Quick Look: Team Yankee Oil War
February 6, 2019 by johnlyons
Oil War takes Team Yankee out of Eastern Europe and plunges it into the melting pot of the Middle East. The book allows you to field the Israeli, Iraqi and Iranian forces along with NATO allied formations!
This new supplement is steeped in some fantastic historical background, which is blended very nicely into the "what if" backstory of World War Three. It is fascinating to see Iraq in particular and how it might have acted had world war broken out. It is easily one of the most interesting factions in the book as far as background goes.
However, on the table, the Israeli forces have access to the brand new Merkava 1 and 2 Main Battle Tanks as well as a plethora of allied units from NATO and captured Soviet bloc equipment.
This book feels like a real breath of fresh air and provides fans of Team Yankee a whole other world of options and tactics to explore and play with on their table tops!
Are there any other theatres of war that you think might have cropped up in WWIII?
"This book feels like a real breath of fresh air."
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Supported by (Turn Off)
Will we see the release of the M2 Bradley and the British MCV Warrior. But what a stunning book and I never new things heated up in the middle east at the time of the Cold War.
@john Lyons
The British Warrior and Challenger 1 were shown in the Battlefront Christmas video link below
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Gj-bYH_s9U&t=180s
Like the idea of being able to do ‘Peace for Galilee’ in ’82
I’m with you, @Damon . The actual military conflicts in the Middle East in the 1980s and early 1990s would be more interesting? You could definitely use these pieces and rules to recreate them though. Peace for Galilee would be neat in small scale. Early Merkavas and ERA-equipped M-60s against Syrian T-72s … I am DETERMINED to whittle down my “lead mountain” (okay, it’s about the size of a shoebox) BEFORE I start buying new things, but this is at the top of the list. Specifically, USMC set (Ryan’s Leathernecks, I think) and some BMPs, BTRs, and T-55s and T-72s… Read more »
Hi Oriskany,
While I a here just wanted to say that I am following your Arab-Irsreali Wars project, and I am enjoying it immensely.
NR
Thanks very much @nightrunner ! We’ll be discussing Fate of a Nation for the 1967 and 1973 wars, and I suppose we can bring in this Oil War book when we get to the 1982 and 2006 Invasions of Lebanon. Very glad you like the Sitrep content! 🙂
This does sound like a really interesting release. Is it just those three countries that are covered @johnlyons ?
I’d like to know a bit more about the timeline too.
I guess that depends on which timeline they’re using, @angelicdespot . The Middle East was LIGHTLY addressed in The Third World War: August 1985 – the Sir John Hackett novel that Team Yankee the novel AND game are both based. But it was pretty small. The “canon” World War III only lasts like 11 days and is centered in Europe, so there isn’t a lot of time for something to get started in the Middle East. The same held true for the updated re-release, 1982’s The Third World War: The Untold Story. So it’s slim pickings in “canon” timeline. Of… Read more »
Thanks @oriskany – I guess so. I haven’t read any of these books. At least, I don’t so – the only reason I recognise the names of the books or authors is from your previous articles. I did read a WWIII book some time around 20 years ago which was presented as a credible ‘how this could really come about’, but the Middle East section of it (at least) seemed wildly implausible to me. (I think it featured an unknown American-Palestinian going under the nome de guerre of Saladin uniting the whole Middle East and becoming a military power strong… Read more »
@angelicdespot – “… featured an unknown American-Palestinian going under the nome de guerre of Saladin uniting the whole Middle East and becoming a military power strong enough to seriously threaten Israel” Yeah, I agree this sounds wildly implausible. Not the threatening Israel part, but uniting the whole Middle East under one leader). It always disappoints me when people in the west view cultures in the Middle East as one brown amorphous mass, forgetting the bewildering complexities of cultural, ethnic, and religious divides and distinctions at play. Hell, the Sunni and Shi’a divide is at least a good place to start.… Read more »
@oriskany – quite!
I don’t doubt that plenty of people in the Middle East would threaten Israel. As in, make threats. Perhaps even support terrorism against it and sponsor groups like Hezbollah who have proven reasonably military effective against the country in certain circumstances. But present a unified conventional military threat? I’m not saying it’d be impossible, but you’d have to create quite a few counterfactual historical changes (like, say, uniting the Middle East behind a single leader!) to do it.
