On The Road To Manderlay...

...well, no flying fishes playing I’m afraid, nor is dawn coming up like thunder from Rangoon across the bay, just Phil and I playing our latest Monday game here in GHQ: a WWII game set in Burma 1943 game using Bolt Action 2 to give my Imperial Japanese and British Commonwealth force’s a bit of an airing. The sharpest amongst you may notice that the terrain looks oddly familiar. I’ll tell you why later, but you’ll wish you hadn’t asked. Meanwhile, on with the game which sees the Commonweath forces trying to oust the Japanese from a defensive position guarding a strategic river bridge ~

The bridge in the foreground is the Commonwealth objective.

The bridge is heavily defended by the Japanese with infantry

and an anti-tank gun.

The British infantry advance cautiously wary of the Japanese

snipers' presence.

On the right the Ghurkas have flushed out and neutralised the

snipers.

The bridge defenders are under heavy and sustained attack

but are hanging on grimly.

Turn 4 and the Japanese reinforcements arrive on time! They

head straight for the bridge to reinforce the defenders.

Banzai! A squad of Ghurkas are surprised by th Japanese,

who take advantage of the 'Double Action' dice we introduced

to charge home!

The Japanese defeat the Ghurkas! They go on later to charge

the Commonwealth HQ but are wiped out!

Another Ghurka squad occupies the ruins of a temple and from

there fire of the bridge defenders' flank.

The defenders are having a very hard time by Turn 6.

The Japanese infantry gun fires on the Ghurkas occupying

the temple ruins.

The Commonwealth tank is knocked out by the anti-tank gun,

but the Japanese reinforcements are caught on the bridge and

heavily punished by concentrated fire.

The Japanese are hanging on when they come under heavy

aerial attack. The defence looks very frail by now!

At the end of Turn 9 smoke conceals the gathering final

assault from the Commonwealth forces.

The game ended in an inconclusive draw after nine turns as we ran out of time! The Japanese were hanging on grimly to their positions around the bridge while the Commonwealth forces would need a further two or three turns to see if they could wrest control away from the Emperor ‘s sons. That's it from GHQ now as far as games go until after my hip replacement operation and the inevitable convalescence, though I shall hope to continue to post from time to time.