Late night progress

I finished some stuff. Well, for varying degrees of the term 'finished' at any rate.

 A small pacific village, all Sarissa stuff, only base painted, need to drybrush/highlight it before throwing on the varnish.

 Long Tom, 155mm Artillery. Okay, so it was built last week, but I got into a frenzy and finished the crew in like 2 hours tonight. That includes making 2 155mm shells from a bit of rod lying around.

 Something that's actually, properly finished now. USMC squad 1, complete with basing tufts.

 Sniper team, for long range support.

 MMG team, for heavy fire support. Quite proud of the way this one turned out, looks really nice.

Commander and adjutant, because a USMC leader will lead from the front, and lead by example. (As he has tried to do so in every game so far).

1944: Japanese break through Marine vanguard

So, great game against Rob on Sunday. More Bolt Action, finally managed to get some stuff painted. USMC vs Imperial Japanese. Scenario chosen was Envelopment, with Rob as the attacker.

This was the table I set up. Coastline down one flank, plenty of dead ground along it, a scattering of craters towards Rob's side. Major rock formations towards the northern and southern outskirts of the field, providing useful MG and Sniper perches.

Broken ground and craters littered the rest of the field, but the dominating feature was the cliff running through the middle of the table, providing both good cover and an elevated firing position.

Turn 1 opened with a lot of my reserve units getting orders, and Rob's scout car/tankette gunning down some marines that had advanced up the beach.

End of turn 1 saw both sides advancing rapidly, the Japanese to try and break through the Marine encirclement, and the Marines to close any gaps in their line.

 Turn 2's opening saw the Marine squad on the beach further decimated by Rob's tanks while the Long Tom failed to hit anything. I was less than impressed with it at that point.

 Along the eastern flank one brave squad rushes through the dead ground, pouring fire into the Japanese as they go, causing severe casualties.

Turn 2's end saw the central Marine squad effectively pinned by Sniper and MMG fire from the northern hilltop, while the western marine squad survives by some miracle. The eastern squad did well, weathering the Japanese return fire with aplomb. All my other teams except the Engineers have now made it to the table, heavily weighting the western flank.

 Start of turn 3 sees Rob moving first, rushing forward with his suicide AT troops. Then the Long Tom gets a chance to fire, lowering the barrel to target the Japanese troops next to the tank. With a mighty crash the howitzer fires, and the distant explosion throws sand and debris a hundred feet into the air. When the smoke clears there's nothing left of the Japanese squad but a smoking crater in the sand.

 My sniper takes a potshot at Rob's commander (hiding just next to the tankette). He misses.

 The pinned Marine squad and Bazooka fail to pass any order tests. Saw that coming… but normally my Bazooka team can't hit the broad side of a barn three feet away, so yeah.

 Towards the end of turn 3, and a most Marine squads have pushed forward heavily, wanting to take the ridgeline before the Japanese can make it there. The eastern squad has taken heavy casualties, but simply refuses to break.

At the end of the third turn Rob's tanks have managed to advance implacably forward, mowing down the MMG team, the Long Tom's crew, the western Marine squad and the Bazooka team loader.

On the other hand, my engineers have shown up, kitted out for killing tanks, traps, and other forms of nastiness. They also have a flamer for rooting enemies out of dense cover or bunkers.

In turn 4 I got the first order die, so the Engineers immediately assaulted Rob's heavy tank, scoring just enough hits to stun the beast. This would prove critical, as Rob just couldn't unpin the beast afterwards.

 In the centre, the Marines finally make the ridge, pouring fire into the Japanese below them, causing heavy casualties and pinning them. This proves to be a mistake, as Rob decides to launch an assault, and his Japanese special rule allows him to automatically pass any order test to do so. The marines, lacking the numbers to match the Japanese fall to a man. However, as the sergeant falls he manages to put pistol round through the Japanese commander's skull. I claim a moral victory for that.

This sets up a grand melee in the centre, my commander advancing to point blank with his adjutant, both of them gunning down several of the Japanese with their Thompson SMGs. The eastern centre squad then converges on the Japanese squad, accurate BAR fire accounting for all but the LMG loader. 

 End of turn 4, with carnage all round. The Japanese have lost several units, as have the Marines. It's going to be close, but I have to stop Rob getting anything off my table edge.

