Of all the Bounding Fire packs I have bought (and I have everything but Hell on Wheels) Crucible of Steel has had the most play right off the blocks. This is kind of strange as I believe it’s also the pack I have done the most playtesting from as well. This makes it sound that this is my favorite BFP as well, but whilst I think it rocks and worth every penny, I still feel Blood and Jungle will take some beating and remains the most important and finest TPP I have bought and it’s in the top 5 ASL products of all time.

Martin wanted to play something else from CoS after having played about three from the pack so far (and not losing any!!) including BFP-95 Obian Highway against myself just before his 8-0 run at Intensive Fire. So I am not sure his praise of the pack is not coloured by his success. What ever it is I was happy to play this and happier that I was able to take the attackers as that is my strength. I am a fan of BFP’s boards so it was nice to see one of the Into The Rubble boards in play, this butts up to the grain intensive board 43. A German infantry heavy force supported by a couple of 81Mtr’s and two Marder III’s take on a Russian force 30% smaller but stiffened with a single 45L ATG, HMG, MMG and a few odds and ends. The 9 ? counters add to the fog of war as all Russian units set up concealed despite my starting on board. Fortification wise the Ruski gets a couple of trenches 4 wire a roadblock and 18 factors of mines. Not exactly the massed fortifications the pack tends to be portrayed as being stuffed with (yes it has these scenarios but it also has plenty of more open scenarios as well).

My objective is to control 5 set buildings at the end of the game so it’s fairly straightforward. Now Martin simply rolls over with the forward three buildings, he is not going to sacrifice his somewhat limited forces holding these, not even a dummy is to be expended. What was obvious though was that the far left was where he intended to fight it out, this being the large wooden building rather than the large stone was a bit of a surprise but it had the advantage that the board edges almost covered it’s flank whilst the stone building could not be as well protected. The trenches and the wire all surrounded this building with as I was to find out the mines also filling in the gaps. Martin was force heavy on my left, with the rest of his force mixed between the centre and the stone building. In response to this set up I positioned the 81 Mtr’s to smoke the main defensive position and the lions share of MG’s also went on this flank to punish any troops trying to hold the perimeter. I deployed all I could and placed these on both flanks as these were the positions I most wanted to strip of concealment and force to fire. I fully expected the centre to be almost all dummy so placed very little there. I needed to take the stone building quickly so that I would be able to redeploy and attack the final position from all sides with as much as I could. 7.5 turns is a fair amount of time to cover what basically amounts to one map board.

Things started well as I was able to lay smoke and break or strip a few units on the left. On the right my half squads were making fairly good progress. On Martin’s half of turn one a CR lost him a half squad but more importantly a tight LOS shot removed a stack of dummies in the right hand VL. This was followed up by another low FP shot doing the same to a second stack in the building, a double whammy as it meant the side of the building was undefended and I could get troops round the flank and secondly what seemed to be a well defended building had just a few units defending. Mine for the taking if I could get numbers in. On the other hand whilst I could smoke the life out of the left it was hard going getting into it. I was managing to work forward and cycle brokes straight back but mostly down to my own smoke I was having mixed results with my MG kill stacks. The pile of dummies on the right also meant the middle was not what I assumed and the three buildings he gave up so easily were potential targets so a little shifting to the centre was called for.
Effectively the building on the right fell on turn three as the defenders were forced onto the roof, Martin had used the interior walls well but I just had to much for him to take on and I really think he should have had more troops in there. The guys on the roof though were a real pain and had to be dealt with. Martin helped out by sending one berserk and these soaked up enough that I could get him in CC and kill them, but this added a turn to a small part of the original attackers. Now this force could turn it’s attention to the centre, which really was not positioned to fight from the flank and with a few good rolls broke enough of the forward troops that Martin had little choice but to retreat into the woods behind the buildings. This not only gave me the better cover but allowed me to pen them in and ultimately destroy the whole force but not before the ATG lit up first one StuG and for some reason I chanced the second one in the burning wrecks hex and yep got the second one flamed, good move Ian.

This was not really a major concern as by this point I had a massive advantage in infantry, much of the left hand force was going through break and rally and back onto the line so the number of concealed units was limited. I had found plenty of the mines either by searching or running half squads into them. I had got into the lumber yard and then into the wooden building behind the last LV. I had 3-4 times the troops and more FP as well, but the smoke that allowed me to get close was also now making it impossible to see troops in the adjacent hex in many cases! The wire was slowing me down, the mines forcing me for the most part onto the wire and Martin was hanging on by his finger nails. Martin managed to keep me mostly at arms reach up to my turn 7 then the flood gates opened. All but one location found themselves in CC or broken before I could close. Given the odds mostly being 3-1 with minus mods for me and the odd ambush thrown in, only one unit survived the first round. The only things stopping me taking his last location under murderous fire was the interior walls and high density of the smoke. In the final turn I managed to strip concealment in the movement phase and send in all I could in the advance. The other lone squad went down in melee whilst the last squad ambushed me managing to CR a squad but still faced 2-1 odds but I needed to kill him, a six was required. Obviously it being Martin the skank, I rolled 9 and thus lost the game. But it was a great game, I would say the second best out of all the scenarios I have played from the pack, both in PT and since. This one gets full recommendation and I like to think in many ways we both won that one. Martin may disagree.

