My Adventure of Adding Detachable Mine Clearing Devices to my Team Yankee Tanks

I decided to add the mine clearing devices to my tanks. I mean it wasn't very expensive. It cost one point for up to three tanks in one unit.


However, there was a problem. I didn't want the mine clearing devices to be permanently fixed on the tanks. I wanted to be able to take them off, if needed, without damaging the tanks. Then, if needed, be able to reattach them. I kept wondering how I could do this?

At first, I thought about magnets. However, the hulls and the top of the tanks are glued together. So, I couldn't very well attach magnets inside the tank. Therefore, that idea was eliminated.

Then, I thought about putty. Kind of like the poster putty you use to hang up paper on the wall without doing any damage or maybe use Silly Putty. However, I thought the putty would show on the tanks. Also, I wasn't sure about the strength of the putty to keep the mine clearing devices on the tanks as the tanks were moved around the battle field.


Next, I tried PVA glue. I thought it would be strong enough to hold the mine clearing devices on the tanks. I also thought it would hold-up to the tanks being moved around and the mine clearing devices would stay on with little or no problem. Well, I put the glue on the mine clearing device, attached it to the hull of the tank, held it there for a bit to let the glue set, let go, and . . . the mine clearing device fell off. I tried again and the same result. The PVA glue wouldn't hold the mine clearing device to the hull of the tank. Back to the drawing board.


Aha! I figured it out. I would use the double sided tape. I went and got it from my supplies with a smile on my face. Brought it back to the table and cut off a strip about the width of the hull. Attached it to the hull where the mine clearing devices would be placed. Grabbed the first mine clearing device. I carefully placed it in the correct location on the hull. Pressed it onto the tape, held it for a second to make sure this is the proper place, and then let go. Success. The mine clearing device was stuck to the hull. With a smile on my face getting larger I touched the mine clearing device to test how well the tape was going to hold the mine clearing device to the tank. The smile quickly vanished as I barely touched the mine clearing device it just fell off the tape. I picked it up and reattached it to the tape, touched it again, and the same result. The double sided tape was a failure. Now, I was beginning to wonder if I was going to find any way to attach them to the tank that was not permanent?


The next day an idea came to me. I have a hot glue gun. Could I put hot glue on the tank without melting the plastic? If it won't melt it can I remove the hot glue without harming the model? If all that was going to be ok could it hold the mine clearing device to the hull of the tank and be strong enough that the mine clearing device wouldn't come off during regular game play? Time to test it and see.


I took one of the tank and used a toothpick to transfer the hot glue to the bottom of the tank.



I let it cool down. After it was cool it was time to see if it hurt the model. I looked and the the plastic seemed fine. Good. Now can I remove the glue without harming the model? I pulled the glue off and checked the model where the glue was originally located. I saw no damage to the model. Ok, so far so good. The last hurdle to clear was the strength test. Would the glue be strong enough to hold the mine clearing device in place and hold it in place through regular game play?


I got some glue from the hot glue gun onto a toothpick as before. Instead of putting the glue on the hull of the tank I put it on the mine clearing device where it would attach to the hull.


Before it could cool too much I placed it on the hull in the proper location. One of the nice things about the hot glue is that before it cools too much you can adjust the mine clearing device some so it will be in the proper location and correct the orientation. I then let it go. It held in place. But I have been down this road before. Now the big test is coming up.


After the glue has cooled I grabbed the mine clearing device in my fingers and wriggled it. The mine clearing device was held on with the glue. It had a little bit of give to it but I know it will not come off unless I pulled it off or maybe if it falls to the floor. The bond seems to be strong enough for what I was trying to accomplish.


I then pulled the mine clearing device off and removed the glue. I doubly checked to make sure no damage was inflicted. There was none.


I then proceeded to attach the mine clearing devices to the nine tanks that would have them.


Now I have the mine clearing devices attached and ready for play. If I change my list and I don't want the mine clearing devices or less tanks will have them I can remove the mine clearing devices. If I need to reattach them I can use the hot glue and they will be back on and ready to get those annoying mines out of the way. Sometimes you know there is a way to solve a problem, but you can't seem to come up with a solution. The idea is not to give up. The solution will eventually come to you.

