Bolt Action - Burma '44 in 15mm

After making all that jungle terrain I was itching to use it.  In true style rather than  play a French Indo-China game which had been the original driver for making it, I gave my 15mm Burma WW2 figures a run out.  The figures are all Battlefront with a  few Eureka Japanese which I added earlier this year.  The M3 Lee is also Battlefront, which along with the Vickers MG team had originally been painted for the Western Desert, but got a jungle paint job in spring  I also got a chance to use the Japanese and British dice I'd made. 

All set up to play

I settled at 800 points per side or thereabouts. I used the Meeting Engagement scenario from the rule book which was six turns and as I didn't roll a six at the end it didn't go to the extra turn. 

End of turn one every order die drawn

Bolt Action works well enough for solo play.  I'm still learning all the nuances and adding notes to my quick reference sheet.  Most importantly I enjoy playing it.  

The IJA wait in ambush

To simplify things I applied a blanket -1 to hit due to the terrain.  And I wasn't too stringent about line of sight.  Once a squad/team had fired I took it they'd given their position away and were fair game to be fired on.  

I won't include a turn by turn account but here's the highlights:

  • The Sikhs drew first blood and within a couple of turns had caused enough casualties to destroy a Japanese squad,  but that squad was then taken in the flank and destroyed.  

IJA outflank a Sikh squad

  • A Japanese sniper took a steady toll on the veteran Sikh squad and managed to pin them down meaning they were far less effective than hoped.  
  • The Sikh M3 Lee tank (although failing miserably to hit anything with the main guns) did manage to machine gun the Japanese suicide anti-tank man before they got clobbered.  

Sikh armour and supporting infantry

  • And most tellingly the Japanese HQ unit was destroyed.  This was the deciding factor when totting up victory points. The plucky Sikhs had triumphed.  

A few thoughts.  

  • Japanese squads being 13 man strong take a lot of punishment before needing to take a morale check.  With the knee mortar, an LMG and a lot of rifles they're quite tasty in a scrap. 
  • I didn't get the Sikh MMG into play at all.  Likewise I had another Japanese sniper that was poorly positioned and didn't get off a shot.  
  • I rolled really badly when firing the mortars and tank guns so these were largely inconsequential.  With better dice they would have made a big difference. 
  • I need to get a few more games of Bolt Action under my belt to really get to grips with the rules.  I have a load of WW2 figures that need a run out so that's not a problem at all.
  • I'm very pleased with my jungle terrain although I still wonder if I need a bit more?  I should have got my large trees out the loft, as the few that I laid out did make it look better rather than just using palm trees. 
Later stages of the game

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