Doughboys – The US in Checkpoint Charlie

Whilst It’s easy to look at Checkpoint Charlie’s time period and focus on the Vietnam misadventure occurring in the middle of it, it’s important to remember that the US still had a sizeable commitment to facing off the Soviets in Europe (as well as Korea and Japan).  Vietnam drove a fearsome consumption of man and material, but it was still a side adventure compared to the prospect of an armed confrontation across the inner German border.  The difference in warfare saw equipment devised for Europe be found wanting in the mud and dust of Vietnam’s counter-insurgency warfare, but similarly not all the new equipment devised in Vietnam would find application in a peer-on-peer manoeuvre warfare conflict. Though I still like the idea of a Riverine Force naval battle versus BMP on the Rheine…

The US lists in Checkpoint Charlie reflect the US forces away from South East Asia in the more hospitable weather (at least to a Brit) of West Germany.  The US force is still largely a volunteer force with a highly professional officer and NCO corps and that leaves most US troops as Confidents, Hit of 4’s 4+ skill check; NATO standard, one might say.  It’s equipment going into Checkpoint Charlie was very high end, though the funding diverted to Vietnam would see development and equipping stall in some areas until the resurgence in the early to mid 80s that would see the Abrams, Bradley and Apache establish themselves as benchmarks.

Tank Formations

The US has two main battle tank formations, the 90mm armed M48 and 105mm armed M60, plus a heavy tank formation for the 120mm armed M103.  Each formation has the same basic layout:

• A 1-2 tank HQ platoon
• Two to three tank platoons of the same type as the HQ.
• For the M48 and M60, a fourth tank box for an M103 heavy tank platoon.
• A M114 Cavalry section
• A M106 4.2” mortar section
• An anti-tank section with TOW equipped M150s
• An infantry section in M113s.

That makes for a very tidy, self-contained formation with all but anti-aircraft cooked in, much as we have come to see in the 1980s game.

The M48 represents the early 60’s baseline.  A well-armoured tank with a 90mm main gun, it’s easy to see the line of heritage back to the M26 Pershing of FoW, albeit with much better armour and more performance extracted from the 90mm main gun.  That said, the 90mm is showing its age versus the T-55/IS-2, struggling to get reliable kills at range.  Its own armour is able to shrug off the 122mm and 100mm but the 115mm and 125mm are both more than capable of defeating the M48 reliably.  That said, it is almost half the price of its successor!  It’s basically the same as the ‘Nam version, save the lack of a Beehive round, and has the same price tag. It also has a better formation than ‘Nam, with the addition of both a heavy tank and TOW platoon.

The M60 builds upon the M48, addressing its shortfalls.  The introduction of the 105mm addresses the ability to deal with its peer threat whilst a new turret and hull design increases the armour to the point it can withstand a 115mm or AT-3 hit more often than not, though still needing to be somewhat careful.  The modern bells and whistles of the M60A3 are still some way off, so it’s better sitting still to shoot, where its rangefinder allows a decent chance of a hit.  Israeli players from FoaN will already be used to this!

One thing to note is that the second compulsory box of the M60 formation can field M60A2 “Starship” tanks.  The M60A2 embraced the “space age” and the rise of transistors by switching the tanks main tool for engaging from other tanks away from a tank shell to a guided missile.  Along with the Sheridan scout tank, the M60A2 was equipped with a stubby 152mm main gun that could fire a shell for anti-infantry/structure work, or a Shillelagh missile for engaging tanks at longer ranges than a conventional shell.  In practice, the combusting case shells proved awkward (if not outright unsafe) to work with and the missiles and their early electronics proved unreliable.  The latter two points don’t really get modelled in a tabletop game, so we get an M60 that can shoot further and with more power than the standard 105mm and pack a nasty punch up close against infantry with a ‘brutal’ FP1 hit.

The M103 was a response to the IS-3 threat.  It paired a 120mm main gun with a heavy uparmoured hull to produce a tank able to support the M47s and M48s by sniping enemy heavy tanks whilst the medium tanks dealt with the opposing, numerous, enemy mediums. 

The introduction of the high performance, 105mm equipped, main battle tanks largely made the heavies redundant but they were still in-service at the start of the period.  The M103 is marginally cheaper than the new M60s, packs a harder punch, albeit at a slower rate of fire, sports slightly less armour but a loss less mobility.  It acts as a great fire support tank, able to one shot even a T-64, but lacks the versatility to build a force around.

Infantry Formations

The Mechanised Company represents M113 mounted infantry that made up the bulk of US forces in Europe.  Riding in a relatively new M113 and armed to the teeth, they maintain the ethos of their M3 halftrack equipped forefathers in FoW.    Each platoon has seven M16 stands, two M60 LMG and, oddly, three M47 Dragon ATGW.  I say oddly as the M47 only entered service in 1975 so it is somewhat limiting that they are mandatory equipment, rather than an optional extra when fighting late-in-period games.  It also makes them very expensive platoons!  Six points more expensive than the ‘Nam equivalent. It also lacks the optional extras of 90mm dismounted recoilless rifles and M113 mounted mini-guns and 106mm rifles. Honestly, unless you want to spend a lot of points on in-platoon ATGW, the ‘Nam platoon is just flat out better. That said, the Checkpoint Charlie formation is arguably better; losing the Zippo flamethrower platoon (boo!) but gaining more tanks options (M60 and M103, not just M48) and a TOW platoon. I suspect they’ll need it!

