Chinese/Soviet Border Skirmish

During the 30's and 40's The Chinese and Soviets fought a number of skirmishes along China's western border.  This battle represents a fictional encounter at an isolated village between my Nationalist Chinese and Art's Soviets.  The objective of the game is to drive the other army from the table.

Round 1:

At the top end of the table, the Soviets deploy a Matilda tank, along with a few squads of infantry and a mortar team.

The Chinese counter with a Big Sword squad and some German trained tank hunters, all under the supervision of the army's general.

In the hilltop village, the spotter for the Soviet mortar team is surprised by Chinese snipers and killed with a lucky shot before he can call in his first round.

With the snipers occupied, Soviet command directs a squad of infantry and some anti-tank teams towards the village high ground.

On the Chinese side, a squad of levies takes the back trail to the village while a mortar team and Sd.Kfz. 221 provide cover.

At the bottom end of the table, Chinese cavalry and a T-26 tank rush towards the Soviet BA-6.  The cavalry suffer a fatality, but are undeterred in their charge. 

Round 2:

Using rapid deployment abilities, the Chinese race towards the Soviet tank and infantry.

The Soviets counter with machine gun and small arms fire, killing some Chinese, but doing nothing to deter the advance.

The Chinese sniper team fires upon the advancing Soviets without success, and are soon killed under a hale of lead. 

Meanwhile, the Chinese levies continue their trek into the village.

The Chinese cavalry swing away from the BA-6 in hopes of catching some Soviet infantry in the flank, but are surprised by a flamethrower team that send the unit to a hellish end.

The BA-6 speeds away from the Chinese T-26 and catches the Sd.Kfz. 221, blowing out the engine and immobilizing it. The Sd.Kfz. 221 retaliates by opening fire on the flamethrower team, but it fails to destroy them.

Round 3:

Knowing he is in danger, the Soviet tank charges forward to prevent the tank hunters from having time to attack.  The Big Sword squad breaks off and instead engages a Soviet infantry squad hiding in the woods.

Despite superior numbers and better close combat skills, luck is not with the Big Sword squad and they are eventually cut down by the Soviets.

During this confusion, Soviet officers and an anti-tank team attempt to slay the Chinese general, but his bodyguards keep him from harm (though at the cost of their own lives).

The Soviets continue their advance into the village, and begin occupying the building on the left. The Chinese levies hold the temple and do their best to pick off Soviet stragglers.

At the bottom of the table, the Soviet flamethrower team discovers the Chinese spotter hiding in the ruins and burns him out.

In revenge, the Chinese mortar team begins bombarding a veteran squad of Soviet infantry, keeping them pinned for the rest of the game. 

A Soviet anti-tank team finds their mark with the Sd.Kfz. 221 and reduces it to a pile of rubble. 

The Chinese also find success against an armored car, with the T-26 destroying the BA-6.

Using the distraction of the armored car battle to their advantage, a Chinese command team and a medic move to join the levies in the temple.

Round 4:

The Chinese tank hunters attempt to destroy the Soviet Matilda, but fail to get through the armor.  The tank drives forward in hopes of escaping.

Levy troops continue to fire on the advancing Soviets, but their efforts result in minimal enemy loses.

 The Soviet flamethrower team attempts to take on the Chinese T-26, but fail miserably and are are quickly gunned down.

Round 5:

As the Matilda drives away from danger, the Soviet and Chinese infantry engage in a gun battle.

The firefight between the Soviets and Chinese also continues in the village.

At the lower end of the table, Soviet infantry try to rally, but are unsuccessful in the face of the ongoing mortar barrage.

Round 6:

The surviving Chinese tank hunters take one last stab at the Matilda, but again fail in their attack.

The Matilda retaliates with an HE round, but the injury to the Chinese is minimal.

Soviet infantry storm the temple, taking heavy casualties, but succeeding in their goal to destroy the Chinese levies.

However, their victory is short lived, as the surviving Chinese officer manages to rout them from the building.

Despite their best efforts, the Chinese do not have enough remaining troops to hold the village. As the Soviets advance, the Chinese general honorably stands his ground and fights to the death, making sure to take as many of his enemies as he can with him.

Despite the high number of 1's and 2's I rolled during the game (still can't believe the Big Sword squad lost their battle), I did manage to pull off a few lucky shots and a fun time was had by both sides.

Bolt Action Objective Markers

Several of our recent games of Bolt Action have been objective scenarios, so I thought it was time to put together some proper objective markers.

First up is a pilot briefing area, though I think it's generic enough that it could be used for any IJA forward command. This was created using 1:48 diorama elements left over from my Fine Molds Kawasaki Ki-10-II kit, along with a Warlord namba pistol and some Japanese WW2  maps I found online. The kit also included a mechanic, but I wasn't a fan of the sculpt and decided to leave him off.

Next up is a small fuel dump, created from Baueda's steel drums set. They are actually of German design, but I don't think people are going to be too upset seeing them pressed into service in Asia. The local shop also had some AK camouflage netting in stock and I thought the additional covering would make for a much more interesting looking piece. It's a modern style rather than what was seen in WW2, but I am too lazy to try and create something from scratch (and it still probably wouldn't have looked as good).

Finally, I have a downed Japanese pilot, also from the above mentioned Fine Molds kit. He has a camera, so I envision him carrying reconnaissance film that needs to be recovered. Being a 1:48 figure, he's taller than my Warlord Japanese, but I've put him on a slightly shorter base to help hide his stature. 

Bolt Action Japanese Reinforcements

The expansion of my Imperial Japanese Army for Bolt Action  continues with some additional reinforcements. 

First up is a medium machine gun. I've opted to replace the original heads and instead use the foliage covered helmets.

The base was looking a bit plain, so I added in a resin ammo crate and some brass rod clippings to simulate bullet casings. The figures were well cast and assembly was straightforward. 

Next up is is squad of infantry in summer dress.  Unfortunately,  there were quite a few issues with this pack.  The casting quality was quite poor, with lots of flash and metal buildup under the arms and around the guns. As such, a lot of the webbing details were lost and had to be added back with paint. The contents were also improperly packed, with 11 figures instead of 10 (nice!), but only 9 Japanese heads (all field caps instead of the mix seen on the website) and a German head. Plus a few of the heads had so much flash on the face they were useless. Luckily I had some plastic Japanese heads left to swap in.

There were a few repeat bodies in the pack, but luckily the head variants help hide that.  To make and even 12-man unit, I also added in a plastic NCO with a SMG.

The light machine gun for the unit was also problematic. The barrel was shorter, with less detail and a chunky bipod, when compared to its plastic counterpart.  As such, I opted to cut off the original barrel and replace it with one from the plastic set.  

The body position of  of the gunner is also strange, with his back arched up in a way that looks unnatural. I opted to put some rocks under him and grass to his side in an attempt to hide this.

Last up is a Type 3 Chi-Nu medium tank. The Chi-Nu was not deployed outside of Japan, so it never actually saw service, but is a fun "what if" tank. I found the Warlord paint scheme to be a bit bland, so opted to use one from the tank encyclopedia.

  

From http://www.tanks-encyclopedia.com

The body of the Chi-Nu is about the same size as the Chi-Ha, but with a much larger turret and gun.

Overall, I'm happy with the additions, but would recommend you stick with the plastic Japanese infantry until Warlord remasters their infantry molds.