by Ian
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.