Imperial Japanese Army

I have been really slow putting together blog posts over the last several months, for which I apologize. I try to avoid posting just to post and maybe it is the case that my time spent on my wargaming has gone down over the last several months. Certainly the amount of painting I have been doing has declined markedly over the last year or two as my gaming increased. I have been holding steady with 2-3 games per month which is great, would like to get it up to weekly but shift work does interfere with trying to get in a regular gaming schedule. 

I have locked myself up with a lot of terrain projects as well as some basing. My jungle project is about half done and I still have a couple of buildings to paint for my Stalingrad project. I also have a pack of 5 PVC buildings to assemble for my WWII Western Europe collection. I still have 25 bases (yes 25 bases) of 6mm British Napoleonics to do ( I have to admit now I wonder if this was a somewhat quixotic pursuit). And I still have not finished basing my beautiful WWII Winter panzergrenadiers that I commissioned Dani Dunbar to paint. 

On the painting table there is not too much. I have 2 platoons IJA half painted, 2 platoons of USMC primed and 2 batteries of 18mm AB artillery half done, not too bad really. The metal mountain has dwindled to a quite small heap with a few Dark Ages figures to paint as well as the SAGA Revenant warband to do. I did buy some Frostgrave figures to paint, but I think I will get rid of them as I am not to interested.

Coming up is Sharp Practice 2 about which I am quite excited, I am good for Napoleonics and maybe need less then 10-12 figures to boost up my FIW collection to playable SP2 force. I am very tempted by the Indian Mutiny but will hold off for a white at least.

Anyway back to the main subject of this post, my WWII IJA platoon for Chain of Command. The IJA platoon is made up of 3 rifle squads as well as a grenade discharger platoon. Also on the table are various supports. 

This is a type B platoon which was active in the Far East, Malaya and the Pacific up to 1943. There planned adversaries are the USMC and maybe some Australians. The figures are from Eureka and Battlemodels (formerly Warmodelling and Fantassin). The Battlemodels figures are nicely sculpted but are very poor casts, we were promised that when Capitan Games flogged off their WWII line there would be all new molds. Do not believe them! I do admit though the Japanese figures were better then the USMC which were truly awful. The Eureka models on the other hand are lovely, very clean casts. I regret not just using them, but they are a little limited in choice. 

I must say that I enjoyed painting them and will have to get back to my desk to finish the last 2 squads and the supports.

2 rifle platoons 

Eureka Figures

Battlemodels Figures

Battlemodels on the left and Eureka on the right

I like the camouflaged helmuts on the Eureka

2 LMG teams 

I have most of the supports half painted but did finish off a couple of AFV's. I am hoping to add a Type 95 Ha-Go Light Tank.

Type 97 Chi-Ha Medium Tank

Type 94 TK Tankette

Closing the Gap: The Belfry

This past Saturday we played our 6th game in our Falaise Gap campaign. We decided to play at the Hobby Bunker this weekend, I believe Mike had some purchases to make. This gave me a bit of an advantage as Mike had to drive all the way from RI, and the traffic was quite bad so I had almost an hour to study the layout and put together a plan for my attack. In phase 2 of this campaign with the German Fallschirmjäger counterattack on St Lambert sur Dives, the initiative lies with the player who won the last game. This was the attack and defend scenario from the book as laid out below. The church belfry lying to the extreme left of the terrain was a variable JOP available to either side and was 2+ points in the campaign tracker. I felt this was going to be quite tough for me as the Germans had an 18" advantage in their initial set up. Of note is the fact that we made the top of the belfry the actual JOP, it took a phase to enter the building and then another phase to climb the belfry. Only 1 team was allowed to climb the belfry at a time. There were 3 doors to the church one on the road, and one on each side of the building. 

The Terrain as played with the German defensive line in the foreground and the church to the left

Things turned out well for the Canadians with the Patrol phase, I got 4 free moves and was able to capture most of the middle ground. The middle German patrol marker is in fact 2

The position of the German JOP's

The Canadian JOP's. The one close to the church as well as the one in the foreground were critical to a successful attack.  Mike was a bit unlucky in the Force Morale throw and ended up with a starting Morale of 8 while I had an 11. I think the Germans had a Panzerschreck and a Sniper as supports (5) and the Canadians took Allied Air Support, a Sherman, HMG Team and a Medic. So the game starts..................

I first bring on a HMG team, as I wanted to cover the two houses, to support the HMG team I also  brought on my Section 2. Mike brought on a sniper and placed him on the second floor. I then brought on my Section 1 and they made a run to church. Mike cleverly put his 1st FJ squad on the ground floor of the house protecting them from the HMG team and Canadian 1st section but giving them LOS to the belfry. I then advance the Bren team to the belfry. They immediately come under fire from the 2 German LMG's. I bring on my Sherman to hail HE on the house.....................

