Planning For Fall-In

Using 2 Cavalry Regiment in Team Yankee

Planning For Fall-In
with Dave Danner

Each year, the Historical Miniatures Gaming Society (HMGS) hosts three historical gaming conventions on the East Coast. Historicon, which is held in July, plays host to Battlefront’s Nationals tournament while Fall-In and Cold Wars take place in the fall and spring respectively. This year, Fall-In will take place November 15-17 at the Valley Forge Casino Resort in King of Prussia, PA.

Check out Fall In! 2019 on their website here for more details...

Read Part 2 here...

At this past Historicon, the guys from Little Wars TV ran a number great games. Although I have never hosted a game at a convention, I decided that this year I would. Each HMGS convention normally has a theme which gamemasters are encouraged to base their convention games around. The theme for this year’s Fall-In convention is “Desert Engagements.” With that in mind, I began to ponder my options. Although I have plenty of World War II British, Italians, and Germans to easily run a game, I wanted to do something different. The end of this year will see Battlefront release the second edition of their Team Yankee rules. What better way to celebrate this than to run a Team Yankee game using the Oil War book!

Oil War is a 112 page Team Yankee expansion book for waging war in the Middle East. Within its pages you will find a “history” of WWIII in the Middle East, army lists for several nations, and painting guides. The alternate history presented in the book continues the events of Team Yankee. It pits NATO and the Iraqis against the Soviets and Iranians, while the Israelis fight the Syrians. The nice thing about the book is that it provides gamers a toolbox to do what they want.

Using 2 Cavalry Regiment in Team Yankee

Due to the fact that I have nothing for the game and am starting from scratch, the first decision I had to make was what two forces would I use in the battle? I considered three options. One option would be to utilize the history presented in the Oil War book and create a battle that would feature the Iranians fighting the U.S. Marines. A second option would be to use Harold Coyle’s Sword Point novel as inspiration for the game. Coyle is the author of the original Team Yankee novel which Battlefront framed their game around. Published back in 1988, Sword Point offers a completely different take on WWIII. In this version of history, the Soviet Union invades Iran in an effort to halt the spread of Islamic fundamentalism and seize the Persian Gulf. This causes the United States to deploy forces to the region. If I chose this option, I could create a battle using any of the three combatants. My third option would be to create an actual historical battle. Although Team Yankee WWIII and Oil War are built upon a fictitious “what if?” history, Battlefront did not neglect their historical gamers. On pages 86 and 87 of the book, you will find a brief history of the Iran-Iraq War and guidelines on recreating forces for the war. This option would result in a true historical game that might fit better at a HMGS event.

Using 2 Cavalry Regiment in Team Yankee

I’ll be the first one to admit that I am often very indecisive when it comes to gaming projects. After mulling the choices over and over in my mind for three weeks, I finally made my decision. During those three weeks, I researched the Iran-Iraq war. The war is not widely studied here in America but is interesting on many levels. To the wargamer, it offers a variety of options such as armored battles, trench warfare, urban combat, and an endless variety of military hardware. The eight year conflict offers great diversity for creating battles on the tabletop. With this in mind, I decided my Fall-In game will be based on the Iran-Iraq War.

With the decision made, I next need to plan the army lists…
~Dave