AMX Roland
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The AMX Roland is a mobile short-range surface-to-air missile (SAM) system. It was designed to defend friendly ground forces and swat filthy Communist aircraft out of the skies of Europe with extreme prejudice.
In Team Yankee[edit | edit source]
France[edit | edit source]
The Roland is an expensive anti-air missile platform that has enough armour to tank autocannon fire from the front or a peppering of artillery fire. Mounted on an AMX-30 chassis and modified to carry Roland missiles, a radar, and additional radios, it plays more like a tank that kills aircraft rather than a tractor with AA missiles.
Crucial to the Roland's playstyle is its long-range missiles; on a 6x4 table you could plant this unit in a corner and it would still be able to reach out and touch most points of the board. Against lists with less aircraft, like 2-4 Hinds, you might be able to plant them in a forest and cause enough hits to really do some damage. With ROF 3 and FP 4+, you will be hurting squadrons but not nuking entire squadrons from the skies.
Unlike the German Roland, the French version is, rather unfortunately, their best anti-air unit. The mediocrity of the AMX-DCA ensures that you will probably buy this unit. It may not have the deadliest missiles in the game or be the most cost-efficient unit, but you cannot win the war without air defense units.
It is unique among AA vehicles for having 3+ cross and a 28" dash across open terrain, allowing you to run away from a flanking platoon of BMPs or an artillery zero (probably even more important in TY2).
4 points gets you 2 vehicles while 8 points gets you 4 vehicles.
Iraq[edit | edit source]
Another option for Iraqi Air Defense.
IRL[edit | edit source]
The Roland (no AMX) was a joint SAM project between France and West Germany designed to protect mobile field formations and fixed, high-value targets such as airfields. It ended up being somewhat dicked over due to long delays in development and rising R&D costs, and was never produced in the numbers originally anticipated by its manufacturer, Euromissile. It is notable for being one of the very few foreign SAM systems that was actually purchased by the United States military, albeit only used in one Army National Guard battalion and mounted on trucks instead of tracked hulls. It was purchased by a dozen countries around the world, and was used operationally in the Falklands War by Argentina and the Iraq War by Iraq, where it managed to shoot down a British Sea Harrier and an American A-10 Thunderbolt II, respectively; ironically, its only successes in combat were against NATO aircraft rather than its intended Warsaw Pact targets. Among a boatload of different static and mobile variants, the AMX-30R mounted the Roland system on the chassis of a French AMX-30 main battle tank, as depicted in Team Yankee.
| French Forces in Team Yankee | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | AMX-30 |
| Transports: | AMX-10P- VAB |
| Troops: | Section d'infanterie/Chasseurs - Milan Section Antichar |
| Artillery: | AMX Auf1 |
| Anti-Aircraft: | AMX-13 DCA - AMX Roland |
| Tank Hunters: | VAB Mephisto |
| Recon: | AMX-10 RC - AMX-10P VOA |
| Aircraft: | Gazelle HOT - Gazelle 20mm - Mirage 5 |
| Iraqi Forces in Team Yankee | |
|---|---|
| Tanks: | T-55 - T-62 - T-72M |
| Transports: | BTR-60 - OT-64 - AMX-10P - BMP-1 |
| Troops: | Motor Rifle Company |
| Artillery: | 2S1 Carnation - 2S3 Acacia - AMX Auf1 - BM-21 Hail |
| Anti-Aircraft: | ZSU 23-4 Shilka - SA-13 Gopher - SA9 Gaskin - SA-8 Gecko - Roland AA |
| Tank Hunters: | Spandrel - VCR/TH |
| Recon: | BRDM-2 - BTR-60 OP |
| Aircraft: | MI-24 Hind - Gazelle HOT |
| US Support: | A-10 Warthog - AV-8 Harrier |