Blood & Jungle have been out for about two years now and to be fair I have played far less from it than I would like, far far less. I think it has suffered from having so much to play. Recently though I have played James at a B&J scenario and have another coming to a close via PBM and Duncan started two with me at the same time, this one via live VASL and the other via PMB which has also just finished. Still a small percentage of the pack and as all the games have been fun I will be diving deeper still.

This scenario has a reasonably strong force of Indian troops (16 squads, 5 crews 4 guns and a 76Mtr) defending boards 47 and 50 with a small group of Gurkha’s arriving on turn 4. I start with 18 Japanese squads plus 6 crews and to round it off 8 tanks. Turn one also gives me 9 squads of the Indian National Army who were to prove a rather useful lot. Obviously the Commonwealth is rather up against it and a lot depends on the siting of the guns. Both sides have OBA 80 and 70 respectfully but it’s the offboard observer that gives the Indians the edge and the tactic of laying down a mission on the victory locations was not unknown to Duncan. I felt I needed a good start to get an inside track. Also of note, we used the BFP setup down-loadable from their website for this scenario and it was great to just go straight into setting up without the age of pulling counters so a big up for that service.

Defence and Attack Plan.

The first thing I look for is cheap kills, has my opponent set someone up to far forward, can I get at them with little risk, then it’s routes through to the VC locations if applicable. Once I have these fixed I try to work them into the same plan, if I can’t I may well ignore the easy kill. In this case one small force was forward with most of the Indians in over watch positions on the two hills I needed control of. The outpost units would be in my way for my attack and vulnerable. I was successful in breaking them but failed to trap them in the first two turns. Most notable in the early turns was the act of moving forward, with Duncan settling in on the objective we had little action early on, though Duncan managed to still KIA a 9-1 leader and a half squad in separate attacks. The leader was harsh though I did have 5 Japanese Leaders at start, not to mention the 3 INA leaders but it still stung. My plan was to try and take out the weaker defended hill (my left) and then take on the larger hill. To do this far more troops than should be required went left whilst about a third of my force went up the middle/right. Tank wise all but two tanks went left, this must have been sweet to Duncan’s eyes given it was straight into his AT asserts.

Coming to Blows.

I found the first ATG at the cost of a platoon of two tanks one of which housed my AL, so much for that. The plus side was that the attack on the left position was going my way and even though it was only turn three I expected to have this cleared by end of turn 4. Infantry wise I lost nothing through my turn 3 whilst Duncan lost two and a half squads, a mix of the left hill defenders and the out front squad finally being cornered. Duncan’s turn three saw me finish off two half squads at no cost. The loss of the two tanks was far more than matched by Duncan’s infantry loss. Duncan’s turn was mostly keeping his head down on the right and trying to slow me on the left, but one feature of the game was taking shape, it would be bloody, from this point on the casualties would continue to be high with high losses in my turn and lighter losses in Duncan’s. Just the intensity varied.

My turn 4 saw me indeed clear the left hill, though a couple of units were still in the area. The attack on the other hill now started and this was to cost me 2 half squads but including the mopping up of the left hill I netted a wounded heroic 8-0 and 3.5 squads, Duncan was losing units at an unsustainable rate whilst I was being stripped at a slow rate. The momentum was very much in my favour.

Turn 4 Gurkha’s arrived and to my sup rise they landed on the left, I had assumed he would give up on this flank with only two squads left and facing a rather heavy force (part of which was cx’ing towards the other objective) but no it seemed like Duncan wanted that hill back. I felt at the time that this was a major error and was relieved he did this as they could have caused all sorts of problems if inserted in the way of my repositioning, his ATG and a few other units was already proving difficult to budge. The casualties swung round a little as one of the two tanks on the right flank uncovered one of the ART’ this was so well placed it took three turns to deal with and a lot of Japanese squads payed for it. I also lost a second leader this one 10-0 all for a return of half a squad. A much better turn for Duncan but I was more interested in gaining position rather than kills at this point. It was also at this point that I realised the right hill would be difficult to get to grips with. The second ATG was really out of position for my attack route but that or a ART had to be there though this continued to be a pain for a while it was never a real threat to my attack. The original ATG was silenced about this time as I broke the crew. No the real issue was the ART on the right with the HMG and MMG protection. That was the issue all right.

