Ambush in the Jungle, Part 1 - Bolt Action AAR

This past weekend, John hosted a game of Bolt Action to play out a Palau Campaign based scenario he's been working on for a while now. 

The game saw a platoon of US Marines escorting a platoon of Shermans through a dense jungle. The American forces had to get across the table and exit the opposite edge in 15 turns or less. The more units that made it across in that time, the more points they scored. 

Arrayed against the Marines was a couple platoons of dug-in and camouflaged Japanese. The Japanese were so well disguised, in fact, that they could ambush any moving American unit from just 6" away! 

This meant that the Marines could potentially be ambushed anywhere on the board. 

The areas not delineated by the road also counted as dense jungle, so the infantry could only move 6" each turn and the tanks had to roll a d6 to determine how far they could move. 

Sam and Dick were controlling the Americans, and moved out with the infantry in front of the tanks.

Until they were fired up, the American infantry units were represented by a single model because they were huge; 15 men strong, with an accompanying flamethrower and bazooka team!

They could also "reconstitute" when they reached 6 men or less, allowing the Marine units to return back to full strength. Doing so, however, cost the Americans a turn per unit. 

John and I controlled the Japanese. We started our defense with a machine-gun nest opening fire down a road. The team was quickly knocked out with some return fire from the lead Sherman tank.

In previous versions of this scenario, the Japanese appeared without any covering, which meant that they were usually blown away in the next turn. By fiving them fortifications, the Japanese infantry could better hold up the Marines. 

Of course, two 15-strong Marine squads with their own flamethrowers and bazookas still made short work of the ambushing Japanese!

I was also doing my best to position my ambushes so they wouldn't come under fire from the Shermans, while still delaying the American advance. 

I got lucky and managed to get a side-shot from an anti-tank gun into one of the Shermans, destroying it. 

Unlike the Marine squads, once destroyed the Shermans were done for.

Another machine-gun bunker made trouble for the Americans advancing through the center of the battlefield. 

For the moment, Sam's Marines were unopposed, apart from having to deal with the Japanese mortars that harassed the Americans throughout the game. 

Dick's units were having a lot more trouble. While the anti-tank gun was quickly destroyed, more Japanese infantry units appeared to hold back the remaining Sherman's escorting Marines. 

And to threaten the other Sherman (that had taken a right at the fork instead of a left), I ambushed with my Ha-Go light tank. The Ha-Go's low-velocity gun had little chance to damage the Sherman, but it had enough punch to pin the American tank when it hit. 

Another MMG bunker popped up in front of one of Sam's advancing unit that had mad it the furthest, but it was quickly silenced by the Marines' firepower. 

Speaking off, the Japanese defense on their far right side fell apart, especially with the last Sherman in support. 

Rather than sitting back and trying to damage the dug-in Ha-Go from range, Dick sent the Sherman charging in to get a shot from as close as possible, confident that the light tank's gun couldn't harm the Detroit-forged armor. 

With the last bunker gone, Sam's infantry suddenly found themselves in a sea of calm, and close to discovering one of the Japanese's two mortars. 

Dick wasn't going to find any similar respite, however. As his other Sherman advanced, it found itself being fired upon by another dug-in light Japanese tank; a Ka-Mi!

This tank's crew must have been a little better, as they managed to hit the Sherman and stun its crew. 

The Ha-Go didn't have a chance to respond, as it was destroyed by a close range 75mm round. 

After about 4 hours, we had played through 8 total turns. As the Americans had reconstituted two Marine squads, that put them at 10 turns, leaving them only 5 more turns to push through the Japanese defenders.

While the Americans had learned to be cautious - the Japanese could only ambush them while moving! - their oversized and well-equipped squads had enough firepower to wipe out any Japanese unit in a single turn with a little luck. But will they have enough time to complete their objective before the clock runs out?

We'll pick the game up again soon to see it to its conclusion.

Rolling Start - Bolt Action AAR

This month's SJGA was another small affair, but saw the start of the club's three game Polish Campaign.

As per the chart I developed way back in the campaign's planning, the first game used the "Point Defense" scenario in the Bolt Action rulebook. 

