David Bickley's Wargames Blog

The occasional ramblings of an average gamer, journeyman painter, indifferent modeller, games designer, sometime writer for Wargames Illustrated and host of games in GHQ.



Wednesday 28 February 2018

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.











14 comments:

  1. A fine set of pics from a fine game, ‘‘twas most enjoyable. More than two or three turns I think, has I managed an own goal by blocking the bridge with the Knocked out Jap tank. Forward engineers!

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  2. Replies
    1. Indeed it was. Games always are I've found. Must be the friends I game with.

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  3. Lovely looking game and another fine collection on display......is there no limit to the periods I wonder held in GHQ šŸ˜€

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Matt. Sadly GHQ has no Tardis like qualities, so periods are very limited.

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  4. A great looking game David...
    Wishing you well on the hip conversion... Make sure they drill and put some wire in before they glue... it will be much stronger in the long run.

    All the best. Aly

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  5. Lovely pics. All the best for the op.

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  6. Fantastic looking game David! I do quite enjoy the Burma campaigns over the islands.

    Christopher

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  7. Great looking game, best of luck with the op!
    Best Iain

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