Bolt Action AXIS Battle Report..
Yup. You read it right. The first battle report on MLPE blog in quite a while! Mostly because I haven't been gaming in what seems like forever, and also because I only just remembered to take photos... but not at all points throughout the game mind you. But still.. a battle report is a battle report...
For this one, it was against one of the club guys and his Germans. Who saw my game the previous week, and was really curious to take on the horde of Japanese that I bring to the table.
And for this game, a horde I did bring! 198 models was the final count here, and it was like an avalanche of men crawling across the table!
Our scenario was Envelope. And the Germans won the roll to defend. Objective for me then, as the attacker, was to get past his troops and run off the board. Considering I am a full on foot slogging army, this would be tough. I would get 1 pt per unit killled. 2 pts per unit in his deployment zone. 3 pts if I can get my units off the table. Defender would get 2 pts per unit killed.
My army looked like this though....
Thankfully the club was empty, so I had the chance to use another table to prep it :D
3x 2nd Lieutenants
10x15 Militia
2x15 Bamboo Warriors
1x15 Infanry (Regular)
198 models.. spread over 16 order dice!
And when I did get all my guys on the table, he had already done most of his shooting at that point. And was already having issues with line of sight to get to certain units. Which was funny considering that he had so few troops in general compared to myself, but he had a huge number of support weapons to bear down on me. Including the 4 MMGs, 2 Armored cars with MMG/L.Howitzers, tank with M.Howitzer, and tank with H.Howitzer. And then a bunch of tiny teams with SMGs/LMGs/Rifles. Oh and a Medium Mortar with spoter that caused me no ends of trouble.
So at the end of the first turn, I had everything on the table, and was at the maximum 12 inches I could move onto the table. No point trying to shoot, since everyone is pretty much inexperienced, and would be needing 7s if they had LOS or could shoot anything.
I didn't take photos of turn 2, but it started with an artillery strike happening over about 8 of my units in the center. Killing an HQ unit, and pinning a lot of other troops. Oh and causing some damage to another larger unit, but not enough to make it panic though it would sit there for the remainder of the game.
I would move up on the right side however, and begin to put pressure on him a bit. And prepare a few charges that would come up if he decided to get too close.
Meanwhile my left flank was sitting still due to all the pins and refusing to move. Somehow I think this was going to be a tough game here :D Just how I like it!
By Turn 3 however, although the Germans had the ability to outmaneuver me, outgun me, and were dug in nicely, I did begin to move.
On the right units began to charge. My Bamboo warriors taking the lead here, and taking refuge in the rubble there within. They would then be bombarded with pretty much all firing that could be thrown at them to try to remove them, however they would sit pretty for the rest of that turn.
My central forces began to move, shaking off the throws of their pins. Causing no end of panic to the German player. Especially with a charge in the center to take out a smaller unit there in a charge thus removing more pins from a unit. The horde had been awaken at this point, and was slowly making its way across the board.
Though many more were gunned down, and by this time over 50 infantry had been killed. However this only amounted to 2 units being destroyed though. The HQ unit, and one of the first initial units that showed up, and was bombarded with mortar fire.. But that is ok, cause the spotter would get smacked hard by a group of 5 troopers going at them :D
By the end of the game, and due to a few poor rolls by the Germans. The Japanese was able to kill 6 units in total. Which was good cause the poor bamboo warriors on the right were beseiged with more fire, after charging another unit to kill them. Giving them 2 units killed in close combat. A sniper dies from another charge by some militia. His HQ unit gets charged by a full force Militia unit, going down quickly. The initial unit hiding in the middle unit died to militia. And a single guy running around dies to some gunfire from my infantry squad right near the end.
In the end the game was a tie as we called it at 4 turns ( due to time ) but had it continued I think it would have been a blood bath as the IJA forces were now fully within charge range to multiple targets. And each charge meant another death, and that much closer to the German deployment zone.
I wish it could have continued to see how far this army could have gone forward.
The biggest comment I received about fielding this was that it was tough to take on so many units, and so many guys. Unless ready for it, this would be one heck of a force to deal with. Especially in a tournament scene. And if the rules are better known, and game play could be sped up on both side, this would easily do well in a gaming night.
Though the biggest problem with this army is that once a unit gets pinned, bottlenecks do appear, and it could begin to suffer quite a lot in the movement portion of the game. Also, if there had been a Flampanzer or Flamer unit in his army, it would have changed the course of the game significantly ;)
Overall, it was a good game though, and it could still go either way depending on how well he could focus his firing. Though in the last turn his rolls to hit were beginning to fail him ( thank you hard cover! ) and the threat of being charged was constantly in his mind after the first unit was overwhelmed by it.
Next week I hope to play another game. This time against the British and in a special scenario just for the Brits vs Japanese. Will be interesting if that happens, and how I can make it work.
Again, not the best battle report. I need to get back into the habit of writing these. Hopefully I will get more games in, and more time to write them in the future. Hope you enjoyed it though, and looking forward to seeing how the Japanese do in the future!
Wow, great to see the hoard on the table.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael. Though I was getting scared at one point when I realized that I had to proxy 1 model! Argghhhh.. must mean I need more infantry troops ;)
DeleteThat's a lot of models! Reminds me of my days with Khorne Bezerkers where you get pummelled for the opening couple of turns until you're within charge range and the game turns on its head. Love it.
ReplyDeleteExactly the same tactic as that. Used it with my Orks back in the day, or with my Goblins for Fantasy even :D It is just the perfect army for my style of play.. but it was brutal. Very uphill battle to begin with, before the momentum builds up and takes over! Glad you approve ;)
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