Tank Wars! 1500 pt game of IJA vs Germans!

Last night was game night.. and after a long absence on here ( which will be explained soon! ) I have been able to get an article up. And it is a quick battle report for Bolt Action! Still madly addicted to this game, even if my Japanese forces are feared and despised throughout the club at the moment.

The Germans brought in the biggest guns he could spare... or at least all the tanks he could muster as well..
- Tiger I - Command upgrade
- Panzer IV Ausf H,J
- StuG III Ausf G, H
- Panther Ausf A, G
- SdKfz 231 Heavy Armored Car (8-rad)
- 88mm Pak 43
- SdKfz 7 Half Track

A small elite force of brutal weaponry and armor to roll up against the Japanese indeed! But only 7 order dice.. it was quite funny to see that when I showed my list to him..

Platoon 1
- Shi Ki Command Tank w/ Radio Network
- 3x Chi Ha
- Flamethrower Unit
- 3x Suicide Anti-tank units
- Type 4 Heavy Howitzer
- Type 98 Ro-Ke Prime Mover

Platoon 2
- Type 2 Ke-To Light Tank w/ Command Upgrade
- 2x Chi-nu
- Flamethrower Unit
- 3x Suicide Anti-tank units
- Type 94 /Type 1 37mm Anti Tank Gun
- General Purpose Truck

I came in with 19 order dice to the fight.. not a good start for him, but many of my vehicles were not strong enough to do any real damage to his beasts. So it would be an interesting match up here between us here though.

We did not play the Tank Wars scenario though, and instead played Annihilation. Basically.. kill them all.. let there be war and take no prisoners!

End of First Turn.. My opponent was still smiling, but it was only the first turn.. but he had already lost his StuG, and his Panzer was immobilized. Meanwhile I only lost a Chi-Ha on my left flank.

We could already see that although I don't have heavy guns, the sheer number of them is enough to do some serious damage.. especially since I can outshoot him and he doesn't have enough guns..

And he picked the wrong side to deploy on as well....

Turn 2.. My Shi-Ki gets blown up, and my truck goes with it in this turn. But his StuG goes boom due to a fire, and too many pins. His tow also went boom thanks to some serious firing from the left flank. Those 2 Chi Ha, and the Light AT gun were doing some serious damage to his Flak and tow.

Kamikazes were beginning to creep forward at this point as I was outnumbering him by quite a bit with regards to Order dice, and his face at the end of turn 2 it was beginning to look desperate.

Turn 3.. I lose a Kamikaze model near the Armored car. But his Tiger I gets a pot shot from my Shi Ki from his flank. Open and exposed flanks are really terrible in this game when there are some more powerful guns on the tables.. even if it is only a +4 normal... adding a +1 for flank, and then great rolling ( 6s... )..

What was bad at this point however was that his dice were being pulled quickly as well. And I ended up with the above image worth of orders to take care of before the turn finished... adding more pins to the Flak 88, and beginning to move the tanks and kamikazes closer and into position.

Turn 4.. not much for him to be doing, but moving back further and further.. Failing to kill the kamikazes in front of the Panther, and the AC moving away more and more. His Flak was able to roll a great double 1 here, but failed to hit in the end.

So I just began to add more pins to everything and again just set up more to take out his last units.

Turn 5.. The Flak 88 gets pinned out of the game at this point, the Panther takes a AT explosive up close thanks to the special delivery notice I brought it to him with. And his AC recce'd backwards again into the corner..

Basically at this point it was over, and on turn 6 I charged him once more with the Kamikaze unit and took him out.

Things we learned at this time was that if you outnumbered your opponent in Tank Wars you can be a bit more static. If you are outnumbered then you need to move more, and take as much cover as possible. And do not expose your flanks! Also focusing on smaller gunned tanks early on is not a good thing either.

Suicide AT units are deadly, even if they are not close enough to do much. They can still make the opponent rethink his plans and play more defensively than they need to be.

I think it could have gone a completely different way though had we switched sides, and had he kept his tanks closer together. And keeping that Armor 10 in front to reduce my chances of doing Pen hits. That and focusing on the bigger enemy tanks, but then you would still have the infantry units with bombs running at you.

I want to play more of these games.. and see how it goes.. but in the meantime I need to find opponents that want to face off against the Japanese horde as well ;) A new army is going to have to be built at some point I do believe... :)

Now to get back to posting here and showing off some great things that I have acquired recently! Enjoy!