Up to the full 1000 points now

A few weeks ago, Phil and I arranged to play a game at Maunsfield, as most of you are aware the venue closed for good on Sunday so we were without a venue.

Japanese sniper on my left flank

Fortunately, I got news that the White Hart club is was now back on and the first game would be on the 11th April. Although there is a cloud on the future of the White Hart venue again as the landlord is moving on! Not a good week for my gaming venues.

Anyhow, as I said, Phil and I had arranged a game, Phil turned up at the White Hart with his Saga Joms-Vikings and I turned up with the Bolt Action British and Japanese - whoops - it would not really have been a fair fight to put the Lee-Enfields up against the swords, spears and axes so we settled down to play Bolt Action.

I've been painting up more Japanese over the past few weeks so can now field both forces at 1000 points without going overboard on Veterans.

The two lists were:

Japanese infantry squad

British
Officer - 95pts
First Lieutenant with Thompson SMG, Additional man with Thompson SMG, Additional man with SMLE Rifle
Veteran Medic - 30pts
Medic with Pistol
Forward Observer - 10pts
Artillery Forward Observer with Thompson SMG, Additional man with SMLE Rifle
Three Infantry Sections - 369pts
Each; NCO with Thompson SMG, 8 Riflemen with SMLE Rifle, 1 Machine gunner with Bren LMG
Veteran Infantry Section - 150pts
NCO with Thompson SMG, 8 Riflemen with SMLE Rifle, 1 Machine gunner with Bren LMG
Machine Gun Team - 50pts
Three men with Vickers MMG
Flamethrower Team - 50pts
Two men with Flamethrower
Light Mortar Team - 35pts
Two men with 2” Mortar
Sherman V - 195pts

Japanese Veteran Infantry, who fired no shots all game

Japanese 

Officer - 85pts

Rikugun Chui (First Lieutenant) with Sword & Pistol (Tough Fighter), Additional man with Type 100 SMG

Medic - 23pts

Medic with Pistol

Four Infantry Squads - 572pts

Each; NCO with Type 100 SMG , 10 Riflemen with Ariska Rifle, 1 Machine gunner with Type 99 LMG

IJA Veteran Infantry Squad - 114pts

NCO with Type 100 SMG, 5 Riflemen with Ariska Rifle, 1 Machine gunner with Type 99 LMG

Machine Gun Team - 50pts

Three men  with Type 92 MMG

Three Light Mortar Teams - 105pts

Two men with Type 89 Grenade Launchers

Sniper Team - 50pts

Two men with Type 97 Sniper Rifle

Phil sorts out his troops

We rolled up the Point Defence mission and Phil elected to attack with the British. I know the the British get the enhanced Preliminary Bombardment rule but I wanted to start with the majority of my force on table so I elected to put everything on apart from two infantry squads, a light mortar team and my medic. I sat out the preliminary bombardment very well, Phil did not get a single '6' and one of my infantry squads was missed completely.

The initial turns were very tactical, with both of us giving our reserve troops 'Down' orders to disguise our intentions. Phil committed quite heavily on his left flank, Indeed, the only British troops on my left was the Sherman, that of course I could do absolutely nothing about. Facing the massed attack on my left was a single Japanese infantry squad.

The main British attack lines up

Phil's luck was terrible, one of his sections was pinned by a single sniper shot and did not move for three turns, his shooting was even worse, the single squad on my right facing the British attack seemed immune to the British fire while dishing it out with great effect, the first British squad took four casualties and failed its' Moral test. 

British Rifle Section

Soon I had another infantry squad in place firing from the small Burmese village.The British Forwards Artillery Observer pulled in the artillery and rolled a 12" template, my squad in the village was 'sixed' and destroyed completely as was a light mortar supporting my defence on that side. The other troops fighting against the main British attack fared quite better and none got more than three pin markers. As Phil had rolled a 12" template one of his attacking squads was under the template and took six pin markers. The main British attack was grinding to a halt, although there were more losses to both sides on that flank, including a very effective flame-thrower attack that took out one of the Japanese infantry squads.

In reality, I could never stop the Sherman taking one of the objectives, so despite his heavy losses Phil plonked the Sherman on one of the objectives and bagged a draw.

Another great game of Bolt Action.

Veterans and Mortars on the left flank

The unstoppable Sherman V

The British attack bogs down

Japanese infantry hold the village - before the British Howitzers range in