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.