Sunday Gaming — Game 2

 Round 2 against Noel's IJA. I took more pictures this time. A lot more. Basically because there was a lot more action. The missions was Hold Until Relieved, and Noel chose to attack. My objective was once more my marker cluster, with an MMG and infantry squad deployed to hold it.

Noel started strong, with a huge 15 man veteran unit deploying on one hill (which this game we were calling rough due to its steepness, along with all other hills). Around this core of veterans were arrayed a large number of other nasties, including 3 light mortars, a light howitzer, an officer, a sniper, and a small unit of IJA regulars.

The mortars start the game by dropping smoke, with every round going hilariously off target.

 The howitzer lays a pie-plate of smoke, effectively blocking LoS to everything from everything in Noel's army. This will come back to bite both of us in the ass later.

The "Navy Brat" M3A1 Stuart rumbles onto the board, crashes its way through the forest, and in an unlikely display of marksmanship (possibly making up for not killing anything last game) promptly puts several MMG rounds through the veteran IJA officer. This begins an interesting trend…

 Here the squad defending the building rushes forward through the smoke and obliterates the MMG on the corner of the building in a withering hail of fire.

 Turn 2 sees my first airstrike come roaring in, scoring fifteen hits at +4 PEN at which Noel wisely decides to go Down against, halving it to a more manageable 7.

One 500 lb bomb later and seven IJA veterans are rather less threatening for being spread across several dozen feet of landscape.

 The team that gunned down the MMG rush forward and take out the sniper's assistant.

And then are promptly assaulted by the light mortar team and wiped out to a man.

Bollocks. I had hoped they'd put up more of a fight.

 An IJA regular squad arrives from reserve and promptly has its officer shot out from under it. Remember that theme I spoke of earlier?

 Everything I have left in reserve rushes onto the board. We need to keep that central objective out of Japanese hands.

 Everything on the Japanese side also arrives, including the tank. The "Navy Brat" has maneuvered over the hilltops behind smoke to await getting a better shot.

Turn 3 starts with another strafing run on the IJA veteran squad, scoring 14 hits, reduced by the down to 7. How wish they'd been inside a building at this point…

Thus, 7 more IJA veterans are killed by the strafing run, leaving one man who gives exactly zero fucks about all the aircraft overhead and decides that staying around will let him stick someone with his bayonet.

 The FAC, his job calling planes done, advances over the crest of the hill, and with a strong of sixes, you guessed it, takes out the IJA regulars' officer. That's now three Japanese NCO's down, and one left to go.

The mortar, firing with direct line of sight, pulls off a hail mary against the lone surviving IJA veteran, getting five hits (down to two), and finally killing off the big scary squad of doom[TM].

 On the left flank squad 3 moves up and pours fire into IJA regulars there, reducing the squad to just 2 men. Not a morale test though, because Japanese are Fanatics.

The light mortar team attempts another assault, but difficult terrain slows them just enough that they fail to reach the sole surviving MMG crewman, his friends shot up by the Chi Ha previously.

 The "Navy Brat" takes a shot at the Chi Ha, but predictably misses at this range. The bazooka team also moves up, but again misses, blowing a large chunk out of the wall behind the tank and making the tank driver rather nervous.

End of turn 3. I've lost one full squad (centre left of the picture there), and Noel's lost his big veteran squad and various attritional casualties elsewhere.

 Focus on the middle, with all the marine fireteams pushing up to keep the objective secure.

Turn 4 starts with Noel assaulting the MMG survivor, predictably killing him where he stands.

 Being marked for an airstrike the "Navy Brat" rumbles forward at full speed, and even at point blank manages to miss the Chi Ha right in front of it. Maybe I should spend the extra points on making it veteran for that gyro-stabilizer.

Squad 3 assaults the Japanese sniper, clearing the building right of centre, while the engineers advance through the building left of centre.

 The IJA regular squad assaults and kills my FAC team, but, having ensured the destruction of over 200 points worth of IJA veterans, the trade is felt worthwhile for the 85 points they cost.

 Turn 4 ends with complete control of the centre by the US Marines, and an increasingly tenuous position held by the IJA.

 Made even better when, for the second time that day, I get to hijack an airstrike. After a little vacillation between trying to murderize the mortar squad, I decide the Chi Ha really is the better target, and a cannon run begins, immobilizing the beast.

However, the "Navy Brat" pushed forward too aggressively last turn and falls to a suicide bomber. Well now I'm left with exactly one thing that can kill a tank (discounting the horribly outranged flamer).

 At which point said thing steps up to the plate, fires, and hits its mark square in the side, punching through the fuel tanks and engine block, knocking the Chi Ha out for good this time.

Having had their NCO picked off by the sniper at the end of the last turn, the light mortar teams weather a storm of fire from the engineer team and squad 3. "Toasty Jones" and his handy flamer is unfortunately out of reach, and so misses automatically. Adding insult to injury he also forgot to pack any petrol for this fight, so he's gone.

 The medic's corpsman assistant takes a carbine shot at the IJA regulars, but fails to wound. Still a pin though.