 Turn 5 opens with me again, running the Engineers behind the tank, opening up with the flamer on the Japanese squad next to them. Something jams in the flamer's nozzle, and the stream of fire fails to kill any Japanese soldiers before running out of fuel. Rifle and BAR fire claims three enemies instead.





The rest of turn 5 is a mad dash for the finish, throwing caution to the winds. The Tankette nearly clears the board, and my Bazooka once again fails to unpin in order to stop it.

The lone Japanese commander (his friend taken out by sniper fire) assaults the mortar observer to finish the turn. At the start of turn 6, my commander, surviving an assault from the Japanese gunner left from last turn, guns down the Japanese leader as he tries to escape.

Rob's tankette gets the next order, zooming off the board, followed by a suicide AT bomber. Nothing else makes it past the Marine's wall of lead, and a valiant effort from the Medic and his orderly could have swung the game, but alas failed to inflict any wounds—then again, he didn't save any during the game either.

Rob won the scenario convincingly with 14 points to 10. If I'd managed to kill that last squad it would have been 12-12, and even draw, so it was very close.

We didn't play particularly swiftly, but we weren't slow either. The game felt fast paced after the opening turn of movement, and the USMC really suit my aggressive style of play. The Long Tom was useless when trying to shoot tanks, but proved so deadly against infantry that Rob couldn't allow it to get off another shot. My Bazooka proved as inept as ever, but my Sniper finally managed to win a sniper duel, which was fun.

There was plenty going on in this game, fire and manoeuvre warfare, tactical advances, assaults, tanks vs infantry vs artillery. All in all, even though I lost, it was one of the most satisfying games I've had in a long, long time. It never actually felt like I was losing—and even then it wasn't by much. It felt like a close game the whole time, and there were plenty of great moments to take away from it.

Out of place, out of time (USMC vs Japan, somewhere in Normandy…)

So let's start by getting one thing straight: I'm terrible at this blogging thing. Thank you and goodnight. No, wait—I have a BatRep for you first. Maybe I'll even remember to occasionally post y building/painting progress here too.

So, this was our battlefield. Nice open centre, good cover towards the edges. Sort of, anyway. Lots of buildings to run through as well, good for some missions, bad for others.

So, first mission playing against Rob, and his Imperial Japanese Army. #4 in the scenario list; Hold Until Relieved. Turns out the japs were holding something important, and my first USMC division had been tasked with getting it back.


Thus the game began, Rob having set up an MMG and a veteran infantry squad in the building adjacent to the objective. My Marines could deploy every infantry unit on the table, at least 18" from Rob's units and the objective. One time playing an infantry platoon is more fun.

No, I'm afraid you won't see much paint on my models. Rob, on the other hand, has put as all to shame with his speedpainted IJA.

Squads set up in a rough encirclement pattern around the objective, preparing to take the buildings nearby and fight room to room if need be. My twin MMGs were set up in forward positions on opposite flanks, while one brave (if ultimately foolhardy) USMC squad formed up behind some hedges to take potshots at emerging Japanese troopers.

This rather proved to be a mistake, as they were within 12" of the board edge, allowing Rob's troops to assault on the turn they entered. This was the second order of the game, the first being mine, placing an airstrike on Rob's MMG in the building, the only target my Forward Air Observer could see to vector in a strike.

The unfortunate Marines in the corner murdered four incoming Japs with reaction fire, and brought down another two in melee, but sadly, it wasn't enough to stop the fanatical Japanese troopers.

The next major event was my medium mortar getting a round off, managing a hit with the first shot—requiring a 6 to do so. What followed was a chain of luck so good it was almost painful. Because the mortar shell crashed through the roof, exploding in the midst of Rob's MMG team, all three members fell to the high explosive, removing the need for an airstrike. The mortar was to prove just as effective the next it actually managed to hit anything, several turns later.

A comedy of errors in sniper vs sniper warfare followed, my sniper hitting but failing to wound the Japanese marksman, the Jap sniper failing to hit at all (needing only a 2), and my MMG causing only 1 wound out of 4 hits. It was enough to remove the threat of that sniper for a couple of turns, which was a welcome change from what Will's sniper normally does.

The rest of the turn was all movement, squads entering buildings, and Rob bringing on the rest of his first wave. My airstrike turned up promptly, strafed the empty top floor of the building, and left.

