Bolt Action Burma: HQ Raid

After a focus on modern gaming this past year, it was time to get back to a bit of WW2. My tropical British force had never been used in a game, so Art and I decided to unleash them against my Japanese at the local game shop.  

For this game, we played scenario 6, HQ raid, from the Empire in Flames book.  In this scenario, British infantry (no vehicles or heavy artillery allowed) trekked over the mountains and through the jungle to raid a Japanese camp behind the front lines.  Their goal was to kill the two command squads in the large HQ buildings, and also gather useful documents from each of these building. The Japanese garrison was mostly made up of less experienced troops, with reinforcements arriving from random directions over the course of the battle.

Figures were mostly Warlord, with some Assault Group, Artizan, and Trenchworx mixed in as well. Building were by Warbases, Sarissa, and 4Ground.

Round 1:

A lieutenant and his team manned the stucco HQ building, with a sniper watching from the tower. To his north, a MMG watched the center of the outpost, and an infantry squad was stationed in the northwest hut. A captain and a medical team were based in the thatched HQ building, with a grenadier squad out front.

British forces silently slipped out of the jungle from the east and southeast. 

Suddenly, Bhanbhagta Gurung of the Gurkhas sprung from the underbrush and killed one of the machine gunners. 

Just a quickly, Gurung disappeared, but the Japanese sniper managed to target a British observer in the same area. The observer was pinned, but not killed.

The Japanese grenadier squad retreated to better cover, and were unsuccessful in targeting the Sikhs with their knee mortars. 

A squad of Chindits in the south ran for the cover of one of the outlying huts.

Round 2:

The forward observer called in a successful strike on the thatched HQ hut.  Given the scenario, Art and I used the stats for light mountain howitzers rather than the heavy artillery. The teams inside were pinned, but nobody was killed.

A squad of West Africans moved into the southeastern hut.

The British lieutenant positioned the Sikhs and another unit of West Africans for an assault on the stucco HQ building.

In the south, the Chindits were surprised by an arriving flamethrower team. They were pinned, but the flames failed to injury anyone, and the Japanese soldier was out of fuel after the attack.

They quickly eliminated the flamethrower team.

A Japanese tankette arrived from the west, and pinned the Africans in the hut.

Round 3 (we forgot to flip the die):

The Japanese tankette began an attack on the Chindits.

To the north, the Japanese MMG team rolled a FUBAR and retreated away from the Gurkhas. 

Orde Wingate arrived from the east just in time to oversee the building assault.

The Sikhs stormed the building, killing the Japanese lieutenant and his team, and capturing critical documents. They then retreated and the West Africans and Gurkhas took up positions inside.

Form the north, a Japanese tank arrived and eliminated a British sniper that had been harassing the garrison. Unfortunately, they were surprised by a British Boys anti-tank team who made a critical hit through the rear armor.

The Japanese infantry squad left their hut and charged the HQ building, but were eliminated by the West Africans.

Round 4:

The grenadier squad successfully targeted the West Africans in the hut, and the few survivors of the attack fled the battlefield. 

Gurung and the rest of Gurkhas avenged their comrades, hacking apart the Japanese grenadiers. 

The surviving Japanese command team and medical group did their best to keep the Sikhs pinned. 

However, the Sikhs fought back and picked off the Japanese captain.

After coming under sniper fire, Wingate and his team rolled a FUBAR and ran from cover to the edge of the table. This was a bad omen for the British.

A veteran squad of Japanese reinforced from the south and eliminated the Chindits.

The veterans and another arriving squad of regular Japanese then moved into the camp. 

Round 5:

The Japanese tankette fired on the Sikhs, killing two members of the squad. The survivors took cover in the hut previously occupied by the West Africans, but were soon killed by an assault from the Japanese veterans.

The other West African squad in the stucco building provided covering fire, wounding the sniper team in the tower. 

With the sniper team occupied, the Gurkhas charged out and assaulted the thatched HQ building, killing the medical team and gathering additional documents.

A Japanese infantry squad joined the survivors of the command team and launched a successful counterattack against the Gurkhas.

Another Japanese infantry squad arrived from the east, ambushing Wingate's team and also killing the forward observer. 

Round 6:

The Japanese veterans continued their rampage, eliminating another arriving team of Chindits (reduced in strength by heat exhaustion) and also the surviving British command team.

The West Africans launched an unsuccessful assault against the tankette. 

Japanese infantry overran the building, killing the remaining West Africans and a supporting medical team.

Round 7:

The tankette eliminated the British anti-tank team and with that, the Japanese were back in control of the camp.

For the first half of the game, it looked like Art's British were going to roll through the Japanese camp and make quick work of things. My regulars were no match for his veterans and specialist troops. But the new army curse struck again, and after Wingate's FUBAR roll, it was downhill for the British. My Japanese had a lot of luck with the random spawn points for reinforcements in the second half, and I was able to effectively throw bodies against his depleted squads and vulnerable command teams on the edge of the table. Though he completed three of the four objectives, his troop loss was enough to secure me enough victory points for a win.