As always, have a good game.

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Tanks - My Thoughts on Soviet Tactics

In my previous blog I discussed tactics of the USA in the game Tanks The WWII Tank Skirmish Game.


In this blog, I'm going to discuss the tactics of the Soviets. I have played a couple of games being the Soviets. That experience has been different than my experience playing the USA. That's what prompted me to write the two blogs about the tactics. I definitely felt I had to play the two countries differently. Where the USA wants to move a lot, as discussed in the previous blog, Soviets can move or sit still.

The Soviet national rule is called Coordinated Fire. The rule states "If this tank shoots at a target that friendly tank within one Measuring Stick shot at earlier in the phase, it becomes" +1 attack. Basically, if this tank shoots at an enemy tank that one of its friendly tanks has already shot at and it is within one arrow length of that tank, this tank will receive one bonus die on its attack roll.


For example, if the SU-100 decides it is going to shoot at a Sherman. It has six attack dice.


However, since it has Coordinated Fire we need to see if it is within one measuring stick of a friendly tank that has already shot this turn and that shot was taken at the same Sherman target. The IS-2 already shot this turn and it shot at the Sherman.


This allows the SU-100 to gain a bonus die on its attack roll against the Sherman. So now the SU-100 will fire at the Sherman with seven dice, not six. Therefore, the white die below would not have normally be given to the attack roll of the SU-100, but Coordinated Fire added it.



So, this is going to affect how the Soviets will feel in the game. When I play the Soviets they generally move together in a herd. Unlike the USA, where each tank can go its own way, the Soviets lose their extra attack dice if they don't stay together.


Pretty simple. Not quite. The Soviet's Achilles' heel is their initiative. Most of their tanks have initiative four or below. So, that means that Soviets will generally have to move first and shoot last. This allows the opponent to see where the Soviet tanks end their movement and place their tanks where it limits how many Soviet tanks can shoot them. Thus, this limits the bonus attack dice the Soviets receive from Coordinated Fire.

However, the Soviet tanks do have some advantages. Most of the Soviet tanks have armor two. That is pretty good. That bonus die on defense helps them survive more hits.


Also, most of the Soviet tanks have six or higher damage capacity. This allows the Soviet tanks to take a little more damage than most other countries' tanks can tolerate.


Another advantage Soviet tanks have is attack dice. Most Soviet tanks have five or six attack dice when they fire. If you use Coordinated Fire that range increases to six or seven attack dice. Pretty potent amount of attack dice.


So how do you play the Soviets? My experience has been that they stay together and constantly move to finally corner the opponent. The opponent is going to move around and use terrain to limit the number Soviet tanks that can shoot at one tank. The Soviets basically try to pick one target and unload their attacks on that target. Receiving bonus dice for every tank that shoots that target after the first Soviet tank has shot can dramatically increase the damage inflicted.

This is not easy. The Soviet's initiative means they are moving first. So you generally move your tanks to try to corner the opponents tanks to be able to take them out later in the game. Your Soviet tanks are going to be hit early in the game. However, Soviet tanks have good armor and damage capacity to soak-up those early hits.

From my experience, once you start to be able to hit the opponent's tanks with Coordinated Fire, later in the game, the opponent's tanks start to be taken out. Yeah, your tanks are damaged, but your tanks are built to take it. In addition, each time you move you gain an additional defense die. So, that means you will be rolling at least three dice for defense before adding dice for opponent's movement and terrain. I am even thinking about just moving twice in a turn to get up on the opponent quickly and start the cornering of their tanks. This will allow four defense dice on rolls before any other modifiers.

Also, some of your tanks have Heavy Tank rule. Which states "Do not subtract any Defense dice when this tank is the target of a side shot." So, even if the enemy gets close they will drop your defense by one die for being within one arrow length but not another defense die for a side shot. This allows the Soviet tanks to have a little bit more to help them survive.


So, if you play Soviets, in general, don't worry too much about taking damage early in the game. Your tanks have good defense and a lot of damage capacity. Once, you start cornering the opponent's tanks your attack dice will start to eliminate their tanks pretty quickly. So, don't get frustrated early in the game. Know you are going to be outmaneuvered and be hit early, but you will finally get in there and start to lay-on the massive damage that your Coordinated Fire can unload on the opponent's tanks.

