Friday, 31 January 2020

Chain of Command AAR Aussies vs Japs


Aussies crewing a Vickers cover the crossroads...

On the Monday public holiday, we gathered for some CoC action, not really a game but a rules play through. Before hitting the tabletop in reverence of Australia Day we partook some Chicko Rolls which were cooked to perfection!

The idea of this catchup was to refresh ourselves with the CoC rules before commencing our Malaya 1942 Campaign. We naturally pitted Aussies against Japs using the Probe scenario. Dave went on the offensive with the Japs; they had a Force Morale of 11 and a Type 94 Tank and a Flamethrower Team in support. George took up the defensive with the Aussies; they had a Force Morale of 8 and a Vickers and a 2” Mortar Team in support.

Our battlefield, I'm slowly getting the jungle terrain organised...

Both sides deployed their sections quickly aided by slick rolling of multiple 2s and 3s. The Japs putting their support in on their right while trying a ‘Coup de main’ in the centre with a section going hell for leather through the village. The Australians deployed their three sections evenly using the rice paddies ‘walls’ for protection and using the Vickers Team to virtually wipe out the Japs central thrust. The battle then pivoted around the Japs right. They advanced under a thick pall of smoke and launching a well-coordinated attack; a Flamethrower attack followed up with a charge into close combat saw the Japs smash the Aussie Section guarding the flank. But in their moment of glory a double phase allowed the central Section of Australians to redeploy push back the attackers with heavy losses and restore the situation. Excited with their success the Aussies pushed forward and were defeated the broken survivors retiring allowing a much-reduced Jap Section and their Ha Go Tank (!?) to achieve victory for them.

Some Pictures...

The battlefield at games end...in the foreground is the remnants of the Japanese right flank Section...

The Jap Flamethrower Team advance cautiously...

The mighty Japanese Type 94 Ha Go Tank, the Aussies ATR Team fired several shots at it but failed to score a hit!

The quiet flank...

An enjoyable afternoon was had and we feel confident we can move onto the Malaya 1942 Campaign soon.

A couple of points;
1. Jap Sections can take a lot of punishment and keep moving on, in this game they started with 57 men and 31 became casualties but their Force Morale only drooped 3 from 11 to 8 (mind you their leaders seemed to lead a charmed life suffering only 2 light wounds despite the carnage around them).
2. We had an issue with working out how a Flamethrower Team defends itself in close combat and could find nothing quickly with a search online to resolve it grrrr...George did some research after the event and we’ll probably go with one of these two options next time;
The support crew fight and The flamethrower guy hides. He surrenders if his friends lose the fight.
Or
The whole team buggers off 3D6 and take 8 points of shock.

The next game we'll play is Tripods & Triplanes!

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Cheers Ben, I'm still working on the terrain so hopefully when we start the campaign everything will look even better!

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  2. Nice one. I'm going to watch with interest for when we run a Malaya game or two.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Doug thanks for checking this out.
      Your own set up is looking great!
      We play fortnightly and the first game of this Campaign is 4 sessions away (Tripods & Triplanes, then some Viking long boat action and lastly Napoleonic's using Blucher fill the intervening nights!).

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