothetical 90s/early 2000s timeline.

I tried different time periods using web FoW Moderns from a fansite, it didn't work out really well. TY is much better. If Battlefront does different time periods I am probably in.

You'd need to use different victory conditions, but it should work.

Amusingly enough, the LZ Xray lists are about balanced against FoW v3 late war.

They are actually planning to do this by breaking the Cold War into eras. So it's coming.

tried different time periods using web FoW Moderns from a fansite, it didn't work out really well.

I'm thinking in terms of using the Vietnam lists "as-is," just selecting forces that are more suited to what would have been present in West Germany in 1961. M-48s vs. T-55s.

It would be like playing a video game with a different "skin." The game itself is mechanically the same, but with a different look.

Eventually Team Yankee will have early, mid, and late divisions. What we are playing now in Team Yankee, circa 1985, is the mid period. This was from an interview of the company owner I read.

But in the interim, what's suggested seems doable. I'd also suggest taking a look at the Arab-Israeli "Fate of a Nation" book for some additional units and inspiration.

Given the fall of the USSR in 1989, maybe we ought to push back the mid-Cold war a few years… Though when I was serving in the early 80s it seemed as Cold War as ever, and we trained to fight the Red Team.

I don't know what the Vietnam Org Charts look like. I would think you could use the equipment lists, but I believe some of the kit used in Nam was adapted for the terrain (helicopter centric) while Europe would be more tank centric. But definitely plausible.

It's possible to do a tank or mech infantry army that doesn't use helos.

I believe it is. The only formation in Tour of Duty that is required to field choppers is the Air Cavalry Troop. Even the Air Moble Rifle Company can be played as a straight leg rifle company.

Team Yankee has NO mandatory choppers for US players. So both the mech and tank companies can be fielded without a chopper in sight.

Someone is making a fan list on BF forum about fielding H-series units in TY. Apparently old equipments (like M67 Recoilless Rifles) stayed a lot longer than most people believed.

Thanks, I'll check it out!

Apparently old equipments (like M67 Recoilless Rifles) stayed a lot longer than most people believed.

Considering that they were re-issued in Afghanistan… Apparently upper-level Army got tired of Grunts using expensive Javelin missiles to blow up bunkers and whatnot. Amusingly, the M67 with 3 rounds is about the same weight as a single Javelin missile and CLU. So as long as you don't need the Javelin's near 5km range, the M67 isn't out of date.

It can't do the job that it was meant to: kill first line tanks, but it can do other stuff really well and really cheap too!