Another Thursday Night...

THE PACIFIC THEATER IS FINALLY DISCOVERED!

A couple of our regulars have been feverishly building & painting armies for the WWII Pacific Theater. Doug has done a great job with his 15mm Imperial Japanese forces, and Todd with his 15mm US Army Infantry. Both have been talking about branching out into the Pacific campaign, and last Thursday they decided to kick-off it off with a battle using the Blitzkrieg Commander rules.

Todd was the American force, which was tasked with repulsing a Japanese counter-attack on Luzon, in the Philippines, during the campaign to retake the islands in 1944. Todd did have the luxury of barbed wire and some trench positions, but the Japanese had a secret weapon in a massive armor force (three Type 97 Light Tanks  J).

The Americans Try and Hold Off a Banzai Attack

All I know is the Americans made mincemeat out of the Japanese forces as they advanced, but then suffered brutally at their hand when they got into close combat. In the end, I believe the Americans were able to hold their positions, but at a pretty heavy cost. (Guys, let me know if I didn’t get that right…).

A Type 97 Tank Is Suppressed As It Maneuvers For a Shot

In any event, the battle looked like a lot of fun so a couple more of us are getting our armies ready to do battle in the Pacific (Nick & I with US Army Infantry, Chris with his US Marines…). We also need to start working hard on some realistic jungle terrain in 15mm – fortunately all of the guys have agreed to help in building it, so it shouldn’t take too long!

US PARAS RETAKE A FRENCH CHATEAU

Meanwhile on Thursday night, Nick and I got in a game of WWII Chain Reaction in 25mm. I was commanding a pair of understrength US Paratroopers squads from the 101^st Airborne Division in France, while Nick was in charge of a German Infantrie Squad – with its light machine gun still operational.  This was a double-offense game (with both sides moving onto the board at the start) but with a twist.

We were testing out a new hidden objective system for the game. Each of us drew a card at the beginning of the game which gave us our orders for the battle. Half-way through the set number of turns, we drew again for a new set of orders – but since there were duplicates of our original order cards, and “No Change In Orders” cards as well in the deck, there was a definite possibility if retaining our original orders through the balance of the game.

The cards come out of a desire by a couple of us who want to start having more deception, feints and surprises with our tactics (rather than our army lists!) during the game. Our game went pretty good although at the time we called it, it was not clear who would have won based on our orders. We were both surprised at what the other’s real objective was, which encouraged us to continue using the system.J

The US Paratroopers Survey the Terrain Before Them

Also, it was one of my first games on the new terrain boards we built. I very much enjoyed using them, and look forward to make a whole lot more. I think the pictures give a good idea of the coolness factor of the terrain.

The Battlefield With The Chateau In The Center

Until next time…

Cheers!

Dan