Pacific Island Assault- Bolt Action

The table was ready, the troops were prepared and it was 'go!' The objective was simple, the combined Australian/US Marine force was to take the two islands. The Japanese just had to survive.
The allies decided to assault only Red Beach ( Red 1, 2 and 3) rather than hit the main island from both sides. This had its pros and cons as it meant that the Japanese who had Green beach covered- several machine guns, mortars and rifle squads- were now facing empty beaches and had to be redeployed. For the allies, they spread themselves across the three beaches, with no critical concentration of force so they found that they did need more troops by mid-game.

Marines come ashore on Red 1

Double Bolt Action Game

 

The boys came over for the end of the month game in March- and i had nearly a full house; Phil, Roger, Ralph, Richard, Spyros, Paul, Nick, Ross and Chris were all gathered in my new gaming room (read garage). So I put on two Bolt Action games. The first a 1941 Crete scenario with German Fallschirmjager attempting to secure an airstrip, and the second a Pacific war confrontation with the Japanese and Australians squaring off. 

The Crete scenario. The airfield in the middle with obstacled scattered across it t stop the Luftwaffe from landing.

The Pacific table....loads of long grass, schrubs, hill and a small village.

Bolt Action- At Tarakan with the 2/23rd Battalion against the Japanese.

A nice little historically based scenario for the Bolt Action rules was the opportunity for me to pit my Japanese against Spyros' Aussies- check his blog - No Duff Gamer (link is on the right column of posts) .  His men represented the 2/23rd Battalion that fought near Tarakan in May 1945 as they met stiff resistance from the Japanese 455th Independent Infantry Battalion.

We like the Bolt Action Rules and this gave us another chance to use them!

This was an encounter battle with forces of equal strength.....but very different compositions. Besides two MMG and some light mortars I had two type 97 Te-ke tankettes which proved to be a bit of a nuisance to the Aussie infantry- until they got thumped by Spyros' Mathilda and PIAT team. Spyros also took that most effective of weapons against the fanatical Japanese; flame throwers. He also had MMGs, a heavy mortar and a sniper team.

The village center- a good old 'Banzai' charge....but the Aussies were waiting with MGs and bayonets ready.

Bolt Action: US Marines vs The Imperial Japanese Army

Another day, another Bolt Action game! My son Nick, myself and John sat down for a short sharp action that saw a group of US Marines attempt to clear a village and some nearby entrenchments of some determined  Japanese defenders. John and I were the Marines and Nick was the Imperial Japanese Army troops.

Nick focused most of his troops on his right behind the entrenchments- so John and I headed for the other  side of the table - our objective!

This was going to be a tough task for the marines but some initial deployment mistakes by the Japanese made it a little easier. Nick had deployed his heavy machine guns and two light tanks in and around the entrenchments but the long grass, hill and trees cut line of sight to the village and so most of the Marines' advance was unimpeded.

The Terrain- the village in the distance...the Japanese entrenchment in the foreground. The Marines entered from the right.