STILL MOAR STUFF!?

Over the last few weeks I have acquired... a few more things... despite really wanting to AVOID acquiring MOAR STUFF!?

It started with piggy-backing on a few orders Orion was placing to build up an army of Hungarians! That stuff is already painted! 

Then, two weekends ago, I pedaled out to the Warhammer Store to pick up this month's Free Miniature of the Month - a Death Korps of Kreig Engineer miniature... since I do actually HAVE a few... (though I've yet to FINISH painting ANY of them!?).

That same week I ended up placing a few of my own orders... 

The MAIN reason was, again, to pick up a few game mats for different environments. Because they're made in the USA, I was concerned that Canadian retailers that stock them might be raising their prices on them considerably in the not-too-distant future (because of the constant threats of a trade war and reciprocal tarrifs being announced) and wanted to just pick up two more before that happened... and... partly to get free shipping from the two places I ended up ordering from... and because both of the places had considerably discounted Bolt Action miniatures... I picked up a few other things along with them... 

The first to arrive was.... another order from 401 Games... 

Included in this order was Bolt Action: Armies of Germany 3E, French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties, Fallschirmjager Squad (Tropical Uniform), Gebirgsjäger Squad, US Marine Corps War Dog Teams, and a F.A.T. Mats 6'x4' Grassy Plains game mat (for some battles on the steppes of Russia!)! 

Next was an order from Kingdom of Titans... 

F.A.T. MATS 60"x44" Alpine game mat (for... REASONS!?), a second Chi-Ha Japanese tank, and an Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun and crew!  

Oh, and I got some Bersaglieri Forward Observers... from.. elsewhere... 

Okay... SERIOUSLY... I'm DONE NOW... well, for now... maybe... 

I'm definitely done with the Mats... There are a few things that I could get to finish off a few of the smaller WW2 forces... and there are a few things I'd LIKE to get for some of the others... once I've finished what I have! 

The Plan of Action to get all this (and the other WW2 stuff I have!) done is:

1. Chi-Ha Japanese tank
2. US Marine Corps War Dog Teams
3. French Army Weapons Teams and Casualties
4. Sd.Kfz 222 Armoured Car
5. Italian M14/41 Tank
6. Italian M14/41 Tank
7. Bersagieri Forward Observers
8. Panzer III
9. Panzer III
10. Panzer III
11. Matilda II
12. Matilda II
13. Matilda II
14. Matilda II
15. Cruiser MkI (A9)
16. Cruiser MkI (A9)
17. Cruiser MkI (A9)
18. Cruiser MkI (A9)
19. Cruiser MkI (A9)
20. Italian Colonial Troops 
21. British 8th Army 6-pdr Anti-tank Gun and crew
22. German Afrika Korps LeFH 18 10.5cm medium howitzer and crew
23. Italian Bersaglieri Breda 2cm AA gun and crew
24. Afrika Korps Pak 36 light anti-tank gun
25. Fallschirmjäger Squad (Tropical Uniform)
26. Fallschirmjäger Squad
27. Fallschirmjäger Squad
28. Fallschirmjäger Squad
29. Fallschirmjäger Command Squad
30. Fallschirmjäger assorted extras
31. Gebirgsjäger Squad
32. Panther
33. Panther
34. Panzer IV
35. Panzer IV
36. (assorted Heer Infantry) 
37. (assorted British Commandoes) 
38. S.A.S. Jeep
39. S.A.S. Jeep
40. S.A.S. Jeep
41. LRDG Truck
42. LRDG Truck

I THINK that's all the unpainted stuff I have for WW2 forces...?

 If I did ONE of these a week, it would take me to the end of the year!? Luckily at the moment, I seem to be working a bit quicker than that... 

I'm not 100% sure about the order of things... I put the French and Japanese and USMC stuff at the top, because ALL of those things are otherwise DONE, so it would be nice to knock those out and keep those forces DONE! 

After that I tried to keep focused on finishing up stuff for the North African campaign... Though the exact order of all the things for North Africa might switch around a bit... 

Our games will probably shift as Orion gets her Hungarians done, but I have NOTHING I need to paint for that as ALL of my Soviet Horde is complete and I have no interest in buying anything else for them!!

Of course there will be other things I'll be painting - There are SO MANY things I could paint up for the new Fantasy campaign we've started... and probably will... So they'll be snuck into the Queue, as required... but I'm going to try and stick to using things I already have painted, for the most part, so as not to get overwhelmed by it all and start to lose focus and interest when it becomes more burden than fun!!

I may even sneak a few 40K or AoS items into the queue from time to time, just to keep my toes into that... Most likely Eldar/Harlequins or Emperor's Children... but possibly some zombies or Skeletons for the Soulblight Gravelords...? 

The packaging for those two orders were fascinating... Both had a free shipping threshold. For 401 games in Toronto it was $165CAD. For Kingdom of Titans it was $199CAD

401 Games send the shipment in the GIGANTIC box! it was about 4'x1'x1'!? 

and it was just FULL of packing material!? 

kind of had to dig to find things and briefly wondered if they're remembered to put any of the order in the box!? 