The turn opened properly with Rob bringing on a couple of units, then I rallied my Marine squad in the south-central building from 4 pins. The First Lieutenant's +2 Morale bonus proved invaluable this game, helping pass six order tests at insane numbers.

The rest of the turn was once again rather uneventful from what I remember, mostly those troops that had fallen short last turn now entering the buildings to the lower left of the picture, while other pinned units rallied.

Rob managed to get most of his reserves on this turn as well, getting lucky with his reserve rolls, and even luckier with his light mortars in his grenadier squad, shelling my Marines in the north section of the long green-roofed building.

 Turn three opened with a storm of fire focused on the lower level of the central building, starting to build up pins on Rob's IJA veterans in there. If you really want to pin a unit, you have to throw the kitchen sink at it—so I did.

The bazooka, as usual, missed every shot, leaving the house with some nice new windows and open plan living arrangements while only mildly inconveniencing the Japs occupying it.

Next up was my surviving MMG team—the one on the western flank having been toasted by a sneaky flamer earlier this turn, said flamer promptly running out of fuel and running for the hills. The MMG on the eastern flank made up for the loss of its partner by plowing through a light howitzer that had the audacity to try shooting at it, killing one of the crew behind the gun shield.


 

For this, however, the MMG team paid the price, another IJA veteran squad entering the board in the northeast, spraying the team with small arms fire, cutting down two of them. The gunner, finger on the trigger, cares not for such trifles as dying because of bullets, and holds on for grim death.

 Sometime during the third turn my FAO, having repositioned in turn two, vectors in a second strike against Rob's IJA grenadiers, then takes heavy fire from the veterans in the objective building, losing his radioman to the fire, but remaining steady awaiting the sound of nearby aircraft engines.

Turn 4 opened with a bit of a strange move from Rob, placing his IJA vets in the open. So my squad of Marines advances from the building, putting up a murderous curtain of fire, killing five of the team, not quite enough to force a morale test.

 Following their compatriots lead, another Marine squad rushes from their building, pouring point-blank fire in through the windows of the building the other IJA vets are sheltering in. This causes no casualties, but puts down another pin marker on the vets.

The north team from that same building, having rallied last turn, also advances, opening up on the IJA that killed the gunners—the last man having been taken out by a kamikaze nutjob with an plunge mine on a stick. The depleted Marine squad, having suffered two turns of shelling from the grenadiers, take out their irritation on the IJA in spectacular fashion, killing half the squad.

Then, in the centre, I decide it's time for an objective run. Only two turns left, with the possibility of one more. Balls to the wall as everything advances on the IJA vets sheltering in that central building.

AT squad, with their tommy gun sergeant, they get some hits, but no casualties. Bazooka, predictably, fails to hit the broad side of a barn. Of course, there may be rather less barn at this point.



Then, in a fit of pique, I fire the mortar at the IJA vets…KABOOM! Straight through the building, falling through the large hole the MMG team left while busy exploding, the heavy round detonating amidst the veteran Japanese troopers, killing a terrifying six of them in one blow. Yes, yes, I think I'll keep this little monster.

Little else of real note happens, some maneuvering here and there, and pot shots all round, but the dust settles on turn 4, my airstrike having been delayed at the start… and leaving me hoping I didn't roll a 1—letting Rob take control of it—at the start of turn 5.

I rolled an amazing string of numbers for the airstrike, pinning down everything near the target, calling in a heavy ground attack aircraft (my SBD Dauntless here) that released its payload and obliterated the grenadier squad where they stood. When the dust settled there was only a large crater and small bits of tattered uniform lying around it.

Following that, my Marines assault Rob's final two IJA vets, and a after a brief, bloody, fight, emerged victorious, claiming the objective. Rob ceded the game at this point, realizing he had nothing that could reach the objective in time—and survive the onslaught of USMC fire long enough to hold it.

US Victory!

High Fantasy, Uruks laid low, Gobbos bashed and Dark Elves smashed.

Sunday was a good day. Three games in all. LotR against Mark in the morning, cooked up a 500 pt Gondor list to take on his Uruk Hai berserker horde. Mark played a good game, but forgot something crucial about his army: everyone gets two attacks. I'm not familiar enough with the LotR profiles to remember that stuff. So it turned what should have a been an uphill struggle into a fairly even match.