The Polish players had a single 1,250 point platoon that needed to defend three locations. The German players had two 750 platoons that would need to capture those locations. Whoever controlled at least two of the three objectives by the end of the game would be the winner. 

The Poles had deployed their defenses in depth, with multiple hidden units and a variety of armored vehicles defending the village outskirts. They placed their objectives in the fancy building in the bottom left of the above image, in the church, and on the road leading out of town. 

The Polish forces had also set down pre-determined mortar points. While the German players could see where they had been laid out, a few of them were dummy tokens. 

While formidable, the rolling preparatory bombardment that the Germans had managed to place at least a pin or two on most of the deployed Polish units, and even destroyed their armored car outright. 

The Germans were a largely foot-slogging force, with only a single Panzer 38(t), a MMG-armed motorcycle, and a truck for mechanized elements. This meant that they had to trudge across the table to reach the Polish lines, taking fire the entire way. 

There were four factors that ended up assisting the Germans. 

First, with Polish howitzer and German tank on opposite sides of the battlefield, the Poles had nothing to threaten the 38(t) with. They could try to engage it close combat, but that meant passing a tank feat morale check and then trying to damage it without dedicated anti-tank grenades. And the supporting German infantry had plenty of LMGs to keep the tank clear. 

Second, the Germans had two platoons in reserve that were outflanking up the table. While it was a gamble as they had to take a command check to deploy onto the table, one platoon ended up positioned perfectly to capture an objective as soon as it came onto the table.

Third, the Poles seemed reluctant to divert from their pre-planned mortar targets. While most of the German units were constantly moving, a random mortar hit might had been enough to change how the game's result. 

Fourth, plain dumb luck. Had the Germans not had a randomly decided seventh turn, then the game would have ended with the Poles in control of two of the three objectives. Instead, the Germans had just enough time to get a fresh squad of infantry into the church, which was then able to hold against a couple Polish attacks.

With the Germans managing to claim victory at the last second, the next game will see the Germans attempting to push further into the Polish lines with the "Envelopment" scenario.

Tanks for the Game! - BattleTech: Alpha Strike AAR

I recently got a chance to finally play BattleTech: Alpha Strike with a gaming buddy, Russ, from my old gaming group.

It was a pretty simple set up between two mercenary companies, his Commandos and my Lancers. He had seven mechs in two lances, while I had four mechs and four tanks. Russ' pilots were all in older mechs but had Skill values of 2's and 3's, while my machines were newer with less experienced mechwarriors and crew (mostly Skill 4). 

We played on a hex map, which made some of the measuring easier. Each hex counts as 2", so a mech with a 12" could move 6 hexes or sprint 9 hexes. Firing ranges were similarly halved.

The main engagement happened up on the map's plateau between our main Mech lances. Russ' lance consisted of a Thunderbolt, Catapult, Shadow Hawk, and Commando, all with veteran or elite mechwarriors. My lance was heavier, with an Awesome, Thunderbolt, Wolverine, and Phoenix Hawk, but the pilots weren't as good. 

Down near the water, Russ' second lance, with a Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, and Wasp facing off against my tank Lance, with a Manticore, two Bulldogs, and an SRM Carrier. 

One of the Bulldogs ended up as the game's first casualty, destroyed from concentrated fire. 

Russ new the SRM carrier was the most dangerous target in the tank lance (able to hit a target for 6 points of damage!), so it also had to go. First the crew were stunned from a critical hit, then the tank brewed up.

Russ had done up some fantastic wreck markers to show where mechs and tanks were after their destruction. 

With two tanks down, Russ diverted a Shadow Hawk to hopefully put the tonnage equation in his favor. Both sides were stripping armor, but concentrated fire from my forces' Awesome, Thunderbolt and Wolverine knocked out Russ' second Shadow Hawk. 

Meanwhile, my tanks were in full retreat. While most of their weapons were on their turrets, the tanks would lose valuable damage points if the mechs were able to get behind them. 

Up in the hills, the mechs jockeyed for positions, slagging armor and venting heat. The Commandos could land hits more reliably, but the new machines of the Lancers could take those hits and do more damage when they managed to land a blow.  

