I hope all is well as we crest past a far too warm Halloween. This is just a quick post to showcase another completed element from the Red Dawn VDV BMD Air Assault Battalion Starter Set. This fabulous box came with a Red Dawn (1984) inspired unique objective taken from the movie stills showing a few commies posing it up for mommy in front of a distinctive/iconic fast food establishment.
Battlefront elected to go with 'alternate' branding inverting the yellow arches into a W...in my haste to unpack the box and look at the goodies and then ignore them for a random amount of time before hitting the work bench...I inadvertently lost the decals to declare my objective as Wonalds.
So, adapting and overcoming...I instead took inspiration from the fact that any given small town in the Canadian Prairies is home to its own Chinese food restaurant. This of course is due to the reality behind the internment of folks who were of Japanese or Asian descent and living on the western coast of North America during World War 2. This happened in the US and certainly in Canada and resulted in the aforementioned proliferation of small-town Chinese restaurants. Having lost all when they went into internment, these folks had to adapt and overcome (with much much more at stake than missing decals) and provide for their families.
With those folks in mind, and their contribution to their communities, I present you with appropriate signage for Won's Chinese Food emporium. Complete with BMD-1 at the curb, along with a couple of Ruskies and a sufficiently mid-winter grimy/dirty street to stand in.
...is that an update or are you just happy to see me?!?! Cause HOT DAMN! I'm pretty happy to see you!
Thats right folks! If you're living under a rock like me, you may have just seen that Battlefront are set to release their next Team Yankee/Red Dawn book that updates troops & kit available to NATO and Free forces for the pseudo-WW3.
There have been a few videos so far, I really like the review from Fog of War, as well there is a great blog post from Big Lee over at Breakthrough Assault:
Now, I remember watching the videos and post with much anticipation almost a year ago when Red Dawn was being announced and we were getting snippets to mull over. Seeing the invasion map and route through the Prairies as well as the map symbol with Canadian Mech Troops in Grizzly/Cougar was really cool to see. Having reread the posts and videos that I have seen so far, I'm even more pumped...now, I'm not going to say that I can see into the future, or have influenced Battlefront in their design...but I like to think that maybe someone has heard me or even read a few words that I've dumped into the internets.
However, I did post that one of my pet-peeves was that Battlefront went with the short barrel 1970s M109 for the RCHA even though we were sporting the longs in the 80's... 1 RCHA battery for 4 CMBG
And, I may have said that with the push Red's push into the Prairies and axis of advance going past Edmonton and into Calgary...along with the new Airborne Assault rules...that maybe this would be a good time for the Canadian Airborne Regiment to make an appearance... Red Dawn North
So yeah, a lot to be pumped about...in Edmonton you had the Airborne jump school, 435 Squadron and their Tactical Airlift School, 1 Brigade Headquarters in Calgary, and a bunch of various Militia regiments along with the Regular force regiments that can make for some Force Mobile Command goodness.
I'm looking forward to the Cougars and Grizzlies, but gotta admit I'm really excited for the Iltis jeeps and TOW carriers...maybe odd, but I may have cheered when I saw them, lol.
We'll see what comes downline, the pre-order timing looks to be 21 October and there are a few pre-order deals offered for Direct Order from Battlefront. I just jumped on the book, cards, and objective deal which nets you an objective (and maybe 10 figs) for free...the deal is $35USD and the book and cards separately are $25 and $10 respectively...so...
There is also a Canadian Mech Infantry deal that comes with upgrades for 3xM113 to the new TUA carrier. All in all, its 2 x infantry platoons (with Carl G or Eryx), 2 x M113 transport boxes (for 10 x M113's), and 2 x M113 frames (for 2)...all coming in around $160 USD. If you do the math, I think you'll end up saving about $10-15 vice buying everything separately. Not an insane amount of savings for buying a 'starter' collection, but that gives you either a pizza or a few beers while you put all the models together.
Anywho, looking forward to the breadcrumbs being thrown out over the next few weeks to see what is what. All in all, pretty happy to see what comes...hopefully the Canucks can get their own partisan/militia types as well (Cobras/Badgers/Bisons/Bears ?!?), there were definitely motivated folk who would've been happy to shoot at a Red or two.