The whole map from my starting position. At the end of the game Martin just had that one squad, oh but for another turn!!

Just look at all that smoke!! the wind stayed constantly in the one direction which was perfect for me. If I had stopped the smoke one turn before I probably would not have been able to close with such numbers and this in the end was what meant he had a single squad facing so many. My error was not trying tr breach the walls to pour in some serious FP. I also had to cover all avenues of escape so he could not ambush and move for an easy win. I worked him harder that usual but still came up short. Maybe next time?

Ian

They Slept In

Last night BOCAGE got together (the three inch snowfall wasn’t going to stop Jack after the multiple feet of snow we’ve dealt with lately) for more of Crescendo of Steel. This time, it was BFP 90 Early Morning Action.

Your mission as the Soviet is to guard the little village on board BFPL. Your assets are a near parity in innfantry squads, a pretty good defensive network to work within and a plethora of support weapons including a Molotov projector.

You must prevent the Germans from eliminating all of your units in the center of the board. The German assets are a considerable qualitative advantage, two StuG’s and only a very short open space to cross.

My plan was to spread out thin but keep as many folks in the victory box as possible.

This picture is taken from the German POV and before I laid the foxholes in the village.

I thought the Germans would come right up the center and have one Stug looking right down the strasse while another moved to the rear to cut rout paths. On a first glance, it would seem that the German is at a disadvantage, facing a mixed company of Guards with some first lines and a conscript thrown in. The Soviets even have four crews. However, with an ELR of 2, facing lots and lots of 18+2 shots, the Soviets fall apart pretty quickly. With only two leaders, the crews are your best units.

The Soviet ATG is worthless. It’s pitiful 9 BTK won’t even scratch the front armor on the StuG and even a side shot leaves you with an obnoxious 5BTK (9BTK-4AF). So really, I thought the best strategy was to lay him up as a HIP crew. This strategy looked pretty smart until my infantry evaporated in Turn 4 and Jack simply ran around searching. The HIP crew was the last unit standing and had a chance (a slim one) to kill the StuG and win the game on CVP.

To my surprise, Jack had all the infantry and went right down the middle. Jack knows how to play SS and simply moved the sausage grinder my way every turn. Marty, on the other hand, crept around both flanks and into my rear where he simply parked and let off his riders where they sat with big signs that said: “Du kannst this way not Routen!”

Board BFP-L has a lot of squeaker LOS’s. This makes the fall-back defense difficult when StuGs are roming freely in your backfield. While at the start Soviet infantry seems pretty tough, the 2 ELR is brutal and those 458′s will be half squads with a 4 broken side morale in no time. Which is really important because you only have two leaders to rally people. While rallying a broken 458 every player turn seems reasonable, or at least plausible, failing ELR drops the probability and over the course of the game means that you will have two or three less self-rallies.

The Soviets have two of those ubiquitous light mortars as well, but 3+0 shots are not that scary to SS. Some tough guys will even sit in the woods and take the -1 modifier. In fact, after my game I would seriously consider not using the mortars. It seems like (and I may do the math on this later) that the potential for sniper harm outweighs the potential harm they can cause the Germans.

The downside of not stacking is that you don’t have sufficient firepower to bring down SS. Even with negative modifiers, lots of SFF and FPF, Jack came running through the RFP and into the first line of buildings. In turn 1, he had two or three of my squads in melee. I wasn’t displeased with this at all. The Germans have six turns and I figured if he was tied up in melee for three turns I would be as happy as the guy who’s girlfriend gives him $50 and tells him to go to the strip club while she was getting her hair done with her mom and sister. Have a good time. Enjoy yourself.

Marty’s flanking StuG’s, on the other hand, were really annoying me. They are out of range of the Mol-P, the ATR was ineffective against them and the ATG got one side shot, but it would have had to change CA and fire at a moving small target. “Just how good are ya, Sundance?” I didn’t feel that good. So, with plenty of room to flank, a nice place to park where you can’t get at them without coming across open ground and an invulnerability to any ranged weapons, the StuG’s were free to sit behind me and take potshots at concealed units and prevent routing. I have no cure for this ill. As Marty pointed out after the game, the only reasonable way to prevent this is to re-position the ATG outside the victory area where it can hope to get a rear shot. I like having him remain HIP.