That Bloody Gun.

Try as I might I could not shake that gun free as it KIA’ed an Elite Squad and one of the MG’s killed a DC Hero. Handbags were to end up scattered over the whole area as I failed with attempt after attempt to get these guys into the action. On the plus side the INA were taking the most dangerous approaches in their stride. Mutters of expendable men were heard but I think that was typical British spite. Whatever those guys had for breakfast though it sure fired them up as they took the front of the hill passing many a MC.

For once it was Duncan’s turn that provided the high death rate. one and a half Indian squads and a 9-1 leader lost to the Commonwealth whilst I lost two Japanese and one INA squad. A mix of HMG killing power and relentless HtH provided these casualties but due to early loss for the Indians I could take higher losses than they could.

On the left the first attempt to regain the left hill by the Gurkha’s was brutally shut down with some terrible rolls on Duncan’s part. This was bad news as I was defending about 4-5 hexes shy of the hill and planned on losing a round to loose a hex and in so doing keep Duncan at bay. By winning the first firefight it made it doubly difficult for Duncan.

The attack on the ART continued to go south as I stacked up dead in front of it. Hell you would think at least a halfsquad would break through but I was stalling big time. The top of the hill was working well for me, so far the OBA had not landed well (mine had gone the way of the sniper!!!) but it was slow progress though the hill steadily falling to the INA not the IJA was a chuckle fest. I was more than happy to kill one of the Gurkha units on the left allowing me yet more space, in fact this all but sealed the fate of that attack as I positioned my tanks to cover the top of the hill. Sure it cost me a tank but I had plenty to spare on that hill. The other tank loss was another story. I was trying to tie up some of the hill defenders to allow a major effort on the ART but I was taken out of action by the Infantry. Still it allowed me to send in a few more units but the result was almost the same, 2 half squads and a squad. Now I had so many units striped it was like a topless barmaid convention. But one brave sole got to the gun at last and tied it up in CC. Duncan lost a couple of gun crews from the middle and left a squad and two half squads to a mix of failure to rout and HtH. It was getting real close.

His turn was no less bloody, though he spent most of the time on the left reorganising on the right it was full on knife and rifle buts time. I lost just about all the HtH and a few other powerful shots at units in the open lead to a nasty 2 squads and 4 half squads scratched from the roster but at a cost of 2 squads and that gun crew, the price was far to much. The OBA had it’s fair share of my lost troops and now it was bang where I needed to go. One of those units lost for Duncan though was critical, more so than the ART crew, this was the HMG squad on the hill top. These guys under wire was going to be a real pain but with them killed I just needed to get under the wire whilst OBA rained down on me, sounds simple, great!

The End In Sight.

I positioned myself such that I was fairly sure the left was mine, on the right I was running out of Japanese, and I can not tell a lie the idea of trusting the INA to take the last locations was not appealing no matter that to this point they had done great but even then their numbers dwindled, OK still alive but spread out broken does not help. Duncan though was equally in no fit state, he had little that was in good order and what was , wa either to far away to effect the outcome or was rather busy. No casualties were gained in my turn for either of us but many units broken or mostly in my case stripped. I indeed broke the biggest threat to the left in my turn allowing me to relax on that side and despite the OBA ran through all the hexes required for the win, the hill was now all mine. As for the other units I skulked into position to defend my gains from all of Duncan’s unbroken units, now he needed major levels of luck to get it back.

Well I did say unbroken. A Brit half squad lay on the other side of the hill (my side) and this made the SR (needed 6) and sat ready. First Duncan charged unit after unit at the other side of the hill but none made the crest, this left just the half squad, newly raised from obscurity. Yep he jigged and jagged up that bloody hill until finally he made the crest and re-took a single hex for the Glory of the Empire in the Advance Phase. Of course at this point I blasted the living hell out of it breaking him. Given I had the last half turn it was just a question of moving into the hex to retake and claim the win. Interesting the Indian OBA at this point played into my hands as it forced him onto my guns.

