"Team Yankee USA: What to Add Next?" Topic

I've shown off my current force in TMP Showcase: TMP link

* two platoons of M1 Abrams
* one platoon of M113s
* two M901s
* two M163 VADS
* two Cobra attack helicopters
* infantry somewhere…

Just for fun – what would you add next? Be specific. Assume that if a unit is added, its prerequisites are also added (i.e., fire controller for artillery).

To start this out:

* more Abrams?
* better Abrams, and which ones?
* M109 battery?
* A-10 Warthog?
etc.

Artillery and air. A10 and M109.

M3 CFV platoon
M2 Bradley platoon

Three tone USAEUR CARC paint configurations instead of the obsolete and out of use MERDC that was used in the 70s and early 80''s and that BF seems hell bent on having people use.

I am bias. A H-ToE Armored Cavalry platoon. Two scout M113, two M901 Tows for the scout section, a M106 mortar track, M113 with infantry squad, three M551 or M1A1 Abrams for the tank section plus one M113 command track.

I'll second TimePortal

Though our platoon was 3 M113, 2 M901 and 4 M60A3

Mortars were consolidted at Troop (3x platoons)

You need scouts, Bill. They unlock the Scout and Spearhead rules (you NEED Spearhead). Either Brads or the M113 scout section. The M113s are cheaper and you get the ITV which really ticks off Russian players with its turret/cover shenanigans. The Brads are just nicer platforms, but you pay for them and you really feel it when you lose them (6 points vs. 3). I'd add either M109's or MLRS too. After all, it's not a party unless there's arty!

As much as I LOVE the Abrams, I just can't justify them in a lot of Team Yankee games UNLESS you're getting the full tank platoon, and be prepared to pay through the nose to get them. You need a lot of cheap ATGMs to face Soviet tank or BMP spam. In game, the Abrams just can't kill those things fast enough, and with platoon of less than four you're just begging to be poor spirited out of the game. US Morale is 50/50 and with a 2 Abrams platoon… that's a lot of points on a morale test (and the better the Abrams mark, the more painful the loss!).

Honestly, I'd load up infantry/mech infanty. US tank companies are just too brittle for my taste. I'd get at least two more mech platoons and combine my Abrams into a single, full strength, platoon that can take a battering and avoid the evil 'spirits' test that makes US platoons evaporate. A mech platoon gives you a metric ton of Dragons/LAWs that cover mid to short ranged targets (for dirt cheap!) while the ITVs are your distance snipers (and are dirt cheap too, so there's no reason to not max out on them!). You need a good mix of the two, with guns from the Abrams, to mass on each Soviet company to wreck them. Heck, on that line I'd tell you to consider USMC rifle platoons. They are big, covered with weapons (like US Armored Infantry platoons in Flames of War) and have solid morale. Well, it's the same number, but you have way more teams so it's really hard to force a morale test on them. Plus you unlock the Humvee ATGM squads… that's so much fun! The jarheads just don't have as many Dragons which is a bit of a downer.

The fact is that you're going to be facing Soviet armored swarms, so you need as many tigger pullers as you can get, and they need to have as many ATGMs as possible (we saw that in Ukraine in 2022). A battlefield covered with lot's of ATGMs is the Soviet player's worst nightmare. So many AT 21/23 shots!!! You want as many of them as you can muster, and, as much as it pains me, you just can't get that from Abrams (I was an Abrams crewman!).

I have to admit that the Brads look very tasty too. You get that 20 mike mike and the TOW in the same platform that is fairly well protected, BUT… the points! 10 gives you a bare bones platoon and 15 gives you that last squad, but the cost. I can field a M113 Mech Platoon for 6 points, 7 for that last Dragon. My M113 Mech Company has 4 ITV sections (they call them platoons, but they are sections in real life), so for 10 points I can get my Mech Platoon at full strength AND a M901 section with the TOW II. 15 points would allow me to purchase yet another TOW II section for a total of four. All I'm missing are the 4 25 mikes. The better thing is that all of this firepower is more distributed, so losing a single M113 isn't as painful as losing a single Brad (I lose a M113 I lose a .50 cal or a ATGM, I lose a Brad then I lose a 25 mike and an ATGM).

IDK- the Brad is really a nice platform, but the cost!

A military police platoon in gun jeeps.

Add in a platoon of M60A3's.

Nuclear Weapons!

Bill, did you decide on anything?

Choppers, because cool.

Bill, did you decide on anything?

I'm waiting on the poll results before deciding.

Which poll?