The Canadians have captured the the belfry JOP and are 2+ in the campaign if they can win this scenario. They come under a hail of fire from the German squad 1 and are broken and add 5 shock to the rifle team. They all bail out of the church. Mike brings on the dreaded Panzerschrek and fires at the Sherman, he gets 2 shots off before I can take out the team with the HMG and the rifle section behind the hedge. I lucked out there, but I did improve my chances by obscuring the hull behind the hedge. The Sherman starts to fire at the first house but is pretty ineffective, but the HMG team and the Canadian 2nd section are able to start to fire on the German 2nd squad. We retire to the Vietnamese Restaurant for lunch.............................................

We return from lunch, the situation is looking grim for the Germans. I am able to get my heavily shocked Sec 1 from the church and bring on my SL and with some good CD the pinned status is removed and they can get out of the church. I am lucky on the Morale test table and stay at 11. Mike is less lucky he loses a point for the Panzerschreck team and I am then able to start to cause damage on the on his 2nd squad it is not long before his JL is wounded and his team breaks, the Germans morale is at 6. Mike ends the turn and withdraws from the table. A Canadian +4 victory! I did take some photos this game.............................................................

The Sherman 

Rifle Section 2, with the HMG team as well as the SL and Medic

The retreating Germans, these are some beautiful AB figures that Mike had commissioned from Dani Dunbar in Australia. They are actually his Panzergrenadiers rather than his Fallschirmjägers, because of the lack of available FJ supports. He really is a terrific painter.

The tracker as it now stands as you can see there were very few losses on either side in this game. It does look a little grim for the Germans but their squads are mostly intact so the campaign is not over yet!

Closing the Gap: Outflanking

Yesterday we got together for our somewhat delayed 5th game in our Falaise Gap campaign. This is the first scenario in phase 2 of the campaign where the German Forces counterattack the Canadian Forces who have now have defensively positioned themselves is St Lambert sur Dives. The Germans are now the attacker and have a choice of which of 3 scenarios to play. Mike picked Outflanking which is based on scenario 5 in the CoC rulebook: The Flank Attack. I felt this was going to be a tough game for me as the Germans have a fresh platoon of Fallschirmjägers with 2 LMG's each. The Canadians still had there original platoon and although there were 6 reinforcements, were still down 8 men from platoon strength but also suffering from a loss of command with 1 SL and 3 JL's newly raised from the ranks (4 out of 5 leaders with 1 reduced CI each).

This is the first game I have every had at my house, which made things very easy as the terrain did not have to be set up the day of the game (Mike has a great terrain table in RI, but is missing some terrain pieces so we still had to set up on the day of the game). So when Mike arrived we were all set to go.

This is a very interesting scenario in that the Attacker has two sets of patrol markers while the defender has 1 set. The Canadians could set up anywhere in the shaded area while the Germans Launch from the long axis and the short axis of the table edge. The only requirement is that each of the 3 sets of patrol markers daisy chain within 12" of each other.

I was able to mimic this pretty well on my table as you can see below.

Final position of JOP's. Canadian sector in the near left of photo.

I think though I will use the graphic from the campaign booklet to illustrate the game.

I believe neither of us played this very well, but here are the position of the Patrol Markers at the end of the patrol phase.  The Germans never really got to move their right flank set of markers as the Canadians locked their 3 down pretty quickly.

Position of JOP's, as well the 1 fixed defense. I felt it was critical to have LOS to the entry point on the road , as I was pretty confident that a German AFV was part of Mike's supports.

So we started the game from the above positions. My basic strategy was to not to deploy my forces until they were in a good position and in close range to have a good chance to take out the Germans. As I was severely undergunned (my sections were all undermanned and I think the best firing dice I could muster was 10d6, while the Germans had I believe 19d6 firing from all their FJ squads, remember also that I really had little ability to remove shock as I was down 4 CI's to start the game). I also wanted to have CoC Dice in hand so I would have some maneuverability. I had 9 supports and Mike 12, I took Allied Air Support (Mike threw a 6 so that came to nothing, I was hoping to take out a full squad of his FJ's before the game even started), 1 entrenchment, a UC Bren team with JL and an extra Piat team. Mike took a Panzer IV, a sniper, and some Panzerfausts. I do not remember exactly how the game played out but the gist is as follows. I should also note that we both diced poorly on the Force Morale and started with a FM of 8 each:

Mike put down his 1st squad and sniper down first, in response I put down my Light Mortar team. Mike then put down his 2nd squad, at this point I got the first of many double phases, so I put my largest section in the second floor of the house as well as 1 of my SL's in order to maintain LOS for the LM team and immediately laid down some smoke to block LOS for the German sniper and Squad 1. I then took a shot at squad 2 who was in the open but no real success.  Squad 2 moved into cover. At this point I really did not want to deploy much else until Mike declared his advance and I had acquired some COC dice.

