LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!
with Liam

With its pivotal location at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, Denmark is a country with a great interest in the Cold War. The what-if of invasion stirs the imagination of the otherwise peaceful and placid nation, and Team Yankee has therefore had a special place in many Danish wargamer’s hearts.

As a result, Amager Miniature Wargamers decided to kick off the new edition of Team Yankee with the first event of its kind ever held in Denmark. Despite COVID-19 pushing the date back in the year and limiting attendance, we had a great event with some awesome games and a little spice for fun. Battlefront were kind enough to support us with some great raffle-prizes and objectives to stir up some more enthusiasm for the event. The games were 100 points, and just 3 games over the day, so we hopefully would have enough time to find a victor in each game. Missions decided with the Battle Plans matrix from the new rulebook.

As the name would imply, the tournament aimed to roughly simulate an attack on Denmark in the opening stages of the Cold War. Therefore, a map of the old Danish counties was repurposed to track the games of NATO and WarPac, loosely following the rules from Firestorm: Red Thunder.

The games kicked off with an East German T-72M Battalion trying to overwhelm a UK joint Infantry/Scorpion force in a dense city setting, but with both forces opting for attack, the ensuing Fair Fight meant the DDR couldn’t bring enough force to bear on the objective, and the light vehicles decimated the supporting BMPs and light vehicles. When the British Challengers arrived from reserves, the East German force was spent, and their own reserves too far behind to be of use.

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

Meanwhile, another East German formation, led by a great number of T-55s and BTR-60s, attempted to break through a small elite force US force of Abrams, Cobras and ITVs.

Over the open expanses of the wintery table, the East Germans suffered great losses, but were unable to inflict significant damage on the American armour and helicopters, despite encroaching on the objectives. The battle would end in a stalemate before the East Germans could exploit their positions.

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

 On our final table, a Russian force of Motor Riflemen, T-64s and Hinds faced off against a West German LANDJUT-themed force, replete with MLRS (which were allowed using the unit cards in the box in the place of a LARS-battery.) Again, both forces could bring substantial firepower to bear, and the forces would end the battle in an indecisive stand-off.

The meta-map of Denmark gave an interesting twist, WarPac forces attacking from Northern Germany (zones 11 and 13) and Eastern Sealand (where the Polish had planned an amphibious landing in the Bay of Faxe, zone 22) with initial pushes up through the peninsula of Jutland and Eastern Sealand, quickly threatening the capital of Copenhagen.

Local counterattacks drove back the WarPac from Roskilde, sparking Russian contemplations of a nuclear strike on the city (as was historically planned!). At the same time, LANDJUT forces in Southern Denmark cut off the spearhead that had driven North into Denmark.

 LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

The final standing would force the surrender of the surrounded WarPac elements in southern Jutland, whilst the remaining WarPac forces in Southern Jutland regrouped and managed to expand the bridgehead into Denmark. 

In Sealand, WarPac reinforcements were landed and recaptured Roskilde as well as sweeping into Copenhagen. The capital had fallen in the final hours!

I’ll leave you with a few more pictures from the event:

Left Side Image: The final positions of the campaign map.


LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

Above: An elite force of US Abrams, most of which IPM1, Sgt. Yorks, ITVs, and plenty of Cobras Above: In a tough deadlock agaist East German T-55s, BTR-60s and Hinds on our city map.

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

Above: A sprawling Leo 1-dominated West German force, tailored to historically fit as a Landjut-battlegroup (notice the flags!) Above: Initially decimating the East German spearheads, but being too far-stretched to cover both objectives.

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!

Above: Later, facing off against a different East German force across an open snow-covered waste, as BMP-2 brave the open field to intercept a strikeforce.

LANDJUT 2020 Wrap-up!
Above: An East German commander laments the loss of his last Hind to the focused fire of 7 Cobras

And that’s all from us! We’re very excited to further our campaign with another event in 2021, and are very grateful for Battlefront’s support to the growing Team Yankee-community in Denmark.
~Liam