Like, SO MUCH packing material!? 

I did, eventually find all the things... but in comparison to the size of the box, the order seemed rather diminutive!? The other long, skinny cardboard box within the cardboard box was the Game Mat I ordered from them all rolled up... 

Kingdom of Titans, by comparison, sent the order in a box less than a quarter of the size! barely larger than the tank box in length and width... 

And they were apparently totally okay with bending the rolled up mat to shove it into the box... 

To be clear, I am not COMPLAINING about either method. Both got my stuff to me lightning quick and without much trouble... Would totally order stuff from either in the future... 401 Games has a LOT of Bolt Action stuff and sells it for considerably less than what it would cost to order direct from Warlord Games!! 

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!) 

Bolt Action in Burma

 Brent came over on Friday to try out Bolt Action so I set up a smaller game - only 500 points on a side - involving a patrol of Japanese and a patrol of Chindits and Gurkhas bumping into each other in the Jungles of Burma while out trying to establish the location of the enemy they knew to be in the area, but didn't know exactly where! 

Scenario

We played the game on a 30"x44" - a little less than half the suggested size - but otherwise played a pretty standard Battle Scenario with Seek and Destroy objective, Quarters Deployment Zones and Meeting Engagement Deployment Type

The Forces

CHINDITS AND GURKHAS - 500 points

Chindit Rifle Platoon

Chindit Platoon Command - 39 points (Veteran) + 2 Men @13 = 65

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +4 Men @14, + LMG @15 = 141

Chindits Section NCO + 4 men 70 points (Veteran), +4 Men @14, + LMG @15, + SMG @4 = 145

Gurkha Section NCO + 4 men 75 points (Veteran), +3 Men @15, + LMG @15 = 135

Total: 486 points

JAPAN - 500 points

Rifle Platoon

Platoon Commander - 1st Lieutenant - 39pts (Regular) + 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

THE GAME!

All set up and ready to go!

I was playing the Japanese and Brent played the Chindits and Gurkhas. 

I had the first unit arrive and brought on my veteran jungle fighters 

Brent brought on a Chindit Section and they immediately started firing on the Japanese! 

I brought on a second squad, but i kept out of sight and unable to fire or be fired on... 

So my veteran troops took a beating as all three Squad entered the table and started bringing fire on them! 

Gurkhas arrive... 

Second Chindit Section arrive and starts firing

Medic arrived a little to lade and apparently forgot all his bandaged and stuff back at their bivouac! 

Four down! almost at half strength!?

Japanese squad on the Chindits flank creeps forward and starts firing upon them. 

The fire from three enemy squads is telling on the Japanese Jungle Fighters! 

The first Chindit squad was taking it pretty hard as well, as they were in pretty much the same position... being fired on by three Japanese squads that had no other viable targets!

Second Chindit Squad Firing on the Japanese Jungle Fighters. 

Now down to just three and oh, so PINNED! 

The overall situation Japanese at the bottom of the picture, blazing away at the Chindits in the jungle opposite them! 

Gurkhas still moving up. 

And... I somehow managed to NOT take ANY pictures of the ONE Japanese Close Assault!? This is just the aftermath. Four surviving Japanese soldiers retreat into the jungle near of of their other squads?! 

With the retreating squad in the way, the other squad would now have to maneuver around them! 

Jungle Fighters stayed DOWN for two rounds to clear all the pin markers! 

The nearby light mortar team kept firing away the whole game... only hitting once and causing ONE pin marker?!

SEcond Chindit Squad advacing onto the position of the first squad, presumably to check and see if any survivors could be found... also to push through the position and assault the remaining Japanese! 

the Japanese fell back, firing... 

Gurkhas close assault the Japanese Jungle Fighters and wipe them out - losing only one of their own! 

The following turn (Turn SEven!) the Gurkhas assault the Light Mortar Team! 

And that was pretty much the game. 

I guess at this point both sides were running low on ammo and had taken significant casualties and decided it was time to gather those. up and fall back to their respecetive bases and report their action! 

Brent scored two victory points in the last turn putting himself in the lead 2-1. Generally in these missions the Victory Conditions suggest that winning by two Victory points is enough to establish a solid victory... I'm not sure that would be possible with so few units on the table. 

Both side lost a full squad wiped out. The Japanese lost a light mortar team. 

Of the other squads, one of the Japanese squads had only three or four left at the end of the game (the one that had assaulted and wiped out a Chindit Squad). The other was in not bad shape, with nine or ten remaining. 

The Chindits were in pretty much the same boat. One squad was wiped out, the other was in rough shape - from the fire of multiple squads being concentrated upon it. The Gurkhas were doing pretty okay - having only lost one or two in their close assaults. 

It was a pretty tight game and kind of came down to me leaving a light Mortar team exposed on the flank... 

I like the game. It was relatively short and quick and allowed me to concentrate/focus on remembering the basics of infantry small army combat - and basic close assault rules... Would not mind playing a few more small games like this - without tanks and off-table support... 

Kind of makes me want to switch focus and finish up the Marine Raiders!!