Mike deployed a PZ IV, and fires at the house, but fortunately only 1 man killed.  I then again start to get some double phases unfortunately one of them a triple 6, so the turn ends and the smoke is removed, but I get a clean shot at the Pz IV and amazingly enough I knock it out on my first shot with a Piat! Also along the way I am able to wound a German JL and his Morale falls to 5. Unfortunately on the next turn his 1st squad is able to open up with 16d6 on my LM team and then my Piat team, fortunately both of them are forced to withdraw.  I get my SL and rifle team of Section 1 out of the house but leave the Bren team on the second floor on Overwatch. I usually forget to do this but it does work as I got to fire at the German 2nd squad whenever they fired. I also tried covering fire for the 1st time. Effective! We have probably gone through 5-6 turns now with very little damage to either side.

We seem to be in a bit of a stalemate, I am getting all the dice but really can do nothing with them. The Canadians bring on their UC Bren team, I immediately disembark them and send them behind the house. The Germans bring on their 3rd squad. More double phases for the Canadians. I slowly advance the UC Bren (purple line) through the orchards to get them to my forward entrenchment. The Germans are at 5 Morale, all I need is to knock it down one more and their command starts to weaken. I take a shot no real effect, but 2 FJ squads open up and they are killed, my morale sinks to 5. What seemed an easy victory is now in doubt. I then recognize (with some prompting from Mike) that there is an unprotected JOP on my left flank, the Section 1 rifle team does a bit of a loop (sky blue) and takes of to the left to capture assisted yet again a double 6 and the protection from the hedge rows. The Germans withdraw, a Canadian victory. No change in the campaign morale tracker though, but I do get an extra support for the rest of the campaign unless the Germans regain this position.

Well it was a fun game, a bit weird though in that I had so many double phases of little value. I did figure how to use covering fire though and I can see it's utility to suppress an enemy section while moving a second section into position. Very little attrition on either side, the Germans lost 6 men and the Canadians 2 and the updated tracker is below.

We are hoping to get our next game in this coming Saturday, we will return to the Hobby Bunker for this one. Need to spread the Lard!

And Now for Something Much Smaller: A New French Army

So I bet you were expecting to see my new 18mm AB army, but first I thought I would show you something different. Some weeks ago I mentioned that no one knows the madness of war gamer with money to spend. I am actually fairly careful with my wargaming expenditures, but the sale of more than half of 28mm Napoleonics left me with quite a bit of money in my paypal account, the great part of it is being spend on commissioning the 18mm replacement army, but there was some left.

I have never played a grand tactical Napoleonic game but when Blucher came along I was tempted. The whole thought of being able to use a card as a blind until revealed was very attractive to my wargaming heart. And those pictures of those little troops on the cards was quite attractive.

Great idea is it not, but it needs figures.

So I set about commissioning painters in the UK to paint some 6mm Bacchus figures, these seemed to be well priced and came in usable strips unlike Adler. I also noticed that painting services appeared to favour these figures over the other choices. I am not sure how much I paid per figure but it seemed reasonable and I felt that I could get pretty good sized armies on the table for not too much. I still have some French and British reinforcements on the way (one painter appeared to lose their way!) and have a British army on hand but not yet based.

Going against the tide, I decided to base my troops not on 60mm bases but on large card sized bases from Sally 4th. Not being able to use the cards, that come with the rulebook, as blinds just ruined the whole concept for me. 

But anyway enough talk let us post some figures.

Each base represents a brigade of 4 to 6 battalions, so here we have 2 divisions of infantry, there are also 4 units of cavalry of 6-12 squadrons each and 1 regiment of artillery with 18-24 guns. A few command bases have also been put together. 

An infantry division partially in column but also in ordre mixte. I liked the ability to put different types of formations on each base. This is purely ornamental and has no effect on game play.

Light cavalry regiments, half the figures (18) of a heavy cavalry base.

A regimental square.

Regimental Artillery base, more cannon would have been nice.

Heavy Cavalry with 36 figures per base.

Boney

Light Cavalry

They are tiny, I am happy I did not have to paint them.

I thought the painter did quite a good job.

I plan to have around 25 bases per army and as you can see I have left the rear of the bases open, as I still have not decided how I am going to designate the Order of Battle as well as damage. 

Let us hope that I can find someone to play, the game has what looks like a a very attractive campaign system which is really my favoured gaming pursuit.