Here's hoping you're enjoying some winter weather and keeping cool. While I'm sitting here waiting for my Red Dawn book to arrive, I thought I'd burn some 1's and 0's googling my way through 1985. Specifically, out of sheer curiosity and a little stroll down memory lane, I thought I’d take a look at some historical weather data (thank you Environment Canada) and see what the weather situation was back in the day to see how weather would have affected the Sov's had this whole 'would-have' been…been.
So thanks to my screenshot from the great review video from Miniature Landscape Hobbies, I have an invasion map to look at, and we can check out the northern axis of attack through Western Canada.
Starting with an airborne drop on 12 November, the Battlefront plan show us a variety of hooks and jabs as the Sov’s employ air assault, motor rifle, and heavy tank formations moving eastward and south pushing through Edmonton, Calgary, and points South and East up until 30 November down into southern Alberta and Saskatchewan and near Great Falls and Malta in Montana. Looking at the map above and the table below you can see my stations of interest:
Of note, all temperatures are in Celsius; daytime high/overnight low
Station
12 Nov
15 Nov
17 Nov
23 Nov
25 Nov
30 Nov
Prince Rupert
+2/-6; no snow on ground
+4/0; no snow
0/-7; 2 cm snow
-3/-13; 2 cm snow on ground
-9/-17; 2 cm on ground
0/-14; 2 cm on ground
Kitimat
-2/-8; no snow
+5/+1; rain and snow
-1/-5; no snow on ground
-9/-14; no snow
-13/-20; no snow
-6/-11; no snow
Prince George
-10/-21; 40cm snow on ground
0/-10; snow and rain, 42cm snow on ground
-17/-26; 40cm on ground
-18/-28; trace snow, 30cm on ground
-27/-34; 30cm on ground
-17/-29; 30cm on ground
Edmonton
+1/-15; 7cm snow on ground
+6/-3; 4cm on ground
-19/-21; snow, 4cm on ground
-14/-24; snow, 9cm on ground
-28/-32; 10cm on ground
-18/-24; 12cm on ground
Cold Lake
-7/-17; snow and rain, 14cm snow on ground
+1/-15; 16cm on ground
-10/-18; 15cm on ground
+3/-3; 11cm on ground
Not observed
Not observed
Red Deer
+1/-19; 7cm snow on ground
+7/-7; 4cm on ground
-15/-19; snow and rain, 4cm on ground
-11/-25; snow and rain, 8cm on ground
-26/-31; 10cm on ground
-20/-32; 10cm on ground
Calgary
+3/-19; 8cm snow on ground
+11/-1; trace
-12/-19; 2cm on ground
-10/-21; 2cm on ground
-23/-31; 3cm on ground
-19/-30; 5cm on ground
Wainwright
-4/-19; no snow on ground
+6/-10; no snow
-18/-22; no snow
-19/-27; no snow
Missing data
Missing data
Suffield (Medicine Hat)
-9/-20; 1cm snow on ground
+6/-4; trace
-12/-17; 3cm on ground
-12/-23; 4cm on ground
-24/-35; 4cm on ground
-23/-25; 4cm on ground
Fort Macleod
-1/-24; 14cm snow on ground
+6/0; 5cm on ground
-14/-18; 3cm on ground
-12/-29; 3cm on ground
-25/-25; 6cm on ground
-18/-24; 8 cm on ground
Swift Current
-7/-19; 37cm on ground
+5/-5; 43cm on ground
-8/-18; 35cm on ground
-17/-30; 37cm on ground
-24/-26; 31cm on ground
-24/-27; 31cm on ground
As you can see, the weather situation would have been a rather interesting variable to manage...and certainly true to form, Alberta and the Prairies keep you on your toes...Afterall, if you don't like the weather, just wait a few minutes and it will change.
I would like to say I remember the weather well, just like it was yesterday, but really, I vaguely remember some warm and cold temps. I do remember being in Army Cadets at the time and doing fieldwork in October/November just before the snow hit and I vaguely remember snow on the ground for Remembrance Day that year and thankful that the temps weren't too cold. As the table shows, we had some pretty cold temps near the end of the month and while it didn't necessarily snow a lot, the temps and winds would've been more than enough to give some pause. And then you have Southern Saskatchewan adding some spice with a foot or two of snow. Overall you can see the temperature swings of 20+ degree temperature changes, which aren't uncommon nor extreme, but this would've meant some pretty good winds and potential Chinook conditions in Southern Alberta that could have made any potential ops interesting.