All in all a very enjoyable scenario, all the better for the banter had during the game. This one I believe can only play out in high levels of violence and blood and gore. The board was so intermixed with each others units we had troops being encircled all over. Both sides had attack and defend moments and I came close to losing through the desire to press the ART and trusting to stripping, dead men don’t strip. It’s a little on the chunky side but well worth playing. It had a feel of Stalingrad in the Jungle.

The end positions showing the left and right hill tops. These were two separate battles that only interacted in the number of units sent from the left to help the right.

Two Gurkha squads and an original survivor hide in the Jungle once they realise exactly what stands in the way. Duncan just had no luck at all on this flank beyond torching three tanks.

Top of the deciding hill. This hill was fantastic to fight over. The jungle just made it so much tougher to get forward, turn 6 and on the hill you just think it’s done but then two turn’s later and you are still moving up. Those DC’s was a real let down, bullet magnates for sure no matter who carried them, a KIA was assured.

http://blindhex.blogspot.com/2011/11/aar-btb16-battle-group-nor-mons.html

Played on two BFP boards, one of our DW’s and one standard GEO, a mixture of Polish Infantry, Guns, and Tankettes have to hold off the German invasion.

The Germans have a mixed bag of Infantry, Tanks, Armored Cars, Mortars and OBA which they need to use to score 80 VP based on location control.

The first three complete turns resulted in nearly 80% of the German armored forces on fire, approx 30% of the infantry broken, and two red cards on the OBA.  The Poles had lost 75% of their Guns and Crews. I was sitting thinking that with only two sections of hills actually taken, I could prevent the German victory (3 points for every level 3 hex total possible 87VP) I had held Sarge to 50VP and still had 4 turns to finish the job, with my armored force arriving on turn 4. Well, my tankettes completed a series of overruns in platoon movement. Managed to break a couple of German squads in return for 2 destroyed tankettes..At this point it’s all about killing German infantry…I could not get the job done. Sarge was able to rally the bulk  of his folks, and broke nearly all of my squads. We both elimintated some squads for failure to rout. He took a bunch of Polish prisoners. At the end of his turn 7, we determined that he had managed to capture 109VP worth of locations. I was done to 1 leader, 6 squads, and 1 weapon crew. None of which were in position to retake any of the lost locations, much less prevent him from taking additional on his final half turn.

It’s a fun scenario on some very interesting terrain with a nice mix of forces. I believe when you finally get to play this one you’ll find it as much fun and challenging as we did!

Chris chose the Japanese, who are hamstrung by having to cover a large area and keep me from grabbing 13 buildings; they have a low  ELR: 3 and all of the squads are 347s. The IJA do have 2x MMGs and a HMG, and the usual IJA attributes of not breaking always makes  them tough. Initially when I looked at this and set up, I forgot (again!) about bamboo, thinking it was brush (as it is SSR’d in so  many PTO scenarios). This would hamper my initial attack, forcing me to shift the forces on the fly.

Chris set up a small force to defend the board 32 buildings, and on board 42 he conceded the buildings near the board edge. He had  the HMG and 2x MMGs clustered around the rear-most buildings on board 42. The 9-1 was directing the HMG. I decided to throw my main  attack straight across board 42, led by my 9-2 and MMGs and 10-0 with 2x Dare Death DC toting 447s. I sent 2x smaller forces to the  left, one aiming for the board 32 buildings and the other along the seam between the 2x boards with the intent of hooking behind the  main defense on board 42. As I mentioned before, my main attack ended up out of position initially because it was blocked by bamboo.

As a result I was unable to bring my kill stack into position as planned. I was able to drop smoke on the 9-1/HMG and kept it smoked  for most of the game, which was huge. Chris was rolling horrible DRs early in the game, and his defense was crumbling. Then I made a  silly needless attack in advancing fire that triggered his sniper (which was the most effective weapon in the game for him – I was  rolling lots of 3s). The sniper killed the 10-0, broke the entire stack including a Dare Death squad, 2x MMGs and a 337/LMG. I was  unable to rally these guys for quite awhile. This really hurt my main attack, and it bogged down against an ever stiffening defense.

