Bolt Action- Burma in flames

Today we had a big multi-player game as part of the annual TAGCON tournament here in Timaru. Yesterday it was decided to have 2x 850pt forces per side, Japanese vs the 14th Army, somewhere in Burma. The Japanese seeking to end the years of despicable colonial exploitation at the hands of the dastardly English and their global empire, by incorporating the poor downtrodden mass of Burmese peasantry into the far more enlightened Japanese Co-prosperity Sphere (That's pur story and we are sticking to it!).

Kent and I ran the Japanese, Steve, Mark and Jacob (a new player down at the club) ran the British & a force of Wingate's Chindits. We spread 4 objectives across the British defensive zone and the idea was for us to capture 3 or more of them for victory. The table was approximately 9ft x 5ft so a rather large playing area.

 Set up: British deploying.

 Turn 1, my Japanese advance onto the table.

 Jacob's Chindits await the onslaught of Kent's Japanese.

 My Chi ha tank (centre of shot) rumbles on, only to become the target of a British artillery bombardment.

 The two blue counters are the aiming points for 2 bombardments (one free observer per British force), my infantry decided to avoid those areas- funny that. The unit with 3 pins (resulting from small arms fire) remained there for the rest of the game, unable to pass a single morale test to move. Luckily the nearer bombardment was a SNAFU and we got to move the target to some British sections, pinning a few and destroying the sniper team.

 My 37mm AT gun takes a shot at the Stuart but misses, the Stuart then zips behind the jungle never to be seen again- at least not by my AT gun.

 Annoying recce carrier shenanigans begin.

 The Stuart advances.

 Kent's infantry assault some Chindits in the elephant grass- he is starting to chew through poor Jacob's units.

 The carrier and Stuart working together to thwart my infantry probes.

 In the centre my ni-mortars drop smoke, giving a flamethrower cover to sneak up and bast my veteran infantry, who just hang in there and then assault and kill the flamethrower. My Chi ha has been hit by a piat and the crew are busy putting out the fire.

 Sensing victory the British advance against my flank.

 And here comes a flank attack to deal to my AT gun.

 My other veteran squad assaulted the carrier, disabling it but didn't destroy it.

 Even with the help of the commander my Chi ha refuses to move.- for two turns in a row. GRRRRR!

 Another British section advances towards the ruined tower.

 Last turn- the Chi ha assaults another British section but the infantry hold their nerve, then the Stuart swings out and knocks out the Chi ha from behind.

 The last assault went in, killing my gun.

Kent and I got no objectives but it was a fun game with 6-7 players involve. Next time we'll have the attackers outnumber the defenders. We caused more damage but got nowhere near any objectives.

We also had two activations per dice pulled to keep the game flowing and that worked really well.

The game was thrown together at the last minute but everyone had a blast and we will definitely play another big battle sometime soon.

BA WIP- Early War Germans

Another project I've been working on is my Early War Germans. I find 1940- end of '42 a much more interesting timeframe in WWII than the more common later war eras, so aim to complete German, French and Russian forces for this timeframe.

I had some plastic warlord figures but hated them so gave them away. I also ordered a few Black Tree Design figs last year during one of their sales but wasn't overly impressed by those figures either- I kept 3-4 in forage caps which I did like and some flamethrowers too. I'd also picked up some TAG panzer grenadiers with mines and other assorted AT weapons to become pioneers- unfortunately they are in ankle boots for later in the war but they'll do for my pioneer squad.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a squad of the Warlord Games Early War German metals figures- which aren't bad but do have plenty of flash and needed some clean up. Yesterday 16x Crusader EW infantry arrived and were painted up last night. I really, really like the sculpts for the Crusader range, easy to paint, great details and no flash- they are my favourites so far. However, I didn't get any of their SMG armed infantry as their SMGs are stupidly oversized and look completely silly. I think I'll be getting some Artizan SMG infantry next time I add to the force as I've yet to find any early war SMG infantry I'm happy with.

The force so far:

A stug D (Blitzkrieg minis IIRC)

 A hanomag and 222 armoured car (both Warlord Games)  are the  two other mobile elements. I want to add a couple of trucks as well. My aim is to represent a battlegroup of the Gross Deutschland Div in the early days of the invasion of France-the Gross Deutschland were one of the few units supported by the still experimental stug assault guns.

2x squads of infantry and one of pioneers.

I've still a MMG, 81mm mortar and anti-tank gun to complete the force, and still a bit of highlighting to go.

Craig

BA- 82nd Airborne final support options

The last couple of bits and pieces, the support for my 82nd Airbonre:

The M16 Quad AA half track.

 Oop, still got to do the spade.

 And a 57mm AT gun.

So 1000pts ready to go. Hopefully Kent is up for a game this week.

Craig

BA- 82nd Airborne Done

I've finished the infantry component of my 82nd Airborne project for Bolt Action. The figures are a mixture of Black Tree Design and Warlord Games. The BTD are one of their nicer ranges and I'd recommend them to anyone looking for more variety in their forces (though I dislike the SMG guys and got far to o many useless prone guys in my order). I've just my M16 half track and 57mm AT gun crew to go (both painted and washed, awaiting highlights tonight).

This is the first time I've used the Warlord Games transfers for the divisional patches and think they are well worth the extra effort.

The force is:

• Lt and NCO
• Observer
• 60mm mortar team
• sniper team
• bazooka team
• 3x infantry squads (2 with LMGs)
• 1x pathfinder squad

 The officers and observer

 Sniper

 Pathfinders and vet para squads

 Regular para squads with LMGs

 The infantry assembled

 LMG teams

Overall I am very happy with how they turned out and can't wait to get them on the table.

Craig

BA- Japanese vs Chindits

Dave has finished his Chindit army so it was a chance for me to finally sue my Japanese. We played 850pts each.

I ran:

HQ
2x 10 man reg sections (LMGs)
2x Vet sections- 1 with a light mortar
MMG
sniper
Chi-ha tank

Dave ran a veteran force of
HQ
4x 8 mans ections- most had LMGs
observer
Med mortar + observer
light mortar
piat
ATR
MMG

Basically everything he could field to get to 850pts. We rolled up point defence and he defended.

Dave's chindits- very nice.

The chindits defended the right hand side of the table, spreading out their infantry to cover the three objectives.

 Turn 1 the chi ha advances- it managed to miss every time it fired all game!

 Veterna infantry advance.

 As do the chindits on the right, as they move to take up more advantageous positions.

 Two sections (1 regualr, the other veterans) support the chi ha on mt right flank.

 In thec entr ethe British prepare to hold the line.

The regular infantry got chewed up (3 men left) but the vets prepared to assault the infantry in the jungle at the bottom right corner.

 On the left the chindits awaited the imminent arrival of the flanking force.

 Ready boys.

 The Japanese commander assualts and kills the sniper team.

 The section in the centre prepare to reinforce the right objective.

 The flanking attack swarms over the objective (the carrier).

 The section from the centre moving to counter my troops about to capture the right objective.

 They assault my troops and in fierce hand to hand fighting the chindts are killed- though i am elft with 2 men left.

In the end we captured 2 out of 3 objectives. The chindits started out with a lot of dice but I managed to pick off a few smaller teams.

A fun game and was good to finally get a chance to use my Japanese- usually I'm facing Kent's Japanese with my Forgotten 14th force.

Craig