Bolt action Banzai finale -> saving flight officer ryan

Over the Christmas I got to play bolt with the Chindits vs the newly painted Japanese.

The mission was "Top Secret" with a couple of modifications.  The force can be found here.

Japanese sniper deploys in the high ground overlooking FO Ryan’s hideout.  The Chindit sniper hides in the forest opposite out of sight of his opponent. Japanese tanks goes first and rush to FO Ryan’s position, the plan is to act as a fire base for the follow up squads. Japanese sniper goes on overwatch.

Japanese tank assume covering position.

Chindit sniper moves to the edge of the forest. Japanese mortar team arrives and rush down the left flank. Chindit PIAT team arrives and advances through the forest towards the Tank. The Chindit officer, the MMG and the light mortar set up a fire base in the centre of deployment zone overlook Ryan’s hiding place. The Japanese officer and two squads move at the double towards Ryan’s hiding place. The Chindit air observer takes to the high ground.  A Japanese rifle squad and MMG move at the double around the right flank. A Chindit rifle squad moves to block the move. The squad takes fire from the overwatching sniper but nobody is hurt

Chindits set-up a fire base

The Chindit light mortar fire on the Japanese sniper team and misses.  The PIAT fires on the Tank and misses. The Japanese sniper redeploys to go hunting for the Air observer. The Chindit blocking squad moves at the double on the Japanese right. The Tank pivots and opens fire on the squad killing three of them. The Japanese mortar team moves into position and begins setting up to cover the objective. The British rifle squad on the Japanese left advance and destroys the mortar team (dam frist blood). The Air observer calls in a strike on the Tank. A Japanese rifle squad shifts lefts and opens fire on the Chindits that took out the Mortar and kill one of them. The Japanese officer and the other squad advance forward towards the objective. The Japanese MMG team and the last rifle squad move into position to engage the Chindit blocking squad.

And promptly becomes the taret of an air strike

The Air support arrives and pops the tank. The Chindits draw first, the blocking squad opens fire on the MMG team destroying it. In response the rifle squad charge the Chindit in the struggle both NCO’s are killed and the Japanese destroy the squad with the loss of six men. The Chindits on the japans left attempt to return fire on the opponents but the FUBAR the order and instead open fire on their own sniper team destroying the team. The Chindit squad in the centre advances and opens fire on the oncoming Japanese rifle squad killing a few and getting a pin. The Japanese rifle squad them fails its advance order despite their officer shouting encouragement. The Chindit MMG opens fire and destroys the Japanese sniper team. The air observer moves off the high ground an takes a pot shot at the depleted rifle squad on the Japanese right. One trooper goes down the squad is below have strength and without its NCO it flees the scene.

Chindit flankers on the move

With the japanese force below have strength one of the game modification kicks in and now at the start of each turn the Japanese must take a force morale check based on the leadership of their officer to stay in the game. They pass this turn. The Chindits centre rifle squad advances and opens fire on its opposite number killing the NCO and a few troopers. The Chindits squad on the Japanese right advances and opens fire on the same target dropping a few more troopers. The squad is reduced to below half strength and flees despite their officer being near by.  The Chindit officer advance to cover the objective. The rest of the Chindits move in support.

The flankers take fire, They painc (roll a double 6) and  open fire on their own sniper team (rolled a one on the FUBAR table) and take out the team

The Japanese pass their force moral test to stay in the game.  The Chindit officer moves at the double and orders to centre squad to save flight officer Ryan. The centre squad secures the objective while the rest of the force moves to blocking positions. The last Japanese squad moves to intercept with the officer tailing them.

Japanese advance on Ryan's hiding place.

Japanese pass their force morale test and get the draw.  The last squad charges the Chindit officer and take him before failing back to cover. The Chindit centre squad begins to fall back while the rest of the force take up blocking positions.

The Japanese again pass their force morale test. The Chindits get the draw and the centre squad moves at the double towards the exit the rest of the force goes on overwatch. The last Japanese squad breaks cover and charge the centre squad taking fire from the overwatch teams as they go.

The combat goes for three or four rounds before the Chindits overcome their opponents and escape off the battlefield with the flight officer Ryan.

GAME OVER

Great game, although the Japanese would probably disagree since in the end only their officer was left standing among his destroyed force. In hindsight I think the Japanese deployed badly having the mortar and MMF teams on the flanks with limited support facing rifle squads was not going to go well. In addition they need to learn to duck ie take a down order and give up their turn to make it harder for their opponents to score hits.  While the tank might have been better advancing slower laying down fire sacrificing  accuracy for momentum. From the Chindit point of the view the plan went well. Losing the officer was the only silly mistake made elsewhere their veteran status allowed them to out fight their opponents.

The modifications we used were,

-          The Chindits could opted to replace their free artillery observe with an air observer on the grounds they did not have a lot artillery support since they were operating a couple of hundred miles behind enemy lines.

-          Both force must start taking a force morale test once they have lost half their units if they fails they quit the battlefield. It is a direct copy of the FOW mechanic and makes sense and encourages players not to throw units away needlessly.