I was able to grab the buildings on board 32, and sent part of this force along with the middle group, to reinforce the floundering  main attack. This was my big mistake, not leaving enough to garrison the board 32 buildings. To Chris’s credit, this was necessary  due to how he stymied my main attack.

Chris chose to enter his IJA reinforcements on the south edge of board 32, and soon my forces there were fighting off a banzai  attack. I was able to get a 3KIA on one of the banzai stacks, but the others overwhelmed my defense, killing my main platoon there.  This now left us staring at each other on board 32 with forces decimated following the banzai attack, and though Chris had managed  to grab some buildings, I had slight numerical edge.

My main force on board 42 was bogged down and weakened, and I was unable to send much to help my force on board 32. The end game saw  the building total swing back and forth, at one point I was up to 14, after the banzai I was down to 11. I had to counterattack on  board 32 to retake buildings lost to the banzai attack, and Chris counterattacked my main group, taking back a building there. The  game came down to the last CC DR (for the second scenario in a row!) and I came up one building short of a win.

Man, this was a really hard fought and ultra grueling contest, but it was fun nonetheless even though I came up short. Chris did a  wonderful job clawing back from the brink of defeat to take this one from me, and this after almost conceding on a couple of  occasions when things were really grim looking for him – he passed his PMCs though, and his perseverance paid off. Chris took his 3-1  record off to face elite competition in the next round, while I was left with a smarting defeat.

3rd Round Saturday AM and as I feared I was matched with one of the ASL elite, J.R. Tracy. J.R. is one of the classiest guys and certainly one of the best ASL players; J.R. would end up in the title match with Bob Bendis. We chose ‘Melee Near The Coast’ from the Blood and Jungle Pack. This was IMO the best scenario in the tournament. I set up my Chinese defense in the buildings along the stream/pond, with the 9-1 led MMG stack guarding the road, and the light mortars on the hill. I had a platoon including a Dare Death squad on the right flank in the woods where the advance is channeled by the pond and bamboo. I had 3x squads guarding the cluster of buildings on the back. My plan was to delay long enough to get my reinforcements safely into the rear cluster of buildings. It was a good plan, and was actually working for awhile. J.R.’s IJA troops were stymied along my defense line, unable to break through. Both of my light MTRs did nothing- I rolled a DR12 on the first shot with one, the other broke under fire. My line was holding, and the 9-1 went Heroic, and the MMG position was just a rock, blocking the IJA advance along the road. The IJA did manage to get around the extreme right around the hill after overrunning my Dare Death platoon.

J.R. used banzai attacks to great effect throughout the game, what a nasty tool this is for the Japanese. Along the stream I was holding well until I made a dumb mistake by skulking with my main platoon (2x 337s, LMG) to a spot I *thought* was safe, but the LOS was quite clear, and J.R. blasted them, which left my left flank open. The line quickly crumbled after this. The fight now shifted to the rear building cluster, where a real nifty fight developed. My
reinforcements were too late and instead of occupying the buildings they would have to counterattack. It all came down to the last CC DR, and I came up one building short. What an *AWESOME* game this was. I lost yet I so thoroughly enjoyed this game, it was really the type of ASL nirvana you always hope to achieve. J.R. is tons of fun to play, which just added to the experience.

We’ve played two scenarios recently; one an 8 turn Japanese quest to dig out dug in American first line squads and the other a 6.5 turn, American Elites trying to dig out some Japanese defenders from a building.

First let me say that both scenarios in all three playings (Bryan Hoernke and I have played the 8 turn scenario, we’ll be playing the 6.5er soon) have come down to the very last turn!  These are not going to be ho hum to play at all.

