This is yet another game report from last week. I was able to get not only two solo games in but also two games in with Mark. This game was a Pacific Theater game set in 1941. I played the Japanese for the first time ever. It was a simple patrol scenario so no supports were selected by either side. Brian played the Australians and Mark umpired for us.
The table was very nicely done. Mark's terrain always looks great. We played scenario 1 from the rules which is a patrol game.
Following the patrol Phase, My Japanese held the following jump Off Points as indicated by the white dice.
Brian's Austrailians held Jump Off Points denoted by the red dice.
Brian had the initiative and began to move two squads down the center of the board. They were supported by a s" mortar team that did very little throughout the game.
As evident in the picture above, the Japanese deployed their mortar Squad off to the right hand side of the table (well my right). The mortar squad would punish the Australians throughout the game. I also deployed a single infantry squad behind a tree line to block the path of the advancing Australians. These troops engaged Brian's troops as he pushed them forward.
Here we can see my squad that dished out the punishment on Brian's troops. They were on overwatch which helped greatly.
I attempted to follow the tactical advice that Rich published on his blog but I don't think I am a very good pupil. But it must have helped some. Here is an overview of the action thus far. The mortar did try to put down a screen of smoke for Brian's troops to advance behind. The first attempt put smoke behind my team but the second attempt was right on the money.
Among the early casualties of my mortar squad was one of Brian's squad leaders. Brian had bad luck with his leaders. Several were hit throughout the game. Despite the mounting shock and casualties on his main line of advance, Brian brought forward a thrid squad into that channel of advance.
Brian managed to pin my defending squad due to shock and casualties.
The combat that lead to my guys being pinned resulted in the destruction of one of Brian's squads.
To support the pinned squad I brought up my second infantry squad behind the pinned one. This led to an exchange of long range fire. Eventually the pinned squad broke and fled. This was the first hit on force morale that I had taken.
The mortars broke a heavily hit squad of brian's infantry routing them off of the board. This left Brian with a single intact squad and I brought on my third squad. With two full infantry squads and the mortar squad on the table for one functional squad of Brian's, we called the game at that point.
It was a great game. Out one thought out of it was how much of an ammo supply should the mortars have? The light mortars were rather devastating (mostly due to really fortunate die rolls on my part - I know, it surprised me too). It is something that we need to consider. Maybe limit the number of times that they can fire before having to go to the JOP for more ammo. The three mortars firing together were fairly powerful. Any idea of what their standard load would be?