Finally I got my Japanese finished and on the table. This was the warm up game before Dave and I
undertake the Too Fat Lardies Malaya 1942 campaign. We felt we made some
interpretive mistakes in the Patrol and Deployment phases of the game we decide
to use it has a learning game.
My placement of the Jumping off points were in the jungle when they should have been on the road according to the Campaign notes. But that aside I got a my tank on to the table early. This was met with an Australian 2 Pounder Anti-Tank gun. For the next couple of rounds it exchanged fire with my Type 95 Ha-Go resulting in a disabled tank and a routed gun crew.
Since the lumbering beasts had been dealt with we started to deploy our infantry sections. I deployed mine incorrectly in the jungle where I should have placed them on the road. Nevertheless, I advanced two sections through the bush while the flanking section had a Mexican standoff with a squad of Australians on the other side of the road.
What followed for me was a lesson in close combat I advanced a unit of infantry with in four inches of an Australian section resulting in a close assault. The entire unit was killed (twice). It was a really good reminder to at the very least rock a unit back with shock at the very least, and ideally pin the before closing to engage them with close combat, particularly if they are Australians.
One central error in this phase of play was activating my dice in the wrong order. My senior leader started issuing orders before The junior leader attracted to the light mortar selection. As a rule of thumb i should work from the rear forward when activating command dice.
Following that hammering it was necessary to regain some
honour and turn things around. This time I got the activation order correct
firing the mortar sections first and the having. The senior leader orders one
of the remaining units to fire on their Australian counterparts.
Because the Japanese squads are larger plus the support of a mortar combined with rolling lots of sixes I made short work of two Australian Squads on the right. This was made somewhat easier by the face my command dice gave me three phases on the bounce. Followed by a further two consecutive phases of play. The game ended with Dave curing my jammieness.