The 8 turn scenario(Desperate Hours) I first played the Americans (ended up with 5 HOB results in this game) , you set up your troops( 13 squads) in entrenchments on or adjacent to level three hexes on board 2. You have a single M4 Sherman and four additional squads that start within two hexes of 2F1. Standard leadership and dummies, a few SW (including WP spewing Mortars) face a Japanese force of 16squads, 5 leaders, SW, DCs, and Mtr that enter from offboard (split between turns 1 and 2).  In order to win the Japanese player must ensure that there are no Good Order MMC on any level 3 hill hexes.

There is an LV hindrance of +1 in effect for the first four turns that helps keep the Japanes Squads alive as they cross the open ground and climb up the hill side.

Sarge admirably faced my dice as I reached out with my American 6 range troops. I managed to stripe nearly every squad before the game ended. We fought several CC rounds after which time Sarge’s force was whittled to nothing winning this as the American.

Playing the same scenario as the Americans against Hoernke’s Japanese, I managed to win this as the Japanese, although nearly every one of my units had striped. We fought 5 hand-to-hand close combats, and he managed to KIA a banzai charge, but I was still able to manage to break the Americans and meet the mission objectives.
(It’s Going to be a Blast!) pits 9.5 Elite American squads against  8.5 Japanes squads (as we played it). The Americans enter from offboard on turn 1 (board 46 hexrows A-P) and must ensure there are no good order Japanese MMC in hexes D8,E8, and E9.  My dice were incredibly hot through 4 turns and kept American troops broken and in the woods (there are a couple overlays involved). Turn 5 Sarge was up on the hill, managed to kill of two of my squads and stripe two more.  We both lost squads in CC in turns 5 and 6. End of turn 6.5 Sarge was adjacent to, two of the three VC hexes but his dice would not allow him to get the job done. We’re upping the squad count by one for the Americans for the next playing, but expect that this will still come down to the very last turn.

Stay tuned for more action as the BFP team continues to work on new projects for your ASL enjopyment!

Sarge and I played a 5.5 turn SS v Russian scenario this afternoon. I had the SS and believed this to be a lost cause at the end of my Turn 3. German needs to take 17 building locations in 5.5 turns. German has a very small force 11 squads vs 20 Russian squads. Leadership and support is effectively equal.
At the end of Turn 3 I had 5 broken squads with only 1 building take. Rallied the troops and finally began to wither the Russian defenses. Pictures start with the end of German Turn 1 (12) and finishes off with the end of Game (prior to final German advance phase)

Russians are on the offensive, Germans are defending board 56. Each side has approx 20 squads and 5 vehicles.  Scenario moves very quicky as the Russians enter from offboard and need to reach hexrows N-R in order to get to the victory buildings. 

I lost all of my vehicles to Sarge excellent anti-armor tactics, but tanks can’t take buildings. My first and second line Germans were able to break up his infantry and keep them away from all of the buildings until turn turn 6 of seven.  Scenario came down to the last turn which is not on the video. Russians (Sarge) were able to take 1 of 4 victory buildings. It is a nice, tight little scenario that will be perfect for tourney play.

Tentatively titled Knife in the Flank, designed by Chas…

Here is URL for Youtube for the video   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDMRklJS2Q

For most of this summer, I was in an ASL drought, but fortunately things picked up in August and I got in some really fun gaming. One of my more entertaining battles was against Matt Schwoebel in BFP-32 Slaughter At Nanyaun. This is a nifty 1938 Japanese-Chinese battle across the relatively open boards 43 and 17, with the Japanese trying to get 80 points of CVP and EVP.

It’s a bit of an unusual scenario, since the attacking Japanese infantry are numerically outnumbered by a 3:2 ratio, and in FP roughly 1.3:1. That’s not even counting the four heavy-hitting 150mm and 75mm ART guns that the Chinese also get. To make up for this, the Japanese do receive some 70mm OBA (made very powerful by an offboard observer at level three, which can see vast expanses of the map) and three flame-throwing engineer vehicles, which operate much like the German SPW 251/16, in that they have two side-mounted flamethrowers and can thus get two shots per turn if maneuvered correctly.