The push past Prince George would’ve been slowed somewhat by the foot or so of snow, not to mention the rain and freezing temps keeping the troops cold. The swing southwards from Edmonton would’ve benefitted from the long stretch of Highway 2 but winds and temps again would’ve kept heads inside vehicles. The transition from Alberta to Saskatchewan would’ve been a bit of a shock with the much increased levels of snow on the ground, and again you could reasonably expect some pretty high winds moving to Swift Current. All in all, some interesting weather variances.
I hope you get a kick out of what could've been or at least what meteorologically was..and if you're gaming any Red or Northern Dawn moments, maybe you add in some additional stressors or weather events to your gaming - maybe digging in is a higher skill roll, not available at all, or just runs like normal. Anywho, hope you enjoy.
Cheers folks. And yeah, this...is not getting old anytime soon.
I hope all is well on your respective side...and I really hope that someone out there is actually getting some winter weather to enjoy. Yes, we are bouncing around 0 Celsius plus or minus 5-8 degree, but I sure do miss my -5 to -10 and snow...we had a buttload of rain the other night, but I could do with some snow.
Anyhow, as the title says...Red Dawn, baby! And not that 2012 version, we're talking the full-on commie hating, pre-dirty dancing, fairly anti-war, Powers Boothe swearing 1984 masterpiece...and the folks over at Battlefront are bringing the pain via their latest book...aptly titled Red Dawn.
I have been looking forward to this for some time now, I think it was announced in the last 2 years and well with Covid running amok with BF's manufacturing there have been some understandable delays. The best part is that there has been a bunch of videos popping up on YouTube giving out some intel and details leading up to the release date. So to help prep myself, I took a look at these channels as their links were posted on the Team Yankee site:
The different reviews were interesting to take in, they each took their time to showcase some of the new kits, and for the Breakthrough Assault crew, they had the chance to livestream a chat session with the Battlefront team. My favourite parts from each of these videos is always the chance to see what new kits are coming, but I have to say, the maps!! I've always enjoyed maps, love the view, love the info...and in this case, was a great way to prime me even further. Afterall, the 2 prong attack into North America involves taking a right turn at Canada...so yeah, lets bring on the NORTHERN DAWN...or maybe ARCTIC DAWN?? Either way you slice it, it looks promising and being a product of the 80s, it has a nostalgia feel along with being in my literal backyard.
The Northern Front - just over 2 weeks to get from Prince Rupert to Southern Alberta…with stops in Kitimat,Prince George, Jasper, and Red Deer (not Red Deep as the map says) before swinging hard south into Montana along a Medicine Hat/Suffield and Swift Current front. I think I’m going to have to look up the weather records from that time just out of curiosity to see what was hitting the West. As I recall, not a lot of snow that year, but some really cool temps…so yeah, for s’s and g’s, I’ll have to do the research.
— thanks Miniature Landscape Hobbies, screenshots are from his video —
It was really great, because the Breakthrough Assault folks made a point of showing this on their blog post following the live stream…it really opens up some possibilities for some Cougars an Grizzlies…oh my…maybe a 1Canadian Brigade Group counter or blunting attack…with some southern support…and of course some Norther Wolverines…or Badgers…Buffalo maybe?
The Southern axis of the attack…bring on the Cuban advisors…
So yeah, maybe we’ll see some Cougars and Grizzlies in our future...the book has rules for airdrop along with new Chinook models, so maybe some Canadian Airborne Regiment/ Special Service Force and Chinook deployments...the Canadian Air Force still had their Chinooks at this time (before we sold them to the Dutch in the 90's only to buy more in the 2000's) not to mention the HQ for the SSF was in Edmonton with 1 CBM being headquartered in Calgary. So lots of potential here and I’m really looking forward to it.
I think in the near future I’ll have to get some weather research done and maybe take a look at where the Canadian military was in 1985…and I guess have some thought as to where they would be concurrent to supporting ops in Europe. So much to compulse over.
Anywho, this is where my head is at these days…looking forward to getting back to Team Yankee…and with that…
