"Team Yankee Asian Theatre books" Topic

Hi everyone!

I've posted about these on Social Media, but myself and a few fellow gamers have developed a couple of unofficial books for Team Yankee, extending the war into Asia.

The line is that with the invasion of North America, the USFJ stage air and maritime attacks on the VMF forces supporting the invasion. This thorn in the Soviet flank becomes too big to ignore, and so the Soviet Union invades Hokkaido to try to force Japan to expel US troops from their soil. However, the JSDF has for a long time placed their most modern equipment and best troops in Hokkaido in anticipation of just this scenario.

As the campaign for Hokkaido draws more and more attention from the US and its allies, along with the distractions and demands that the European theatre and the invasion of the US mainland, The Democratic People's Republic of Korea judges that the Republic Of Korea is isolated and decides that this is the time to reunify the peninsula under Kim Il-Sung's rule. Forces from the North invade the South en masse, but the outcome won't be the same as it was in 1950.

The Japan book contains a complete listing of the JGSDF's formations, units and special rules for a force in 1986, with some modernisations moved up in response to the deteriorating world situation. It focuses on forces in Hokkaido but includes listings for other army groups as well. It also contains a full army listing for the Soviet Naval Infantry, with a particular focus on the 5th division who lead the assault on Sapporo. Finally, it also includes rules for naval landing missions.

The Korea book includes complete listings for formations, units and special rules for both the ROK and the DPRK's frontline units. Mechanised, armoured and security forces are all standing ready to defend the capital Seoul and the rest of the DMZ. On the other side of the line, the Korean People's Army includes all their frontline units in armoured, mechanised and mainline special forces units.

Both books also include hobby pages to show the camouflage schemes and suggested colours for troops and vehicles of each force depicted.

You can get the Japan book here: link

And the Korea book here: link

Feedback is more than welcome!

Fantastic job.

Great job! You guys went above and beyond on this. Would love to see China and Taiwan as well. Would love to see GF9 pay to produce these for real.

@Tgerritsen we have considered doing a China book, but not Taiwan. In the 1986 timeframe, Deng Xiaoping was far more conciliatory towards the West. We would have had them fighting border wars with the Vietnamese and Indians, and inserted a fictional fight over the handback of Hong Kong (mostly to expand the British to include home guard units and less prevalent vehicles). It would also allow players to fight the Sino-Soviet border wars if they wished.

Even if China was serious about Taiwan and extracted promises of being hands-off from the US, they simply lacked the naval capability to project power onto the island. They wouldn't have gotten any further than Kinmen.

I'd love to see Battlefront make the books official as well, but apart from tacit approval I don't think they'd actually go there. I've written the scenario to be as 'lore compatible' as possible so that they neatly slot into what would become a true WWIII, but I know that not everyone needs that level of 'canon compatibility'.

They get their money from miniatures not rules, and the JSDF were a hotbed of unique designs. They only really have the AH-1 and OH-6 helos available straight out of the gate. Of course, the Soviet Naval Infantry is well catered to, just needing a new Helo (Ka-29TB), new fast air (Yak-38), and a couple of new tanks (T-55AMV, OT-54). They already have the PT-76B from FOAN days.

Korea might be more doable as they're probably 80% of the way there already with the Nam infantry, helicopters and guns, along with using the AIFV model with some M113 turret sprues for K200 and K263. K-55 is a conversion kit for the M109, but only if players really want to count rivets. They'd only really need a handful of new minis to expand their range.

North Korea has a lot of Soviet commonality with T-55, BTR-60 and even stuff like the RM-70. There are some gentle conversions or older models like the PT-76B, the Cheonma-Ho series etc. And then they would be able to further expand Soviet units for Polish, Romanian etc with things like Mi-2, Mi-4 etc.

I play in 6mm so there's already a pretty good service for most parts. I'm having a little trouble with a couple of models like the Type-75 SPH and the KM900 series, but between GHQ and H&R (and a little Scotia Grendel on the side), 95% of the mini requirements are covered.