This all makes for great fun if you like brain-teasers. The Japanese need to very cautiously work their way forward, identify the Chinese positions, and then work over any exposed Chinese strong-points with the flame-throwing vehicles. They have 2 AF, enough to ward off most MG fire, but not enough to stand up to the Chinese guns. This ends up being very tense but lots of fun. Every Japanese piece is precious, so there are no throw-away moves, and deciding how bold to be with the flame-throwers and what targets are worth risking the X11 20FP shots on is especially tricky.

In my playing with Matt, I sent my first wave of Japanese all down the left flank. He’d set up his Chinese scattered about in foxholes, and completely ignored the compound of stone buildings on board 43. Initially, I thought that he’d made a mistake, but it turns out the LOS from there isn’t especially good and any Chinese units placed there are probably thrown away. Instead, by concentrating his infantry further back in the foxholes, he maintained his numerical and FP edge, and had better TEM as well when my force finally contacted him. So, nice job, Matt…this is the second time your ‘in-depth foxhole defense’ has caused me all kinds of grief!

I sent some Type 94 tankettes rushing forward as scouts, and managed to find a 75mm and a 150mm gun at the cost of a single AFV….a very acceptable loss ratio to me. I then felt bold enough to send forward a single flame-throwing tank, and it managed to burn out several pockets of Chinese, before finding the last 150mm ART piece at the cost of its own destruction. Unfortunately, that left the bulk of Matt’s force positioned on my left flank, well covered by his big guns, and with no easy way of rooting them out. Things only got tougher in that sector when the Chinese reinforcements arrived with most of them also moving under the protective cover of those nasty 150mm monsters.

With my own reinforcements arriving, I decided not to reinforce failure, and would instead send my second wave of infantry up the middle. I would also redeploy my flame-throwing tanks to that area and see if I could force my way through an area that would have, at most, a single 75mm gun covering it. The downside to this was that the tanks would have to spend two turns moving into position, and since it was already turn four of a 7.5 turn game, I didn’t have any time to waste.

The push up the middle turned out to be a good move. As Matt’s Chinese scrambled to reposition, they had to move through a large patch of woods on board 17, and my offboard observer was able to rain airburst OBA pain on a huge number of them. Several missions, shifting between harassing fire and WP did an amazing amount of damage, with almost every 4-1 attack or 1MC breaking everyone unfortunate enough to be caught in the blast. That really cleared a path for my second wave of infantry to exit, and more importantly, I think it rattled Matt’s morale some. He reacted by bringing the Chinese armor aggressively over to block me. This is one reason I enjoy scenarios that have dual VC, like EVP and CVP-it makes a lot of otherwise easy decisions into painful trade-offs. Here, Matt threatened my infantry EVP with a bunch of 6FP CMGs, but also put a bunch of his 0 AF, 5 CVP vehicles in harm’s way.

As it turned out, my 37mm crewed infantry SW had a field day with the Chinese armor, going on several big ROF tears and killing most of it. That 3 ROF and 7TK has the potential to be deadly to everything in the Chinese armored force. The PSW 222 survived, but I managed to toast that threat with one of my flame-throwing tanks. When a scouting CX’d 9-0 Japanese leader managed to find the last 75mm gun, survive a 24-2 CH and a 24+0 CH, and then advance in and kill the crew in HtH CC, the floodgates really opened up for me, and the game ended on the last turn with the Japanese scoring 100 VP. Had Matt been a bit more judicious with his armor, or had my OBA not been so smashingly effective, it would have been a very tense and close finish.

So, BFP-32 Slaughter At Nanyaun is highly recommended. Since every move feels so vital, we both felt extra-drained and tired at the end, so be ready for that. The balance felt even to me, although I’d say the Japanese might be slightly more fragile. If they lose the OBA and several of the flame-throwers on fluke events, they aren’t going to win this. If the Chinese boxcar out those 150mm guns right off the bat, they are in trouble, but it’s not an auto-loss. I’d still take either side though for some fun Asian early-war action.

Thanks for reading,

Zeb