Fully backed into a corner of the battlefield, the tanks managed to get their first kill, knocking out the Wasp that had gambled on a close range attack.

The Lancer's Wolverine was knocked out by the combined attacks of the Commandos' Thunderbolt and Commando. In return, the damaged Phoenix Hawk landed a close-range attack that brought down the second Shadow Hawk. 

The Wolverine, Bulldog, and Manticore continued their dance along the lakeside. 

Somehow, the Lancers' Thunderbolt was able to weather the combined attack of its Commando counterpart. It likely would have been destroyed if the Commandos' Catapult hadn't pushed its heat too far and been forced to shutdown. 

The Catapult was back up, but the Commandos Thunderbolt was finally put down by the Lancers. 

Tired of the Phoenix Hawk that had been flitting around the battlefield, Russ send the Lone Commandos, erm... Commando, which ended the Phoenix Hawk's flight. 

And the dance between mechs and tanks finally ended with the Commandos Wolverine falling to the Manticore and Bulldog. 

After losing the Catapult as well, Russ and I agreed that his lone Commando wasn't likely to stand up long against the remaining Lancer forces, and we called the game there. 

As I reflected on after the game, had we played this using the Classic BattleTech rules, this would have been a day long affair, if not longer. Instead, we managed to play a tense, exciting game in just a couple hours. The Alpha Strike rules still feel like BattleTech, but allow for larger, combined arms games in a smaller timeframe. I'm looking forward to playing more, with a few alterations (like variable damage, pilot dice, and hexless battlefields). 

The Battle of Monmouth, Part 2 - British Grenadier AAR

This past weekend, the group finished up the Battle of Monmouth started the previous week at Ted's.

Unfortunately, Chip was a little under the weather and couldn't make it, so it was up to me to command the entirety of the British facing Ted's and Steve's Americans.

It started out with a failed charge with a combined regiments of Grenadiers and my pulling back of the Light Dragoons (which would be an error I would rue for the rest of the game.

One of my artillery batteries also broke and ended up fleeing from the battle. 

On the British right, however, my original command was doing well against Steve's defending Americans. While another combined brigade was rushing to reinforce the colonial forces, my skirmishers moved up to continue to plug away and cause casualties. 

As Steve's infantry was forced back, his cannons stopped their retreat and unlimbered, just in time to catch the Queen's Rangers who had planned to run down the American artillerymen!

While the Grenadiers stalled in trying to oust the entrenched Americans, the artillery finally got their range and blasted Ted's cannons out of place, with some help from a small unit of British skirmishers. The Americans promptly fled before they could be rallied.

Meanwhile, the Light Dragoons were making a break for the American rear, weathering the artillery from the American brigade on the hill, just out of shot. 

Steve's brigade continued to hold the British back, but the weight of fire was deadly and the American's couldn't return enough fire to dissuade the attack. The Queens Rangers had managed to scoot around the guns, but ended up blocking a number of shots from the skirmishers. 

The American's could definitely put a feather in their cap when the Grenadier regiment broke and fled! This left a worrying gap in the British line, and threatened the flank of my second combined Grenadier regiment. 

The end came before the American's could exploit the absence of the Grenadiers, however. Steve's brigade broke and collapsed, leaving the American left flank open to a relatively fresh British brigade. 

Both sides decided to withdraw, as the British rearguard had succeeded in spoiling the American attack. 

Ted's brigade on the hill overlooked the American right flank. The Dragoons were just within range of another shot. If I had pressed them forward from the start of my taking over their command, I may have been able to threaten the larger artillery battery in the American center. 

Meanwhile, the Foot Guard troops had positions themselves to hold the center. They were stubbornly difficult to get rid of, although one regiment had suffered a number of casualties between Steve's infantry and Ted's cannons. 

All-in-all, it was a fun conclusion to a great game. There was a discussion afterwards between Steve, Ted and I as to how the game may have gone differently. One suggestion was for Steve's brigade to abandon the farm and retreat to the hill to combined with the arriving reinforcements, instead of trickling into an ongoing fight in a position the British could flank. But as Steve pointed out, that would have left Ted's command vulnerable, and cede a larger amount of the battlefield to the British that the Americans would then have to fight to retake. 