What’s more, they each came with two half-squads of riders who had plenty of time to scout around and find targets for the StuGs and make the victory area a little less safe for HIP ATG.

My dice were straight from the last chapter of Faust, leading me on, tantalizing me and tempting me to take chances, which I rejected until the little cubical bastards utterly betrayed me on a FPF. 8-1, 458, BOXCARS. A broken 8-0 and a 237 half squad.

As the StuG moved up and threatened the hidden ATG, the MG fired for a Tk. I got the hull hit I needed. I did a throwaway roll that came up snakes. However, the Schuetzern on the StuG added 1 to the AF, so the snakes merely stunned the beast. That was one heavily armed recreational vehicle. Needless to say, this had a rather chilling effect on morale and it was right then that I realized how bad the situation was. I began taking bigger risks, hoping to come up with a CVP victory.

I did, in fact, generate two leaders (both 8-1′s), but neither one survived the CC he was generated in. Can’t complain about killing two SS squads though.

My sniper killed two of Jack’s leaders, but it didn’t matter as I couldn’t muster enough firepower to make him take any MC of any real threat.

The end. Poor little 228 taking on a StuG.
I’m kind of at a loss as to how this one goes well for the Soviets. I had about as much luck as you could hope for and I think I played a pretty solid game, but the best I could come up with was a narrow loss. Well, perhaps not so narrow, but I did have some hope at the end.

Is it possible to prevent the StuG’s from flanking you? I really don’t think the Soviets have the tools to do it. With one StuG (and two half-squads) parked in your rear on the left and on the right, it really makes it tough for you to do a rope-a-dope strategy. It’s like heading back to your corner and finding two thugs there with mallets.

Early Morning Action is another solid scenario from the Crucible of Steel pack–which must by now be recognized as one of the best values on the ASL market today. Yes, Jack and I are big Eastern Front fans, but there just aren’t any bad scenarios in this pack. The one criticism I might have is that they are all (at least so far) a little formulaic with the two sides setting up on top of each other. But every one has a bit of a different element to it.

There are lots of good scenarios in this pack and it will be a while before we would go all the way around back to Early Morning Action, but they all can’t be classics.

BVP-90 Smith, Chas, “Early Morning Action,” Crucible of Steel, Bounding Fire Productions. ***,5/5

I seem to be bashing my way through a whole bunch of Crucible of Steel scenarios at the moment. This one though departs from the norm of the pack. That is The Germans are on defence and just 5 foxholes are in play. I took the defence and what a nice force I get. First up lets introduce the cream of the crop. Say hello to Mr. Second Line 447! I get 7 of these with a couple of Conscripts to stiffen them up, of joy of joys. Not all is lost though as I also get a 50L ATG, 2 MMG’s 2 LMG’s an ATR and a Mtr. The 4 ? counters I get can add fake units or puff up real guys as Duncan starts from offboard. I do get 3 more 2nd’s with a LMG supported by Spencer’s best friends (StuG’s) but I have to wait till turn five for these boys to show. Facing me is 15.5 squads inc. Elite and 527′s and in one of the more rare situations better led than the Germans (four leaders with a -2 total mods V German 3 leaders with a -1, matching the Russians on turn 5). Support for these fine gents is 2xMMG. 3 LMG’s, 2 ATR’s a little 50Mtr and a 82Mtr!! Oh did I forget the tanks? Try two T34′s and two T-70′s! The Russians though have to control all buildings and rubble at game end so it’s all most an order to kill all Germans. 6.5 turns do give them enough time to do this but they have to keep an eye out for those reinforcements. If they can get far enough forward it will get nasty. Board 43 gets used on this so no new board today gents.

I know I need time as this force is fairly brittle and given the number of infantry and tanks I could be overwhelmed. Against my normally better judgement I set up a squad in a foxhole beyond the brush to the bottom of the map and a Dummy stack in support to hopefully give him pause for thought. A half squad in a foxhole behind a hedge in the wheat field buttered against the brush. the idea being he will be ignored for the most part as he can only be hit beyond or against the hedge. I was happy to throw away a half squad on anyone wishing to track him down given the time it would take. The isolated buildings to the South (top of the map) were covered by a dummy in the front building and a real unit in the rear building and further supported by a couple of squads in the hedge line. Along from this was the ATG covering the direct approach to the main defence, which is where the rest of the troops were including the two MMG’s the ATR and the Mtr which was using spottered fire.

Human Wave

Duncan brings a large force below the brush area and I hold my fire. A smaller force makes it’s way towards the isolated buildings and this is the area he also brings on the two Mtr’s. I open up with one of the MMG’s, I did not plan to keep these out f the battle as I needed to break as many units as possible as early as possible. This was all about slowing him down. The T34′s held back as he wanted them for later in the game against the StuG’s and did not want to give me any side shots by moving to far forward. Instead he was happy to lay acquires on my MMG’s. The two T-70′s were a different matter, he sent them forward looking for trouble and in doing so ignored my hedge hugging foxhole hiding half in the centre.