Turn 5 closes as the depleted mortar team tries to make a banzai charge, but is cut down by squad 2, waiting in ambush behind the vital objective.

The final act of the IJA is to a put a light howitzer round directly into the engineer team, cutting down three of them.

 That does it for the end of turn 5, and the IJA are looking seriously depleted, having only 1 unit now capable of even contesting the game.

Turn 6 opens with the light howitzer firing at the engineers again and killing two of them. The engineers give zero fucks about this, and advance menacingly, their rounds pattering like rain from the howitzer's gun shield.

 A lone man (the IJA FAC I think) tries to assault the medic. His buddy, armed with only a carbine, drops the threat with a single shot. Well done. The medic team then advances, luring in the other IJA squad but failing to inflict any damage on it. They are promptly assaulted and wiped out for their troubles.

This leads to a vicious counter-assault from squad 2, the Japanese fighting to the bitter until Private Walker gets the last word in with his bayonet. Thus ends the Japanese threat, and the game.

After six hard fought turns of battle, and a strong USMC counter-thrust through the middle of the sector, the objective remains strongly held by the Americans.

Sunday Gaming — Game 1

So, Sunday gaming has rolled around once more, and this time we were at the Pukekohe club, in the scout hall off Harris Rd. Good crowd there, but low attendance today.

The game was Bolt Action! (because we all love WW II, right?), and it was my (finally) fully painted USMC up against Noel's IJA. The mission we rolled was Demolition, in this we each have a base (for Noel the stack of crates just left of the northernmost building; and for me my triple 60mm objectives in the south-east sector).

Not a great deal was to start on the table, mostly support forces and a few weapon teams, plus one infantry squad for me and a tank for us both. I placed three units in reserve (Engineers and Medic team on the west flank (left) and squad 2 on the right).

Everything else was in reserve, and almost everything Noel had on the table started both Hidden and in Ambush—dirty Japanese special rules.

Which really did little to help him when my medium mortar landed a hail mary on his MMG as the very first action of the game. Unfortunately in a theme that was to continue most of the game, despite hitting well I only killed 1.

At the end of turn 1 honours are roughly equal, with very little damage actually inflicted on either side, and a whole lot of missed AT rounds. Tanks being hidden is nasty.

Turn two sees a lot of action in the northwest, with my Stuart once more failing to ding the Chi-Ha (Hi, Ro?) but putting some pines on the flamer team there. In reply the Japanese tank puts a pin on the Stuart with its light howitzer.

 The end of turn 2 sees most everything barring my outflankers on the board. Casualties remain low, but pin markers are slowly starting to stack up.

An airstrike pinned the central unit here (squad 1), which then took further pins from a sniper and an advancing IJA squad. Unfortunately for them my Lt raced over, and with his +2 morale bonus saved them as they rallied, removing all pins.

 The outflanking squad on the east fails to show (but this later saves me some trouble).

On the west, however, the engineers show up, and "Toasty Jones" with the flamer proceeds to show everyone how it's done and immobilizes the Chi-Ha.

 Imagine, if you will, a large explosion where the Chi-Ha used to be. Seeing their target sitting disabled and in the open, the Bazooka team make short work of it, putting a rocket straight through the turret and detonating the magazine.

 Here, at the start of turn 3, we see Noel's second airstrike going horribly wrong (he took two FAC's the first who killed one of the MMG's next to my base). The central IJA veteran squad is reduced to 1 man, who gives exactly zero fucks about losing all his friends.

Then everything got pinned and it was hilarious.

 At which point my plane showed up, dropped several 250 lb bombs on a lone IJA officer, and promptly left feeling very happy with himself.

And pinning everything even further, adding insult to injury for Noel.

 Here my Stuart (the "Navy Brat") decides it would be funny to try gunning down the MMG and flamer teams. Pins were inflicted, but once again no kills. Did we load blanks?

The engineers advance around the wreckage of the tank, gunning down the flamer team with massed firepower.

The medic team also arrives, doing a whole heap of nothing.

 The eastern flanking force now arrives and makes its presence felt at the end of turn 3, chewing through entire magazines as they decimate the (previously rather larger) IJA squad in front of them.

Turn 5 saw the big upset of the game, with Bazooka team rushing the Japanese objective after "Toasty Jones" and the engineers cleared the door of the MMG team resting out there.

This was the penultimate act of my forces.

Having nothing to shoot at, the MMG team assaults one man, kills him, and runs back to position. I still have one order die that could turn a hard fought draw into a hard fought win…

Warrant officer Hawkins, carrying the hefty SC-250 radio sprinted forward, technical sergeant Francis at his side. Hawkins skidded to a halt, dropping one knee into a marksman's crouch and unslinging his M1. Beside him Francis started firing at the Jap next to the disabled jeep, but just as Hawkins saw the flash of rounds striking metal the entire vehicle erupted in smoke flames, their injured captain caught in the conflagration. To his left Hawkins heard a dull crump and saw a massive geyser of dirt falling behind PFC Ramirez and his loader. The Japanese supply dump was gone, but it was cold comfort for losing their captain.