Hopefully we'll get a chance to replay the game and test those theories. 

The Battle of Monmouth, Part 1 - British Grenadier AAR

This week's game night at Ted's featured British Grenadier. It's a ruleset that I had no experience with, but did manage to pick up a used copy of the Deluxe version at some point in the past. I had heard it around various wargaming circles that British Grenadier is one of the better sets of rules for the American War of Independence, so I was looking forward to seeing how they played. 

Ted had set up a table based on the Battle of Monmouth. The action would start after Lee's disastrous attack on the British rearguard. Washington started on the road directing the American forces, bringing up a reserve of Knox's artillery. Clinton started with two infantry forces with some accompanying light infantry on either side of the road. Both sides had a third infantry brigade move onto the table on the first turn. 

Ted also "convention-ized" the rules a bit to make them a bit faster to play. We skipped using the Command section where you assign whether a brigade is Assaulting, Moving, Supporting, etc. This may have removed some of the "friction" of getting your troops to follow your command, but at the same time made the gameplay smoother (I'm assuming). 

I was commanding the British right flank, facing off against Steve and his Americans. My plan was to try and turn Steve's flank, using the Scottish infantry and then the combined Light Infantry regiment. I also had a long line of skirmishers, a "grasshopper" cannon, and a tiny unit of mounted Queen's Rangers.  

Chip, my fellow commander for the Crown, had a massive pair of combined Grenadier regiments, some artillery, and a unit of Light Dragoons that we hoped would be enough to overpower Ted's defending Americans. 

Additionally, Chip and I split up a third brigade that would have been under the control of a third player, had there been one. Chip took the artillery to throw more cannonballs at Ted's infantry, while I had two regiments of Foot Guard to add to my attack. 

As my infantry approached the American lines, the poor Scots were taking a beating from Steve's defenders, especially since the cannons pretty much started the game in grapeshot range. My skirmishers sat back and threw out Disruption Points here and there, hoping to interfere with the American regiments. 

Chip's Grenadiers dutifully marched forward as the artillery blasted away. Off in the distance, Ted ordered Knox's guns to set up to help defend the center against the (out of frame) Foot Guard. 

Having weathered the storm, the Scots got close enough for a charge. Bayonets lowered, they ran at the American lines - but didn't roll far enough to keep Steve from getting a shot in. Luckily for me, Steve's dice result was dismal, and the American's ended up retreating. 

Of course, Steve just turned his guns to face the now-flanked Scots, but my luck held and the close-range grapeshot somehow didn't lay waste to my infantry. 

Chip's Grenadiers continued their march across the fields.

More impressively, Chip's Light Dragoons not only managed to land a charge home on Ted's right-most infantry regiment, but the cavalrymen sent the Americans fleeing with a number of casualties! 

A round of shooting from my Scottish (who still had somehow survived more grapeshot from the very-much-too-close cannons) and the "grasshopper" cannon sent Steve's already battered regiment fleeing, and they would eventually disperse. This forced Steve's entire brigade to test their morale, which did not help the American position. 

Chip's cavalry were also poised to exploit the gap they had opened in the American line, as Ted's troops also failed to rally and ended up fleeing from the battlefield. 

Steve's infantry were forced into a v-shape as my combined Light Infantry charged the cannons that had been harassing the Scots, forcing the guns to limber and retreat. An additional small infantry regiment had arrived as well, adding to my attack.  

Steve's situation had also changed. While he also received a small regiment to reinforce his position, a new force of Americans had arrived on the hilltop. Chip withdrew the dragoons, but moved his skirmishers up to delay the new arrivals. A round of fire from the British saw three hits on the American skirmishers (that's three 6's on three dice!). 

That's when we called the game for lack of time. We decided to pick it up again in the next week or two. While it seems like the British have the advantage, the Americans are still largely in their defensive positions, and the Americans on the hill could mean trouble if they're not dealt with. 

That said, I'm definitely looking forward to playing more! British Grenadier isn't the first set of AWI rules I've mentioned on the blog, but I did enjoy them. They seemed to move quickly enough after jut a couple turns of guided play from Ted, although I would like to see how the Command section changes how the game plays.