Turn two saw a nice human wave surge forward against my Concealed squad sitting on the edge of the brush. My dice were rather kind as I first fired at a distance of three hexes CR’ing a squad, next shot at a range of two broke yet more, PBF rolled not only low enough to not pin or worse but cut up some more boys in Brown. Finally the heroic squad had to face nasty Ruski jumping into the foxhole with them and yep they managed to not hurt themselves with a final Protective fire! This had left Duncan with a string of broken and/or CR’ed units and I had the delay I really needed. Making matters worse come CC I did damage as the brave boys went down fighting. Now this was rather a morale sapping sight (not for me you understand) but Duncan bravely soldiered on and so on my following turn I thought lets step up the heat, unhipped my ATG with a direct bead on the T-70′s. I hoped to take out at least one this turn and as the last one frantically tried to get into gear a solid round would take all motion away. With this in mind I choose the tank at the back, after all I don’t want a burning wreck spoiling my view. Could this be the second fastest conceding in my playing history? BOXCARS said it all. Well I told the wife that’s what I said, not sure she believes me!!! Well that cheered Duncan up a little. I did manage to blunt the attack against the isolated building with a break but Duncan looked set to take it the following turn.
Anyone know who Gavroche was?

Why am I going on about a kid from a musical you ask. Well I will tell you. As we played through the next turn I had a song from Les Miserables going through my head sang by that chipper little lad. You see Duncan had surged forward with the now so brave T34′s over running my ATG with not one but both of them! Shame the crew passed all MC’s required of them. He also ignored the lone double ?? that was my central halfsquad and took out my Dummy in the front isolated building. Oh yes Duncan was starting to get over his Human Wave but what about Gavroche? No not the ATG crew, if he had been in that hex he would have repaired the bloody ATG!!! No he was sitting in that foxhole in the centre with his mates with not a officer in site! I cx’ed then, jumped out of the foxhole, a storm of fire from the other side of the hedge from the MMG’s being pulled forward all to nothing, then for a total surprise and not a little annoyance I dropped them over the hedge TOWARDS the MMG’s oops that was a swing of +2 on the IFT you missed out on LOL. Then moved just the one hex through the brush towards a broken Russian, come advance these guys were going to put them under DM. This half squad spent the rest of the game either keeping the survivors of the Human Wave under DM or killing them for failure to rout etc. All in all he took out more Russians than the rest of my forces put together. The main attack was as good as shattered. The plucky little buggers can be seen one hex from their start positions below, yes that’s them, next to the pile of DM Russians. If that was a real counter he would now be mounted on my wall!!!!

Counterattack

This side show had caused Duncan to really dig deep into his PM, but as he pressed on he managed to take the last isolated building and break the defenders, this meant he would have the troops still coming up through the grain and remains of the bottom of the map to team up with this 3 squad force. Whilst he no longer had the numerical superiority he still had the tanks to freeze the hell out of me. He used the T-70′s to good effect in the middle but with fear of the ATG repairing he continued to overrun it with the T34′s (no infantry close enough or stupid enough to make that run). My two squads that were behind the isolated houses were all that stood in the way of a attack from three points so with this in mind Duncan tried to close with them. My dice went back to the start of the game breaking attacking units and laying down RF and fire lanes that whilst were low numbers had the advantage of open ground. After Duncan had had two squads broken through this RF of hell he unwisely thought I could not keep it up. Number three gets pinned in the open and come my turn is broken. I counterattack and the halfsquad he has left gets broken and I recapture the rear building. Only the low rolling in Rally saved me from taking the other back. Duncan now has to consider my reinforcements and reposition his T34′s my gun is now free of them but as yet to repair. His T-70′s can only keep me busy in a couple of locations, the 1st levels now have the MMG’s back upstairs and I have beaten back a attack that he tried to send in after I had caused the damage around the isolated buildings. Again I had used such as a single leader to put Russians under DM, Duncan did the best he could but all these mini units doing so much to keep him from getting troops was too much for him to recover from.

After failing to bring back units in his Rally Phase we called it as it was clear that without my reinforcements he would have a tough time gaining all the buildings and they were due.

End positions.

I think I had more fun than Duncan with this one. The Human Wave really did a lot f damage to him and whilst he was likely to take damage he got more than he should. Both of us have got used to how much damage a Banzai can do, this was no Banzai. Frustration I think lead to the continued moves through the RF but he did need a result soon as time was running, but again it so worked in my favour.

I think the scenario is a good one, the Russians get a lot as they need a lot as they will loose plenty as they cross the open ground.

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.

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