Bolt Action in Burma - Battle Report

Tonights' arena of battle

This evening Adie and myself had another game of Bolt Action in Burma using my 14th Army Britsh and 15th Army Japanese. I had originally arranged to play Big Daz, but he was held up at work, so kindly Adie stepped up to the mark.

I set out some terrain with a village in one corner and most of the table covered in jungle terrain.

I had picked the following two forces, both totaling around 900pts each:

Japanese (all Veterans):

Adie becomes one of Tojos for tonight

• Rikugun Chui with Sword & Pistol, plus an additional soldier with Sword & Pistol.
• Medic with a shovel.
• One infantry section, NCO with Type 100 SMG, six infantrymen with Ariska rifles, one infantryman with Type 99 LMG.
• Three infantry sections each, NCO with Ariska rifle, six infantrymen with Ariska rifles, one infantryman with Type 99 LMG.
• Three light mortar teams with Type 89 Grenade Launchers*.
• MMG team with Type 92 MMG.
• Sniper team with Type 97 Sniper Rifle.

* As a typical Japanese infantry platoon field three of these I allow three grenade launchers to be taken as a single support option for the platoon.

British (all Regular)

• First Lieutenant with Sten gun, plus an additional soldier with Mk4 jungle carbine.
• Artillery observer with Thompson SMG.
• Four infantry squads each of a NCO with Sten or Thompson SMG, eight infantrymen with a SMLE and an infantryman with Bren Gun
• Light mortar team with 2" mortar
• Flame thrower team
• Machine gun team with Vickers MMG
• Sherman V Tank

Japanese troops cover the objective

After some 'I really don't care which side I play' wrangling we got Quinton to sort it out and he decided that Adie would play the Japanese. We randomised the mission and would be playing the Hold Until Relieved mission. A 'pig-pen' was placed in the centre of the table between two thickets of jungle. After a roll-off that I won I decided that I would be attacking with the British.

Short lived type 92 MMG

Adie deployed one infantry section and his MMG either side of the objective and I then placed three infantry sections, my light mortar and MMG on the table in hidden positions. Adie then deployed his sniper and I deployed my Forward Observer.

The preliminary bombardment was quite effective, with two pin markers on each of Adies sections, plus the infantry section lost a man.

Sherman V from Probyns Horse secures our right flank 

First dice out the bag was for the Japanese, the infantry section opened up on my Forward Observer (who was not hidden) and soon did for him. That's all three of my games so far with the British when I have not managed to bring the artillery bombardment down on the enemy!

The British continued well and the Type 92 MMG was destroyed and the other infantry section contesting the objective was carrying three pin markers. Adie withdrew the battered troops from the objectives while his reinforcements came up. I occupied the two jungle thickets and was sitting pretty on the objective.

The I had deployed section on my left was hard pressed, but managed to hold off against the Japanese, the 50mm grenade launchers do not get many hits, but they do mean that you tend to give advance orders rather than fire orders so as not to suffer the effects when you do get hit. I committed the flamethrower to this fight and although it piled on the pin markers it did not get any kills.

Japanese occupy the village

The Banzai rule worked really well for the veteran Japanese, as soon as they got three or four pin markers on them, Adie would launch a charge into my lines, discard all the pin numbers and wipe out one of my squads, I lost two infantry squads and my flamethrower to this tactic.

The Sherman was very effective against any Japanese caught in the open, with two MMG (I never saw a reason to fire the 75mm) it was putting down eight very effective dice down.

First Banzai charge of the game

At the end of the six turns, Adie had seen off one of my infantry sections holding one side of the objective with a Banzai charge and we rolled for a seventh turn, unfortunately I did not get an opportunity to dislodge them. It was a draw, although the British had lost the Forward Observer, two rifle squads and the flamethrower while the Japanese had lost the sniper, three rifle sections and the MMG.







I took quite a few images during the game, here are a selection. The majority of the figures are from The Assault Group with some Bolt Action Chindits where there is not a TAG option available. They were all painted by myself and the terrain was all put together by me.

British squad holds a thicket

Action on the left flank

The Japanese right

Sherman V in action

Japanese advance

That Sherman V again

Deadly 50mm grenade launchers

Japanese advance past the village

More shots of those Japanese