I just squeaked a win in the end, with Boromir slaying Mark's second troll. The first troll very nearly died from the first round of shooting in the entire game. So many 5's and 6's in a single roll I have not seen in a long time. Hilarious seeing a troll turn into a pincushion from just 5 bowmen.

Most of the battle revolved around the bridge over the river. By which I mean by guys got horribly slaughtered up there when the troll arrived. They did fairly well until then, with me and Mark losing roughly equal numbers of warriors. The troll did well until it tried facing Boromir, which led to a solid face-walloping with the Banner of Gondor.

Pincushion Troll. Part 1 of the highlight reel.

The bridge, mid-game. Berserkers vs Warriors of Gondor. Pretty even so far, but that troll is very close.

Later that day. Two trolls and a bridge. I'm running quite low on warriors.

Boromir, meet Troll. Troll, meet pointy-end of sword. 

Look ma, no trolls!
And that was that, end of the game. I had an untouched Boromir, three warriors, and a guard of the fountain court. Mark had 3 berserkers and a shaman.

Next up was a couple of games of Kings of War. We played with simultaneous turns, priority roll, move/move, shoot, fight. Much faster than even regular KoW games. They were brutal too. I also learned why Elohoi regiments clock in at over 300 pts. 18 attacks with Crushing Strength (2) that hit on a 3+ are deadly. Combine that with Flying, 10" move/20" charge, and Defense 6, it's nuts. Oh, and they also have regenerate. There were comments about "broken" angels.

Then again, I'm shelling out nearly 400 points, including upgrades. Nearly half my army at 1000 pts. It'd had better hit and soak damage like it costs 400 pts.

Anyway, first up was Mark's goblin horde. Also known as the "excuse me; how many units?" army.

For reference, that's 5 units of goblin sharp-sticks, 1 of bow armed gobbos, 3 mincers, 2 heroes, and a giant. 12 units all up. I have 5. 2 Paladin Regiments, Elohoi Regiment, Ur-Elohoi hero, Heavy Arbalest (war engine). They lack a little in the manpower department as I need to get some more models.

Turn 3 here, I think. Elohoi regiment has done some damage to a large unit of sharpsticks (ie: ripped them to tiny little pieces of gobbo), and both Paladin regiments are engaged. Giant does nasty things to one of them.

 Turn 5. Elohoi charged by Goblin characters. Giant charged by Ur-Elohoi. Arbalest charged by sharpsticks. Unsurprisingly it lost horribly. So did the goblin characters. And the giant (who already took quite a bit of damage from the Paladins earlier).

The aftermath of turn 6. Elohoi Regiment got charged in the flank. Split attacks 6 each way (gobbo character, gobbo hero, sharpstick regiment). Somehow managed to win everything despite being flank-charged. Rolled awesome for nerve tests, making everything run away.

The only goblin survivor is a very nervous looking shaman…



After that, played against Rob's Dark Elves (or Twilight Kin as Mantic calls them; semantics). He had a queen on a dark pegasus, knights, ogres, lower abyssals, warriors, spearmen and crossbowmen. Still much bigger than my list.

 Went my way pretty much from the get go, with the hiccup of losing an entire Paladin regiment to a stupidly good roll on Rob's charging knights.

This was the most epic combat, running around the middle here. Paladins in the rear of the ogres who were facing my Ur-Elohoi who got charged in the rear by the dark pegasus. Lots of hits everywhere (especially on the Ogres and Paladins). Hilarity ensues when both Paladins and Ogres get snake eyes for breaking their opponent's nerve.

The Elohoi regiment makes ridiculously short work of the crossbowmen regiment at the top there.

Final turn. The Elohoi regiment, virtually untouched, are the only ones left standing on the field of battle. Given that they hacked through a regiment of warriors, spearmen, and crossbowmen in consecutive turns, worth every point.







One thing we did find was that by making KoW simultaneous activation it messed up the meta for shooting. We're considering making the shooting phase first in order to combat that. Playtesting will see if that's right. We're also considering adding charge responses: Counter Charge, normal movement towards charging enemy. Evade, half move back. Stand and Shoot, make a shooting attack instead of making a melee attack.