Battlefront Northag - Back to the Future ?

I was always a great fan of Cold War \ What if? games. Being around at the time I was fascinated by the prospect of "Modern" warfare, and now I fondly remember the excellent WRG and Challenger rules. When Team Yankee came out a couple of years ago we gave it a try (there are a couple of blog posts way back if you are interested) however for a couple of reasons it never took off here.

Last year Plastic Soldier Company started talking about doing a version of the "Battlefront" series set in the early 80s, and they were planning to do it in 10mm scale. This peaked my interest. I've always found 10/12mm to be an attractive option for tank battles. This was reinforced by my experience with Dropzone Commander. It went on pre order at a time when I had a bit of spare ££££ so I thought "why not". The game was originally planned for release around Salute in April, but the current situation has forced that back. The new release date is today (3rd May) so I'm hoping the toys will arrive soon. In the meanwhile PSC sent a pdf copy of the rules to those who preordered, so I've had them a couple of weeks and given them a read through - or two, and I'm pleasantly surprised. I've not read or played any of the Battlefront series of games. I've nothing against them, but just not had the time. Having read these, I may well have a look at some of the others.

Battlefront Northag is set in 1983. This is an interesting and deliberate choice because it predates most of the West's new tanks getting into service. Games are going to be something more than a few un-killable super tanks versus a horde of junk Soviets. There is the usual Cold War goes Hot intro, then rules, and finally a couple of army lists for UK and Soviet forces that would have faced off in Northern Germany - other armies are planned. Thankfully artillery is very much an off table thing, and the infamous "Team Yankee" tank park would also seem to be absent - all good to me!.

PSC are supporting the game with a full list of vhicles and infantry in 10mm. I already have a stash of 10mm \ 1:144 models waiting for paint. I bought them to use with Team Yankee, but as I said, the urge was not there so I have something of a head start. I'm going to be playing Soviets, so having the odd tank Company spare may not be a bad thing!

T80 in 1:144 from Takara

I'll hopefully go into more detail in another post, but  for now I think this is looking like a great little game. Rules are £20 and the two starter armies are £30 for the Brits and £70 for the Sovs - but you get your Rubles worth as that Soviet set includes 22 vehicles and over 100 infantry. The starters are up for sale on the PSC website now, with support units to follow "soon".

Worth a look.