Bolt Action X Fourteen Men in the Solomons - the Battle of Independence Valley

 I played a couple of games of Bolt Action with Orion this week. 

The first game saw a return to the Solomon Islands where we had been playing our Fourteen Men in the Solomons campaign - Originally using the Five Men at Kursk rules - to continue the narrative, using Bolt Action! 

Sunday, 4 July 1943 - New Galloway, Solomon Islands

After heavy fighting over the last few weeks, Japanese forces have broken through the lines on the Divisions right flank. First Platoon, Company J, 25th Regiment, 93rd Infantry Division, had been held in reserve since the Skirmish at Smith Ridge, were thrown into the jungle to try and block the breakthrough and reestablish the front lines. Luckily the Platoon FINALLY received some reinforcements, bringing two of the platoons squads up to full strength!  

The battle would come to be known as the Battle of Independence Valley! 

SCENARIO

For this game we use the Land Grab "Story Scenario" from the Bolt Action (Third Edition) Rulebook. Each side gains victory points to taking out enemy units, having units in the neutral quarters of the the battlefield at the end of the game and THREE points for each friendly unit in the ENEMY quarter at the end of the game!

BOTH side got to fire preliminary bombardments! 

FORCES

I used the same force I used in the previous game with Brent set in Burma:

JAPAN - 500 points

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Veteran) + 2 extra men @13pts = 65 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 50pts (Regular) + 5 additional men @10pts, + light machine gun @15 = 115 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 50pts (Regular) + 5 additional men @10pts, + light machine gun @15 = 115 pts

Infantry Section 1 NCO and 4 men with Rifles 65pts (Veteran) + 5 additional men @13pts, + light machine gun @15, + submachine gun @4pts = 149 pts

Light Mortar Team 30pts (Regular)

Medic 23pts (Regular)

Total:  497pts

UNITED STATES ARMY

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st LT. Lance "Harvard" Nelson - 30pts (Regular) + 2 extra men @10pts = 50 pts

1st Squad - NCO (Cpl Michael "Specs" West) + 5 men (Regular), + 6 additional men @10, +1x SMG @4, +2x BAR @6 = 136

2nd Squad NCO + 5 Men (Rrgular) + 6 additional men @10, +1x SMG @4, +2x BAR @15 = 136 

Forward Air Controller (Regular) 75

Sniper Team (Veteran) 67 

Light Mortar Team (R3gular) 35

Total: 499 points

THE GAME

The Japanese preliminary bombardment rains down on the americans... pinning a few... mildly.. 

American preliminary bombardment pounds the Japanese moving up through the Jungle, dealing a great many pin markers! 

and injuring the platoon's medic! He spent the rest of the action trying to bandage up his own wounds and drag himself to the rear, while fading in and out of consciousness! 

The Squad on the Japanese right failed to take orders in the first round - due to pin the soliary pink marker from the American barrage!? The Light Mortar team also failed to act... but they were probably disconcerted by the screams of the medic who was immediately behind them and suffering from a number of very serious-looking shrapnel wounds! 

Eventually the Japanese squad on the left got moving - and spotted some advancing Americans in the distance! 

They continued to creep forwards and eventually started exchanging fire with the Americans. 

On the other flank, the second Japanese squad advanced on the American mortar team that has been harrying them! 

The Veteran Jungle Fighters arrived (having sat out the first turn in Reserve) 

The second Japanese squad was headed off by a squad of American G.I.s (First Squad) who laid down some withering fire with their BARs! 

Second Squad continued their exchange of fire continues on the Japanese right flank. 

Both Japanese squads on the right move up, threatening to surround Second Squad! 

The Japanese light mortar team finally got the nerve up to start firing and dropped a few bombs in the general vicinity of the Americans off in the distant jungle, with little effect - other than to gain the Americans attention! 

The American Forward Air Controller called in an air strike! 

The terrifying hail of bullets the strafing aircraft delivered didn't KILL anyone... but it sure made some people DUCK!!

Having finished off the Japanese Infantry section, First Squad went hunting for that mortar team that had been harassing them! 

BANZAI!!!!

Japanese infantry squad charged into Second Squad's position while they had their heads down - and utterly wiped them out! (The Americans sold themselves dearly, though... only four Japanese survived the assault!). 

The Jungle Fighters surged forward and attacked the Sniper team!

which was kind of crazy, because the'd had SEVEN pin markers on them! They were veteran, though, and did have the platoon commander nearby... I gambled that they'd be able to make the roll of five or less - given that Japanese can re-roll failed order tests to charge into close assault! 

The other squad chased down the American Platoon Commander and exchanged fire with him for a turn, before he charged out of the jungle and fought them in close assault! By that time, it was just the LMG team and the American Lieutenant shot the loader, before being gunned down by the light machine-gunner... so distraught was he to find himself the only surviving member of his squad, he sat down to cry in the jungle with the bodies of his dead and dying comrades (and ceased to be an effective unit in this combat!).

END GAME

At the end of the game I had two units (Platoon Command and Veteran Jungle Fighters!) in the enemy home quarter which gained me six points, and I'd taken out four units (Infantry Squad, Platoon Command, Sniper Team, and Forward Air Controller). Orion's Americans likewise had two units in my home quarter (infantry squad and mortar team) and had taken out three units (TWO infantry squads and the light mortar team - Medics DO NO COUNT for victory points). Which put me slightly ahead - at 10-9 - but a two-point lead is required to consider any battle a VICTORY!! Considering the Japanese losses, any success what Pyrrhic, at best! 

Using the Outcome table from Five Men at Kursk for those that were taking out of action... (but only for previously named characters from the campaign, not all the replacements that filled out the two squads!)

1st LT. Lance "Harvard" Nelson was killed in action! He died in a hail of fire from a Japanese light machine-gun as he rushed out to finish off the Japanese squad that had overrun his second squad. He was a hard charger who'd led from the front and took care of the men under his command. Had he been white, his posthumous decoration would likely have been awarded five decades earlier.. 

Pvt. Michael "Irons" Johnson survived his squad being overrun by the Japanese. He would be evacuated and spend 11 days at the mobile hospital on a secured island nearby. A bayonet wound had largely been deflected by part of his webbing that left him with a nasty gash in his side, but did not pierce organs or major arteries or anything important. He'd also taken blows to the face from rifle butts and been kicked and stomped on when he was down, but none of the Japanese took a moment to put a bullet in him or run him through again with a bayonet to make sure he was finished - they'd had more pressing concerns with other elements of the American platoon that were still firing on them.

Pvt. Benny Arnold, who'd been detached from Second Squad to operate as an independent sniper along with a new spotter that had recently joined the platoon with the latest replacements. Arnold took a bullet through the arm and was run through with a bayonet when his position was overrun by the Japanese. Both he and the spotter survived however. After undergoing surgery he spent 24 days in hospital recovering before returning to the replacement pool. The new replacement that had been his spotter wasn't so lucky (or... maybe he WAS...?) he lost a finger, along with his nerve, and after recovering had to be reassigned to a non-combat position.

I really liked Five Men at Kursk, but the cover rules were a bit wonky... I'd potentially play it again, maybe, for a smaller scale action (though I have other rules for small scale actions I'd like to try out before returning to that! Like Flying Lead!). What is really solid about the Five Core games are the narrative campaign systems. I really like this style of narrative play, following the exploits of one unit (be it a squad or a platoon) through a campaign. I hope we can continue to follow this campain in the Pacific using Bolt Action (and maybe do something similar with the platoon in the 92nd Division in North Africa!)