Another thing to consider is upgrades and crews. It might be advantageous for Soviet players to gain cards that increase their initiative. Just a point or two on a tank's initiative can help it move after the some of the opponent's tanks and shoot before they do. Cost wise I'm not sure if it will be worth it or not, but is a thought of how to spend those extra points if you have them.

One problem I do have with the Coordinate Fire ability though is one of its limitations as compared to other nations' special abilities. USA's Gung Ho, Germany's Blitzkrieg, and Britain's Semi-Indirect Fire do have an advantage over the Soviets' national rule in one respect. If the Soviets are down to one tank the Coordinated Fire is useless. USA, Germany, and Britain can still use their country specific rule even if they are down to one tank.

As always, have a good game.

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Tanks - My Thoughts on USA Tactics

So, I've now played a few games of Tanks The World War II Tank Skirmish Game by GaleForce 9.


I have really enjoyed this game. It is a complete departure from games like this I'm used to. Mainly, Team Yankee and Flames of War. However, it is a game made by the same company that does make Team Yankee and Flames of War.


My main experience of the game Tanks is going to be from the USA and Soviet side. I have not played Germany or Britain but have played against them. Therefore, since I haven't played either of those countries I am going to limit my discussion to my thoughts abut how USA and Soviets play in Tanks.

Let's start with the USA. Their national special rule is called "Gung Ho." The rule states "Treat this tank as making one less Move than shown on its Speed token when calculating its target's Defence dice."


In the game of Tanks when you move a tank it is harder for that tank to get an accurate shot on the opponent's tank. If you stand still you have a better chance of damaging your target. So, why not just stand still? Well, if you move it is harder to damage your tank when the opponent shoots at it. For example, if I have a tank with one armor. That means I receive one die to roll for defense to nullify successful hits made by my opponent against that tank. If I move one movement arrow's worth my tank will receive another bonus die to roll to nullify successful hits. If I move two movement arrows worth my tank will receive two bonus dice to roll to nullify successful hits. Most tanks can only move two arrows a turn. Therefore, if I move one arrow worth I receive one die from my armor and one die for movement. This will allow me to roll two dice to nullify successful hits against my tank.


The amount of movement the attacker did that turn is bonus dice the defender receives for trying to nullify successful hits. So, anytime you move and/or the opponent moves is the amount of bonus dice the defender receives. The number of dice used in the attack generally never changes in the game (unless some rule or effect changes it). So, if your tank has five attack dice you are normally going to roll five dice to attack with this tank the whole game.

Let's say a Panther is going to shoot at a Sherman (75mm). The Panther gets five attack dice.


The Panther player rolls those five dice. The Panther player is gong to keep any die that roll four, five, or six. The Panther player rolled this:


Three dice are four or higher so the Panther had three successful hits against the Sherman. The Sherman gets to roll his defense. The Sherman has an armor of one. So that means the Sherman will roll one defense die.


But the defense roll can be modified. Remember, the attacker's dice generally never change. Instead, you change the amount of defense dice. Did the Sherman move? Yes, it moved one movement arrow. Since, the Sherman moved one that means it receives one more die to its defense roll. Now the Sherman is up to two dice.

Next, did the attacker move? Yes, the Panther also moved one movement arrow. This will add one more die to the Sherman's defense roll. So, the Sherman will receive one bonus defense die from the Panther. This means the Sherman will roll three defense dice to try to nullify successful hits the Panther just made. These are not all the modifiers, but I just wanted to keep the example simple.


Now, let's reverse the scenario and say a Sherman (75mm) is going to shoot at a Panther. The Sherman gets four attack dice.


The Sherman player rolls those four dice. The Sherman player is gong to keep any dice that roll four, five, or six. The Sherman player rolled this


Two dice are four or higher so the Sherman had two successful hits against the Panther. The Panther gets to roll his defense. The Panther has an armor of two. So that means the Panther will roll two defense dice.


But remember the defense roll can be modified. Did the Panther move? Yes, it moved one movement arrow. Since, the Panther moved one that means it receives one more die to its defense roll. Now the Panther is up to three defense dice.