Honestly, the main thing you would need to change is to get two or three of them to follow Western training doctrine. The biggest problem with MENA conventional forces, even more so in the 80’s, is that they’re very centralized and tend to not appreciate lower officers showing tactical initative. Israeli kit is good, but it’s not spectacularly better. Their biggest advantage is that they’re much more flexible. (And if we want to get political, that they have Uncle Sam standing off to one side giving the evil eye to anyone that looks at them funny.)
Yes, in terms of numbers and resources in theory it’s possible. The Middle Eastern states have much larger populations, and at least some decent military hardware.
It’s the political and economic weaknesses and contradictions that really make them a not really viable threat.
And then there are the nukes!
Oooh looks interesting to me, as one of my favourite PC games is “Steel Armor: Blaze of War” which is a tank simulator (you can drive a T-62 or a M60A1 as part armies of Soviet Union, Iran, Iraq or Angola in campaigns set in…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnR2suRvaTA Iran-Iraq war of 1981 (and Basra 86 (DLC)); Afghanistan 1984; Angola 1987. It’s on sale at the moment on Steam BTW, but it covers the period this supplement covers and is an interesting period for playing moderns in a wargame (before the advent of the M1 and Challenger and thermal imaging that can make… Read more »
My wallet just recovered from purchasing a USMC force and now Battlefront tempts me with a Merkava company.
Super excited about this one. IDF expansion beyond the Fate of a Nation and some new variants to mix up the Warsaw force lists. There is probably one more leap in tech left to go and we will be close to the current day. For all the expansions of the 80s and 90s the tech was more upgrade than completely new equipment. Once the Team Yankee aspect is moved aside for WWIII we will get to see more of the world. As I normally say Korea will be of interest and the wars in Africa could be brought in as… Read more »
Looks interesting.
I have been looking forward for this book, I have been running scenarios for Col Coyle’s second book, Sword Point, Where the Soviets invade Iran and the US launches a coalition campaign to get the Russians out, now I can flesh out my Iranian units and have Bradley’s
Mmm interesting that many people have predicted that WWIII may/would start in the middle east so this may preempte some troubles.
This book is the only reason I did not plunge into Team Yankee when it came out. I knew the Middle East would be covered eventually and because the Merkava (in all its versions) is a passion of mine, as well as the IDF in general, I deliberately waited until now to start playing. To be honest I was really thinking of getting into the ‘Fate of a Nation’ book, but where I live there is no interest in that period, also there were no Merkavas in those wars. Luckily there is a meta for Team Yankee, so this is… Read more »
What might be interesting is a new India/Pakistan War. The Soviets get involved seeing it as an opportunity to get a foothold and access in the Indian Ocean which leads to NATO being dragged in on the Indian side. I think it would give a good opportunity of inflaming the entire Middle East with the possibility of dragging China in as well
I like this idea! @torros
Lots of potential directions this could lead.
One “fictional” game I’ve always intended to do (although probably with micro tanks (6mm)) is a continuation of the Battle for Crete between Greece and Turkey (as there’s still a DMZ up since the 70s). Two Nato “allies” who don’t see each other as such. Equipment would be a few M60’s and M113s and a few Leopard 1s, but remembering that there’s no land route to the Island for each combatent means that equipment is going to be on the easily portable side with air dropped troops being a feature. But an interesting historical campaign on the War between India… Read more »
With a war in India as well as Europe and the Middle East the North Koreans might see a chance to exploit the situation with the Americans engaged on too many other fronts to be able to help South Korea, which may bring the Japanese in to the fight as well which the Chinese would probably respond aggressively to.
I’m all for this one. The IDF is a worthy force to put on the tabletop.
I haven’t finished building my early IDF force but I’ll still get this book and some Merkavas when they show up.
If you read the book by book by General Sir John Hackett, you will see that you could do a conflict in the Southern Hemisphere of Africa. Bulgaria and Romania could enter Yougoslavia on their way to Italy and Southern France. The Turks Could participate in Oil War or Turks and Greeks could fight the Georgians and Ukrainians while the Greek can fight Romania and Albania. What of Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan…lots of potential on that side too! Why not seize the opportunity!