Game of WW2 Japanese vs Americans in the South Pacific, played in the same month as VJ day.
Using Bolt Action 3 in 28mm.
Organized, using terrain and models and umpired by Chris Caves.
AAR by David Maltman.
Players
Americans : David Smylie and Jeremy Nixon.
Japanese : Ian Anderson , Jeremy Dowd and David Maltman.
Field of Battle :
A small Island outpost in the Solomon Islands. Defended by a small American Marine force and being attacked by a Japanese beach landing force. The Japanese have managed to insert some insurgent units onto the island prior to the main attack force.
Scattered across the Island are a series of clumps of tropical forest.
Rocky outcrops give cover from rifle fire.
The Japanese objective is to get a capture the Pagoda and the American supplies beside it. The Americans have to prevent this.
For each side there are more units than there are bolt action dice, so not all units will get to activate each move.
How it played out.
The Japanese had a naval bombardment on move 2. This was remarkably ineffectual.
Two Japanese insurgent groups deploy on the top of the mountain, a FAO group and a sniper team.
The Japanese mortar on the small island takes out one of the US howitzers under the direction of the FAO.
The Japanese sniper gets a hit on the US mortar team.
The American artillery try to target the landing craft with little success.
The first landing craft reaches the beach and unloads a Ha-Go tank which immediately takes out a US MMG team.
The American reserves start to arrive. LVT, Stuart and an M3 with a squad on board.
A Japanese lunge mine team deployed from the little forest with the red pin in it. Due to a miscalculation they do not make it to the LVT by 2". The next activation and the US bring on a second Stuart tank which shoots the little team of 2 up.
The US sniper hits the Japanese sniper team with a loss of 1 of the team.
A second landing craft hits the other beach and deploys a Chi-ha tank. Which misses the US spotter in the house.
The Japanese unload their infantry onto both beaches. On the right hand beach the infantry spot the spotter and drive the team out of the house.
On the left beach the Ha-Go moves forward and is able to hit the US howitzer.
The Americans advance across the whole field, but more importantly start to assault the mountain to take the sniper and spotter out.
Most of the Japanese forces have made it ashore, with only the Ka-Mi amphibious tank still in the water, it's movement rolls had been spectacularly bad causing it to be glacially slow. You would have thought that David Smylie had been rolling for it and not David Maltman.
The Japanese mortar gets 3 hits on the US mortar team taking them out of the game.
The Hi-Go gets a good hit on the LVT immobilizing it.
The Chi-Ha gets 4 hits on the US squad in the middle wood.
The Japanese squad get some more kills on it. It's morale fails and it routs.
The Ka-Mi finally gets onto the beach.
The Stuart on the right kills the Ha-Go. The Chi-Ha kills the Stuart in the center in response.
The Americas assault the mountain and kill the sniper and spotter team.
To add insult to injury they raise their imperialist rag, the stars and stripes.
This annoys the mortar team on the island who can now see them so they do area fire on it, clearing the heights of yankees.
The central Japanese squad does a banzai charge on the US squad which has come up to the central wood.
The Japanese lose the melee 6 to 4 and are removed.
A Japanese squad moves into the wood next to the pagoda.
The Ka-mi gets a hit on the Yankee sniper.
At that point time was up. The umpire deemed that the Japanese would have captured the pagoda in the next move, so victory to Japan.
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Editorial comment.
To celebrate the victory we turned to Tota Kaneko, a HiKu master who served in the Imperial Japanese Navy.
Note it follows the Hi Ku scan of 5-7-5 better in Japanese
Japanese man in grey sampan.
Invade base of American.
We have a good plan.
Our barrage full of rage.
Useless navy don't hit the page.
Gets the Admirals rage.
Infiltrators snipe and spot.
The mortar lands on the hot spot.
The howitzer now is not.
We land on island shore,
Infantry, tanks and many more,
Enemies are to the fore.
Anti tank lunge mines hiss.
Launches too early and miss.
Tank deals deaths kiss.
Yankees kill the infiltrators.
Mortar reigns death from above.
Yankees are no more.
Squad rushes in to fight.
American guns down them do strike.
Japanese then lose the fight.
Chi-Ha fire at Stuart tank.
Goes up in blaze of oil so rank.
The ancestors we thank.
Squad rush into wood,
Access to pagoda is good,
Emperor knows win is understood.
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Photos curtesy of the Editor.
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