Some photos and a report from our game at Partizan

poster courtesy of Martin Ogg 

Today, was the culmination of my last six months painting and modelling effort when myself, John Carter,Mark Hopkins, Steve Jones, James Morris and Martin Ogg traveled to Partizan at Kelham Hall near Newark to put on our '(the authour of) Flashman and the Empire of the Rising Sun' game loosely based upon the fantastic 'Quartered Safe Out Here' reminiscences of George MacDonald Fraser and his time in the Border Regiment serving in Burma in the closing stages of World War II.

We used a slightly modified version of Bolt Action, as there were two British Platoons attacking a single Japanese Platoon there were three separate coloured dice, one for each platoon, in the bag - actually a bush hat for this game - in addition to this each turn, I added D3+1 story dice to the bag. When a story dice was drawn then a random event or reinforcement was drawn from the card deck (I have attached this as a PDF for those interested). Also included in the card deck were some bonus cards, each player could play up to one card per turn to boost movement, shooting or rallying, again, these are in the deck at the supplied link.

Each officer, section or support weapon also had a card that detailed the sections weapons and any special rules.

The British attacked with two platoons of infantry, each as follows:

• Subaltern & a Burmese scout
• 3 sections of ten men including an NCO with a SMG and a Bren gun
• 2" Mortar

One platoon had an attached flamethrower, the other platoon had a Vickers MMG attached.

The Japanese were initially defending with:

• Rikugun Shoi
• 3 sections of twelve men including an NCO with a SMG and a LMG
• 1 section of  twelve men including an NCO with a SMG
• 3 50mm grenade launchers
• Sniper team

Additional reinforcements for both sides would be drawn on a randomised story dice event.

Recce flight over the area

Steve and Martin started off with a British platoon each while James took on the role of the Japanese, although during the course of the day we switched the players around so that we could go and have a look around the show, take lunch and comfort breaks etc. In one momentous turn Steve started off by working out a British artillery attack, killing a whole section of Japanese infantry, but finished the turn using a Japanese anti-tank team to great effect against the British Sherman tank!

All-in-all we probably played out about ten turns at a very leisurely pace and by the end of the game the result was as expected, despite some pretty heavy casualties, the British pressure applied along the Japanese defenses had started to tell and the Japanese line was crumbling. If we had played a couple more turns I doubt that there would have been any Japanese defenders remaining.

Below are some images from the game, unfortunately although a great position from a gaming aspect, it was not so good position from a lighting point of view, as a high skylight above us meant that harsh sunlight fell on part of the game and the rest was in shade so some of the pictures are a bit shonky.

All the Japanese are from The Assault Group, whereas the British are mainly from The Assault Group, but with a few Bolt Action and Artizan Designs models too. The civilians are from Curteys Miniatures, the Sherman is a Blitzkreig Miniatures, the Universal Carrier is a Die Waffenkammer and the truck is a die cast. The P40 Warhawk is a Hobby Boss model. All the figures and vehicles were painted by myself and the terrain and scenery was also built and painted by myself.

I have noted that Steve has put some rather better images up on his blog.

Table laid out  waiting for figures.

British army mule train with a stubborn mule bringing up the rear

Again, terrain laid out waiting for figures

Peasants in the village

Japanese supply truck and peasants

Still no figures

Japanese trench line

Japanese trench line

Japanese troops occupy the trenches

The British advance gets under way

Struggling through the heavy terrain

The British mass for an attack

The Japanese prepare to repel

There are more troops in this picture than first meets the eye

British right advances along the stream

Black and white for a change

That mule train again

More mules, the one at the back is quite stubborn. The Sherman is in the background

Despite artillery bombardments and air attacks the village still stands

Japanese defensive line

British attack

Recon flight