Next, did the attacker move? Yes, the Sherman also moved one movement arrow. This will add one more die to the Panther's defense roll. NO! This is where the USA special rule comes into play. The USA have the special rule Gung Ho. So, we subtract one from the Sherman's movement it made that turn to see how many defense dice the Panther will receive from the Sherman's movement. 1 - 1 = 0. So, the Panther will not receive any bonus defense dice from the Sherman. This is how the USA special rule works. It allows defense dice for the Sherman when it moves but gives one less defense die to the target of its attack than it would normally give. So, the white die below would have normally be given to the defense roll of the Panther, but Gung Ho removes it.


With the Gung Ho rule it generally never hurts the USA tanks to move one movement arrow. In fact, it helps them. They receive die/dice on defense when they are shot at but does not grant the same bonus to the target of their attack. Therefore, when the Sherman moves one movement it receives one defense die but does not give a defense die to the opponent. So, my experience with the USA is your tanks generally never sit still. You are constantly moving to have a better defense, but give none or a little advantage to your opponent's defense because of your movement.

Now, I'm not saying the USA tanks will always move. If you don't move and shoot you can reroll your attack dice. Not bad. However, it seems with the bonus you get in defense, which you don't receive any for your tank's movement if you don't move, is pretty good and hard to pass up. So, my thoughts are that the USA is probably one of the few forces that will hardly sit still on the battle field. They will constantly be moving to get bonus defense dice but it will not help the opponent with their defense dice. Plus, some of that movement may cause the opponent to have to move and that means they don't receive rerolls on attack dice. So, if you face the USA expect them to constantly be moving around the battlefield but giving you no help on your defense from that movement. USA will just have trouble staying in one place turn and after turn.

Next blog I will discuss the Soviet tactics used in Tanks.

As always, have a good game.

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Model Update - Team Yankee: Unit Identification

Have you ever been in a game and seen this situation?


You are getting ready to attack and you can't figure out which vehicles belong in the same unit. So, you ask your opponent which vehicles belong in the same unit. They look a little confused at first when they start looking at the mass of vehicles all huddled together. Then, the opponent gives the "Oh" and points to which tanks belong together in a unit and which tanks belong in a different unit.

I have ran into this problem in many games with my Team Yankee models. I really don't have any identification on my models to help tell which T-72s belong to the same unit. If I am going to have problems I know my opponent will have even more difficulty telling which tanks belong together. I wanted a simple solution so my opponent wouldn't have to ask me. Also, I wanted to be able to have them be placed in different units between games if I ever change how my forces are organized. Maybe one game I run nine tanks. Three tanks in a unit for three units total. Or I might change it up and run eight tanks. However, in this case I run four tanks in two separate units. Is there a way that I can identify these tanks for both my opponent and myself that is not permanent. I think I figured one way to do it.

My previous blog entry I added antennas to my Team Yankee vehicles. They look like this.


With these antennas attached to the each of my vehicles my thought came to adding unit identification flags to the antennas. I started in Word and used Shapes to make rectangles. You can use whatever shape you would like but I thought rectangles would be easy to cut. The rectangle were 1/2" x 1/4". Then I filled each rectangle with a color or pattern. When printed out mine looked like this.


Now I cut out one strip of flags for the unit I wanted. If I wanted this unit to have blue flags I cut out how many I needed. For example, if there were four tanks I cut out only four flags.


Then, I folded the flags in half. This made the flags 1/4" x 1/4".


Next, I used my PVA glue and put glue on the back of the flag and folded it around the top part of the antenna of the vehicle. When completed it looks like this.


Each unit will have its own color or pattern.


What's nice is that if I want to change a vehicle from one unit to another I can glue their new flag on or I might be able to pull off the old one and put the new unit flag on the antenna. Now for the test. Can you tell which vehicles belong together in this photo? The idea is that you will be able to tell without me telling you. This is what I want to happen in a real game. Good luck.

As always, have a good game.

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Model Update - Team Yankee: Vehicle Antennas

I have been thinking about what to do to my Team Yankee models to make them look "better." Not saying that the models made for Team Yankee don't look good, but what can I do to make them look better on the gaming table. Well, maybe what I really trying to day is to make them look even more realistic on the battlefield. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to get at.

