Argie Bargie – A review of Argentinian Forces in Team Yankee.
The announcement of Argentinian forces to oppose the new British Commando and Paratroop formation in “WW3:British” (Mk.2), along with a Firestorm Falklands to fight over, caught many of us by surprise. Latin America has been largely ignored by the game, save the Cubans in “Red Dawn”. To be fair, the force here is very much optimized for the Falklands, with no “mainland” equipment (AMX-13!) but it still has its merits.
The Force
The force consists of three formations; two light infantry formations (Army and Marines) and an Armoured Car formation, representing those forces historically present on the islands. These are in-turn backed up by three artillery boxes (two of 105mm pack howitzers and one of 120mm mortars) backed up by a dismounted OP, two AA boxes (30-35mm static AA guns), an AT box with 105mm recoilless rifles and an aircraft box with both the turbo-prop Pucara and delta winged Dagger.
Interestingly, they also get the option of a single allied formation which can be NATO or Warsaw Pact. This is explained as being down to the shifting loyalties in the region, but it’s odd to think of a hardline, US-backed right wing Junta finding common cause with the USSR…
Army Rifle Company
The Argentinian Army was highly reliant on conscription and it’s fair to say that there was something of a gulf between the war the officers fought and that of their men… Whilst, on paper, well equipped with arms not dissimilar to that of the British; FN FAL, FN MAG, M72s; they had been posted to the barren and wind-swept islands with little in the way of cold weather gear. Despite this, the were generally able to put up a competent, if static, defence.
Argentinian army units have a Confident (4+) Green (Skill 5+) stat line reflecting their conscript status, compounded by a lack of effective officers and NCO.
The platoons themselves reflect the two GPMG of the support squad, combined with the FN FAL and heavy barrelled FAP variant squad auttyomatics with a 2/1 rate of fire profile, backed up by M72 rockets. There are also a pair of M20 Super Bazooka to bolster the M72. AT14 is not something that will scare off much in the plains of Europe but it’s more than sufficient against CVR(T)!
The Platoon can also be bolstered by a tripod mounted .50.
Two-Three of these platoons can be backed up by a mortar section and an anti-tank gun section.
The Mortars are a 3-tube section of 81mm Brandt mortars with typical 81mm mortar stats but let down by a Skill 5+ and only three tubes. Still, they have smoke.
A trio of 105mm M68 Recoilless provides the only dedicated AT assets. AT17 and a 21”/60cm range is sufficient for the Falkands (and anything the Argentinians would face on the mainland versus region rivals) but won’t cut it against modern armour, even by 80s standards. The HE round provides a “brutal” 2+ hit versus infantry and that is very important in a Falkands game.
Armoured Car Squadron
There were two Cavalry Squadrons on the Falklands, but only one bought its rides with it! The terrain of the Falklands doesn’t especially lend itself to a wheeled vehicle and they spent most their time in Port Stanley and the limited roads on the island.
The AML-90, in typical french style, marries a large gun with an armoured car chassis. The 90mm isn’t quite as fearsome as an AMX-10RC’s 105mm but still is more than sufficient for the fight it faced, with a AT16 FP3 round, plus a smoke round. It is also the only unit in the force with some sort (IIR) of night fighting capability!
The armored cars come in troops of 2-4, with two-three platoons in a formation, plus a dismounted scout unit. The Cavalry has a Fearless (3+) Trained (4+ skill) stat line to maximise the potential of the armoured cars.
Marine Rifle Company
The Argentine Marines are an interesting contrast to the army, packing a Fearless (3+) Trained (4+) stat line that makes them better than the USMC in soft stats!
The platoons is much like an army on in structure, though they lose the option of adding a 0.5 team but do gain transports in the favour of the .50 armed LVTP-7.
Their formation mirrors the Army’s but does gain a larger mortar platoon (3 or 6 tubes) and a 30mm Hispano-Suiza platoon, with two 30mm AA guns. These useful little AA guns have radar fire control so get the “Radar” stat boosting their range versus Aircraft to 36”/90cm, though they are let down a little by a 5+ firepower and the fact that they only have two guns in the unit.
In general, the marines are only a couple points more than their army equivalent, so I suspect they will be the more popular choice.
Support
All of the ground support is from the Army, but the artillery branch seems to be better trained and they all generally rock a Confident (4+) Trained (4+) NATO standard stat line.
The 120mm is pretty typical of its ilk, providing cheap FP3+ bombardments and smoke, with 3-6 guns.
The 105mm is an Italian OTO-Melara Model 56 pack howitzer. It’s more mobile than the British L118, but shorter legged, with a 16”/40cm direct and 72”/180cm indirect, though that’s more than sufficient for a standard 6×4! Firepower and AT are similar for bombardments, but the L118 punches considerably harder directly vs armour!
The Oerlikon GDF 35mm Air Defence Battery is a beast! It’s more or less a static Gepard, with a statline similar to the West German AA, although only AT10. Its main weakness, other than having only a 2” tactical, is the fact that it’s a two-gun platoon. Not ideal.
Oddly, despite bagging at least one Harrier in the conflict, the Argentine Blowpipes are not present in the list, nor are their other MANDPAD, the Igla. It’s not obvious why, other than I guess it was one more model to make!
The Air Force (and Fleet Air Arm) were the stars of the Argentine armed forces and they get a good showing here with two options.
The Dagger Strike Flight is basically a Mirage 5, made unlicensed by IAI. The 30mm autocannon provides an anti-helicopter or anti-CVRT strafe attack, backed up by 250kg bombs to provide a AT 4 FP2+ artillery template. It’s… fine. Cheap at 8pts for 4 is its main selling point.
Of more interest is the Pucara twin engined tubo-prop COIN aircraft.
This has a weaker gun attack (AT6 vs 7 and ROF 2 vs 3) and weaker bomb attack (FP3+ vs 2+) but does carry 68mm rockets for wide area attacks and can be upgraded to carry napalm to make it even more devastating vs infantry but you do pay a lot for that capability.
Conclusions
The Argentinians forces are about what I expected, maybe a touch better when it comes to the marines. Most of the kit from the war is reflected in their formations (though I thought the marines also had 0.5 MG), save the MANPADS and stuff like TigerCAT (the land mounted version of Sea CAT used by the Argentinians). In a 50pt game vs the Commandos or paras they should hold up well, but melt once the hit on 2+ infantry get into bayonet range. The forces don’t have much night fighting capability; only the armoured cars get IIR, so I suspect we will see a lot of night attacks on the British side!
I think the Argentinians will struggle in open play as they have no answer to heavy armour other than air attacks. A Chieftain Stillbrew will be a struggle, let alone stuff with ERA or Cobham! Similarly, their AA defence is purely gun based and very limited in size, though the the guns themselves are good.
That said, Mike (of the Barn) and I are talking of doing some 50pt Falklands games so I got the boxset and some additional bits in the form of an additional squad, transports and some 120mm mortars and Pucaras to give me this.
Where are the Pucaras? Well, they are Firestorm Troops in the campaign so I left them out the list rather than duplicate the effort.
Firestorm Falklands
Battlefront are releasing a version of their Firestorm campaign system for the Falklands, focusing on the action on West Falklands. The British have the initiative for the first five battle and, to a lesser extent, the last five, with the Argentinians having parity in the middle five battles. The British get access to naval bombardment firestorm troops in certain areas, whilst the Argentine player gets Pucaras, albeit at reduced availability (turn up on a 5+) for the last five games as attrition (and the raid on the Pebble Beach).
Should be fun!
