begins to think about terrain for Team Yankee.
Today, we're looking at some of the token and dice sets for Battlefront's Team Yankee, a game about the Cold War if it had gone hot in the 1980s (based on the novel of the same name).
The sets I have are the Soviet Dice Set, Soviet Tokens Set…
…US Dice Set and US Token Set. Each comes in clamshell packaging.
Dice
You get 20 dice for $13 USD. The '6' is replaced with a national symbol – in this case, the Soviets get a star, and the U.S. gets the unit crest of the 68th Armor Regiment (an English Lion Passant). Catalog pictures show the Soviet dice as orange-red, but the ones I received have a dark, rich red hue.
You'll need to provide your own storage, as the clamshell packaging (once the staple is removed) won't reliably hold the dice inside. (I'm surprised they don't sell 'national' dice bags.)
Tokens
The tokens are packaged in a ziploc bag inside the clamshell packaging. The first thing you'll notice after opening is the strong smell of something burnt – these are apparently laser-cut and smell like burned wood, although they aren't made of wood…
Each token comes in a 'national color', and most have the national symbol on them. Strangely, the national symbols are different from the dice sets &ndash the US set uses a star, and the Soviets use the hammer-and-sickle.
There are eight types of token:
- Anti-Aircraft (four per set) (heptagon)
- Bailed Out (four per set) (round)
- Gone to Ground (two per set) (rectangle)
- Minefield (three per set) (round, white markings with no national symbol)
- Bogged Down (4 per set) (clipped triangle)
- Ranged In (one per set) (round, white markings, no national symbol)
- Foxholes (two per set) (square)
- Pinned Down (two per set) (hexagon)
The tokens are apparently composed of printed paper sandwiched between clear acrylic (top) and velvet (bottom). The design means that lettering close to the edge can be difficult to read. The velvet would be more suitable for a boardgame or hard surface than a wargaming table, as it's likely to be a magnet for flock, dust, static grass, etc.
You get 22 tokens for $13 USD. Again, the clamshell pack (or the ziploc bag) is an awkward way to store these, so you'll need to provide your own permanent storage solution.
Note: The burned smell goes away if you take the tokens out of the bag and let them air out for a few days.