Well, after the first campaign game and its one nil to Dave's Australians. So fair dinkum cobber.
More haste and less speed is the lesson I will take from this encounter.
This post will basically consist of a list of the mistakes I made. The end result was basically engineering my own defeat from a relatively strong position.
Lesson One
Just because I have tank does not mean I should deploy it at the earliest opportunity
When to do so would put it directly in the cross hairs of a the only Australian unit capable of destroying it. I didn't exactly make it difficult for the Australian 2 Pounder by placing the lump of metal where they want it.
One upside of this was it provided me the opportunity to use my new smoke and flame marker, recently, liberated from my wife's craft box. I suspect the destruction of this tank was a touch of karma. At the beginning of the game when I rolled my support dice I had not rolled high enough to get a tank. We decided to re-roll it so allowing me to choose a tank from the support list.
The first couple of rounds things were going quite well on the right. My squad advanced on the tentatively and made contact with the Australian section lurking in the jungle. By combining direct fire with my mortar team I was successful in pushing them back. So far so good. Alls going to plan.
Lesson Two
Better situational awareness when advancing units
This is where it all when wrong. Over on the left of the I pushed forward with the second squad. I rolled long. This brought me within four inches of the Australian section and there by initiated the close combat sequence. Which basically desimated both sections. But because the the Australians are tough they don't take any shock while the remained of my Japanese withdrew due to a ton of shock.
The veritable movement generated by dice roles are something I really like about Chain of Command. On this instance I rolled myself into trouble with a high roll. But it beautifully replicates a unit wondering around the Jungle a stumbling into a into a enemy unit.
Lesson Three
Remember the sequence in which to activate units (This should have been learned by now)
The was compounded by the mistake I made in the last game by not ordering my mortars to fire ahead of advancing my infantry. My ability no to pay attention to the lesson of the past possibly makes me suitable for high office.
Lesson Four
Hold a lead back in reserve to deploy the reserve
My next mistake was to deploy my junior leader prior to getting my reserve squad on to the table. Hence, this meant that the reserve did not make it onto the table.
All this mayhem resulted in my command dice dropped to two dice. This basically paralysed my ability to move. This was compounded by the factor my senior leader was caught on the wrong side of the road.
Lesson Five
Try not to be stupid
To react to the Australians reinforcing on the right. It was necessary to move my senior across the road to get the attack moving forward again. As he moved from cover onto the road an Australian Bren team took the opportunity to use a Chain of Command dice to interrupt his movement with a hail of bullets killing the senior leader. This reduced my command dice to zero there by forcing the Japanese to withdraw.
The first game went to the Australians. Well done Dave!