The formation brings a lot of firepower to bear.  Each formation has two-three infantry platoons, a tank platoon, up to two Cavalry platoons for scouting, up to two M150 TOW platoons for tank killing and both a medium and a heavy mortar platoon.  Again, save Anti-Aircraft, the formation has everything it needs to hand and apes its TY equivalent.

The other infantry platoon is the US Airmobile formation.  The Airmobile are a little more gung-ho than their mechanised cousins, sporting a 3+ skill and assault compared to the all 4’s of the M113 mounted version.  The platoon has seven M16, two M60 and an optional 90mm recoilless.  Unlike the TY version, the platoons don’t have their own Hueys but instead are more like ‘Nam, with one single helicopter platoon to airlift the others.   The airmobile also gets a four-gun M60 machine gun platoon and a four-tube mortar platoon, the latter, interestingly, getting their own Hueys!

Compared to the M113 infantry, these guys are definitely well suited to anti-infantry work but suffer from having nothing heavier than a 90mm recoilless (plus M72 LAW) in a world of heavily armoured tanks.  Formation support tanks and some Cobra will be a necessary part of any force based around these guys.

Cavalry Formations

The last formation is the Armoured Cavalry. 

We are pre-M113/M901 let alone pre-M3 CFV Bradley here. Instead, the armoured cavalry is based around the pairing of M114 cavalry vehicles; basically a sawn off M113, with the missile firing Sheridan.  The M114 comes in 2-6 pairs whilst the Sheridan can be in 1-3 units of 2-3 tanks.  The Sheridan sports the same 152mm tank/missile system as the Starship so the formation can put a lot of missile shots down range but its something of a glass cannon.  The M114 only sport a .50 MG for dealing with peer recce threats but are as armoured as an M113 making them pretty resilient against heavy MG and light autocannons.  The formation also features an M113 Mechanised platoon and a heavy mortar platoon.  Not quite the behemoth all-singing all-dancing formation of the TY period.

Support

Support wise the US  are backed up by up to two batteries of M109, the original stubby barrel version!  Compared to the TY version this lacks the multitude of shell options that we get later, but is still a powerful HE shells to lob down range.  It’s backed by an M113 OP.

Anti-aircraft comes in there flavours; the gun armed VADS and Duster, plus the missile armed Chaparral.  The Duster appeared in ‘Nam and its twin 40mm pack a harder punch than then 20mm Vulcan of the VADS.  But it lacks the “radar” trait so will struggle to deal with Soviet SU-22 Fitters or Arab MiGs, though its perfectly fine vs Hinds.  The Chaparral is, much like VADS, unchanged from Team Yankee and provides a decent missile shit for long range engagements.

In the air, the US get the only attack helicopter in NATO with the AH-1.  Appearing towards the end of the period, the AH-1 initially only had rockets to its name but can be upgraded to have TOW too.  The original MG and 40mm grenade armament is also ditched in favour of the 20mm gatling gun so its very much a mid-late 70’s model.

The F-4 Phantom is going to come up a lot over the next few articles as all the book NATO forces are using it!  The US one features 1000lb bombs (though I’d argue that 500lb Mk-82 are more likely on a USAF F-4. It’s dropping 12 of them so its academic…) for a small template anti-tank/dug-in infantry capability, cluster bombs for a big template, soft skin and infantry in the open killer, Napalm for really messing up dug in infantry over a small template then a 20mm Vulcan for anti-helicopter work.  It’s a versatile platform.

Dusting off the collection

New players benefit from a pretty well-rounded box that builds and 87pt force centred around an M48 platoon with mortars and M103s, supported by VADS, Cobras and M109s. Adding additional M113 to round out the VADS and Mortars and add an infantry platoon and OP are all reasonable options to get to 100pts.

‘Nam players with an Airborne, M113 Company or M48 company all have decent options to convert to the Checkpoint Charlie version (so long as the Mech player can find Dragons). Adding M150 TOW to an existing M48 or M113 company will bolster their ability to handle the Soviets. M109, Cobras and Dusters can also all be used as is and the Scooter can be used as a stand in for the F-4 (and vice versa for using the new model in ‘Nam) as its stat line is the same for all weapons. The biggest issue is going to be having to drop the visually cool ACAV for M114!

Team Yankee players who didn’t go too deep into the 80s can bring across the M60, M113 Mech Platoon (just ignore the modern body armour and hopefully you painted up the M60 LMG!), M109 (so long as you went short barrel) and the various M113 chassis. ITV need to be left in the cabinet in favour of M150s. Seeming as BF aren’t releasing an early Cobra, the current Cobra can come along, as can the VADS and Chapparal.

Conclusion

The USA is a well rounded force. It doesn’t do any one thing better than the other two NATO forces (well, maybe airpower) but it doesn’t do anything badly, either. It’s tanks balance all three sides of the armour triangles, favouring no two sides over the last. Its infantry are well equipped even if they lack the professionalism of the other two nations. They have plenty of in-formation and force support options for recce, artillery and anti-air. They are a solid force.