I remember meeting some other Team Yankee players from another state. We were getting together to start talking about the beginning of the campaign we are going to begin. However, we also were going to play some Team Yankee games.

I got to look at some of the other player's models. They were looking good and many of them were painted. The only difference between the tanks though is that the paint jobs. They did make our tanks look "different" from one another. Again, the models looked great but the only difference between player's models was the paint job.

I guess that is going to be true for many games that are based on real life. World War III did not happen, but the time period of 1985, the countries existing, and the equipment they were using were real. Basing a game during this time and using history as the guide means that all the tanks for a country would look the same between different players. So, what could be done to the models that would look "real" but also not something that would be crazy (i.e., laser guns, wings on tanks, hovertanks, etc.).

Then, I remembered what one player did with his Team Yankee tank models. He added radio antennas to his tanks. The effect was awesome in my opinion. Also, after doing some research about tanks of that time period they did have antennas attached to them. This decided it for me. I would add antennas to not only my tanks but to all my Team Yankee vehicles.

First thought was "What to create the antennas out of?" I think he used brush bristles or something like that. I decided that is what I would use also. I made a trip to the local dollar store and looked around. Finally, found a brush with black bristles. I didn't want white bristles because then I would have to paint them black anyways. Also, I thought the black would eventually wear off and then I would have white antennas and have to paint them all over again.

When I got to the checkout the line was tremendously long. I decided after a bit, and the line not really moving, that I would work on this project later. I put the brush back and headed out the store. Then, it hit me. I may already have something that will work for antennas. I opened the back of my vehicle and found what I was looking for. I had an extra ice scraper. But this ice scraper had a brush on the opposite side to remove snow from the window. They were black, thin, and flexible. Perfect for the job.

I got home and took the ice scraper in with me. After studying the Team Yankee tank models I was faced with how to attach the antennas. The other player who attached his antennas drilled small holes in the models for the antennas to attach to the model. I didn't want to do that. I did find a place on the back of the tank's turret to attach the antenna. From some of the photos I've seen antennas were attached to the tank turrets.

I cut some bristles off and trimmed them to the correct size (or the size I thought was "correct"). I knew if I was wrong I could trim them so I made them longer than I thought I needed rather than taking a chance of them being too short. I put glue in the spot I wanted the antennas to attach to on the turret and placed the antenna.

After completing the tanks I discovered while looking at photos of the other vehicles used in the Team Yankee game that the models actually did have a place to put the antennas. I then put glue in the spot and attached the antennas to their vehicles. Turns out the antennas were too long. This became evident especially with the Gopher. The antennas were in front of the rocket pods. If the antennas were too tall on a real Gopher the rockets would hit the antennas when they were launched. So I trimmed those antennas down to where they were below the rocket pods.

Using the Gophers' antennas as a reference I trimmed the other vehicles' antennas to about the same length as the Gophers'. The vehicles were then placed in their respective slots in the storage tray to be ready for transporting them to the local gaming store. Just as I thought, the antennas stuck out above the top of the storage tray.

I figured this would happen and I already had a plan to solve this problem. When I put another storage tray on top of another storage tray, I would slide the top storage tray so that antennas on the vehicles in the lower tray would bend towards the back of the vehicle they were attached to. This would make it more realist in my opinion than if the antennas were leaning towards the front of the vehicle.

Overall, I'm happy with the effect. It was an easy and cheap solution to make the models look "better," more realistic, and be a little different from other player's models. Sure, the paint job helps to make your models look different, but I also didn't want to start adding unrealistic things to my vehicles as described earlier. I'm sure in the future there will be things I will add to my vehicles. However, I know I will try to keep it "realistic."

One of the things I am working on is platoon identification. How do I identify that these tanks belong to the same platoon and those tanks belong to another platoon? Then, what if I redo my list and now take one tank from each of those platoons and put together to make a new platoon. How can I identify that these tanks now belong to the new platoon and are no longer part of the old platoons they were part of? I need to do something that would be easy to do and not permanent to the models. I haven't done it yet but that is a story for another day.

As always, have a good game.

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